After much to-ing and fro-ing we finally picked up the car on 30th January. Since then I have got used to her quirks and become very fond of her.
Also since then, she has nearly killed me.
On 3rd March, as we were attempting to take Random Cat to the vet to have his abscess seen to, the car refused to start. Phil rocked her a bit and then she did start. There was no obvious reason for a problem but the engine management light was on. We had to get to the vet and the cat was screaming on the back seat, so I proceeded to drive the 4.5 miles to Windsor. By the time I got there, the light had gone out and all was well.
On 5th March, I had to go into the office, so I drove the 30 miles to Basingstoke, without any problems, and parked in the office carpark. When the time came to go home, my lovely Pandora would not start. I called the AA (this is a breakdown service, for Americans and other aliens). The man arrived within 10 minutes and started her up again. She was very grumbly and had 8 fault codes showing, so he cleared the codes so I could get home.
The next day, I ring Thames Fiat, in Slough, to get them to look at the car, as the AA man had recommended that she return to Fiat as soon as possible. Thames were not interested, as the AA man had cleared the fault codes; I was to carry on driving the car until problems happened. Then, they would be interested.
I drove to work again on 11th March. I drove halfway home and the engine died, in the middle of a junction, with no warning. Luckily I was only doing 30mph and had not yet made it onto the M4 where I would have stopped dead at 70mph. In rush hour traffic that would definitely have lead to a major accident. It has only been 6 weeks since I passed my test, I’m not what you’d call an experienced driver.
I called the AA, who rescued me again and got the car started. This time there would be no messing about: we would dump the car at a Fiat service place and demand that it be looked at. The nearest dealer turned out to be back in Basingstoke, so, with the AA man in his nice van, with the flashing lights on it, driving behind me as a big yellow shield, I tentatively started to drive back the way I had come, hoping that the engine would manage to stay alive. It didn’t. This time, however, I was ready for it, and although it died at 50mph, I got the clutch down in time and was able to preserve enough momentum to drift out of everyone’s way.
The AA man attempted, for about an hour, to revive the car, but she wasn’t having it. So I was towed the remaining distance (probably about 9-10 miles) and we dumped the car at Alan Gibson in Basingstoke. They had a special letterbox to put the car keys in and everything.
The next day (yesterday) we waited til about lunchtime before ringing the place to find out what was going on. To my utter amazement, they denied all knowledge of the car. After some scurrying around, they managed to spot her and said they would take a look later that afternoon. I rang them this morning, they are very busy and try to deal with breakdowns within 48 hours and would take a look later this afternoon. It’s now gone 6pm and they haven’t rung.
I’m not at all happy. That’s three Fiat dealerships that have given us poor service. I adore my car, but it seems, like with so many other things, once they’ve sold it to you, they no longer wish to participate in a relationship.
I’m finding it quite interesting adjusting to being car-less again. I’ve only had the car a few weeks, but the inconvenience of *not* having a car is greater than I’d expected. Normally, you get a courtesy car, but because I’m a new driver, I don’t qualify.