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Hi FolksApologies for the length of this post, only intended a brief introduction but decided to bore you with my new car experience and got carried away .
Was considering a big black FWD with t he word BARBARIAN or WARRIOR but was told I would need to put on 4 stone, get my head shaved and have my ears pierced, so decided the Antara was a little more stylishTook delivery of my new 13 plate Antara
Diamond (in black) less than two weeks ago, had been considering the Antara for
some time as an eventual replacement for my
9 year old work horse Merriva which I was hoping to get another year or so of service from, but...
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on
how you view the following, fate and mechanical failure decided to render my 54
plate Merriva uneconomical to repair when considered against mileage, condition and value etc.
So, my hand was forced and I became the
proud owner of what I consider to be a curvy sleek AWD
machine, I choose the manual gearbox based on economy and cost, but have to
admit, I am missing the auto boxI used
to drive, it seems so easy to go into
third as opposed to first but its early days and gear selection linkages will
loosen off over time and my wife's screams as I slowly pull out in front approaching oncoming traffic does have a good entertainment value .
Had a couple of small warranty replacement issues which were
sorted by the agent, I found the driver side rear seatbelt webbing had a small
area of fraying, think it was a manufacturing defect, certainly not wear, this has now been replaced. The panel housing the center speaker on top of the dash was
not flush with its surround, this was replaced and at the time of the vehicle being
handed back seemed OK…for a while
Disaster… yesterday (15<sup>th</sup> Aug.
2013) some gent decided not to look in the direction he was traveling…Result;
my nice new sleek over 20 grand Antara with less than 500 miles on the clock
now has a crumpled tailgate, bent cross frame section behind the plastic
styling surround (don't know the name) under the tail gate. Oh and the center
speaker panel (mentioned above) on the dash has flipped out again…Had better
days.
As you can imagine, to put it mildly this
week has not been the best, so decided to join the Antara owners forum and
torture myself by looking at other peoples none dented Antaras and share my sad new car experience.
Trying to finish on a ppositive note…the
good news is of course, no one was injured, my insurance and the third party
insurer have agreed the other guy was at fault, I am dropping the Antara off for
repair and pick up a courtesy car tomorrow.
The wife thinks I should swap the Manual
for an Auto box but I am a little apprehensive that this would stop people
running into the back of me and I would miss the astonished look on her face
when slowly pulling out in third into the path of oncoming traffic.
Will keep you informed of future progress and anticipated issues of repair process…Blacksmith