Given Marcos's current thread about breaking down without cover, I post this for information of others.

I have had Brkdn/Rcvy for self/spouse for about £80 a year with CSMA. I've never used the service so can't comment on efficiency.

I have a new Toyota and an old Maestro which never travels far afield so isn't a great breakdown problem for me, but it's good to have cover just in case (ie. Marcos!).

I used to use 'Auto Aid' years ago for £11 a year and it provided a full service insofar as you arranged your own recovery and claimed the costs back. I used it then and it worked OK but then decided to arrange a more conventional form of cover mainly for the convenience of my Mrs.

I've just gone back to them at £28 a year because you now either arrange your own recovery OR ring a 24 hour number and they send someone out, you pay them and then claim it back. Full cover equal to the CSMA or any of the others for me, my wife in any vehicle ie. either of our cars. They cover motorcycles equally well too.

If anyone's interested I'll give details.
KB. Read more

Hello,

Does anybody have real life experience of the average difference in mpg and performance between Peugeot HDI turbo diesels and VW/Audi PDI turbo diesels. How do Japanese turbo diesels compare in terms of fuel economy and reliability(toyota/ Nissan). How reliable is the turbo? What is the average engine life expectancy of the engine ? How good/bad are ford turbo diesels, scaning this web site seems to indicate poor mpg from fords?

If you change the oil regularly, say , every 5000 miles on a modern turbo diesels, what engine life can you expect. Is 200,000 - 300,000 miles a reasonable expectation.

I would appreciate some answers. Thanks.

KAL

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Folks
I'm starting to look around for a small hatch, about 1 year old and want if possible to avoid belt- driven motors. I know the new Ibiza 1.2 is chain as are the small engined new Corsas. Any other chain drives out there. What about the Yaris? Any info most welcome or advice on the best buy.
Thanks
Baz Read more

Hi,

Just bought an Astra estate with the Isuzu TD engine. However, it's REALLY sluggish - ie can barely rev more than 3000, fails to keep up with even granny traffic and on the motorway flatout it refuses to go an ounce above 80.

Has anyone with diesel experience ever heard of this?

I'm new to all this diesel stuff, but could it be any of these:

1) I've heard the cat/exhaust on these can become clogged if it doesn't get a blast/long run for a long time - leading to really bad performance. Anyone heard of this? If so, what is the cure?

2) Do diesels get a lot slower if they've missed some services? I have a suspicion the car has missed the last one or two, but I've no idea if that should make a difference.

3) Can fuel additives/injector cleaners make a difference?

4) Anything else!?

Would greatly appreciate your advice from any diesel fans out there.... Read more

... is illegal in the UK, but whilst reading the lengthy, but in places very interesting link home.att.net/~texhwyman/autobahn.htm I learned:

"Recently, in an attempt to help improve traffic flow, traffic is now being permitted to use the emergency shoulder as a traffic lane during congested periods along some sections of Autobahn. Lane control signals or signs indicate when this is permissible"

Sounds like a good idea to keep trafic moving (the same article makes the point earlier on that 30% of all German traffic is on autobahn(en?)) but I wonder what happens when there's a problem, and the emergency services need to get through.

Still, I wonder if it'll ever be trialled here, as the practice is already used in many sections of motorway roadworks? Read more