I forgot to say bye, but I'm back off me hols now....

[Welly]

Welly's been to sunny Spain last week, the weather was a consistent 24-26 deg C and sunny all day long went kinda cool at night but that's fine by me.

Didn't get any beach shots (for puggy) but that was mainly down to a severe lack of wanting to due to an apparent old-age pensioners European week-in-spain by the looks of it I will not share my experience of seeing a 70yr-old woman's 'bits' either

Anyhoo, the Ford Focus Estate turned into a C4 Picasso and it was brilliant! very clever car with lots of space and places to put stuff. It had a semi-auto box which was very good actually and did a nice throttle-blip on down changes also included was an electronic handbrake (wouldn't like to see that when it's 7 years old ) and Citroen pump-me-up-and-downy rear sussy (and only the rear). Overall a decent car to be fair.

Electronic dash, the parking sensors front and rear brought up a car on the screen telling you how near you were and where the obstruction was

Plenty of space..

Panoramic? type windscreen - 'used' it once, then put the blinds back like normal

Steering wheel had the turn-me-round-but-the-middle-stays-put kinda thing..

After having the car for 2 days my lad noticed THIS .......


Now, I wasn't shown around the car when I picked it up from the Airport so was worried I'd get 'done' for the damage on it's return but then thought "well they didn't walk round the thing with me so it's their problem" but something was niggling me about it...

When returning the car if I told you they couldn't give one about the car then I'd be playing it down...they really really were not interested and never even looked

Car hire cost me £200.00 for the week, oh and Spain is very very expensive now (more than UK)

Loaf of local Bread (Bimbo) = €1.97
Butter = €2.00
4 x rashers Bacon = €2.00
Pint Lager = €3.30
Exchange rate: £1.00 = €1.07

Reading through 3-pages of missed posts = Priceless

[puggy]

[Welly]

I know, I'm so sorry pervy, sorry, I mean puggy. There was just nothing worthy of your attention and I know how picky you are.......

Ooh, ooh, I nearly forgot, there was an older 40's type with a fit body and IMPLANTS hanging about the beach bar place they looked kinda weird though (believe it or not Mrs Welly pointed them out to me ) the shape was inconsistent, defied gravity and did not comply with the overall design intent...in fact the size of said enhancements was excessive and provided unwelcome attention in the eyes of Mr Implant who was monitoring the aformentioned attention like a hawk

[sirwiggum]

All those electrics look prime for future faults.

And I've seen the electronic handbrake on a scenic, they are a disaster. Especially when the boot-hidden emergency undo cord is pulled in an attempt to get a spare wheel out

Not surprised at the dent / hire car peoples indifference, having seen the state of driving and parking in Spain! It is an unwritten rule when parallel parking to leave the handbrake off to allow your car to be shunted!

[Welly]

Just about every single car I saw had some form of damage including a few caved-in doors but no-one seems to care

The other thing that was very noticeable was the distinct lack of 'old' cars just about every car there is less than 3 years old.

I did notice though the few 'older' car around were 406's, honestly, I saw a couple of D8's and about four D9's. I thought it was pretty cool that the 406 should out-survive other marques in the Spanish auto jungle

[sirwiggum]

Just about every single car I saw had some form of damage including a few caved-in doors but no-one seems to care

The other thing that was very noticeable was the distinct lack of 'old' cars just about every car there is less than 3 years old.

I did notice though the few 'older' car around were 406's, honestly, I saw a couple of D8's and about four D9's. I thought it was pretty cool that the 406 should out-survive other marques in the Spanish auto jungle

Did they have a scrappage scheme? Perhaps their ITV (MOT) is getting stricter (which is what took a lot of older cars off the road in Ireland, just as the last celtic tiger boom kicked in).

[steve_earwig]

I thought you'd gone quiet Sneaking off to Sunny sPain and not telling anyone

I'm beginning to like the idea of the panoramic roof, although this is mainly due to a few days driving into town here and once more cursing the cheap bastards for only putting traffic lights this side of junctions, so if you're at the front of the queue you have to just about put your head on the dashboard to see the buggers (worse on a bike if you wiggle your way to the front as you can't see the bluddy things at all )


I've been absent myself though, I had a mate come over that I hadn't seen for 3 years, so there was lots of catching up and my forum experience has been the odd 5 minutes or so, when I've only had time to do the moderator bit and getting right ticked off at the other mods for leaving all the stacks of garbage from China for me to sort out (although since I've realised it' half term there so you're all off doing stuff with your kids ) Still, he's gone home today so I've got plenty of time to catch up with... all the jobs I should have been doing (bluddy gardens are ankle-deep in leaves for a start ). Still, it's been a right giggle

[FarmerPug]

I dont think the citroens going to be too much trouble in 7 years, for once its actually getting good comments in the jd power surveys, they feel much better built these days. Definatley a better choice over a vauxhall zzzzzzz i forget its that boring i went to sleep.

[teamster1975]

getting right ticked off at the other mods for leaving all the stacks of garbage from China for me to sort out

Sorry Steve

Glad you had a good time Welly! You're right about the hire cars, my parents live in Javea which is north of Benidorm and every car you see has battle scars.

[steve_earwig]

No need to apologise for having a family to take care of!!

[teamster1975]

No need to apologise for having a family to take care of!!

It's a bit stressful at the moment with the buildup to birth day, Emma's had a rough time of it with this pregnancy

[neildavies]

Glad you enjoyed yourself. I've not long been looking at and buying an 04 plate xsara picasso for my sister-in-law. I was totally impresssed with it. Lots of space inside and in the boot, and really well thought out. So the C4 picasso must be a cracking car.