August 2006
I own a year old 05 55 Astra 1.8 Design 5dr and would like to sell it as I haven't been offered enough in part exchange. I am a little concerned about advertising in Auto Trader etc because the car isn't that old and is worth about £9500 if I sell privately. I guess I'm just worried that some scam artist will run off with my car. Does anyone have any tips of how best to sell a car of this age and get the best return?
Many thanks
Matthew Read more
My sister has just picked up a really tidy 1998 Ka 1.3 from a friend for £500. It's in lovely condition, has done 77,000 miles and has a full service history (part Ford, part indie). I haven't yet seen it apart from in pics, but I've offered to give it a check over for her and make sure all the safety related stuff is OK.
The seller was very honest about the car, and pointed out two potential problems which will need looking into, hence it will fall to me to sort out.
The first is "stiff" steering, particularly when applying left lock and with a cold engine. According to her friend, it was perfectly OK until about a month or so ago when it suddenly started playing up. My sister reckons it's very noticeable on cold starts, but then slowly improves with running time. However, even then it always requires more effort to turn left than to turn right. The seller had the garage look at it, and they drained the PAS fluid, flushed the system through and refilled it (documented in the s/h). This apparently seemed to cure the problem for a week or so, but it returned. By which time the seller had her new car and decided to knock a couple of hundred off the price for my sister, and left it at that.
The second problem was an advisory from the last service that the spark plugs have "corroded in" . I've heard this mentioned on these engines before, and just wondered what the best way is to tackle this. I'm presuming Plus Gas, patience and perseverance, but I don't want to go down this route if there is an easier way.
Other than that, I think she got a bargain. It's a lovely little runabout.
Any suggestions on either of the above welcome, plus any particular things worth checking over on the Ka when I get around to looking at it.
Cheers as always
DP
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Thanks for your help guys. Plenty to go on for now!
Cheers
DP
Recently on holiday in Italy the wife and I fell completely in love with the new Alfa 159. There was a black one sat in front of the hotel all week and we both thought it was absolutely stunning. We also saw a few Alfa GTs which I suppose is the Coupe version and we think this is arguably even more stunning.
The question is this. If I had a company car I'd have no hesitation in getting one but because I'd have to buy it privately with my own hard earned cash I'm reluctant because of all the negativity that surrounds Alfa and its cars. Am I being over cautious and a chicken or should I just say "sod it" and buy one? It's a classic head v heart scenario I suppose. Has anyone out there "gambled" on an Alfa or another dream car and regretted it/not regretted it?
Maybe I'm getting old but I think I must be getting bored of being sensible and buying sensible cars. Unfortunately, I'm not so well off that I can afford to just throw money away. So it's quite a big decision. Read more
I'm so glad that everyone thinks Alfa's are so horrifically unreliable. When the time comes to replacing the Focus (Christmas-time probably) I hope to be able to consider a nearly-new 159 JTD. The reputation does have it's plus-points people - look at how easily you can get a gorgeous 156 for £2k!
Umm... I think the line "Though I didn?t check accurately, it probably will do around 37mph" probably has a misprint or typo in it!
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Look on the bright side, should get great mpg at 37 mph!
My boss has a 52 plate A6 Avant. He bought the car secondhand and it didn't come with a retractable boot cover. Audi are quoting over £400 for one and he found a broken on Ebay for £40!
Any ideas where he could get one for a reasonable price? Read more
oldman, you're 94? Are you RON? : )
I must to bed. Too much Tourteau Chollet and I've just tried to light a cigarette with a chopstick. Yes, I know... my postings are remarkably lucid despite this.
Exeunt.
just seen this on pistonheads.com strangely i havent been to cadwell for 24 years and i called in last week for a bike day ,the track looks good and might be ideal for anyone that fancies a good thrashing as it is indeed a varying track (watch for the wabbits mind) Read more
I've driven on a track day at Cadwell, great circuit. There is a particularly tricky 90 degree bend at the bottom of a hill which made interesting driving, I was driving my brothers modified 2CV, which although was obviously slaughtered on the straights, it outran many westfields & caterhams on this bend - great fun!
Shell launches V-Power 99 RON unleaded fuel.
Looks like Shell are replacing optimax.
tinyurl.com/ofm59 Read more
my local its 6p/litre more .98.9p against 92.9p for standard unleaded.
Recently whenever I open this site, I can open the index page no problem but if I open Discussion or Technical, you can see the page loading across the base of the page then suddenly the whole of explorer shuts down. This only happens on this site, no other.
Microsoft suggests from the "Error Reporting" to shutting down of some of the unkown 'Managed add-ons' to explorer with no effects.
I've tried allowing cookies etc. This is IE6 and XP with sp2.
I'm doing this on another PC and I know its nothing todo with motoring, but its a pain when you can't enter this site on your own PC.
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as well as moving to IE7. No problems
since.
>>
Slightly off-topic but are you completely happy with IE7? I haven't taken the plunge yet.
--
L\'escargot.
Plucking some average figures out the air, for today, crude oil is $75 a barrel and fuel at the pump is £1 a litre. I can't do the maths but if oil went to $150 a barrel what would that do to the pump price of fuel? I appreciate that it wouldn't double as well, obviously! One pundit/doomster is talking about $250 a barrel for crude - what would that do to the UK pump price, assuming Greedy Gordo keeps his taxes at the present levels? Read more
Market Background July 2006 UKPIA
The average price of major brand unleaded petrol in the UK reached 97.8 pence per litre and 99 pence for diesel, the latest monthly survey data from Wood Mackenzie OPAL shows. The survey of 11 major EU countries also shows that the UK continued to have amongst the cheapest pre-tax pump prices for major brand petrol and diesel.
Crude oil and refined product prices continued to reflect strong demand from those countries with expanding economies. Continuing political concerns in the Middle East and disruption to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska oil production has added to market uncertainty, pushing the price of Brent North Sea crude above $70 per barrel and the NW Europe price of unleaded petrol close to $800 per tonne, up from $583 average for January 2006 or the equivalent of 7.4ppl . Inevitably, some of the increase in wholesale prices is being reflected in pump prices on forecourts but as the figures below show, the gross margin on petrol has dropped below 5 pence per litre, which has been the long-term average of the last 4 years.
UK unleaded 95 petrol pump price composition
(average major brand price for July 2006)
Pump price 97.8ppl
Duty & VAT 61.7ppl (63%)
Petrol cost (spot price) 31.9ppl (33%)
Gross retail margin+ 4.2ppl (4%)
+ Gross retail margin is the difference between the buying and selling price of petrol. The amount available has to cover all the costs of storage & transportation from a refinery, the running of a filling station and profit of the retailer.
www.ukpia.com/Portals/0/Repository/Documents/UKPIA...f
www.ukpia.com/Portals/0/Repository/UKPIA%20EU%20Pu...f
I am contesting a speeding citation by post to California. Claim is a radar in a highway patrol car regisered my car at 101 mph, which is totally wrong. Any ideas as to what I should write on the written declaration, to save a bail bond of $681.
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Thanks FP. I've deleted the offending post.
Browse
Sounds like you need to make yer mind up! Yes, circumstances do change, but through our lives, before marriage and through 26 years of it and raising a small family we have bought and stayed with most cars, mainly older, but not all and have let dealers have 'none of it'. Just run them into the ground. Cannot recall ANY major hurdles. B.T.T.B. means **something** to the badge. Stick with that idea. It is only a means to get from A to B. Spend the saving on something better unless of course you have disposable dough.
V V BR to all...............................................MD