I'm in an odd situation at the moment. I bought a new Golf a little over a month ago. I flagged a bodywork defect to them the day after I bought it. They have attempted to repair a bodywork defect on several occations by means of so called 'adjustment', each time not successful. The only reason I have allowed the continual efforts to fix is on the proviso that no re-spraying happens. I backed this up previous to their efforts with a letter I sent to them saying, fix it, but no respraying. Everytime they said no respraying would be done.

I get the car back a couple of days ago and they have resprayed a large proportion of the car in order to repair the fault. NOT HAPPY. Initially they said that the repair is satisfactory and deny that respraying had been done. Shortly after I find out from another source that it was sprayed because of damage to it whilst at a bodyshop. (which I know is a lie)

A new car with just a smige over 1000miles on the clock and new it has been resprayed????

Where do I stand, I really don't want a car that is barely over a month old which has been repainted against my will. Especially sine I could spot the repair myself..... Read more

...is always be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear, and unless you have ESP (the precognitive kind, not the nancy piece of kit that allows your car to keep itself on the road, despite your best efforts) you shouldn't drive quick around blind bends.

I was going to work Tues morning (hours before my 70mph flight down the flooded A1) along the same road I always travel. It is a quite narrow B road and along the last stretch there is a blind bend that can be taken at 50-60mph, no sweat-and traffic is never (!!?) backed up this far back from the junction...I always take any blind bend at such a pace that I can stop should I encounter an obstruction. This morning was mostly like any other. However, I rounded the bend to find traffic backed up much further than normal, all the way to within a few yards of the corner-100 yards maybe. I was following another car and we both slowed and stopped behind the stationary cars. Three more cars joined the queue behind me (I wasn't counting, I got to count later on..). Ironically for me I was actually thinking about the very issue of rounding blind bends and stuff (this is quite a tight bit of road), when I hear the sound of skidding and look in my offside mirror just in time to see the collision..

Looked and sounded pretty nasty so I got out of my car and walked down the road to see the damage. I was already calling the emergency services. Some others had got out too. I was surprised to see the driver of the car the caused the accident pretty much intact. He looked very shocked and dazed, the only visible injury I could see was a bad gash on his right arm which was dripping blood down the side of the car and onto the road, but it wasn't really pouring or spurting so not life threatening. He was fully conscious but wasn't saying much. I reassured him help was coming etc. He said shall I move my the car and went to start it...I told him not to.

He had come round the bend too fast to stop, locked up and either steered or slid such that his nearside front had hit the offside rear of the first stationary car. The force of the impact had rotated the car anti-clockwise, drivers side broadside, across the opposite side of the road. At this point, he got T-boned by an oncoming car. The force of the impact had destroyed the offside corner of the car he hit and shunted it into the car in front, in turn the second car was shunted into a third car. My car was the fourth one along and was not hit luckily.

I would estimate he hit the back of the first car at over 40mph, possibly 50mph. I estimate the oncoming car that Tboned him (mk3 Golf) was doing around 30mph or less as it had just rounded a tight bend.

The driver of the car who crashed was a young lad, late teens or possibly early 20s. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt either. He extracted himself from the car (passenger side) within a few minutes and was able to walk about fine etc-he really did walk away, unless he had internal injuries. Ambulance took him away. Woman driving first car rear ended was taken away on a spinal board, although she had been out of her car and walking around prior to ambulance's arrival. Occupants of the oncoming car were wholly uninjured.

I think that if the guy had hit the queue of traffic full on, rather than a glancing blow, he would have been killed, and my car would have been shunted as well. I will certainly take that road with even more caution than I usually do in future.

Why am I writing this? Not really trying to give a 'lesson' to people-just thought it might interest some people to read. Whenever you see something like that it really reminds you of the sheer violence and damage of a car crash-when you're flying down the road you feel so safe and secure, even more so in big, fast modern cars, but imagine-you leave the road and hit that tree, or a car head on, or roll, you will be dust. Read more

I recently noticed my engine getting too hot when sitting in traffic on the motorway. I didnt let it boil up but it got to around 105degrees


Im used to my fans kicking in at 90. I got it home and kept it ticking over but the fans wouldnt kick in. The aircon is not working at the because of a leaking pipe which is due to be fixed next week. Im not sure if this would have any implications. I have read the link previously posted:
www.peugeotlogic.com/workshop/base/workshop.htm

Any ideas i would be greatful. How to test etc

thanks Read more

Will the merged company be called Mania?
JH Read more

Dox - I need a new God - they have let me down badly now - the reputation is tarnished.

On a serious note:- www.whatcar.co.uk/news-article.aspx?NA=222728
The cars were built in may & june - the whatcar picture shows an old civic - not sure if that is accurate though ?

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