i have a 1.9d renault clio and starts a little ropey but then goes fine. But at only one particular point in the rev range it misfires slightly.What could this point to. Any help is appreciated. Read more

Does anybody know if the French built yaris's are as good as the jap built ones, and where are the 1.3 petrol engines made?. Read more

Don't want to depress you all but I understand that most of the country will actually be returning to normal on Monday.
I would like to put in a little tongue in cheek plea for the Xmas break to be for at least a month in future, simply because for those of us who have been working as normal during the break it has been heaven on the roads.
Don't really know why but today appeared to be the quietest day, this morning, where there are normally half mile queues there were about five cars max. This evening, a journey which normally takes 45 minutes to an hour took me 25 minutes, wonderful!

Cockle Read more

I was interested to see in previous threads the discussions concerning Mercedes and the general view that their quality and reliability are not what they used to be. Aprilia commented that the W124, the old E series before the "frogeye" one launched in the mid 90s, was one of the last built to the bullet proof standards that the Merc badge used to represent. My brother in law uses a chauffeur driver from time to time who has a diesel one with well over 200k on the clock and it still looks and sounds excellent. I too have some contact with the automotive industry and a client of mine, a supplier to mercedes, says that he believes they are pulling out all the stops to drive down costs. To meet their demands on price his firm has had to switch production from Germany to a lower labout cost country as well as reduce the specification of the components, not the same as reducing quality, in order to meet their demands. He agrees that newer models and particularly the ones coming through are not to the same standards as earlier models.

So is it a good idea to buy a good but old mercedes? Such as a relatively low mileage W124 with the run-for-ever diesel engine, if there is still such a thing available, or a German built previous model C class rather than a newer model and more expensive Mercedes or a more modern but lesser marque? A close friend of twenty years or more has always bought a new Merc, run it for three years and then repurchased. This time round he is going for the new Honda Accord diesel. The loss of loyal buyers like this must be a cause for concern for a premium priced marque that apparently isnt delivering against the promise.

As a diesel Audi (the poor man's mercedes) driver, 10 years old, 47 mpg and a mere 110k miles, I favour an old but good marque as a way of getting reliability, economy and a degree of prestige. I would be interested in other views on the subject.

Thanks to all for your interesting and informative comments and discussion throughout 2003.

MGs Read more

I think HJ spoke recently of clearing out some of the oldest Back Room contributions, assuming not unreasonably that they would be of no interest to anyone. I bet they would be of interest and I would like to suggest that they be archived as downloadable text files. Even better, the technical ones could be organised by make of car, although that would be icing on the cake, as they would be easily searchable. Read more