March 2003
Just a quick question on what BR regulars reckon this Mondeo is worth. I went looking at the auction in Washington with my aunt who is looking for a mid-range to family sized car for about £1,700 to £2000 tops.
It has to look smart as it will be used for her business and will be seen by clients, as well as been practical so a large boot and hatchback are a must.
We decided that the best cars at the auction were Mondeos, there were a couple of other contenders, but they weren't as good as the Mondeos.
We saw one in particular that looked like it might be in her price range, so just wanted a quick idea of what people think it's worth at auction.
It was a 1.8 LX P reg (new shape, not the original one) It indicated 55,000 miles, which for the purposes of valuing it we'll just assume is correct, I know it may not be but never mind. It was in a nice mettallic green. The interior looked OK, but the seats were a bit grubby, it would need a good valet. Also, one of the fog-light blanking plates was missing from the front bumper and it had no wheel trims. Other than that there was no noticeable body damage or rust.
So, hardly the most immaculate example, but it looked like it would scrub up OK cosmetically with just a new set of trims and a good clean and polish.
Assuming the car starts OK, and doesn't sound rough, what would this likely fetch at auction? I'm guessing it should be within her budget of less than £2K?
Blue Read more
I do know that this is mainly for car owners, but I was wondering if someone out there can shed some light on this problem.
Since about 7,000 miles, I have had constant juddering when opening the throttle from standstill. When the clutch was cleaned, the juddering went away but came back after 50 miles.
What could the likely causes be. Your comments will be much appreciated.
Many thanks indeed. Read more
is this a twist and go thing?if so it could be that the rubber band thingy is stretched or worn.
I previously owned a Scenic RT Dti, turbo diesel and it was great, averaged about 45mpg as well as it being very quick off the mark, especially thru the gears.
I recently changed to a Scenic dci, supposedly the new common rail diesel is more economic and powerful but I find I am now getting 41-42mpg, and find it totally gutless.
Has anyone else experienced this? Read more
I have a new DCI with 3000 odd miles on the clock. When I am driving I can get about 45-50 mpg (according to the trip computer) but when SWMBO drives it goes down to 40 mpg.
I know that the old TDI has better fuel economy, but I can only compare my scenic to the previous petrol version that I had that always returned less than 30 mpg.
I've just sold my wifes Fiesta in a private sale. Chap turned up with other half in tow (in the fading light). He admitted straight away he knew nothing about cars. Then asked me to drive him to the end of the road and back. On our return, he promptly gave me the asking price with no attempt to haggle whatsoever. He never examined the car or the paperwork. I think he broke every rule about used car buying I can think of. Fortunately for him,the car's fine and well looked after.
I think I must have an honest face. I'm off down the pub now to spend the dosh.
MLC Read more
Must be something about Cits!! I sold my old BX diesel with 170k on the clock to a colleague at work. Warned him it was old and knackered. He liked it and used as his main car for 3 years, took it to over 200k and sold it to a mate of his - for £50 more than I charged him!
Took SWMBO's Fab Fabia for its first service t'other day. Garage offered a courtesy car FOC. Very nice methinks, wonder what it'll be.
Colleague suggested maybe a new Fabia so you get to see all the new kit, or maybe an Octavia try and tempt you to change the Mundano. What was it?
W reg Felicia, and it was bang flat empty of gas.... hmmm stop laughing at the back Brazil Minor!
But this bit of reverse logic got me thinking.
1) Presuming its a decent trade in the garage has a way of providing courtesy cars almost free.
2) The insurance excess is £250, so if you ding it, well you might as well buy it outright, ;-)
3) You get back in your own car and think "Now isn't this a really nice car" We thought that anyway but you get my drift.
So I wondered anyone else had an oddball or really ace courtesy car?
Just to get example two at the other end of the scale someone took a ratty Escort in to a GM dealer, and were let loose in a top spec Saab for a couple of hours.
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and the indicator was on the right
of the steering wheel - what a nightmare.
> I still see Probe drivers flashing people with their >windscreen washers and indicating with their wipers. Yet >another reason not to get one of those.
Have to disagree there - indicators on the left still annoy me - they should be on the right on a right hand drive car and are in most markets except the UK (and Ireland etc.).
They're OK on an auto, but in a manual car they're much better on the right hand side where you're not trying to change gear and change your indication at the same time with the same hand.
Have finally got a very good diff for my Omega, but the flange is smaller than on the one I have removed and therefore the bolt holes dont align with prop flange. My car is a late '96 and the diff I am fitting is a '94. I assume it was beefed up over the years or perhaps its off a 2 litre.
Anyway, has anyone experience of differential flange swopping? and how critical is the pinion pre-load? Can I do it, or will it really have to go to the main dealer to be set correctly, as it says in Haynes?
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I don't know anything about this particular car but the normal reason for pre-load being critical is that there is a collapsible bush inside, and the flange nut has to be tightened to exactly the right torque to collapse the bush to give the right pre-load on the bearings. If you loosen the nut you have to start again with a new spacer. If you are replacing the same flange (eg to replace the oil seal) you can sometimes get away with marking the nut position so that it goes back on with exactly the right original pre-load, but with a different flange that might not work.
Is it possible to use the other prop so that you avoid the problem?
I'm going to be driving in Europe this summer, mostly France, Belgium and Germany. Can anyone recommend a decent European road map? All the ones I've seen in the shops don't have enough detail. Read more
AUTOROUTE is the one thing that got me lost in France - Try mappy.com on the internet
Can anyone help? how do I find the year of build on my golf from the chassis number and what the other numbers mean ? Read more
When I worked for Ford the following year's model spec was released late August/early September. They actually had two spec updates possible, as cars were described as 1994MY, 1994.5MY and in some cases even quarter year updates.
VERY confusing.....
A friend in the office took his N reg 280 Sport in for a service and asked for one faulty dasboard bulb to be changed.
Itemised Charge for £101.88 labour and £1.99 parts! +VAT
When car was collected he found that bulb had been changed (renewed?) but another bulb had gone out!
Having taken the car back today to complain, they apologised! and replaced all the bulbs in about 20 minutes! while he waited.
This computes to workshop rate for the first job of about £300/hr. Almost lawyer rates :).
Does any one know if standard times/rates apply or had a silmilar experience.
pmh (was peter) Read more
The main dealer tends to just swap old parts for new parts until the problem is fixed.
If the dealer deals with mainly small cars like Punto's. When you go along with a Coupe 20V Turbo they have no idea of what to do. However the independents know the rarer cars better than the main dealers.
The uniform doesn't do anything for me btw :)
A friend has asked me to find him a replacement for his Transit 190 long wheelbase van, which has rotted beyond hope of repair. Budget is up to £2,500. I was thinking of just getting another Transit, but I see a lot of LDV Convoy vans advertised at around that price, newer and lower mileage than Transits the same price. Are these vehicles strong and reliable? Do they have any particular weaknesses to look for? Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that they have galvanised bodies - is this true?
Any useful information would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com Read more
Royal Mail have just placed an order for 1500 swb Transits, over next three years. These to replace LDV Pilot.
LDV soon to launch a NEW Pilot, a bit late in the game it seems!
Fiesta will be available in new shape van later this year.
VB
Browse
Well, from seeing it standing in the yard before getting cleaned up, I'd say it looked fairly tatty, but I'm sure that it will clean up very nicely (even the nearly new Lexus looked a little tatty in the yard)
So long as she has enough left from her budget to change the belts and give it a full service that should be fine.
Thanx for the advice people.
Blue