Llandow Tuning

He did an amazing job. The Volkswagen pulls every climb without the old kickdown, then sits quietly once the road flattens. Bang on.

The cruise control used to hunt on gradients, always busy, never settled. It holds now, and the in-town response is cleaner, so the two halves of my drive finally match. The hill at the far end is a pull rather than a downchange, with or without the bags. I have compared a month of the same miles. Slightly kinder on the steady half, no worse in the queues. Proper pleased. It has not gone loud. I can still creep up to the house. The change is the absence of effort, and I feel that absence every day.

This is the fourth vehicle I have taken to the garage, after two Golfs and a van, so they already know how I like a car to drive. The new one had the usual limp feeling on the hill leaving town, full of shopping, and it pulls through that now without a downchange. Fuel economy on the motorway is better than either Golf was after its remap, which surprised me. Over Christmas it felt a bit flat on the first cold start of the day. I left a message and they rang back, had a slot after the break, and made a small cold-start change while I waited. No charge, and a call the morning after to ask about the first start. I will be taking the next one there before I have finished paying for it.

I kept a note of the same commute. The figure is up, and the hill by the park is no longer a downchange in the Audi. Made up.

Less changing down on the B-roads. The car feels lighter rather than fiercer.

A cleaner pull out of the junction, and a hill that has stopped being a topic. Grinning.

Free coffee, topped up without a fuss, good enough that I noticed and stayed for the second. The wait was easy. The Audi was the point, and it is earlier in the mid-range, happy to keep a tall gear on the rise, and calm when I am not asking. I was grinning on the bypass and still grinning in town, which is the harder test. Cock-a-hoop. A month later I trust it. The hill is boring and the cruise sits. I would book the same again before I finished the mug.

I have used this garage for a Transit, then a Custom, and now the pickup. Each one has gone back pulling up the hill by the yard with a load on, which is the job. This Ranger does it in a higher gear than the Custom managed. Fuel economy on the unladen motorway trips is the best of the three, even against the van after its remap. Last month it threw a light on a dark morning and I rang before I started guessing. They opened early, plugged it in, found a sensor that was on its way out, and fitted the time around the morning rounds. The file was fine. That aftersale support is the reason I have stopped asking other places for prices.

Overtakes from fifty take less planning, and it has not turned sharp in town.

The BMW holds seventh on a rise that always kicked it down. That alone was worth the bother. Delighted.

Forty to seventy in the Ford is a different sentence, less road and less noise, and the hill after it is a single gear even with the boot full. I am not planning the pass a field early. Town is a cleaner getaway, not a sharper one, so the week has not become tiring. Well made up. Two weeks of the same loop and I have stopped commenting on it, which is how I know it has become normal. Normal is a compliment. The old normal was a compromise.

Another car to the same place. The A3 pulls up hills cleanly and the fuel economy has improved on the dual carriageway. A call a few days later was the aftersale support I have come to expect from them.

Spot on. Hills are nothing.

Free coffee, offered properly rather than pointed at, and it was fresh. I drank it, then took the Ford home belting happy.

Forty to seventy is a different sentence now in the Volkswagen. Less road, less noise.

The school-run hill used to need a plan and a gap in the conversation. It does not. Cleaner off the mark as well, without being snatchy, so the children are not nodding at the lights. I did the longer weekend road and the cruise was lazier, the climbs stayed in gear, and we got there in a better temper. Grinning. I had been clear that louder was not the goal. Easier was. The car is easier, and it is still the one I recognise when I get in. That matters to me.

I did not expect to notice it in traffic, but I do. Cleaner from the lights, less hunting, and the hill at the end is just part of the road. Well chuffed.

An amazing job with the Mercedes. It tows without the strain and, on its own, feels like a smaller car. Highly chuffed.

The garage did my old 330d and I did not look at anyone else for this one. There is a long pull up the hill on the way to work, usually with a bit of traffic, and the car used to be changing down halfway. It holds the gear and pulls now. I have compared the fuel economy with a notebook I kept on the last car: this one, after the remap, is doing better on the same journey. I went back because I wanted a little more at the top end for the occasional overtake. They made the change, gave me the old setting if I wanted to return to it, and called a week later. Three cars over the years, if you count my wife's, and the aftersale support has been the same every time.

A full boot used to mean a downchange. It does not. The mid-range just absorbs the weight. Proper pleased.