April 2002
I may have asked this before, but how many miles can you expect to get from a Corolla 1.4 VVTi before it starts becoming economically unviable to repair?
I'm trying to cost out my wife's car which does 30,000 miles per year and is used entirely for business purposes. So far there have been no problems with it apart from the usual bum luck things - burst tyres and someone reversing into it (in fact, it was one of her customers - was that embarrassing, or what!).
I'm assuming that we'll keep to the service schedule and replace old parts with new. What tends to go first? Gearbox, engine, steering etc? Read more
I recently purchased a car which had been sitting off-road for some months in need of repair. The VED disc was not in the vehicle. I registered the car in my name and have now got the new V5. The vehicle is still not ready for the road and won't be for a few more weeks. How do I make a SORN declaration with the the LVL office. Is there a form available or will a letter suffice? Read more
I got it down OK and printed...
Perhaps your printer needs a dose of Millers, Andrew?
:-)
Forgive me if this is an old chestnut--I have looked--honest.
Is it still the case (was it ever the case ) that Xantias prefer Michelins.
Does anyone have good experience of other brands ?
My rears need replacing after 60000 miles `cos there are bits of cotton thread stuff flapping around.
No no sorry got carried away there.
T I A
Tone Read more
Ah. Well, I probably just meant 'directional' then - or is that the same thing?
Hi everyone,
I'm off to Corsica in June and am looking to hire a car to whisk me around. Does anyone have any experience of hiring cars here (from Banfacio), is there anything to watch out for and any compaines to recommend?
I've heard that with the mountain roads I need a small car, but as there's four of us and all the luggage that might not be an option - would a Laguna be too big for the mountain roads?
Is there anything I should watch out for in the hiring, or special deals I could hope to get?
Any advice, as ever would be much appreciated.
Lee.
mail the gallery. Read more
Just relax and enjoy. The mountains ain't that big in Corsica, it's just the roads that are a bit narrow (no more than in northern Scotland) and precipitous only in places. I see one local site in Bonifacio offering Vitara 4x4s with aircon so presumably not open top but at £300 a week I think it is too much to pose.
Have a good time.
David
After owning an R 98 306 TD estate for 51K over 32 months without a murmer, i decided to change to another. This time an X 00 306 HDI Meridian in lush moonstone blue. BAD MOVE. I really like the estate and thought i could get around 3 years trouble free motoring from it. With only 18K showing, its been in the workshop 4 times.To get its rain sensitive wipers put right,twice,(one visit gained a new wiper motor),and twice for brakes judder. I first visited with the juddering brakes at 6K when i had just bought the car. Everything seemed fine until last week with a blast up to Scotland from Ripon. Yes the judder was back! Today, my Pug dealer has raplaced the front discs as they where too thin,(under warrenty) but wants £130 plus vat to do the rear discs. Normally they would have done the job but Pug only last month said discs under 8mm thickness where excluded from warrenty. Mine are 7mm thick!!! What a pile of junk! A true throwaway car. Now my dealer tells me to phone Pug customer care. Cheers, they are not back in the office till monday! I have just worked a load of 12 hour shifts(driving my oil tanker) and do not have time to listen to greensleves on the phone.Is this the time to throw in the towel and buy an older jag,merc,lexus,bmw,audi.Why spend over 12K on a sensible little car if it cannot behave itself? Read more
"Today, my Pug dealer has raplaced the front discs as they where too thin,(under warrenty)!
Too thin @ 18K huh?
Sounds like you have problems there if the discs are knackered at 18K in a small car such as the 306.
You heavy on the brakes? Being a professional truck driver I doubt it.
Just visited the Auto Express revamped page and had a look at their Forum and thought it was awful. I hope that the HJ backroom revamp doesn't head down that confusing path.
Paul C
HJ Backroom Rules! Read more
Had a look as well, first post I looked contained abusive four letter words beginning with c... and was very abusive to other posts. The forum is a mess, so I won't bother again.
Go on I dare you
its a precise circular hole, obviously loving crafted by some insomniac (very early Saturday Tesco car park) retired caravan type with a rear view he can't see out of, and it is right in the middle of my so-called bumper, which is naturally that usual colour-coded plasticy stuff they put on cars these days to make us pay out more for nothing.
is it repairable given that there are no cracks just a gun-shot looking thing that is towbar sized, or am I facing the inevitable? Read more
I can remember when bumpers were bumpers, if they got bent you could remove them, bash with a club hammer and replace. Not quite as pretty afterwards but did the job and you did't worry too much about a bit of a knock.
Bryan L.
Was very impressed at thoroughness of MOT test at Ford garage that mostly services/sells Transits. Normally I get it done at normal car garage but they were so busy they passed it onto the above Van garage.
I wonder if it was an interesting change for the tester or are van tests much tougher than car tests? Read more
I took my daughter's car to one garage which took half an hour, next year it took a full hour at a different garage.
The second seemed to be more thorough, although both resulted in failure.
Here's a motoring offence I wasn't aware of (from the Evening Standard):
"Soccer star escapes motoring charge"
"Prosecutors have dropped a motoring charge against England international footballer Kieron Dyer.
"The Newcastle United forward had been charged with allowing his car to be driven by someone without insurance. But Anita Addison, prosecuting, told magistrates at Sudbury, Suffolk, that the Crown was withdrawing the charge.
"Dyer, 23, of Westgate Road, Newcastle, lent James Leech his BMW X5 on August 4 last year. But when police stopped Leech in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, he could not produce an insurance certificate, and was not insured."
So before you lend your car to a friend, you'd better get them to show you their insurance certificate. Also, presumably, their driving licence. Read more
I'm not generally in favour of footballers, but if his friend was a car owner, he might reasonably have assumed that the friend's insurance would cover him to drive other vehicles. Pretty daft to let him drive his X5 if he wasn't a car owner, but hardly aiding and abetting if he was.
Inspired by the earliers posts on instant de-coke mixtures, I ventured to purchase a can of Bradex Easy-Start, which I remember from Ford 100E days. Having gone up a little in the affluence stakes, I don't need it for motors any more but normally the first start of the year for the lawn mower results in a dislocated shoulder and hours of frustration. With Easy-Start - first pull!
Does anyone else remember wonder products from yesteryear and are they still available? Read more
Sidewinder exhausts, usually allied to jacked up rear suspension, amazed everyone by achieving what had previously been thought impossible. It made a Mk 3 Cortina handle worse than when it left the factory.
Browse
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And this is a Toyota - synthetic oil, regularly changed (ie twice as frequently as dealer suggests) and it will do at least 200k before you need to start thinking about it. On the other hand, ANY car can go bang at ANY mileage if you're unlucky - but less likelt to be 'unrucky' with a Toyota.