April 2004
I'd like to find out about cars that are generaly unknown but are in fact exellent and under rated.
I'll kick it off by telling you about my recent purcahse of Mitsubishi Galant
S Reg 2,5 v6 ,climate control all leather and so forth. This is gem of a find for me. It wasn't expensive at £3500 (75,000 miles) and I think under valued. Some nice touches are both driver and pass seats are fully electric and it has a very decent climate control system as well as great music system.. all standard. It's quick and holds the road well and fairy economic for a v6 32 MPG average. Mine is a 4 door but the estate version looks great as well.
Any thoughts on this or other under valued cars you know of? Read more
Hi all,
I am going to have a rant and moan now which won\'t help anyone but myself.
Here goes. This is going to be really difficult to explain. I attend a University in the North West which I shan\'t name lest I get into trouble. Anyway - there are 2 entrances to the campus - one at the front and one at the back. When you drive into the front, you look for spaces which usually are non-existent and so, head to the back of the university campus by way of a short road about 10 metres in length. Problem. Drove in this morning and that short road had two barriers at the front campus side with a sign saying
\"NO ACCESS BETWEEN 0700 and 1730 - Please use *back entrance*\"
\"Hmm\" - I said - \"that\'s rather annoying.\" (I thought something a little stronger) So, late for a lecture which I was going to be early for originally I had to drive to the back entrance. The problem here is that the back entrance is 5 miles away by driving out of the main entrance and then taking the main road. So I drive in the back way and there are 2 more barriers on this side saying to use the front entrance but that didn\'t matter as I found a space.
I\'m sure there was a point to this sto.... oh yes. My problem is that a) I now have to drive 5 miles out of my way to go in the back way which isn\'t guaranteed to yield a space and b) Why have they done this? I understand the post is very confusing and long but there are no buildings or fire hydrants or anything on this small road. I can\'t for the life of me work out why they have done it. Finally, yes really, this is the end. Next year they are going to charge us to use the carpark. I have heard a figure of £6 a week. For students? I can\'t wait to see how much they actually get out of us.
Many thanks for your patience and should this post not be deleted for boredom reasons, thanks No Dosh, Mark or Dave for not deleting it :-)
--
\"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will\" Read more
I never realised I was so lucky but I HAVE to tell you this. Walking back to the car before and seeing as a new bulding is being constructed there is loads of site traffic. This dumpster pulls up needing to go through the barriers. One man come to operate it and I was surprised at what he had to to. He lifted the cover of and messed about inside. Then he couldn't do it so another one had to come and help him. All this went on for 10 minutes as when I was driving out (the long way of course) they were still messing about. I suspect that the people who have to come and open them will get fed up LONG before anyone else does.
I'm not childish but...HAH!!
Thanks for all of your replies
Adam
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"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will"
FWIW, I drive between North Lanarkshire Council roads and West Lothian Roads. I regularly notice potholes, missing signs etc as we all do on our journeys.
I took the time to check out both council's websites and found that you can report problems direct to them via the sites.
I now have both of these set up in my favourites and regularly submit forms to them for repairs that are required.
I don't know if its due to the "sue culture" that surrounds us now or not, but the longest I have waited for a repair to be done after reporting it is 4 days!
So next time you get annoyed because of a specific pothole etc, take a minute or two to let your local authority know. You may be surprised how quickly it gets fixed! Read more
You'll probably find that the aesthetic appearance of the bus shelters matters far more to TfL than the cost of constantly repairing them.
The only viable alternative to glass is polycarbonate type material which is even more attractive to the graffiti/vandalism brigade than glass, mainly because it can be scratched/etched into easily, leaving permanent damage which looks unsightly.
It is also very difficult to remove spray paint from polycarbonate without the paint or the removal agent eating into the surface. Polycarbonate can also be melted with a naked flame.
Our council (in North Wales) has a policy of erecting shelters with glass windows, but the first time a window is broken by vandalism it is automatically replaced with polycarbonate. This means that some shelters have windows of both materials which look awful, especially once the polycarbonate has been etched into.
I hope that makes some sense.
PP
got a horrible dull thumping noise that comes from the o/s rear every time i go over a bump or pot hole ,it sounds like i have something heavy in the boot moving about .ive looked underneath and there is nowt loose?? your veiws please Read more
Shock absorber
irratic problem. 1999 1.9 GT TDI Golf. When starting the car at various times it will fire up and after 2 seconds stops again. This only appears to happen when the interior of car is warm or the car is left in direct sunlight. Allougth this problem may have something to do with the Blip and or immobiliser. Hope you can help with some advice.
Thanks again Read more
Thanks for the reply. However this problem seems to be directly related to the temperature of the interior of the car. As the car is used and the interior gets warmer the car will get slightly harder to start. Also if the car is left in direct sunlight for a period of time it will turn but not start. If this is a ECU problem can i simply get one from a local breakers. Also if i get an ECU from a 115 or 130bhp car will that make a difference to my 110bhp car?? Any help is appreciated.
thanks
New A6...
Facelifted 'new' A8 (after such a short time in production)?
Facelifted A4 Avant in ?December with salooon to follow?
Has Audi gone mad? I like the new look, but am miffed that my A4 is going to start to look dated so soon.
New A3 already looks like it doesn't belong to the family. Surgery imminent?
A2 not long for this world anyway. Not least, it seems, because it doesn't look right. Read more
HJ, if I look at my A4's nose and that of the A3 I see a gradual but distinct progression from the older to the more recent car. The new A6 and 'new' A8 look like a real leap on from the A3.
I quite like it actually, but don't want my A4's residuals affected (too much).
Why didn't Audi give the new A3 a stronger nose? Now it's the odd one out and needs to look like an immediate member of the family, not a cousin.
Why are today's tyres so noisy? I do a fair bit of walking (with pushchair on pavements) and as vehicles go "wooshing" by I've realised that the main source of noise these days, certainly on cars, is not the engine or exhaust but the roar from tyres. It's a real row, especially I guess from low profile tyres. My question is: can modern tyres be designed to run quieter, or is it the fault of the materials used, as opposed to the tread pattern design? Read more
Hi,
I have noticed that too. Michelin has just introduced a new "ultra quiet performance tyre" which has been advertised on radio in our area. So, yes, modern tyres CAN be designed to run quieter. But the main cause of the noise, IMHO is to do with their size. The greater the surface area touching the road, the noisier they are. As low profile tyres tend to be wider (hence larger surface area) than average, that may be why they seem to be noisier.
But as I know very little about tyres, Im probably wrong.
Hope this helps
Daniel
pulley shakes all over and makes squeeling noise when wheel is turned,any thoughts would be much apprieciated.thanks Read more
Power steering pumps are too expensive- checkk on ECP (www.eurocarparts.co.uk), and realtively easy to change.
Wheel judder could be all sorts of things. But if you can be sure the sub-frames are all straight, i doubt it will ba anything too expensive to put right- even a 16v rack (different from 8v) is only £130 plus vat exchange. (£650 or there abouts from VAG though!).
Due to the age of mk.2 golfs now, i would reccomend you look through owners clubs and enthusiats forum etc for cars. A friend on mine recently sold his 16v which was in great condition, had full leather trim, bottom end from and audi coupe (9a block 2ltr) which had about 30k miles on it, the head was off my old jetta 16v with high lift inlet cam, vernier pulley etc, two year old lowered suspension (done properly) with all new bushes all round, 280mm brakes etc etc. He took a grand for it. Quite a bargain i thought. Car was g plate but i think thats almost irrelevant. Mad people still pay £2k plus for J and K reg cars.
Another friend years ago sold an even better spec car with a properly rebuilt gearbox for £1500. Look for cars that have had decent gearbox rebuilds. The boxes can go on and on but the syncros are weak. Hard driven cars can have problems with the diff. Accelerate hard and see if the car deviates as you lift on and off the throttle
Interesting revelation in R4 'From our own correspondent' today:-
One of the questions in the theory test in China is 'If you come accross the victim of a road accident and their intestines are spread over the road, should you attempt to replace them in the body?'
Sadly, they didn't offer the correct answer.
Enjoy your tea. Read more
Reminded me of a patient that was bought in to A&E Snip (no pun intended) Snip. Sorry, whilst very interesting I don\'t think that really adds to the thread, nor to the wellbeing of those reading the thread. Unless you want an emetic. ND (stands for No Dinner right now)
My father-in-law had the misfortune (according to the latest JDPower survey anyway) to buy a Pug 307 on a 53 reg.
A few weeks ago I mentioned the BBC Watchdog story to him about the mileage increasing by amounts not directly related to the distance travelled (one bloke showed the mileage counter at one figure, closed and locked the car, opened it again and the mileage had increased!!).
He knew nothing about this so he called Peugeot and booked the motor in for the required software download. The mechanic told him that he could tell that the car had actually done about 3,000 miles less than indicated on the mileage counter. F-I-L said 'shouldn't you put the clock right then', only to receive the reply - 'no, that's illegal'! - which, I suppose, is true. The dealer gave him a number to call to complain and he was told to write to Peugeot.
Any legal-minded folk out there like to advise on where he stands?
Personally, all I can see Peugeot doing is issuing some sort of certificate stating the difference in the mileage for him to keep with his service history. Read more
www.wiganmbc.gov.uk/pub/ehcp/ts/Leaflets/Car%20mil...f
hope that helps
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"A Mitsibushi Colt in metallic black. Now that is a dark horse"
Ha Ha.... especially the old 1.6GLX