Well not much to report other than the service was completed as planned - the book was stamped and it's good for another 18,000 miles or one year.. which with the current rate will mean around Feb next year.
Unfortunately - the washer leak was not able to be fixed in this visit. I suspected that would be the case, since they probably wouldn't have the spare part. Apparently it is a pipe leading out of the washer bottle has split and needs replacement. Strange that it has broken after such a short time. So booked in for next week.
Tyres were rotated around the car - so will see how that works out in overall wear.
Dropped the car off at Purple Parking at Heathrow and went to the Alps for the weekend. Purple parking works out quite well as it was the cheapest listed on the internet and seems very secure place. However a good 15-20minutes from the airport.
At munich I was offered a Renault Modus or an Opel Astra. I took the Astra, a 1.4 petrol. On the motorway the car ran OK, if a bit high reving. As we were heading towards Solvenia direction, we were on the A10 - when the traffic came to a halt. We managed to communicate with a lorry driver who explained there was a 20km traffic jam - heading into the tunnels. So plan B, and rather than the tunnels, we headed up into the mountains. In the Volvo it would have been a perfect situation, we were often following caravans or vans and you needed a punchy bit of torque to get past on the twisty roads. The 1.4 Asta, breathing hard.. was pathetic.. I had to rev the engine to the red line in 2nd gear otherwise 3rd gear wouldn't pick up.. and at some points I had to rev the engine to the limit of it's life in 1st gear to get it past a tractor.. I am sure the tractor could have gone faster up the hill. The handling of the Astra was however very sharp - just needed a good turbo diesel under the bonnet. We did maybe 500miles in 2 days with 10 hours of driving. Perhaps next time the Renault Modus :)
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