May 2005
Filled up with Shell diesel today and noticed a drop ( from Tuesday) of 3p per litre...down to 85.9 from 88.9. Has the barrel price of oil dropped or are market forces at work? Long may it continue..
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Just had delivered a new Primera today. uk car discount, as seen on this web site, came up with such a good cost to change I had no option than to swap in my recently purchased two and a half year old Primera for a new one.
The process has been absolutely hassle free. The car was built to order, was ready one week earlier than expected. The car was delivered to my door on a transporter by lunchtime as promised, despite having to come from the North East of England to Surrey. The transporter driver set off at 5 am. My Part/ex was collected an hour or so later to be taken back to Manchester.
All staff at uk car discount have been reassuring, helpful and honest throughout the whole process. Everything has happened when and as they said. Just like clockwork.
Despite having spent some money I somehow feel better off.
I would not hesitate to use them again.
Don't be afraid to use them. Read more
There have been 3 new cars in my household and every time the V5 has arrived a day or so before delivery in the correct name.
Have you got the V5 Vario? Are you 100% sure its in your name?
I was told by the company themselves that certain makes (Renault) are registered in the name of a fleet company for three months and the V5 held by them during this time. This was last October. Maybe things are different now?
I was going to buy the car until this glitch, because the service was good, they take credit cards for deposit, and the price was excellent.
In the end I went elsewhere on net and paid £1000 more for my car - for which I got the V5 immednaitely and in my name.
Well the old M40 was a mess tonight. Burnt out car transporter northbound near stokenchurch. It had been a big fire, every car (at least 6) was a smoking shell. Hard to tell what they were but all were estates, and judging by the rear light holes high up the rear pillars they looked like Accord tourers, possibly volvos. Hard to tell when the car is stripped of all mouldings and bumpers.
Huge Q northbound, a large percentage had been there so long people were wandering all over the place, some were even having street parties. Read more
Gridlock on all slip roads.
My missus micras timing is out.how do I adjust it.sometimes it runs fine, others it stalls a lot.its done 100,000 miles so I know its knockin on a bit.thanx giles Read more
My wife's D reg Micra has done 98k miles and began to suffer stalling. Took it to local Nissan independent, they changed HT leads, car ran a whole lot better. But I tried a trick I have used in the past when the car suffered from cutting out. I took the air cleaner lid off and poured a redex product straight into the carb, did this gradually. Clouds of blue/black reek, you need to keep revs up but the engine idle improved greatly, then re filled as normal with a full tank of Texaco unleaded and car has run very well since the "clean out". Also changing engine oil every 5k as car is used as city runabout has helped to keep original engine going strong. I also stopped using supermarket petrol as car ran really rough when hot under stop/start city conditions and stalled.
My 2003 TDC has covered 22000 miles, and i've just come back from holiday in Scotland. One tyre had to be replaced before I went away as it had a worn band, which looked as if it had been on the front, and kerbed badly. The tracking was correct when I had it checked. The other tyre, now on the back, was not badly worn before I left, but is barely legal now, if that, and will need replacing tomorrow. These are original fit Pirellis. Is it usual for a tyre to wear so soon ? Does the MkII wear that much more than the MkI (my old 2.0 did over 50k on original tyres)? Or was the original owner that heavy footed ? The car was bought at a closed Ford auction so I don't know who drove it, although Mr.Ford owned it.
Can anyone recommend a better wearing tyre than the Pirelli ? I am reluctant to put two different tyres on one axle though. Any comments will be appreciated. Read more
'IMO if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself '
I quite agree. I shall see what happens next week. It's the old story, that when you want to buy something everyone is so helpful, then it changes. But they are lending me a car over the weekend when they are closed, so I give them credit for that.
I seem to remember a lot of fuss made on TV consumer programmes, years ago, about the first Mondeos steering to the side. Up till now I've never had a problem, and this is my third Mondeo.
The scene: Feemale teenager and a young girl, stood at the corner of their residential street where it meets a trunk road that happened to be replete with 40 MPH, heavy, rush hour traffic.
Their apparent mission? To reach the convenience store on the other side.
Located about 200 yards in one direction is a light controlled pedestrian crossing, and located about 50 yards in the other direct is a pedestrian refuge (without marked crossing or lights, but better than nothing).
How did they try to cross?
Straight through the traffic... I winced as the "responsible teenager" ran out, dragging young girl with her, nearly being collected by a van in the process. They then reached the middle of the road, nearly got run over by a motoribike overtaking down the crown, got cold feet, turned round, and crossed back directly in front of a truck with unladen flatbed that locked all six wheels in the braking process.
Last seen stood at the kerb having an argument with each other...
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I can remember being taught the 'green cross code' when i was 9, one day my parents picked me up from school on a wet afternoon, when he pulled away just outside my school a girl from my year walked right out in front of us, nearly being knocked over!! Even they dont pay attention!!!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
I was considering the possibility of purchasing a skoda felicia however i noticed the following on the car by car breakdown
'High 7 point death rate from accidents in this model'
This is contary to the folksam crash test results and this post by JohnCD 'I ended up with a Skoda Felicia 1.6 with airbag and ABS. I asked HJ about strength in an accident and he approved it'
Safety is important to me so can anyone tell me where the '7 point death rate' info comes from or clear up the uncertanies I have about this car.
Thanks Read more
'Thanks for the reply, does anyone know if this information is available to the public ?'
On HJ's Home page, Useful websites, there are links in section 1 to several sites with test and real-life crash data.
The www.crashtest.com site has links off to many other sites;
the German ADAC site www.adac.de , Click Tests, Crash-tests , has many other interesting tests, eg
mpv 7 seater rear seat safety, SUVs vs a Golf IV, convertibles.
The Austrian site, www.oeamtc.at , from HJ's page, has many of the ADAC reports, plus a comparision of
original Beetle vs Golf II vs GolfIV safety.
The Folksam site can be found directly from:
www.folksam.se/engelsk/index.htm
HTH
JohnM
I want to buy a new car for the first time..
When is the best time of year to buy it (possible discount from dealer)?
The model I want is about to be changed (VW Polo), is it best to wait a few months after launch in case there are any teething problems before buying?
I'm in no rush to have the new model as it comes out. Read more
You may well get a good deal towards the end of this month, as the dealers are having a hard time now due to the tightening of purse strings in a lot of the UK. (introductory mortgage deal rates ending... mass redundancies... etc etc).
Ask, haggle, don't talk of trade in, and then try somewhere else.
You're in the driving seat - they need your money.
I drove this road this week early evening. All traffic was moving at 90mph. The 70mph limit is now in my view pointless and should only apply to busy stretches. Read more
The thing is, if you raised the limit, the people that happily do 20mph above 70mph will immediately move to doing 20mph above the new limit.
Only time I can remember all traffic moving at 90mph was the M5 on Christmas Eve.
Just paid my £60. By way of interest what is the penalty for ignoring the NIP? What is the penalty for having a very dirty number plate?
Rebel!! Read more
Well, 5 years ago, I received an NoIP and I know full well that I was doing over 100mph on the day of the offence. I was so scared of losing my licence that I didn't return the NoIP form.
Nothing ever happened.
I've received points since then on 1 occassion, on which I went to court because I contested the speed, and I've been stopped for various reasons. PNC checks have been done on the index plate as I've been stood there, and nothing has ever come back.
I guess I was very very lucky.
It's been 4 years now since I had any points put on my license. Have had 9 in total in my 12 years of driving, and this is the first period since 3 weeks after passing my test that I've not had any 'active' points. I intend to keep it that way.
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and the dollar has strengthened against the £ (and everything else for that matter) so the $ per barrel could stand still and the price will still go up.
John