December 2002
Car is a R reg Nissan micra 1.0 35000 on the clock, ive had the car 6months
now so its oil change time but the problem is which brand of oil do these
engines prefer . Can anyone recommend a good brand oil to use for a car thats only
used for very short trips (5-10miles) Also which oil would a main dealer use?
Cheers Read more
I found the best tactic against cold call salespersons was to appear really enthusiastic about their product, fitted kitchens, for example. Tell them you're so glad they've called because it is just what you are looking for and you are willing to spare no expense, you are prepared to go anything up to £150 to get the very best.
Don't take no for an answer, badger them for an appointment and ask about their low interest long term finance option, lifetime gaurantee etc. Do it right and you can have a little fun before they finally hang up on you.
Salespersons are trained to overcome resistance, hit them with the unexpected and they crumble. With a bit of luck you will probably be black listed from their mailing lists.
I speak as a former door to door central heating salesman. Read more
A few years ago we had a problem with calls at all hours of the day or night intended for Epsom hospital - our number was 1 digit different and if callers used an old dialling code (predicatably the infirm or elderly who would) they got us instead. We reckon we got over 200 calls a year and we put up with this for nearly 2 years. BT refused flatly to do anything about it - all they eventually offered was a change of number. So, I changed number - and changed telecom supplier as well. BT couldn't understand why I did this and all too late tried to offer something that might have passed for customer service. Since going to NTL, going ex-directory and registering with TPS, only 1 nuisance call and 1 sales call from NTL when I politely asked them to remove me from their calling list.
Now we get old fashioned door-to-door cold calling, nPower and Anglian being the worst offenders. The last Anglian rep didn't even recognise his own company's products all over my house already!
Terry
Why on earth do people bother to buy new cars from UK dealerships. I have recently acquired a 528 Touring, 4.5 years old with the remainder of the BMW warranty for only 10K. A 35K car(with the extras), with thankfully someone else taking the vast majority of the most expensive element of motoring from me ie DEPRECIATION. The car has done 94K miles now but drives like new-I do not wish to change it for at least the next 5 years-if anyone is tempted I can only thoroughly recommend BMW for comfort, solidity and longevity(not to mention 31 mpg overall-34 on a run!). What's more over 4 yrs old and you get a 10% discount from a main dealer. Read more
So why not buy a 2nd hand personally imported model? Why do you need the UK dealer then or for that matter at any time?
Just had my mk IV Golf in for its 3rd annual service. I was surprised that its spark plugs don't need changing for another year.
This means the car still has the plugs it left the factory with.
Does this seem right - should I change them anyway? Read more
As long as you haven't had any problems (misfires, oil burning, wrong fuel etc) then they should be fine. I would remove them and put copper grease on the threads though - there's been much discussion on here about siezed plugs. Do make sure you replace them with the correct ones when the time comes.
Interesting to see in today's Ask An Expert that HJ continues to recommend the Mazda 323 as a "best Buy". Over the last 18 years (Bahrain, Hong Kong and now Manila) we have had 4 of these in the family at different times. We simply got them 'cos they seemed good value, looked reasonable and had all the right bits and pieces for a second or third set of wheels.
The current is a 1994 Astina (that's the one which looks like a Porsche) which is the daily hack. This is what gets used when somebody's car's license plate is the wrong one for a particular day in Manila (restriction on use). It has a service now and then and I can't remember when the last one was. It is full of rubbish, everyone's old cassette tapes, my daughter's Green Day T-shirt (used for windshield wiping) parking tickets and Lord knows what all. It's life would have been one of grinding stop start short trips in heavy traffic in high temperatures, loads of idling with the aircon on at full blast. To my certain knowledge it has had 3 punctures, four new front tyres and two new batteries in 7 years plus the a/c topped up with RJ a couple of times. As far as I recall absolutely nothing else has been touched. It seems to burn no oil. It did boil over once - broken fanbelt. It has never failed to start and run or do what it is required of it and I see it now shows 120,000 km. The cassette has packed up but the radio still works. There is no significant rot anywhere although the white paint has faded. The same was true of all the others: the 1980's one which looked like a copy of the Merc 190E is still a favorite with Manila taxi-drivers today and Lord knows what they must have survived to still be running.
I also owned a couple of Mazda 929's in the Saudi days - again very troublefree.
Linking back to Mark's "why do we cosset cars" makes an interesting illustration of his point.
Our old Mazda gets about as much attention as my Frigidaire washing machine and seems to thrive on it! It is definitely the poor relative of the fleet but doesn't seem to care. All I can say is let's hope Mazda goes on making cars like this.
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"Great little car"
We think so, too (not that I'm encouraged to drive it!). I always thought that the styling took a dive on the next model - I wish they'd leave well alone sometimes...
Folks, I had a hire car today for work that was a Rover 25.
On driving the vehicle I was not happy with the responsiveness of the brakes - from putting my foot on the brake pedal it seemed to take the brakes an age to do anything). I therefore complained to the hire car company that I was not happy with the vehicle, and they replaced it with a vehicle of the same make and model and approximate mileage. (Both vehicles had around 8,500 miles on the clock).
I then drove this vehicle (very tentatively as I did not trust the brakes). I turned off at a junction travelling at an approximate speed of 15MPH and the car in front braked. I depressed the brake pedal and the brakes appeared not to have functioned as I would have expected, I therefore pressed harder on the brake pedal which proceeded to put the car into a skid which unfortunately I was not able to control despite pumping the brake pedal. I was unable to control the vehicle. This resulted in me rear ending another car.
I've driven loads of other cars before and never had a problem or accident in my life until today!! (It has been one hell of a Friday 13th....)
I guess what my question is and I hope someone can tell me - Is there a common fault with the brakes on Rover 25s????
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David Lacey - wow that's a blast from the past............
I feel guilty for the abuse I've given my Xantia and I have decided to buy a van to help me move house and to use for renovating my new property.
Having nearly finished renovating a property and having got through one clutch and some suspension on a previous car I really do feel I need to spend some money on something a little more robust.
My requirements are:
Load area to carry 8' x 4' sheet material (eg plaster board etc)
Reliable enough to cover about 5k miles per year (I am keeping my car for work and family)
Not too scruffy, nothing that a builder has wrecked.
Cheap/easy to service and maintain. I don't mind spending some money on maintianing it but I don't want to be stuck with an expensive garden shed.
Fairly secure.
MOT - and worthy of it
Not essential but desireable:
Power Steering
Diesel - not petrol if I can help it
Ability to tow up to 2 tonnes (with or without pay load in van)
Are there any fantastic sources out there where I can get a good Transit sized van for around £1000? I read Dave Taxi Drivers reply about newish cars previously used as taxis.
I have been offered the following trade ins to date:
L Reg 93 Merc 308 Diesel £995
G Reg 89/90 Transit Diesel Scruffy body at a 'dirt cheap' £500
R Reg 97/98 LDV for £900 - don't know much about this at the moment, the dealer is hoping to take this as trade in for a new Merc van. Apparently they only forecourt Merc vans, which I guess could be why they would be willing to 'trade' this one.
Any bargains there?? I know it all depends on condition etc
Your help would be appreciated. Read more
Well
Time for an update-
After reading all your replies, talking to my next door neigbour and finding that this R Reg LDV has not been traded in after all, I invested in the Auto Trader. Bearing in mind that I don't want to spend mega bucks because I'm only going to be doing 5k to 10k miles per year and want to get 4 to 5 years out of it so high mileage is not an issue, but age could be.
I was keen to get something that wasn't too old. I didn't fancy rattling around in something that should have been buried several months ago. I had found an ad for a G reg Renault Trafic for £795 with 150,000 miles, though I didn't follow it up.
I found an N reg Trafic SWB 2.1 Diesel for £1000 that had been owned and used by two separate computer supply companies. At 180,000 miles it had some service history and it had obviously been well looked after, but had collected a few minor dents, which were mentioned in the ad (I wouldn't have bothered but this chap did).
I managed to negotiate the asking price down to £850 over the phone, which I felt was more appropriate for the condition as described. I then saw and drove this vehicle. I looked for the obvious, braking in a straight line, slack steering, PAS faults etc. I then opened the bonnet when the engine was running and opened the oil filler cap. I was looking for steam and any serious back pressure. I found none whatsoever, though I did get my hands dirty - so plenty of oil inside the rocker cover. No leaks were to be found underneath or around whilst it was running.
However, whilst the engine was running I paid very careful attention to the radiator, which looked to be steaming very slightly. At first I put this down to rain water settling on the grill (it was tanking it down). However, I noticed that there was a pretty small but visable plume of steam coming from the bottom LHS of the radiator. This symtom didn't seam to cause any other problems. The seller and I had a polite discussion as to whether or not the cooling system was leaking. I then mitigated the risk by offering £750 (as opposed to his £850 that he said he would accept as a minimum). Well, I decided that if there is a problem, I know about it and have negotiated the price down to cover myself. The deal was done.
He has kindly agreed to meet me half way next week when I actually do the deal, to make getting lifts easier for me. I shall be keen to see whether the steam reappears.
I had a similar symtom on a car I had. I never broke down, but I did get through some coolent. I think the radiator was starting to show its age but regular checks kept problems at bay.
MOT is for 4 months, but there were no obvious failure points. The engine had plenty of power (for a diesel). Tax is for 3 months. I expect to have to spend some cash on it but I hope to avoid the expensive stuff.
In addition to that, despite most insurance companies wanting to hike my premium up to £900 plus. I have found very reasonable TPFT for SDP use at £360. This is partly because I have a main car as well.
Thanks for all the advice chaps - It was appreciated. Wish me luck!
Hugo
The 306 is playing up again. The last few days has seen it getting harder and harder to start. On cold starts it would fire on 3 cylinders, belching out white smoke from the tailpipe. I changed the glow plugs today but this seems to have made the problem worse. Now it will fire and stall, several times until it will eventually run.
Once started, it runs fine, plenty of power and it is not using any coolant or oil (Headgasket was done 6K ago).
I thought it could be air getting into the fuel system somewhere, so I pumped the priming bulb several times. There is a slight weep from the top of the fuel filter housing, obviously if fuel gets out here air will get in. SO, my question is.... If air is getting into the system this will obviously affect the starting. Why though, does it smoke like a good'un when it eventually fires? Is there likely to be an underlying problem?
Cheers
Ross
1.9 XUD9TE in a 1995 306 Read more
Ross,
I agree that the filter should be OK if the engine ran fine for 15 minutes. I was just following advice given to me when I first started meddling with cars: "Always check the last thing you touched first".
When you check the control unit, no doubt you will check the feed to the glowplugs as well. I remember a friend changing glowplugs and relay on a different make of car only to find that the fault was corroded electrical (bus-bar) connections.
Can anyone recommend an effective way to remove nicotine smells from headlinings, etc.? Read more
Vanilla oil is a very good natural deodourant. My 'new' second hand car reeked of cigarettes and I washed and nuked the ashtrays, hoovered all the nooks and crannies and Febreezed all over the shop. Hanging a vanilla scented magic tree has gradually removed all the nasty niffs over the course of the last 3 weeks or so far more effectively than all the above. Perhaps you could get some essential oil of vanilla and dilute it with a couple of drops of detergent to disperse it, and then lightly mist your headlining, if it's particularly bad.
Having driven over a bad pothole with my micra, I decided to have the tracking checked to stop any uneven wear on tyres before it starts. The mechanic said it was'nt very much out but adjusted it. I just wondered for future pothole incidents, did I do the right thing in getting it checked straight away or should I have just kept an eye on tyres for uneven wear? And would 'not out by much' make much difference to car?
Appreciate any comments.
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If the car pulls to one side on a flat road surface this means the tracking is out(if suspension isn't worn). This basic check has worked for me in the past. Still it is worth getting the tracking checked out from time to time.
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My feelings too,ss473. The most important thing is that the oil and filter are changed regularly.