The car is now three years old and still looking pretty neat. I have put a lot of miles on the clock (22k and counting) simply because it is so much fun. Living in the Cotswolds, I am surrounded by such beautiful scenery so there are always places to go to see. I am also acutely aware that, as my personal odometer tripped over to 70 this year, I need to make good use of the time I have left when I am flexible enough to get in and, more difficultly, out of the car.
Insurance
It seems that in the world of insurance, there is no such thing as loyalty. Actually, the reverse – the longer you stay with an insurer, the more they will try to make money out of you. I now always check what deals I can get when it comes around to renewing the policy. And as a result, this year, I moved to a different insurer and saved about £100 as a consequence.
OK – not a huge amount in absolute terms but as a percentage of my premium, quite significant. And the added bonus they gave me an extra 1000 miles to drive the car. In the end I used some of that money to include breakdown recovery option and still ended up spending less than I would had I stayed where I was.
MOT
I have to admit this was a bit of a concern to me. Looking back at the IVA, I was reminded that the car had initially failed on the emissions, and I wondered if this might have got worse over time? No easy way to check that aspect of the MOT so I just hoped all would be fine. But I could at least check as much as I could – particularly little things like windscreen washers and wipers.
Although I rarely drive in the wet, I could see that the current windscreen wipers were past their best. I decided to buy some replacement wiper blades from Tex which were getting good reviews on the Caterham Club forum. Whilst they were much more substantial that the standard Caterham blades, they left wet patches in the middle of the screen. I decided to go back to the Morgan blades I have used in the past, and they work well. I saw a suggestion of using some shrink tubing to add extra fixity to the connection to the wiper arm which is a very quick and easy addition.
The Club forum also gathers recommendations from fellow owners about MOT centres that understand Caterhams. I decided to take the car to one on that list that was about 30mins from home.
In the end, I suspect I was worrying about nothing. The car passed the test with no issues.
Accessories
Over the last year I have invested in a dashcam and a proper showercap.
My 170S Build 