Car goes in to garage tomorrow for new glow plugs and they confirmed they are changing the clutch FOC and all related parts as they see fit, so I am pretty happy about that, it is a big ticket item.
I did run some injection cleaner through the car over two tanks of fuel and it has made a real difference to economy which is up 4-5 mpg hitting 55 mpg average on the last tank, there is also less knock than before so it clearly was worth doing.
I think the exhaust may be duff somewhere near the front, it tends to boom alot under load at certain engine speeds but they will be taking all that off when they take the gearbox out so I am sure I will hear back should there be an issue. I am waiting for the clutch to be done though as I am 50/50 on how much noise is related to that as you can clearly hear the knocking from it now, usually when the car has run, then partially cooled down.
The rest of the car is performing really well, my back/neck troubles have been absent since I took over the car so it is pretty set in my mind that the Alto was the cause of much of the pain.
I have also decided to bite the bullet and not buy a small car again, I am enjoying the comfort too much and there are enough economical larger cars coming on the used car market now that the gains dont seem worth it.
The stereo is pretty awful, a very fiddly old style unit and the easier to operate unit I nicked out of my Charade beckons when I get the time, glad I kept it now.
Those cheap tyres are not doing too badly, my only complaint is that they tend to clear less deep standing water than I would like but I drive accordingly - dry weather grip is very good.
One irritant is that the air con automatically comes on when you put the windscreen demist on, our Matrix does the same thing - it isnt that I always avoid using the air con for demist, I just wish I had the choice as the climate control buttons are not that easy to find on the move without looking at them - my preference is for rotary controls personally.
Still, for what I paid for it, it was still a decent buy, I dont regret it at all. The Alto never did appear on a local forecourt either...
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