April 2005
Thinking about buying a new cycle carrier, anyone got any recommendations on type? What are the roof mounted ones like? I drive a 3 door Corsa B with tailgate spoiler and no tow bar.
Got our old one which fits to the rear of the vehicle, not used it for sometime but from what I remember its held in place by two straps which run over the top and under the bottom of the rear door, but I dont think it would be wise to use given I have a tailgate spoiler - think the weight on the straps would break the spoiler as its only plastic.
Thanks Read more
I am being offered a Seat Toledo R reg 2.0 Sport Auto in Red.
Ex-demo then 1 owner. Genuine 50,000. Full Seat service. Immaculate. I know him personally so all kosher.
He wants £1,600 for it. It books 9-13 as these cars are rare as hens teeth and very unpopular.
Its basically a Golf Mark III in a Seat bodyshell so reliability/spares should not be an issue.
I say worth it. Comments? Read more
I've just got rid of mine, I had a 1996 2.0 16v, same engine as the golf gti. It had all the bells and whistles.
good points
Quick
Lots of toys
huge boot
pretty reliable
fair economy
Bad points
expensive to insure
electricals are less reliable
several rust spots
no image (if you care about that stuff)
low slung (no good over sleeping policemen, especially with darts team in the car)
Firm ride and seats, a bit tiring on a long daily commute
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=454530...6
Although my German isn't up to much beyond getting a beer, this is Pope Benedict XVI's Golf. A snip at $54000 (so far).
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker. Read more
Noticed their inspection (Our MOT??) expires in 2007, which suggests 2 yearly tests?
Taken from www.autoexpress.co.uk today (Fri 29/04/05)
Recent Home office figures indicate a 44 per cent rise in speeding fines issued by cameras in 2003. Yet official figures also indicate that deaths on our roads increased over the same period - from 3431 (2002) to 3508 (2003).
Paul Smith, road safety spokesperson for the M4 Protest group (www.m4protest.org) said: "Speed cameras have issued £700 million pounds in fines and road deaths are going up. It isn't fair. It isn't safe. It isn't right. We urge everyone to join the M4 Protest on Saturday."
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Recent Home office figures indicate a 44 per cent rise
Previously discussed here:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=31306&...e
of which discussion should continue there ;o)
Has anyone an idea of the cost of replacing the water pump on an Audi A4 1.9TDI 2001? Also is there anything odd about the flexible brake hoses? Read more
The bumper has to be removed then the lock carrier unbolted and pulled forward to gain access. The radiator does not need to be removed, however, the coolant has to be drained anyway...
A full description can be found in the Haynes Manual for the A4.
El Dingo.
On reflection, I think it's worth extracting this footnote from my post on the Jaguar thread, as it's a perennial item:
"Footnote: of the seven 300 SEs I saw, the 370k car was one of the youngest but had the most corroded bodywork by far -- it had always been kept in a garage."
I my recent search for a good MB 300 SE, I inspected and drove seven of them, ranging in age from E to J and in mileage from 54k to 370k. The 370k car drove superbly, having been serviced properly throughout its life, but in spite of being a G reg it had corrosion breaking out on most of the panels. The owner (a retired professional chauffeur) made a point of telling me that it had always been kept in a garage.
I've always been interested in discussions about where it's best to keep a car. This bit of evidence has pretty much convinced me that a garage is not necessarily a good thing. I guess the key factors are that both car and garage must be bone dry, which is what enabled my Capri to stay unblemished for the 13 years it was incarcerated. Read more
True, but not the whole story - planning rules mean much higher housing densities have to be put in now if the houses are to get permission. This leads to developers maximising the house:land ratio and putting in the smallest gardens and garages they can get away with.
In fairness to the builders and planners, I notice my Mondeo estate is easily as big as my Mk2 Granada estate was. And that even the smallest cars are much wider than they used to be.
Im gonna be buying a car in about 3 months time and a I've been offered an April Glass's guide from a trader. I would be looking to buy my next car from auction (around £3.5K to spend) so is it worth buying the Glass's guide for values or should I look for a CAP's guide?
Also is it totally pointless buying a trade guide that I won't use for 3 months compared to buying a Parkers guide in the summer? I ask cos of the frequent mentions of as massive price divide between the trade/public guides.
Thank you in Advance Read more
Hi Blue haddock
He offered it to me for £30. I have bought cars in the past from auctions but they were safe 3yr old ex-finance ones although I have a sneaky feeling I paid too much for an MOT'ed Cat C. car last year at the Banger end of the auction market and now I have to make a decision on wether to spend £4-500 to get it MOT'ed again or cut my losses.
Do you think around £3k would get me a decent car? as I've only had good exp. from £5K cars bought for family members.
Cheers
Kev
vw golf has got a reliability index of 19 since 2000.
thats good!(not the best).but tasty!!
so come on slap umm?
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I think he might be from Up North.
Hi there. I wanted some suggestions about a fault with a recently purchased Alfa Romeo 33 1.7 IE 1990 model. I bought it in good condition with recently serviced items (oil change, air filter, plugs, leads and cap). It was running well for the first couple of weeks. Then I noticed it was occasionally cutting out when slowing down towards a junction. But it would restart immediately each time. Now the problem has developed in that it would cut out after about 5-10 minutes of driving and fail to restart (turn over but not fire up). It would restart again if I waited another 15-20 minutes. I have taken the car to a local garage for diagnostics (cost 45 pounds)with the reply that they cannot find anything wrong and: "you need to take it to a specialist". I am collecting the Alfa first thing in the morning.
I would appreciate any advice as to the cause of the fault especially as the garage has failed to make a diagnosis. Read more
As the car is immobile try looking in Yellow Pages, Car engine tuning and conversions for one of my Tune-Up colleagues. As the fault is there all of the time it should be relatively easy to diagnose. Given the nature of Italian electrics could be relatively simple i.e. corroded earth point(s)
Alfas- lovely to look at, lovely to drive but you dont want to OWN one!
Andrew
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
A report in the press today stated that tests had shown that tuning a radio while driving could increase a drivers reaction time by more than using a mobile phone,I have steering wheel mounted audio controls so do not have a problem,but have noticed that a lot of modern car audio systems have small fiddly controls.
It brought to mind navigation systems with colour screen displays,I know that they have a voice giving instructions to the driver but the temptation to look at the screen must be difficult to resist,what do others think?.
ndbw
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I must admit I find the steering wheels buttons for the radio so much more useful than I thought I ever would.
Browse
Daisy1, take a look at www.roofbox.co.uk and follow the Bike Carrier link on the left - a lot of useful info there.