November 2007
Hello everyone great site bit of luck I found it,not sure if anyone can help but I'm thinking of buying a car in Germany.
Has anyone done this or can give me some helpfull info on web sites ect and also what makes of car will be better to buy.
I will be on a small budget 1000£
P.S I live in Sweden and prices here are crazy thats why I'm thinking Germany, sorry if this is a bit of an odd question but I thought I give it a shot.
Regards. Jon Read more
Saw this car on a car hire website whilst trying to get prices for a trip to Romania. Thought it looked very nice. Does anybody know whether there are plans to bring it to the UK?
tinyurl.com/28ryf4
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It is based on the Grande Punto and built in Turkey which is no bad thing as most Fiat Dealers will tell you those with "Turkey or Poland" badges tends to have no issues ?
Can't see it comming to the UK as it's a saloon and people do think .."ah Fiat Saloon they think ..small hatchback
I am thinking of getting a late model (x 2000) one of these as a stopgap. I would be interested in any experiences anybody might have had of them. IE Real world mpg, on the road characteristics, good points/issues etc. Am i right in thinking that if the engine has been maintained then it should be pretty strong well into 6 figure mileages ?
Thanks P Read more
Thanks for the replies, I was feeling a bit 'unloved' on this. For what its worth I did buy the car last week, although it has sat on the drive since as the Co car goes back on Friday. I'd agree it is v noisy on the motorway and i keep looking for sixth. Its an incredible engine though as it will bumble along and then suddenly set off like a scalded cat when you rev it hard, all a bit counter-intuitive after a diesel !
Interesting comment about the back boxes as I did notice that there are signs of corrosion on the seams.
Had the cam belt changed on my Passat TDI 100ps for the second time at 106,000 miles plus the various ancillaries this time around.
Total bill was £476 to include the lubrication service. 4.5 hours of labour at £45 ph.
On advice from this site, the water pump was changed as well.
Inspected all the old parts afterwards.
The water pump showed no visible signs of deterioration, albeit was ?only? £20 plus vat.
The cam belt was slightly worn but no damage apparent.
The tension pulley damper was in a bad way. One end had been rubbing on an auxiliary belt and several grooves had been cut in it. A loose bush allowed this free play. If that had broken altogether?. This assembly cost £81 plus vat.
Seems that there are more things than water pumps to worry about on this engine.
Also got an advisory to change the EGR valve at £189 all in. It is dribbling oil. Why?
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The cambelt damper problem is common, which is why it was deleted and the design changed on more recent PD engines. I'm glad you caught it.
There are two routes for oil to reach the EGR valve. The engine crankcase breather joins the intake system near the compressor intake and carries oil with it. A further source of oil is the turbocharger itself via the shaft seals.
If your engine is running well, I'd take a visibly oily EGR valve with a pinch of salt. These seem to vary a lot - I have a theory that an engine which has been thrashed a bit in its youth will carry less "blowby" oil via the breather. The factory fill of synthetic oil may make these engines difficult to run in properly - yours is obviously well past this stage.
Similarly the Garrett turbochargers are very reliable on these engines as long as the vanes don't stick (they can be freed).
If your PD runs well and doesn't use (say) more than 0.5l oil per 1000 miles. I'd leave well alone.
659.
Full story here
tinyurl.com/23trgc
Also, the Monday's Dispatcher programmer showed about bottleneck Britain.
I was surprised to see 3 out 4 of their volunteers actually supported pay per mile concept !
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Ay chihuahua... unleaded £1.04 round the corner last night, oy vey...
Saw a V40 on the way into work and thought I would look to see how much and what specification I can get . . . . after all I do need to order a new car.
The Volvo web-site gives me loads of pictures and information but no prices and no indication of what I get for my money (e.g lists in features "manual seats" and "electric seats" but nothing about which version has what or how much I have to pay!
Could have been an option to replace the Honda as the CO2 figures for the diesels are low!
Does not even tell me how to find a dealer so looks like I won't bother.
Have I missed something? Read more
Volvo names are easy to understand; S40 etc is saloon, C30 etc is coupe/convertible, v50 etc means versatility.
Anyway all the information the original poster was after is on the volvo cars website
From Pelican crossings? I'm sure it was a mere 25 years ago there was the cartoon TV advert that showed a girl and her grandfather how a pelican crossing worked and obviously I've used a few since then. (Crossings, not girls and grandfathers)
When it's too late to start crossing the green man flashes, he's supposed to, they said so on TV. But I've noticed recently that he doesn't! It goes from a green man to neither green or red man showing for a few seconds, then to the red man on.
Why is this? Safety reasons? The cost of the flashing relay inside? Does anyone think it's better like this? Personally I think pedestrians should be given all the help possible about when it's safe to cross or not, up to and including an automatic neck brace to look up at the lights and to turn their heads to look at traffic, however I feel that's a separate rant.
In London at least the time of these lights seems to be set on a whim, nothing to do with how long it takes to get across the road, sometimes the red and green man are off for several seconds with pedestrians not sure if they can dash across or it's simply a bulb that's gone.
So, anyone know why it's changed?
Gareth Read more
Anyone crossed the road in Rome? Amazing experience. Pedestrian (and car) traffic seems to zip merge almost constantly without collisions. Drivers slow down and pedestrians speed up and no one is held up for more than a few seconds. There seem to be no clear rules of priority (other than Darwin's) yet no one seems to get irate or indignant.
Our pug 1997 75k 406 2ltr petrol failed mot on emissions yesterday, cat is in good condition as is the exhaust, air filter was changed not so long ago with oil and filter, any ideas to getting the emissions down? i took it for a blast down the motorway before the test to get it nice and hot.
Duggie
{Subject header amended to include yr, engine size, and the related problem} Read more
I thought burning oil would also give a high HC reading as well - or would the catalyst soak this up?
I also thought that High CO can often be dealt with by retuning or checking faults with the fuel system / timing.
I am surprised the MOT garage did not advise on possible remedies.
ASTRA ESTATE 1.6i 16V Elegance 5dr LPG DUAL-FUEL Year: 2003 48k.
Hi all,
Not owned an LPG vehicle before but I am familiar with Astra type vehicles as this is the make and type of car have always owned. my current Astra (Swing 1.4) I have had since new and it has just clocked 200k - original engine and gearbox too :)
Need help please with what to look for when I go and view this vehicle at the weekend - any pointers, no matter how small, questions I need to ask, what I need to ensure has been replaced for its age etc.
All help and advice is most welcome - if I am looking at buying a dog of a car please tell me!
Thanks for all your help in advance.
Dave.
Moved over from Technical - for a wider audience Read more
There IS a difference in performance and economy, between LPG and unleaded, according to Vauxhall.
The slightly earlier '00 Vauxhall Astra 1.6 16v LPG had economy of 21.4/36.1/28.8 on LPG compared to 28.0/47.1/37.7 on unleaded and had a 5% deterioration in acceleration due to the 67kg increase in kerbweight.
Have the flashing glow plug light and following your guide get a fault code of r 0206. Any idea what that is and if its okay to drive until I can get it fixed. Car done 46,000 miles.
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I had the same problem on a regular basis and had to have injectors swapped about to see if it was a mapping fault or a worn injector -one was a worn injector - but still had same problem on others -I used dales diesel engineers in Burslem Staffs - I was shown a recall on the injectors in the vehicle which said vehicles need to be remapped - But Ford wont accept this - I had mine performance remapped to around 160 bhp and the glow plug has been on twice in six months but when you turn ignition off and on again it seems to reboot and is fine again -Im about to get all my injectors recoded at the same time and will know it should be spot on -ps if you can afford the £300 for a remap its def worth it cause its a completly different animal after
Browse
"Second hand prices are miles lower in Germany than in Sweden, going by the unbelievably overpriced Volvos in the Skone Dagesblatt (?) newspaper that my FiL reads. Other posters have remarked that UK second hand prices are lower still."
That's what I thought but having looked again thay seem slightly lower I friends going to get me DAZ I think it's called and check out the prices in there it's a German second hand car mag maybe I'm not looking hard enough but I have to also consider getting the car back getting there and then getting it registered all that adds up and seeing I'm buying a cheapo car it might be more hassle than its worth. I'm sure high end cars are much cheaper, I will keep looking
As for buying a car from England I'm not really botherd if its not going to be worth much, as I will drive it into the ground,shame though as there would be a huge profit margen. I been looking at Saab 9-3 you can pick one up for around 1000£ with maybe 100.000m on the clock, in Sweden thay go for around 40.000kr which is well over 2500£ crazy and milage is higher.
As for insurance I had LHD volvo and insurance was still cheaper in Sweden than the U.K.
Thanks to the replys