hello all. I am pondering on buying a car for my lovely pregnant lady friend. Not looking to spend a great deal, not that I think little of her you understand!!!! a guy at my work is selling a Fiat Brava P plate 5dr hatch 1.4 SX for a steal at £250, it's T&T until the end of the year, it has a rather nasty amount of mileage on it, he tells me 130-140k which is quite severe, not sure if I am in for a hammering come MOT time. hmmm, can anyone comment on any prior dealing with high mileage Brava's? or them in general, he states there was a recent oil leak which has now been fixed and also there is no radio in it (probably to listen previously to the leaking oil!!!), not the end of the world but does the radio have to be Fiat specifically? I was considering going down the line of a 5dr Fiesta between K-M plate for about 500 sovs but this seems a steal, or will it be daylight robbery?

any advice always welcome.

Thanks

BM. Read more

Late 2000 Peugeot 306 HDi D-Turbo

Recently I have had a couple of electrical faults. Please share your experience / advice (if it will be helpful)!

Easy one first:
This morning my rear windscreen wiper decided to turn itself on and doesn't want to turn off. The switch was in the 'off' position, but fiddling with the switch doesn't seem to make any difference. It has been raining a lot recently - I'll see what happens if / when the weather starts to dry out...

And the tricky one:
A couple of weeks ago I was hoovering my car (weather was dry, driver's door was open) and the radio turned itself on, even though I hadn't touched any of the buttons / steering column stalks etc. What makes it even stranger is that the key was in my pocket, NOT the ignition, at the time... Read more

Hello

I cannot open the hatchback on my 1995 Seat Toledo :-(

There are two catches, one on each side of the hatch. One of these unlocks ok, but one does not.

The mechanism from the key moves ok and appears to be still connected to the broken catch.

To access the screws holding the catch to the bodyshell and the hatchback requires the hatch to be open... :-(((

Any suggestions as to how I can get the hatch open?

TIA
Michael Read more

Just bought a Mazda 2 1.4 Capella with Auto Shift transmission. Car great and box seems fine. Just wondered if anybody had found the same as me ie in Auto mode the changedown from 2nd to 1st as you brake (ie stopping at lights) can be felt ever so slightly through the break pedal (ie I'm aware of first being selected by the engine). Think I may just be being too over aware of stuff because it's new! Any thoughts/experiences welcomed. Also wondered how other drivers get on with this overlooked car? Read more

Motorway Layouts.

While driving through the road works on the western section of the M25 at various times of the day (including rush hours) I was struck by the following observation.

Northbound, two lanes are moved into the opposing carriageway with no access off for three junctions. Two lanes remain for access on and off the motorway.

Even during high demand, during rush hour, the two ?no access lanes? (assuming no accidents or breakdowns) flow smoothly at the posted 40mph limit. The two ?access? lanes are backed up constantly.

This leads me to assume that it?s the act of leaving and joining motorways that cause the most agro.

So my idea, on urban motorways in the UK that suffer jams, is to provide two lanes for local, joining and leaving, and two physically separated lanes for through traffic, perhaps with leaving and joining intersections every three or four junctions or so..
The two outer lanes would obviously be the ?through lanes? and the joining intersections in the outside lane of the ?local lanes?
In effect a Motorway within a Motorway.

I have seen similar ideas in use in the UK and abroad, but these seem to be by accident rather than design usually after extra lanes or junctions have been added.


If the M25 was built with 2 outer lanes ?through traffic? and two inner lanes ?local and access? with crossovers every 4 junctions I bet it would be transformed.
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