I thought I'd introduce myself on here first. After months and months of deliberation and due to a new arrival in the family, I took it upon myself to get rid of my Mercedes C220 Estate after 6 years of service and plump for a family wagon. The missus' countryman has all the day to day practicalities apart from an outrageously small sized boot for our outdoor lifestyle and the Merc was too cramped in the rear (who would have thought a Mini would have more cabin space and better packaging than a Bremen Bahnstormer!).
We originally test drove a G01 X3 and loved it and I was looking at an IX3 on my work's salary sacrifice scheme, but for our intended use case, settled for an E70 40d on the basis that the monthly cost to run over 5 years was significantly cheaper than the other options... plus I love to tinker.
I named the car Gruber - because like Hans, he's a sophisticated misunderstood public villain! Car had 90k miles on it with a single owner and full BMW Service History with 7 stamps. It was given a once over before the trader sold it, so it's had the rear suspension air bags replaced. I'll get my local guys to pull off the undertrays and inspect the UJ on the front prop shaft. It handles sweet as a nut and I'm not lusting for more torque or power. I'm content that I'm only getting 25mpg on it, since the car's usually heavily loaded, heading up and down hills and country roads with bikes attached to the tow bar.
I don't like leaving my cars stock for long though.
Unfortunately, within 1 day of owning Gruber, I let an overly tired missus drive the car and she promptly kerb stomped stomped it on the exit of a roundabout (Note, never give a post-partal lady the keys of your recently acquired car when she's only had 3 hours sleep, despite her insistence she'd be fine - My other daughter jinxed it by saying "mummy's going to bin your car!").
This was the result
I normally make a habit of marking my vehicles first so that there's no longer any remorse for when it gets worn and torn, but I was somewhat annoyed I was deprived of this opportunity.
Note, I wasn't happy with the first attempt below, so I subsequently filled and sanded back, but pics to illustrate
End result after second attempt
Less noticeable, unless you're looking at it. I eventually did a same job on the missus' countryman's wheel
.With the niggling cosmetics dealt with, I went to deal with the inside. The car came spec'd with the Individual Audio System, which meant that I didn't need to deal with wiring my underseat subwoofer. However, one thing that I felt was missing was a reversing camera and Android Auto. A DroidUK parcel later and I'm absolutely content.
Once the dip switches were set and all components ground
Hardwiring the dashcam into the green/white lighting loom under the lighting panel
So, yeah, it's been a fun 3 weeks of tinkering around and one of the main reasons why I love a good value used car.
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.