Yes, chuffed and relieved to say all went pretty well, thanks for all the advice.
Local bus turned up on time, but Flixbus was a good 20 minutes late turning up. Good, reduces 3 hour wait at Bercy … except we arrived at Bercy on time! London bus left on time, surprisingly long wait for ferry, given frequent departures Calais - Dover. Arrived Victoria station around 8.00am though, schedule was 7.25 … but I’m now thinking 7.25 was 7.25 French time. Picked up prebooked ticket, train to Clapham then Woking, taxi from there to Chobham to collect my car.
They knew I wanted to drive it away, eventually back to France. Battery flat, needed boost to start. Ran then for 10 seconds then died. No petrol. Put petrol in, starts. Clutch won’t release. Mechanic comes round and sorts that. Eventually drive off, deciding to drive to Banstead as quickly as possible. Concerned that green light on dash still lit, ammeter not working. Briefly ran a bit rough on M25, thought of stopping to investigate, but fortunately it cleared. Off M25, keen to add fuel. Hmmm. Let it out of gear, stopped engine. Pressed starter button … nothing. Battery flat, not being charged. Still rolling, bump started fine. Arrived at friends house … find alternator drive belt missing.
Into Croydon today, bought 4 new belts … first of probably many purchases!
But mainly drugs and ABH and car crime? As a life long Londoner (until I left) crime is just around you and you learn to try to avoid it. Or go and live in the home counties or somewhere less gritty.
To be fair, the crime problems (from what I remember) are predominantly in centre, west and easy Croydon. South Croydon was sort of OK and North Croydon is Thornton heath.
As it has a dedicated drive belt for the alternator, narrows it down… I only know older cars with small block Chevy and Ford motors that do this. But as the car has a starter button and not a warning light showing lack of charge - then my 5€ is on a kit car. Maybe an ubiquitous Cobra rep..?
