... with regard to a couple of answers to correspondants in today' Telegraph "Honest John" column.


1/ In my experience a slight difference in colour between the wings and bonnet is far less noticable than a difference between the wings and the doors. In fact most body shops etc would blend the colour in across the width of a door as opposed to paint up to the shut line as advised by HJ.


2/ Re the comment about the new Passat, no reason to think it is going to be problematic however historically the first 6 months to a year's production of a new model has been the period in which minor faults occur which are corrected for later production, I doubt that there is any evidence to prove HJ's assertion that end of line models are less reliable because the manufacturer has "cut ocmponent costs", to the contrary it costs a lot to design, specify and source revised components so any minor unit cost saving would be unlikely to be justified if the model only had a year or so to run.


3/ Not down to HJ this one, the back page feature quotes ...

"admits to using the old French method of bumping cars fore and aft to fit into a slot so needs something quite robust"

... therefore seems to condone this activity that only serves to damage other people's valuable property particularly if performed when driving an ML with rear mounted spare wheel and chrome bull bar as per the lady featured. Shame the article did not take the opportunity to critisise this almost criminal practice.


Regards. Read more

Hi all

Have enjoyed reading the site for a while but never posted before.

Need to replace my Golf GTi with an estate or low backed 4x4. The most important considerations are

1. Easy access for my beloved large hound - jumping over the lip into a hatchback is not good for him (bad hips)
2. Leather seats to minimise the dog hair problem.
3. Im a photographer and trying to sell an image of innovation, quality and fun.
4. Im in my 30s and I DON?T WANT TO BE SENSIBLE YET!

Golf Estate doesnt work because its still the old shape.

Thought about 206 SW ? but couldnt see leather option online. Did it get slated in the JD Power 2005?

Dream option would be the Alfa 157 Sexwagon! Had GTV 2000 years ago and loved it. But its a bit expensive new, second-hand models have bound to have been thrashed and have heard resale value is pants.

Please help think of a creative way of combining the requirements with a budget of only £14K. Hubby would be happy to buy anything to make me happy but Im a being a little tight Scot on this one ? also he will not let me drive anything over three years old. So ideally buy 6 months to year old and keep till three.

Thanks
Read more

My panel has a lot of failed leds. Showing 83,000.

Obtained a used and supposedly functional one with 53,000.

Took 'new' one and asked BMW to fit it and adjust the mileage to mine. They were willing but said the best they could do would result in my odometer showing 83K+53K = 136K!

Quarry BMW who sold me it said the mileage could be adjusted to match mine. BMW say it can't.

Assuming BMW matched the 'new' one to my car and I installed it. What would be the mileage result of putting the old one back if I decided to sell the car. Would the mileage I'd accumulated show correctly on the old one? BMW didn't know the answer to this. Read more

Whilst driving this evening I found that the windscreen washer jets on SWMBOs 330 had packed up. Initially I thought perhaps there was no water in the reservoir and the failure of the light to warn me on the dashboard was down to a faulty connection/failed sensor. No problem I thought as I popped the bonnet and saw that there was plenty of water of water in the reservoir. Upon closer scrutiny I find that the headlamp washers appear to work fine and listening intently, the 'washer motor' appears to whirl into life.

Yet still no water through the washer jets on the windscreen. I have checked the connectors on the bottle and given the pipe work a look and I can't see anything amiss. No obvious problems, pinching or split pipes visible. There are no puddles of water accumulating from what I can see either.

If I 'pump' the wahser jet stalk then they 'squirt' water onto the wqindscreen, but if I pull and hold they splutter only.

The other annoying factor is that when I started the journey, they worked fine. I aprked the car for about an hour, came back to it, the problems started. I know the washer jets are clear and no-one has tampered with the car.

Any ideas from my learned colleagues please?

Many thanks... Read more

Hi,

I hope someone can help me as Im going to replace my Glow Plugs on my old Vauxhall Astra Diesel with the Isuzu engine and while looking around Ive been told conflicting info on who supplies Vauxhall with their OE glow Plugs, Either NGK or ADL Blueprint(from Japan). Does anyone have an idea?

Also these NGK plugs cost £35 each!! Does anyone know a cheaper supplier?

thanks
Kev Read more