[H.K_R]

Well, my third scheme car in 10 months has arrived.

This time a ŠKODA Kamiq Monte Carlo Edition in Moon White. After the disasters with the i20 and Clio (The latter now up for sale at Letchworth Renault if anyone fancies having a massive accident when the subframe slips out again!) I was hoping this time for everything to be perfect. How wrong I was…

I chose to have a Jeff Gosling Easy Release handbrake fitted to the manual handbrake as this was one of the compromises of having the Kamiq as I’d been piloting a Leon and Golf with electric jobs and auto-hold around since October and I’d previously had difficulty in releasing the one in the i20. However, the installer has fitted what’s referred to as a “Standard” version and my car requires an “Inline” model because if you go for 2nd, 4th or even 6th gear, the gear knob gets in the way of the easy release mechanism. Rather dangerous if you’re driving round town or pulling away with a bit of joie de vivre.

I was told by the salesman at ŠKODA that it was a case of unscrewing it myself and turning the extra handle around to be inline with the handbrake compared to the “Thruster” style it’s currently in, but according to the photos on the Jeff Gosling website the two styles are totally different and it’s not mentioned about being swappable as I was told by my dealer.
On the Motability listing it doesn’t refer to the two styles, only for a conventional handbrake or an unconventional handbrake for certain models.

What do I do? Who do I contact? Who’s responsible for the fitting? I’m planning on ringing the adaption fitters tomorrow.

My adapter is over 140 miles away as a round trip to North Bristol so it’s not going to be easy to get it sorted I imagine. I’d rather not have to pay £125 for the correct style to be fitted too. Any advice would be appreciated!

On top of this I’ve already got a monumental rattle coming from the dashboard, squeaky springs, and a deep groaning noise coming from somewhere when I’m moving away in 1st on a hill. I’m praying it’s not early onset clutch failure which is a problem on 1.0 VAG cars.
How Lovely.

(Thanks for reading my mini column and not falling asleep in the process!)

Topic

[swwchris]

on the spectrum wrote:

The only problem with personal lease is to get lower monthly payments and affordable maintenance, you have to put down a large amount depending on car of course and still have to pay your own insurance on top. Also depending on lease company they may not be so obliging on minor damage on paintwork due to wheelchair scratching.

Yes I found the same, by the time I made the upfront payment around a similar figure to MB, upped the mileage from 5000 (which the cheap quotes use to make it look more attractive) to 10,000, added breakdown cover, added servicing, added tyres and then insurance it was a huge amount more than the Higher Rate Mobility figure. Only option might be to lease a used car but even then the figures are very similar rather than cheaper than Motability.

[Author]

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