T4 should i buy one

[Dan F]

Sounds like a good buy as long as the dealer gives it a proper service as promised. (Make sure you get at least a copy of the service/job sheet).

Bear in mind that x40s need cambelts at 80,000 miles and every 80,000 thereafter. It is a pretty expensive thing to get done especially as part of a service if done at a dealer (recommended), but it is a damn sight cheaper than a replacement head or engine should the cambelt snap.
Remember T4s put out over 220 lb/ft of torque. So the belt is a primary concern.

By the way I was talking about 2 million years ago with our ancestors.
If they hadn't developed a likling for meat, then our brains wouldn't have developed beyond that of a chimp. Apparently.
:-)
Dan.

I assume that the MOT is till 2004 and not 1994 :)

Dan,

Don't chimps eat meat as well?

Wish I had leather - it's the only thing I really want in my 2.0T :(

Stu

Hello everyone. I've not posted before, so this is very exciting, innit? :D

Anyway, so why do you all want leather instead of cloth?

In yesterday’s test drive I thought it was a bit slippy-all-over-the-place instead of nice hugs-you-so-you-feel-snug cloth. And won’t the dog just slide along the back seat at every corner?

TreacleSponge (Mrs.Badfx)


PS. Dan, I thought you meant that we evolved brains to build the cars to drive to the butchers to buy the meat to cook in the oven to live in the house that Jack built. Now it all makes sense. Ook ook :)

Decent seats decked in decent Leather look better, are easier to look after and should still hold you nicely. Not tried V40 leather seats, but I have tried the half leather and that was quite nice. In my Spit I have beige leather, that I have mistreated a bit and it still looks spectacular - true I did pay as much for the interior as I did for the car but then you get what you pay for :)

My biggest concern with standard leather in cars is what quality leather they use? I know it's not gonna be up to the spec that I had fitted (except a few out of my range cars) but I've seen 3 year old leather look dead - full of cracks and pitted, and 15 year old leather that looks as good as they day it was made. Where does Volvo leather fit in this equasion?

Stu

[Dan F]

>Dan,
>
>Don't chimps eat meat as well?

Only a certain group of chimps, (especially Bonobos) and they are in fact more intelligent than their purely herbivorous cousins as well.

An extract from the book 'The Hunting Apes' by Craig B Stanford follows:


.....The evolutionary origins of human intelligence lie in meat eating and especially in the cognitive capacities necessary for strategic sharing of meat.

He is strongest on the first of the three sources, having published in the 1 990s a series of articles on the carnivory of the wild chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania. This research culminated in his other recent book, Chimpanzee and Red Colobus: The Ecology of Predator and Prey (Harvard University Press, 1998), which, for the first time, looks at chimpanzees as predators from the point of view of their prey. His quantitative field data provide new food for thought, from correlates of hunting success to bone assemblages left after consumption. From the other two sources, Stanford synthesises, usefully and succinctly, what has been published by palaeoecologists and human evolutionary ecologists.

Clearly, Pan troglodytes has much to offer as a living, behaving proxy for an absent last common ancestor of 5-6 million years ago. Wild chimpanzee males regularly hunt (that is, stalk, pursue, subdue and kill vertebrate prey). Often, they do so socially (although the book never really tackles whether this is coincidental, coordinated, communal, or collaborative, as apparently, this gradient of social predation remains to be satisfactorily operationalised). Moreover, the. most interesting events occur after the kill, when the proceeds are dispersed non-randomly from the hunters to their companions. Notable recipients are allies, kin, and reproductive partners, who pass on the valued food to their offspring. So far, so good, in the sense that this is familiar to us humans.

But when one tries to imagine the transition from an ancestral hominoid to the earliest anatomically modern humans, complications arise. The only living apes to hunt (as defined above) are chimpanzees, and they are really arboreal monkey-catching specialists, not terrestrial small-animal-seeking generalists. Bonobos offer a vexing alternative: They relish meat, but ignore monkeys and when they pounce on cached or cryptic duikers, it is the females who control access to the prize. Which is the better model for an ancestral baseline of meat acquisition?.......



Sorry to go off topic but it is an interesting subject! ;-)

As for wanting leather seats. Put an order in at a scrappy, and wait until a wrecked one with leather comes in. Easy swap!

T4s are ace. Buy it!!

Dan.

'Tis an interesting subject.

As for the swap - what do you do about the heated seats and SIPS bags? Must admit if it's not too bad a swap it may get done at some point (though probably after I get married next year - getting married costs a fortune!)

Stu

[Dan F]

Volvo leather is very good quality in the x40s. More so in the more expensive cars. logical really.
More to the point however, they are as green as they can be with it by not using certain chemicals etc in the curing process. Making it a sort of 'organic' alternative to other leathers, if you will.

Stu:
I would say that you can just disconnect the multiplugs for the heated saets and SIPS and then just reattach the new items in the same way. You just need to make sure that the 'new' seats you put in are operational, especially on the SIPS front. :)

Later,
Dan.

so the answer is .... yes i should.
so yes i did, i pick it up on tuesday.

p.s. does anyone wanna buy a celica :)

[Dan F]

Cool! Let us know how it goes.

Make sure you treat your baby to Optimax!!

Dan.

[v6en]

I bought my S40 T4 last september and it's a tremendous car!
It looks and feels safe as houses but it's a veritable monster when your foot goes even halfway to the floor. The build quality is excellent and i've had no problems with it at all; i drive over 2000k per month and it's been totally reliable. Hope you're as happy with yours as i am ;)

jacq.