Recently bought my old girl, she is a late 2010 SD4 HSE. I have had her a couple of weeks, done little other than stretch her legs, including a trip to Belgium and back, check fluids, clean the engine bay of dust, feed the leather and a quick couple of wash and wax ceremonies, so as she has been as good as gold so far, I decided that it was time for a couple of pressies.

Firstly, I can’t find any record of a cambelt service in the SH, so she is booked in to the local indy for a little treatment in that area next Thursday with a water pump added as her bonus. I think she deserves a little PM at her age.



She also has no mats, but the carpet is good and worth looking after. So I ordered a set today being careful to match the black interior and silver paint. So black mats with black and silver piping ordered to protect her original black underwear.

As I was doing that the missus walked in. She has an AMG Merc SLC in grey with a black interior and proper AMG mats. But seeing me ordering mats, she now likes the idea of being able to change her mats now and again. So we started to spec some up in line with her wishes for her car... I should have known better. She decided on bright red mats to match the seatbelts and stitching in the black leather interior with black and silver piping to try and contrast the grey outside! After swallowing the sick from the back of my throat, I could not persuade her otherwise so they are ordered. Pretty sure they will hit the loft when she sees them in the car. Yuk!

Last edited by SeeFive on 24th Oct 2019 1:20 am. Edited 1 time in total

Well, it is your fault after all.............................

Sure is. The Merc was a birthday present a couple of years ago! All my fault

Significant Other got a card from me

I gave other half blood pressure monitor. Bad mistake as I will get blamed for the high blood pressure!  Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

That birthday was a royal pain on present availability and weather, turning into a real farce full of expense and danger

I have always had mental cars all my life and while nattering over a bottle of plonk a couple of weeks before her birthday, she asked what my dream car was. After sort of answering (varies with my mood) I asked what hers was, and she said (or rather described - cars are not a strong suit for her) an SLC. A quick check down the back of the sofa meant that I had adequate budget and two weeks to sneak off and find one ready to go in her desired colour and spec for her birthday present.

I was also having a ring made by a designer in Hollywood for her which got delayed, so all I had was a picture of the design to give to her on the day and a promise it would be in the UK soon. So she had a picture of that inside her card and I quickly picked up a watch to cover the gap a bit. Fail!

By the time I had found a car, it was only available for collection on her actual birthday, meaning that due to DVLA registration issues I couldn’t get the personal plate I had bought her put on it for when she went to pick it up, so those would be in the boot! Another fail!

We got out of bed on the day to collect her car (over 150 miles away) to find a nice blanket of snow and blizzards forecast for the area, and we were going by train as she didn’t want the first drive alone! For those not in the UK, trains and snow don’t go together too well here. It absolutely bucketed it down with white as we walked from the station to the dealership and received the car on its factory, wide low profile summer tyres, so she wouldn’t drive the car home as conditions were too scary for her. So I was left to potentially bend her new car in 3 counties worth of snow! My ring piece was twitching like a rabbits nose every second of the way. Clearly the weather was my fault...

It eased off a bit half way home, we started to see tarmac through the snow on the motorway so I feigned a need for a coffee and stopped at the motorway services with a cunning plan to get her in the driver seat. I suggested that she stayed in the car and had a look around with the manual To guide her pressing things as it was horrible outside. I trudged to the Costa fortune outlet working out how to convince her that it was perfectly safe for her to drive the rest of the way.

As I walked back to the car I noticed it still had the dealer name plate bolted over the actual front number plate! Slightly illegal. We were in such a rush to get out of the dealership before the snow really hit, I hadn’t bothered to inspect the car and just walked up to it from behind, got in and left in a flurry of wide summer tyre wheel spin aided by an unknown alien 9 speed auto / paddle box and no clutch pedal. So, with no tools to remove the plate, I rehearsed my “oh really officer” speech quietly without telling her and persuaded her to take over (shepherding her around the back of the car of course) as the conditions were no longer a whiteout. Suffice to say we got back home, a little later than planned but with the car in one piece and my ring piece calmer.

For the evening, I had booked a table at Rick Stein’s in Sandbanks to give her a chance to drive her car in the dark with me as support. The forecast was really bad rendering her car redundant for that journey so we took the RAV4. Fail! But at least she tried oysters for the first time (liked them), and still has the shells as a memory. The meal was a real hoot with good food and really engaged staff but while we were in there 6” of snow dropped outside. On the way back we nearly got wiped out by a moron at inappropriate speed who ran out of talent in the snow, I saw him start to lose it and just avoided him as he ploughed into the scenery in the New Forest. At last, I got something right!

Quite a birthday for her all in all! I make her sound like a real monster in telling this story, but the truth is she understood the issues and had the birthday of her lifetime (her words). She’s a cutie really with quite a low expectation from life that I occasionally manage to meet so it was nice to have a proper birthday spend up for her.

Anyway, enough of the raconteur nonsense, back to my new (to me) truck, I love it My old knackered legs get quite achy after an hour in a sports car, but the driving position in the truck means that I can sit in there for hours and bounce out like a 20 year old. Well, a rather old looking 20 year old. She likes it too, yay, I got something right at last! The clown cars are a thing of the past for me. Honest guv... browses autotrader again...

SO liked her card and I even got it delivered - no going 150 miles in the snow

Another pressy.

New battery this morning, the car was starting to slow down turning over the last couple of morning as it has got slightly colder. It looks like the outgoing one is original as it has the Land Rover decal on it. Nine years, not bad going.

Brilliant story, lucky lady.
Something Ive always wanted to do is present my wife with her dream car for her birthday.
Big 50 in a few years time, if Ive any money to spare I might just do that.

Best of luck with the Freelander BTW  Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Thanks for the good wishes on the Freelander, I am enjoying it so far and trying to do what I can to help it help me.

I heard a great romantic and funny (when orated properly rather than a written down) story from a female Saffer mate about her Dutch fiancé. When this girl was at school in Cape Town, she used to walk past a jewellers twice a day and stare at this very specific ring in the window longingly... “One day I will buy that” kind of thing. Her boyfriend got to hear about it, tracked down the jeweller, described the ring to him and got another identical one made for her, but didn’t just give it to her, oh no, not romantic enough.

They went on holiday in South Africa, had spent some considerable time in the car one day and she was getting tired and wanted to hit a hotel. Now this lady had a fiery temper when tired but unknown to her, her fiancé had already booked a really nice hotel a little further on. So she tantrumed at every hotel they passed, stopped talking to him after the sixth one and eventually they swept up the opulent drive to the grand place he had booked. However, at this point she had the right hump and would not get out of the car, the lad had to go inside the hotel and get the concierge to go out talk her into the hotel such was her bad mood. Just as well he did, as inside the hotel as she walked up the steps was his and her entire family, and she was presented with the “engagement” ring! She was ever so slightly embarrassed to say the least...

My missus? It was fun to be able to do something special for her birthday. She is a keeper for sure. So beautiful in every way (physical and nature) asks for nothing and can’t recognise the compliments she gets from loads of people due to a pretty oppressed childhood. Fit as a butchers dog and at 58 she has been asked for ID a few times when buying wine in the supermarket (once with her then 28 year old daughter collapsing in laughter beside her) and as she works at the university regularly tells students chatting her up that she is old enough to be their mother, possibly grandmother

I think I am the lucky one to be fair.

When they don't ask for ID it's clearly age discrimination! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

The missus came good today with another pressie for the old girl, well actually, she says it is for me for an early Christmas pressie but I don’t believe her for one second

Remembering Jason and the Argonauts from years ago, now having a car that it can go off road a little and given we intend to explore a bit in Spain looking for a new home, I have just applied a new registration number she bought for me (the car). It is bang on legal number plate spacing here in the UK and just about works I think.

So there we have it. “Adventurers engaged in a quest” on the good ship Argo, therefore we are now ”Argonuts”. I might just change my name to Jason now.



...awaits cloned plate speeding fines after posting the registration number online...