hi, ive seen a 1998 daewoo lanos going cheap (£575) fsh 12 months mot, does any one have any horror stories concerning this particular vehicle or any good things to write about it, it looked quite good in honest johns car by car breakdown perhaps a little boring but im after reliability and reasonable running costs any input would be much appreciated thanks.....milky Read more

Hi

Our recently-acquired 53-reg Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 petrol keeps juddering and stalling after doing any kind of motorway driving.

It seems to happen after revving at over 4000 rpm, e.g. after doing 80mph for a few minutes or tackling a really steep long hill. When you slow down, e.g. approaching a junction, the car starts to judder when you're coasting or driving normally. When you engage the clutch, the revs die all the way and it stalls. It usually re-starts, but very reluctantly, just using the ignition key.

I think I still have a 3-month warranty thing lying around somewhere, but just wondered if people had any advice or ideas before I take it to a garage.

Many thanks. Read more

If the title line was long enough, I'd have included 'financial' too...

My Volvo S80 (2.4 petrol) has now reached 135k miles (it's a 1999 reg), and is still - hopefully - running well. When I bother to wash it, it looks practically brand new :-)

However, there will no doubt come a time when the engine and/or gearbox will start 'complaining'. The car suits my needs very well, so would it make sense - financial or otherwise - to completely 'refurbish' it. By this I mean replacing or completely overhauling all moving parts: engine, autobox, driveshafts, wheel bearings, brake assemblies etc.

It would 'cost more than the car's worth', but I'd end up with a car which I like, am used to, and which would carry on for another 150k miles.

When I were a lad (and it's not that long ago, really), people used to fix things rather than just 'get rid'.

Am I simply behind the times, or do latter-day labour costs rule out this sort of approach? Read more

As expected the car passed 100k on Saturday - here is the report on the experience so far.

It is a March 04 Executive Tourer with Metallic paint and a space saver spare (the only two extras) - comes with leather , heated seats, CD changer etc. It is a company car so the CO2 figure of 153 was important as was the projected economy of 49mpg.
My daily commute is 30m each way (A51/A38/A446) although I do about 5k a year on business which is generally motorway. I have3 never put opil in it and rarely check it as it stands on a slope at home.

Reliability. It has never refused to start, stopped or left me stranded. Thats two fewer times than the Passat it replaced which did 96k over 4 years).

Failed components: Seat motor (warranty - actually failed when it was in for service). Clutch master cylinder: Changed under warranty (Dealer actually spotted it spotted it when I asked them to check out some squeaking trim about 5 months ago). The tray in the centre armrest that press reveiwers reported to be flimsy is still going strong!

Wear and tear: Front tyres do about 30k and rears about 45k. Came on Pilot Premacies and now on Premacy HPs. At the last service the dealer measured the two fronts as 5mm each. One has been on a year and done 20k ish and the other about six weeks, obviously something wrong with his gauge but they are wearing well. I tend to run it at slightly higher than recommended tyre pressures (36 front and 38 rear) as the fronts look as if they are under pressure at the recommended pressure - as they are now because it was serviced last week and I have not got round to putting some more air in again. One set of discs changed at the 75k service (F&R) - dont recall how many sets of pads it has had. Seats are starting to look tired - must find the time to spend a day cleaning and treating them but rest of the car is doing fine. The cream colour is not ideal as we have some black suitcases which have left dark rub marks in the boot. Dash is as new apart from a scratch which was my fault.

Paintwork - the dark colour was a mistake as it is a pain to keep clean (three weeks ago my son commented on how badly I had polished the car! - I hadn't, I had just washed it (brush on hose) but it looked really streaky in the sun) it also shows chips where a silver one would not - none of them rusting though. Wheels have stood up well though at new I was disappointed in the finish of the inside of the wheel - they also need a day's work to clean them up.

Comfort - Drivers seat is great, have spent a day in it with no problems, also when I had a disc problem and could not sit for more than 10 minutes at home or in the office the car was the one place I could sit for long periods. They should put lumbar support on the passenger seat as well. Have had four adult males of six feet and up in on several occasions and no one has complained (on one occasion the two in the back went to sleep so it must be OK) Only occasionally used for five and would not recommend for five adults for a long journey. Have never fitted Isofix seats so cannot comment on the usability.

Boot space: as an estate it has swallowed everything I have asked it to carry - to the wife's surprise it even took two three seater settees (one at a time) to the tip with the tailgate closed! I have removed the luggage curtain from the back seat as it restricts what you can put into the boot quite severely - why didn't they design one which sits at the bottom of the seat back and leaving a vertical face instead of the chasm which is left under it when you push a box up against it! I only used it once and it was very difficult to secure. As mentioned before the motorised tailgate is very usefull when you are pushing a loaded trolley up to the car.

Economy: at the last fill it had used 9098.8 litres to do 99990 miles, fule and miles recorded on each fill. I make that 50 mpg average with a best of 57.3 and a worst of 42.5 - so you can see it does get hustled along at times. This is a big estate and it puts the Prius to shame.

Driving experience: it is a good relaxed long distance cruiser and is quite happy at or around the autoroute maximum. It is also handles nicely and is way better thant he Passat it replaced (a 2000V 1.8T). It has 10hp less than the Passat it replaced but I would consider it to be as fast (if not faster) and the performance is far more usable. It is also a useful car for single carriageway overtaking.

Lights - headlights are great, never seen anything with such a well defined beam edge on dip! The fog lamp is actually on the wrong side of the car (LHS) but I belive they have corrected this on the later versions. I love the intuitive interior lights - you push the lens to turn the light on/off.

Stereo - marvelous sound quality and you can run it very loud. Would miss this in a lower spec model. Could do with the traffic news memory you get in the VW radios.

H&V - generally good but the not up to the standard of VW - has the habit of steaming up after 400 yards on a cold morning unless it is running on auto. Claims to use the air conditioning system to heat cold air when on Auto and outside temp is lower than 5 - I have felt this working occasionally but with the heated seats was not a big issue to me.

Noise - my neighbour has a late 06 reg Passat 2.0 TDI and boy is it noisy, the Honda is still a very quiet car.

Would I recommend one - Yes
Will I be getting another - Probably, but possibly not an Exec to cut down on the tax bill.
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Had the need to go from Weybridge to GT Yarmouth on a B.H., mad I know but it wasn't too bad.
two quick questions.
On the way up, just East of Newmarket, on the dual carriageway there are some ribble strips covering a couple of hundred yards , but no obvious reason for them. any idea what they are for.

On my return journey on the A14 I was surprisingly overtaken by a juggernaut, from a town in East Lothian - the reason for my surprise is, I was doing 80 mph, and later I increased my speed to 85, but he was still pulling away from me-
should I have reported him -what would others have done-
apart from it rather wet, he seemd to be driving safely so I did nothing



**Sorry, I tried to resist being a pedant and changing the title of your thread, but I couldn't. Couldn't quite decide what to call it though, so this random title will do for now - PG ** Read more