January 2004
Besides the luxury marques, the profit made from each unit sold in Europe can't be all that much considering that the average car is relatively small by world standards (ie Focuses, Polo).
Bigger car usually means bigger profit.
Ford recently made more money from finance than from direct car sales, with only the F Series pick ups maintaining the balance sheet.
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Parking more than 50cm from the kerb, as it was widely reported today, could soon result in a fine! - due to one of the new measures announced to keep the traffic moving. Read more
Can HJ please advise what engine oil I should use to top up. Are supermarkets' own brands - being cheap - worthwhile?
Many thanks indeed,
frmarcus Read more
what is the life span of this engine if serviced regulaly is 100,000 miles alot for this engine Read more
Kev,
HF runs a 1991 1.7 diesel estate with 141k on it and it runs superbly. I don't whether it had a recon engine before we got it or what, but it uses hardly any oil at all and still pulls willingly with very little in the way of nasty emissions from the rear {I take care of that ;-)}
Hope this helps
Rob
Got a lift in a mint one owner 94 2.0Vi Renault Safrane today. Beautiful quiet and immaculate car with 80,000 miles and 8 months MOT. Owner has just bought a new Laguna and is collecting on Monday. Told me he was putting the car up for sale next week at £450 (the original trade in price). Very tempted, car has FSH and hasn't a scratch on it. Am I mad to consider this one owner car? Read more
Hehe funny to see this post.
My ex-boss just brought one of these used after he wrote off his ex-black cab. He has had sooooo much trouble with it!
He has owned the thing 3 weeks and ive only seen it in the car park twice!
Its needed a new clutch, new cam belt and the valve timing was out too. Also there have been several other niggles.
Was funny the other night as he had just been sarcastic to a lot of the staff and he went to start his car and the battery was flat - needless to say no one had a set of jump leads! ;D
i'm thinking about buying a ex hire car most of which are about 7 months old from a well known car hire company disposal site.
not sure what model yet i haven't decided but should i be suspicious of any ex hire car? would it have been thrashed to bits? or would it be a bargain peach?
i'm a bit dubious of buying a car that has had lots of drivers rather than one carefull owner
any thoughts would be welcome. Read more
I am always concerned with hire cars in SA as you cannot totally insure them so you are always exposed to an excess charge if any problems occur. It OK for journalist as it just gets billed to expenses.
After a recent flat battery on my 2001 Mondeo 1.8 LX I decided to replace the battery. The battery fitted from new was a 390 amp 43 amp/hour, which seemed rather small to me. My local Ford dealer said it should have had a larger one so I've fitted a 590 amp 60 amp/hour.
Does anyone know what the factory fit battery should be on this model?
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my 2001 V6 Ghia X, fully loaded, also only has a 43 Ah battery fitted from new. It is a Silver/Calcium type (supposedly better than your average type).
All,
I bought a Mondeo (1.8 TD Diesel, 1999 model) this summer, and in the last few weeks (since it started raining) have discovered that there is a lot of water in the boot of the car. This has travelled onto the back seat of the car - which is now constantly wet as a result. In fact, in the sunken housing where the spare tyre sits, I found literally 4 inches of water when I then extracted using as mug.
Does anyone else have this problem - what is the likely cause? Maybe the seal around the rear windscreen? Maybe the tail lights? Apologies for the naive questions!
Many thanks in advance.
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Well, well, it's this old chestnut yet again!
Yes, almost certain that water ingress is via the rear lamp cluster seals.
Yes, quite correct, Ford do NOT sell the seals, only new lamp clusters at about £56 each, last time that I asked. I would be very interested to know, perhaps someone might be able to tell me, whether Ford have changed the type of seal on the replacement units; I understand from speaking to the chap in the spares counter that cluster units are supplied new complete with seals.
Ford are WELL AWARE of this problem, it occurs so often, but they just don't want to know, even when affected vehicles are covered by their so called "warranty".
The cure, as already stated, is to remove each cluster, apply a thick bead of silicone sealer to the existing seal, allow to set for a couple of minutes, and then refit cluster and retaining nuts. Do not wash the cluster while it's removed because it is nearly impossible to get the water out from the various internal layers afterwards.
Some might say to remove the existing seal first. I didn't do this as it would mean having to apply a very think bead of sealer, and I'm not sure it would be possible to do this using a standard type of mastic gun. Could do it in a couple of separate applications, I suppose.
In my own case the "cure" has worked, well, so far, anyway!
Good Luck!
Can\'t help a rant now (and apologies for the tenuous motoring content)
Well, rather than apologise, how about not posting things with a tenuous motoring link? Just a thought. ND Read more
Slightly bizarre Mini Cooper for auction at Blackbushe today. Looked nice enough, 51 reg and had done 50k miles. But...unless I mis-heard the auctioneer (quite possible!) it had only 2 service stamps! One at 5k and another at 50k...strange! The bidding still went to 8850 provisional but it left me thinking why anyone would not service their mini when it only costs another 100 quid for the 5 yr free servicing option?! Perhaps it was fully serviced and just missing the stamps but even still it just goes to show how strong the prices are for Mini's...
Was only there as a spectator today. Haven't been to many of the Friday auctions but looked packed out to me. Lots of provisional bids though. Read more
My Mrs's Mini popped up a clock like icon in the display which I took to mean the service was due. We took it in, and it was not the first service, but a time related inspection. They changed the brake fluid, washed it and picked me up from work in a nice 528 estate with sat nav, driven by a 50+ year old nutter. Well worth £100 for 5 years servicing / service.
p.s. The Mini has done about 11,000 miles in 2 years and the service indicator says it needs Inspection 1 at about 20k.
So back to the original post, it's conceivable that the car only has 2 stamps in 50k miles, but they should be at around 20k and 40k
Browse
Yeah yeah, I past my test 18 months ago, and I'm a demon parker [not the naff coat the Gallaghers wear!], no offence to most people on here, but it seems to be the older people who are worse at parking than the young [generally!!].
And yes, I have frequently argued for frequent re-testing, as it's quite scarey that I hopefully will never be tested on my driving ability ever again.
My point being is what's the point of being fined 10/20/30/50/whatever quid for something you cannot do. My way, the person's happy cos they can now park, everyone else is happy cos they can park, and the government is happy because the people are happy and not having to fine people for bad parking, err, I think I see the problem...
I didn't do the hazard perception test, thankfully, from what I've seen/heard, never has something seemed so unfair and guaranteed a lot of potentially good drivers stuck coughing up £20ish to press a button on a computer. Reactions cannot be mesured on a computer simulation as good as in an actual car, you just don't get a feel for the dangers...
Kev