What have you done to your UnMerc today?

[Jimbo1959]

There must be a COMAND Online type place for head-units of a VAGgy nature somewhere...!

Never thought of that Guy, you're probably right, no doubt it will be horrendously expensive too, good quality stuff usually is.

 

[Jimbo1959]

I don’t, I’d be hitting google first and see what comes up This lot might be able to help

After seeing your post Russell, the proprietors of which had no repair information of the type that I was looking for unfortunately, I went hunting for the manufacturers site for the damaged head unit and found this, https://xtrons.co.uk/

Sadly there was no direct repairs info for what I need there either so, looks like I will need to wait for Monday to give them a phone and see if they can do anything for me, plus, and more to the point, find out how much dosh they'll be looking for to do the job.

If it's silly money, I may well just let it go, as there's no point hanging on to it if it's an uneconomical repair, after all Halfords have stood up and did their bit and I'll have what I wanted in the first place.

 

[00slk]

Some rust repair on the front part of the passenger sill, and then aerosol it with a can of 15 year old paint. Matches the 52 year old paint.

 

[Blobcat]

After seeing your post Russell, the proprietors of which had no repair information of the type that I was looking for unfortunately, I went hunting for the manufacturers site for the damaged head unit and found this, https://xtrons.co.uk/

Sadly there was no direct repairs info for what I need there either so, looks like I will need to wait for Monday to give them a phone and see if they can do anything for me, plus, and more to the point, find out how much dosh they'll be looking for to do the job.

If it's silly money, I may well just let it go, as there's no point hanging on to it if it's an uneconomical repair, after all Halfords have stood up and did their bit and I'll have what I wanted in the first place.

I saw someone selling one with a broken scree, so even if it’s not an economical repair you can always flog it

 

[Jimbo1959]

I saw someone selling one with a broken scree, so even if it’s not an economical repair you can always flog it

As a matter of interest do you recall how much they were asking?

 

[Blobcat]

As a matter of interest do you recall how much they were asking?

I can’t find the page but I think it was £400 (unless I dreamt it)

 

[daveenty]

Acquired a Golf last Friday (21st) to replace the Lexus as a daily/weekly runabout thing for picking bits and pieces up with. It was delivered by trailer though, as it was lashing down I didn't get much chance to check it over. This changed last weekend when it got a good dose of looking at which didn't bode too well really. The paint was atrocious, full of swirls and micro scratches, and under the bonnet was just filthy, with a layer of dirt all over the engine under-tray. It seems that the previous owner was not a car person and it was just a tool to do a job, having the odd wash with a Brillo pad or something.

I was initially contemplating rejecting the car but, as it's quite well specced and was also at a good price, decided to see what I could do with it. I started under the bonnet, removing the under tray and the fronts of both inner wheel arches and gave them a good cleaning. Most of the muck came off surprisingly easily and made a substantial difference to the overall appearance. I've since done a lot more under there and it's looking a lot better.

The paint was another matter and I'm still going through that, albeit slowly. I started with a medium compound (Sonax EX 04-06), soon swapping this out to a much more severe one (Chemical Guys V32), all applied with a DAS-6 PRO DA polisher. I was using various pads but ended up using a Lake Country Microfibre cutting pad which is about as aggressive as I dare go. It's hard work and time consuming but I'm getting there slowly with it.

I'm a bit intrigued by the fact that the car seems to have had a lot of mechanical work done to it, it's a 2019 with 16,000 miles but has new shocks front and rear, 2 new drive shafts and several other bits which are quite shiny. These all stand out against the callipers which are quite shabby and covered in rust, confirming the fact that it lived by the sea. I'll be getting hold of Volkswagen on Tuesday when their service department is back in, so see exactly what records they have for it.

As I stated earlier, I'd prefer to keep it really, especially after all the paint correction I've done on it, as it's looking quite good now but I need to know a bit more about it's history before committing.

Oh, did I mention it's electric? A Mk7.5 E-Golf. Poor (~135 mile) range but I've only charged it once since I had it which was on the day it arrived and the battery is still on 75+% charge. Free tax as well...

 

[Jimbo1959]

I can’t find the page but I think it was £400 (unless I dreamt it)

Wow!!! Think I'll keep the old unit then. That would pay for a reasonable unit for replacement of the Alpine one at trade in time, or, even just let the Alpine HU go with the car and upgrade slightly.

 

[A.J.]

Benchmark in what?
reliability?
space?
mpg?

im not really expecting any great “driving experience” - (it won’t be a patch on the CL500 just want a small reliable van.
( thought that Citroen and peugeot were meant to have very good Diesel engines?)

I think the French Diesel engines are pretty god but it is the rest of it that maybe doesn't come up to the grade. Both the Citroen and the Fiat you first mentioned have pretty poor build quality IMO. We run six Renault Masters, I know they are Renault and not Citroen of Fiat but the build quality is typically French. With the Renaults we have endless gearbox problems, problems with brakes, the bodywork flexes and the racking comes away from it's mounting points inside the van. Engines ? havn't had any problems with them. I am told that Fiat suffer similar problems but the engines are OK.

The Ford is the benchmark, Transit Connect will serve you well. If it's all about purchase price the Transit will most certainly prove to be the best bet in the long run

I've got another Renault Master van off of the road to-morrow. Same old problem, racking detached itself from the rear of the van due to the flexing of the bodies. Never had problems anything like this when we ran Sprinters

 

[Jimbo1959]

Got my new Alpine head unit fitted today. Suits me so much better than the Xtrons unit. I can play music by Bluetooth or just plug in my iPod or iPhone, and, get them charged too. Coupled to the Bosé amp the sound quality is awesome! I'm so pleased with it, I've over ten thousand tracks to choose from on my iPod.
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[Flyinspanner]

Ordered a lease van, new Berlingo SWB.
24 month straight lease, - at least it’s (a) new, = reliable, cheap monthly cost, and doesn’t tie up any of my capital.
lease can be offset against tax, so hopefully ’tax efficient’ for me.

The only stipulations I had were
1. Not White (gone for platinum, a dark silver)
2. A/C
3. Full bulkhead.
4. 3 seats upfront

now 4-6 week wait
*The last brand new car I had was in 1984! So this will be a novelty

 

[00slk]

Sold one of my UnMercs.
I wonder where Mercedes got their inspiration from for aerodynamic's?........

 

[00slk]

3rd and last trip back to Scotland in the UnMerc today........to collect the last car, I'm going to miss going to Scotland in the lorry.....in safe mode because it can't be fixed
Should put up a sign on the back
'If I'm going faster than 50, be thankful!!

 

[coxyhog]

Wifey's Nissan Note had an airbag light flashing.It's 9yo so do not want to go to Nissan so got a recommendation for a local place that specialise in that sort of thing.Spent £400 & it was cured....for about 24 hours.

 

[Uncle Benz]

Drove it round Goodwood like a lunatic. Did some 1:34’s. Not the quickest I’ve been, but jolly good fun!

 

[davidsl500]

Drove it round Goodwood like a lunatic. Did some 1:34’s. Not the quickest I’ve been, but jolly good fun!

Typical BMW driver - no indicators as usual.....

 

[bembo449]

Got my new Alpine head unit fitted today. Suits me so much better than the Xtrons unit. I can play music by Bluetooth or just plug in my iPod or iPhone, and, get them charged too. Coupled to the Bosé amp the sound quality is awesome! I'm so pleased with it, I've over ten thousand tracks to choose from on my iPod. View attachment 68699
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what are you doin with the xtrons pal ?

 

[peterws1957]

Called in for the third time to the engineers repairing the seemingly irreplaceable cast iron manifold (cracked and warped) on the old convertabubbly. (Yes sir easy job leave it with us for 2 days and it'll be done). 3 weeks later - yes sir it'll be ready on Friday. Grrr.

 

[Jimbo1959]

what are you doin with the xtrons pal ?

I was looking into getting it repaired as all it needs is the screen replaced but I can’t find anyone who can or will.
It’s just sitting on a shelf in a box at the moment.
If I ever trade in the UnMerc I might put it back in and keep the Alpine unit as I kept all the wiring for the steering wheel controls out of the UnMerc too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bembo449]

I was looking into getting it repaired as all it needs is the screen replaced but I can’t find anyone who can or will.
It’s just sitting on a shelf in a box at the moment.
If I ever trade in the UnMerc I might put it back in and keep the Alpine unit as I kept all the wiring for the steering wheel controls out of the UnMerc too.


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ive just got an android unit for one of my 300c pal £121 delivered and it comes with the dash panel so it looks factory , so id say that explains why no one will repair one , they are so cheap brand new its unreal