October 2001
Did anyone else read an article in the Independent on Saturday regarding a new service offered by Kwik Fit called Car Scan whereby they will give your car an extensive check over for £59. It was described in the paper as equivalent of the pre-sale inspections you can get carried out by the RAC, AA etc and as a good thing to do as your new car warranty comes up for expiry to see if there's anything wrong which you could/should claim for under the warranty before it expires. KF have got the franchise for this country I think & will be offering the service in selected places.
At the moment it's only available in Dundee Street Edinburgh but the Independent said that it was worth the two hour drive from Newcastle, so impressed was their correspondent.
There were web links at the end of the article but I foolishly thought that the atricle would be on the Independent's website, but it isn't. There's a very short mention on the KF site & the Car Scan website - www.carscan.net is under construction.
What do people think, will it be used to drum up spurious business, a practice that fast fit centres run by some companies have been accused of in the past. Read more
Anyone got access to a "Trade Bible" Glass's guide? I am looking to buy my Picnic from Leaseplan but I get the feeling they over value the cars compared to what a dealer would charge for one, or what it would fetch at auction.
It is a Jan 98 S plate GLS Auto with CD 2.0 petrol, Met paint, 60K miles, FSH of course, and it has not been in any accidents or shunts. Windscreen has a few chips out of it, and there are a few stone chips on the body. It still runs well and has had one fault with the remote locking fixed under warranty.
Leaseplan gave me a figure of £9,800 and said that include an early return penalty so it would be a bit cheaper. What Car used price guide suggests it would be £1500 - £2000 less than that because of the mileage.
Cheers
Tim Read more
Interesting have noted that site down. I remember checking prices at www.parkers.co.uk and www.carprices.co.uk some time ago though!
Has anyone experience of buying/installing? To be fitted to a
1987 Mk2 Golf GTI 8v.
Any recomendations? My insurer says 'fitted with' (I have a 30 day period of grace), do they always insist on a certificated installation? I am electronics competent so it will not be a problem to install provide instructions are adequate. Custom and practice are what I am missing.
If I had bought with it already installed I am not sure a cert would have been avaialble. Read more
what i did was buy a toad rolling code immobiliser off yahoo auctions for £15, and then got a local toad fitter to fit it for £60, so i got an immobiliser for £75 including fitting, and that included the certificate.
always go for a rolling code, as that means that the thief cant read the code with a device that reads them, the one i have has about 1 billion code combinations.
I was just trying to get some information on Enfield Bullet motorcycles and stumbled across this marvellous site: www.cybersteering.com
It's an Indian car site - sort of a cross between Honest John and the Auto Trader. In the new cars section, take a look at the Hindustan Contessa - I'm sure I have seen that body shape before, only last time it had a Vauxhall badge on it (and holes in the sills). Read more
Excellent site! I note the equipment list of Contessa (Victor?!) includes 'heater' and 'cigarette lighter' and also the tech specs of both front and rear brakes are described as 'drum 232 mm'. Bet it makes for interesting driving!
How do I find out if a new car radio will just plug in to my Caviler 16v SRi ? Read more
Halfords sell a Connector Block which plugs directly into the wiring loom on Vauxhalls, they do them for most makes, The wires coming off this block are all colour coded so that you can match them up with the terminals on your new Head unit. makes the job easy - but they cost about 10 quid. I bought a few from a French hypermarket a couple of years ago which they were selling off for a quid each but these are for VW / Audi / Seat cars.
Good luck
I have always serviced and repaired all my previous cars. Now I own a more technically advanced car, I am a bit wary, especially as Haynes have not yet produced a manual. But as Ford quotes £160 for a 30000 mile service, I am tempted to have a go, especially as the service schedule looks pretty straightforward. Am I likely to run into any problems?
Many thanks. Read more
Many thanks for the replies. I will go ahead with the service, and look out for the manual (which is still not mentioned on the Haynes web site).
Car picked up a small crack (centre of passenger side) on Friday. Autowindsreens (insurance co's operator) are coming to repair/replace Monday. It's £60 excess for replacement, FOC for repair, so my cynical view is they will push for replacement. So - what is the max size that can be repaired, can a crack be repaired? It's only 1/2" long (at the moment, bound to spread?).
Thanks, Jack Read more
£60 excess is a good deal if you have a Jag S-type. Autocar's test Jag is now on its third windscreen, and the last one cost over £500 because of the built in rain sensor.
Wherever I go it seems that white cars seem to rust quicker, especially around the rear wheel arch area and door bottoms. I have seen quite a few 2-3 year old Fiestas and even Polos like this.
Is this due simply to the fact that white will show up rust easier as it does with muck, or could the mix of chemicals used to obtain the white colour make the bodywork less resistant to rust?
I can't understand why anybody orders a white car anyway as I don't think any model of car looks good in white, I would rather have the much maligned 'doom blue' colour! Read more
i used to have a mercedes van, i thought that because it was a merc it would be better rust treatment, but it started to rust at two years old, it only had a couple of dents, but these were treated quickly. and yes, it was white.
My partner's P-reg Rover 200 turbo diesel (67k on the clock) makes a grinding noise when she changes gear from second to third and from third to fourth, a noise that is not audible on any other gear change, even down the box between the same gears. Any clues as to what may be causing this? Read more
Are you sure this is a gearbox noise and not an exhaust resonance that occurs as the revs dip slightly between upshifts.
If not it does sound like a box problem and an exchange may be required.
Have you checked the oil level or thought about changing the oil as a cheap long shot?
David
I, like many of the rest of you, am not particularly impressed with the extortionate petrol prices in this country. Never a huge problem whilst I lived in London, I have now emigrated to the North West and have to use my car every day for work and clock up about 20k pa.
Now, LPG is a great consideration, particularly when you can get fully integrated cars (eg Vauxhalls+Volvos) these days - I am aware LPG does not run as efficiently volume-wise but I could in theory save about a third of my fuel bill a year which is still very tempting. I can't help but think that this is going to go the same way as diesel in a few years time (particularly if more people do invest in an LPG vehicle) and the government will start piling the tax on the gas.
My question to anyone who can answer it is, as LPG is surely just simple 'Calor' Propane (many filling stations have a big fillable cylinder same as people in the country do for storage!), is it possible just to either get some contraption to fill your car gas tank from (very cheap) "heating" gas bottles you can get from anywhere, or even perhaps run the car directly from a (securely mounted) cylinder in the boot? Read more
Earlier non-cat vehicles, such as a 1991 Mk2 Golf would normally convert to a system which doesn't use an oxygen sensor - but converting to a later type LPG system WITH a sensor gives much better economy. A non-cat vehicle converted to this setup has a sensor installed in the exhaust down pipe so that the latest type ECU can be used.
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Yes, I read the article. The important feature seemed to be that the checking was done by advanced hi-tech diagnosis as well as visual inspections. Sounded very plausible and impressive to me. However I tried the website but it's not up and running yet !