One of the other threads has reminded me of something, that although nearer 18 years ago, left me wondering what to do at the time and still has me thinking i might have been out of order.. so i'll ask the opinions of those on here.

had sold my car and was relying on girlfriends...when hers got stolen (mk1 Escort 1300E), which wasn't difficult as the doors could be opned with a ten pence piece and she refused my offer of putting Yale locks on it.......but that's another yarn

went to an auction and bought the cheapest, best value car there.....which was a Volvo 244DL.......well clean and tidy, 66,000 miles on clock, 7 years old, no history and only a recent MOT. I wrote to the previous owner, enclising a SAE and asked about the history and a very nice man wrote back saying the car was a 'good un', but as it was approaching 120,000 miles he thought it was time to send it on its' way.....

Which then meant i knew the car was clocked. I'd only ever intended on keeping it as a temp measure as a man in his 20's didn't really want a Volvo 240.....but how to get rid? I didn't want to lie to anyone or do anything dodgy, but neither did i want to lose too much on the car either. So in the end i let a relative sell it for me privately, made no comment about the mileage, instructed them to state that their relative was selling it and they did not know much about the history (which was true) and leave it at that.

'Out of order' or 'necessary evil'.........i await your comments with bated breath Read more

I've seen increasing numbers of them towing small cars. I thought the whole point of a motor caravan was that it's a caravan that you don't have to tow, so why tow a car with it? Surely if you don't mind towing you'd just tow a caravan with your car.

Or have I missed the point...? Read more

ok ive had a easy bleed kit for years , ive always got ok results , but last year i had the oppertunity to borrow a 12v pressure bleeder from a garage when i couldnt get the pedal right. the 12v bleeder got the pedal rock hard in matter of minutes

now i no longer have access to the 12v machine from the garage , and no way can i repeat the results with my easybleeder, i can get it good but not fantastic

so my question is ....is the easybleeder a average machine and thats all i can expect from it? or am i using it wrong?

pretty sure i use it right, 20psi in the tyre as stated, load valve cranked open ...ive even been round several times and get very little air out, i did notice the 12v bleeder seems to hoof more fluid out , where the easybleeder just trickles

any ideas? Read more

Folk in Birmingham are simple. Any help therefore appreciated.

When looking for a dealer sourced diesel rep mobile with a decent warranty, the typical screen price is £1500 - £2000 more than the petrol variant. So, one needs to work out whether the premium is worth paying and whether the extra will be recouped through lower fuel bills over the life of the car. I'm OK up to this point.

However, If as I suspect, it would take say 3/4 years to recoup this premium, the car in my case will have done the best part of 80k miles and thus may be looking to get replaced. Plus, with diesel engines being more costly to fix in general, I'm finding it hard to see how it is a better financial option than petrol.

Am I missing something here?


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Top Turkey - the fastest hands in Brum Read more

Last century (!) when I first starting buying cars, the process seemed pretty simple. You went for a test drive, the dealer had a look at your p/x, consulted some mysterious guide in his top drawer, named a cost-to-change, a quick bit of bartering to get the price down by a few hundred and then sign on the dotted line.

These days, I seem to come across more and more car salesmen who don't seem to understand the basic principle that the process descibed above should be carried out within about 30 minutes and certainly before the punter makes any attempt to leave your showroom. Ruth Badger certainly had the right idea on last year's Apprentice but the two bozos (no naming or shaming unfortunately) at a MINI and at a Ford dealership somewhere in the North West of England would have been fired by Sir Alan in the warm-up.

I tried to p/x my Touran for an S-max earlier this year. The "salesman" refused to give me a p/x price on my car for TWO WEEKS!!!! In the end, I decided to stick with the Ran and wait until the S-max acquires the new 2.2 diesel engine next year.

This week I tried to p/x my Mini Cooper S for a new Mini. Dealer 1 was very straightforward - test drive then straightforward p/x offer, with a two hundred pound discount. I then approached Dealer 2 to see if they would give me a better p/x price. The car "salesman" looked over my car yesterday morning at 08.30, filled in a sheet and said he would get back to me later in the day. He then told me that he could only give me a p/x price if I was willing to do the deal the following day - which, by coincidence, I was planning to do although it seemed a little strange. At this point, I felt he was either going to give me a really good deal or going to totally waste my time. Needless to say, after repeated phone calls throughout today, I finally got his valuation on the Mini at 18.40. It was £1000 less than Dealer 1 who I will be contacting in the morning.

I told an American friend about my S-max experience and he was incredulous. Stateside, it is impossible to get out of a car showroom without being offered a deal. What is it with UK car salesmen? Are they only fit to do a job where the main question is "Do you want larges fries and a milkshake with that"?

Perhaps someone in the trade can explain this new pyschology of car selling because it has me totally baffled. I have certainly learnt my lesson - if the dealer can't give me a valuation on my car within 10 minutes of seeing it, I will just walk out the door and move to a more competent dealership. I will never waste my time making or receiving phone calls to car salesman chasing down a p/x valuation that has so far proved universally disappointing. Read more