Yesterday I took the ST in for its second annual service at the massive mileage of 15,435 and sadly an immodest cost of nearly £400.

As parking is scarce on our estate and the nearest visitor space is constantly in use by the family in the house next to it, despite their having a large with space for two cars in front, albeit with a room over the top of the front space. Maybe that’s why there always using it, because:

1. they always have loads of kiddy shite in front of the garage; and
2. they’ve already managed to crash into the brick pier and take out a load of it…

We have split our double garage into the Pain Cave (home gym equipment) and the Man Cave (two motorbikes and tools) and ordinarily we park the ST on one of the spaces on the drive in front of the Pain Cave and the Abarth 124 Spider on the drive in front of Man Cave.

When family come to stay, we can sometimes play Car Tetris and position the Abarth across the front of the garage doors to get three cars on the drive:

Car Tetris

But with some family members it can be easier to park in the visitor space if it has opened up, so we park the Abarth there to block it.

And so it transpired that with the ST booked in, I didn’t want to move the Abarth so the only other viable option (with Alison’s workout regime in full flow) was to fold up my Brompton Nine Streets into the boot and ride it home and then back again to collect the ST afterwards.

Meanwhile back to the service and their advisories. They noted that the front tyres are 56% and 52% worn – having already been replaced for £300 at 12,231 miles – and the rears now need to be replaced as they’re 92% and 78% worn. They quoted £147 each, but when I rang to check, I was told they wouldn’t guarantee like for like Pirelli P Zeros, so I’m getting them done on Monday at Kwik Fit for £340.

They also said the brake fluid usually needs replacing every two years at a cost of £75 which I was skeptical about. However on checking this is apparently recommended, so having said no to Group 1 already, I added that to Kwik Fit at a cost of £53.

They also checked the rain sensing wipers which I’d reported was playing up despite my having made sure the settings were right. There’s been a very recent software update, but even so they checked and said they’d needed to simply apply the correct settings…  We’ll see.

An expensive few days!