Living with a McLaren 650s Spider as an (almost) daily
Discussion
Took the car on a fairly quick run early on Saturday morning and was quite lucky I didn't damage my new paint. Braked hard while approaching a bend, and I must have got caught in a rut in the road - car pulled to the left and hence got way too close to the undergrowth - enough so that I had to clear leaves etc. out of the bottom of the mirror and the side intake when I got back. Fortunately, absolutely zero damage - I'm guessing the PPF paid for itself here and stopped any scratches to the paint.
Although I'm pretty sure it's unrelated - the car has still braked fine every other time I've used it - I have put the tyres back to their normal pressure. Although I did notice a slight difference when I reduced the pressure, I didn't notice anything when I returned it to normal. Car goes in for the accumulator to be replaced next week although I'm not expecting it to change much.
I'm trying to decide if I do have some problem at the front of the car. It seems like almost every time I use the car after it's been parked, there is a bit of a clonk from the front about 5s after pulling away. However - it makes no sense because it only ever seems to do it when the car has been parked (I've not heard it any other time, and I did 200 miles yesterday), and it seems unrelated to whether I've used lift or not. I can't think of anything which would explain this so at the moment, I'm still not 100% I'm not imaging it.
Yesterday, I noticed an imperfection on my front roof panel - or more precisely, on the PPF. It looked like 4 or 5 small dimples in an area about the size of a 10p piece. It seems it was pure luck I noticed it - even though I know it's there now, I struggle to see it - although I can feel it - so I guess the light was just right when I noticed it yesterday.
For a completely different reason, I opened the roof lid today and then left it open - and by chance noticed the cause. There are zip ties holding the cables to a plastic popper in the roof lid on each side. On the passenger side, mine wasn't staying fully inserted into the lid - and in addition, the short (cut) end of the zip tie was facing the roof - and hence when the roof is lowered and the lid closes, has been pushing onto the lid.
I fixed the popper so it now stays fully inserted and rotated the zip tie - and secured it with a bit of tape so it can't spin now.
A common problem with these cars seems to be that they report "key not found" when you try to start them. It's not a problem I've ever had with mine - until we were trying to leave a restaurant on Saturday evening. It absolutely refused to recognise the key - even tried locking / unlocking the car (buttons worked fine). Moved the key all over the place, with little success - eventually it fired up. Took about 5 mins, which is much longer than it sounds when you're trying to start a car. Hasn't done it since.
I still want to buy another car to replace the Ferrari so I can try to keep the miles a bit more sensible on the 650 - it rolled over 12k at the weekend, and I've done about 350 miles since then. Problem is, most of the miles are because I find an excuse to use the 650 - not because I actually need to go anywhere.
One of the cars I'm considering is a Z4 - and in fact, there is one at a local dealer which ticks all the boxes. Nice colour, has the options I want, only 4 years old and is an approved car so at least a years warranty, and ~25k miles. Problem is, it's a bit..... dull. I haven't driven it yet, but part of the problem is I'm not sure I even want to that much - which means it's probably not a car I should be buying! I may wait 6 months and look around again - having this week off is giving me too much time to browse cars.
Last few days with the sun shining have been great. And the car just seems to look better and better.
Although I'm pretty sure it's unrelated - the car has still braked fine every other time I've used it - I have put the tyres back to their normal pressure. Although I did notice a slight difference when I reduced the pressure, I didn't notice anything when I returned it to normal. Car goes in for the accumulator to be replaced next week although I'm not expecting it to change much.
I'm trying to decide if I do have some problem at the front of the car. It seems like almost every time I use the car after it's been parked, there is a bit of a clonk from the front about 5s after pulling away. However - it makes no sense because it only ever seems to do it when the car has been parked (I've not heard it any other time, and I did 200 miles yesterday), and it seems unrelated to whether I've used lift or not. I can't think of anything which would explain this so at the moment, I'm still not 100% I'm not imaging it.
Yesterday, I noticed an imperfection on my front roof panel - or more precisely, on the PPF. It looked like 4 or 5 small dimples in an area about the size of a 10p piece. It seems it was pure luck I noticed it - even though I know it's there now, I struggle to see it - although I can feel it - so I guess the light was just right when I noticed it yesterday.
For a completely different reason, I opened the roof lid today and then left it open - and by chance noticed the cause. There are zip ties holding the cables to a plastic popper in the roof lid on each side. On the passenger side, mine wasn't staying fully inserted into the lid - and in addition, the short (cut) end of the zip tie was facing the roof - and hence when the roof is lowered and the lid closes, has been pushing onto the lid.
I fixed the popper so it now stays fully inserted and rotated the zip tie - and secured it with a bit of tape so it can't spin now.
A common problem with these cars seems to be that they report "key not found" when you try to start them. It's not a problem I've ever had with mine - until we were trying to leave a restaurant on Saturday evening. It absolutely refused to recognise the key - even tried locking / unlocking the car (buttons worked fine). Moved the key all over the place, with little success - eventually it fired up. Took about 5 mins, which is much longer than it sounds when you're trying to start a car. Hasn't done it since.
I still want to buy another car to replace the Ferrari so I can try to keep the miles a bit more sensible on the 650 - it rolled over 12k at the weekend, and I've done about 350 miles since then. Problem is, most of the miles are because I find an excuse to use the 650 - not because I actually need to go anywhere.
One of the cars I'm considering is a Z4 - and in fact, there is one at a local dealer which ticks all the boxes. Nice colour, has the options I want, only 4 years old and is an approved car so at least a years warranty, and ~25k miles. Problem is, it's a bit..... dull. I haven't driven it yet, but part of the problem is I'm not sure I even want to that much - which means it's probably not a car I should be buying! I may wait 6 months and look around again - having this week off is giving me too much time to browse cars.
Last few days with the sun shining have been great. And the car just seems to look better and better.
AstonExige said:
From experience (not a Mclaren) don't get a sports orientated car, you'll drive it and it will always feel it doesn't hit the mark. Go for something completely different, so there is no comparison. Maybe something super luxurious, a big Merc, Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne? So you appreciate it for what it is, really notice the difference when you jump between them. I used to love jumping in my Range Rover, full fat Autobiography. Sat high, big'ol steering wheel, waft around in pure luxury 
Already have a Cayenne. I want something that's still reasonable fun but not necessarily quick - the Alfa Spider I had until last year did the job well, but I'd like something newer.The Z4 I looked at was a 20i - I'm not looking for 'fast' but if / when I drive it, I may find I want faster - although the Alfa wasn't quick but did what I wanted.
I actually don't want anything too sporty. I'm considering various cars but while summer is here will probably stick with the McLaren. The reality is, I'm unlikely to drive anything else anyway so winter will be a better time to look.
(Having had a couple of 911s, Cayman and Boxster are not on the list).
likesachange said:
Something like a Mustang? At least you have a nice N/A V8 to potter about in and am sure would be pretty engaging when called upon.....
The New Z4's are lovely btw...
I toyed with the idea of a Mustang - but one of my g/f's friends has one and when I saw it, it didn't do much for me.The New Z4's are lovely btw...
In reality, it's not really ideal anyway - I'm trying to keep the budget to under £20k, and ideally something that manages mpg in the 30s. A 'sensible' car.
996t said:
Could be air brake returning to lowered position. Mine makes a clonk too after being parked with the spoiler up.
Ah, you may be right. I've heard other people say the same, but never noticed mine do it before. However, I was thinking this morning that I've not heard it the last few times I've used the car - and by chance, the last few times I've parked it's been with the spoiler down.So - first point : The clunk which I thought was from the front is indeed the spoiler as suggested. I'm sure it didn't used to do that - but I know it's normal so nothing to worry about.
I've started using auto mode much more - I think partly because I'm using the car all the time, and sometimes it just makes sense to drive "normally" and not overtake everything at every opportunity. It also has the advantage of pushing the tank range up a tad - and on a pure motorway run today of ~40 miles (immediately after putting petrol in) - I averaged 28.1mpg! I did some sedate motorway runs when I bought the car, and didn't get close to that - so I wonder if the engine has loosened up a bit. It had 7k miles on it when I bought it, and will hit 13k in about 150 miles.
The car has been receiving a lot of love from the general public recently. Last week I was taking it around the block - and got flagged down by a guy in his 20s who asked if I'd take him out in it. Slightly random - and the tattoos across his knuckles were disconcerting - but what the hell. He loved the car, and announced that McLaren are better than Lamborghini.
While filling up with petrol, I was asked - for the second or third time since buying it - whether it was worth over a million pounds. Ironic given some of the comments on here about value!
The paintwork / PPF still looks superb - so another recommendation for Azuri if anybody is considering PPF / detailing. In fact, on a run today I was chatting to somebody who's considering PPF and when I said I'd recently had it done he said : I didn't know it had PPF on it. Exactly!
Today's run with ~20 other cars was both good and bad. Mostly good - some excellent cars, and good company. Despite being a general supercar club, it was extremely McLaren heavy! Seems they're a bit common.......
In case carspath is reading this - yes it was a supercar club, yes it is restricted to specific types of car and no, there were no MX5s.
The bad...... I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, the car suddenly refused to recognise that the key was in the car. After that one incident, it went back to normal behaviour. The problem with McLaren is that they occasionally have niggles - and if they don't do it again (which is often the case) you simply ignore it - which I had.
Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. I have concluded that it's pointless buying another car at the moment, and will look again in winter.
I am just a couple of weeks away from one years ownership. Thanks to lockdown, mileage has only gone up ~5k - although that's a big percentage when I bought it at ~7k. I'm back to averaging about 1k a month - even though I'm WFH - so I really really need to avoid using it much in winter. We'll see........
I've started using auto mode much more - I think partly because I'm using the car all the time, and sometimes it just makes sense to drive "normally" and not overtake everything at every opportunity. It also has the advantage of pushing the tank range up a tad - and on a pure motorway run today of ~40 miles (immediately after putting petrol in) - I averaged 28.1mpg! I did some sedate motorway runs when I bought the car, and didn't get close to that - so I wonder if the engine has loosened up a bit. It had 7k miles on it when I bought it, and will hit 13k in about 150 miles.
The car has been receiving a lot of love from the general public recently. Last week I was taking it around the block - and got flagged down by a guy in his 20s who asked if I'd take him out in it. Slightly random - and the tattoos across his knuckles were disconcerting - but what the hell. He loved the car, and announced that McLaren are better than Lamborghini.
While filling up with petrol, I was asked - for the second or third time since buying it - whether it was worth over a million pounds. Ironic given some of the comments on here about value!
The paintwork / PPF still looks superb - so another recommendation for Azuri if anybody is considering PPF / detailing. In fact, on a run today I was chatting to somebody who's considering PPF and when I said I'd recently had it done he said : I didn't know it had PPF on it. Exactly!
Today's run with ~20 other cars was both good and bad. Mostly good - some excellent cars, and good company. Despite being a general supercar club, it was extremely McLaren heavy! Seems they're a bit common.......
In case carspath is reading this - yes it was a supercar club, yes it is restricted to specific types of car and no, there were no MX5s.
The bad...... I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, the car suddenly refused to recognise that the key was in the car. After that one incident, it went back to normal behaviour. The problem with McLaren is that they occasionally have niggles - and if they don't do it again (which is often the case) you simply ignore it - which I had.
Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. I have concluded that it's pointless buying another car at the moment, and will look again in winter.
I am just a couple of weeks away from one years ownership. Thanks to lockdown, mileage has only gone up ~5k - although that's a big percentage when I bought it at ~7k. I'm back to averaging about 1k a month - even though I'm WFH - so I really really need to avoid using it much in winter. We'll see........
Targarama said:
This issue does seem to be related to low voltage in the fob battery. Even though it seems to work fine when you press the buttons. Always a good idea to carry a few spare batteries in the glove box.
Glove box? I dream of when I used to have a car with one of those 
But yes - I only had one battery at home so I've ordered some more and intend to keep one in the car.
This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of me buying the car. So seems a good time to look back on the year, summarise what's happened with the car and see what my views are now. When I bought the car, I made it clear that I was well aware of all the internet negativity and was about to find out myself whether it was true.........
I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
Edited by davek_964 on Saturday 22 August 10:58
Just back from 5 days in Cornwall - a total of around 550 miles.
The car was (mostly) faultless - will get to the reason it's 'mostly' shortly.
Journey down there was mostly free flowing traffic and averaged about 25mpg, which means a tank range of ~300 miles before I want to fill up vs about 180 I normally get. So reasonable for long journeys.
The weather was a tad mixed. On Thursday morning we drove to Lands End, and it was through a monsoon - and that included some fairly flooded roads. It turns out that lift is useful for more than just speed bumps and steep driveways!
On the way home today, we drove through a thunderstorm which made Thursdays monsoon look like light rain...... At least know for sure now my roof is water tight.
The one slight hiccup is that when I cleaned the car, I found something in the rear driver side wheel - which looks suspiciously like the green circle that indicates the jacking point. I guess they're glued on, and using your McLaren as a boat upsets them. I'll have a proper look in the morning when it's not raining. It's obviously fairly critical that the jacking points are clear, so if I have lost one or both I'll get it sorted at the service in December.
(ETA - part of the sticker was still attached, so used a glue gun to stick it back on. Others were all ok)
Overall, very impressed with the car. Comfortable for the journey (traffic on the way back made it a very very long journey) and shrugged off some of the worst rain I've ever driven in. At one point we had to pass a transit coming the other way on a single track road - who warned me that the road ahead was a steep descent and I had no chance of avoiding grounding the front of the car when I got to the bottom of the hill. No chance to turn round so...... I simply activated lift, and no problem at all.
Brilliant car.
Oh - apparently, it's slightly odd when you don't suggest getting your photo taken with your girlfriend, but say that you're moving your car from the main lands end car park to the hotel car park so you can take photos of the car with the sea behind it.....
The car was (mostly) faultless - will get to the reason it's 'mostly' shortly.
Journey down there was mostly free flowing traffic and averaged about 25mpg, which means a tank range of ~300 miles before I want to fill up vs about 180 I normally get. So reasonable for long journeys.
The weather was a tad mixed. On Thursday morning we drove to Lands End, and it was through a monsoon - and that included some fairly flooded roads. It turns out that lift is useful for more than just speed bumps and steep driveways!
On the way home today, we drove through a thunderstorm which made Thursdays monsoon look like light rain...... At least know for sure now my roof is water tight.
The one slight hiccup is that when I cleaned the car, I found something in the rear driver side wheel - which looks suspiciously like the green circle that indicates the jacking point. I guess they're glued on, and using your McLaren as a boat upsets them. I'll have a proper look in the morning when it's not raining. It's obviously fairly critical that the jacking points are clear, so if I have lost one or both I'll get it sorted at the service in December.
(ETA - part of the sticker was still attached, so used a glue gun to stick it back on. Others were all ok)
Overall, very impressed with the car. Comfortable for the journey (traffic on the way back made it a very very long journey) and shrugged off some of the worst rain I've ever driven in. At one point we had to pass a transit coming the other way on a single track road - who warned me that the road ahead was a steep descent and I had no chance of avoiding grounding the front of the car when I got to the bottom of the hill. No chance to turn round so...... I simply activated lift, and no problem at all.
Brilliant car.
Oh - apparently, it's slightly odd when you don't suggest getting your photo taken with your girlfriend, but say that you're moving your car from the main lands end car park to the hotel car park so you can take photos of the car with the sea behind it.....
Edited by davek_964 on Friday 28th August 21:23
Edited by davek_964 on Friday 28th August 21:24
Edited by davek_964 on Saturday 29th August 08:41
Slightly less positive update this time.
My use of the car has reduced a little in the last few weeks - trying to get the Cayenne back into service for mundane trips. Plus, I'm still WFH and have switched to online shopping since masks became mandatory - so there really haven't been that many mundane trips.
I did however go to a supercar display in Kent on Sunday - and rather than take the motorway, went cross country. It was actually a lovely drive there and back - perfect weather, roof down - and meant the car ticked over 14k miles.
Although I enjoyed the drive a lot, I still feel that I'm still not really in sync with the car on a twisty road. I suspect that a day on a track would help where I can explore what the car can do a bit more - but the cost of ceramic brakes makes me a tad nervous about that. It is something I need to solve somehow though, because it's beginning to feel like I should have gel'd with the car by now, and still haven't - which might mean it's not the car for me, much as I like it. It also doesn't help that it had a few niggles at the weekend - one of which is more annoying than the other.
The first was that the sat nav suddenly lost position - and although it then found it again, it continued to lose it, and became unusable. Resetting IRIS seemed to solve it - I'm dubious that's all that was needed but I've even used the nav display a few times since and it seems to be keeping posiiton.
The other issue is more annoying. In November last year, my climate unit suddenly started misbehaving - randomly switching things on and off. Ascot told me water had got into it, wasn't covered by warranty and implied I'd let the battery go flat (so the windows had dropped). After a discussion where I mentioned CRA a few times (I'd only had the car 3 months) they replaced the module as goodwill - and then replaced a seal when I pointed out why the original one had got wet (I believe it was the seal that runs across the top of the windscreen and then down the front of the doors).
However - the climate unit is now doing exactly the same thing again. It might be coincidence and a completely different cause - but that seems unlikely.
Simulating rain with a hose on full power - the car simply doesn't leak. I did previously have some drips from the middle roof seal - but that caused drips on the seat, and none around the climate module.
So if the replacement has got water damage again, I simply do not understand how. It doesn't seem to leak inside the window from the top - maybe it's getting in via the seal / scraper at the bottom of the window?
I now need to decide what to do about this. If it's the same issue as it was before, it's likely to cost me money - I seem to recall Ascot quoted ~£1,350 for a new climate unit. While I expect cars to need money spent on them - I'm not happy to pay that kind of cost when I've already paid for a very expensive warranty - especially if it's caused by some other failure on the car letting water get to the module.
Ascot repair should have lasted longer than 10 months - especially when the car spent 4 months of that in a dry paint shop - so I really should take it back there. But, if they conclude it's water damage - the amount of time since they fixed it becomes much harder to argue.
Or - do I take it to B&C which I started using a few months ago?
My current feeling is that perhaps it should go to B&C to investigate - and then I may or may not decide it needs to go back to Ascot depending on what they find.
Not all that happy - let's hope it's resolved easily, and that I don't find I need a climate unit each year!
It does still look damn good though.
My use of the car has reduced a little in the last few weeks - trying to get the Cayenne back into service for mundane trips. Plus, I'm still WFH and have switched to online shopping since masks became mandatory - so there really haven't been that many mundane trips.
I did however go to a supercar display in Kent on Sunday - and rather than take the motorway, went cross country. It was actually a lovely drive there and back - perfect weather, roof down - and meant the car ticked over 14k miles.
Although I enjoyed the drive a lot, I still feel that I'm still not really in sync with the car on a twisty road. I suspect that a day on a track would help where I can explore what the car can do a bit more - but the cost of ceramic brakes makes me a tad nervous about that. It is something I need to solve somehow though, because it's beginning to feel like I should have gel'd with the car by now, and still haven't - which might mean it's not the car for me, much as I like it. It also doesn't help that it had a few niggles at the weekend - one of which is more annoying than the other.
The first was that the sat nav suddenly lost position - and although it then found it again, it continued to lose it, and became unusable. Resetting IRIS seemed to solve it - I'm dubious that's all that was needed but I've even used the nav display a few times since and it seems to be keeping posiiton.
The other issue is more annoying. In November last year, my climate unit suddenly started misbehaving - randomly switching things on and off. Ascot told me water had got into it, wasn't covered by warranty and implied I'd let the battery go flat (so the windows had dropped). After a discussion where I mentioned CRA a few times (I'd only had the car 3 months) they replaced the module as goodwill - and then replaced a seal when I pointed out why the original one had got wet (I believe it was the seal that runs across the top of the windscreen and then down the front of the doors).
However - the climate unit is now doing exactly the same thing again. It might be coincidence and a completely different cause - but that seems unlikely.
Simulating rain with a hose on full power - the car simply doesn't leak. I did previously have some drips from the middle roof seal - but that caused drips on the seat, and none around the climate module.
So if the replacement has got water damage again, I simply do not understand how. It doesn't seem to leak inside the window from the top - maybe it's getting in via the seal / scraper at the bottom of the window?
I now need to decide what to do about this. If it's the same issue as it was before, it's likely to cost me money - I seem to recall Ascot quoted ~£1,350 for a new climate unit. While I expect cars to need money spent on them - I'm not happy to pay that kind of cost when I've already paid for a very expensive warranty - especially if it's caused by some other failure on the car letting water get to the module.
Ascot repair should have lasted longer than 10 months - especially when the car spent 4 months of that in a dry paint shop - so I really should take it back there. But, if they conclude it's water damage - the amount of time since they fixed it becomes much harder to argue.
Or - do I take it to B&C which I started using a few months ago?
My current feeling is that perhaps it should go to B&C to investigate - and then I may or may not decide it needs to go back to Ascot depending on what they find.
Not all that happy - let's hope it's resolved easily, and that I don't find I need a climate unit each year!
It does still look damn good though.
Edited by davek_964 on Thursday 17th September 07:24
RT964 said:
To maybe help gel with the car, you should consider doing a day's one on one driver training. I can highly recommend the guy I used - Mike Cooper (drivertuition.com). We spent the day out doing a number of loops around the Berkshire/Wiltshire countryside learning to get more from the car I had at the time (M4 Competition), and it made a big difference to how I was able to use and enjoy the car. He also does track based driver training if you want to take things in that direction and I've done a couple of those days too when I switched to a 991 GTS.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was actually planning something like that - somebody on MOC is highly recommended, but thought I'd wait until Spring next yearjtremlett said:
Yes definitely. If you're even slightly concerned that you may not get an unbiased response from one place then take it to another. Particularly if part of the concern might be that a previous fix may not have done the job. Obviously where you then take it to will certainly charge for the investigation but at least you will then have a second opinion to guide you as to whether the job was done properly before or not and, possibly, ammunition for a better fix.
Yep - it's booked into B&C on the 12th October. I will see what their initial diagnosis reveals and then make a decision about what happens next.One of the annoying things about the car is that there is virtually nowhere to put anything. In fact, it's very hard to make the car look untidy, because there is nowhere to leave stuff!
There is a compartment with a lid between the seats - I keep sunglasses in there. I also have a charger cable in there for the phone which runs from a multi-socket box which is tucked into the netting in the passenger floor well (and that plugs into the lighter socket just behind the cup holders).
There is virtually nowhere else to put anything - other than cup holders. No door pockets, no glove compartment, no tray in the middle.
I have parking change in a small purse type thing tucked between the lighter socket and the first cup holder. If I don't have a jacket, I tuck my wallet into the drivers side door handle.
I keep my phone in my pocket when driving - but I have seen posts on MOC of a few different phone holders people use.
There is a compartment with a lid between the seats - I keep sunglasses in there. I also have a charger cable in there for the phone which runs from a multi-socket box which is tucked into the netting in the passenger floor well (and that plugs into the lighter socket just behind the cup holders).
There is virtually nowhere else to put anything - other than cup holders. No door pockets, no glove compartment, no tray in the middle.
I have parking change in a small purse type thing tucked between the lighter socket and the first cup holder. If I don't have a jacket, I tuck my wallet into the drivers side door handle.
I keep my phone in my pocket when driving - but I have seen posts on MOC of a few different phone holders people use.
Thought I'd give a quick update, since I seem to be the only person who isn't commenting the thread
The climate issue I mentioned last time didn't happen again. I'd put it down as a normal niggle, but am suspicious after having a similar problem last year (though worse). But hopefully, it won't happen again.
A few other niggles have popped up. Think I've mentioned before that my engine lid cover refused to open once - it seems to happen quite often, so I'll get it looked at in December when it's serviced. Sounds like it doesn't even try to unlatch (always passenger side that fails) - but will usually work the next day. It might even be that it fails more often when hot but I've not proved that.
Other issue is a fairly common McLaren one - my drivers window has started opening when it shouldn't. When we had heavy rain a few weeks ago, it was opening when I opened the door (not as the door unlatched, only as I lifted the door). Always goes back up with the switch fortunately. It's done it a couple of times since - even in drier weather - so again, I'll get it checked at the service. I did see a post somewhere saying this only happens to cars with soft close - mine never did it before, and I did get soft close fitted a few months ago - so I guess that could be true. But I'm not convinced.
Apart from that, the car has been fine. I've been forcing myself to be a bit more aggressive with the steering, and although it doesn't come naturally to me, it does make the car turn in better, and I'm beginning to get used to it. Roads have cooled down though, and the difference in grip is already clear.
I still have mixed feelings about whether I should keep the car. In some ways it's perfect - it does everything I want, and in fact is good enough that I've given up on the idea of going back to having 3 cars. That was my plan when I sold the 360, but I know I won't use anything else. In fact - I'm still not using the Cayenne, despite my best intentions because less sunny weather, still WFH and online supermarket deliveries mean that I only use a car a few times a week now - and that means I want it to be the 650!
However - for me, I still think the 650 is missing something. I loved the 360 - even after 6 years of ownership - and it could really put a smile on my face even if I wasn't happy when I set off in it. The 650 just doesn't click in the same way for me - I hope that will change, because I love lots of things about it - but it doesn't quite tick all the boxes for me. Hopefully, that will change - although probably not over winter - but we'll see. If I feel the same way next Spring, then I'll probably call it a day - but I hope that won't be the case.
I might update after the service in December if there is any news - but I'm using PH less these days, and intend to continue that - so updates are going to get pretty sporadic.
The climate issue I mentioned last time didn't happen again. I'd put it down as a normal niggle, but am suspicious after having a similar problem last year (though worse). But hopefully, it won't happen again.
A few other niggles have popped up. Think I've mentioned before that my engine lid cover refused to open once - it seems to happen quite often, so I'll get it looked at in December when it's serviced. Sounds like it doesn't even try to unlatch (always passenger side that fails) - but will usually work the next day. It might even be that it fails more often when hot but I've not proved that.
Other issue is a fairly common McLaren one - my drivers window has started opening when it shouldn't. When we had heavy rain a few weeks ago, it was opening when I opened the door (not as the door unlatched, only as I lifted the door). Always goes back up with the switch fortunately. It's done it a couple of times since - even in drier weather - so again, I'll get it checked at the service. I did see a post somewhere saying this only happens to cars with soft close - mine never did it before, and I did get soft close fitted a few months ago - so I guess that could be true. But I'm not convinced.
Apart from that, the car has been fine. I've been forcing myself to be a bit more aggressive with the steering, and although it doesn't come naturally to me, it does make the car turn in better, and I'm beginning to get used to it. Roads have cooled down though, and the difference in grip is already clear.
I still have mixed feelings about whether I should keep the car. In some ways it's perfect - it does everything I want, and in fact is good enough that I've given up on the idea of going back to having 3 cars. That was my plan when I sold the 360, but I know I won't use anything else. In fact - I'm still not using the Cayenne, despite my best intentions because less sunny weather, still WFH and online supermarket deliveries mean that I only use a car a few times a week now - and that means I want it to be the 650!
However - for me, I still think the 650 is missing something. I loved the 360 - even after 6 years of ownership - and it could really put a smile on my face even if I wasn't happy when I set off in it. The 650 just doesn't click in the same way for me - I hope that will change, because I love lots of things about it - but it doesn't quite tick all the boxes for me. Hopefully, that will change - although probably not over winter - but we'll see. If I feel the same way next Spring, then I'll probably call it a day - but I hope that won't be the case.
I might update after the service in December if there is any news - but I'm using PH less these days, and intend to continue that - so updates are going to get pretty sporadic.
650spider said:
dave
If you sold your 650, would you stay within the McLaren fold and get another model?
Other models don't really appeal. 720s don't temp me, and neither do any of the sports series. Much as I like 675s, I have no interest in spending twice the value of my 650 on a car - plus, one of the things I like about the 650 is how good it is as a comfortable daily-ish car and I'm not sure a 675 would tick that box. Although that is something the 360 wasn't great at, so maybe I'm trying to have my cake and eat it.If you sold your 650, would you stay within the McLaren fold and get another model?
If I do decide to sell it next year, I think it will be because I'm drawing a line under supercar ownership - at least for a while. Think I have lost interest in cars a bit recently - but I'm aware that could be because of everything that's happening this year, and I don't want to make a rush decision.
Since the last update, the car has been serviced.
Engine lid catch was replaced under warranty - I assume it's fixed, but haven't really been checking.
No fault was logged for the window (sometimes dropped as I lifted the drivers door if it had been raining heavily or the car had been washed) and they couldn't find anything wrong. However - they did do some adjustment and carried out the relearn procedure (pretty sure I'd done that already). I was 99% sure they hadn't fixed it - but despite quite a lot of rain since, and washing the car a few times, it hasn't happened since the service so it seems they know better than me.
There was a small amount of non warranty work carried out at the service, but all very minor and it only added ~£150 to the bill, bringing the total cost to ~£1,250. A bargain, and if you ignore the warranty cost it's a very reasonable car to run........
Climate control has not misbehaved again.
Over the last few months, I find I am really appreciating the car more and more. Even in the current weather, and the fact that it's almost always dark - it's still a brilliant car. There are times I think it has the build quality of a 1960s Lada - but mostly it's fine. You simply have to accept that occasional niggles are part of the ownership experience for many (not all).
Still debating whether I really want to keep it long term, but that is more to do with a sensible side that started building up even before I bought the 650. At the moment, I'm still ignoring it.
Engine lid catch was replaced under warranty - I assume it's fixed, but haven't really been checking.
No fault was logged for the window (sometimes dropped as I lifted the drivers door if it had been raining heavily or the car had been washed) and they couldn't find anything wrong. However - they did do some adjustment and carried out the relearn procedure (pretty sure I'd done that already). I was 99% sure they hadn't fixed it - but despite quite a lot of rain since, and washing the car a few times, it hasn't happened since the service so it seems they know better than me.
There was a small amount of non warranty work carried out at the service, but all very minor and it only added ~£150 to the bill, bringing the total cost to ~£1,250. A bargain, and if you ignore the warranty cost it's a very reasonable car to run........
Climate control has not misbehaved again.
Over the last few months, I find I am really appreciating the car more and more. Even in the current weather, and the fact that it's almost always dark - it's still a brilliant car. There are times I think it has the build quality of a 1960s Lada - but mostly it's fine. You simply have to accept that occasional niggles are part of the ownership experience for many (not all).
Still debating whether I really want to keep it long term, but that is more to do with a sensible side that started building up even before I bought the 650. At the moment, I'm still ignoring it.
I've mentioned in the last few posts that I was leaning towards giving up on this thread. I have decided to do exactly that for various reasons - mostly because PH really needs an Ignore feature, and I can't be bothered with the McLaren bashing that comes up fairly regularly.
I bought a domain over Christmas, which allows me to stick blogs up - since I do like having a "diary" of my car ownership, I have started a blog - and posted the salient points of this thread into it - for my own use. I know that the point of a blog is to share it with the world, but for now it's purely for me to keep a record of my ownership experience and hence is private - maybe I'll make it public in future.
Anyway - since this will be my last post, I will give a fairly long update on what's happened to the car recently (a bit of a horror story) and what my thoughts are going forwards......
In summary - my battery went totally flat within about 36 hours. Putting the car on charge eventually meant I could start it again - however, pretty much every single system I had on the car was throwing an error - and I had no wipers or indicators.
It turned out that the wipers / indicators are actually controlled by the "body control module" which seemed to have crashed as part of the flat battery - and that also explained all the errors. Battery disconnect / reconnect solved it (done by McLaren Assist, because although I can do that - it was January, on my driveway - and it's part of the service I pay an expensive warranty for).
I assumed that I would need a new battery - but it turns out the battery isn't the issue. I've proved since then that it's related to my random window drop problem.
If the window doesn't drop - then when I lock the car, most systems go to sleep about 2 min later (handbrake light goes out, and 1 second later Start / Stop button light goes out).
If the window drops, then to lock the car I have to reach in through the window, press the start button to wake the electrics and then close the window (people say you can hold your hand at the keyless lock area, and it will close the window - it doesn't for this). The problem is - it turns out that if I do this, the car does NOT go to sleep - the handbrake light goes out but the start button light stays on. The electrics have not shut down properly - hence the flat battery.
The good news is - that saves me the cost of a very expensive battery.
The bad news is - I managed to do something very stupid and damage a few cosmetic bits at the back of the car. The cost of fixing that is more than a new battery. Ah well - first world problems and all that.......
Car is currently back at B&C who are sorting out the window problem. Since I've discovered that closing the window manually causes other issues, it's become more than a minor irritation.
Since this is my final update - here are my thoughts regarding the car :
Last week - when I went out and found a totally dead car, and subsequently found it had a million errors I couldn't clear - I was pretty sick of the whole thing. However - I used the car a few times after that and it really does impress me.
Despite the fact that I'm about to pay out a chunk of money - due to my own stupidity (the window will be covered by warranty) - I am now pretty sure I'm keeping the car long term.
I will need to decide by August if I will renew the warranty - despite its niggles, I don't feel it's really a necessity - but I know it affects resale so I will have to decide whether it's worth the money.
Creating my blog meant I had to go back through all my posts - reading them after 18 months of ownership is curious. Many of the issues I had in the beginning only happened a few times (e.g. the mirror not folding out which hasn't happened since) - as a new owner, it seemed like a car that was falling apart. But as somebody who's owned the car for longer, I know that 99% of them won't happen again so tend to ignore them a bit more now (at least, until I find they're serious enough to flatten the battery).
The end. (But not the end of my ownership)
I bought a domain over Christmas, which allows me to stick blogs up - since I do like having a "diary" of my car ownership, I have started a blog - and posted the salient points of this thread into it - for my own use. I know that the point of a blog is to share it with the world, but for now it's purely for me to keep a record of my ownership experience and hence is private - maybe I'll make it public in future.
Anyway - since this will be my last post, I will give a fairly long update on what's happened to the car recently (a bit of a horror story) and what my thoughts are going forwards......
In summary - my battery went totally flat within about 36 hours. Putting the car on charge eventually meant I could start it again - however, pretty much every single system I had on the car was throwing an error - and I had no wipers or indicators.
It turned out that the wipers / indicators are actually controlled by the "body control module" which seemed to have crashed as part of the flat battery - and that also explained all the errors. Battery disconnect / reconnect solved it (done by McLaren Assist, because although I can do that - it was January, on my driveway - and it's part of the service I pay an expensive warranty for).
I assumed that I would need a new battery - but it turns out the battery isn't the issue. I've proved since then that it's related to my random window drop problem.
If the window doesn't drop - then when I lock the car, most systems go to sleep about 2 min later (handbrake light goes out, and 1 second later Start / Stop button light goes out).
If the window drops, then to lock the car I have to reach in through the window, press the start button to wake the electrics and then close the window (people say you can hold your hand at the keyless lock area, and it will close the window - it doesn't for this). The problem is - it turns out that if I do this, the car does NOT go to sleep - the handbrake light goes out but the start button light stays on. The electrics have not shut down properly - hence the flat battery.
The good news is - that saves me the cost of a very expensive battery.
The bad news is - I managed to do something very stupid and damage a few cosmetic bits at the back of the car. The cost of fixing that is more than a new battery. Ah well - first world problems and all that.......
Car is currently back at B&C who are sorting out the window problem. Since I've discovered that closing the window manually causes other issues, it's become more than a minor irritation.
Since this is my final update - here are my thoughts regarding the car :
Last week - when I went out and found a totally dead car, and subsequently found it had a million errors I couldn't clear - I was pretty sick of the whole thing. However - I used the car a few times after that and it really does impress me.
Despite the fact that I'm about to pay out a chunk of money - due to my own stupidity (the window will be covered by warranty) - I am now pretty sure I'm keeping the car long term.
I will need to decide by August if I will renew the warranty - despite its niggles, I don't feel it's really a necessity - but I know it affects resale so I will have to decide whether it's worth the money.
Creating my blog meant I had to go back through all my posts - reading them after 18 months of ownership is curious. Many of the issues I had in the beginning only happened a few times (e.g. the mirror not folding out which hasn't happened since) - as a new owner, it seemed like a car that was falling apart. But as somebody who's owned the car for longer, I know that 99% of them won't happen again so tend to ignore them a bit more now (at least, until I find they're serious enough to flatten the battery).
The end. (But not the end of my ownership)
I haven't changed my mind about letting this thread die - however, today / tomorrow are significant days in my ownership so I thought I would give an update. It might be useful for anybody considering their first McLaren.
First - to conclude the problem in my previous post - the window dropping problem (which led to flat battery) was solved by replacing the outer door switch - covered under warranty.
Since then, I also needed a rear indicator - which wasn't covered by the warranty because it failed due to water ingress, and it seems the extended warranty is getting a lot stricter - and water ingress is excluded. The cost was low though, at £250 for the part.
This summer, I have finally got used to the steering on the car - and although I am still not a big fan (I much prefer cars that need less movement of the steering wheel) it has made me enjoy the car more. Enough so, that I am finally sure that I don't plan to sell it in the near future.
For some reason, the fuel consumption has changed quite significantly in the last couple of months. For most of my ownership, the car has averaged mid to low teens, and even driving very very sensibly and slowly on motorways I was lucky to see low 20s. I pretty much always needed petrol after 180 miles or so - although I don't let the tank get very low, so surely could have got over 200.
Now, the car hits high 20s on a motorway, and seems to average around 20 with mixed driving. Tank range has gone well over 200 miles - more like 250. Quite why this has happened on a car that's just rolled over 19k miles I have no idea, but a longer tank range is a good thing.
I really am loving the car these days and it seems to just be getting better. Last week, I had to drop somebody at the airport - since it was an hour on the motorway I decided to be "sensible" and take one of my other cars. After 20 mins, I regretted it - the McLaren is massively more comfortable, and cruise + auto makes it really easy on a motorway. I have to collect them from the airport later, and I'll be using the 650 this time.
So - back to why the date is significant :
Tomorrow, I will have owned the car exactly two years. And the significance of that is - the two year warranty I got when I purchased the car expires today. And I will not be renewing it.
Although the car does throw spurious warnings from time to time, 99% of them are one off's which can be ignored. There have been genuine faults which the warranty has covered - but nothing particularly significant and nothing more than I'd expect, or have experienced with other cars. I've never had - or wanted - a warranty with other cars, and - after two years of ownership - I don't feel I need one for this either.
Obviously the internet - and especially PH - would have you believe that this is completely insane, and nobody runs a McLaren without the extended warranty. The reality is, there are plenty of owners in the owners club who do - and I will be joining them.
This also brings a few other advantages - I don't have to worry about staying below 12k miles a year now, there is an increasing number of Indy's appearing (V Engineering in Thatcham looks very promising, although currently I'm happy with B&C in Guildford) - and if it wasn't for the hassle of sorting out insurance, I'd be tempted to get it mapped.
So there you have it - after two years of ownership, I'm very happy with the car and it's proved to me that it's mechanically sound - enough so that I'll keep the warranty cost in the bank.
First - to conclude the problem in my previous post - the window dropping problem (which led to flat battery) was solved by replacing the outer door switch - covered under warranty.
Since then, I also needed a rear indicator - which wasn't covered by the warranty because it failed due to water ingress, and it seems the extended warranty is getting a lot stricter - and water ingress is excluded. The cost was low though, at £250 for the part.
This summer, I have finally got used to the steering on the car - and although I am still not a big fan (I much prefer cars that need less movement of the steering wheel) it has made me enjoy the car more. Enough so, that I am finally sure that I don't plan to sell it in the near future.
For some reason, the fuel consumption has changed quite significantly in the last couple of months. For most of my ownership, the car has averaged mid to low teens, and even driving very very sensibly and slowly on motorways I was lucky to see low 20s. I pretty much always needed petrol after 180 miles or so - although I don't let the tank get very low, so surely could have got over 200.
Now, the car hits high 20s on a motorway, and seems to average around 20 with mixed driving. Tank range has gone well over 200 miles - more like 250. Quite why this has happened on a car that's just rolled over 19k miles I have no idea, but a longer tank range is a good thing.
I really am loving the car these days and it seems to just be getting better. Last week, I had to drop somebody at the airport - since it was an hour on the motorway I decided to be "sensible" and take one of my other cars. After 20 mins, I regretted it - the McLaren is massively more comfortable, and cruise + auto makes it really easy on a motorway. I have to collect them from the airport later, and I'll be using the 650 this time.
So - back to why the date is significant :
Tomorrow, I will have owned the car exactly two years. And the significance of that is - the two year warranty I got when I purchased the car expires today. And I will not be renewing it.
Although the car does throw spurious warnings from time to time, 99% of them are one off's which can be ignored. There have been genuine faults which the warranty has covered - but nothing particularly significant and nothing more than I'd expect, or have experienced with other cars. I've never had - or wanted - a warranty with other cars, and - after two years of ownership - I don't feel I need one for this either.
Obviously the internet - and especially PH - would have you believe that this is completely insane, and nobody runs a McLaren without the extended warranty. The reality is, there are plenty of owners in the owners club who do - and I will be joining them.
This also brings a few other advantages - I don't have to worry about staying below 12k miles a year now, there is an increasing number of Indy's appearing (V Engineering in Thatcham looks very promising, although currently I'm happy with B&C in Guildford) - and if it wasn't for the hassle of sorting out insurance, I'd be tempted to get it mapped.
So there you have it - after two years of ownership, I'm very happy with the car and it's proved to me that it's mechanically sound - enough so that I'll keep the warranty cost in the bank.
I've taken a break from PH for the last 6 weeks or so, and I haven't really missed it. As a result, I am going to become one of the McLaren owners who doesn't use PH - or at least, doesn't post - for the foreseeable future. However, I thought it was worth posting (another) final update on this thread.
The last update was August, when the warranty was about to expire - and I did not renew. I've literally just picked the car up from its 7th year service - so did I suddenly find out why it's sensible to have a warranty......?
Before that, I have had a couple of issues since the last update - although one was my own fault.
At the start of September, I discovered my coolant level was dropping slowly. This was identified as a leak from one of the hoses where it clamped to the rear radiator (drivers side) so I had all clips replaced. One of the features of McLaren ownership, but at least it's done now.
About a month ago, I also managed to break the latch for the centre console lid. Entirely my fault.
The good news is, the latch comes as a separate part (in fact, 3 parts - the lid part, and the parts for the console side of the latch). The bad news is, it's on back order. When it's available, part + fitting will cost me around £275. Although I want it fixed, I actually prefer it broken - lid still stays closed, and it's much simpler to open and close now!
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. It seems to get better and better with use.
B&C performed a health check when they did the coolant clips and warned me that I'd probably need rear pads at the service.
Sure enough, I did. I believe the pads are ~£550 for parts - although I'd be happy to fit them, I wasn't happy to do it on my driveway in December. So paid for them to be fitted.
The car has just rolled over 20k miles, therefore I also needed gearbox oil changed.
I was also still slightly losing coolant which they traced to a seal on the gearbox cooler - they only charged me the parts price (under £20).
A few other minor bits were needed (one of the guide vanes at the front had a hole in it) but nothing significant.
So, despite not having a warranty the car has no issues. It needed a few extra things sorted over the basic service cost - but the warranty wouldn't have covered any of them anyway and the main cost was wear and tear.
I had a significant discount from my service due to some goodwill that we agreed some time ago - but if I had paid full price it would have cost me £2,100. I think that's very reasonable for a service, gearbox oil change, rear brake pads and a few other bits and pieces.
I absolutely love the car - it is definitely the best car I've ever owned. This is quite a change from the posts I was making in the first 6 months of ownership, but this year I've really clicked with it. It pretty much does everything I want - the only thing that continues to irritate me about it, is the crap high beam on a dark county road. Other than that, it's pretty close to perfect (for my needs).
Despite owning two other cars - one of which is perfect for winter, and one of which I bought specifically to try and stop using the McLaren as a daily - I simply accept now that the McLaren will continue to be my daily car, and I have two other cars that I use occasionally....
When I bought the car 2.5 years ago, I did so with some reservations. I was aware of their reputation - much of which is perpetuated on here, I knew that they depreciated and I would lose money, and I knew I was buying a car that would be very difficult to sell on.
2.5 years of ownership means that I now know that the 'reputation' is not deserved - they have their quirks, but they're hardly unique in that. Nobody could have predicted the way the world would change, but that's meant that prices are actually pretty strong now - and I don't believe it would be any more difficult to sell than any similarly priced car.
I have absolutely no regrets about buying mine - which if I'm entirely honest is probably not how I expected I'd feel after 2.5 years. Fabulous car, and one that I hope to keep for a long time.
The last update was August, when the warranty was about to expire - and I did not renew. I've literally just picked the car up from its 7th year service - so did I suddenly find out why it's sensible to have a warranty......?
Before that, I have had a couple of issues since the last update - although one was my own fault.
At the start of September, I discovered my coolant level was dropping slowly. This was identified as a leak from one of the hoses where it clamped to the rear radiator (drivers side) so I had all clips replaced. One of the features of McLaren ownership, but at least it's done now.
About a month ago, I also managed to break the latch for the centre console lid. Entirely my fault.
The good news is, the latch comes as a separate part (in fact, 3 parts - the lid part, and the parts for the console side of the latch). The bad news is, it's on back order. When it's available, part + fitting will cost me around £275. Although I want it fixed, I actually prefer it broken - lid still stays closed, and it's much simpler to open and close now!
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. It seems to get better and better with use.
B&C performed a health check when they did the coolant clips and warned me that I'd probably need rear pads at the service.
Sure enough, I did. I believe the pads are ~£550 for parts - although I'd be happy to fit them, I wasn't happy to do it on my driveway in December. So paid for them to be fitted.
The car has just rolled over 20k miles, therefore I also needed gearbox oil changed.
I was also still slightly losing coolant which they traced to a seal on the gearbox cooler - they only charged me the parts price (under £20).
A few other minor bits were needed (one of the guide vanes at the front had a hole in it) but nothing significant.
So, despite not having a warranty the car has no issues. It needed a few extra things sorted over the basic service cost - but the warranty wouldn't have covered any of them anyway and the main cost was wear and tear.
I had a significant discount from my service due to some goodwill that we agreed some time ago - but if I had paid full price it would have cost me £2,100. I think that's very reasonable for a service, gearbox oil change, rear brake pads and a few other bits and pieces.
I absolutely love the car - it is definitely the best car I've ever owned. This is quite a change from the posts I was making in the first 6 months of ownership, but this year I've really clicked with it. It pretty much does everything I want - the only thing that continues to irritate me about it, is the crap high beam on a dark county road. Other than that, it's pretty close to perfect (for my needs).
Despite owning two other cars - one of which is perfect for winter, and one of which I bought specifically to try and stop using the McLaren as a daily - I simply accept now that the McLaren will continue to be my daily car, and I have two other cars that I use occasionally....
When I bought the car 2.5 years ago, I did so with some reservations. I was aware of their reputation - much of which is perpetuated on here, I knew that they depreciated and I would lose money, and I knew I was buying a car that would be very difficult to sell on.
2.5 years of ownership means that I now know that the 'reputation' is not deserved - they have their quirks, but they're hardly unique in that. Nobody could have predicted the way the world would change, but that's meant that prices are actually pretty strong now - and I don't believe it would be any more difficult to sell than any similarly priced car.
I have absolutely no regrets about buying mine - which if I'm entirely honest is probably not how I expected I'd feel after 2.5 years. Fabulous car, and one that I hope to keep for a long time.
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