Spent yesterday delivering my eldest daughter to university for the first time. She had dismantled her room to be transported and reassembled in Norwich, we just managed to cram everything in my Audi 100 saloon, by using 75% of the back seat too!

She is bound to acquire more possessions so I am anticipating problems when it comes to clearing her room at the end of term, plus this will be on going for the next five years.

Short of buying a Transit van, or taking two cars each time, I?d interested to hear suggestions of a suitable low cost vehicle to acquire, it?s a five hour 300 mile round trip to uni so reliability and economy are important too! Read more

Caught a snatch of the news yesterday about Ford investing in a new/existing production facility as a high tech diesel engine factory.

The reporter said Ford was making this investment as it regarded diesel as "the" fuel of the future.

Ten years ago I thought diesel fuel was encouraged by our "leaders", recently less so......are we going the other way again?

David Read more

Going to order a Leon 1.6 tomorrow as my company car. Looked around at some of the alternatives for the price and none really meet my needs -6ft 5 and size 13 shoes! - smaller cars really aren't big enough to cover 17,000 per annum in comfort. Just thought I'd check with you guys that there wasn't anything 'better' that I should consider. Also any pointers about what colour to go for -tempted towards the black.

Thanks! Read more

People, everything is getting a little bit silly here, and for what its worth I would like to post some of my thoughts about the varieties of behavior we see within the Backroom.

People out and out lying is difficult to stomach. It?s certainly juvenile and without doubt pointless. I don?t understand why someone would do this, nor do I understand what satisfaction they would get from it. Nonetheless it?s happening. The only conclusion I can come to is that its like an attention starved child and the goal is to provoke a reaction, even a negative reaction, as if in some way this reaction and attention provides a feeling of self-worth. However, its pathetic rather than offensive.

There is clearly only one way to deal with this ? ignore it and fail to react. Irritating I know, but without doubt the stupid behavior would eventually stop since it would become pointless and worthless to the writer.

The other thing we see here is the seagull writer. Lacking in content and posted by bored school children, who drop in notes to appear witty and clever, but then disappear until the next ?shining wit? comes along. It?s a sense of humor most of us haven?t heard since school, but its only silly, not really troublesome. More laughable than anything else.

Again, the best method is to totally ignore it and whilst it will never go away, it becomes a very low-level activity.

Then we have the people we totally disagree with. I would take CW as an example. I doubt if I have managed to agree with anything he has said in the entire time he has posted here. But I do have to say that on rare occasion he is amusing, and slightly more often he is thought provoking. Those times he raises my interest I reply, when he doesn?t, I don?t. But you know, he is adding something, even if its something you don?t want to see. You can ignore some posts without judging the entire site. A qualification for participating is not whether someone else likes or agrees with you.

Although, CW if you have been abusing people off-line, that truly is pathetic. On the other hand, if you really have received the e-mails you say you have, that is equally pathetic.

Everything else is interesting, valuable and frequently educational. Even at the difficult times, the "good" stuff has continued even if it is slightly swamped by the other.

One of the things that has to be avoided is any level of ?clique-iness? or ownership. It is supposed to be a forum for a variety of subjects whatever the issue, provided in someway it has a motoring link, even if somewhat weak. It isn?t necessary to read everything and it isn?t necessary to find everything appealing or agreeable.

If we want it to be simply question and answer about technical motoring difficulties, then opinion has no place. However, if we want it to be an interactive and interesting discussion, opposing and conflicting opinions are needed, including stupid, baseless ones.

It is ridiculous that any one person or group of people can have so much effect without being malicious. And insofar as I have seen, we don?t have anyone malicious contributing.

All in all, its s good site. I contribute to it and I know stuff-all about cars, except mine always break and its never my fault and its always at the worst moment. Still, I know some other stuff which I hope is interesting.

I?ve learned here and enjoyed it. So lets all of us not get too anal about it and at least try to live and let live. We all have opinions about the most valuable and interesting contributors, and I know that I pay more attention to them ? people come, people go, but if we?re good, the Backroom will remain a constant.

You surely have to admit that CW?s Lada is good for a laugh if nothing else.

Certianly in the world of effort and gain, this place is till one of the most enjoyable I read.

I would be interested in Martyn?s and HJ?s thoughts.

Going back in my box,

Mark. Read more

Now - I know I don't like cold mornings but nor does my car either it seems. It's a 1997 Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, and after standing it runs very 'lumpy' at first, after a couple of miles the problems gone.

The lumpy running is like poor throttle response, and jerkiness.

Can anyone suggest what a mechanical novice like myself can check /clean/twiddle or whatever.

Thanks Read more