Brunhilda’s active grille shutters jammed open, so a trip to Sytner Leicester was in order.
After informing me they would need the car all day and only managing to do £99 worth of diagnostics the conclusion was the shutters were indeed faulty and would need replacing. "Not in stock, can we keep the car sir?" No, as you can’t provide a courtesy car I’ll bring it back next week when it’s convenient for me.
“Oh, and by the way sir, your Telematics battery needs replacing”
Really? How much? “About £400 sir, we have to remove the headlining to access it”
Now I know the battery is about £40 and that it lives near the shark fin aerial in a module of some sort. Some time ago I watched a video guide of one being replaced on a G31 via the boot with very little disturbance to the headliner but dammed if I can find video.
Any pointers on this job gratefully received as I’m determined to do it myself before chilly weather finishes the thing off. I’m not paying £400. Incidentally, I asked a BMW indie about it, surprisingly they were talking similar money.
Anyway, I digress. Dropped the car off this morning, at quite an early hour for me.
At 1300 I rang to check progress. “It’s just gone into the workshop sir, should be ready this evening.
1700hrs, a phone call from a lovely cheery young lady service advisor “your car won’t be ready today sir”
Why not? I snarled.
“Errrm, Err, the technician has had to take the front bumper off and there’s still quite a bit of work to do”.
Grumpy now lives up to his epithet and goes ballistic. Long story short I got a 22 plate Mini Cooper to drive.
An Alpina it isn’t. Well screwed together and finished, feels nippy but actually isn’t, choppy ride, very direct steering and doesn’t seem to use any petrol. Would I buy one? No, I’ve got used to being very spoiled for quite some time now and proceeding rather than driving.
The Mini will be doing a 100-mile round trip tomorrow and I’ve a feeling I’m going to miss the teleporter.
or power it with something more practical, wait a minute…oh yes silly me.