November 2006
I've been doing a bit of part-time work for a local hotel in Suffolk driving one of their 2 private hire vehicles. I probably do about a days worth of work every two weeks and have quite enjoyed it as a supplement to my (sometimes erratic) freelance income. As I work from home anyway it's easy for me to fit work in at short notice. Most of the clients are either hotel guests , local people or businessmen going to airports and nearly all have been pleasant travelling companions. There is no ( or very little) picking up drunken youths who promptly vomit in the car. The work is better paid than most semi-skilled part-time work . I've carried a few people recently who've complained about the shortage of private hire vehicles locally so I'm now considering licensing my own car and going into business myself. I will still carry on my freelance work but having a second string to my bow does not seem like a bad idea. If the business does well I may devote more time to it and eventually may have a business with a saleable value, unlike my current one, which though reasonably sucessful is completely reliant on my individual skills and thus has no re-sale value. My car is a 7 year old Saab 9-5 which, though smart and tidy, has a low value and thus racking up large mileages will do little to dent its worth. What I would like to do is, assuming it works well, replace the Saab with a new\newer car and go for the upper end of the market. I would ideally need a 5 or 7 seater with luggage spac, reliability and ideally a reasonably prestigious image (probably therefore no minibus types) Any suggestions? Read more
The incomparable James May, a Jag and someone else touring France to test the wine and cheese, 8.00pm today BBC2. It's a bit of a surprise to find something that might be of interest on the box these days. Read more
>>The XJS still looks good even now 30 years on>>
The last time I drove one and over quite a considerable distance at the time was in France...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
the thread on the go about middle lane hogging has prompted this
there's a slip road on the A38 in Devon, that I periodically use (and has been like it since i was a kid) that does not have a very long slip road before joining a dual carriageway.
If you've got any sense you welly it down the slip road, to get some speed up, so you can have a number of merge in options, because it is often difficult to get out.......... and you really do not want to end up stopped at the bottom of the slip road, worrying about : 1,someone ramming you up the jacksy ....... and 2,how on earth you are going to instantly accelerate to a speed that matches the traffic on the dual cariageway.
it is amazing how many people will travel in the inside lane on the dual carriageway, have nothing in the outside lane, see you indicating and trying to merge and utterly refuse to consider moving lanes to let you out....
lorries and (generally) other professional drivers will often adjust their speed to let you out....... but some muppets wilfully refuse........it begs the question, Why?
I really don't want to be sat their thinking i'm going to be annihilated on the slip road or desperately trying to get 6,000 revs plus out of wifey's diesel in a despearate attempt to get some speed up
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there's a slip road on the A38 in Devon, that I periodically use (and has been like it since i was a kid) that does
not have a very long slip road before joining a dual carriageway.
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i agree with mapmaker's earlier comment that it is a question of anticipation and coutesy to allow cars to join the carriageway from slip roads. (and similarly get out of the way of cars queing up to leave at an exit - an example of such blocking behaviour is commonly seen at the m25 clockwise exit to join the m1 northbound. )
on the other hand, if you have seen the very short "on and off ramps" to join the freeways and highways in america, and the speed at which you have to get or off those sliproads (in nose-to-tail hogging and very fast traffic), you feel grateful for the design of the uk motorway junctions.
Hi all, I have spotted this on a breakers: tinyurl.com/y6c9pj . it's basically electronic climate control, that fits in to the same dash fascia as the standard manual climate control: tinyurl.com/yyvdce
The question is: would this actually function just by replacing my current controls (A/C on, recirc, Heated Front/Rear screen, temp cold/hot, fan 1-4, fan position). I would assume that it plugs in to the same sockets where the current manual switches are?
thanks in advance Read more
Sounds grim L'escargot. The climate in my Passat works great. It only blasts if you switch to demist on the screen.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
It's wonderful how scientific and production advances continue to make things both better and cheaper. A cheap watch from Casio will tell the time just as accurately as a £1000 example from an upmarket jeweller. A colour TV can be bought for two or three day's wages rather than the month's pay that was needed when they first appeared. A Focus ST, Golf GTi, Astra VXR or Civic Type R can perform within a few percentage points of exotica costing three or four times as much.
I was ruminating on this whilst driving behind a new Porsche this morning. Yes it may be superior in terms of performance and handling to the four I mentioned, but not by the yawning chasm that would have been the case a few years ago. To truly justify the price differential it should accelerate 0-60 in less than 2 seconds, have a top speed in excess of 300 mph and corner at 5g.
Aint life grand? Read more
Guys, I don't think the OP was making that point.
Correct Andy.
Just entered a trip from Manchester to Alloa in the Sat Nav.
My usual route, as per various websites, is M6, M74 then across the central belt on M8, A80 and over the Kincardine Bridge.
Subaru Sat Nav is weird. Avoids the M6, tells me to go to Barrow-in-Furness as a 'shortcut' (!) and then up A7 and through Edinburgh. I wonder if I have it set wrong?
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Just done a TomTom on it (v.5.4) goes straight up the M6 to the M74 or somewhere like that, certainly doesn't deviate through the lakes. The settings on this one are for a lorry so that may make a different.
I have a Vectra 1.8 2003 petrol/lpg car.I have been told damage can be caused to the valves due to running on gas. Does anyone have experience of Flashlube,which i am told is a cure!
regards
dave
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Its when you run most of the time on gas problems occur ,run half and half and they are ok.
2001 Renault Scenic 1.9 Diesel, 50000 miles, apparently running OK but smokes a lot on hard acceleration. Is this normal for this engine? Will any petrol additive work? Are there any other cures? Read more
If an Italian Tune up doesn't work, go to your friendly Renault dealer and ask for some 'Reducteur de fume'. Will cost you about £14 but a lot cheaper than new injectors.
Volkswagen AG said Tuesday it would stop production of its Golf model at its Belgian plant, shocking workers and government leaders who fear more than 3,500 jobs could be lost.
Company officials said the German car maker will move all production of the Golf to plants in Mosel and Wolfsburg in Germany as part of plans to cut production in Western Europe due to falling demand.
Helin said the factory currently produces 204,000 vehicles per year, 190,000 of which are Golf models.
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VW are a totally confused group-
Their India plans are very uncertain. They were to set up a plant but their corrupt management took a $10 million payoff from the state government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) into a dummy company to sign the letter of intent.
This came to light when Dr Pietscheider (sorry can't recollect name) started a major clean up. VW paid back the state (AP) and started the site selection process again thus losing another year.
To cap it all, Skoda have been in operation for the past 4 years and have been successful with rather overpriced Octavia's (old version Octys TDI 90 sell for 15000 pounds). Local content has not risen significantly so they are finding price competition, a challenge. Meanwhie Hyundai, Suzuki, Toyota and Honda are creaming the market and are able to maintain price through high level of localisation (which does not mean quality is compromised).
If VW make the Golf in India, it will cost almost the same as an Accord and hatchbacks do not sell at the premium end out here. Audi are selling fully built up cars out here aggressively, they make a loos on each A4 and the A6 is priced hiher than an E280. So far they are selling based on exclusivity and novelty. BMW will start local operations soon.
There is a wonderful strategy to use the skoda plant to churn out Audi's and VW and attain economies of scale but alas...none of these companies talk to each other.
Hi all,
Got a bit of a pinking problem with my 1.0 Corsa at between 3000-3500 rpm in 4th and 5th gears. I've tried running it on Shell V-Power / BP Ultimate for a few weeks, and even given it a dose of STP System Cleanup. The spark plugs are correctly gapped, new, and look in fine condition. The engine management light has never come on (apart from briefly when starting up) which makes me think the knock sensor is fine... Am I right in thinking that a diagnostic check won't show any faults because the engine management light has never lit?
Don't know if it's related, but the car will often 'hiccup' when setting off after standing in traffic for a while. The fuel and filters are new and the EGR valve was replaced by the previous owner at the last service.
I'm just a poor student who can't stomach the idea of playing with the timing, or even worse paying for someone to look at it. Could the timing chain be poorly tensioned? I'm really struggling for easy solutions and ideas now. A bit of a headache really.
Could anyone help please? Read more
What is cold starting like, does it start OK and run fine until fully hot? Sometimes this can give you a clue if it's OK when getting plenty of petrol when warming up but the fault only shows up when it is hot and running lean.
Have you checked for any air leaks in the manifold area, hoses split etc? Not sure if your car still has one of those hot air intake devices to guide warm air into the engine when it is cold but these can cause problems.
I think the timing is set on these, no distributor etc. If the spark plugs are set OK then I would give the ignition HT leads a glance. Eliminate ignition and air leaks before moving on to the fuel system or sensors. From what you say the problems may be caused by a weak mixture or difficulty igniting the mixture when under load or light throttle openings. Besides that as others have said it could be an air flow sensor or even a more fundamental problem with the compression ratio being raised due to cylinder head skim in the past.
Browse
cheers drbe....it's all on the list, and if it wasn't then the missus would make sure it was. ;O)
Wouldn't mind, but I don't smoke. I drink the occasional G&T. However, I like my tucker, so now sticking to cardboard sandwiches and other delightful pap.