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Well, I`ve had the car a couple of weeks now, and can safely say that I made the right choice exchanging my old SE 2.1! The gearbox is tight, the clutch feels just right, the suspension feels better and the AWD gives a more `planted` driving feedback. The steering wheel is a better design, the seats feel more supportive and when you put your foot down the extra power (230bhpish from factory?) is really noticeable. The car does have half the mileage of my old 02 plate though, this is on a 55 reg and in great condition. Well worth the drive from Leicester to Brighton to go and fetch it! 18inch alloys and the sport spoiler on the bootlid too. Usual electric everything, heated seats, sat nav built into the dash. Basically the exact spec I had been searching for over the past couple of months. It has full service history and was serviced and M.O.T`d the day I collected. Just need to get my reg plate transferred over and jobs a guddun! It currently has the incorrect size plate in the recess on the rear! Which is annoying me! Overall, massively chuffed and money well spent I`d say! A few pictures >>>

This bit? Sheesh, £95 for petrol, £9.5 for diesel.

Peter, Just thought you would be interested in a screen shot of my sat nav taken in Devon ATB, Trevor

1) The boot lid does not self-raise. I looked into achieving that by fitting stronger gas struts, and while they did actually open the boot lid at the press of a button, albeit slowly, they also made it a Herculean challenge to push down & close, requiring two hands... The original gas struts are exactly enough to keep the lid in place, not letting it raise up nor go down by itself. If yours doesn't stay in place when like half-open, you might look into replacing one or both of the struts. 2) None that I know of. Since you have the cassette player, consider doing this extremely handy mod (unless you have ACM installed that is). 3) The later-style grille does look good with the pre-facelift front bumper. It is one of my planned upgrades. However, I won't be buying the OEM 2008+ grille, for I dislike the idea of chromed plastic mesh and a fixed spot for the badge. See the ones below, the one on the left is the OEM plastic grille, the one in the middle is a new-style grille by Mina Gallery (which I like), and the one on the right is an earlier "new-style" grille by Mina Gallery with a denser mesh. 4) If you do put a leaper on, do as I did and buy something like this copy version. It is spring-loaded (and actually moves more easily than the OEM leaper), and attached with dual-sided super strong 3M tape so it does not require drilling holes in the bonnet. I fitted one on my car one month ago and it stays on like it's set in concrete. I call it "the copycat" :D If someone complains about it and you have to take it off, you'll have a pristine bonnet underneath rather than two mounting holes to fill & paint. The only real difficulty with this one is that without the mounting holes to guide you, it takes some effort to measure and see that you put it in the right place & that it's straight. I put mine slightly further forward than the original ones because I found that it looks better that way.

I think that you should get commission for selling Code Readers Peter, you have recommended quite a few lately. Best thing I ever bought, to be honest. Stan

We get used to them, Trevor. What slows us down most are the steam lorries. Peter.

i checked tyre pressures and for some reason they were at almost 50 psi so put let some air out and set them to correct pressure and the ride has improved no end

David This can be as simple as the battery voltage dropping off, Don't panic just yet it may just need the battery charging or replacing . Or could also just be one of the front ABS leads. These can be changed quite easily. ATB, Trevor

Hi Trevor, Thanks for that, yes it operates fine smooth not notchy so im going to use it until the symptoms get worse or have the funds to get it repaired. Mick