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| Bluebird in 2016. Brand new... but with the same old bird to drive it. |
However, a few weeks ago, whilst driving home from Gloucester and going at speed up a short hill, Bluebird's clutch began to slip. I released the throttle, gingerly accelerated again and continued home without further incident.
The following day, anxious to see whether it had been a fluke occurrence (did I accidentally touch the clutch pedal?) I deliberately performed an inelegant hill start with the engine revving rather too much... and Bluebird performed faultlessly. "So it must have been me," I told myself.
A week later we made one of our frequent visits to Cornwall. After a short stop near Okehampton, it was my turn to drive. A few miles west of Launceston there's a long hill. As Bluebird's speed dropped, I changed down to 4th gear, and then to 3rd... and it happened again. The rev counter needle rose rapidly and my speed dropped still more. I depressed the clutch pedal, released it, accelerated gently, and away we went with no further problems, but as soon as we returned home we booked Bluebell into the garage and braced ourselves for a big repair bill.
It turned out that engine oil had been leaking into the clutch housing, causing the clutch to slip. "It was a really oily mess," I was told. I was actually rather pleased to be told this, for (contrary to the garageman's prediction) the problem had not been down to 'madam being rather too heavy on the clutch.' Having to pay £850 for this information was less pleasurable, but I can't really complain at this, Bluebird's first big garage bill.
My younger son wants me to think about trading in Bluebird for something newer, but I'm less than keen, not least because I reckon there's still a lot of life left in her. And what would I replace her with? That's a complicated conundrum which may be the subject of another post.
Modern cars may all be boring identikit boxes on the whole but they do as you say keep going until they give is a nasty large bill surprise because they are not built to be maintained as easily as those rust buckets of our youth.
ReplyDeleteWe too have wheels of a similar vintage and I have every intention of keeping it going whilst the motor trade tries to figure. out what the hell they are up to. Halfwitted politicians who do not know arse from elbow chant the mantra "electric by 2030" without understanding that there are insufficient mineral resources to make this happen and the power grid cannot support the numbers of vehicles that shall have to be purchased at a greatly increased cost many cannot afford. As for the increased danger from intense battery fires, especially after flooding, the future is certainly going to be exciting.
Like so much at moment there is no obvious good solution to what we should do about personal transport on near future.
Good luck.
As you know, I entered the era of regular big bills a long time ago, and on Volvos they can be really big. But in between my car Fiona absolutely meets my demanding needs, continues to look good, and gives me a comfortable ride over long distances. Besides, a direct replacement would cost far, far more than paying to keep her well and frisky. She's covered 183,000 miles, and must be good for 250,000 or more.
ReplyDeleteOwning your own personal transport has always come at a cost, and even now - if you take inflation into account - I don't think that cost has become outrageous. But as Anonymous rightly says, the future is not clear. I am constantly being advised to keep my car going and hang on to it for as long as possible.
Lucy