Managed to bump into a car earlier today in my local supermarket carpark.
Scuffed my bumper low down and think I probably hit the other cars wheel (it was a 4x4).
Tried to locate the owner but was unable to do so.

Anything else I could have done?
I don't think I did any damage to other car from what I could see... Read more

OK, the temporary Fiesta looks as though it is returning to London this weekend and I get the Scooby back - Hooray! But not so fast....

As much as I love my Forester, the things I liked about the Fiesta were that it was small, nippy, had superb handling and more than a decent ride. I have enjoyed driving it and the smallness and nippyness have come into their own at times, when the Subaru would have been simply too big.

I don't want to keep the Fiesta, because it is too low and there are other things I dislike, but assuming that all modern small cars can be had with air con, CD, heated electric mirrors etc what would you suggest I got that was similar in size to the Fiesta, had similar performance to the 1.25 Zetec, the drivers seat was a couple of inches higher and was basically NOT a Fiesta/Fusion/Corsa/Euroclone but was something a little different.

I thought about some Suzukis and Fiat Panda, Mercedes A-Class. Anything else? Budget to an extent is unlimited but realistically, say £12,000.


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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive? Read more

£8.99/5ltr, I think.

Made by Comma?

What's the difference between the "petrol" and "diesel" oils, apart from the labelling?

The API specs are identical. Anything added/taken away that's not covered by those numbers/letters?

rg Read more

Hi all,

I have a faulty wiper motor unit, can anyone recommend a dealer that supplies new/refurbed Rover parts?

The intermittent wipe does not work full cycle (wiper sticks half way), occasionally , like now , something inside the wiper motor mechanism shorts out and takes out the fuse. It then usually takes a strip down of the unit, spray of lubricant, it then seems to clear itself of the short.

Dave Read more

Hi Folks,

Apologies for the lengthly/complicated post, I wanted to provide full details to be fair. If possible, i'd like your comments, do you feel I have a right to feel unhappy/somewhat cheated/want some kind of better solution, or do you think the dealer has done the right thing?

If you think I'm in the right, and have suggestions on how I ought to broach the subject with the dealership, or have similar past experiences, i'd be entirely greatful to hear them.

Anyway....

Car: Pug 406 (T-Reg) 2.0l 16v Petrol

As per my post in the Technical forum, had a break-down at 2am, and had the car towed to the main dealers, rather than another local garage, figuring it may need their diagnostic gear to solve the problem.

I'd "budgetted" that the repair would be around £700 worst case, figuring a recon 30k mile engine could be had for £400ish, with a bit of cash to have it fitted.

A couple of days after them taking the car, I rang to find out what the problem was, the girl returned to the phone and told me:

"reason it stopped was it was out of fuel"

(D'oh, i figured to myself, but hang on, i'm sure I noted around 100 miles of range on the computer, and the yellow light hadnt been on. Nor did the breakdown guy spot that)

"we think that you have a problem with either your fuel sender unit, or the display equipment, and are just trying to find out which it is."

(Ah, ok, makes sense, and I guess won't be too expensive. It's a thousand or so miles from service and cambelt, may as well have that done whilst it's in there, save me some hassle in a fortnight - so i asked, and she "added it to the job sheet")

Anyway, the day passed, and just about "home time" i had a call from a bloke at the dealer, who told me:

"Hi, whilst doing the service, we noticed the following could use doing:

And proceeded to list off a number of items totalling just shy of £1000 (front suspension tie rods, front discs and pads, water pump, etc)

Plus your fuel-pump which is the reason it broke down, that's £308

(Hang on, i thought, fuel pump? £308? the woman said sender unit!)

So, if you want everything done, that's around £1900 including the service and cambelt (turns out that costs £600 from a pug main dealer - OUCH!)


I asked them to hold off doing anything before I'd made up my mind about what off their list was urgent (for example, a new spare at £105 as mine has only 2mm of tread on it, isn't going to get changed!). I asked what they had done, and was told:

Dianostics: £41 & change (which we'll forget if you do get the work done with us)
Service & Cambelt: £600
Popped some fuel in it: £10

At this point, I got off the phone because I was getting a little "upset" and wanted to think things through before I responded.


So, my issues with the garage at the moment (if you have other things I ought to be upset about, do let me know!) are:

* I was told "fuel sender unit" at which point I decided to go ahead with the service/cambelt figuring the total cost would be around my "budget" for what I thought was a more serious fault. But then found out 4 hours later that the actual problem was a fuel pump at what I assume is much greater cost to correct. I feel they ought to have corrected me before proceeding with the service/cambelt - i.e. get the car going before you service it etc.

* The water pump needs doing (it has a leak). Now, if i'm not mistaken, you need to take the cambelt off to change the water pump (as the belt drives it). Why on earth didn't they call me when the car was in pieces and enquire as to whether I wanted the pump changed? This would have saved themselves time, and me cost (only paying for labour once).

So now, i'm in the position whereby they have spent my budget, but the car is still a non runner, and to make it so, I will need to spend a further £300 with them.

Contacting a "local" garage, i'm told they can do the work minus water pump (£150 to £200 as its a long job as they're basically doing cambelt at the same time) and fuel pump (waiting on part cost) for £270. They also cheered me up by telling me they'd have done the service for £75 and the cambelt for sub £300.


So, my first thoughts are that I ought to explain all this, and say that i'm not happy with how things have turned out. I'd also like to suggest the solution which I think is fair, something along the lines of either:

a) Get the car drivable from its current state for what was my budget, £700 (i.e. do the fuel pump, leave everything else). This allows me to use my car, and get the remaining items done in a sensible order elsewhere, for a lot less money.

b) Allow me to have the car towed away for the cost of the service and cambelt (i.e. around £600) minus the cost of the local garage changing the water pump (perhaps allowing the part cost to the main dealer, as the other garage would need to buy one themselves). Meaning i'm likely to be having the car towed off for £450 to £500, getting the fuel pump done by the other garage for a total cost of around my budget (guess at present).


So, after all that, what are peoples thoughts? fair? unfair? how should i broach the subject with the main dealer? Is there any legal angle I can use to my advantage (I understand the caveat that any such advice is given without any recourse to the person giving it, honest john, etc)

Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts and advice!

Gav. Read more