Tell Me Something............Anything!

[Pigmy Pony]

Just spent over an hour cleaning the interior of the car. It hadn't been cleaned for months. The exterior of the car is washed and cleaned every fortnight or so, but not the interior.

It was filthy: grit, sand, gravel, cherry stones (!), leaves, dust and £4.53 in loose change! Amazing that so much gets under the car mats.

Once a month seems to be the recommendation - we do ours about every other month, and going by this report I just read, that's not going to be enough, especially when we have granddaughter eating crisps and other crap in the car.

https://www.aston.ac.uk/latest-news/...average-toilet

[Barry]

Of course I put the shopping bags in the floor well of the car - who doesn't?, but the point is the food, raw or otherwise, is in the bag. And raw food is cooked anyway thereby killing all harmful bacteria.

The article is just scaremongering: you need a 'peck of dirt' to start up your immune system.

[Tim]

It's amazing how any of us survive will as these reports about how dirty we are!

Macca thinks I'm a clean freak because I took a picture after hoovering up once and he called me out.

Yes, I remember that Martin and still chuckle about it every now and then. If you saw my flat right now I definitely wouldn't qualify for the Captain Tidy title

[Pigmy Pony]

Of course I put the shopping bags in the floor well of the car - who doesn't?, but the point is the food, raw or otherwise, is in the bag. And raw food is cooked anyway thereby killing all harmful bacteria.

The article is just scaremongering: you need a 'peck of dirt' to start up your immune system.

Yes I agree with that - as a kid living near and playing in the country and farmland, dirt was a constant companion. Never did me any harm. My eldest daughter goes mad round her home with antibacterial wipes, and I don't think she's doing her kids any favours.

Anita wouldn't agree with me, but my feeling about keeping the car's interior clean has nothing to do with keeping it germ-free for the granddaughter, it's more because having it infested with crisp crumbs and melted chocolate I can only stand for so long.

[Barry]

I needed to have tyre changed on my car. Kwik-Fit didn't have the tyres in stock but quoted a price of £!56 to do the job. The tyre would be delivered in three days, so I made an appropriate appointment.

When I drove in to have the tyre changed, I asked how many tyres had been delivered - they said two, so I asked if I could have both the rear tyres replaced. Yes I could and they gave me a re-quote of £388. Without thinking, I told them to proceed. It was only afterwards that it dawned on me that the quote for changing two tyres, re-balancing the wheels and checking the tyre pressures, etc. was more than double the quote to do the same work for one tyre.

Double the work, double the price - but why more than double?

[Alex_UK]

Did they do the tracking if they changed both? Otherwise, I’m not sure, either!

[Barry]

Yes, if you mean balancing they said they would do that anyway if they only changed one tire.

But they did give me two sets of measurements made on all four wheels which are degrees of camber and degrees in tracking error. Perhaps that is what you mean by tracking. There were two sets of measurements, which might relate to before and after the tire change. Unfortunately they have identical day, date and time recorded.

One set of measurements is better than the other, but which is which?

[Alex_UK]

Tracking is also called “wheel alignment” and I reckon that’s what they’ve done - it’s around £75 for a 4 wheel alignment/adjustment.

https://www.kwik-fit.com/wheel-align...BoCgqUQAvD_BwE

[Barry]

Thanks Alex,
Yes, £75 does indeed account for the extra amount of the quote.

[Tim]

Maybe check out Black Circles next time Barry, normally good value and even if you don't use them, you can use them as a bargaining chip, as most tyre places are open to haggling when you mention Black Circles prices.