I've looked at these surveys before and they aren't representative. The sort of person that buys a Toyota Yaris or a Nissan Leaf regards reliability as does it start, does it go, does it stop. They will ignore the niggly things like leaking door seals, wind noise, strange noises, etc that someone who has bought a Range Rover wouldn't put up with. It's always the cheaper cars that come out on top as people accept that the car was cheap so isn't going to be perfect. Although I did see an L405 with the rear 3/4 panel held on with parcel tape the other day.

Amused that the Tesla came out bottom though.......

If that is the engine fitted to the early L322, I reckon it would work in a post-99, Thor engined, P38. Same. or at least very similar, Bosch Motronic ECU, so getting it to talk to the rest of the car shouldn't be too difficult (or even use the original P38 ECU?). It may even be possible to use the original ZF 4HP24 gearbox but even the L322 ZF 5HP24 may be able to be fitted to the rest of the running gear. A 280bhp P38 would suit me down to the ground, L322 performance with the relative simplicity (compared to an L322) and vastly superior looks of the P38..

Have you got space for a few basic tools and oddments like a roll of tape, binding wire, etc under the boot floor next to the spare wheel? Not exactly convenient to get to if the boot is full of other stuff but better than being stranded for something fairly minor. There's actually a decent amount of space under the rear seats too for thinner items.

I have a feeling that it needs to be powered up for something like a day to come out of wait mode. That would mean either a very long journey or leaving the car ignition turned on for a very long time, neither of which would be a good idea. You'll need to apply permanent power to the ignition switched supply and just leave it and hope it sorts itself out.

I'm running Delphi all round (came with the new discs) and no problems with them, plenty of bite and I haven't been able to get them to fade yet (even with a grossly overloaded 3.5 tonne trailer on the back).

Don't suppose you have another USB adapter to try, ones using the FTDI chipset are the most reliable. I've got a PCMCIA card to serial adapter that has never failed to connect to anything you are welcome to borrow if needed (if you laptop has a PCMCIA slot). Come to that, I've got an IBM Thinkpad with a docking station that gives a serial port too but it's probably a bit hefty to put in the post.

Easy bleed won't work...... You have to follow the process.

The black/blue connectors are rubbish and always leak. You can pull the collect out and fit a second O ring and they work then but only if you have spare O rings. I've used these https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/pneumatic-straight-tube-to-tube-adaptors/0812106/ and they are brilliant. Very slim so take up very little space and just don't leak.

I didn't mention the rest I carry, latex gloves, hand (and anything else) wiping rags, jump leads, tow rope and shackles, two gallons of water, litre of brake fluid, litre of ATF, spare bulbs and fuses and a couple of ratchet straps. Two Hi Viz vests live under the seat, as required in Europe (it has to be accessible from within the car) while the fire extinguisher and first aid kit are also in the boot. When I do my long distance continental journeys there's also a spare starter and alternator. As you can't bump start an auto, if your starter dies in the middle of nowhere, even if the rest of the car is perfect, you aren't going anywhere and with the reliance on electricity, a dead alternator will stop you too. Then there is my tool box with everything except the workshop only tools and, finally, a 3 tonne trolley jack.

Bugger, my old one was dumped at the side of the garage and the nearside cable was in good nick, it was the offside that was well worn. But, I moved house 6 weeks ago and, after taking the motor off, took the remains to the local dump. So I've got the motor and the glass but nothing else.

I keep a couple of metres of nylon pipe, a pipe joiner and 4 of the Schrader valve fillers in a poly bag in the boot as my emergency get me home kit. There's also a tyre compressor there anyway so I could manually pump it if needed. Never had to use it but it's there just in case. There's also a serpentine belt, a couple of bits of various sized coolant hose, hose clips, electrical and binding wire, PVC tape, tie wraps, assorted sized nuts and bolts and anything else that looks like it might come in useful. This lives in the wheel well next to the LPG tank along with my warning triangle I need for travel in Europe.

I don't use a USB adapter as I use an old Panasonic Toughbook with a serial port, but you do get a beep and the 35mph max as soon as it's connected (get the same when connecting to the EAS with Nanocom too). I would assume that the USB adapter being connected to the cable is putting a condition out that the EAS system sees and knows it's being interrogated.

It wouldn't with a connection, or rather lack of connection, like that, no power to the pump. I've not seen that personally but I have seen other people post similar pictures over on the other side. The pump draws a fair amount of current so if the connection is a bit iffy, there will be resistance there which will get hot. The hotter it gets the greater the resistance so will get even hotter still until you've got so much resistance that it can't pass sufficient current to run the pump. A bit of a bodge but even chopping the plugs off and using a big choc block would give a decent connection and sort it out.

One the rare occasions I've polished a car I've found that wax polish takes a lot of effort to polish off, it also leaves white marks if you get it on any of the black bits. Mer just wipes on and wipes off, the whole car can be done in under half an hour. It leaves the paintwork feeling smooth and shiny and rain beads up on it and just runs off. Can be used on the black bits too without leaving white marks. No idea if you can get it as a spray, I've only ever seen it in the distinctive blue bottles. There was some other stuff I used to use called Minute Cut (from the same people that did Minute Wax which I always thought was a contravention of the Trade Descriptions Act), that was like a chemical T Cut. Wipe it on, even if the car wasn't clean, wipe it off and it bought the colour back and left a nice shiny finish. I suspect it contained something that has now been outlawed as I haven't seen it in years.

Sounds like you may also have a sticky piston for one caliper to be locking on, how easily did they push in when you put the new pads in? Pedal going to the floor is not right, on a power system like we have the pedal is more pressure sensitive than movement sensitive. Bleeding as per the book would be the first place to start.

No pressure will give you a long pedal with virtually no feel and you need both feet on the pedal to stop the car. I would suspect bleeding will sort it. Then you just need to find out how air is getting in.

That would do the job the same as a Nano. Manually run the pump (assuming it runs) to build some pressure, clear the faults and send it to standard height.

Just read the first post again, if you've got a Nanocom you don't need a kicker. Just use the Nano to clear any faults. Even if the pump isn't running you can force it to run to fill the reservoir, clear the faults and it should come back to life.

Don't tell me the Nano isn't in the car?????

If the compressor isn't running, there's no pressure so a kicker won't do anything. It'll clear a soft or hard fault but if it isn't a software problem then you need to work out what the problem is. Check fuse 40 first as that feeds power to the pump. If you put a jumper in place of the relay (RL20, yellow relay next to the maxi fuses) and the pump runs then the ECU isn't telling it to turn on, most likely caused by the thermal switch has popped, or the relay has burnt out. Try swapping the relay with one of the others (windscreen heater is a good one to swap with as unlikely to be needed), that will rule out the relay. As said, shorting the orange and black wires will bypass the thermal switch if that is the problem. The ECU detects that the thermal switch is open and doesn't try to turn the pump on. Putting a jumper between those two wires will fool the ECU into thinking it is closed and cause it to start. If it doesn't run, then it is likely that the pump itself has burnt out although pretty rare. Ground the black wire and put power on the green and it should run

I assume by bypass you mean a wire link between orange and black wires to bypass the thermal switch? Gordon is in Glasgow (and David Hallworth too) so hopefully one or other will be able to help you.