October 2006
Hi all
First time female poster and after some advice. I am thinking of buying a Honda Civic 1.6 VTEC Exec yr:2001, 50k miles, I believe the car has Irish plates, although dealer said it was a private plate, are there any dis/advantages to this? How can I find out if the car is Irish registered or not, and what should I be looking out for? (the car is in England)
Many thx
Ruby Read more
went to local Mitsubishi Dealer on 30th Sept to buy a Colt for step daughter. P/X was good, discount on new was good +manufacturer deal of 50/50 @ 0% over 1yr. + 1yr free insurance. Deal ended at end of Sept, so all ok, sneaked in well. Signed up and deposit left all ok?
Er....no! On the Monday, got a call from dealer to say couldn't have the 50/50 as we were too late. Of you, we are off toK I said, we had a deal all signed for. Still too late they said. I said, OK no deal, give me my deposit back and I won't ever buy a car from you again. Oh...ok they said, you can have the 50/50.
On day of collection of new car (last week) dealer said we couldn;'t have 50/50. Look, we've been over this before, deal is a deal, all signed for. Stuff you, we are off to trading standards. No, no they say, we have a better deal, 0% interest over 2yrs. Lets look at the figures say I. Figures end up paying over a grand more for the car. They have taken discount off!
No way! We are walking. Then to and fro between salesman, manager and Mitsubishi. Came back with offer. 50/50, +free insurance and as it is a new deal, +3yrs free servicing!!!!
Obviously, the dealer was trying to pull a flanker somewhere along the line, and I don't think it had anything to do with Mitsubishi. Not sure what they were trying to pull or why.
Anyway, moral of the story? be prepared to walk away...you just never know how much things can improve. We were prepared to walk away too and I think dealer knew that. The dealership manager had all the charm of a pile of camel dung but without the looks. Vile, vile, vile.
Read more
if you stick to your guns in a polite but firm manner and come across as Mr Reasonable you can have enormous satisfaction & 'put the cat amongs the pigeons' if you get really poor service
some years ago i managed to get Cornhill insurance (praising them DD not shaming them) to drop a well known North London main dealer who provided extremely shoddy service and was most indifferent to a customers needs..... took a while and a bit of time, but i was so incensed it was worth it....in fact they've gone bust so it won't hurt to name them { 8< SNIP - regardless of whether they've gone bust or not, some employees *could* well have gone on to work elsewhere and I'm sure they don't want their past to come back and haunt them - DD}
the insurer came out very well indeed, couldn't fault them...
We are to buy a new car for round about 10K to cover between 6,000 and 10,000 miles/year. First and foremost, we want reliability.
I have looked at one or 2 Reliability Index studies but I have no idea how these are worked out, etc. I'm curious though as to how relevant they are.
Are these various Reliability Index figures that one can find on the Net (especially the Warranty Direct one) that "reliable"? Read more
Quote from the survey
"Congratulations are due to the thousands of British workers responsible for
building some of the most reliable cars on our roads today"
More like "Congratulations are due to the management who moved the
workforce into the 21st Century and stopped them being a bunch
of unionised clock watchers and gave them some pride in their
work and their product"
You ever been into a car factory or is this comment the result of reading too many Daily Mail editorials? They just needed some decent designs to build and some decent 21st Century (foreign) managers - not the poor excuse of an old boys club that we've had since the 60's.
We need to buy a car (at least 1.5 litre), either a Vauxhall, Mazda or Suzuki (Fiat maybe) for roundabouts 10K. We will be doing less than 8,000 miles/yr in it, mainly semi-rural driving. We have a dog so a sort of long-ish hatchback would be better.
What car would you recommend?
Are Vauxhalls reliable? Read more
9 photos
2003 BMW 3 SERIES 320d Sport 5dr Diesel Touring (trade)
33,000 miles
MANUAL
RED
Diesel
Manual, 33,000 miles, RED, F(BMW)SH, SPORTS PACKAGE, LEATHER INTERIOR, MV2'S, ON V CAR NOW FULLY REPAIRED. NO PART EX'S/NO TIMEWASTERS - VERY CHEAP. £10,000. no
I do apologise if this has already been asked, but I would like advice on where to buy, 2 to 3 year old cars or value cars.
Obviously I am going to ask the question, where do the used cars dealers get theirs from.
I have been into two used car dealers recently and was told by one tell us what you want and we will get the vehicle on line (we only use four dedicated web sites- quote) it will take approximately three weeks
What i would like to know is what are these web sites, or is it a big secret
I have read through a lot of the threads recently and have seen site like trade-sales.co.uk drive the deal and autobytel but they all seem to be selling new cars.
I hope you can share these sites with me if you know of any and point me in the right direction, thank you very much in advance.
Read more
I suggest you take a week's holiday from your 'proper' job, and go and work for a used car supplier. It might dampen your ardour. Do you really know enough about cars to be buying & selling them?
Gentleman just walked into surgery with a strained shoulder, from changing a wheel on his car, parked in an airport car park. Tyre not punctured but ripped off the rim! New car with 60 miles recorded when parked and picked up with an extra 200 miles on it a wrecked tyre! No names but it was off site at Birmingham. Formal complaint entered and obvious lessons for those of us who park with an organisation that requires to leave them the keys!
Read more
With such car parks it's well worth noting the mileage of the vehicle on the paperwork and getting both parties to sign it and get a copy. Any decent company wouldn't have a problem with this.
Honda's Jazz (unless you buy the 'Sport' model) comes with a continuously operating rear wiper, which drives me *bonkers*.
Years ago I was able to buy an intermittant kit to fit to a Capri (I did say it was years ago!) - does anyone of such kits are still available?
I was hoping if it was a matter of just popping in a relay but the dealer sucked through their teeth and said it's much more involved than that. Read more
It appears that all is needed is ...
That's to allow variable intermittant operation of the front wipers. I want intermittant operation of the rear wiper.
Very interesting though - I've searched for Jazz / Fit forums and haven't seen that one previously.
Hello
My girlfriends Fiat Punto has failed it's MOT on emissions, was wondering if there is a common problem with these models at this age (1994) or if anyone else has had this problem and could advise.
Called a tuning centre and they said it must be a fault as there was nothing to adjust.
Any help greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Minski Read more
I had one that failed emissions. (petrol 1100 I think it was). At the back of the rear silencer, on the can , there is a small hole about big enough for a pencil to go through. This rusts out a bit and will cause emission fail. Plug the hole with some exhaust putty for MOT. Also a good idea to go along length of exhaust and band it with a hammer to loosen of all the crap in the pipes and silencers. After that take it for a good HARD run to blow all the crap out. Mines passed after that. Remember to remove putty after it passes. Mechanic friend told me this and it does work.
I have a W reg Pug 306 1.4 LX and whilst my son was out in it last night,the engine died (all the lights went out etc).Thanks to Kwik Fit the car is now home but the electric locking doesnt work and when you try and turn the car on,the "normal ignition lights" go out but the STOP,ABS and HAndbrake light flicker very dimly.Suiffice to say the car doesnt start.The car was serviced two weeks ago and has always run without a problem.....any ideas ????
Read more
Looks like its a major short in the engine..guy from homestart was fab but couldnt help so my little car is going into the garage on Thursday for an electrical dude to cast his beady over it.If I can find out what the issue is,I will post it so that anyone who has a similar prob can refer...again,thanks to all who have contributed.
We were just about to purchase an 18 month old small hatch from a main dealer. We had been told the car had not been serviced by the garage as it had didnt need one as it had been serviced at 13k (present mileage 15k). When I asked to see the service book I found the service had been done by a German dealer garage, I stated that I wasnt impressed with this and it didnt seem right. I was then told that it didnt matter because the selling dealer had serviced it anyway (30 minutes previously I was told they hadnt)
Anyway they did manage to pull off some kind of proof from a database that the garage in Germany had seen the vehicle, but the recorded mileage was different to that written in the book.
I suppose my question is would anyone else be slightly suspicious in these circumstances?, also if we pull out the deal can they retain our deposit?
On another note one of the dents that they said they would pull out hasnt been done properly. I really dont want the car, but equally cant afford to lose the deposit. Read more
Indeed Jammonds - good move and I am glad to hear that you are out of the deal - something lese will turn up and good luck with whatever it is!
Browse
.jpg)
Welcome aboard.
You will not be disappointed with anything Honda. Take a look at:
www.hondabeat.com/highmiles.php
BTW.....Are you by any chance Ms.Wax? :o)