January 2003
Did anyone see the photographs of the LR LCV that appeared in this month's Car magazine.. serched the net in vain for a picture but what a beautiful propose dupdate from the mid-90s.
Come on Land Rover get it into production....! (Minus the V6 engine !) Read more
Fiat, it appears has finally decided to close its Sicilian car factory as part of 8000+ job losses. Berlusconi is making all sorts of noises but hopes are not high.
Considering the already high unemployment in Sicily, together with the knock on effects re suppliers support firms etc the future is certainly dim for that part of the world. Some sources suggest that each family will have at least one extra member out of a job.
Just in case you were thinking of taking a motoring holiday down there, keep your hand on your ha'penny. :-(
Furthermore in order to dispose of excess stocks of cars, prices have been reduced to 1970-ish levels. Not totally sure how that is defined as of course none of today's cars were actually being made in the 1970's, but shows how desperate the company is.
Market share in Italy has dropped to 30% in a country where people traditionally buy locally built vehicles.
Question: Does the Backroom think FIAT can survive?
Read more
The cars are much better now, but they`ve alienated too many of their customers over the years with appaling aftersales, to the point where ex Fiat owners would not ever consider one again no matter what! They will survive though.
Ok folks, the perennial question, what should I buy? I'm having a lot of trouble deciding so any thoughts would be welcome.
Need to buy another car PDQ (don't ask why, it's a sore point, but if you put 'unsalted road' and 'my wife' in the same sentence, you might guess, but she walked away thankfully).
Budget £5-7k,annual mileage 25-30k, mainly motorway.My criteria are reliablity, fuel consumption, safety, and ease/cost of maintenance (I diy most things), in that order. Petrol or diesel, though prefer petrol.Image doesn't bother me.I'd like aircon too.I'm considering the following:
Toyota Avensis, Subaru Forester, Legacy or Impreza (not the boy racer one), Ford Focus or Mondeo, Nissan Primera, anything else?
I'm not interested in:
Any Vauxhall (don't like them), VW (ditto), anything French or Italian (I'm not too hot on auto electrics)
The Focus looks good, HJ gives it a good write up and then lists a long list of things that can go wrong, same for the Mondeo, so are they that good? But there are loads around and quite cheap.
I think I'd fall asleep in an Avensis but bullet-proof reliability does appeal. Ditto the Primera.
I'd like a Subaru, probably the most reliable of the lotI like the flat four engine, but fuel consumption is a bit high.
I've not driven any of these cars yet and I won't have time to test examples of them all. I have driven late 90's Vectras and Astras and hated them with a vengeance, so that gives you an idea of what I don't like.I'm also happy with the idea of a high-mile but newer car.So over to the Back Room... what can I expect for my money? I haven't the time or inclination for an auction, so it'll be private, car supermarket, or possiby a main dealer if I can find a good deal. I'll be paying cash with no p/x.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially from dealers or fleet managers out there. Read more
RE:
For a cab, I'd have an Avensis rather than a Primera, it's feels much bigger inside. I've never driven an auto one though but I don't suppose performance is your main criterion for cab work.
NO!!
Just trying to avoid ex-minicabs...
And I have not owned an auto before, but clutch work in todays traffic, i've had enough.
Thanks for the advice though.
I'm now tempted by the earlier idea of a rover 75. Ho Hum so much choice.
For anyone else about to buy something or other, I would add, dont buy a car with a tow bar fitted, unless you like diff whine, suspension probs etc. It would be cheaper to buy an unknacked one and have one fitted if you need to.
Returning HP'd vehicles after paying 50% of the finance cost has appeared in several posts recently. I thank HJ for introducing me to the concept via the FAQ and no doubt it's certainly of interest to many other people.
Does anyone know if returning a car in this way adversely affects your credit rating? Given it's a legal part of a finance agreement on any car you'd think not but the way credit referencing works it wouldn't surprise me! Read more
I love the consumer credit act. The only draconian piece of legislation I can think of that's in our favour!
No Dosh - but then who has?
My brother runs a 1995 Vauxhall Brava 2.5 litre diesel with the Isuzu diesel unit. It went wrong before Christmas and was diagnosed with a faulty injector pump. He had a replacement one fitted and it went fine until a few miles from home when it stalled and eventually started with some difficulty. It starts from cold but he says he needs to crank it for much longer. It will then run for a few minutes and then will only rev to a certain point and then starts blowing white smoke out of the back and then dies.
My thought is poor compression, is this likely? the vehicle has only done 70,000 miles.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Tom Read more
The white smoke is vaporised but unburnt fuel.
Sounds like the problem I had with my Pug 309 which was an air leak into the fuel supply at the filter.(Faulty seal)
Does anyone know of a replacement stereo for the CCRT 700 (Keeping phone,cd,display and controls)?
Thanks Read more
Decided that I'm going to attempt to learn to ride a motorcycle this year once we have the weather for it. So, I've been looking at the range of bikes available to me as a learner.
Honda seem to make a good range of sub-125cc bikes, and they all seem very well put together, but a little pricey for what is going to be a first bike that most probably is going to get dropped more than once or twice.
However (and here's the point of this thread), the Kymco Pulsar caught my eye, mainly as it was 1/2-2/3s of the price of it's competition, seemed very well specified (fuel gauge and gear indicator, don't ya know!), and had a comfortable seating position. It didn't seem as solid as the hondas around it, but still seemed relatively well screwed together.
I hadn't really even heard of Kymco up until now, and wondered if any backroomers have had any experience of this bike that they'd like to share?
So far from trawling the 'net, I've found the official website (just flash and graphics), and some personal reviews from a chap called Floyd Taylor (quite thorough, to be fair), and that's it, so any further information about Kymco (and specifically the pulsar) will be gratefully received.
Thanks in advance
-David L. Read more
Are you sure re the country where these are made it is given in What Bike as Turkey together with MZ and the small Honda's under licence ?
ndbw
Our recently purchased car has the smell of B.O. Anyone know the best cure. Read more
Most of the other replies seem to be responding to your thoughts that the smell is BO. Could it be a faulty heater matrix and that what you are smelling is antifreeze? Is the smell there all the time, or does it start when the car gets warm?
One of the things that gets me more worked up than it should are vehicles that have no brake lights that do not work. Whilst I know that a car should be pulled over for being unroadworthy, there seem to be a huge number of vehicles out there which don't.
I used to point this out to the drivers but after getting the 2 usual replies (1. I know 2. @#$? off!) I gave up.
Is there any authority that can be contacted to get these people to get their brake lights repaired. I suppose not as a result of cost, but the number of times that I have almost crashed when the car/van/lorry in front has braked sharply would mean that I would use the service if available. Read more
IIRC someone came up with this some time back in the '60s or early '70s. Took the form of a couple of triangles, one on either side of the rear numberplate, which lit with increasing intensity depending on how hard the brakes were applied.
Can't remember if the triangles were red or yellow - presumably red would have indicated a trailer so they probably weren't that.
Obviously never caught on, but it goes to show there's nothing new.
Doesn't the C5 flash the hazards if you drop the anchors a bit quick?
Terry
Does anyone know where the GlowPlugs are located on a '98 Grand Espace TD ?
Mine seem to need replacing, and I've taken a quick look, but can't even see them, so I'm assuming they're under the inlet manifold.
Cheers,
Darren Read more
Thanks - I was afraid so. It looks like getting this off on the Espace isn't that easy, as most of it's buried under the bulkhead out of the way - you can't see most of it.
Cheers
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