My winter of discontent

OWNED SINCE January 2014 MILEAGE SINCE LAST REPORT 0 TOTAL MILEAGE 69,606 LATEST COSTS £9.99 and a dented pride

So far the New Year’s resolutions have been limited to shedding a few pounds in weight and teaching my other half to drive.

More than a month in, and I’m still sticking to them – but perhaps I should belatedly add ‘not scuffing the Mazda’ to the list. Having managed to get through pretty much the whole of 2015 and thousands of miles of happy motoring dent-free, it would be during the period when it wasn’t supposed to move at all that I managed to blot the Eunos’ otherwise impeccable copybook.

Tight manouvres, an alleyway that narrows the further you go down it and a dark night are not a

recipe for keeping a car unscathed, but the damage was limited to a surface scratch on the roadster’s nearside wheelarch. Cue a trip to Halfords to pick up a bottle of T-Cut’s finest and an evening at the garage that web producer Calum Brown and I are using as winter digs for our classics.

That was just before Christmas. Since then, the Mazda’s only been doing the shortest of trips, occasionally firing up to stop the battery going flat and to prevent the tyres developing flflat spots.

Having dealt with both when I fifirst bought it two years ago, I can’t stress enough that even during hibernation occasionally waking cars up helps keep them feeling healthy. Imagine being bedridden for two months and then being asked to pop out to the shops immediately afterwards – no wonder H521 NRX gave me weeks of niggles when I fifirst got it.

I’d have been happy occasionally popping over to tuck its blanket back in. Or at least I was until two things ran out – the petrol, which had left the zippy green roadster miraculously running on thin air, and the MoT certificate. A jerrycan sorted the former,

and after a few minutes of running a bit rich the Mazda was back to its good old self. The latter, on the other hand, is defifinitely a sign I need to get her back out again – which is why I’ve booked her in for another 12 months’ ticket.

It’s been great hiding my pride and joy away from the worst of the winter weather, but I can’t wait to get it back out on the B-roads again, where it belongs. Summer can’t come soon enough!

David, fifiancée Natalie Bassling and CCW’s web producer Calum Brown have been getting the Mazda up and running throughout its winter rest.

Ouch! David’s rubbish parking and a poorly lit alleyway didn’t do the Mazda’s rear wheelarch much good.

As much as David enjoyed the Mazda’s ability to run on thin air he wisely thought topping up the fuel would help keep it stay mobile over the winter.

Back at the garage our humbled features editor gets on with applying the T-Cut to the Mazda’s scuff.