Thanks for that raw mustard, a very sweet & simple technique I suppose with the computer power in them today. I've haven't bothered keeping up with this stuff, as the cars just don't interest me. I wonder if that is a simple age thing, or do we get locked into a vintage, never to progress our interest.

Some gratuitous advice o sung wu.

You now have to be very careful that this new car thing doesn't become a habit. It is known to be very habit forming in some people, & a dammed expensive habit it is too.

About 7 years ago our Cressida was 20 years old, with just 377,000 kilometers on it, was going fine. I was having some difficulty loading my mothers wheel chair into it, & my lady had never had a new car. She was very taken with the little Mazda 2, & it was easy to get that wheelchair into, so I bought one for her.

I thought it would be nice for her to have one new car in her life. However, would you believe, with it only 7 years old with just 185,000 kilometers on it, so nearly new, she started wanting another new one. I really don't know what the world is coming to.

So you be careful, or buying these new cars will become a habit, have you in the poor house even yet.

Oh, that new Audi of my cousins. Trying to find the dipstick, I pulled the huge chunk of plastic clipped over the top of the engine. You should have seen the look of horror on my cousins face as I did. He had no idea it was just a bit of pretty sound deadening, & not a major component. He is the sort of customer the car companies want. To him cars are a total mystery, making him very easily conned at service time.

O Sung Wu, I know how you feel.

I have a new job that required me to salary sacrifice a new car.
It was the first actual new car I ever had...only 200 Km's on the Odo.

I was so scared to drive it, with keyless start, taller car, and camera for reversing, it took me 2 days to read the manuals!

That was 3 months ago, and now I LOVE the car, and I can reverse like a truckie !

Not the most felicitous of similes, Suseonline. Not in Sydney, at least...

>>That was 3 months ago, and now I LOVE the car, and I can reverse like a truckie!<<

Here, that "beep beep" noise is shorthand for "I can't see you, so get that heap of crap out of my way".

'afternoon to you HASBEEN, RAWMUSTARD, SUSEONLINE & PERICLES...

Thank you all for your marvellous support and advice, we both appreciate it. Thank you too RAWMUSTARD for taking the time to carefully explain the process of how the car instantaneously re-starts and stops whilst amid heavy traffic. These German automotive engineers are pretty slick people, to be able to develop such a technological strategy in order to reduce fuel consumption, if only minimally, when negotiating heavy traffic areas, amazing ! Thank you also for your good wishes too RAWMUSTARD, it's indeed appreciated, as we both 'motor on' in our new 'jalopy' !

Like HASBEEN, I was brought up on manual cars, with vacuum wipers and electric fuel pumps. The latter tended to vaporise in the hot Aussie weather. Easily rectified by a firm tap with a spanner until once more one could again hear the obligatory 'ticking' of the fuel pump, again functioning perfectly ! At least I could work on the thing with some small degree of adroitness, today I can barely add fuel, it's so jolly complicated, but oh so quiet when driving around, you can hardly hear the engine there's so much sound proofing in the engine bay ?

I'm very glad to hear that you've overcome the initial vagaries and technology of you new car SUSEONLINE, and I suppose I'll overcome my initial concerns in time ? Though it's highly unlikely I'll ever reach the stage of reversing ours like a 'truckie' no matter how I might try ? It's hard to believe I actually qualified on the seven week pursuit course all those years ago (early 1971, at St Ives), yet I now drive like an old grandmother (my profound apologies to ALL Grandmother's!) these days ?

Off topic I know, but it has to be said:- ROGERSON has now been charged with murder. OK, I accept that. Yet there was a time, when this bloke was probably the best, the most shrewd, most courageous, and most KIND detective I've ever known in my career. Notwithstanding recent events, it has to be said !

Keep the old car for as long as possible is my motto. In remote area there is no NRMA etc.
The recovery fees for getting a hi-tech 4x4 a few hundred km back to a mechanic with a laptop or rather the other way round, is not worth the kitch of a late model. An old Toyota that you can push start or syphon fuel from a 20 litre drum without some touch screen saying all hope is lost.
The new outboard motors are causing havoc in remote area too because a tiny drop of water in the fuel & you need to ship the lot hundres of kilometres to a laptop with an outboard mechanic. Technology is great but not that great if it can't be fixed on the spot.

Hi there INDIVIDUAL...

I agree with you totally INDIVIDUAL. I feel much more at home in a M/V that I can (personally) diagnose every noise, crunch, grind or squeak, under the bonnet, rather than relying on a powerful computer in order to rectify whatever ails the vehicle. Though many of the younger generation wouldn't agree, purely because they like the advanced technology guiding them (or should I say 'protecting them') in every way. Many consider that feature is all part of the original purchase package I suspect ?

To be quite honest the new vehicle is more for my wife's benefit then mine. She's quite technologically advanced, in fact far beyond myself to be truthful. She can sit in this new car and within a couple of minutes fathom exactly what's what. Whereas, I'm not even bold enough to start it yet, until she's with me ? Did I hear you infer that I must be awfully stupid, you'd be quite correct I'll readily admit it INDIVIDUAL ? When I get used to it I'll be OK, until then, it's a case of hasten slowly ?

Thank you ol' mate for your contribution.