DAILY DRIVERS IN WINTER
OWNED SINCE MILEAGE SINCE LAST REPORT TOTAL MILEAGE LATEST COSTS
It’s fantastic to see that both Richards are using their Fourtrak and Allegro respectively throughout the year. It proves that, when properly looked-after, there’s nothing stopping us from using our cars regularly. work. The one in the wing functions perfectly and both work on the nearside. If anyone’s got a spare bumper light bulb holder going spare please drop me a line because I don’t want to go for an LED conversion. Staying with things electrically related, I now can’t get the manual aerial to retract. It’s not dented or crimped, so just what’s going on there is baffling.
The typical Daihatsu reliability came into play back in spring last year when I had to do an early morning dash up the M4 when my mum passed away. With the Jaguar X-type off the road having a rear ABS sensor replaced, the Fourtrak stepped in brilliantly and my journey – all 180 miles of it – didn’t take much longer than it usually does in the Jaguar. And while the M4 was closed and heavy diverted traffic was compounded by ludicrously bad road works in Maidenhead, the Fourtrak’s temperature gauge needle didn’t even reach the halfway mark.
My mum (from whom I got my interest in cars) always had a soft spot for the Fourtrak and I think that she’d be pleased to know that I attended her funeral in it.
The beauty of the Fourtrak is that it’s much more than a shortdistance hauler. It’ll never be as rapid as the X-type on long journeys and it’s more demanding to drive, but it gets there without missing a beat and is more fuel-frugal in the great scheme of things than might be imagined.
Aiming to keep the Fourtrak’s flick-of-the-key reliability I booked it into Mistermatic in Swansea for a full service. It may be a Jaguar specialist but I managed to persuade them that I wouldn’t be
October 2017 £730
bringing in a shonky, rotten field-plodder whose chassis was held together by mud, straw and little else. Such is the Fourtrak’s condition that it needed little more than a service but with winter well and truly upon us I decided that a bit more attention might not be a bad thing. Adopting the mantra that a bit of expenditure now will probably be cheaper than having to rectify something that goes wrong later, I asked for fluids (including brake fluid) to be changed, as well as for the garage to sort-out the door light switches and the spotlights, which are wired to the main beam. It looks like I’ll need to change the spotlights, too, because one has failed and I’m now on the look-out for a replacement for the seized rear door light switch. While they were in the Fourtrak’s boot, Mistermatic’s technician refitted the air vents, which has tidied things up no end. What’s more, the engine bay was given a decent clean, meaning that there’s little to do
1750 79,280
with the visuals other than having the wheels re-painted.
Having collected it and put a further 400 miles or so under those increasingly scruffy alloy wheels the Fourtrak headed to Carmarthen’s Oklahoma Motors for a cambelt change. I’ve been told on several occasions that I have the fleet’s cambelts changed more often than they need to be but better that than having the belt let go on the outside lane of the M4. The job was done again this time in two hours and that included changing the heater/ ventilation control bulb that had failed that very morning.
Now on the button more than ever before the Fourtrak continues to impress, whether it’s beetling along local lanes or doing a 360-mile round trip to see my dad. The only disappointment was missing out on a politically incorrect mateswith-cars gathering, from which economical motors, hybrids and electric cars were barred. As it’s not a very economical diesel, I’m sure that the Fourtrak would have been greeted with open arms.