New Chim 500 - 261 miles on

[5ltvr]

Picked up technoviolet monster at 17:10 last night, 261 miles later, thought I'd share initial reactions (closest other cars I've had/got T5 and Discovery (same engine!!)

1. Stinks of resin and copydex - where's the leather smell??
2. Awesome overall impression - noise, reactive steering, purple and magnolia leather, dials and buttons all over the place, comfy seats, great driving position even tho I'm 6'2" and view down the channel in the bonnet - altho hadn't realised passenger foot space is much less than drivers - battery etc I suppose
3. Frustrating keeping it below 3000rpm - crept to 4000 once or twice and can see what it is going to be like
4. Should have got aircon - its going to be a hot 8u99er on a long trip, hot/ cold settings seem largely irrelevant
5. exhaust - great sound but not quite the racket i remember from the test drive - will it get louder??
6.Build quality - as I expected. ie:

1. some rubber soln glue on seats and carpets (assume will roll off when clean)
2. only driver side wiper squirts water
3. water coming in thru passenger air vent above gearbox tunnel and little square of carpet soaked (even weirder the 2 vents work differently - 1 closes when vent wheel rolled up, other one vice versa - obviously 1 is upside down)
4. driver side door window seal at base of window doesn't - just generally clogs window up and down - is set much lower in door frame than passenger side and should soon wear off so can be stuck back on. Have also discovered that hood seals are much better if shut door with windows slightly down then roll up - doesn't catch the squidgy rubber at top this way, BUT only works when get in - what about when getting out - can only do one side???
5. Are the dials different colours - ok in daylight (all magnolia) but at night the right 2 small ones (clock and something else) and right big dial (rev counter) look much brighter and white (lihgting pattern looks the same so don't think it's no. of bulbs etc)

Do you reckon this is it or will more crawl out of the woodwork??

Would appreciate some tips on following:
1. How the h311 do you get the roof in the boot... wide end at bottom or top, mohair facing back or front???
2. How do you get the inertia reel seat belts to inertia reel the belt back in... esp passenger side
3. where do your put left foot when cruising on motorway, under clutch pedal ok but ankle gets bit sore, resting on clutch pedal and foot angle too high - I know you can mess around with the box - can you adjust each pedal seperately, is it ok to rest foot on clutch if I can get it far enough down the footwell - seems stiff enough

Overall, good decision so far, can't wait to be run in and get some sunshine, although pi55ed off at people cutting me up - is this the norm in a car like this??

[5ltvr]

Thanks for all your ideas - really helpful to maintain "its quirky" attitude and not get cross because its not built like a porsche - door closing etc now understood. Good idea on the keeping notebook

Another 60 miles tonight.

Water coming in to heater vent may be from windscreen squirters, now noticed that not much coming from drivers wiper either now although can hear it pumping and its obviously going somewhere and ingress gets worse - could the washer bottle be attached to the heater???

Irritating squeak developed just behind seats - sounds like two bits of wet polystyrene rubbing together - any ideas

Have also discovered windows down and double de-clutch/accelerate is compulsory in tunnels