Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I'm just chatting, but I'm not sure that any of that help. All that happens is we go to the lowest common denominater. Then turning a light switch on has never been a difficulty. Then I have an issue with electric hand brakes. Feels like something that is completely unnecessary. All it is doing is taking away something intrinsic in driving the hill start, stop start driving up a hill

Maybe the cars should not exist as road cars if people are not capable of driving them. You know that roush UK created a number of the super dooper upgraded Mustang and someone high up in management didn't even make the A12 as the driver did something the electronics could help with.

Electric hand brakes! I forgot about those abominations. I would never buy a car with one.

Not forgetting to switch your lights on, good.
Making you believe you can handle 600hp, bad?

If you trust the guy to work on it then you surely trust him to drive it?

After my wife drove it back from Bordeaux, I had my first proper drive in the new Mercedes SLK yesterday. Very different driving experience from my other cars. Quite a stiff throttle, so you can't accidentally go hooning, and it feels faster than the Citroën C5 even when it's not actually going as fast. Very nice chassis, and really easy to place on the road. The Harmon Kardon stereo sounds great.

On the subject of gadgets, I have no problem with automatic wipers or lights. I have them on the Citroën and just leave them on all the time. They are great. In France you must put your lights on in tunnels and when it's raining. So when the wipers come on so do the lights. I can concentrate on actual driving. The Citroën also has an electric handbrake. Lesser models have a manual one, but they switched to an electric on the models with hydropneumatic suspension so there was room to put the height adjustment buttons. It's an auto handbrake, so it comes on when you switch off the ignition, and releases when you start moving. It also has hill hold. Basically they did it right. My car is an automatic as well, so you could just never touch it. Actually I usually disengage it like a manual so I get a nice gentle take-off with a bit of creep. Cruise control is also an essential in a long-distance car. European motorways are often empty enough that you can just set 130kph and you don't have to touch the pedals for miles. I once drove from Calais to Le Mans without seeing a single other car (obviously not this time of year!) My Citroën (and the Mercedes) also have speed limiters which I set to 50kph for towns and cities; super useful.

I rented a Passat once that had adaptive cruise control and lane assist. Both of those can absolutely get fucked. "I'd like to overtake this slow moving truck" "No you can't. I will slow you down to the truck's speed and physically fight you when you try and change lanes."

Errr, no! That's a bit like saying you'd trust a plasterer to live in your house while you're on holiday because he did a good job on the hallway.

Aye, the only time I've driven anything with ACC was a rental Passat, and I hated it - felt it was forcing me to pay more attention to my speed than if there wasn't cruise control at all, and actively working against a smooth drive.

It was a few years ago, and I didn't have the car long enough to be arsed working out the settings (my principal whinge was that it matched the speed of slower vehicles in my lane far, far further back than I would have done given I wanted to approach them, then overtake matching a gap in the lane to my right).

ACC's probably better now - or I might be better at using it

it matched the speed of slower vehicles in my lane far, far further back than I would have done given I wanted to approach them

i.e. it prevents tailgating which is a good safety feature however doesn't quite adapt to the dickhead driving style of many which means the space left in front becomes an opportunity for another driver to move into.

on the overtaking thing - i can't see the problem with that, just press the accelerator, complete the manoeuvre and then take your foot off the gas and ACC resumes doing its thing. it takes a small amount of time to get used to and then becomes second nature.

lane assist is one thing i've not got my head around yet. had it on a hire car (Suzuki something or other) and it was really odd, particularly when avoiding oncoming vehicles on narrow roads in Orkney. probably not the kind of environment it was designed for.

I've only ever had lane assist in rentals which consists of lighting up the dash and annoying you when you touch a white line.

I don't really get the point of that other than to wake you up if you've fallen asleep on a motorway.

speed limiters which I set to 50kph for towns and cities; super useful.

Our rental Dacia had a speed limiter and I couldn't understand the point. But now you put it like that it makes sense.

When the plasterer is finished there's no need to check if stuff does what it's supposed to do?
It's a very special car, and it seems like it's not an investment that never gets driven. So he probably fettled with something. I'd expect him to check if the outcome is satisfactory, but running an errand is a bit strange.
Will ask the only person I know that owns collectible cars if the mechanics do test drives without them present.

They absolutely do. Watch any of Iain Tyrrell's videos on YouTube and he's forever test driving them. With high end and expensive stuff it's a real no-no to hand the car back to the customer without being sure it's 100% perfect

It was getting its last MOT

on the overtaking thing - i can't see the problem with that, just press the accelerator, complete the manoeuvre and then take your foot off the gas and ACC resumes doing its thing. it takes a small amount of time to get used to and then becomes second nature.

If I'm driving with cruise control I don't want to press the accelerator. I just want to cruise past the slow truck at a constant 130kph with my feet off the pedals, without the ACC deciding it needs to slow me down to the truck speed.

without the ACC deciding it needs to slow me down to the truck speed

This only happens in my car when undertaking a slower vehicle in the lane to the right. Slower vehicles in the left hand lane just get breezed past. Not sure if that's what you mean?

obvs would be the other way around in France and I guess ACC on a UK car would be a bit of a pita in this circumstance, I wonder if it's configurable?

I rented a Passat once that had adaptive cruise control and lane assist. Both of those can absolutely get fucked. "I'd like to overtake this slow moving truck" "No you can't. I will slow you down to the truck's speed and physically fight you when you try and change lanes."

Yeah, you need to use the indicators. It doesn’t fight you if you indicate.

I used a new Prius Zip car the other day with this feature and it scared the living daylights out of me. I was merging with traffic on Euston Road, we were all crawling along at 5mph, very slow speed, there was space, it was safe and the car literally jumped the wheel out of my hands, absolutely terrifying. Really dangerous.

I use the VW ACC in my Golf a fair bit, it works great but living on the south island of NZ there is mostly A roads and no motorways, it's worked well for me so far.

Absolutely can't stand lane assist though, i leave that turned off

I need to replace 2 tyres on the car as the tread is very low (barely above MOT limits), and another 1 has a little more so it makes sense to do that too.

A few questions:

1. Is it worth just doing all four at the same time from a driving/safety perspective? The 4th has a couple of mm more than the 3rd, but it's not like it's significantly newer.
   
2. I'm on Pirelli P Zero that are made for the Volvo, should I stick with the Volvo specific blend?
   
3. Should I even stick with Pirelli? Also thinking of Michelin Pilot Sport if I end up replacing all four and can think of another brand.
   
4. Black circles quotes a per tyre price, but no discount if you do more than 2 at a time... Do places do discounts for multiple tyres or should I just expect price x 4?
   
   

For reference this is what I run today: https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/pirelli/p-zero/245/35/R20/W/95/f?tyre=39897313

I've got about 22k miles on them, they're the set that originally came with the car, although two experienced punctures in the first year in South London.

1. Yes
   
2. I'm dubious there will be anything going on other than brand synergy.
   
3. No if you don't get the Volvo tyres, get what you think sounds best on balance / Internet opinion
   
4. Black circles will probably be the cheapest. Big tyres are expensive and don't usually have large discounts
   

Is it worth just doing all four at the same time from a driving/safety perspective? The 4th has a couple of mm more than the 3rd, but it's not like it's significantly newer.

No, if the tyres are safe and legal there’s no need to change all four at the same time, unless it suits you financially / time wise to do so. You already have tyres with vastly different thread depths (hence changing two) and you haven’t been ditch finding .

If change all four, largely because Pirelli are awful and this is a chance to put all of them in the bin. Get Michelins and be happy.

^^ My reading is:

Tyre 1 🔴
Tyre 2 🔴
Tyre 3 🟠
Tyre 4 🟢

Given that searching, price benchmarking, ordering and carving out time to have tyres fitted is non-trivial, I don't see the extra few mm of wear from tyre 3 as enough of a benefit to counter the hassle of doing this all again in the near future.

But if you don't do many miles and that's >6 months of wear left in tyre 3, then I guess it's worth leaving it.

Also as big tyres are expensive there is a cash flow benefit.

Selling my car if anyone's interested. I'll leave it here for a fortnight and then stick it on AutoTrader if there's no interest.
Extra forum donation made if it sells :)

I'd recommend changing all four. It saves having to go through the hassle of ordering a single tyre and having it fitted in X months. Also from a handling perspective you'll have consistent grip across all corners of the car, which I think is the safest option.

Pilot Sports and P Zero and both great tyres, I'd be happy with whichever you can get the best deal on.

It's more:

Tyre 1 🔴
Tyre 2 🔴
Tyre 3 🟠(red soon, maybe another ~1K miles)
Tyre 4 🟠(just gone amber, maybe another ~3k miles)

I'll replace all 4, and will weigh up either keeping the Volvo specific ones, or Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S.

The reviews basically say that they're neck and neck on everything, with Pirelli barely beating the Michelin in the wet and being fractionally quieter, and the Michelin having a better subjective feel and comfort to drive but being fractionally louder. All reviews acknowledge that as they're both the very best in their class there is virtually no difference between them and it's just personal taste.

The Pirelli are £235 per tyre = £940
The Michelin are £290 per tyre = £1,160 but with a 10% discount on Black Circles comes down to £1,044