What's the Backroom record for an outstanding insurance claim?
Nine months ago, in April last year, my son was stationary at traffic lights in central London when he was sideswiped from the right by a French tour coach. The passenger door was pushed in about 6". The coach driver admitted liability and gave insurance details.
Our insurance company sent an assessor to our address, looked at the car(a G reg.3-door Civic in excellent condition, apart from the damage)and said that he'd arrange with our local garage for repairs to be carried out.
Later that day I received a call from a salvage company to say that the car had been written off, and would I remove all personal belongings before it was collected.
I got back to the insurers and said I wanted to retain the car and have it repaired at my expense, and asked them to send the write off value, which they estimated at £350.
However, the car was subject to an excess of £200, so a cheque for £150 would be posted to us, and the £200 would follow when they'd got it from the coach's insurance company.
The car was fitted with a door from a breaker's yard for a cost of £100 including spraying.
Despite about a dozen phone calls and 4 letters, we're still waiting. How long do I give them before I consider the small claims court? Any advice much appreciated.
P. Read more

We have a fairly new 1.6 Focus, and it has an unusual anomaly.

Namely, when it is cold it starts fine and also when it is hot it starts and ticks over fine.
However when it is 'warmish' ie left for say 2 hours after having been Hot, when you start the engine, it starts okay and you can drive off okay, but if you leave it to idle, the engine will not settle to a staedy idle. Instead the engine just hunts or oscillates between say 750 and 1400 revs.

Any ideas ? Read more

I've just had my 1996 1.4 (petrol) Mk3 VW Golf serviced and MOT'd, during which the rear exhaust box (silencer) had to be replaced. Could someone in the know inform me how long this procedure should take. Many thanks. Read more

I have noticed that when I start my VW BORA PD Sport 130BHP from cold that the engine rocks for a while until the car warms up. From then the rocking disappears. The performance of the car is not affected by this. I took the car in to an independant VW specialist who told me injectors were at fault and that I had too options:

1) replace the injectors at a cost of ~£2000
2) Have them taken out stripped - cleaned and rebuilt at a cost of £900

Neither of these options seemed good to me - i also got the spiel about how if i ignored the problem it would be detrimental to the car

I then took it into VW who who did an assessment and even did a comparison with another bora of similar age and miles. They said they could not find anything wrong with it. Told me to comeback once a problem developed.

So either VW are wrong or the specialust was lying ********

So was wondering if anyone else have similar problems with their Bora from cold start?
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Sitting in a jam on a french motorway, as many cars passed quicker than me (typical) I wondered why the french manufacturers have not entered the 4x4 market. OK, in the 80's you could get a 4x4 405 and BX; and Renault did the Scenic RX4 but they've never done a big 4x4.
Given Citroen's experience of hydaulic suspension you would think they would be well placed to enter this market. And as Renault and Nissan are joined (or taken over?), Renault could re-badge a Nissan 4x4 as a quick solution. If a Renault Trafic can be a Nissan Primastar, why can't a Nissan Terrano be a Renault? Read more