June 2006
Dear all,
After some shenanigans & seeking, the GF has found & put a deposit on an MX5. It's a black UK 1.8iS, 1997P, excellent nick by the look of it. One owner, history, good price at £2995. All looks straight, panel gaps good, engine pulls cleanly in all gears. Rear nearside brake makes a sort of wooshing noise, but pads look fine & MOT is just a week or so old. It's from a sort of 'dealer', basically selling from his driveway, so no warranty. I'm going to HPI check, and 'dealer' is going to have the electric window switch replaced (intermittent on passenger, non-operative on driver's), and have the brakes checked again. Looks great. GF is worried- would like to have checked either by a knowledgeable friend of RAC. Is this necessary from a dealer? Even though he's not offering warranty, there is comeback id there's a serious problem? He says he got the car from a garage. I'm suspecting trade-in offloaded.
Is this price suspiciously low? Prices for mx5s seem to be all over the shop. We looked at a very tatty 1992 eunos that was up for £3500, with MOT about to run out, faded paint & requiring new front discs!
All advice appreciated!!
--
Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner. Read more
We are taking our car (1995 W124 Mercedes E class diesel) over to France for a couple of weeks this year on holiday. The car itself is in good condition, well maintained and will be serviced before we go. However it is of course highly advisable to take out breakdown cover and I would welcome any advice on who might provide the cover we need. Incidentally we booked to take the car over with Speed Ferries for the princely sum of £54, travelling on a Monday and returning on a Friday in August.
Thanks in advance, MGs Read more
I used to get 12-month cover with Europe Assist for a few pounds more than Brittania Rescue charged me for a fortnight.
Mr.Flatcap used to flash his lights at oncoming Volvos to remind their drivers they'd left their lights on.
Here are some of his more recent public-spirited comments made in car parks:
"Excuse me, but I don't think you're bonnet's shut properly." (To owner of latest Vauxhall Astra)
"Nasty misfire you've got there, plug lead must have come loose." (to owner of Subaru Impreza)
"Looks bad but I know a chap round the corner who can knock those dents out cheaply." (to BMW Z4 owner)
Does anyone have any more Flatcapisms? Read more
Reply ... I do...cheers...Keo.
Trying to see if my employers are fair:
On company cars
Petrol
under 1.4 `12ppm
1.4.to 2.0 15ppm
2.01 to 3 18ppm
3.01 19ppm
Derv
under 1.4 9ppm
1.4.to 2.0 12ppm
2.01 to 3 14ppm
3.01 13.5ppm don't know why?
Are there better systems - this one does not differentiate on horse power for example a turbo 2l petrol may use more petrol than a 2.2 petrol but gets less ppm
Oil, cleaning and screen wash are included in the above rates.
Also what travel expenses are you allowed.
We get £5 for lunch - less what you would normally spend.
£25 for meals including one drink at hotels (bearly enough)
£10 for dinner if late home (after 9pm)
£5 for breakfast if starting out before 6 am
Are you allowed on route expenses eg refreshments if a trip is over 2 hours etc? Read more
You'll find our rates here on the Inland Revenue page:
www.hmrc.gov.uk/cars/advisory_fuel_current.htm
>>quoted from above site.-------- Will the rate per mile figures change if fuel prices go up or down?
We aim to provide employers with as much certainty as possible by keeping the fuel rates unchanged where there are modest variations in fuel prices. In line with the commitment made when they were introduced, they will be reviewed during a tax year only in the event of a variation in fuel prices of greater than 10% from the prices used at that time.
the cost of fuel has risen by more than 10 % since theses were introduced but the inland revenue refuse to ammend these figures.It is a ongoing argument between company car drivers and the company I work for as they are sticking to the inland revenue figures.The inland revenue has written to us and said any one claiming or recieving more will be taxed accordingly. So anyone recieving higher figure than quoted watch out.
--
rustbucket (the original)
My dad has bought a 2003 toyota camry 2.4 litre.
His first question is, he has heard all toyota's of this year have recall. Where would he find the information about the recall on this car.
Second. The car is a manual, but has a button called cruise on the steering wheel. I assume this is cruise control, but can anyone enlightedn me.
Thanks Read more
regarding the recalls , maybe this may help
www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/default.asp
quick look, but cant find much re. the camry
Taking the 2005 Ghia X mondeo to europe soon, I notice you need a bulb kit, exactly which bulbs do you require as there are quite alot of bulbs on the car, anyone have any ideas?
Thanks! Read more
I bought a spare set of bulbs in Auchan (french hypermarket) in Calais, much cheaper than UK.
Hi, mum has a 1992 (K) Nissan Sunny, 1600cc GLX Automatic. Visited her today and had look over it for her, I noticed smoke around the right-hand side of the engine.....on closer inspection I found the smoke was coming from under the air filter housing lid!! Having removed the lid (engine at idle speed) I saw the filter element is saturated with oil and the breather from rocker cover is smoking like it's on 200 cigs a day!!! Is the engine just tired and old or would a good service help matters here? Oh, it's a DOHC, 16 valve engine with only around 75k genuine!!!! Thx
Read more
You have answered your own question it desperatly needs an oil change with filters and the crank case breather cleaning out.You can only hope it has not done any damage such as valve oil seals.
Having an occasional fault appearing. I've changed the fuel filter hoping that would cure it but it still appears every so often. Any ideas ? Read more
Thanks Lee and Armitage, I do know of a garage with fault reading equipment, I'll try them, Oh and I'm in Wales.
We went to a local franchised dealer and saw a car we liked.
It had a price of 10999 on the screen.
We finally argreed to buy it for 10150 and paid a deposit of £250
I have just looked ath the company's website and the car is advertised there for £9999!!
How do I go about asking them to charge me that price instead?
Thanks Read more
It's annoying, but a sweet approach is likely to get results, marching in and banging the table won't.
I paid £2195 for mine a couple of years ago and saw it on the dealers advert in the paper for £1995 later that week. He wouldn't budge on price claiming a misprint, but he did the cambelt on SWMBO's Saxo free as a goodwill gesture.
Hi,
I'm looking to get a cheap runaround to replace an ageing Rover 25. Generally this will be for around town and school drop-off. There will be the ocassional long run (e.g 100 miles), but maybe only 3 or 4 times a year. In total we'd probably struggle to put much more than 5000 miles on in the year. So far, my options are:
1. Get a pre-registered/ex-demo 'small car' - I've narrowed this down to VW Fox, Citroen C1(plus relatives), Fiat Panda. The plan would be to run for 4 years, chop in for another, thus hopefully meaning we won't be hit with anything other than a yearly service. Depreciation might be more of an issue.
2. Get a 3-year-old-or-so small car. Depreciation less of an issue, but more of a concern that I might get hit with maintenance costs. If I'm as unlucky as I have been with the Rover, the car may be effectively worthless when it gets to 9 years old.
3. Give up on a second car. Instead we would use the family car all the time and on the ocassions when two were required, use a cab. Slightly less convenient and I might feel a bit nervous about doing the tip-run in a posh car!
I'd be interested in others opinions and experiences of going through the same thought process...... Read more
You are a prime candidate for bangernomics! Find a vehicle that was sold in some numbers (plenty of pattern parts/cars at scrap merchants) and off you go. I'd suggest a 405 petrol estate, for a start. I saw a very tidy, one owner, 70k car sell on Ebay for under £600 with a 12 month MoT. No need to get a diesel on your mileage. The Quasar version was a base model, and while there are lots of ones with dents, there are plenty in good condition.
Another idea would be a Jetta/Bora. Huge boot for the tip trips, but totally unloved by the market, all working parts are Golf, so again, loads of spare available.
Browse
I know what you mean, Dalglish. I am also naturally suspicious of those phrases (and he did use 'first to see will buy' on his ad)!
I've probably painted this worse than it is! The car seems extremely honest, and is a little below what I'd have expected it to be up for. He's agreed to rectify the e/w switches, and have the brakes checked. I think it's just paranoia feeding off itself, really.
The knowledge that we have soga is a safety net- if he was offering a warranty, I wouldn't be thinking twice!
Cheers all,
Alex.
--
Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.