What are your top three 'new' car niggles?
Discussion
So yesterday thought it was high time that I gave the motor a wash inside and out (as it was pretty filthy - covered with winter grime).
As I was going round the car (which is a 3 door mineral grey M135i - leased from March last year with 5.5k on the clock) I noticed a few annoying niggles:
1. Big stone chip high up on front bumper next to the badge
2. Condensation in the offside front xenon light cluster
3. Corroding right exhaust pipe (left one is fine)
The exhaust 'pitting' is well known but the other two are annoying niggles for a pretty new car.
I thought it'd make interesting reading as a thread to see what your top three 'new' car niggles have been. The car in question doesn't have to be brand new, just new(ish) to you when you noticed the 'defects'.
Simple rules:
1. Brand and model of car
2. List your top three niggles
As I was going round the car (which is a 3 door mineral grey M135i - leased from March last year with 5.5k on the clock) I noticed a few annoying niggles:
1. Big stone chip high up on front bumper next to the badge
2. Condensation in the offside front xenon light cluster
3. Corroding right exhaust pipe (left one is fine)
The exhaust 'pitting' is well known but the other two are annoying niggles for a pretty new car.
I thought it'd make interesting reading as a thread to see what your top three 'new' car niggles have been. The car in question doesn't have to be brand new, just new(ish) to you when you noticed the 'defects'.
Simple rules:
1. Brand and model of car
2. List your top three niggles
My new cars have been trouble free.
Well, I had a bumper clip that needed adjusting on my XFR-S and get a loan of a V8 F-Type for a week while the dealer sorted it (I bought the car from a dealer a distance away so it was easier to go Saturday-Saturday. The clip itself took a day). I got a week long test drive of an awesome car so it was an all-round positive experience and the dealer was great.
My older cars develop niggles often enough but they're not new to me. Well, I lie. I had a niggle in the form of no clutch hydraulics thanks to a professional using the wrong grease to assemble rubber seals on the drive home from Newcastle to northern Aberdeenshire with my Cerbera.
In general I just sort stuff though. I wouldn't call a stone chip a niggle.
Well, I had a bumper clip that needed adjusting on my XFR-S and get a loan of a V8 F-Type for a week while the dealer sorted it (I bought the car from a dealer a distance away so it was easier to go Saturday-Saturday. The clip itself took a day). I got a week long test drive of an awesome car so it was an all-round positive experience and the dealer was great.
My older cars develop niggles often enough but they're not new to me. Well, I lie. I had a niggle in the form of no clutch hydraulics thanks to a professional using the wrong grease to assemble rubber seals on the drive home from Newcastle to northern Aberdeenshire with my Cerbera.
In general I just sort stuff though. I wouldn't call a stone chip a niggle.
Fiesta ST3, taken out from new PCP last year.
1. If I leave my Xperia phone at home, after half a mile or so it will disconnect, but it does it by pausing the music briefly and in a very loud mono tone shouts: 'PHONE DISCONNECTED'
2. No option of Xenon headlights which is very annoying, so as the car has projectors I had a 5000k HID fitted in the first week.
3. My car didn't have the Mountune upgrade which was a niggle of such, so bought that within the first thousand miles or so.
Apart from that there is nothing else that bothers me, it's quick, nothing rattles, specced much better than anything else I've owned, cheap to run and always puts a grin on my face. Stone chips and road grime and the rest doesn't phase me, car gets valeted once a month, maybe every week in the summer months.
In this day and age I don't think any top spec car should come without xenon headlights or better, weirdly I get annoyed anytime I see a car that could be specced with xenons but aren't, 3 series BMW's for example. It isn't so bad if you have projector headlamps so you can retrofit xenons, but I just wouldn't buy a car now with reflector headlamp, that I guess is my biggest niggle with new cars.
1. If I leave my Xperia phone at home, after half a mile or so it will disconnect, but it does it by pausing the music briefly and in a very loud mono tone shouts: 'PHONE DISCONNECTED'
2. No option of Xenon headlights which is very annoying, so as the car has projectors I had a 5000k HID fitted in the first week.
3. My car didn't have the Mountune upgrade which was a niggle of such, so bought that within the first thousand miles or so.
Apart from that there is nothing else that bothers me, it's quick, nothing rattles, specced much better than anything else I've owned, cheap to run and always puts a grin on my face. Stone chips and road grime and the rest doesn't phase me, car gets valeted once a month, maybe every week in the summer months.
In this day and age I don't think any top spec car should come without xenon headlights or better, weirdly I get annoyed anytime I see a car that could be specced with xenons but aren't, 3 series BMW's for example. It isn't so bad if you have projector headlamps so you can retrofit xenons, but I just wouldn't buy a car now with reflector headlamp, that I guess is my biggest niggle with new cars.
JuanGandini said:
Nice. I recall hearing some stories of early M135is being delivered with rock hard suspension only for owners to investigate further and find the suspension blocks hadn't yet been removed by the supplying dealership!
A mate of mine had exactly the same thing with an MR2. He'd actually took it back to the dealer he bought it from who reckoned the hard suspension was because it was a sports car. After another month he took it to a different dealer who guessed exactly what the problem was & "fixed" it in about 15 minutes
RobinBanks said:
I haven't any myself but I remember something like 15 years ago my dad had a Jaguar XJ and the front bumper fell off.
And my sister in law has a Skoda (the really small one similar to the Volkswagen up) and the flap over the filler cap fell off.
Also with this I mean the whole front clip, not just a bit of trim.And my sister in law has a Skoda (the really small one similar to the Volkswagen up) and the flap over the filler cap fell off.
The Nikasil cylinder liners also necessitated a replacement engine at about a year old.
2009 Volvo V50. Now 110000m
After about 50 miles or around an hour the heating goes cold. I think it has done it from new. dealer couldn't find the fault. Even on auto climate.
Bloody trim rattle at motorway cruising right in my right ear. I am sure it is the drivers door window. Again found when fairly new still no fix.
Drivers exterior door handle doesnt always pop back into place.
After about 50 miles or around an hour the heating goes cold. I think it has done it from new. dealer couldn't find the fault. Even on auto climate.
Bloody trim rattle at motorway cruising right in my right ear. I am sure it is the drivers door window. Again found when fairly new still no fix.
Drivers exterior door handle doesnt always pop back into place.
New car niggles:
- The numbing of the driving experience with over servo'd brakes, numb steering, laggy throttles.
- The excessive nannying with things like invasive traction control, which you can't turn fully off or turns itself back on.
- All the electronic 'helpers' we never asked for and don't want like: Electric handbrakes in non-intuative places. Stop/start that you have to turn off every time you get it. Saying that, as you never use the electronic handbrake, it hardly matters.
- Ride quality. Or rather the lack of it. Hard=sporty! No, hard=s
t.
- Ludicrously large wheels (see above).
- Flat bottomed or square steering wheels. They're idiotic. It's a wheel. Wheels are round. The only time squared off wheels work is in race cars that are one turn lock to lock and it gives you clearance for your legs/so you can see the dash. In a road car it's stupid, and looks stupid.
- Flappy paddles. They're st. Just buy a fking auto if you want an auto. Halfway house bks. Do you like driving? Is it a sports car? Get a manual you big girl.
- Options. Yes it's 'only' £40k... (plus the extra £20k of options to bring the car up to the same spec as a boggo Skoda). Want to see behind you? That'll be £250 for a rear wiper. FFS.
- Modes. I fking hate that gimmicky bullst. You can set your car into sport mode. Oh do fk off. It's it KITT FFS? Super Pursuit Mode? Just design it right and you don't need fking modes.
I think that about covers it... 3 you say... Ah *blushes*
- The numbing of the driving experience with over servo'd brakes, numb steering, laggy throttles.
- The excessive nannying with things like invasive traction control, which you can't turn fully off or turns itself back on.
- All the electronic 'helpers' we never asked for and don't want like: Electric handbrakes in non-intuative places. Stop/start that you have to turn off every time you get it. Saying that, as you never use the electronic handbrake, it hardly matters.
- Ride quality. Or rather the lack of it. Hard=sporty! No, hard=s
t.- Ludicrously large wheels (see above).
- Flat bottomed or square steering wheels. They're idiotic. It's a wheel. Wheels are round. The only time squared off wheels work is in race cars that are one turn lock to lock and it gives you clearance for your legs/so you can see the dash. In a road car it's stupid, and looks stupid.
- Flappy paddles. They're s
t. Just buy a fking auto if you want an auto. Halfway house bks. Do you like driving? Is it a sports car? Get a manual you big girl.- Options. Yes it's 'only' £40k... (plus the extra £20k of options to bring the car up to the same spec as a boggo Skoda). Want to see behind you? That'll be £250 for a rear wiper. FFS.
- Modes. I f
king hate that gimmicky bullst. You can set your car into sport mode. Oh do fk off. It's it KITT FFS? Super Pursuit Mode? Just design it right and you don't need fking modes.I think that about covers it... 3 you say... Ah *blushes*
Edited by juansolo on Tuesday 10th February 09:54
Had an Audi A4 S line in white (oh the imagine) as a hire car last week on a 64 plate if I remember correctly.
1. On start up the blowers went on full on the screen - very annoying.
2. The clutch pedal was very far over to the right. When depressed your left leg passes the centre of the stearing wheel.
3. No rear wiper. At first I though I was being an idiot unable to find the stalk/button/switch but after getting out there was actually no wiper at all.
1. On start up the blowers went on full on the screen - very annoying.
2. The clutch pedal was very far over to the right. When depressed your left leg passes the centre of the stearing wheel.
3. No rear wiper. At first I though I was being an idiot unable to find the stalk/button/switch but after getting out there was actually no wiper at all.
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