December 2004
Can anyone suggest a good, reliable used car that will mainly be used for motorway driving. Things I'm looking or include, comfort, reliabilty, reasonable economy and some decent space in the back for the kids stuff. Budget is around 2K Read more
Now here's an interesting scheme :
tinyurl.com/6by57
Pay for parking tickets with toys. I quite like the idea of it, good to know that children will benefit for once.
--
Lee
Having a Fabialous time. Read more
It would never work here. The cost of everything and the value of nothing springs to mind.
Had intermittent problem in spring, starter motor not working, just a click from the relay under the dash. Had the motor replaced, fine for six months then the same problem. Took it to a different garage who replaced the wire which had almost burned away. Fine for another two months until today, same problem. I'm hoping it's the wire thats burned out again as the motor isn't cheap and it's rather inaccessible.
Is this a common fault or have I been unlucky? Is there something that might have caused the wire to burn out? I don't even know where to look under the car, all I know is a driveshaft had to come off. Is the motor accessible without ramps? Read more
Has anyone part-exd their car to a dealer only to find it up for sale at an inflated price on the dealer's forecourt a few days later? Read more
in a true free market, the tendency is towards a communist
type monopoly owned market. the reason all kinds of monopoly and
competition commissions exist is to stop real competetion ending up in
winner takes all.
Totally agree. I was trying counter the characters who chant 'Free Market' whenever anyone complains about being ripped off in the UK. They don't know what a true free market is. On a scale of 1-10 (10 = true Free Market) the US only scores about a '5' and we are probably lower than that.
New car prices have come down a lot in recent years and are now more or less on a par with the rest of Europe. It wasn't the free market that did it for us, it wasn't our politicians (of any party), it wasn't even our motoring journals. IIRC it was the Consumers' Association and the much-derided EU who harassed and shamed the manufacturers into giving us a better deal and amde it easier for us to import from Europe.
I run a 1999 (facelift) Vectra 2.0 petrol with 120k miles on the clock.
Does anyone know what might be causing an annoying click or creak when the steering wheel is turned ??.
The click happens when the steering wheel is in a particular position and the click is heard then the wheel goes through this point and also when it returns.
I can easily find this point in the wheel turn and by gripping the steering wheel firmly and "jiggling" the wheel about this point, can faithfully re-create this click or creak !!
I'm certain the click is coming from the Steering wheel end and the only thing I can think of is a worn or dry bearing at the top of the steering column.
Anyone have a similar experience or suggest anything ?
Kind regards,
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Had a '96 SRi Vectra, did this from new, also had a '98 V6, this had a modified column though the problem still occured on occasions, it was fixed by the dealer who greased and adjusted the sliding joint in the column, this is safety feature allowing the column to collapse in a severe accident, fitting an Astra coupling might jepourdise this feature.
I have a '98 Primera se, 86,000 miles. Recently I have noticed that the blowers are a little noisy and not getting as much air into the cabin. Any ideas why and how can I fix it. Also the central fresh air vent is not heating up the air??? bit of a pain. I have had the car for four years and have not had the air-con serviced. Should I ?? Read more
I ordered one from a company called puravent (£18 including postage ). It was actually quite simple to fit and the fresh air is coming into the car now. Much better..
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4075085.stm
buy a bus and use the lanes, if we all get one ? Read more
I love Routemasters but they are getting a bit of an anachronism now. I think most of these last survivors that have just been pensioned off were modified several years ago with Daf engines.
Thankfully there are plenty of Routemasters left on the preservation scene with their original AEC (or in a few cases Leyland) engines.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
I'm pro speed cameras and police speed traps, but today I saw a rather stange choice of location.
There is a village on a main A-road on my way to and from work which has a 30 limit. Loads of drivers ignore this and go through at 40, 50 or even 60 mph. You often get tailgated if you try to keep to 30. I've never seen a speed trap there, despite it being a dangerous place where several accidents have happened.
But about half a mile on from the village and well beyond the 30 zone, the road changes from a slow winding stretch to a straight bit. The police were there with a radar gun. Yet that's a 60 mph stretch of road and my guess is that few drivers would be doing 60 let alone speeding at that point, especially as the police cars were highly visible.
Cheers, Sofa Spud Read more
I can't be bothered reading any reports etc , but can someone please explain to me how anyone can think that it is safer for cyclists NOT to wear a helmet than wearing one?
I speak from experience - the surgeons said if my brother hadn't been wearing his, he would be dead.
I hadn't realised that you could do it until I saw mention of it elsewhere.
www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk
If an MOT is needed it has to be one of the new computerised ones though.
Martin
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Just to finish off neatly, following my earlier post to say that I ordered my disc online on the 15/12/04. It has now arrived safely and correctly this morning in the post 20/12/04, which taking all things into account including the Xmas post, I believe is pretty good.
Merry Xmas to All.
Chris7
Tomorrow, I am driving down from Lanarkshire to Stafford, and back up on Sunday. Approx 250 miles each way.
Although I got my new Scenic in July, I have yet to take it on a lengthy journey like this so was looking forward to a good "drive", seeing how the 6 gear box was on long journey etc etc. Will be going down A/M74 and then M6.
However, over the course of this week, I have spoken to 3 separate people who have all been done for speeding on these 2 motorways. All were doing less than 80 mph!
Now having, ahem, far exceeded that speed on previous journeys, especially where the M74 is 3 empty lanes wide and you can see about 2 miles ahead of you, I am now faced with probably not going in excess of 75mph!
Ok I know the speed limit is 70 but I always thought that a blind eye was turned to anything up to 80? Perhaps the traffic police (who?) do, but the vans on the bridges don't?
Bah Humbug!!! Read more
His has 18k miles up maybe its not run in?
Browse
I would say a 98 2.0 Ghia X for under £2k. You can get lower spec ones but whats the point? They are not that much cheaper the Ghia X has everything you'll ever need and more - I don't know how people manage without cruise control and I'm not a frequent Motorway user!
I tried to like the 1.8TD, but moving from a Xantia TD really showed me how terrible it was so I got the 2.0 16v instead.