Best Birthday Ever.

Kirsty has booked me a surprise weekend in Rome. I can’t wait to go now, its so romantic. I’m so excited.

I also got a Multi-surface Tennis game, a hand made picture frame and a set of “Dad” Music CDs.

Mazda 6 saga continues – Enterprise fail to call.

On Friday, Hugh’s Mazda get back to me just before five pm to briefly say that Enterprise will be calling me to arrange a different car. I’m too exasperated to say much in gratitude. Alas they don’t call. Saturday morning I was out on my bike while the rest of the family were either running, dancing or working. When we get back at lunch no message has been left on the answer phone. Getting the paper work from the glove box of the Corsa I find that Enterprise is now closed for the day. I want to right an expletive here!

Mazda 6 embarrassment

I phone the garage again today for an update. The new sensor wont be with me until the 6th of July!. I guess its on the slow boat! I’m real shocked by this news. I mean I know that Which Magazine warned me that parts for Mazda were slow to be delivered but this is way beyond my imagination.

Taking a reality check for a moment, Mazda Assist have provided us with a car, but its hardly comparable to what we paid for. Apparently I need to call Mazda Services should I be unhappy with the hire car.

Before I can do anything else the phone rings and its a nice sounding lady from Alan Gibson – for a moment I’m feeling lifted, special, Alan Gibson Mazda are calling me – perhaps its good news. “Are you still interested in buying a new Mazda” she asks politely. “Well”, I say, “this is all rather embarrassing for you”, I exclaim. “You see I wanted to buy a Blue Mazda 6 from you, but you couldn’t get one before July. So I had to buy one from another dealer.” She replies, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that but I hope your liking your new car?” “Argh! alas the car is currently with you – you’ve had it longer than me in fact as its broken down and in your garage – hence I say its all rather embarrassing for you”.

The Irony of a early July delivery date is not lost on me, in case you were wondering.

I phone Hugh’s Mazda at Farnham Common and explain the situation. They offer to phone Mazda Services on my behalf to see about getting an upgraded hire car…. Just before five I’m returned a call saying they have yet to get through. Sigh.

Mazda 6 still sick

I don’t believe it! I waited expectantly all day for Alan Gibson to phone me with good news about the car. At 17:15 I call them and they tell me that the CO2 sensor that was delivered today was used in another car that had been waiting since June 9th! They had never mentioned this before! I of course ask when they will get another but they can’t, wont more like it, say. Obviously considering the other car had to wait some time this one could also be some time. The person I spoke to explained it was a modified part, I presume that was some sort of explanation as to why they didn’t have it in stock. To me it underlined that Mazda know they have a problem with the factory fitted sensor. A Google search confirms I’m not the only Mazda 2.2 diesel to be suffering.

Considering we are within our legal right to return the car I’m very surprised that Mazda are not calling me and being a little more open and honest with us…

Mazda 6 Sport is sick!

No, its not ‘sick’ in the way the younger generation use the word; to mean cool, great and fantastic. I mean its gone to our local Mazda garage, Alan Gibson, broke, go directly to garage, sick!.

Kirsty was driving the car home from Basingstoke and noticed a new light on the dash. Eager to find out if this was some other feature she looked it up the extensive manual to find its the ‘Engine Warning’ light!

Yep, we’ve had it four days with less the 250 miles on the clock. It can’t be anything too awful.

First thing this morning I called Hugh’s Mazda, from where we bought the car. I tried to speak to the sales assistant but I was too early and was directed through to the maintenance department. They gasp upon hearing my post code and suggest I phone another garage or wait three weeks for them to collect!

I decided to phone a garage in Guildford first as Alan Gibson had failed to deliver us a car in Blue. They told me to call Mazda Assist – of course! I called them and within 20 minutes Simon from the RAC was at my door. In less than ten minutes his computer was plugged in to the car and the cars diagnostics were telling him that the second CO2 sensor was not working. Simon booked the car into Alan Gibson and I drove the car over to them in pursuit by the RAC van should the issue escalate and to bring me back. In that short drive I noticed that the car wouldn’t go above 3,000 RPM or engage cruise control. I figure this must be what has been referred to as limp mode.

Simon informed the gentleman at Alan Gibson what the issue was and they told me that they had no stock of the CO2 sensor but said that new stock was due in on Tuesday, four days away. Simon in the mean time had called in and arranged for a hire car for that time from Enterprise so at least we wouldn’t be without a car.

Upon returning home with Simon I assured the wife that this was a minor issue, our new baby would be back with us in no time. Shortly after Enterprise called me and explained that they didn’t have any Mazda 6 size cars. I said that was OK as it was only going to be for a couple of days. Enterprise were unable to deliver the car, as they only had two people in the office. So one came out and collected Kirsty who returned home an hour or so later with a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4

I must admit that I was quite surprised by the Corsa’s level of equipment – it too has automatic headlamps, electric dimming mirror, and stereo controls on the steering wheel. The boot is tiny so its a good job we are not going away this weekend.

MTB in Yately Woods (Near Blackbush)

Went cycling over in Yateley woods and am sorry to report that the route known to me as Nine Pint Ride is no more as its buried under branches. The log drop and bomb pits remain though so we had some fun.

Escape from VirtualBox Full Screen

Using Virtual Box on laptop in full screen (Host+F) with external Sun4 USB keyboard. I wanted to map the Host key, right control key (Control_R) on laptop to that of the Right Meta (Meta_R) key on USB keyboard as the former isn’t available on Sun4 keyboard.

$ cat vboxhost 
            remove mod4 = Meta_R
            keysym Meta_R = Control_R
$ xmodmap -verbose vboxhost
! vboxhost:
! 1:  remove mod4 = Meta_R
! Keysym Meta_R (0xffe8) corresponds to keycode(s) 0x74
        remove mod4 =  0x74
! 2:  keysym Meta_R = Control_R
! Keysym Meta_R (0xffe8) corresponds to keycode(s) 0x74
        keycode 0x74 = Control_R
!
! executing work queue
!
        remove mod4 =  0x74
        keycode 0x74 = Control_R
$ 

Mazda 6 – Bluetooth Music another bonus

Ok, so our old Ford Focus was ten years old and so was lacking in some modern additions found on new cars. Now while I knew the car could connect to my phone over Bluetooth I was amazed when twiddling with the stereo controls on my steering wheel to see “BT Audio” come up on the display and the last track I was listening too being played through the car’s Bose speakers! Wow, that I like. My friend then turned up and we played around some more and discovered the volume goes all the way to 62 (or was it 64)? Who cares its too loud! 😉

Later in the evening I drove up to Thorpe Park to collect my eldest daughter and her friends. While I waited I spent some more time adding some phone numbers into the car voice recognition system. I found this to be a bit hit-and-miss when trying to add numbers. However I found I could simply send the numbers over Bluetooth and associate them with a name which was far quicker.

On the way back the kids asked, how loud does it go…. Oh yes, I cranked it up again 😉

I should possibly say something about the drive. Remembering that I’m comparing it to a 10 year old Ford Focus. So remembering its new and I’m not an idiot I shall just sum up by saying its very comfortable, smooth, quick to accelerate and to stop. I’m enjoying the drive and not being stupid.

Collected Mazda 6 Sport 2.2 Diesel – loving it

We collected our shinny new, stormy Blue, Mazda 6 Sport today from Hugh’s Mazda. We are so excited and happy with our purchase.
We took months in deciding which car to go for and driving the car home we know we had made the right decision; the drive is great – lively and fun. And it looks gorgeous. An added bonus is that it comes with Mazda Assist (RAC European breakdown cover) included for three years.