July 2004
From HJ's Car by Car
What's Bad
Tin shed construction. 'Red Robbo' build quality. Antediluvian 'A' Series 1.3 litre engine. 1.3s are surprisingly horrible to drive - worse than you would ever have imagined.
Are you being a bit harsh HJ?
I learnt to drive in a Maestro, it was more "fun" to drive than the Pug 405 that replaced it. Read more
I bought a new Transit Tourneo last October to use as a taxi.
I am starting to have some probs with it. For example, the Vehicle has been in because it keeps blowing fuses when the windscreen wipers are on intermittent. After the fourth visit with this problem the local dealers decided to fit a new wiper motor, as they couldn't figure out what was causing the problem.
Wiper motor fitted this week, hasn't cured the problem !!
I have written to Fords customer care centre and i am awaiting a reply. Every time the vehicle has to visit the local dealers it costs me money, next thing which needs replacing is DMF (the engine is rattling and the workshop team leader said "thats the DMF, needs to be off the road a full day")
Can anybody give me some tips on how to approach this problem, the bus has only done 48000 miles i dread to think whats coming next??? Read more
Substitute the fuse for a multimeter to measure the current drawn by the wiper motor. If a 5 amp fuse is fitted as standard and the current drawn is, say 7 amps, then fit a 10 amp fuse instead.***
I had to do a similar thing with a Citroen Berlingo van. After speaking to the Citroen dealer, they suggested this fix. They said the original 5 amp fuse *wasn't* man enough to cope when the wiper motor was under heavy load - especially when the blower fan (on the same fuse) was turned up to demist the windscreen as well.
***However, if the current drawn is excessively high, then there is obviously another fault and I wouldn't recommend upping the fuse rating in case it causes a fire.
What car do you all aspire to drive?
Firstly, if money was no object and you could simply take your pick from whatever was out there, even if there are only two of them left in the world, and why?
Secondly, more realistic aspirations eg what you hope your next car is going to be or what you may drive in a few years time.
Thirdly what would you be happier with (Mondeo TDCI rather than the 16v petrol for example)?
My dream car - don't really know. Probably a new Rolls or Bentley. I have always liked the complete comfort and luxury that these offer, having sat in one and played with the power windows when I was young. Alternitively, I also liked the Jag XJS. I know they changed the styling for the later models. I would prefer the convertable but I'm not too fussy.
What I may aspire to drive in a vew years time? -If I stick to the 4WD The newer Range Rover P38, I don't think my budjet will stretch to the newer model too soon. If I go back to family cars, I quite like the Peugeot 806 that my sister has.
In addition I would like to replace my van in a few years time with a more motorway friendly vehicle, but that will have to be reviewed if and when my business takes me out on the motorways or dual carriage ways more. I like the Merc Sprinter or the VW transporter. The Trafic I have is too noisy for doing 70 for long periods.
What I would prefer to what I have now. The newer 300TDi Discovery, though My 200TDi is giving me absolutely no problems at the moment, which I understand is a bit unusual! So I;ll stik with that - low maintenance AND next to no depreciation - can't be bad!
H Read more
I'd put good money on this not being anything like what you were thinking of, but what about this, the Mafia staff-car:
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...1
Looks perfectly ordinary, goes like the clappers.
A 155 Q4 fulfills the same criteria, shame they can both only be bought LHD.
I'm contemplating buying one or other of these mini-MPVs. They both seem to find favour with HJ in their different ways, but I am particularly inclined towards the 2.0 litre auto Picasso and in either case it would be a petrol engine.
The Back Room's collective wisdom and experience would be most welcome, please. What would be your vote? Read more
I'm overwhelmed by the varied and useful response to all this. Thanks everyone.
About the points raised:-
I am not suggesting that a diesel engine/autobox is not a sound combination -- I'm referring to availability on two specific models. Thanks, StuartLi, but perhaps you missed my opening post.
Why the MPV versions? As well as the practicalities referred to, the Focus C-Max does seem to be a different animal from the Focus car -- see HJ's post. The Picasso is based on the Xsara (innit?), but the auto version has a better, Tiptronic-style box as used in the C8, in place of the Xsara standard box which I understand can be a bit dodgy.
In terms of reliability most owners seem to be either very pleased with their cars or very dissatisfied. I don't know if this is because cars are either very well or very badly built or because we tend to see things in very black or white terms.
My Mazda 323 has had 3 faults in its 5 year life (ignition coil, clutch switch, broken bit of driver's door lock). It also has a couple of intermittent interior trim rattles. Does this make it very reliable, unreliable, or quite reliable (my view)?
Does anyone else own a 'quite reliable' car? Read more
In addition to Which? magazine I find the German motoring publications very useful.
The ADAC (German AA) produce a regular newstand publication which uses data from their breakdown callouts and car inspections. They rate the cars according to breakdown rate and also list common failures and years affected. The data should be sound since it is based on a very large data set and adjusted to take account of the number of a particular make/model on the roads. It seems to be very accurate according to feedback, and is well respected in Germany.
Reliability is rated on an approx five-point scale from 'poor' to 'very good'.
Toyota, Nissan, Honda etc. stand out as very good. VW, Ford fall into the 'quite reliable' catagory (along with BMW and MB). Most things French and Italian fall into the 'poor' catagory (along with Rover and Mini).
Another good publication which comes out as a 'special' a couple of times a year uses data from the German equivalent of the MoT test. All cars are listed in various age bands and the specific failure items are listed. There is a lot of very detailed data and one can see very clear patterns - e.g. for some makes/models almost no cars will fail on brakes, but 25% will fail on lights etc. - this is obviously useful data if inspecting a used car.
I am amused by an indignant letter in today's Bahrain Gulf Daily News which claims the Moroccan Embassy has installed two humps without authority outside it so that the Ambassador's car can get out more easily.
This is followed by an equally indignant response from the Roads and Traffic Directorate which says no road humps can be installed without the approval of a "humps committee".
Given it's the Middle East as well, it brings to mind that old one about a camel being a horse designed by a committee......
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No doubt the camel's not too happy about his new job either...
The move was actually approved by Englebert Humperdinck, who didn't realise there would be such a song and dance about it.
What type and colour of car did Victor drive? I have been accused of owning one!! Read more
I think in the first series he owned a 1970s red Hillman. There's a great phrase when he goes into the garage to ask about the car's progress: "Hello, it's Victor Meldrew, the crimson Avenger!"
Gareth
When the previous Tory government originally introduced tax exemption for old vehicles, I think it applied to vehicles over 20 years old. Then Labour fixed the cut-off point at 1973, and there it's stayed.
Is there a case now for returning to a rolling cut off date, applying the exemption to vehicles over 30 years old?
The 20 year limit probably exempted many old bangers that were hanging on for a year or two before going to the scrapyard. However a 30 year limit would not include many such vehicles.
Some of the over 30's may be tatty, but they're usually kept for interest by enthusiasts.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Grenhayes nick in Manchester also STILL think that they are exempt from displaying tax discs!
Those of you who know the new vectra have probably seen that neat sunglasses holder behind the central courtesy light in the cieling on top models. My SRi though doesnt have this but I found out in the dealers that the parts for it are very cheap. Question is... has anyone fitted it and if so is it a big job?
Simon
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I had a look at how mine is fitted last night. It looks like it's held into the roof by two screws, and is separate to the interior light panel, but probably clipped to it somehow. Not sure how to remove the original blank panel though.
My interest is in resetting the computer screen \'service\' indication after a first oil change on a 2003 Micra SE. In spite of risking a bit of warrantee bother, it is a job I prefer to do myself.
I saw Gunson equipment in Halfords for about £99 that, amongst other things, read and reset car fault codes. But a closer look showed it to be for cars manufactured a decade or so ago. I think those systems just output a series of pulses, when interrogated, rather than paint words on a display screen.
During my discussions the words \'EODB2\" System\' were mentioned in terms of being a modern car control system. It was also said that if and when the likes of Halfords stocked such an equipment, \'it will be much more expensive\' than £99.
Questions: Anyone care to enlighten me on the EODB2 system? Sounds like it is a bit of kit the manufacturer buys in to fit on each car. Possibly doing his own programming.
Secondly, can anyone confirm that it will not be possible for me to reset the computer screen SERVICE reading without having a special handset that plugs in and does the job -- costing many hundreds, no doubt. Sounds like a good home project for the ELEKTOR journal.
I guess there is not likely to be anything as simple as grounding a pin like you can, apparently, when resetting the service indicator on an old Merc?
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Thanks for that. Since finding my OBD2 lettering was mixed-up I have been back to Google, and I found quite a lot including some Gendan stuff although I missed that Gendan one. 17 notes sounds good.
There is a more comprehensive one for £139 and some $200 US software to adapt a Palm to, apparently, do rather more diagnostics by having display graphs.
I also learnt that EOBD2 stands for European on-board diagnostics 2nd version and that a 16 pin DIL socket (presumably larger than an IC one) should be standard on all Euro petrol cars after 1st Jan 2001, although the connections to it have several variations according to the system used on the car.
It would be nice to be able to look for fault codes before putting a car in for a service, if nothing else. The 17 notes one would do. Or you can buy, or will be able to buy, something pretty useful for about the price of a service.
Browse
You will find that with most cars, the later models were fine because all the faults had been fixed. I had an ex-demo Turbo diesel Maestro on a L plate and did 100K in three years with no problems. Body work was poorly painted though.