September 2007
The Mondeo (not sure if l or ll) in 96 came as a 2.0 4x4. Clearly we are in banger territory, but is there any reason why the 4x4 version is a bad buy? The would be buyer needs to have occasional 4x4 use without needing ground clearance. The alternative would be a Legacy, but at that price they seem to be sold by people without brick-built homes. Read more
I'm not sure how to put this delicately, but I think I preferred the old photo... Read more
Think you'll find he uses a stunt man.
the missus is about to (hopefully) pass her test
so if you had a circa 5 K budget for a new car what would you buy and why? or 4 K up for a pre reg?
ideally group 1 or 2 insurance
ideally black paint in the cost
ideally a CD player
so its Ford KA or Fiat Panda or what?
Any better ideas? Read more
the sirion is great.
we took 2 loads of 5 of our staff and familys from manchester to Redditch hastle free, cruising at 80mph doing just under 50mpg.
You just cant fault it for the money.
cracking car.
The car has had a complete new exhaust. The idling speed appears to be half what it should be and is lumpy. This suddenly happened. RAC man whipped out the plugs and they look fine. He apologised for not having exhaust gas analyser but they don't carry them. The carb controls all seem to be free, nothing sticking as far as I know. Engine seems to run fine through rest of the range. If someone knowledgeable could give me a few pointers as to what to look for next I'd be most grateful. When I got back to london (in a tight parking space), I could smell dreadful exhaust fumes in the car and underneath but the parking space may have caused this. The fumes at idle seemed really bad though. I put my hand over the exhaust to check for leaks and I couldn't detect any. Could there be a leak in the vacuum pipes? This car has a lot of rubber tubing around the carburettor. Engine in good nick generally btw.
Cheers,
Mike.
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Thanks guys for taking the trouble to reply. Haven't had a chance to proceed further with the fault. Will check egr first. Don't like the idea of stripping a kehin carb down, so hope this is a last resort. Definetely a fuel problem.
Cheers,
Mike
One of my gardening customers is having extensive building works done and the road outside was full of contractors' vans and a digger so I couldn't get near enough to save my tired limbs unloading the mower and other gear without parking on a grassy bank opposite the house. As I was unlashing the mower from the trailer, I was approached by the leader of a group of fully-togged-up hikers who spoke to me thus,
"You shouldn't park there, your vehicle is in a flower bed, you know"
Me, exaggeratedly peering underneath the trailer, "Really, how do you work that out?"
Hiker, "Well, it had daffodils and crocuses there a few months ago"
Me, "Oh, I see. They only come out in Spring and I'll be gone by then"
The hikers gave me a salvo of tuts and turned away.
Some people try really hard to find something to complain about, don't they?
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land Read more
Some people try really hard to find something to complain about, don't they?
I must admit I managed to complain to someone today about their parking and I should really have let it go but I found this individual so selfish that I had to say something.
I was waiting in a chemist for prescrition for someone and next door to the chemist on a cormer is an off licence with double yellow lines. Up screeches a car & parks half on the pavement and half on the road with double yellows right on a corner - forcing a young mother and her children to take evasive action as he parked. He then runs into the offie and about 3-4 mins later comes out with a bottle of wine. At this point I managed to catch him and have words and he looks at me like he's done nothing wrong.
And yes - off course it was a BMW driver - they do seem to like to stereo type themselves with this selfish approach to anyone else on the road.
Wife is hankering after a new family estate car - "something with a bit more poke" - so we are chewing over various possibilities.
Requirements are:
5 seats - 3 children (7,5,2), so space for two booster seats and a car seat required.
Decent load carrying capability - present car is previous version Mondeo (enormous), and we can easily fill that to the load cover, even for a few days away (having said that, travel cot gone, pushchair on the verge of going, so we could cope with something a bit smaller!)
Bit of poke - Mondeo is 150Bhp 2.0l petrol. It's not slow - it's just not quite the same as my 330D, which she enjoys driving a lot
Sane total cost of ownership - happy to buy newish, but looking to avoid less reliable marques. Will do about 12k miles / year
Short list so far:
BMW E39 estate - both like the 3.0 engine (525 or 530), you pay a premium, but I guess you would probably get it back. Open to the idea of a petrol (post 2001 revisions)
Audi A6 - when did they start going wrong? Friends have S2 / early S6 cars with the 2.2turbo engine, which appear to be hune from rock. All I read about later cars, be it 2.5Tdi's, or 2.0t engines, is that they are worth steering well clear of. Anyone an opinion of the 2.4 V6?
Saab 9-5. Big, comfy, cruiser - safe, bit different. Cheaper than the others, but again, feel mildly nervous about reliability. Which are the best to go for? Clearly need pre-facelift of last year (not sure I have seen an uglier car)
Mondeo 2.2 TDCi - year or so old, plenty of toys, plenty of grunt, values softening nicely, (and will continue to do so). Have been in an X type with the 2.2 engine, and was impressed with its guts.
Quite a wide spread, but given upto, say, £15k, and my needs, which of these would you go for, which would you avoid, and what would you push onto my list....
Cheers
Jon
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I've mentioned a few times on here that we have a Saab 9-5 estate - they are certainly worth looking at. Very comfy, feel sturdy and safe. They depreciate a lot, but are therefore good value used. We have a fairly basic 2.0 petrol 2001 - but my OH finds it quick enough. Mid range acceleration is better than the 0-60. MPG is only around 30, but he mostly does short journeys.
There are reliability issues, like sludge in the oil sump, and the DI cassette failing, but Saab have been paying for repairs, even on cars outside warranty, if they have FSH. We have had ours for 18 months and generally been very pleased.
Chap selling a 2006 AUDI A4 AVANT S LINE QUATTRO 3.0TDI AUTOMATIC for less than £13k. I answered ("email the seller") his AutoTrader ad and he has replied that he's in Austria (business went bust) and can't get any price for a r-h drive car from local dealers. He suggests we use eBay's purchase protection - don't know how eBay has come into it since I saw the ad on Auto Trader (thoough it has now disappeared). He assures me I'm fully protected and if I don't like the car after he's shipped it to me, then he will ship it back and I just get my money back from eBay. He wants my complete name, eBay user ID and email address registered with eBay so he can set up the transaction.
Is this a scam? Parker's Guide suggests the car is worth £24k privately. I can't see the car listed in eBay - I would have assumed the buyer only gets eBay's protection (up to £13k??) if you buy an item listed in eBay, otherwise how would eBay get its cut from the seller?
Is this a well-worn scam?
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Perhaps some poor sole has fallen for this
All sounds a bit fishy to me ;-)
Travelling down the M6/M5 early on Monday morning this week, I was quite astonished to be overtaken by a Nissan or Mitsubishi pick-up towing a loaded trailer in lane 3. I was doing 70 and he came past relatively easily, at I would guess at least 80+.
Amongst other things, it was dark, pouring with rain and there was a howling gale, but even better, he never made any attempt to use any other lane. On and off, I followed him for at least 20 minutes and he never left lane 3 at all.
My question is, is it possible he does not know the law, or he just realises that his chances of getting caught are almost nil, (or just get a ticking-off rather than summonsed)?
Crazy drivers! Read more
......... as I drew level with him he
flicked on his indicator to overtake the car in front.
This supports my opinion that a large percentage of drivers switch on their indicators purely out of subconcious habit and without knowing what (or whether) other road users will benefit from the signal.
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L\'escargot.
Did anyone else see the BBC lunchtime news item on this subject?
They're driverless pods, and emphasis was placed on safety, unfortunately one of the pods appeared to have clear evidence of rear impact damage!
ss Read more
Info here on the Daventry system - tinyurl.com/37x8js
There's also a system going into Heathrow next year, to take people between the new terminal 5 and a car park a mile away - tinyurl.com/38ggf7
Chris
can someone point me at the definitive rules for disabled parking bays?
We (parish council) are getting grief for not supporting the installation of a disabled parking bay.
The resident in question does not have a car or drive. they want the bay so that their carers (cleaners/home help) can park outside their house rather than sometimes having to park down the road and walking less than 500 yards. The carer isnt disabled.
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DaveJP has it right. The carer would have to double park briefly whilst off loading the disabled person (blue badge holder off) and then go and park up. There are some exceptions, and we have a bay outside the house. my son is mentally as well as physically disabled and it is not safe to leave him for potnetially quite a long time by himself. Considerations like the ease of parking (which around us is a nightmare) is also taken into account.
The resident in question is trying to abuse the system and should know better.
Lou-O wins. He beat you to more cliches (spelling?).