|
|
|
|
| Reincarnation | |
| I looked long
and hard for my second Sierra XR4i. I had a clear idea of what I wanted:
It must not be white or black in colour, must have a factory sunroof,
low mileage <100,000, good interior, would be nice to have PAS, and
central locking.
I looked through loads of ad's over some time but couldn't even find one in the local area. Eventually I noticed a white one at a local garage. I had a look one night on the way back from the pub. Looked good in the dark, seemed to be pretty straight also had factory sunroof, electric windows. It was worth looking at again. Another week of looking through ad's followed, still nothing, then I remembered the white XR. Drove down there on Saturday to have a closer look. It still looked okay in the light, just a few blemishes which included: |
|
| Exterior | |
| The front n/s wing has been lacquered at some point, the lacquer had discoloured and was coming off in places to reveal the shinny whit paint underneath. The roof needed was in need of a good polish. The tailgate had a couple of rust bubbles swelling underneath the paint work, not serious though. I checked in all the places that its predecessor had rusted (after all I had the benefit of seeing where the rust forms under the body kit) all seemed pretty sound. | |
| Inside | |
| All pretty clean. Has all the extras I wanted even has a 6 button trip computer. One small cigarette burn hole in the driver's seat. Mileage read 78,000. Everything inside worked. Naturally the dashboard was cracked. | |
| Under The Bonnet | |
| Again looks clean enough, no major oil leaks, bangs rattles or squeaks. Has a huge washer reservoir | |
| Test Drive | |
| Drives well.
Theirs no untoward noises from outside. As usual theirs lost mysterious
rattles inside the car. Accelerates and brakes well. No smoke from the
engine.
The chap selling the car agreed to put two new tyres on the back and MOT it for a year. I leave a deposit and agree to pick it up in about a week. I get the insurance sorted out. Admiral offer a good policy fully comprehensive for £340 not bad methinks. Friday arrives, time to get the car. Mum drops me off. I hand over a big bundle of used bank notes, he gives me the keys and documents. I am now the proud forth owner of this lovely white XR4i. Cool. |
|
| Teething Problems | |
| Just
a couple really, firstly the ESP headlights. That’s to say they
just know what your want them to do, and do the complete opposite, but
only when it's most inconvenient. For instance just leaving the pub, try
and turn the headlights on, they won't come on. Main beam works but no
headlights. After ages of fiddling, swapping fuses, and swearing they
come on. Only problem is once they're on you can't turn them off!
After a lot of testing I eliminated all extreme possibilities including Government conspiracies and close encounter scenarios. It all came down to one small part, the left-hand indicator/main beam stalk. Swapped one with my old XR and it work's fine now. Apart from that the only other thing I had to do was replace 5 out of 6 bulbs in the instrument cluster. |
|
|
Sound |
|
|---|---|
|
My last XR had a old pioneer tape deck, which sounded crap. So decent sound was essential this time. I opted for a Panasonic head unit (CQ-FX95), 8 disk changer (CX-DP803) along with a set of 4" JBL component speakers, and for the rear my trusty old set of pioneer 4 way 6x9. I am thinking of putting a amp and sub in the back (that's a sub woofer not a submissive female, however now I think about it...). Naturally there is a pretty good alarm to keep this lot safe, but that info is for agents with a security level of 5 and above |
|
 |
