My brother and Steve, mocking me with their open doors
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Character
I blew the cobwebs off it the other day. It really is a sublime drive making the recent tales of woe a distant memory. As a reward I thought I'd pull it out of the garage and give it a quick wash and spruce up prior to the return trip to Malton tomorrow. After unsticking the seemingly fused solid brakes with the application of some serious right foot and clutch droppage, I commenced the cleanage. It looked lovely and in order to avoid a repeat performance of the stuck brakes, I thought I'd give it a quick run around the block. Even this short trip was a giggle. Then I get back, pull the door release, something goes twang and I can't get out.
So currently to get out of the car, not only do I have the prospect of shatting myself onto the kerbside as inelegantly as is humanly possible to look forward to, I also have to wind the window down and contort my arm behind me to reach the outside release. This is character aparently, so my brother keeps telling me everytime something happens. No it isn't and nor is it amusing to once again have to waste my time taking it back to JCT to get this sorted rather than actually going out and enjoying driving the car.
My brother and Steve, mocking me with their open doors
I desperately want to write great things about how this car is a joy to drive, yet seemingly every time I come to drive it, something else breaks and spoils the fun. I'm starting to wonder if I've managed to get the classic Monday morning car, or if they're all as badly assembled as mine? I suppose it might just be that they're all built like the Lotus race cars used to be. They were considered over engineered if they weren't close to falling apart as they crossed the line. Maybe it's the same for the road cars these days and the line is 10,000 miles? It's getting close to three strikes at this rate.
When I took the door panel off prior to the run today, I found the problem. It's a tiny little plastic clip that's broken, which would be a 5 minute job to fix it if I had one. Ah well. Had a decent run out anyhow.
Update
Seeing as it's under warranty, I took it in for the clip to be replaced. I asked how long it'd take to gauge how long my lunch break needed to be. It seems at however that the JCT guy thought that this was to be a chargeable job given that when it was done he asked for 30 mins labour. So that's £45 for a part worth pence that was broken. I mentioned that as I'd had the door apart, I could have re-seated the part had it not been broken, so it certainly was. Also if I'd known it was going to cost me £45 I certainly wouldn't have brought it in as I could have swapped the part myself. Once again they dropped the charge. But at this rate they do seem determined to try and charge for everything that breaks on it. All's well and good when it's out of warranty, not good at all when it's allegedly covered. Luckily, so far, they've been covering it. I'm worried about how long this will continue, but will certainly be more cautious when I book it in next time. You'll notice that's a when and not an if.