Rear door damaged.

Britprius · February 15, 2020

Just now, Britprius said:

Lee, and Robert.
I have not been given details of what the holdup is, but at leased I have a reasonable level of loan car "although I do not like the car".
The thing that amazes me is that taking everything into consideration the cost must have risen above the value of my car, and rising further daily. The claims company are still giving excellent service "it's not there fault that the body shop has problems".
From what I gather the third parties insurance is paying all the costs, and must now be in a position of having paid out so much they are in so deep they just have to keep paying.

John.

Britprius · February 26, 2020

Good news "I hope" I have just had a call from the body shop where my car is being repaired. The car should!!! be back with me on Friday morning 7 weeks after going in for repair. A nice early birthday present. Keeping my fingers crossed.

John.

OldTrout · February 26, 2020

John,

Wonderful news at last but with the floods will they be able to get to you?

John

Britprius · February 26, 2020

1 hour ago, OldTrout said:

John,

Wonderful news at last but with the floods will they be able to get to you?

John

Yes as they are not far away, It is quite possible the loan car company will not as they are in Worcester. If they are on the wrong side of the river Seven at the moment there is no chance of collecting the Mercedes, but that is not my problem.
I will however have to get the car MOT'd as it expires on my birthday the 1st of March. Surprisingly the DVLA have renewed the road tax due on the same day according to an email conformation.

John.

KayCee · February 27, 2020

I wonder why they have been "back marking " with the repair 7 week for a body repair and change door mmmmm

but glad you getting the old girl back john pleased for you

Robert

Britprius · February 27, 2020

14 hours ago, KayCee said:

I wonder why they have been "back marking " with the repair 7 week for a body repair and change door mmmmm

but glad you getting the old girl back john pleased for you

Robert

The annoying thing is that if I had known it was going to take so long I could have SORNd the car and saved 2 months road tax. 😢

John.

Britprius · February 28, 2020

At long last my Lexus is back home.😂 The body shop called this morning to say they were short staffed, and could they come and collect me to drive the car home. I actually thought this was better than it being delivered because it gave me the chance to check everything out on the drive back. The car looked in show room condition when I collected it being valeted, and fully machined polished.
The drive home was pure pleasure driving in near silence, with instant throttle response, and smooth ride. The repair work is excellent with near perfect color match, and texture. I will post pictures when "or if" it stops raining.

I have managed to arrange an MOT on Monday at my usual MOT garage so I will be only one day late with the MOT. The DVLA have taxed the car for one year even though it only had 24 hours of valid MOT.

John.

LexIS200Sport · February 28, 2020

Happy days!!

KayCee · February 28, 2020

Glad you got her back john pleased for you

I bet it was like loosing yr right arm

Enjoy Mate

Robert

Britprius · February 29, 2020

Pictures of the repaired area. The door shut line is exactly as it should be, and even though I know where to look cannot find any trace of repair.

John.

rayaans · February 29, 2020

That repair looks very good indeed. Glad that its sorted out in your favour

As for Merc, my son acquired a 15 plate C Class Coupe last year. I've grown quite fond of it actually. One thing to remember is that Merc and diesel don't go together, unless its a 6 cylinder, and they need to have all the options on. The base models, much like Lexus are utter crap.

Britprius · February 29, 2020

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

That repair looks very good indeed. Glad that its sorted out in your favour

As for Merc, my son acquired a 15 plate C Class Coupe last year. I've grown quite fond of it actually. One thing to remember is that Merc and diesel don't go together, unless its a 6 cylinder, and they need to have all the options on. The base models, much like Lexus are utter crap.

Thanks Rayaan.

The Merc I had was indeed a diesel "C" class, but with all the bells, and whistles. I had to come back from Birmingham to North Hereford on Thursday night, and found where previously they had worked the headlamps would not go to high beam. They are LED lights.
The only way to get them to come on was to hold the operating stalk in the headlamp flash position. If held for more than about 1 minute they went out. After about 30 miles I was driving through a village on dip beam when the lights went to main beam on there own dazzling oncoming traffic until I could cancel them having taken me by surprise.
They then worked normally for the next 20 miles. That is turning off below 20 mph, and turning back on at about 20 mph with the theatrical curtain opening type turn on. The strange thing is if you flash the headlamps they go strait to full strength main beam without the delay, and curtain effect.
The dipped headlamps were possibly the best I have ever used while the main beam were possibly the worst.
The engine did not seem matched to the 8 speed gearbox. Unless you used the paddles to hold the car in a low gear with the engine revving with lots of drone when following slow traffic like tractors the ability to overtake quickly when there was a short opportunity was not there. The car would be in 5th or 6th gear with the engine running at about 1000 rpm. Flooring the accelerator did nothing until the turbo spooled up and the gearbox changed down.
Perhaps I am spoiled by the GS450H instant power. On the move the transmission was always changing gear on the rural roads where I live with the forever changing drone from the engine. Perhaps on a motorway it is fine, but that is not where I do 95% of my driving.

The other major thing for me was inability of the suspension to deal with uneven road surfaces where the car would hop sideways on hitting a bump even in a straight line. Ok I was using sport mode to try to get rid of the turbo lag, but I was not in sport plus nor did I try it. Normal mode was not noticeably any better.

The electric parking brake works well, but the operating switch is out of the way, and difficult to find even when you know where it is. It is true I never found a use for it as it generally comes on, and off when needed automatically.

The good points about the car apart from the dipped beam headlamps was the cruise control with physical breaking to hold the set speed. You could if you wished drive the car "quite safely" once on the move just using the cruise control from the steering wheel. This having plus or minus 1 or 5 mph speed increments on the same button.
The birds eye view parking facility on the central display was very good. Perhaps erring on the over safe clearance warnings, but very effective. A pity the screen seems to be stuck on the centre of the dash like an afterthought or aftermarket addition, but this does not detract from it's functionality.
The TPMS worked well displaying the actual tyre pressures, and on which wheel rather than just a low pressure warning.

John.

rayaans · February 29, 2020

1 hour ago, Britprius said:

Thanks Rayaan.

The Merc I had was indeed a diesel "C" class, but with all the bells, and whistles. I had to come back from Birmingham to North Hereford on Thursday night, and found where previously they had worked the headlamps would not go to high beam. They are LED lights.
The only way to get them to come on was to hold the operating stalk in the headlamp flash position. If held for more than about 1 minute they went out. After about 30 miles I was driving through a village on dip beam when the lights went to main beam on there own dazzling oncoming traffic until I could cancel them having taken me by surprise.
They then worked normally for the next 20 miles. That is turning off below 20 mph, and turning back on at about 20 mph with the theatrical curtain opening type turn on. The strange thing is if you flash the headlamps they go strait to full strength main beam without the delay, and curtain effect.
The dipped headlamps were possibly the best I have ever used while the main beam were possibly the worst.
The engine did not seem matched to the 8 speed gearbox. Unless you used the paddles to hold the car in a low gear with the engine revving with lots of drone when following slow traffic like tractors the ability to overtake quickly when there was a short opportunity was not there. The car would be in 5th or 6th gear with the engine running at about 1000 rpm. Flooring the accelerator did nothing until the turbo spooled up and the gearbox changed down.
Perhaps I am spoiled by the GS450H instant power. On the move the transmission was always changing gear on the rural roads where I live with the forever changing drone from the engine. Perhaps on a motorway it is fine, but that is not where I do 95% of my driving.

The other major thing for me was inability of the suspension to deal with uneven road surfaces where the car would hop sideways on hitting a bump even in a straight line. Ok I was using sport mode to try to get rid of the turbo lag, but I was not in sport plus nor did I try it. Normal mode was not noticeably any better.

The electric parking brake works well, but the operating switch is out of the way, and difficult to find even when you know where it is. It is true I never found a use for it as it generally comes on, and off when needed automatically.

The good points about the car apart from the dipped beam headlamps was the cruise control with physical breaking to hold the set speed. You could if you wished drive the car "quite safely" once on the move just using the cruise control from the steering wheel. This having plus or minus 1 or 5 mph speed increments on the same button.
The birds eye view parking facility on the central display was very good. Perhaps erring on the over safe clearance warnings, but very effective. A pity the screen seems to be stuck on the centre of the dash like an afterthought or aftermarket addition, but this does not detract from it's functionality.
The TPMS worked well displaying the actual tyre pressures, and on which wheel rather than just a low pressure warning.

John.

The high beams are automatic units which can be turned off in the menus. The parking brake is electronic and turns off automatically when driving, you shouldn't have to press anything

I think a lot of that is to do with the engine. Ive recently driven the C300, petrol turbo. Didn't seem to suffer from much turbo lag

I think some of the issue is with driving a hybrid for a while, the ability to drive a normal automatic is impaired. For example in my son's C class I can change gears by modulating throttle pressure. Worth remembering these gearboxes are "smart" too so if you drive it like you stole it, it'll hold lower gears than previously

Britprius · February 29, 2020

51 minutes ago, rayaans said:

The high beams are automatic units which can be turned off in the menus. The parking brake is electronic and turns off automatically when driving, you shouldn't have to press anything

I think a lot of that is to do with the engine. Ive recently driven the C300, petrol turbo. Didn't seem to suffer from much turbo lag

I think some of the issue is with driving a hybrid for a while, the ability to drive a normal automatic is impaired. For example in my son's C class I can change gears by modulating throttle pressure. Worth remembering these gearboxes are "smart" too so if you drive it like you stole it, it'll hold lower gears than previously

I did realise the high beams could possibly be altered in the menus, but the main problem I struck was definitely a fault as I did not alter anything while driving. I do not think the stupid main beam curtain effect can be turned off.
I did not attempt getting into the menus using the built in handbook, because that is about as useful as a chocolate teapot having to come out of the menu to go into the handbook then going back to the menu to find you have to start again. After a long day I just wanted to get home.

I agree, and said as much that the parking brake is more or less automatic. I did have a situation where it did not auto release on putting the car into drive. I think it was because the car was parked on a steep upward slope but if your going to have a switch to operate it put it where it can be seen, and got at. As it is it is ware the bonnet release is in most vehicles, and you need to lean well forward reaching down to operate it. It is also flushed into the lower dash panel making it difficult to feel as once you lean forward to reach it you cannot see it.
Why not put it on the transmission stalk "a logical place" so pulling the stalk towards you puts on the brake pushing it away takes it off. These positions are not used on the stalk just up for reverse, and down for drive with a push button on the end for park.

It is quite possible the C300 D would have less lag the version I was driving was a C220 D, but you should not need to "for want of a better description thrash a car" for it to be driveable. In town at busy junctions or islands that you cannot see over when a gap appears you have to go, and that quite simply is not possible. When it did go it was usually with one of the back wheels spinning in the wet. The engine stop start also does not help the situation.

John.

Lwerewolf · March 2, 2020

On 2/29/2020 at 4:43 PM, Britprius said:

The good points about the car apart from the dipped beam headlamps was the cruise control with physical breaking to hold the set speed.

My GS definitely does use physical brakes to adjust speed and maintain distance when in cruise mode. It even saved me from rear-ending somebody on the highway... Night time, cruise set at 120kph, limit is 140kph, right lane (LHD, right hand traffic), the car suddenly starts beeping and stops VERY violently... then I saw what looked like a lorry in front of me, moving at 60kph, never ever washed given that the rear was matte grey (including license plate and reflectors, if they were even present), and either overloaded or in need of suspension/alignment work.

Re: the turbo lag - I always thought the GS was pretty tame at rural speeds unless you hit the kickdown... in my case it gradually builds up power if you almost floor it (i.e. full travel, no kickdown), regardless of selected drive modes. I kick it down briefly when I want it to pick up pace without being too obnoxious, just to help with the power transition 🙂

Regardless, glad to hear that you got your car back, in excellent condition no less 😉

Britprius · March 2, 2020

7 hours ago, Lwerewolf said:

My GS definitely does use physical brakes to adjust speed and maintain distance when in cruise mode. It even saved me from rear-ending somebody on the highway... Night time, cruise set at 120kph, limit is 140kph, right lane (LHD, right hand traffic), the car suddenly starts beeping and stops VERY violently... then I saw what looked like a lorry in front of me, moving at 60kph, never ever washed given that the rear was matte grey (including license plate and reflectors, if they were even present), and either overloaded or in need of suspension/alignment work.

Re: the turbo lag - I always thought the GS was pretty tame at rural speeds unless you hit the kickdown... in my case it gradually builds up power if you almost floor it (i.e. full travel, no kickdown), regardless of selected drive modes. I kick it down briefly when I want it to pick up pace without being too obnoxious, just to help with the power transition 🙂

Regardless, glad to hear that you got your car back, in excellent condition no less 😉

Alexander my car is a 2007, and the 2006/7 cars in the UK came in two forms. Cars with ACC (active cruise control), and sun roof. "The ACC applied the brakes when required" The other version "mine" had normal cruise control, and no sun roof. From 2008 the options varied to remove or include other features.
There is no real "kick down" the system works on the speed of movement of the accelerator to adjust the rate of acceleration. My car in sport mode or hybrid power mode gives instant acceleration at any speed from standstill upwards without going to full throttle. This does however depend on Battery charge level to some degree.

John.