10th Aug 2015, 15:32

Previous luckless owner ranting again!

Thanks for the kind comments. It's only entertaining in retrospect. To quote Madness's "Baggy Trousers": "Oh what fun we had, but at the time it seemed so bad..."

I forgot to inform you of the time I contemplated a replacement purchase and went to see a W123 estate in the 500. In truth, I ought to have known better than even consider another vehicle with Frau Christine SEL providing the ride and in jealous attendance.

She gave me plenty of warning re impending apocalypse, but I was too busy near literally throwing pounds sterling out of the sunroof to pay appropriate attention. At a roundabout, the very stars seemed to dim as the still torquey engine beat the gearbox into a punchy submission, spitting hot metal onto the tarmac as she inched forwards and accelerated like an aged snail. We were nearly speared by boringly competent and compliant vehicles who tooted their tinny horns at the leering 17ft colossus. She didn't care, of course.

As we somehow made it to the vendor's address, all drive was lost and she collapsed like the dying swan so beloved of Tchaikovsky. The vendor appeared and helped push her to a lay-by. Sadly, his bonhomie was fatally compromised upon my pointing out his estate car was leperous with rust on almost every panel. I waited an hour for the AA (no, the Automobile Agency) to arrive and load Christine to the garage that repaired her gearbox sensors. The mechanic commented "These rarely go wrong".