[Charlie (Wessex)]

So a wee drive to the hills and back. Forgot to reset the journey data until about 50 miles in.

I'm not the most patient of drivers and when I get bored I put my foot down a bit to give the old girl her head, but I did wonder whether a diesel like I had of old would be better. Having said that, I did similar trip in my e61 535d and got 28mpg, but that might be because it cruised across the country at higher speeds!! Having said that, I don't think I do enough long journeys these days, so the odd one or two isn't going to kill me.

Anyway some issues.....

1) The bonnet. Actually happened before I left too, but needing to lift the hood, it just wouldn't work. The first pull didn't release far enough, and the 2nd pull did nothing. Is there a known issue with the boot release?

2) Oil warning popped up. Last time I had that happen was also on a trip back from the hills. I do wonder whether long drives gets through a bit of oil? Warning said at a minimum and fill up 2 litres immediately. Well I pulled in to the next stop, looked at the handbook and found the only appropriate grade ACEA2 0W/30. Handbook said only fill a max of 1 litre, so I did (rather than the 2 the car said), and then did an oil level test. It was perfect with 1 litre. Suspect 2 litres would have been too much!!

3) The biggest issue, and really not happy. High speed braking in the wet. Normally the brake pedal has a bit of travel - it seems some cars bite straight away and some are a bit spongier. I am in the latter. But in the wet, it was horrendous. So much travel and then when it did bite, it pulled to the left. Happened all the time at speeds c. 80+ (and yes I know that's not great in the wet). It was like the brake pads weren't being dried. I've got my neighbour going to take the car in for a service shortly, and I'll get him to see about the brakes (and he runs a dealership).

Car performed really well. Comfy-ish but just wished the seats had a bit more give in them.

And fuel price in France. Bloody hell they're expensive. Off the auto route I think I filled up at €1.78 and 1.82 a litre for E10. On the autoroute I had to do it at €1.99 a litre, but strangely that was the price for both E10 and E5 (so E5 it was).