Undercarriage wash

Despite formally not being a car-owner since May 2025, I look after the Octavia (in papers a company car, under a subsidized scheme, due to be purchased well below its market value in March 2027) as it was mine. It had the oil changed after first 1,683 kilometres, then after 1 year with 11,201 kilometres on the clock and then had a full service after nearly 2 years and 18,502 kilometres. It was supposed to be a family car, yet life has verified my plans, but a sizeable estate car has proven useful in Szlachetna Paczka, facilitating moving (friends relocating from one flat to another) and surprisingly frequently it carries 4 persons on board.

The lesson learnt when selling the Megane after 14 years is that no matter how perfect the car might be in terms of mechanics, its softest spot is the undercarriage, not seen every day, not making itself felt until something cracks up, eaten up slowly by rust. Some time ago I read statistics a typical Polish car whose last road is to a scrapyard, ends it useful life due to damage done by rust so such extent that a vehicle is no longer roadworthy and does not pass the MOT. Factory protection of bodywork is decent, but when it comes to the "invisible" chassis, this is where savings in designing cars not built to last are made. Polish road clearance winter practices only speed up the pace in which rust wreaks havoc to cars' undersides. Amounts of salt poured on roads do not correspond with depth of snow cover on roads. As a driver I would prefer to see the snow mechanically removed, as it is done in northern Scandinavia and use of salt to be constrained to ice or freezing rain which are a factual threat to traffic participants.

To make a vehicle long-lasting, a separate anti-corrosion layer ought to be put on its undercarriage soon after driving out of a showroom gate. As this costs some money, Octavia, formally not mine, has not had it done, but as I have found out, after 3 years first spots of rust might still be cracked down on and the protective cover still can be applied (albeit the operation will be more expensive).

By the time it happens, but afterwards too, an undercarriage wash after winter is a fix. To do it properly, a vehicle needs to be lifted on a car jack and washed with dedicated chemicals and then flushed. I found only one car wash in Warsaw which does it well, but comparing how dirty the undercarriage was ahead of the wash and how clean it was after, I do not regret any of one hundred seventy nine zlotys spent on it (and some twenty zlotys forked out for petrol to the other end of Warsaw and back).

I hope those treatments will help Octavia be a durable car to keep me company for some two decades. I realise driving will get more expensive with petrol prices going inevitably up, but on the other hand, I drive it sparingly and the car is amazingly frugal beyond town. For the record, between my last long-distance journeys, i.e. from 4 March to 19 April I drove merely 337 kilometres. On 21 April on its way back from a workshops somewhere in Dolny Śląsk, the odometer hit 20,000 kilometres. Fuel consumption with 4 persons (3 passengers and me) on board and their luggage with 120 km/h on tempomat: 5.8 litres per 100 kilometres. No SUV nor a crossover, by dint if their weight and dimension, could boast of such low appetite for petrol on a motorway!

Buy cheap, buy twice

A long time ago I heard a woman who could be ranked among lower-middle class (in Poland there are no standards of social stratification, hence such assignment was purely judgemental) claiming she “could not afford to buy cheap stuff”. At that time I thought she was showing off she could afford some decent items to make up for her inability to buy more expensive durable goods, such as more comfortable dwelling. With hindsight, I recognise the wisdom in such attitude.

The musings should begin with a question whether there is a positive correlation between price and quality. I would argue it exists, yet not really strong. If you buy expensive items, you might be let down by their poor quality, yet if you buy cheap items, it is far more likely the cost of acquiring them reflects their shoddiness. There are bargains you might chase, but laws of economics remain unwavering – products or services of high quality might be attractively priced only for a short time, then the market will drift towards equilibrium.

With age (and rising earnings) I lean towards buying more expensive durable goods and my higher disposable income is not a core reason. I like using stuff for several years, I realise such consumer habits are good for the planet, I detest producing rubbish and I generally dislike shopping, so if I buy something that serves me for many years, it saves me hassle which replacing a defective or worn-out item involves. Besides, the comfort of using quality stuff is usually higher. Such approach requires a larger initial expenditure. As I point out, I pay more up-front, but over years I do not spend more money by replacing one shoddy item with another. Quite sadly, the initial outlay is the biggest barrier for the poorer who for financial reasons are stuck in a vicious circle of buying cheap stuff: furniture which fall apart after a few years, clothes which look like rags after a few washes, etc.

One would say it is contrary to manufacturers’ interest to put out durable objects, as capitalism is driven by ongoing, never-ending demand. Bosch brand, being a symbol of quality gives lie to this. My dishwasher has never let me down over 7 years. By dint of high quality, I have come by a driller, a universal brush, a wire detector and a washing machine, all manufactured by Bosch, which since decades has been a renowned producer of reliable and durable machinery. It earns on clients recurring to buy a different product, not to replace an item they bought a few years ago.

In purely economic terms, the strategy of buying expensive items does not always make sense, especially when quality does not go together with practical properties of an item or if you are going to use an item once in a blue moon. In the latter situation, sharing economy should be the answer, nevertheless despite some progress, Poland still lacks a well-organised platform for renting / borrowing stuff (such as tools used once a year or less often).

Megane hit 100,000 kilometres

On 2 August 2023 my Megane III reached a milestone – after twelve years and one month in service its odometer hit 100,000 kilometres. Such mileage is usually reached far earlier, yet if you use a car only if necessary, six-digit readout appears once a vehicle grows older.

The car has been with my family since driving out of dealership showroom. My parents bought it brand-new in July 2011 and they used it for more than five years sparingly for driving around town and intermittent long-distance trips. After more than five years, as my old car was turning less reliable, my parents opted for a new vehicle and handed over their (donated) Megane III to me. The car had just under 30,000 kilometres on the clock at that time.

For around the first year of its usage, it served me for daily commutes to the underground station, but after I moved to Warsaw, I switched to a routine of using it on average two or three times a week, for at least mid-distance journeys and long trips.

I have taken down dates it hit the previous milestones:
- 30,000 kilometres on 14 November 2016 (just upon the handover),
- 40,000 kilometres on 17 November 2017 (a trip to Berlin and Wrocław, to Mazury along the way),
- 50,000 kilometres on 18 August 2018 (trips to Toruń, Bielsko-Biała, Mazury, Vienna, Slovenia and Bratislava, Wrocław along the way),
- 60,000 kilometres on 22 August 2019 (a trip to Dolnośląskie along the way),
- 70,000 kilometres on 15 December 2020 (a trip to Bieszczady along the way),
- 80,000 kilometres on 12 February 2022 (a trip to the seaside along the way),
- 90,000 kilometres on 23 December 2022 (trips to the seaside and to Wisła twice along the way),
over the last 10,000 kilometres trips to Wisła, skiing to Jakuszyce and Prague, Wisła for the long weekend in May, Wisła and Bieszczady in early June and Wisła in July. Note out of 10,000 kilometres driven over seven months nearly 6,000 were driven in long-distance trips.

The car hardly ever sits in traffic jams and is very seldom used for short-distance (below five miles) journeys. With such driving habits the car’s condition remains impeccable. Wear and tear makes itself felt, but part replacements are predictable and do not suck a hole in my wallet. Only the air conditioning has been going bonkers recently and I fear it might be the first costly defect. Given the rising prices of brand-new cars, the car has not depreciated since 3 years – I estimate its resale value at PLN 25,000, yet for a while I am not going to check it out.

I realise given the car’s age (not a mileage), the days of its reliability might be numbered, so I am slowly thinking of a replacement, which would be probably a reliable petrol-fuelled compact estate car, bought brand-new and intended to be kept going for more than a decade too!

Off to Czech Republic to cycle around Moravian wineyards. A write-up with photos due in 2 weeks.

A farewell to old, good Nokia :(

1 December 2014 will go down in the history (of this blog) as the day when my Nokia 3110 Classic gave up the ghost. I bought the handset on 25 March 2008 and for six years and eights months it had served me almost beyond reproach. Much more reliable and much more durable than mobile phones produced these days, the Nokia would keep me company and had not been spared endurance tests. Over those years the Nokia survived being dropped several times (and went unharmed), withstood lying exposed to strong sunlight in temperatures exceeding +40C and unlike other phones remained totally indifferent when used in below –20C frost.

In the last two months the phone began to give first warning signs of the forthcoming end of its service. It crashed after being switched on and I had to wait some ten minutes before the phone returned to life, from time to time it also tended to lose network coverage and I had to shake it to help aerial catch the signal again. Despite those flaws I admit to have been too attached to the phone to think of replacing it with a less obsolete one. I am not fond of gadgets and the Nokia offered me everything I expect from a phone…

Then the fateful day came. On Monday evening I hooked in the phone to charge it up and after two hours I noticed it did not draw electricity from the charger. I grabbed the phone, but it did not react when I pressed any button. I called my number from the company phone, but it turned out my number was unavailable. I took off and put in the battery and turned it on again, waited until ten minutes when the phone is not responsive elapsed. The phone reacted only to numerical keys and had its menu accessible via navigation keys. I took the opportunity to recover all the notes I kept in it. Pressing menu and dialling keys resulted in the phone crashing for good. I tried to work out whether it was not the SIM card and sought many causes of the breakdown, but eventually gave up. Life of the phone naturally came to an end. Unexpectedly and swiftly, the Nokia let me down once, but properly.

Corpo smartphone unfortunately does not offer dual-SIM functionality, so I had to resort to the only unused handset I have in my drawer, namely Sony CMD-J70, “vintage” 2001. In 2007 I urged my friend not to throw out the phone his just then departed mother had used for six years and for seven years it has served as substitute phone when my parents’ phones (both low-end Nokias) were under warranty repairs or to me as a second phone, before I moved my number to Play. Sony had been idle for many months, so the battery perked up after some ten minutes since being plugged in to the charger. I have used the phone for six days and although the handset offers excellent quality of calls, writing messages on it (it traces back to times when T9 dictionaries were unknown) is a veritable nuisance and the phone does not read messages sent from newer traditional phones (oddly enough those sent from smartphones come through).

My first choice on what to buy was Sony Xperia E Black. At first glance it was not the newest model (it premiered in March 2013), but reasonably priced, seemingly durable and with lots of functionalities. The other day in the office it turned out my team-mate has that model and he complains about it. He handed me the handset and allowed to play with it for a while. When I took it into hand and saw how crappy devices it indeed was and then ran a thorough search on its quality on forums, I cancelled my order placed in the Internet shop I use to buy consumer electronics. I always choose cash payment when I pick up ordered stuff in collection point, so the resignation did not involve claiming back money, yet it has left me without a decent, normal phone (it lacks keypad locking feature which means it can initiate a call while kept in a pocket!) before a three-day business trip.

Actually reading Internet forums on handsets (one should make allowances for their contents, since many of the grumbles are written by people with exorbitant expectations) prompted me to revise my needs and expectations towards the new phone. I use the corpo smartphone, but actually am not fond of it, nor impressed by it. The corpo-phone has some limitations in scope of usage (restrictions on multimedia messages, downloading applications, private e-mails and social media), but apart from it I can have 1GB monthly data transfer to use up when I need to check something or to read some news or article and has built-in, though slow, GPS. I will gladly make do without a touchscreen and prefer a traditional QWERTY keyboard. I will appreciate reliable and durable, decently assembled phone with solid battery. It does not have to be fancy, I do not need it to swank about, it has to serve me well and meet my modest needs.

Finally I have made up my mind for Nokia Asha 302. The model was released in February 2012 and for this reason is not readily available in every bigger shop with consumer electronics, but garners excellent opinions from its users. Nokia Asha 302 was also the main company phone back at the Employer (I did not have one on account of not being eligible for company phone) and my colleagues, counting out those who expected too much, were satisfied with it. The only problem with it is that it takes some trouble to purchase it. I learnt it was available in Nokia shop in Żoliborz, but yesterday I could not afford to spend two hours to drive there to pick it up in person. Tomorrow I will check out whether any of the other two Nokia shops, in Śródmieście and in Ursynów, has any Asha 302 in stock. I sincerely hope they have some and price does not diverge from 248 PLN (superb price-quality trade-off) I was quoted by the Żoliborz outpost.

The thoughts on the phone could be put into broader perspective of critical assessment of unbridled consumerism and how most people relish on fancy stuff. Hard to deny, pursuit of only newer and more swanky goods also underlies economic growth and gives jobs to people, but when staring into the screen of the posh smartphone, it is important not to lose sight of other people…

Meg - the first decade gone by

Some two weeks ago I was scoffed at, by my somewhat older female workmates, for sticking to my almost six-years-old, always reliable, Nokia 3110 Classic and not upgrading to an all-the-rage smartphone / iPhone or whatever else a modern corpo-lemming needs to swank. I refuted their half-jocose, half-serious remarks with a question how long their previous devices worked before packing up. Unsurprisingly, one said her previous smartphone had cracked after hitting table surface after being dropped from the height of 20 centimetres, the other’s iPhone had broken down after a few months from purchase, helpless technicians hadn’t known how to fix it and eventually she’d had it replaced under warranty with another shitty iPhone which even doesn’t have a removable battery. Since early 2008 when I purchased my Nokia, it has never let me down. A few times over that time it crashed and I had to turn it off and on, a few times it lost signal and needed a restart, but except for those minor incidents, the handset worked like a clockwork and nothing seems to indicate its end is near. Of course given its age it can conk out any time, but if it happens, I’ll have a justification to buy a better device, probably a low-end smartphone.

The other story is that they also asked me how I can live without access to internet in my mobile phone. Well, the real life is offline and may it stay so. I don’t keep track of the ever-accelerating world and don’t follow my friends on facebook incessantly and don’t miss it. It’s simply healthier not to be in a debilitating state of continuous partial attention… Is it something worth missing out on?

How I’ve used my phone and why I’ve not upgraded to a state-of-the-art device is the essence of my policy towards consumer durables. I generally:

- buy only brand new stuff,

- choose items of good quality, with as many features as I need to have (why paying for gadgets I won’t use?),

- take care of the stuff so that they serve me longer than their built-in obsolescence,

- get rid of them and replace with new when their wear and tear justifies it.

Such should be also the way of handling probably the most expensive consumer durable – a car…

As a matter of principle I wouldn’t buy a used car. Supply of used cars in Poland is limited by low number of sold new cars (many of which serve as company cars which doesn’t bring a good testimony of their condition after a few years of use), so used cars come to Poland from its western neighbours. Given how much I heard and read of crooks trading in used cars, I’d never buy one. Well-maintained used cars are:

- either not for sale, because due to price homogeneity market values them almost at the par with their rickety counterparts, hence owners to well-maintained cars have no motivation to sell them,

- if they are sold, the new owner will be someone from family or friends of an old car owner or a car trader, which brings about negative selection…

With a brand new car you get the producer’s warranty, new technologies and clean history of the vehicle. It does depreciate over the first years rapidly, but why should you care if you plan to keep that car going for 10 – 15 years? You use the car properly, have it serviced at regular intervals, parts which wear out and engine oil are changed when due and the car should serve you for 10 – 15 years. Then comes the moment when each, even the best car, becomes less reliable or simply requires more money sunk to keep it going. Even if repairs are not expensive, you need to take the trouble to find a cheaper spare part, pick it up and have it replaced. So after all there comes the moment to part company with the old car without regrets and buy a brand new car that should serve you years. Provided in the era of built-on obsolescence the newly produced car are that durable... Time will tell…

The reason why I write it all is that today is the 10th anniversary of the day when my car was purchased. As a young driver I’ve been in the luck of having my first car neither purely brand-new (not recommendable for beginners behind the wheel), nor purely used. My parents signed it over to me two years ago when my father decided he wanted a new car. Probably hadn’t it been for my need (a proper word, maybe I should write ‘whim’) to have a car, he would’ve driven it for some time more, but given the circumstances, the choice was obvious…

After 10 years the car still looks well and holds up well. Engine and transmission are in superb condition, bodywork and some of auxiliary elements signify their wear and tear (although there is no trace of rust!). To the right – snapped on 18 June 2013 after a wash and some polishing ;) Maybe not like driven out of showroom, but as for a decade-old vehicle, looks splendidly.

The car:

- has never had a collision on the road, although has scratches and one repaired dent after too close meeting with objects other than other vehicles,

- has never broken down on the road to the extent it had to be towed away to a garage on a trailer and never has it failed to start,

- has always been serviced by Renault dealership’s garage (a bit more expensive, but as long as you prove you know the onions and keep tabs on mechanics, they won’t rip you off) and most of the time parked in a garage,

- when I was behind the wheel endured temperatures (thermometer readings) from –24C (cold start, not just driving out of garage into such temperature) to +36C and tomorrow the latter record stands a chance of being tomorrow, when heat wave that has come over Poland is about to reach its zenith),

- over 10 years had 6 breakdowns of auxiliary elements (in a French car inevitable), out of which 3 over the 3rd year of usage and 2 over the last year (total cost of unplanned repairs over the last year: slightly less than 500 PLN) and 2 minor breakdowns of engine / transmission – related elements (cost of repair below 1,000 PLN each time),

- at the moment has a mileage of 59,693 kilometres.

The odometer reading is the effect of simply using the car only when necessary. As I counted, the car had 13 longer trips (> 100 kilometres to a destination) which contributed to some 10,000 kilometres of mileage, the rest driven near Warsaw. My general principles are:

- if the distance to cover is too short to let the engine heat up, there’s no point in starting it – engine and other elements wear out most before working temperatures is reached (for the same reason I don’t understand why people cherish low-mileage car from someone who used it only on short distances – what’s the percentage of mileage driven with warm engine?),

- in Warsaw, unless justified, the car should be left by the nearest underground station and then public transport should be taken,

- when weather permits and I don’t go to work, I use a bicycle…

The plan now is to use the car as long as it is reliable. Given its age, frequent breakdowns may begin to plague before long, but I hope to enjoy at least two years of problem-free usage. And then – option one is another car for years, but preferable is the second option – a company car. Even if I had to pay for petrol from my own pocket, it would spare me depreciation, servicing, repairs, insurance and other car-related expenses, which at the end of the day are… money down the drain.