Continued from page 1
Back at
showroom, with smiles long since forgotten, campers were unhappy to say
least. I forget which car we drove home and was preparing for
worst, which did actually happen. The fault could not be diagnosed and we reluctantly accepted another replacement car, slightly bigger, to take us on our adventure. We were all extremely disappointed not to be able to show off our new machine to relatives and friends but as it turned out,
larger car was a great benefit on
return journey with all
extra accumulations that a 2000 mile trip does to a small family car.
Two weeks later, safely home from an exhausting round of Family, Friends and Motorway overdose, we looked forward to retrieving our real car; as I am sure, it too, was looking forward to its new owner (or was it?) It transpired that two or three Auto Electrical Engineers had failed to locate
problem and with
hours ticking away fast to
arrival of
owner, some emergency action was required if a lynching (or worse) was to be avoided. Said Service Manager took
Bull by
Horns and proceeded very quickly, but quite by chance, to discover
malfunction. A simple short circuit on
steering column when
steering wheel was at
fully locked position.
Problem solved---- Happy Campers again …not for long sadly! Never having had such a debilitating situation, (at least in
motoring sense!) with any new car before, over
previous twenty seven years, I felt confident that
worst was over .It was only just beginning and it would be come a lot worse over
next twelve months and beyond. Clearly my plans for
future which included guaranteed, trouble free motoring, had taken a severe knockdown or as Jim Edwards would say a “Friday night smackdown”. Jim, as some of you will know is a master Internet Marketing Guru and Author although he doesn’t like
term. I will put his URL in
resource box at
end, for those of you who are interested in a real life success story. I have Jim to thank for helping me to get down and dirty with my word processor and who knows maybe one day I will be able to afford to walk into a Car showroom again and buy
damn place and then maybe, just maybe, I will get some service.
It’s just too exhausting, reliving those heady days, for more than an hour at a time, so
rest of
story and it’s a long one, will follow in
next chapter. In
mean time drive safely and remember learning is a lifetime occupation.

Robin Piggott has spent many years behind the wheel and is sharing these experiences with pupils and readers alike .He is indebted to Jim Edwards who is a remarkable Internet pioneerand well worth looking up. http://www.astralmotoring.ie http://astralmotoring.blogspot.com Jim Edwards:- http://thenetreporter.com