[Rant] NCP Parking - AMC Cinemas, Manchester

A sort of rant although kudos to the guys who ended up sorted out the issue....

Essentially - Wednesday came around and as usual I hit town for a dinner and a film at the cinemas with a friend that I hadn't seen for a long time.  Parked up in the NCP controlled car park underneath the AMC Cinemas, Manchester @ approx 19:14 and it wasn't till 12.20 that we got out.
Bad thing was that if you go to watch a film at AMC then get your ticket validated it gives you a massive discounted parking of £2 (although only for 5 hours....) This time I was out by would appear to be 6 minutes too long, and hence the price jumped to £13+!

So what I did was press the button for assistance and the gentleman on the other side picked up and told me to press another button to eject the ticket.  Then told me to pay the £2 that shown on screen and a ticket was printed (although this one took ages - well over 30 seconds.)
I then left and made my way to the exit, but the last ticket kept getting ejected at the barrier, and it wasn't until I read the bottom it's a receipt BUT NOT a ticket (don't ask me why and what this means as the tickets are always ejected at this particular car park for receipt purposes!)

Anyway, reverse into a spot (thankfully there's no-one behind otherwise no-one's getting out!)
Walk over to another ticket machine (big circle due to metal barriers) and the same guy on the other side goes "Oh, press the call button on the barrier and I'll raise it."

Back to the car and back to the barrier, lol what do you know, there's call button.
Use it and the same guy answers, raises the barrier and off I go.

Rant over - too much walking around aimlessly, although I know better next time, just drive to the exit, create a queue, and press the button there (they'll be forced? to open!)

Vauxhall Zafira (B Model) Reliability

This time a few links that I've found which shows the overall reliability of the Zafira I have, seeing that pretty much every year I've put a bit of work/had to get it serviced more than expected:

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/228
Some scary statistics here such as Avg 3.75 years, higher than average chance of breaking down, close to £356 repair bill (so over 12 years this bill would be £4272!)
Sidenote 12 year comes from length of time the previous 2.0Litre petrol Ford Galaxy Aspen was in the family.

Another link (I rather like the host site name!)
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/vauxhall/zafira-b-2005/?section=bad
Main point is that "Some build quality issues emerging even in delivery, such as inoperative offside dipped headlight beam (which causes other problems), misaligned steering wheel and squeaking drivers seat."

Now as the last repair bill on the clutch was an suspected £1000, maybe it's a good idea to buy an insurance style policy from Arnold Clark soon, 1 year @ £325, or 2 years for £445 which covers most breakdowns. Only thing is doesn't mention is whether or not it include parts & labour! And how many claims you can make during the length of the policy.  If it does then I'll surely get the 2 year policy whenever the car seems like it wants to play up!
http://www.arnoldclark.com/servicing/complete-aftercare/autocare.html

Vauxhall Zafira (Secrets/Modifications) PART 2

Continued from previous post...

2) Slight modifications to enhance the car (in order of what I would ideally want!):

> A modified glove box which effectively becomes a cool box.

> Adding the missing cigarette socket in the centre aisle.

> Adding USB charging sockets.

> Adding parking sensors.

> Changing the washer jet for a different spray effect

> Swapping the centre screen for a TOM TOM

> Adding Cruise Control

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Let's follow with some links:

> A modified glove box which effectively becomes a cool box.

* http://vxzoc.forumotion.com/t1175p25-zafira-b-cool-glove-box-mod

* http://forum.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68770

And the parts needed (from ebay seller danharford681):

* http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ZAFIRA-B-GLOVE-BOX-PIPE-AIR-CON-/280557671932?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item41528a55fc#ht_500wt_1156

* http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VAUXHALL-GLOVE-BOX-AIR-COOLING-GUIDE-/270669557416?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3f0529aea8#ht_500wt_1156

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> Adding the missing cigarette socket in the centre aisle.

On the car that I bought the cigarette socket in the centre aisle / under the centre console (underneath the removable armrest) this was blanked off with a removable dust cover. Links to add in this missing part:

* http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?118346-Zafira-12v-Accessory-Socket (post 12 onwards!)

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> Adding USB charging sockets.

Shows 4 USB charging sockets by the handbrake but maybe add in an AUX connection here if the stereo supports the feature.

http://www.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?t=119648

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> Adding parking sensors.

Something to look at at a later date £24.99 (for the sensors and other required parts) vs £300 for Vauxhall fitted models!

* http://www.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?t=62083

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> Changing the washer jet for a different spray effect

* http://www.diagnostics.org.uk/2010/01/astra-h-insignia-washer-jets/

* http://www.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?t=69044

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> Swapping the centre screen for a TOM TOM

* http://www.diagnostics.org.uk/2010/01/astra-h-swap-mfd-for-a-tomtom-one-xl/

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> Adding Cruise Control

According to Vauxhall my car can not be modified to add this feature due to it being a petrol car, supposedly only diesel cars support this.

* http://www.diagnostics.org.uk/2010/01/diagnostics/

[Rant] Parking in Manchester Part4

Time to stop ranting and to share some a good link that I found recently:
http://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/greengate_salford/

Using this I am able to see where's the cheapest car park is (within a good reasonable walking distance to town.)
For myself it would have to be Greengate costing £2 for 24hours parking on the weekends or £3 for a weekday.  Literally just past the MEN arena although the road is all pebbles so if I did park there I would need to give my car more cleaning sessions!
There are some £4 parking where the Co-Op are building a new HQ near printworks but the last time I passed there the car parks were shut for this particular reason!

Oh well, at least I had somewhere to park should I not have any validation tickets free for the centre of town....


Final word - The link allows you to organise by price or distance/time needed to walk to selected destination so you can make your own mind up.
Sidenote, the prices may not be up to date (check the bubble that pops up when selecting the car park - its shows last updated xxxxxxx)

Vauxhall Zafira Winter 2011 Servicing

Over October/November last year Pentagon Vauxhall had an offer for ta free winter car check and some freebies if you took your car in to see them.  Looking for the freebies why not so I took the car into their Oldham branch and got the following freebies out of it:

Understandable they need to make some money so gave me an itemised bill/quote for things they thought might need doing such as Air-Con refill and wiper replacements.  Not looking to touch my wallet I kindly declined and left (taking the freebies with me of course!)

Vauxhall Zafira Clutch Problems.....

This issue happened a month or so ago so I'm talking a bit in the past tense....
On Valentine's day 14th February 2012, I drove into an upstairs NCP car park, however there was a queue getting in and so the engine was idle, and stationary using its clutch biteing / throttle point.  A bit later and there's a terrible burning smell coming out of the front, but looking closer the land rover in front was emitting a bit of a exhaust smoke so thought nothing of it.  It wasn't however till about 3pm when we got back to the car and the smell still being there did we think there was a serious issue.  Not being anywhere near home and without any tools etc I couldn't do much so drove it home.

When I got home the smell was still there and could be determined by use of my nose that it originated from the bonnet and this is what I found:

As you can see 4 and a half year driving over 32k miles = 7100 miles a year which isn't much!

What's that but a burn mark from the cover of the engine!

Similarly why is the live 'Red' Battery terminal cable burnt through?  There's a dust style cover, which has stopped any wet leaves flowing through the front exhaust.

A few days later I take the car to work for Karl, resident mechanic, to have a look and he notices another issue: A scrapped mark along the fan belt but cannot feel anything out of place, such as a stone...

The bad thing was that for a week I had to get public transport whilst I left it with my Dad to sort out with the garage.  Even worse was that I wasn't working at my local workplace and instead at another branch 20 miles further away which meant I had 4 hours of travelling to do a day rather than the 30 minutes -1 hour daily that I did with my car so you can tell how much I missed it as could the numerous people who may have witnessed me sleeping on one of the 4 buses I had to take a day!

Anyway back to the topic at hand.  Vauxhall Grimshaws report that the issue was a faulty clutch and that it would take £1000 to repair.  no idea how much the bill was as my Dad paid and refused to tell me.... But he did get the brake pads swapped as well as they were borderline of failing the next MOT test.

[Rant] Parking in Manchester Part3

Continued from:
http://wai-driving.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/rant-parking-in-manchester-part2.html

It's been a long while since I last updated any of my blogs so here goes.
Time to see how the parking charges have affected the city centre..

First of all a newspaper clipping that I found which extends the chargeable parking area as people are parking just outside this catchment and then walking in.
This will badly affect me as I tend to park next to Spinningfields whenever I go out for a film and food. ARGH!

Next a picture showing the imeddiate street on the sde of Kwok Man, China Town (Manchester) taken Sunday 8th January 2012 at 12.53!
Usually at this time of day on a Sunday (before parking charging) it was impossible to find anywhere to park and instead I would park near the Universities then walk back for 20 minutes....

Thankfully my cousin is able to get hold of reduced parking validation cards for when we/I park in the NCP car park next to the Coach Station.
This gives/gave me £2 for upto 4 hours parking or
£3.50 (now actually £4.50 for the last few weeks) for longer than this (usually £18.40 for about 6 hours parking as I once found out.)

Good thing I don't work in town as the parking charge would kill me, say £5-8 petrol, £18.40 parking for a working day, when income after tax is only about £40 or so?  No wonder people stay at home living off benefits etc!