February 2005
the trout has set her heart on a picasso.
im thinking of getting one at auction for her as i cant imagine that a a motability picasso will carry the same concerns as an m3 or something, the idea is to buy a 3 year old ex motability one, have it a year sell it privately and go and get another one, thus never loosing my £6000 investment and getting a new car every year id like to know what you think ???
also
do the motabililty cars that go to auction have an mot on them i know they have a print out of servicing but no stamps in the warranty but that doesnt bother me,
i dont think they are taxed or are they.
i would imagine the thing to do would be always get the strong colours
im after an hdi sx
i would appreciate your views
many thanks Read more
Looking for some advice on a possible trip to Belgium next month.
Basically starting in Glasgow and going to Ostend. From a quick search it seems I can't get a ferry into Ostend. So the options seem to be Hull-Zeebrugge or Dover-Dunkerque.
Dose anyone have any opinions on the above? What are the basic rooms like on the Zeebrugge Ferry? Any other routes?
Dover ferry would seem to be around £50.00 / Zeebrugge £270.00.
Any advice appreciated.
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Just a footnote, we stayed in the Hotel Imperial, a Best Western Hotel near the seafront. Perfectly acceptable 3 star establishment, now has single rooms for ?50 per night and doubles at ?70.
I have a Mondeo saloon (X-reg). From a very early age, there has been a load 'clonking' when turning full lock. This was disgnosed as a faulty CV joint and replaced under warranty but the clonk returned within a few weeks (now just out of warranty!).
I have learnt to live with this, as it only occurs on the relatively rare occasions when I have to use full lock, and doesn't appear to otherwise impact the car.
However, there seems to be a division of opinion between my local 'experts' as to whether this condition is one I should attend to and get fixed or not. It doesn't seem to bother the MOT man but can anyone tell me what the bottom line is?
Cheers. Read more
If its a rythmic cloncking on full lock then that indicates wear in the CV joint. The joint will now wear at an accelerated rate until it really *does* need replacing. It may be that the dealer fitted a recon joint (some of which aren't very well recon'd!) or it could be that the gaiter wasn't properly fitted and water/grit has got in and oil has escaped out. Either way, its not an ideal situation - keep an eye on it.
Booked the 5 in for a 5k oil change whilst on hols in N Wales to Premier BMW Conwy (being an obssesive type). Excellent service, told when booking in to fill washer bottle (!), courtesy transport available (not taken up). Just found 3/4 of a litre of oil (yes yes in its container) in the boot. Oh and they washed the car a rare treat for it ! Read more
Medway Alfa always wash the car even if its only there for a short while. Just had new discs & pads fitted to the 156 I supplied both and they washed it and vac'd it all while I waited. I must admit they go highly recommended as an Alfa dealer, also Brabus dealer & Mercedes Service agent.
Jim
Fitted to my ex - 330d.
1. Business radio connected to a CD stack (BMW). Stopped working for a good three weeks. Fuses checked all in order, stack still working.
Started working all on its own, any ideas ?
2. Acquired a replacement radio in the event of future faliure how does one go about removing the existing radio ?
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Thread re PNCB got me thinking about skills and attitudes that are unacceptable or redundant now, but were really useful 20 years ago.
Re my first job in insurance in 1986:
1) If someone came in for a quote a good broker would know the rate of the top of his head. i.e. 17 year old Ford Escort 1.3L, Guildford, builder. Pegasus (the insurer):175 +75%(age) +20%(building trade) +10% (area)...£404 to you Sir. Nowadays a completely redundant skill.
2) Complaints. Misquoting was common place back then and if a client really moaned about the extra, my old boss would come over and say "put it down to SUNA, no charge". The client would be very happy that he did not have to pay, not realising that SUNA meant stitch up next adjustment! If you did that now, you would not have a business as every transaction has to be followed through and justified.
3) The most audacious blag by my first manager. A young lad had not been put on cover and had his wheels stolen. There was no "facility" in the covernote books to help him out. My manager came out of the back office clutching someone elses paperwork (pretending it was the clients none existent paperwork) and with almost a tear in his eye told him that his excess was £600 so he could not make a claim. He then recommended him to get new tyres from a repairers he knew (and got a kick back from) and the client went away happy. Looking back, how absolutely un-professional.
The good old days....nah....the bad old days I reckon.
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Yep, v true. For one particular insurer that was really cheap, but awful in service and coverage I got the client sign a letter saying that the broker had told them the policy was poo, they would have to wait months for a policy and longer for a settlement (ironically, I could not do that now). People still picked the poor company and still moaned when what I told them came to pass.
I am looking to buy a new Nissan Micra 1.4 SE Extras 5dr.
Having shopped around the best price I have found on the net is with a company I found on the internet;
They are quoting £8615 for the car (all in).
This is broken down as follows
Car - £8140
Metallic Paint - £325
Delivery - £150
The best offer from my Dealer was as follows
Trade-In of C3 1.4LX Registered Oct 2002 15,000 miles, Metallic Paint £4300
Price of New Micra £9770
I feel that I am getting a rather bad deal here.
Anyone used the website I have mentioned alternatively can anyone suggest how to negotiate a better deal?
All help/advice appreciated?? Read more
I have received an e-mail from the original author. I accept his word that he was not intendng to advertise the company, however I'm not going to return the company's name - as I said before, people pay to advertise here and some of them have been loyal so I'd prefer to restrict the ability of "non-paying" companies to directly gain advantage from the forum.
However, Neal did have another valid question which he would appreciate if you could turn your mind to;
"Also I require advice on whether the deal from the local garage is a good one or not. They have now upped the trade in from £4300 to £4500 but are making no concession on the price of the New Micra."
Perhaps any general comments or suggestions about buying cars from internet brokers would also be helpful.
Thanks,
Mark.
I took the chance to drive my Grandad's Honda Accord SE 2.0 auto last night to the hospital to pick up my Grandma (my own car picked up a flat tyre and I didn't have time to change it - I'm on his insurance under some weird Saga emergency use thing so I'm pretty sure it was legal).
Anyhoo - it's X reg and only has 26000 miles on it, doing less than 2000 a year. My Grandad is 87 and doesn't drive so much any more. Put it this way - the only time the windscreen washer gets filled is at the annual service....
While shifting between drive and reverse and park there's a loud bang from the gearbox - does anyone know if this is normal? Apart from that it drives and shifts fine. I have a horrid suspicion it might be to do with the fact that my Grandad shifts into neutral at every set of traffic lights he comes to.
One other thing - the engine seems to idle when cold (according to the rev counter) at under 500RPM when in drive. This seems a bit too low to me, but again, it does drive normally and has never stalled to my knowledge.
It's going to be driven even less now he's just coming out of hospital - any advice I should give him? Read more
As Ian says, drain and replace the 'box fluid. The bang is not normal, but it may not be catastrophic. And just about any other fluid in the car should probably be changed as well depending on when the last service was.
Get someone to take the car out for a good drive every month or so. You'll hear cries of "no, no it needs to be driven properly every 38 minutes" or some other excessive stuff, but the reality is for what your Grandad needs that just isn't worth the effort.
Get it serviced properly every year and keep an eye on the brakes and the battery.
It'll be fine and, just so long as he is safe, let him enjoy his car, his money, and his right to do whatever he likes with either.
The car in question in this doesn't and didn't belong to me.
A friend of mine works long hours in the finance industry in the West End and lives in Essex. He owned a fairly tired 89 Sapphire 2000E that he arranged to sell for £100.
Unfortunately, he couldn't be there when the buyer came to view the car and so left it to his flatmate. His flatmate unfortunately let the car go without processing the V5 and as far as I can tell there's no way of tracing the new owner.
As such, while there is a chance that the new buyer will deal with the paperwork correctly, there is a stronger chance that my friend will be left exposed to every speed camera and red light east of Reading, as well as a possible fine from the DVLA for not updating the change of keeper.
(I will run an RAC plate check against the car, to see if the 'last owner changed' has been updated, but I don't yet know the plate and that takes a while to update).
My question is - what is the best way to deal with the DVLA, to make it less likely that they will pursue the matter, and/or persuade the keeper to update the papers or break the car. Read more
Incidently had to deal with DVLA when my father died and
found them exceptionally helpful.
I found the same when my mother died last May.
The car was transferred to my wife and it was made very painless, almost as easy as selling a car under normal circumstances. They needed a death cert IIRC.
H
Calling all Rover 414 owners....the ones that want to admit it anyway!!! My clutch pedal seems to sit much higher than the brake and accelerator pedal - at least an inch. Is that normal for this car? I haven't really noticed until now and the reason I ask is that for about 5 minutes the clutch pedal was really slack at the top of its travel when operating it, had no tension in it at all, then it gradually came back, and to me the pedal now seems to sit higher up. any ideas? Read more
I have had two 414`s.But not had that problem.Pedal sat about right on both.If you do have a problem with either pedal or clutch release system..they are not a serviceable unit so have to be replaced as a whole..Ie new master or slave cylinder/pedal assembly
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Steve
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You buy yourself a forecourt, a portacabin, a sheepskin coat, trilby hat, some bunting and Bob's yer uncle.
Their direct scheme is limited to dealers only.