We bought a new to us car and drove it home last Thursday. 17.5 miles from the dealership it broke down and a 2 hour journey ended up quite a bit longer. To cut a long story short (about 2 days long) we got the car back and there seems to be quite a few issues with it and we've also noticed that its had some sort of accident as the front passenger door has been repaired/resprayed. We haven't got the service history book from the dealership yet although they have said it will be with us as soon as they've queried something with the previous owners (they have told us it has a FSH). Now we've never ever had a problem with purchasing a car and dealerships have always been OK. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to follow this up. The suggestion so far is to take it to the local dealership and get them to look at the vehicle and make good any problems. Does this sound reasonable? Read more

Nissan primera 1.6 t reg 99.hello I was wondering if you would know that this is correct for my a/c .When i turn it on my cars revs go to about 1000 rpm for about 25 secs then gos back to 700rpm for about 10 to 15 secs I think this is the compressor cutting in and out?.It did this even before the visit to kwik fit and now.
The air is cold about 6 degrees to 8 degrees as I had it recharged yesterday at kwik fit and it was put on a machine that tested it all ok.
My dad has the same age vehicle and his does exactly the same.just to put my mind at rest as I'm concerned at the compessor being faulty or something else.Many thanks for any help on this matter. Read more

A taxi driver could lose his income after council officials refused to renew a licence for his classic car, because it is too old. Bob Coles drives passengers in Bath in his 25-year-old Mercedes LWB.

But the 54-year-old father-of-two was told his private hire licence would not be renewed in October as the vehicle was more than seven years old. A council spokesman said the decision had been taken on grounds of the vehicle's age and high mileage.

Despite having clocked 134,000 miles the car was deemed in excellent condition by Bath and North East Somerset Council's licensing officer last year.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6677345.stm


134,000 miles is not excessive for a cab! Read more

Went to go shopping today in my mark 4 s reg Astra 1.8 cd model its only done 82k miles with fsh and when i turn the corner the power steering deceided not to work! Heavy or what! Anyway I stopped the car turn off ignition ect then went to restart and now works fine again!!?? I thought the belt had come off but wheres the belt and what could have done this?? Something silly or a major problem?
Thanks for any input
( lady driver by the way )
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have just dug the Blackbird out of the shed to prepare it for a French trip in early June (8 of us from work for 3 days).... found that a creature has made itself a nest in the shed, amongst the tank bag and back pack, which had fallen off a shelf onto the front mudguard and then floor, causing minor scraches, that should polish out......not sure what the creature is, but whatever it was is it eats snails apparently and carps too much and too big to be a mouse.......am guessing rat...(came up through the hole in the floor that the ground anchor sits in concrete that prevents thieving North Londonites from having the bike)... and easily disposed of the stuffed newspaper filling i'd naively tried to prevent this.

so had to clean carp off the bike gear and the floor of the shed, not a good start........then as i'm bent right over spotted world's most enormous spider (maybe slight exaggeration) and being severely arachnophobic had mini heart attack.

Then had to move two big boxes of SWMBO school books back into the house, where 6 months ago we'd had a row, cos there is nowhere to put them.......despite the fact that my garage is now 2/3rds of its starting size as i built an office for her to house all the school type stuff... which is why the bike is in the garden shed, no doubt invalidating the insurance, hence the ground anchor, 2metal chains, disc lock, security light and alarm wired direclty into house via underground cable.

then it's the bike........started quite well.........had started it 2 weeks ago for 1st time in 4 months, having disconnected the battery rather than use an optimiser, which ruined the battery last year.
Wheeled it from back garden to front drive, intending to clean and polish it.......doesn't really need it as dust cover has done the job, but i like it to look 'proper'.........and then it started raining
....marvellous, now have to ride it to local bike shop in the rain for the new front tyre to be fitted, which should be interesting on the way back...(daren't leave the one on there, which is well legal, cos last time i did that i came back with a Dunlop Kojak, praying it wouldn't rain on the journey)

then there was the kit check.......took over half an hour to find the insurance as it was filed elsewhere than somewhere i would have filed it, rang them only to find i didn't need to, was already automatically covered.....AA cost 24 quid for 3 days, which seemed a bit steep, but maybe i'm not keeping up with the times.

which just left the leathers...and therein lay the big problem.........increasing girth versus bike leathers bought over 3 years ago......my opinion is they'll do.....when SWMBO stopped laughing, she reluctantly agreed they'd do......but i suspect the prosepct of me splashing out 200 readies for a new set is part of her thought process

stressed is not the word........hope i calm down enough to enjoy the trip


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