stevegerrard.org

Don’t ever buy or hire a Ford Fusion. It is buy far the worst, most gutless, crude, and unrewarding car I have ever had the misfortune to drive.

I discovered this to my detriment on my recent holiday to Turkey to meet the in-laws, and was stuck with this thing for over a week. What piece of sh*t..

So, I have a new web site and looking forward to putting positive, fun, and even creative content for my first post, but that’s all gone to pot after I took my Audi A3 in for it’s service and MOT at Grant’s Garage in Brighton. Now, before I carry on I must point out the following is not a critism of the garage at all, they did the job very well and I would like to recommend them to anyone else who wants an independant garage; this is a critism of Audi and many other car manufacturers who have all designed in a fundamental design flaw into almost all vehicles…so let me begin..

So, my lovely little Audi A3 has been happily shepherding me back and forth to work and back over the last four years and has racked up 75,000 miles in the process. Its now therefore due for its forth service of its life and the garage point out that its due for a cam belt change. OK fine. (well not fine at all actually but I’ll come to that) I ask how much and they say that unfortunately on the Audi A3 its more complex that on some other cars and it will come to £290 + VAT. So here’s my first point: Why is it that on a component that the manufacturer knows will need replacing at 70,000 miles is it designed to be complex? Isn’t that like gluing the tyres on so that its difficult to get them off when they wear out? Surely it should be pretty simple and significanlty cheaper to replace what is in effect a big rubber band? Of course the real answer to this is that its quite a money spinner for the car industry as a whole i.e. both garages and parts manufacturers, but you would have though in this day and age here would be a better solution.

Secondly, I have an issue with the fact that cambelts need changing in the first place. Surely its a design flaw if its just a rubber band that’s all between you and a blown engine. Shouldn’t it be via a chain, or cogs, or electronically timed, or something else that doesn’t wear out (or at least designed not to wear out like the rest of the engine) and also, if it must be a rubber band, surely in the event of failure, the engine should be designed so that it doesn’t mince itself to pieces?

So come on car manufacturers, Audi in particular, sort out your design so that cambelts are not so expensive to change, and do not cause total obliteration of the engine on failure.

I do hope my next post is more uplifting..