Robs got a new ride :)

Because it means you don't smell of Eau d'Derv as much?

Three and a half tanks, say, 1,500 miles?

That'll be the weight and output though.

Aye, that's about it. Maybe a bit more. Average seems to be around 550 miles / tank. So that's 2mm wear in less than 2k miles.

They are quite soft tyres for an OEM fitment, though.

Aye, true.

I'll have to get 'em changed next week.

I'm also currently working out what happened at the so-called 'service' Leaseplan did on it (Apparently Leaseplan don't give a toss about warranties and service the cars at their own garages......) as the 'intelligent' indicator reckons it's only got another 5.5k miles 'till it's due again.

So much for 20k intervals. I reckon someone forgot to reset the indicator as it was serviced ahead of schedule.

Oh my heart doth bleed for you. My spare-wheel-sized gas tank only has a range of about 250 miles. Bloody annoying when you do 120 a day.

I'd swap jobs if I could drive more... :)

Nah, you wouldn't want this one at the moment. Still I suppose I get the satisfying tschhh noise after I fill up every other day.

You wouldn't.....

I'm getting a very painful knee from all the clutch use :-(

Easy. See a doctor, mention that a DSG model would dramatically improve things, and take it up with your employers. Doesn't matter that the car's nearly new - health + safety of their employees would come above a bit of a financial loss on a newish car, I'd wager....

Or they may show me the door, with it being my probationary period and all that.

Then you can get an Alfa Romeo GT JTD...

Hmm. That's a health and safety issue, as Astravanman has suggested. But surely with your mileage you'd be in the top couple of ratios the most? I guess not.

Well, ice packs ahoy (for your knee) or try adjusting your seat to a strange position every once in a while. This may solve your knee problem or may cause your back / ass / somewhere else to hurt, thus relieving you of your knee issues. ;)

Erm, no, not in the slightest.

Look how wiggly the roads are around here.

Don't see how it could be a H&S issue - it could be taken as me being 'physically incapable of fulfilling the contract'.

Heh.

How slow can it go in fifth? :)

Well, can you drive? If you can but you're struggling with the Passat, then the car in question may not be suitable...

However, I'm with you on this: try to live with it and make sure the next one is an automatic.

Not slow enough. I spend most of the day swapping cogs keeping the thing going.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good engine, but it's not as flexible as you'd ideally like it to be. But show me a Euro IV compliant motor that is. For flexibility, not a lot beats the old Alfa 8v TSparks.

Hmmmm, it could go either way, to be honest. Especially as I'm the only person to have issues with it. Mind you, I probably change gear more often than anyone else, too.

Indeed. If they hadn't have had a 6 month old one on the fleet, I'd have been pushing Leaseplan to get me a Jetta 2.0TDI DSG, 'cos they're roughly the same lease price as the 2.0TDI Passat without DSG.

Glucosamine and lots of it.

Fraser

->>

->> I'd swap jobs if I could drive more... :)

->

->You wouldn't.....

->

->I'm getting a very painful knee from all the clutch use :-(

Do clutchless changes, wont help with the RSI in the wrist tho ;-)

Errr, if you insist.

After that, you show me the results from a clinical trial[1] which shows Glucosamine actiually does "any" good whatsoever :)

[1] There have been a few trials mainly from the European patent holder, none have shown Glucosamine has any healing properties at all.

I'm not going to go searching for clinical trials. But I know a whole jiu jitsu club that swears by it. And I have personally had good results.

Fraser