New year new owner

[shedpete]

Well spurred on by the 'is the forum broken' thread below and the fact that I've been lurking a while and found many postings very helpful, thought I'd register and say hi.

Bought a 2003 Multispace Forte 1.6 petrol (with Modutop) a few days ago :-)

[Image: berlingo1.jpg]

It's now in at a local independent for a full service and timing belt change as it only had part service history and both were overdue. Just a few minor things found so far.

Coming from driving my girlfriend's now expired Fiat Punto all the space is great. Great view through the screen, which is quite steep. As a tall bloke all the headroom is welcome. My girlfriend would have liked some seat height adjustment to boost her up a bit but she's getting the hang of it slowly :-). Love the big mirrors, great for reversing.

We'll probably get used to it for a bit first but we are pondering some rear parking sensors - maybe the number plate fixing types to avoid drilling e.g.

http://www.abacuscaralarms.co.uk/alarms/...ensors.htm

Sitting lower my girlfriend in particular finds it hard to judge where the car behind is...

Anyone tried them? How easy is it to get at the reverse light connections for fitting?

[eame64]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.
I have reversing sensors on my bingo(see pics in members cars section)
they work really well and are designed to give you enough room to open the hatch,they were fitted from new so not to sure how hard it is to retro fit them.
Eamonn

[Andre]

Welcome pete and cheers for joining.

I know you said no drilling, but just throw this at ya. I have a Longhorn kit, brand new, that does require drilling in the rear bumper, but the unique thing with my kit is that it comes with a replacement rearview mirror that has an lcd display built in showing you your distance from an object in metres, with a green-yellow-red marker too.

I can put pics up or whatever, seeing as it's just been sat in the garage since i purchased it.

[shedpete]

Thanks Eamon, yours looks great. Looks like the factory sensors are quite a bit lower than the numberplate, which makes sense...

Andre, thanks for the thought - but think we should give ourselves a chance to get used to it first! And don't think I could bear to take the hole saw to it just yet... though maybe if a local scrappie has a spare bumper the right colour going cheap... will let you know!

Just got it back after its service - ouch, £500ish inc cam belt change, accessory belt change, brake fluid change and a drop link replaced. Hope that's the last of the spending for a while.

[pch]

welcome Pete, and yes lets hope your wallet stays shut for a while, well untill you start to by your accessories for it.
Good luck
Pete

[Opensauce]

Hi Pete, I'd give it a while before spending out on reversing sensors. You may find the flat back end makes distance while reversing easier to judge.

[stagsmanuk]

I have one of those big square lens things in my back window, about 9 inch by 9 inch, cost was under £3 from ebay including delivery, now i can see what is 7 feet behind me instead of 17, has helped with my parking and general driving.

[shedpete]

That sounds like a great idea and cheap and easy enough to try :-). Something like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EASY-PARKING-PARK-...43a3eb62e9

Prefer the look of this one, though a bit dearer:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EASY-REVERSING-Wid...483e55257d

[pk7478]

Hi, shedpete and welcome.
Tell me please, what is the strange hook hanging under rear bumper?

[shedpete]

That's the exhaust pipe I'm pretty sure, just seen from an odd angle.

---

Er... should it not be dangling like that? This one certainly looks more tucked in:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C...071006.jpg

---

Another (dealer) pic of mine:

[Image: berlingo3.jpg]