[John_F]

Drove to Brighton today to collect the new addition to the family. Left home at 6.30 am. Roads in the Devon countryside were treacherous this morning as very few get gritted so had to take it very slowly in the Avensis. Having filled the windscreen washer bottle up the night before I found I couldn't use it till about 8.00 am as the contents had frozen overnight. The roads were very mucky once they started thawing.
It was quite a straight forward run from one side of the country to the other - basically A38, A30, A35, A31, M27 & A27. The old Avensis was filthy on arrival, despite having given it a quick wash at the weekend. Sorry to leave her - she was a very reliable car.
New car was undergoing wash & inside clean up after having new SatNav & stereo fiitted. It had originally arrived with the A300 set but I changed this for a Pioneer AVIC F900 set which includes Bluetooth, Parrot, DVD player, in fact all singing, all dancing & half the price of the VW top of the range one.
Had a quick tour of the car with the salesman, a cup of coffee & then it was back on the road in the Eos for her first trip, leaving Brighton at about 1.00 pm. Started off with top down as it was a beautiful afternoon but it soon clouded over & I didn't want to risk getting the Nappa leather interior spotted so reluctantly put the top up. It was a lovely afternoon's run, especially across Dorset of which I had forgotten how beautiful a county it was. I arrived back in Dartmouth at 5.00pm, a much quicker trip.
Have tried to attach a photo of her in seasonal surroundings in Dartmouth tonight but having trouble with uploading because of size. Once I’ve found out how to alter this then I’ll post the photo. I'm now having a relaxing couple of glasses of wine & feeling very pleasantly weary.
In short - a fabulous car & I'm absolutely delighted with the way she performed today.
Kind regards,
John (TDI Sport DSG, Reflex silver, etc., etc., but not too many of them.)

 

[Rathbod]

Hi John

"a Pioneer AVIC F900 set which includes Bluetooth, Parrot, DVD player, in fact all singing, all dancing & half the price of the VW top of the range one."

I would be interested in seeing photographs of your dash with this fitted.

Derek

 

[GOgg]

Welcome to the select band of Eos owners. As you have already discovered each journey is an adventure. ENJOY!

 

[Stephb]

Whoo!! Beep Beep!! Glad you enjoyed driving her back I was getting worried that you might change your mind. Glad you didn't!

Steph xx

 

[John_F]

Steph, Derek & Graham,

Thanks for your welcome to the club.
I cannot upload any photos to the site as I keep getting the message "File too large or wrong type." The photos are in JPEG format but I don't know what size to use for this site & not exactly sure on how to resize for this site either. I use Adobe Photoshop (Elements) but after downsizing the pixel count the photos are still rejected. Anyone any ideas? Once this is sorted then I will download a photo of the Pioneer AVIC set up Derek, which is very neat looking. Unfortunately, to a non-techie like me, the instruction manual is not too clear so having a few problems. Have managed to set up my ancient Nokia 6310i to a hands free mode though & that is a big improvement. The Pioneer even manages to store all the contents of my address book on the phone.
Any help with the photos would be much appreciated.
Kind regards,
John.

 

[silvershadow]

Steph, Derek & Graham,

Thanks for your welcome to the club.
I cannot upload any photos to the site as I keep getting the message "File too large or wrong type." The photos are in JPEG format but I don't know what size to use for this site & not exactly sure on how to resize for this site either. I use Adobe Photoshop (Elements) but after downsizing the pixel count the photos are still rejected. Anyone any ideas? Once this is sorted then I will download a photo of the Pioneer AVIC set up Derek, which is very neat looking. Unfortunately, to a non-techie like me, the instruction manual is not too clear so having a few problems. Have managed to set up my ancient Nokia 6310i to a hands free mode though & that is a big improvement. The Pioneer even manages to store all the contents of my address book on the phone.
Any help with the photos would be much appreciated.
Kind regards,
John.

Hi John, you have to use Photobucket or a similar site to store your photos and you then set up a link in your posts using the "Insert Image" button in the toolbar above where you type your post before submitting. The http address for the photograph is shown on the Photobucket page for your image and you copy and paste this address into the "Insert Image" address box.

http://photobucket.com/

Photobucket is a free service and has a quick and simple photo resizing tool - the most appropriate size for forum use is 640 x 480 pixels.

I use Photoshop CS2 and presume Elements has a similar menu bar on top of screen - to resize your image, do the following;

1. Left click IMAGE
2. Left click IMAGE SIZE on menu [about 6 items down]
3. Image resize screen will open, select pixels in dropdown menu for Width and Height
4. Enter 640 for width and 480 for height - landscape orientation or 480 for width and 640 for height - portrait orientation.
5. Check boxes for "Scale Styles", "Constrain Proportions" and "Resample Image - Bicubic"
6. Click OK and save with appropriate file name to reflect resizing [Tip - I always change the attributes on all original image files to "read only" to prevent accidental changing of the original file by saving without thinking using the original file name.]

You can see how the various image sizes appear in posts on this forum using the link below:

http://www.vweosclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1719&highlight=pixels

 

[Rathbod]

Hi John

"Have managed to set up my ancient Nokia 6310i to a hands free mode though & that is a big improvement"

My first choice would be the Zenec 2010, but they keep delaying the release of that, I read the Pioneer tech specs and was rather impressed, I see you can actually load 3 or 4 different address books for different drivers.

Enjoy you new car, have a great weekend

Derek

 

[John_F]

Steph,
Thanks for all your help in the image resizing. I must admit that i hadn't got down to that size - 640 x 480. I'll give it a try & see what happens.
The photo I'll try will be one I took at the end of my first day's ownership, parked outside a festive looking Royal Castle Hotel in Dartmouth.

Kind regards,
John

 

[John_F]

Success! Photo posted - many thanks Steph, you're a goldmine of information.

Derek,
I'll now be able to get a photo for you of the Pioneer AVIC F900 in situ - watch this space.
Kind regards,
John.

 

[John_F]

Hi John

"a Pioneer AVIC F900 set which includes Bluetooth, Parrot, DVD player, in fact all singing, all dancing & half the price of the VW top of the range one."

I would be interested in seeing photographs of your dash with this fitted.

Derek

Derek,
Photo attached of the Pioneer in situ. It came fitted with an iPod attachment which is in the glove locker & works well. There is a very small microphone for hands free phoning which is tucked in under the rev counter but can't be seen in this photo.
I had an exhilarating run out to Slapton Sands this afternoon with sunroof open (bit too drizzly to go the whole hog & take the top right down). Still discovering lots of things about the car that I didn't realise it had like adjustable armrests, electrically folding mirrors, etc. - very enjoyable.
Kind regards,
John

 

[Rathbod]

Thanks john

Derek

 

[Barchetta]

John, Hi.

Mine apart hehe, I think that is the best colour combo I have ever seen on an Eos and I think it looks fabulous.

Rob

 

[John_F]

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your comments on looks - I think it looks great too but it will take some keeping clean. Now the kids are off our hands that shouldn't be too difficult though.
As far as extras go, I have very few as the car wasn't built to my spec. I took over a cancelled order I think - I only had to wait 10 days from ordering. I would have liked a MFSW in hindsight but its not the end of the world without one. I have Nappa leather in cornsilk interior. It came with a wind deflector & case but haven't tried that out yet. Weather in Devon tonight is pretty shi**y - blowing a gale & p**ing with rain so it will be a good test for the seals tonight.
Many thanks for your comments once again.
Kind regards,
John.

 

[Barchetta]

The good thing about the Eos is that with the wind delector up, heated seats if you have them or if not heater on high then it is an all weather convertibe.

Provided it is not raining then my roof is always down without question. The wind deflector makes a huge difference.

I know what you mean about the MFSW. Mine has it, but in all fairness I use it very little. Do i really want to know all the compuetr functions whilst driving? I keep mine set on mpg. The phone function doesnt work unless you get lots of leads and the controls for the volume are close at hand.

Im not denying its nice to have and may make a bit of difference to road safety but if you apply common sense its not that bad.

The best thing I bought for mine was a full car cover. Mine doesnt go in the garage as the wife's car and my weekend car go in there.

The car cover keeps it nice and dry and protects the leather from the UV of the sun.

I also bought a small cover that covers roof and windows only from Halfords if i havnt got the whole minute it takes to put the whole cover on, well worth it.

Rob

 

[John_F]

Rob,
Thanks for your interesting comments - & I would tend to agree with you.
My car, like yours, will not have the benefit of a garage for some time. Since we down sized & moved to Devon 2 months ago the garage is packed full of surplus furniture, books, detritus accumulated over 30 years in London which all needs sorting, etc., etc. I think I will at least invest in a "head & shoulders" cover which should protect the seals from the worst of the weather.
My wife is going to have her first drive in it tomorrow as shes's been in London over the last few days. Have to keep her away from kerbs to stop her scuffing the Chicagos!
Kind regards,
John.

 

[Stephb]

Hi John, so it wasn't only me who had the bad weather then? I nearly got taken off down the road!

I also have a roof cover and also a full cover, bit hard when your putting it on yourself.

I have the MFSW too i find it great saves me having to touch the buttons on the cd player to change tracks, i also have the ipod dock in the arm rest which makes it a million times easier otherwise i would have to leave my armrest up and take my ipod out every time i wanted to skip tracks

Im sure your wife is a good driver and wont scuff the chicago's do be careful though as they are diamond cut so its rare that anyone re-furbs them

Steph xx

p.s just remembered, becareful if you wear dark coloured jeans alot as its stained my cornsilk nappa well gutted

 

[John_F]

Steph,
Thanks for the additional tips, especially about wearing dark coloured jeans.
Although my iPod is stored in the glovebox all the controls come up on the touch screen so it is very easy to change tracks, etc. Have attached a photo of the iPod screen.
Thanks once again Steph.
Kind regards,
John.

 

[MelsEOS]

Cool System inside...

Why is your climate control system so basic? Do the dealers in the USA just order the cars more loaded?

And, what about cruise control? Where do those buttons go on the UK model?

 

[GOgg]

Its not climate control only a heater and air conditioning. The dual zone climate control is an expensive optional extra in the UK. Cruise control I don't know about, some else will have to answer that one.

 

[SKIDOO]

Its not climate control only a heater and air conditioning. The dual zone climate control is an expensive optional extra in the UK. Cruise control I don't know about, some else will have to answer that one.

Cruise control is on the left/right indicator stick and well worth the option.
Gary