February 2006
Lease on my Mondeo TDCI is nearly up so I'm choosing my next Company car. I don't need anything so big and have narrowed down the choice to Focus TDCI 2.0 or VW Golf GT TDi . I shall be test driving them over the next couple of weeks, but they seem very closely matched in all the reviews I've seen. The VW would cost me a touch more. It boils down to personal preference of course but what would you all do ? Anyone driven both ? Read more
The other night I was waiting at a red traffic light when two police cars with lights a-flashing appeared behind. The road was a single-lane 'feeder' onto an urban one-way ring-road with absolutely no room for the police vehicles to pass. My natural instinct was to help the police by moving forward through the (still red) lights after checking as best I could for traffic on the ring road.
Looking back on the incident, I'd like to know how things would have worked out if:
a) I hadn't gauged traffic correctly and had been hit by someone on the ring-road, or;
b) I'd 'stuck my ground' and waited for the lights to change. Would this have been deemed 'obstructing the police' or some other such charge?
I seem to recall Roadcraft stating that the use of lights and/or sirens conveys no automatic right of way to emergency vehicles - maybe things have changed since then? Read more
grnicol,
OK then, perhaps "Powers that be" might be a more accurate description.
Just in case this is of interest, the April issue of Classic & Sports Car magazine has reviewed wheel cleaners and rates them as follows:
Car Plan Wonder Wheels 9/10 - best product
Wynn's Fast Action Wheel Cleaner 8/10 - budget choice
Zymol Wheel Cleaner 8/10
Autoglym Clean Wheels 7/10
Swissol Wheel Cleaning Kit 7/10
Gunk Smart Wheels 5/10
Turtle Wax Foaming Wheel Cleaner 5/10 Read more
It's still best to clean the wheels off the car whatever you use;you then don't get any of the chemicals on your brakes!
There are some new traffic lights being fitted to a local major roundabout. The costs are, according to the local council spokesman, about five million pounds, and will take a couple of months.
It's easy to get silly and say good grief, it's a dozen lightbulbs on sticks, but seriously - WHY do roadworks cost so much?
Wages? Five million would buy a heck of a lot of staff for eight weeks.
Machinery? How much IS a JCB? How many would 5 million buy? Would you buy fifty and throw them away after eight weeks?
Materials? Tarmac isn't liquid gold. I know traffic lights are computer controlled of course - so that's fifteen quid worth of chips made in China and some light bulbs then.
Profit margins? Is some private company making four point nine million pounds of public money on this project?
All those will contribute but to add up to five million!?
I just can't see where it gets spent. I'm not looking for "it's all those faceless bureaucrats drawing a salary" type answer - I genuinely wonder if anyone knows where the bulk of money goes on roadworks projects?
It's no use asking the council. They just say "contractor's costs" or some such and you have no more idea. Read more
re "I genuinely wonder if anyone knows where the bulk of money goes on roadworks projects?"
put a freedom of information act request into the council, and force them to give you a break down of the costs
easily done
if they dont comply make sure you take it to the information commissioner
Hiya. A very dear friend of mine is looking for a new family car. They have 2 children, 4 & 11. She is very taken with the scenic & the children love the airplane style folding down tables in the back!! Lives in London, parking on the street. Will be their only car, so won't just be a runaround. Far from it-will be going to South Of France for hols most years & plenty of weekends away. I've read the HJ car by car breakdown-seems reasonable idea. But before she commits I wondered if any of you have any thoughts?
Thank you all.
--
www.bayingbasset.com
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Wife had a scenic II (05 54) for a year from new. Nice car with no problems.
Have changed to a New Multipla now. She likes them both but I feel the build quality of the Scenic was far better. I liked all the gadgets but have heard of other owners having minor reliability problems.
Go for the 1.9 DCI Grand Dynamic Plus. I would.
Hi, I have recently bought a 16V Vauxhall Vectra Estate 1.8 Expression... with a big, mysterious fault.
I have experienced a "cut out" 3 times. I thought at first it was simply my fault for poor clutch control but it's not. The latest time was dangerous - dying on motorway in 3rd lane so I must sort this out before using the car again.
Previously it happened at 20mph going round a roundabout, and at 60mph on the slip road off the motorway. Both times I restarted the engine - no warning light, and off I went without hitch.
In the latest episode the engine light came on, the revs dropped to zero, and dropping the clutch had no effect in restarting the engine. I came to a stop. Turned the engine off, 5 minutes later started her back up and almost immediately the engine light came on, and it cut out.
When running on petrol it idles poorly. Idle control valve possibly blocked? When running on LPG it runs smoothly.
I called out the RAC and half hour later when chap arrived restarted the engine, and no engine light, he checked the engine etc and tried to replicate fault - nothing!
I persuaded him to plug up his fault reader, and it did read faults: injectors 1-4 voltage high (?), incorrect RPM (expected but unrelated?), hall sensor or crankshaft sensor voltage high. He was of the opinion that none of these faults would have caused the cut out. His advice was continue on my way - and I did (in first lane the whole way!!... and for the remaining journey 300 miles ... nothing)
So what caused the phantom cut out? Is it related to the rough idle? Are the fault code readings relevant? Are there faults that don't get recorded?
Help!!
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Hi everyone, Thanks very much for all your suggestions and input.
I've figured it out - and it was really quite bizarre. There was a air sucking noise that I noticed and a pipe leading to top right side of the engine (distributor or inlet manifold?) that was unplugged. I reconnected and immediately the idle got an awful lot smoother and basically it hasn't happened again. The air/mix was all wrong - so explains the 70mph cut out.
I think that the idle speed control valve still needs cleaning, and thanks for the suggestions on that.
Re - petrol going off - I do run on petrol from time to time for exactly that reason, and to lubricate the engine (LPG is very dry and lacks those additives).
I'd tried the Vauxhall TIS programme and it came back with various parts that could be to blame.... I'm thankful that it turned out to be none of them!!!!!
Next challenge is to figure out why it runs on LPG with over 5% emissions (MOT Failure today) - running a "tad" rich methinks....
Cheers, John
Hi,
I'm currently thinking of getting a small van,. something along the lines of a vauxhall combo or renault kangoo. To be used for commuting in the weeking, mountain biking and sailing at the weekends and occasionally crashing in the back of it.
I've got about 2-2.5k to spend, what do you guys recommend?
Cheers
Dave Read more
Problem with using an estate as a van is I end up using it as a van and wet sails/muddy bikes etc. all over the back seats isn't ideal.
Assuming you only need two seats,as you would have with a van,you can keep the rear seats of an estate down.Mine is in this state so I use it as a van but with the advantage of being able to put the rear seats up on the odd occassion they are needed.It willeasilt take a three seat sofa,fridge freezer or a couple of mountain bikes.
I've heard that some genuine vauxhall bits are remarkably cheap, whilst others aint - can anyone advise what to get from the GM dealer, and what to source elsewhere ( e.g belts, brakes, exhaust, wipers etc. ) (Zafira, btw.)
cheers Read more
I think the price of tyres at Vauxhall dealers may vary. I always used my local Vauxhall dealer - Lookers, St Helens - for my tyres when had the Omega. They were tons cheaper than elsewhere, and as a long standing customer I also used to get a small discount on my purchases.
I noticed a loud 'rumbling' on a 1.9 d polo. After checking the obvious (exhust mounts, idle speed etc) ive been told it might be a clogged with soot up exhaust gas re-circulation valve. Has anyone had any dealings with this.
Where is this valve located and is it easily cleaned. Is it worth trying to clean the valve out?
thanks Read more
....this coming week.
It's an Avant 2.5 TDI multitronic and I love it to bits, but it's quite expensive in monthly payments (it's on a PCP) and at the moment it's worth almost exactly what I owe on it (about £15,500).
First question - my instinct is to wait till it's 2.5 years old till I change: it'll be worth less but I'll owe less. The last car (Golf TDI estate) at 2.5 years old was worth £2,000 more than I owed. Has anyone with experience of PCPs any views on whether it's worth waiting a few months longer?
Secondly, if I'm going to pay less per month, the shortlist looks like the following: it doesn't *have* to be an automatic but I'd prefer it.
VW Golf Plus 2.0 TDI DSG
Skoda Octavia estate 2.0 TDI DSG
Mercedes B200 CDI (CVT equivalent)
BMW 320D ES Touring automatic (anyone know what sort of auto this is? - and I think it may eb too expensive anyway)
Mazda 6 estate 2.0 diesel (but no auto)
Ford C-Max 2.0 TDCI (auto is torque-converter and will sap
performance)
Audi A4 Avant 2.0 - might seem the obvious choice but still expensive and I might as well have the Golf or the Skoda as the engine is the same.
I always enjoy helping others on this forum in choosing a car, so have fun on me this time. Read more
Thanks. Curiousity satisfied.
Browse
If I could draw on enough good experiences with even a few VW dealerships I would consider a VW. However unfortunately, from reading and listening, I do feel that a disproportionate number of them have lost the plot as far as customer service is concerned.
Reading this forum has taught me that good after sales service is just as important as a good product at the right price.
H