September 2006
After the best part of a decade running Legacy estates, I sold my last one privately 18 months ago as my business, a retail store, meant that 6 days a week I ran my trusty VW Transporter and the Legacy spent most of the time sitting in my garage.
After a spot of unexpected bad health, the business is now sold, and the VW will most likely be having a mid life transformation into a camper!
I have a max of £8k to spend...buying privately or via the auctions, and want reliability, a blend of handling & performance, all in a hatch or estate body. I would equally be happy to spend £1k on a decent Primera GT!
None of my friends & personal contacts have anything to sell at the moment, and my choice is narrowed down to a Skoda Vrs model or Seat Cupra (on HJ's recommendation). My previous Legacy estates have all been 2.0 litre models. Great handling, reliability but lacking outright performance.In a few years I may be able to afford a 2.5 Sport Tourer, or Impreza 2.0R Sport, but for the moment they are beyond my budget.
MPG of 30+ overall would be required, although I do not expect my annual mileage to exceed 10k.
I am not a badge snob so will not be prepared to pay over the odds for certain marques...methinks a newish 320d SE Touring would not be in budget, as it seems to tick all the boxes.
Any suggestions gratefully received
Read more
Guys n Girls, have search forum, but got confused! Gf's 306 2.0 hdi overheated yesterday. Check fluids, all fine. Is there a way to check waterpump, and / or fans? Anything else you can think it could be? Is water pump, is it a hard job?
Thanks in advance.
Chris Read more
Stuck thermostst??
Perhaps first thing to check and cheapest cure if that's what it is?
Now I always park way away from the herd in supermarket car parks as I am capable of walking some yards unaided plus I hate my car getting dinged. I regularly return to find another car parked so close to mine that I have to get in the passenger side in an otherwise deserted area of the car park but thats another discussion.
Camberley Tescos have outsourced the car park management to a third party firm. There are huge signs up saying that the 'child parking section' regulations will be strictly enforced and fines issued to transgressors.
What is the legal status of these fines?
I don't know the fine amounts but lets say £50, this is vastly in excess of any economic damage to Tescos if any.
If I received such a ticket and took it to court they would need to prove I parked without a child (CCTV footage?) but how can they defend the cost of the fine? Read more
It may or may not be enforcable - I don't see that it matters really. It's their car park, they can make whatever rules they want as far as I am concerned. As far as I can see, they are trying to make it easier and safer for a section of their customers they value. Nothing wrong with that. What's the big deal? Very simple, if you don't have young kids, don't park in the very small number of marked bays and you won't have to find out about what is and is not enforable. It's not as if they scatter these spaces randomly across the car park to catch you out - they are usually very clearly marked.
Pics of the estate here:
www.autobild.de/aktuell/meldungen/artikel.php?arti...6
{post edited to remove 'estate' from the subject header, and include it in the main text instead. Also so as to merge Imagos's post into this thread - DD} Read more
I think Ford have learnt from the launch of the Mk 2 Focus where they played safe with the styling. Although I have only seen the estate pictures, the new Mondeo certainly moves the game on and bodes well for future models.
It will be interesting to see how Vauxhall react with their all new Vectra in '07/'08.
Hi all,
I am trying to replace my old Sony XR-6559 cassette player with a new Sony MP3 CDX-GT300 player in my car. Unfortunately the removal keys of the latter don't work for the former.
Does anyone know how can I find out which removal keys are the correct ones?
Thanks in advance Read more
Is this what you're referring to AR?
tinyurl.com/r7rga
Or maybe these?:-
tinyurl.com/pax6e
The top ones Dave.
I've noticed an oil leak on my 1997 R reg 1.4 Almera.
I can't identify exactly where the leak is but there are drops on the undertray roughly in line with the offside engine mount, sort of between the end of the engine and the alternator. I'm guessing that a seal on the end of the crank or similar has gone, but hope not. It's not a bad leak, just a few drops over night. The dipstick tells me that the sumps half full, last oil change was in December 2005.
Has anybody on here had experience of such an oil leak in these cars. All answers appreciated.
Thanks Read more
I've had two Nissans with the GA14 engine and both have been completely oil-tight, not using a drop between services! Maybe it's a camchain-cover gasket? Maybe even the sump gasket?
Could possibly be a crankshaft leak, although I'd expect it to leak more if it was....touch around the bottom of the pulley and see if it's oily. It's not exactly a huge leak, so top up with a few glugs of 10w40 semi-synthetic, and next time you get it serviced and it's up on the ramp, get the mechanic to have a look for the source of the leak.
In 2002, I bought a cheap 1992 Pug 309 diesel with 110,000 miles on it and a bit of service history. It was the sort of hack that you don't mind leaving in railway station carparks etc.
Well, four lears later and now with 166,000 miles on it, said car is still going strong, doesn't burn oil, and is still returning 53 mpg!! Even allowing for it's 5 percent overeading odometer, fuel consumption works out to 51 mpg.
The car is also used as an automotive experiment.
Apart from safety checks/annual MOT test, it never misses a beat despite the 15,000 to 18,000 miles annual mileage. The MOT testing garage are always amazed at the low smoke readings.
What amazes me about these PSA engines is that the car has never had an oil change at the recommened 6,000 mile interval. In fact most years, it has gone 10,000 and even 15,000 miles before oil changes.
However I regularly change the coolant and use top branded antifreeze. What oil it does get is always semi-synth oil and I do keep to the schedule for fuel filter replacement intervals to protect the injection pump.
Last year I replaced the cylinder head gasket as these are a known weakspot on the XU engines. It hadn't failed but thought it prudent to replace it because of the mileage and use the car gets. Whilst the head was off I also replaced the valve stem oil seals as they were baked hard and not doing the job.
Cylinder bore wear was well within text book limits and the honing looked nigh on perfect! What an engine!
Just to prove how reliable the car is, it has just returned from a tour around North Devon, Exmoor, Somerset and Porlock Hill, although fully laden, Porlock Hill was 'interesting'.
I suppose that the main reason why the car is still reliable is that I cover about 15 to 18K miles per year and mostly on motorways to and from work. But I don't pussyfoot around, so the car sits at 75 to 80 mph all day (where conditions allow)
I firmly believe that the 309 was one of the best designs (originally it was to be badged a Talbot when it first came out) that Peugeot came up with, and having owned a 306 TD (never again) the 309 was a much better product.
Anyone else out there had good ownership experience with the 309?
Andrew Read more
Mine 309 diesel is on 187K, but the petrol 405 is just clocking 234K
Both pass MOTs on emissions without problems, and the only really problems have been corrosion (pretty minor on the 405) and bushes (ever since the dreaded speedhumps)
Whether it is a personality, a stunt man or a fighter pilot it is still a risk and things can go wrong.
However progress depends on pushing boundaries, in such circumstances safety is a relative thing, as long as all reasonable steps were taken and corners were not cut then no blame should be apportioned. Read more
I'd agree with PU, so the thread is locked.
Anyone know an insurer/broker that takes a sensible view of au pairs - my current insurer has suddenly decided that it would be cheaper to put Osama Bin Laden on my policy.
Thanks Read more
I just checked the DVLA site - EC licences don't need to be changed for 3 years after arriving in the UK, by which time he'll back home. Thanks for the suggestion though. The insurance co said EC/UK didn't make a difference.
They wanted to classify the Au Pair driving the kids as Business Use. I had a big row with them pointing out that in the eyes of the Home Office and Inland Rev. au pairs are not employees, but classed as members of the family. The woman I was rowing with was basing her decision on the fact that she had been a nanny some years ago.
She spoke to the underwriters who presumably pointed out that that wasn't exactly a strong basis for her decision and it has been sorted with a small uplift in premium.
It's amazing what happens you stand up to someone talking lazy nonsense dressed up as "company policy"
A mate of mine has a P reg Pug 406 1.8 16 valve petrol model with non functioning speedometer/tacho and other unusual symptoms such as the radio coming on for no reason.
The speedo transducer on the gearbox was changed as it was tested and was not outputting any signal (it is the fully electronic type) the speedo then worked for a few days but has now failed again.
I understand that speedo heads and instrument pods on the 2.1 turbo diesels can give problems (i looked on HJ's Car breakdown section) but I would like to know if this problem affects the early petrol engined models?
Thanks,
Andrew Read more
Why not look for a first generation Forester Turbo S.
You can definately find those for less than £6000 and the performance is good, with supreme reliability and a good ride handling compromise.