Can we try to put this behind us?
Surely blue jeans on brown seats should not cause this much aggravation…
JUST OVER 3000 miles in the XC60 and the leather of the driver’s seat base is taking on a perceptible blue tinge. I believe I know why – I just can’t believe it’s really happening.
After absolutely no musing with magnifying glass and deerstalker whatsoever, I’ve determined the effect may be attributed to the denim legware purveyed to both the missus and me by one Mr Levi Strauss from California.
Now – having not specified the XC60 myself – I would indubitably not have opted for the brown hue of the upholstery out of choice. I am, nonetheless, somewhat tempted to remonstrate with Mr Strauss via my solicitors, Fawn, Fleece & Longlunch. Then again, given that Mr Strauss’s jeans are barely even size-fast, there’s bound to be a diminutive colour-fast rider written into the yardage of label sewn to the waistband. And surely we can’t be the only Volvo drivers to ever wear Levis; did the upholstery team really not prepare for this eventuality?
All of which brings me to the sickening realisation that, while clotted cream seat leather can lift a Ferrari interior like no other, the same cannot be said for brown in a Volvo XC60. Best to stick to something duller and darker.
In other news, when did six minutes of air suddenly cost a quid? I swear the last time I wrestled a recalcitrant pressure hose to all four corners of a car it was a mere 10p for as many minutes, but my local garage ’n’ barbecue briquette emporium seems to have switched to a pricing policy more appropriate for a dive centre in a seaside tourist trap.
I mention this because, after voyages to Cornwall and Wales – both equally wet and miserable – the Volvo has decided to warn me, in a relentlessly hectoring manner, that there is insufficient air in the tyres. Unhelpfully, though, it refuses to say which one(s), or give me a psi read-out.
Ramming air in and pressing the recalibrate icon to shut it up is one thing, trying to make sense of the extensive table of options on the door frame quite another...