Things are looking up today. I get up at 7:15 and manage to go to BMW to pick up the seat cable, and get across to West End Tyres to have a new Bridgestone Potenza fitted to the M3’s spare, and get to work early. Brilliant. Also, on the way into work I manage to locate a mobile mechanic who says he’ll look at the rumbling noise tomorrow. Good good good!

In the evening I jack the right side of the car up, put the new tyre on the front, move the front to the rear, and put the damaged rim back in the boot as the spare. I like to put fresh tyres on the front as that’s where I want the most grip.

About 40 minutes sees the seat cable installed and the seat rebuilt and folding as it should. I remove the TomTom and stereo face et cetera in preparation for the car going to the mechanic in the morning. The list of issues is shortening now, just the rumbling noise, the central locking, the intensive wash, and perhaps the reluctance to start to investigate, but the car has been starting much better since I changed the plugs and fuel filter.