Thanks Lee, appreciate the good wishes from everyone on here.
I took the car back to them first thing this morning. They took it for a test drive and I rode shotgun. When the transmission was cold, it was perfect. Quiet and fluid with every gear change quick and smooth.
As soon as it warmed up, the clunking came back between 1 & 2. The transmission actually feels like it wants to burst up through the floor of the car. Worryingly, it also started clunking (albeit less violently) between 5 & 6.
The tech suspects either a solenoid, valve or the mechatronics. Whatever it is, it's going to need parts that can take between 3 and 10 days to arrive from ZF. During the test drive, he also told me that the transmission was very low on fluid when they received it - around 4 litres short! I have to say that I do wish they'd told me that while they still had the car. I know they probably didn't want to worry me but that kind of information would have warned me to be cautious with it. I asked for a ballpark figure for the repair and he guessed around £1200.
Rather than risk more damage to it, I thought it best to leave it with them, which left me a with a problem considering I was 400 miles from home. They were nice enough to offer me a lift to the airport, where I rented a car so I could get back home, stopping off at Sheffield for work along the way.
I left them my warranty details in the blind hope that the crappy warranty I got with the car is worth slightly more than the paper on which it's written.
As word broke at work about the car, I'm now facing cries of 'time to sell it'. Part of me agrees but on the other hand, it seems criminal to sell a car having spent as much as I have getting it to behave. Either way, I can't remember ever being this stressed about a car.
At some point, I'll have to catch a flight up to Glasgow and then drive the car home. I just hope they get it back before I go on holiday in August.
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