PART 5
Having picked the VW Beetle up from Andrew Everett after his work primarily on the suspension, brakes and timing belt, the drive back down south was very enjoyable. The clonks were all gone, and it cruised very comfortably down the A1 at a steady 70mph. There were one or two minor issues still to sort out though, plus a couple of bigger items on the To Do list.
Starting with the minor issues, the Beetle has an armrest between the front two seats, which is all well and good, except that it is so badly positioned that it gets in the way of the gearstick. That does seem to be a rather elementary flaw in an armrest, but at least you can fold this one so that it sits vertically out of the way between the seats. Unfortunately, the top of the armrest itself lifts up to access a storage facility for small items within it, and with the armrest in the vertical position, then this lid would fall down onto the rear seat and any items stored in the cubby would fall out.
The problem was all down to a broken plastic clip, as the images explain. In the broader scheme of things it may not have been a major problem, but it was cheaply and easily fixed. Another problem caused by broken plastic wasthe box of bits that came with the car which suggested that this had also been replaced recently by the previous owners, it did not fill me with confidence for the quality of VW's plastic items.
