Had the next phase of my Lexus experience this morning – interim service day for my CT.
It’s actually a little late, as I should have got it done about 2 months and 2000 miles ago. I just wasn’t feeling like getting it done at the time and then cricket season came along, making it awkward for thoughts of getting to Cheltenham in the evening.
Where was I ? It’s definitely a different ownership experience having a Lexus. They treat you like a valued customer instead of pointing and laughing at the latest person to go through the sheep dip. Anyway. First service day today so it’s off up the road to Cheltenham. I could go local … but the nearest Toyota garage is another that tried to screw me over with “Yes you need your 1 year old brake discs replaced”.
Lexus make some really good cars. They’re not the fastest, the biggest or most economical (not cheap either) but they are Different by going their own way and have huge amounts of quality included. And they make some quite pretty cars too : IS-C convertible.
Very shiny. I suspect that’s the car my sister would quite like to have now. She got forced into replacing her MR-2 a little earlier this year before the MR-2 fell to bits underneath her. The Saab 9-3 TDI convertible she got ticks all the boxes for company car type benefits :
Extra seats
Turbo Diesel for all the extra miles
Speed (it has a Proper turbo instead of one that just cleans up the exhaust)
And it’s been around long enough to get cheap enough
But – it’s not an MR-2 so the honeymoon period of the 9-3 was short. Incidentally, my CT is still well and truly in its honeymoon period. Awesome car. I caught another victim of the Trademark Sleepypete Grin, as I had a little peek at an IS-C in the showroom before passing on the “Sister shoulda got one of these” to a blonde lady pretty enough for me to have to say it twice due to tripping up on the words on the first attempt. Sadly the IS-C is a little too new to be in price range plus the running costs (CO2 and mpg) are much higher than the Saab.
Was away from the garage early enough to be able to listen to cricket commentary (Tune In Radio on Android is a cracking app) and back home early enough to catch the start of the Le Mans 24 hour race.
Enter the Batmobile :
(Nissan pic nabbed from a Wired.com article)
Gorgeous innit ? Bit different to your average F1 car or Sportscar Prototype. Sadly though it might not get much more running in during this Le Mans due to having been eaten by a Toyota.
If you catch any Le Mans coverage this year, you’ll definitely catch the big incident involving one of the Toyotas … There’s going to be far too much said about that so I’ll : moving swiftly on …
Sky taking over some of the F1 coverage has made me look a bit more at the commentators. Now there’s a choice, which one do you listen to ? It’s like the cricket where you have :
Sky commentary – by the numbers, good quality but take themselves seriously
Test Match Special – they accurately portray the game without the benefit of pictures but have a ball doing so. If I could, I’d listen to TMS commentary with Sky pictures. That doesn’t work though because of delays that mean the commentary would be before or after the pictures.
Motorsports is similar, except that both F1 commentator groups take things very seriously. They forget to pass on that they’re enjoying the racing, if they are actually enjoying the racing.
Eurosport on the other hand … They seem like the Test Match Special of motorsport commentary. I’ve been happily chortling away to them all day, especially now I have it on the big telly (cricket was hogging it earlier). It helps that they know what they’re talking about too, as they are current or ex racing drivers who also have the gift of being able to pass on what they’re seeing to the viewer.
They’re being hugely entertaining. They’re not at the race track to get stamps on their passport and a sun tan, their job is to keep the viewers in the picture and to make them smile. And the Eurosport commentators are doing a cracking job on both points.
I hear there’s football on as well today.
PS Charity links : there’s a Race For Life that needs your support and a Pink Haired Thumper who I owe £5 of Pink Hat bounty to.