Chapter 16: Some Well Deserved Praise

During this series a lot of the time we mention the faults and issues that Raymond has and how we combat them, but Raymond has lots of redeeming features and that’s what I want to write about. Firstly, the comfort; when sitting in Raymond you feel like a king, the seats are comfy and heated, the ride is so smooth you can barely feel the potholes of Britain. Raymond is spacious in all regards; you never feel cramped when driving or as a passenger. He also has a lovely big boot, so you can easily do a big shop for the whole family and not worry about whether or not you can fit it in the car. The heated steering wheel, front and rear windows were life savers during the winter months.

The thing to note with Raymond is that he tries to make life as comfortable and easy as possible, and if the price to pay for that is that you need to constantly look after him, then that is pretty good value for money. Raymond isn’t just any car, it’s a driving companion with personality.

All that being said, there of course has been an issue this week. He started making a random noise on the way home, however it then disappeared, came back momentarily and hasn’t been back since. Fingers crossed that it was a minor blip and not something serious.

Chapter 15: Shake, Rattle and Roll                                 

Perhaps a fresh start with Raymond? Hopefully all the issues are a thing that we leave behind us. The first few trips looked promising, Raymond driving smoothly and without a problem, however this was too good to be true and within 3 days, we had something to fix.

As I was driving along, suddenly Raymond started to shake, the wheel vibrating in my hands. I quickly pulled over and did a quick check of the car in case I had blown a tyre. However, upon further inspection, I couldn’t see anything. I decided to brave it and get back in the car and continue. Thankfully there was not a recurrence, that was until the next day. I was mere minutes from work when he started shaking like a rollercoaster. I began to brake, however this time this made matters worse, and the shaking became violent. Once I finally got it to work the Workshop technicians had a look and found that the front brake discs were warped and in general bad shape.

Raymond carries on his streak of being in the workshop at least once a month, but that’s the fun of owning a low budget L322. The technicians fitted shiny new brake discs and pads. With these now replaced Raymond is back to 100% and driving flawlessly. Whenever Raymond is working, he is an absolute dream and it kind of makes it worth the constant stress.