Another friendly recommendation for the lads at AA, the mighty Fiesta went in a couple of weeks ago with a couple of punctures on both front tyres... as I'd worn these through in under 4 months you can understand I'm a little worried about something being wrong. Lo and behold, there was! Top suspension mount on driver's side, lower arms on both meant my tyres weren't really gripping the road, so much as bouncing along with the abrasive power of sandpaper.
Despite being snowed under at the time, they took the car in as soon as they could, slapped some new tyres on so I could be on my way, and ordered the replacement parts. A couple of days later the car was back in being fitted - and awesome stuff, the lower arm on one side wasn't as bad as originally thought so wasn't replaced!
Upshot of this? My fuel efficiency has shot right up and the car's even more awesome to drive. Again, lack of experience meant I didn't know anything was amiss(specifically, a tendency to slightly drift from line to line on the motorway; I'd put it down to being a green driver and crosswinds) but the usual test up to J14 and down to J13 convinced me otherwise. Pulls a lot easier too as the engine's not fighting as hard to keep things moving!
So in a couple of weeks, as a preventative measure I've got the mighty beast booked back in to do the other side. It's cheap enough, so why not?
And in other news, top job of fitting the new speakers to the doorcards and repairing that passenger-side external door handle. The speakers pump out a good quality sound but rattle the doors a bit at higher volumes(that's next on the "improvements" list, sound deadening in the doors maybe?) and the handle works as Ford intended.
TL; DR - AA are top as always. +1 guys, +1.