As I was driving out of Morrisons today after filling up with diesel, I noticed that they were selling 5 litres of screenwash for either £2.49 or £2.99 , buy one get one free which I think is a cracking price as I have seen some places selling these for a fiver for one bottle..

Will get some next time I am passing. Read more

Just a quick heads-up to any other Passat B5.5 (MY2000 to MY2005) owners -- be ready for a bigger bill than expected if it fails the MOT on the front upper suspension arm ball joints.

My 2003 car (51,000 miles) has failed on ONE ball joint but the entire upper arm assembly on that side has had to be removed to drill out the pinchbolt, which is corroded in place. This has turned a 2-hour job into an all-dayer, luckily NOT at main VAG dealer hourly rates.

The garage tells me they are seeing a LOT of 4 / 5 year old Passats with this problem, and it's a right pig of a job. I've also seen a couple of posts both here and on UKPassats about this, it seems to be an Achilles heel on these cars

So if you're looking to buy one, ask if it's already had the ball joints done!

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Good morning everyone,

The old Chestnut of tyre brands... again! :)

Need 2 new front tyres TODAY for the Mondeo. Was going to use blackcircles, but would have to wait 2 or days for the booking.... so I may be forced into Kwik-Fit, even though I swore Id never use them!

Just had a quick look on there Web site and there cheapest Tyres seem to be GT Champiro 55's. 2 of them fully fiited for £149 (205/55/16V) seems dear compared to etyres, blackcircles etc, but I do need them today, also they have an offer on Firestones, I can get 2 of them fully fitted for £155 (inc 15% discount for the offer) I believe Firestones to be part of the Bridgestone company but not sure?
Which do I go for if forced into using Kwik-Fit?

Any help as always much appreciated..

Lee


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After four main dealer services when the car has been filled with 10W/30, this time the dealer has used Castrol 5W/30 Longlife III on my 2.0ltr 8V Petrol Passat.

Just wondered if this is wrong and why they would suddenly change. What do I top it up with? Can I use the 10W/30 Halfords Oil that I recently bought? Read more

My niece was, unfortunately, involved in car car accident a couple of weeks ago. She was, thankfully, only slightly injured, but her car has now been declared an insurance write-off by the insurance company.

Although she was completely blameless for the accident, with the woman who caused the accident admitting liability both to my niece and the police, now that the claim is being processed it would appear that my niece is likely to end up severely out of pocket due to an accident which was in now way her fault, and which, in my own opinion, she could not have possibly avoided.

The insurance company have valued her car at a very low figure, with no reasonable justification. In fact, at their valuation, my niece will not even receive enough money to pay off the loan which she took out to buy the car just over a year ago. Her loan still has three years to run, and she has informed me that the loan will have to be repaid early now that the car has been declared a total loss. This will mean she will still have to pay all four years of loan interest, even though she has only had the benefit of just over one year of it, because that is the contract which she originally agreed to.

The fact that she has, in effect, lost three years of her loan period due to this accident, does this mean that this money can be claimed from the third party's insurers as an uninsured loss? Also, can the difference between insurers valuation and amount she has still outstanding on her loan be similarly claimed?

Further, she has been told that, because she has been paying her insurance premium by monthly payments, since the car is being written-off she is now required to pay off all the remaining payments for the current years insurance. I believe that, to the best of my knowledge, this insurance will then be cancelled when the insurance payment for her car is received. This cost, which is approxinately £700, will be deducted from the insurance company's payout to my niece for the total loss. Is this what normally happens?

She is loosing this £700 due to the accident which wasn't her fault. Should this amount not also be added to the uninsured loss recovery claim?

My own feeling about this is that my niece is being ripped-off by the insurance companies and, also, by her so-called solicitor. I feel that if she still remains out of pocket after the "settlement" then she should sue to woman who caused the accident, not her insurance company, the woman herself, as my niece just cannot afford to be out of pocket due to the careless driving of this other woman.

Could anyone give me any advice or suggestions, please, on any of this. Perhaps you or someone you know might have been in a similar situation in the past, and can give me some guidance as to how my niece should proceed with this.

From my last conversation with her a few days ago, she has had more than enough of everything connected with this accident, is very stressed about it, and just wishes to bring the matter to a conclusion as quickly as possible. I said the insurance company will love you as this is just what they want you to do and settle the matter with as little fuss and minimum cost for themselves as possible.

Thank You.



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