January 2002
Can it really be true that a replacement gas filled sealed headlight unit costs an eye watering £800 odd plus VAT? Read more
Buying new cars is a bit like smoking, I would not do it myself, but I am gald that others do as both keep my cost of living down, leaving me more cash for holidays, the children, bikes, houses and no need to work overtime to pay the HP on the car or to buy the fags.
Mind you if it was not for people like John Ford - Imported Golf V5s, I could not afford to run my two cars. My cars when new would have cost over £50,000 , I paid less then £6k for both.
Thay are each fully gavalanised, quite low milage, and I see ones like them advertised with 250,000 miles on the clock.
I could keep my two running for the next 10 years, they are big, fast, safe, don't rust and average 30 mpg if driven 'normally'
My thanks go out to their previous owners who bought them new and paid for their full dealer service histories.
New cars are simply not for the private motorist - its a mug's game - let some one else stand the 60%+ loss on a new car in 3 years.
Use the saved cash to pay a chunk off the mortage, or to go on holiday. This way you do not need to work overtime to pay off the HP on the car, or to buy the fags. The mortgage is paid off early, the kids have left home, start your retirement early, or work part time, or work beacuse you want to, not because you have to. Running a new car costs more than a mortgage {except in London perhaps}.
We only live once, better to run old cars and have time to enjoy life than to go to work for long hours simply to pay for a fast depreciating lump of soon to be scrap, parked up as you are working.
After all, about 4 millon people get a new car for free very couple of years. If that turns you on then get a job as a sales rep!!!!!
Alex Read more
You get my vote for a balanced view on this one, Brian T. I know I'm out voted, but I still say it's a treat to drive a new car away with 2 or 3 miles on the clock, knowing it's not been messed about with or clocked. We all do with our money what we choose. If it makes you feel good.......
KB.
Recently my car was stolen and recovered.
Its book price was around £1000
The damage was a 'screw drivered-ed' door lock and broken steering lock and cowl etc.
As our baby was due any day, never having claimed before and having full protected NCD, I decided to let the insurance company fix the car.
I was fully comp and a courtesy car was supplied. Two weeks later, the 'approved garage' 'phoned to say that the damaged would cost £1500 to fix and that the car was a 'write-off'. I had to return the courtsey car and collect my own car at my expense from their garage some 20 miles away.
They refused to transoprt my car back to my house, under legael advise {trade union legal dept} I refused to hand over the hire car until my car was returned. It worked.
A 90p touch up stick {for the paint by the door lock}, a new £80 steering lock, a cowl of a scrapper {£1.00} and about 3 hours of my time, saw my car {a 7 seater} back on the road {I and my family had struggled with the 3 door Micra for 2 weeks}.
The garage , as it was an insurance job, had wanted to remove all the trim from the driver's side of my car 9 year old car, respray all the side, fit new trim, replace all locks on the car {steering, both front doors, tailgate, petrol cap and glove box}, new steering colunm etc etc.
No wonder car insurance is so much.
I fixed the car mysely for less the £100 policy excess.
So much for trouble free fully comp peace of mind insurance when they do this to you.
Had the garage done what I had done, they would have got a few hundred pounds in work. Insted they got nowt - or is this a scheme set up by the insurance companiaes to prevent paying out ?
Alex Read more
Have you managed to find any?
I'm looking at buying an imported 5 door Golf V5 from Trade Sales. They expect a four week wait for delivery and quote around a 3 grand saving on the UK list price.
The specification quoted is as per the UK but doesn't have the automatic windscreen wipers (which I can live without), fitted CD / radio unit or alarm (but does have the immobiliser). They will upgrade the warranty to three years from the basic manufacturer warranty for 500 quid. The savings are impressive compared to shopping around and haggling at the local VW garages.
I keep cars until they fall to bits so an not worried about re-sales values etc. The small print such as 'we can only guarantee one key with the car' or 'there will only be a handbook if the vehicle arrives with one' concerns me. Should it and is there anything that I should beware of? as there is an old phrase that 'you get what you pay for'!
Many thanks for all advice! Read more
I take it you have vauxhalls then,
just spoke to a guy who's asking £3000 ono (will take £2500) for his Peugeot 406 LX 1.8DR N-reg, with 65k on clock. Full service history at Peugeot main dealers, all the gizmoes inside. Says he is selling because of free company car. He has is own receipt for the 406 and it cost him £4200 6 months ago!
is there a catch, could it be clocked? How can i be sure about what the Service book says?
thanks Read more
I've got a V reg 2.0 406 (personal import from Holland) and am generally happy with it (although make sure you brake it hard every now and then to clean off the rear discs - see HJ's bad points for this model - Just had mine replaced at 40,000 service and it cost me £300). I would agree that it could make use of a little more power, although it will get up and go if you let it come up to 4500 rpm or so before changing up.
I have a couple of apparently conflicting problems with my old Saab 9000 - dim headlights & burnt out dip switches! Perhaps someone can shed some light (if you'll pardon the pun).
I have been having problems over the last three years with the dip switch failing on a 1987 9000i. The last one I fitted was new/genuine saab, but only lasted 6 months. The symptom is that, when you pull it up to go from dip to main, it will not hold main beam & drops back to dip when you release the switch. I have now had 4 of these switches. It appears to be a mechanical problem in the switch, but it has been suggested to me that it could be due to the contacts burning out in the switch due to excessive currrent. Could it be a relay problem causing excessive current to go through it? The relay on this model is a simple single pole, one set of contacts feeding power to both main & dip through the switch.
The conflicting part is that the car suffers from dim headlamps - good pattern, nice spread etc but not very bright. So, thinks I, I will spend some money on the Phillips VisionPlus bulbs. But having fitted them, they have made little difference to the light on the road. They look bright enough but the light shed still isn't great. I have stripped the headlights & cleaned the glass inside (not touched the reflectors obviously). The reflectors still look nice & shiny although with a smidge of bloom (hey, at 15 years old & 194k, what do you expect?).
Another possibly relevant fact is that on both headlamo connectors, the plastic has melted slightly round the earth lead. I have tried taking a direct earth feed from the headlight to the battery negative - no difference.
The poor old girl is worth peanuts, so I don't really want to spend a fortune at the main dealer getting this sorted (if indeed there is a problem). Anyone out there any ideas??? Read more
Interesting idea but wouldn't do much for the interior aesthetics - besides, being swedish, I'd have to fit an Ikea switch.
Good idea with the direct battery connection for pos and neg, will try this morning.
This number is from Number Six's car in "The Prisoner".
Does it exist?
MM Read more
I shouldn't be too concerned with what appears on the New-reg website. As I mentioned above, I've had a few numbers which, according to New-reg, have never been issued but I've been driving since around 1995.
The next port of call should be to contact DVLA via their vehicles home page. It may be that the plate could be released at an auction - one type is reasonable, the other can be very expensive.
I am feeling increasingly guilty about not changing the hydraulic tappets on my 20V Audi Coupe. One of the guys at work commented on it the other day. So far I have been put off by the horrendous mechanical complexity (2 camshafts, 20 valves, belt drive to one cam and then a chain drive to the other one). Has anyone done a tappet change on the 20V engine, and is it a DIY job? The Haynes manual is a little vague. The car could also use a new set of shock absorbers, so I'll probably take it off the road for a while, and buy a cheap car (NOT Martin Glover's Peugeot 309) to keep me mobile while I sort out the Audi at a leisurely pace. Read more
My Audi 100 5cyl 2.0E - rattly tappets at 80,000......'they all do it, squire - leave it alone'. It disappears when warm, still wonderfully smooth and using only around 800mls per 10,000 now at 147,000. Different viscosities seem to make no difference. Wise advice!
It is usually recommended that brake fluid is changed every 2 or 3 years. When my car is serviced by the main dealer, they check the fluid boiling point. The latest service on my 3 year old Focus says the boiling point is 196 deg C, with a minimum allowed of 155 Deg C.
So is there any need to change the fluid every 3 years if the boiling point is OK?
Many thanks,
Pete Mansell Read more
Pumping new fluid in at the top while releasing it at the wheel cylinder is not bleeding, as there is no air to bleed. So the potential difficulty of bleeding out all the air does not really arise. Simply pump out fluid at each nipple in turn until it runs clear.
I agree with the other posters - a wise precaution, and the regular freeing of the bleed nipples pays off. When you round off a seized up one, or snap it off, you certainly curse the false economy of "leave and forget".
The starter motor turns the engine, but no firing occurs. When jump leads where attached it turned slightly better and with a bit of gas sounded like it was juuust about to kick into life but never did. Is this a common problem with my 7 year old car with an easy solution?
Simon Read more
Simon,
David is right about the rotor arm, especially if it the original type with a metal sleeve internally - the latest spec is all-plastic adn insulation faults are less prevelant.
The other common starting problem with these is basically a lack of compression,and a cold compression test might be a good idea. The valves are quite prone to carbon build-up (there is now a modified "carbon-break" valve available with a notch cut into the stem to reduce carbon deposits, but this is obviuosly a head re-build job) and combined with the rich cold-start mixture this can result in poor seating. Hydraulic tappet "jack-up" can also occur, especially if oil changes are neglected or too heavy a grade of oil used - Rover spec is 10/40, I use a 10/30 or semi-synthetic 10/40 after using a flushing agent every oil change. If your's does have a valve seating problem you can sometimes overcome it by introducing a good 25-30ml of engine oil into each pot, refitting plugs and then cranking the engine briefly - the hydraulic effect of the oil pushed the valves shut. Then remove plugs, spin engine to evacuate cylinders of unburnt fuel & oil, fit new plugs and try again. essential to have good cranking rpm, so fully charge the battery. DON'T OVERDO THE OIL, AS A TOTAL HYDRAULIC LOCK WILL DAMAGE ENGINE - we are insured for this sort of thing, and it is a matter of skill and experience!!
Before embarking on all this you should consider the cost of a professional diagnosis, as it could save you in the long run.
Good luck, Adam
Browse
If you buy ten or so headlights, does the rest of the car get chucked in for free?