December 2002
Hi
Have recently bought a New Car and was due to pick it up tomorrow, however the Dealer called me today and gave me the choice of picking it up in the New Year. (Sales quotas for the month have obviously been reached!!)
He says this will add about £500 to the resale value if I decide to sell/trade in 3 years time. Is this true, even though it will still be registered in 2002.
The car is a Focus Zetec 2.0
cheers
Jimbo Read more
Help - I have a 1997 Hyundai Accent Coupe which has a mystery leak. The back seat is damp and there are huge puddles in the rear passenger footwells. Its all a bit of a mystery as I can't work out where the water is coming in from - any ideas? Read more
Andrew-T - True.
When my boot leaked, the water worked its way through to wet the back seats, but then collected in a space under the seats, so no water actually got as far as the footwells (above or below the carpet).
But the paper telltales technique worked well - my leak was traced to a blocked drain hole next to the fuel filler cap. Water stood around in the space next to the filler cap, then seeped down the inside of the rear wing, travelled along a channel towards to the rear light cluster, dripped out under the light cluster, along the boot floor and under the back seat. Tricky to find, but only a moment's job to fix.
Ian
considering a new model of this car as maybe my next purchase, probably diesel.
quite concerned with the car by car breakdown reports though as the previous model got bad reviews, along with the golf, and this is not what i would expect.
i'm after good reliability and low costs, not what was written about the previous version, so have any people got experiences of the old or new passat? Read more
Quote; "The oil looks as black as before"
Because its a diesel engine the oil will look black almost immediately after the service
Still thinking about getting the Halford's Stainless Steel Exhaust. This is propmted by growly noise when revs are dropping which Dougie (my mech) says is a loose baffle somewhere central under the car.
He says save the money and just put up with the noise for as long as poss, no harm will come.
Anyone dispute that? Are the cats in any danger as a result? Will the whole lot drop off one day on at a most inconvenient moment?
Have been quoted £94 per section for standard exhaust (fitted) and Halfords SS will be about £400 plus fitting. Read more
Smokie,
Dave N and I have both suffered corrosion with lower spec stainless steel systems. For info on the different qualities see www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=i&t=55...3
Here's the story so far
Car starts but runs ropey (if it were petrol you would think it was misfiring) a relay keeps striking.
Car has trouble starting, no relay sound.
Glow plugs changed, car starts again but the relay is continually striking, (can.t ascertain which one)
Any ideas out here? Read more
A friend at work has a quiz question they can't answer. Any ideas? Must be Volvo or Saab surely???.......
Which swedish car manufacturer once admitted price fixing in Britain? Read more
It was Volvo - in 1999. They got away with it by agreeing to behave in future.
I have noticed recently that a lot of back roomers have to travel some distance to get to work and back. If only to make myself feel better that someone else is doing the same journeys in the dark, I would like to know what you all do.
I have been travelling 60 miles each way (80% motorway) to my place of work and it roughly takes me 1hr - 1hr 15 mins each way. I travel in a 2.0 diesel montego and roughly get about 45 mpg and it works out to about £45-£50 per week in fuel.
What distance and time do you all have to travel to get to work, what car, and how much fuel do you need? Read more
Oh dear - reviving a 17 year old thread to post an obvious spam link about something as important as the current pandemic with a fake vaccine. That's really low.
Can't see it is anything to do with the current situation - just general vaccinations when going to certain countries abroad.
If you buy a second car can you rely on the no claims bonus on your first car to reduce the premiums? or do you have to start from scratch? Read more
When I put a second car on the road for my
wife (now off the road pending some TLC / renovation!), I
insured with Direct Line, as they offered a full NCD on
it (in My Wife's name), as she's been on my insurance
for about 4 years claim free - they were also one
of the few insurers that didn't deny the existence of a
factory built Citroen Visa Convertible!.
Nice to hear that DL will do this :-)
Backroom readers may be interested in my experiences of converting.
I bought a new Punto Auto in Jan 01 hoping to get it converted but Landi-Renzo could not get a system to work because of the complicated electronic control of the gearbox.
So I bought a tidy K-reg Astra auto and got it converted for £1150 by Mike Drew in Nailsworth Glos.
The car cost me £2400 in Dec 01.
Petrol consumption was 37mpg over 2000 miles before I could arrange the conversion.
Since then I have got about 29 mpg on gas.
I buy gas with a card from Listers at W. Bromwich near work for 25.96p/Litre.
I am billed by credit card weekly in arrears and they round the volume DOWN to the nearest litre so its even cheaper.
I can drive 240 miles on £10 worth of gas.
This is the conversion to make when comparing running costs.
There were a couple of teething problems early on.
The tickover was too fast and the engine warning light would come on after 20 secs stopped in traffic.I found the idle adjust on the vaporiser and this light now never comes on even when the engine heats up in traffic in warm weather.
I found a loose pipe connection and tightened it up.
Since then -no probs.
I have done more than 250000 miles on gas now and so far it is just great.
The engine oil has stayed clean and I have not changed it yet-just about to.
THe conversion paid for itself in 9 months at a mileage of about 2500 per month.
I save 55% on fuel costs, including the cost of driving to fill up with gas.
I must be "pinchy"-See last weeks Motoring Telegraph.
In my view the only cheap way of running on LPG is to buy a fairly old and cheap car,in good nick, otherwise with depreciation the cost of conversion may not be worth it.
You also need to be doing at least 25000 miles per year to make it worthwhile.
I just need this car to last until I retire in March 2005 commuting from near Stroud to Birmingham each day.
Read more
IMHO LPG will only have "Come of Age" when manufacturers offer as a matter of course vehicles which run exclusively on it.
So the government reckon they want to spend £6 billion widening the M1 and the M6? I've got a better idea: teach drivers to use all 3 lanes that already exist, instead of just the middle and outer lanes! (Yes, you know the type: the inside lane is only for lorries, why should I use it? etc). Anyway, even if they do widen the motorways, how many lanes would actually get used then? When I was taught to drive (1971), the idea was that one drives on the left, and only uses the other lanes for overtaking.
Read more
Well, it would have been nice to think some of the governments? money would have been put toward dualling the A1 North of Morpeth. Fat chance, its been missed off the list of priorities again, despite being one of the major roadways into Scotland. Instead we're going to be left with the lethal, inefficient crumbling remains of the only stretch of the A1 not to be dualled. 3 lanes? Couldn't even begin to tell you where my nearest 3 lane stretch is.
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More likely they've crashed it and they need time to bodge a spray job.
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These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.