They make it easy!

I KNOW I’m a grumpy old sod but the world around me don’t half make it easy.

I have written about my car before and people spoke to me and said it was something that ticked them off too. But this one has given me the serious hump.

I got in my car after being away for two weeks and two warning lights came on, one saying ‘code 82’ and the other was a filter light. So having three years warranty and three years free servicing, I wasn’t too worried. I looked up ‘code 82’ in the hand book and it just said ‘change oil soon’. I thought that was strange as I’ve only done 18,000 miles in two and a half years.

I take it to my local garage where I purchased the car but who now don’t sell them as Chevrolet has pulled out of Europe. The mechanic then proceeds to tell me I’ve been driving the car wrong and it’s all my fault and it’s not covered by god knows how many warranties I have on the car.

What? How can I be driving it wrong? It’s a fully automatic turbo diesel and, for your information young man, I’ve been driving for 50 years and never had an accident! What came next left me flabbergasted like never before. He says I can’t turn the engine off; I mustn’t drive it out of the garage because if I do and I quote ‘you will break the engine. We have to change the engine oil immediately!’

Wait - it gets better. He asks me if when I stop, the engine fan carries on after I turn the engine off? “Yes, it does sometimes”. “Oh. Well if it does, start it up again and take it for a run getting it up over 3000 rpm”. “Are you loco?” “I’ve just got home why would I want to go out again?” “You have to take the car to Malaga once a week reaching 4000rpm. Don’t use the automatic gearbox.” “Whoa, whoa hombre, what are you talking about?

Why on earth would I want to do that?” “Because these cars, and many others, have this problem with big diesel engines.” I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That just doesn’t make any sense that the car I paid extra for to have an automatic gearbox I have to drive manually, at speeds that break the law, to a place I don’t want to go to at least once a week! “Oh and it’s going to cost you €207 too.” desperate to have heaters supplied and fitted by Christmas. Frequently these customers have to compromise on their choice, or be put at the back of a long queue. Every year we think to ourselves ­ ‘It’s a shame you didn’t order them in the summer when we had loads of them in stock and, equally as important, the time to process the orders’.”

I now have to phone GM Europe and find out exactly what’s going on because surely this can’t be right. I’ll let you know!

NEATER HEATER is the sole Spanish distributor for BEHA and ADAX NEO convector heaters. We currently have more stock than ever before at various locations, just waiting for the ‘squirrels’. Please feel free to call us on 634 312 171 for more information, or visit our web site www.neaterheater.es , or email info@neaterheater.es.