I love my car, but....

[janewilliams20]

MOT and service. Those boring things that you check it in for, and take for granted. Yes, the service on an Audi is a bit pricey, but the FSH is important, and you can't hand an A2 over to the little mechanic in the back of town, he hasn't got the kit. Anyway, Audi at Bedford pick the car up from the work car park and bring it back again, and it comes back cleaned inside and out. A very expensive car-wash, Dave says.

Boy, was he right.

My service representative, Richard, phoned Dave then me to discuss what had been found. There were a few little jobs that needed doing. Brake pads. Discs. Brake fluid. Antifreeze. Two new front tyres (who, me, eat tyres? No, I drive sedately, honest...) None of these items cost anything really excessive (by Audi standards), but it added up. It added up to four digits. Ouch!

We tried to get the tyres at least cheaper elsewhere. Not at that kind of notice, and only a £15 saving anyway. In fact Audi phoned me back later to say they couldn't get the Pirelli's they'd quoted for, only some (much nicer and more expensive) Dunlops, for which they would of course charge me the originally quoted price. Ah, well, a slightly silver lining, maybe.

They didn't replace the missing front fog light (the one that had lost an argument with a pheasant) - the part hadn't come in, and it wasn't an MOT failure anyway. More expense saved.

The little car did indeed come back beautifully clean. But over £1000 is a lot to pay for a car-wash.

Maybe we won't take it for a fortnight touring Europe after all.....