January 2004
Toyota Corolla 2000 to 2002. 1.6 ltr. VVTi 48 mpg.
Toyota Corolla 2002 to date. 1.6 ltr. VVTi 40 mpg.
Anybody got any ideas why the mpg is so much lower in the current car - with the same engine? Read more
I thought buying a car would be fun, i\'m just frustrated and fed up. I was going to buy a 4x4, (easy now people, calm down, deep breaths) but due to the extorniate running costs, i\'ve got in narrowed down to...
VW Golf MKIV
Audi A3 (Old Shape) I need 5 doors.
Audi A4
BMw 3 Series
Now all advice would be greatly appreciated,
I\'m currently driving a MKIII Golf GTI, so i\'d like a bit of poke, safety is important, and obviously a good drive.
Budget is ideally £11000.
Cheers chaps and chapettes. Read more
Although it is in your 'dismissed' list, I feel I have to champion the Focus ST170. I am a little biased because I have one but consider these points.
1. Universally accepted to be the best handling car in its class (and that's just the standard models, the ST has up-rated suspension, brakes, tyres etc.) The Golf and its derivatives, however, are infamous for handling like boats.
2. Faster than any Golf, bar the V6 4Motion or R32 but they're in a different price bracket. As fast as the Beemer 323.
3. Cheap to service and repair.
4. Tons of equipment as standard.
I accept that the Golf traditionally has a reputation for being very refined and well-built (although even that has been thrown into doubt of recent months/years), but interestingly, in the recent Top Gear User Satisfaction Survey, of all the Golf based cars, the one they found to be the worst was the Golf.
I'm in the process of buying a second hand car privately.
I've been looking into getting a warranty but have heard various bad things said about companies not wanting to pay out when you make a claim.
Has anyone any experience with these, good or bad.
cheers Read more
I got a free Warranty Holdings warranty during the haggling process for my Golf mk3 Driver about 2 years ago. I had the following replaced under this warranty in the first 2 months of ownership:
Clutch Bearings
Gearbox Bearings
Rack and pinion
Water Pump
This probably saved me an arm and a leg, however when I tried claiming for a wheel bearing at about month 11 they refused to pay because my 6 month service did not have a parts and VAT breakdown (done by hometune and had all the checklist and price and VAT reg number).
To summarise it helped me out a lot and had I of paid for it it would have been worth it, but they will try and wriggle out of things given the mere sniff of a chance. If I bought a car now I would probably purchase one (A Warranty Holdings one at least).
Which? magazine submitted six cars to six different MOT test centres, having planted between one and four MOT-fail items in them.
* Only eight of the 36 tests were carried out correctly. . . .
* Incredibly, eight garages passed our cars. . . .
* The remaining 20 garages failed the cars, but for the wrong reasons . . .
So what's new? In 1997 only two garages out of 36 gave correct tests, but only two passed the cars incorrectly.
Are you surprised. I'm not. What a farce. Read more
This doesn't suprise me. I watched 'Wheeler Dealers' last night which featured a Capri Laser 1.6 'C' reg. The car came with 12 months MOT. The mechanic said the front suspension bushes had gone resulting in wear to the inside of the front tyres, both MOT failures. In addition the car had no exhaust manifold gaskets resulting in poisonous gases entering the cabin - another MOT failure (or is it?).
Halfords have 5 litres of 5W/40 synthetic on sale for £14.99 - offer ends today!
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Illegitimi non carborundum! Read more
"My Latin is not what it was"
Nor's mine! You're quite right, of course, but it's probably about time I changed it, anyway. Please feel free to proofread the new one...
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Die dulci fruere!
Yet again our Vauxhall Carlton.
Last week our Cam belt broke on the vauxhall I thought initially that it would just be replacing the belt and that it would be OK. After stripping the car down we then realised that the cam shaft was actually seized.
A few questions.
What caused this to sieze?
What sort of cost are we looking at for repair? My Dad and brother are both mechanics so although I won\'t be paying for labour I am wondering how expensive the parts are likely to be, I understand that the cylindar head gasket will have to be replaced at the same time.
Part of me thinks we should scrap the car but we have had alot of work done on it recently i.e new clutch, alternater etc.
What do others think? Read more
am i right n saying the oil light only shows oil
present but not pressure status ??
Depends which oil light you're refering to.
The light that looks like an oil can with a drop of oil coming from the spout works off a pressure switch.
If you have a similar light but with a wavy line underneath it (normally only fitted on higher spec models) then this is the oil low level warning light.
I have a Citroen AX which is parked on a slight hill overnight. Recently I have noticed that when I release the handbrake in the morning, I have to apply a bit of acceleration before it will move.
Can anyone advise what the problem might be and what work will need done (i.e. is it a big job) - the car is due for MOT next Monday....
Thx in Advance!
C. Read more
Agree with 659FBE. I replaced the brakes shoes at about 75K miles on our AX because I couldn't free the pivot on the nearside set. The cables, however, looked immaculate.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
Have tried to find a suitable past thread to slot this into, but couldn\'t.
We\'ve had Disabled parking bays, Parent with child bays and now my local ASDA have Mums To Be parking bays. The painted yellow symbol is a stalk, in flight, with bundle of joy in it\'s mouth
Could we have a Lazy person bay next please, with a symbol of someone lounging in a chair, beer in one hand, remote control in the other ;0) Read more
Oh, you've met my ex-wife then?
Hi,
I had been experiencing intermittent problems with my tacho on my pug 306TD 1993, and on the advice of other threads, replaced the crankshaft TDC sensor. The replacement crankshaft sensor was sourced from gsf, and was for a citroen xantia 1.9td. I was told that this was a suitable replacement as engines were identical. Both parts looked much the same physically.
However, replacing the crankshaft sensor gave me no tacho reading. I then switched back to my original sensor, and still got no tacho reading. I suspect the problem is with the actual wiring from the tacho sensor plug/socket to the dashboard tacho unit. By the way the car runs fine, even with crankshaft sensor disconnected (appears to be solely used for tacho display, I have no EGR valve on my car).
Out of interest, I measured the resistance of both crankshaft TDC sensors, original=150 ohms, new=250 ohms. The reason I suspect the wiring is that when I measured the open circuit resistance of the socket connector (going to dashboard tacho unit), this was infinite. Is this correct, is it supposed to have a very high impedance? I would be very grateful if any other pug306 diesel owners (with tacho display) could measure the resistance of their tacho unit (with crankshaft sensor disconnected). This plug/socket connection is below the fuel filter, and has a 3 plug connector, with the two left most pins only used.
Any suggestions/ideas most welcome.
Cheers Read more
Although the engines may be the same, I guess the electronics in the dash may differ, hence different sensors.
Hello,
I currently own a 99 Vectra Estate, and I'm very happy with it. However my wife and I recently had a new baby son - this completes our family (foot down this time ;)) and I'm now wondering about the plausibility of fitting 3 children in the back of the Vectra.
We have a 3 month old - very small car seat at the moment and not a big problem, but will soon need the next stage. We also have a 4 year old - larger seat, more room. Finally we have a 7 year old - booster seat only.
As things stand it's difficult getting them comfortably in the back seat - particularly for my 7 year old as he ends up squished in the middle.
Are the new Vectra's and Mondeo's wider internally these days? Or should I chuck in the towel and start looking at the likes of the Sedona or Zafira?
All comments welcome.
Kind regards,
Cyrill666
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www.inglebybarwick.com
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Read more
The middle seat in the zafira is not really a proper seat, as in the citreon picasso or renault scenic.
I chose a a scenic because it has isofix brackets in the two outside seats as standard. isofix britax seats are around £150 each and worth there weight in gold, solid as a rock and can also be used as a standlone seat, no fiddling around trying to buckle the car seats in tightly. The middle seat is a proper seat that can be moved forward a good few inches if needed or removed completly.
Browse
The figures given as I mentioned are not a precise measurement.You did say controlled environment.to an official set of paramenters.Ok they are.But that won`t say the engine in the british environment ie varying temp/some frost/extreme wet conditions plus hill climbing sudden braking plus what has been said before regarding weight which in the case of safety is a must for your own good.all must say the given MPG for the car will not be the same for every car.No (2) people drive the same.No (2) cars drive the same.Going back to what I said official figures are not written in stone.I would be surprised if any manufacturer gave a warranty on the mpg they have advised? could be wrong but doubt it