October 2007
oh dear
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I went to London over the weekend, and whilst I normally pride myself on being aware of the road and traffic conditions, found that I would get caught out. Specifically, if I try to drive in a relaxed manner by sticking to between 65 - 75mph, I have to be in lane 1, with occasional forays into lanes 2 and 3. Thats fine, I'm happy in lane 1, if there isn't to much HGV traffic which on a Saturday night there isn't. However, I found myself getting too close to the car in front; having to slow down, or checking my mirrors quickly and trying to accelerate and pull out before I hit the car in front.
This is lack of anticipation and concentration. I am guilty. What is the solution? Funnily enough, if I am in the Outback rather than the Trajet and driving a little more quickly, I don't suffer. Read more
Espada you don't need new glasses. You're just doing what we should all do and honestly assessing your driving.
I suspect that the paranoia over not wishing to be a lane hogger can mean that we get stuck behind slower traffic in lane one from time to time, hemmed in by all those who just stick to Lanes 2/3 and cruise at higher and often illegal speeds.
Tragically the Subaru 'died' at the weekend and is 'beyond economic repair.' Looking around we have found the above showing 18K on the clock and pre haggling price of 17k.
Any experiences good or bad? The car will provide Mrs Geebee with daily transport to and from work ( approx 30 miles mainly country driving) and will be required to tow a horsetrailer complete with large horse - I've done the calculations and there doesn't appear to be a combination mismatch.
Your help / information would be much appreciated, we don't want to make an expensive mistake. Read more
Had a 3.0 Turbo D LTD. Very comfortable for long runs, excellent towing our 1.5 tonne caravan BUT
25 mpg solo, down to 17 mpg towing.
Expensive servicing if you stick with main dealers. I switched to local indendent but some jobs required a visit to the main dealer - plus it cost me over £1000 to try to get a back-end knocking diagnosed and fixed. They never managed it before I got rid.
Autobox had a mind of its own . Occasionally refused to change up out of first. Had to stop, turn off and "reboot" the car. As an intermittent fault, this never got diagnosed either.
Hope this helps
our 106 has recently had a cam belt done and hasnt really been right since.
It has the following symptoms:
Rough idling when hot or cold
poor fuel economy
blue smoke
lumpy when running but not all the time
Im unsure whether the timing belt has anything to do with the problem as I would have thought if the timing was out it would not be smooth all of the time rather than some of it.
The car has 130000 on the clock and has been serviced every 6k
It also has had new glow plugs and plenty of injector cleaner
any ideas?
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and hasnt really been right since.
>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> fair play missed that scfc_151 ----goes and (puts on big hat and stands in corner)
Strange, but as keen as id been on the two Jetta diesels id been looking at, I ended up with neither. One was on Ebay and went for the frankly ridiculous sum of £1121, the other local to me went before I made a move.
As fate would have it a 96 Rover 420 D ( 86bhp ) came up on ebay, 93k, 10months mot and 6 tax. I had a look at it as it is literally 5 mins from where I live.
What I found was a dirty but solid car which ran well and just needed some cosmetics which I can tackle myself.
Aside from broken front fog light, broken clock, slightly split bumper and some rust spots in usual places, it was a straight motor.
Ive always liked these cars since my days working at a Rover dealer, plus the diesels dont have the same appetite for HGF as the K-series, which is the only real letdown of this model.
I won it for £670 which sounds a lot but finding a straight diesel with long T&T and under 100k isnt easy at my budget, but hopefully, it will prove a good buy.
Anyone got any words of warning about the 420 diesel? Oh and yes I know the 86bhp is slowish! Read more
Just picked the car up. On the face of it, brilliant! Steering, suspension and engine all as good as they could be, not even a creak from the interior, far better than I expected to be honest. Id forgotten how good the ride is on these cars.
Engine also pulls quite well - gearing is very high indeed - less than 2000 rpm in top at 45, which goes some way to explaining the economy.
Booked in on monday for a precautionary cambelt and full mechanical check which should throw up any issues if there are any.
Once its clean, I will be very happy indeed!
the r.n.s window (electric) on my golf sometimes automatically reverses when it reaches the shut position the other 3 work fine is there any adjustment?
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Driving peacfully along in my recently stolen Fabia Vrs, between Birmingham and Bristol, 8:00pm at about 85, when I notice a police car (not traffic section) entering the slip road alongside me.
I slow down to 75'ish to allow him on and tuck in gently behind, not wanting to appear cheeky.
He slows down, no brake lights so I look to pull out thinking he might be looking for something on the hard shoulder. Suddenly I notice there is a car along side me - what the ! Then I notice a car right behind me and suddenly I'm surrounded by blue flashing lights from 4 traffic cars ! They shepherd me on to the hard shoulder, one in front pulls in aggressively to inches from my front bumper to stop me moving forward.
Fortunately, I'm relaxed and quite calm and they ask me to get out of the vehicle ("quickly please sir") and as I do so I think they realise I'm not thel car thief they were expecting. "Is this your car sir ?" " Er, yes" "Has it been stolen recently sir ?" "Er, yes about 5 weeks ago"
"Oh ..............." Embarrassed looks all round and I spend a funny few minutes in the back of their car explaining everything, even giving the DC's name in Manchester where the original theft took place. I asked how come I had been stopped like this and they explained I went under a gantry in Birmingham that had ANPR cameras and an alert had gone out - they had 6 cars involved in stopping me plus two miles further on they had a stinger ready at the exit where they expected to force me off had I started o run away !!!!!!
They had followed me for 20 miles setting all this up and I was totally oblivious - they didn't even bother about the speed as I fluctuated between 80-90 for many miles.
They were very polite, courteous even, when they realised the situation and the fact that Lancashire police had forgotton to take my details of the stolen register.
So, it just goes to show these things work. I think I might even make it onto 'Police, Camera, Stop !"
Cheers
jdc
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>>but you wouldn't get 6 cars turning out to a burglary where goods to the value of this car had been stolen. You'd get a Crime Number and letter from VictimSupport and think yourself lucky!
But in this case the police thought the baddie was in the car so it's a bit different. I'm sure if you phoned the police and told them the thieves were still in the house there'd be more police than you can shake a truncheon at.
If not, say on the phone that there's a kebab shop next door, and if that doesn't work tell them you've got a big knife and you'll deal with them yourself ;-)
Cost of the enquiry as to why MG Rover went bust has so far cost £10m and rising.
Could I suggest that BR's could have given answers for a shade less money!
Here are some for starters:
Under Capitalised
Poor Management
Poor Current Product Design
Poor Build Quality
Lack of Direction
Money squandered on MG racing team..............
Please add to the list Read more
rover?
never heard of em?
are they chinese?
Many countries allow turning left (right for USA/EU) even when the signal is red for straight/right (left for USA). The exceptions are usually mentioned with "No Left (Right) turn".
Why don't we have that in UK?
Some traffic signals provide a green <- for turning left only here, though.
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There used to be a line in the Highway Code about when turning left or right at road juntions, give way to pedestrians who may be crossing.
Rule 170 - "watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way"
It can get quite interesting if as a pedestrian you actually try to apply it.
I have a 35 mile commute, mostly A roads, and a couple of short stretches of motorway. I need to get a car, and have a budget of £8K. I'll be buying a used car. I'm looking at a Saab 9-3, but am interested in people's opinions. For longevity and economy I'm probably going for a diesel. What do you consider to be good alternatives? I'm not considering a BMW, as their indicators never seem to work! Read more
In your position I'd go for a Skoda Octavia - go for the 2.0 TDI if you can find one within your budget, but the 1.9 is quite adequate. Same engine as VW or Audi but you'll get a newer one for the money.
Skodas have a good reputation for reliability - so do Japanese cars but older Japanese diesels aren't a lot of fun.
Don't ignore Mondeo TDCI or Vectra DTI - but a lot of them are repmobiles and (with no disrespect to reps as a race) many have been thrashed.
In my view any of the above are preferable to a Saab.
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Another 300 roubles to Minsk City Council's Traffic Enforcement Department, 'parking without permission outside a billionaire's house', hey hang on a minute Ivan, er...