December 2007
I notice that some of the BR contributors live in other European countries. I was wondering if I could pick your brains please ?
While I believe it is fairly much accepted that there is no longer any real financial advantage in buying a new car in Europe as opposed to the UK, I wanted to ask if the same is true of the used market ?
To explain, my needs are slightly unusual for a number of reasons.
Although I live in the UK, I regularly need to travel by car in continental Europe. My most common trips are to Italy and Germany. Therefore the advantage of RHD over LHD is sort of irrelevant as I do almost as many miles "over there" as I do here.
As for depreciation. I am not too worried about that either as I tend to run my cars to very high mileages and resultantly they are never worth a lot anyway when they have completed their "tour of duty".
My preference is to buy cars which are approx three years old and with up to around 50k mls on with a good service history. I take the view that this is the point at which they represent the best deal. I then would look to get them up to 200k or more over 3-4 years by keeping them properly maintained.
So far this has worked for me and my car of preference is the Mondeo diesel estate. I know there are those who say that there are reliability issues with these but I have not had that experience and I am more than happy to buy another one. ( Maybe it's the way you drive them Chaps ?! ....he says and ducks ! ) At any rate I didn't post this to get into that old chestnut, please just bear with me and take it that for all sorts of comfort / loadspace / economy reasons that this is the car I will probably buy again.
I was browsing on the usual UK sites to see what current prices are being charged for these cars and given my reasonably open-ended brief ie. three years old-ish, 50k-ish,
mid to upper spec-ish it was throwing back suitable cars at anywhere between £6.5k and £8.5k.
So, finally, to my questions ( for those of you still awake ! ) Is there any significant price advantage in sourcing my next car in LHD local spec in a northern european country ? If I did what "hidden" costs would be incurred ( EG taxes etc ). Does anyone have any experience of the sort of %age effect on UK insurance costs for LHD ?
Thanks in advance ! - Shoespy. Read more
I have recently moved into a new estate where everyone parks on the road and not in their respective driveways.
The main reasons for this is that access to their driveways requires enough roadspace and unblocked dropkerbs, however, you know as soon as you start using your driveway, someone else starts parking in the visitor space in front of your house. Thus making parking in your driveway harder, a bit like parking in a supermarket car space. In addition, they make new houses so close to the road and drop kerbs small, you need people to give you enough space to swing in, which you know they will not do. People also like the flexibility of parking on the road.
Hence, there is now a culture of parking on the road and not the driveways. The council do not want to know as it is 'residential' and the police could only enforce if 'obstruction' became an issue.
Has anyone experienced these problems and what is the solution to get rid of this lazy parking culture?
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We are fortunate to have a drive capable of holding 2 large cars and a garage capable of taking a pushbike, but other houses on the estate have only a pint-sized garage and a drive capable of taking a medium sized car.
Hence the recent letter from the developers (we have lived on the estate for just over a year) informing us to stop obstructing the roads, as the delivery lorries have trouble getting past the parked cars at 6.30am...
It is ridiculous - but government planning legislation has sadly led us into this situation. At least the houses at the end of the site will have two parking spaces (and no garages!),
And did anyone see the news about the estate in Coventry where people want to park their cars in the front gardens, but the lunatic council won't let them on the basis they want the gardens to look pretty, so instead they are happy to have cars obstructing streets and causing a health & safety problem (fire engines etc.. struggling to get through)
As Dave points out, don't let it agitate you - if you can't get out of your drive talk to your neighbour. I did, and now he thinks about where to park so I can get out of my drive. The alternative for him is that I park on the street and make it difficult for him to get out (And before anyone says anything about insurance - I drive a group 16 car for 30,000mls a year and have a learner driver insured on it - my premium can't go any higher....!)
Hi,
I've got a 1999 V-reg 1.8i 5-door Zetec and it's recently started locking itself occasionally, whilst on the move !
This happened recently and because it was deadlocked, my wife could not unlock the driver's door from the inside but found that she could get out via the passenger door - this points towards the passenger door being faulty in some way, because presumably she shouldn't be able to get out of any of the doors when the car is deadlocked ?
My wife reckons that it's something to do with the cold weather, although this could be coincidence. You can sometimes here the locking mechanism 'twitch' whilst driving, but it doesn't actually lock.
Does anyone have any ideas what might cause the doors to all lock spontaneously like this, for no obvious reason ?
It's probably worth mentioning that the remote key has not worked for many years - I changed the battery (which made no difference) and have never got round to finding out the cause, as it locks and deadlocks manually without a problem.
Cheers. Read more
I had this on my partners Clio. If the same cause is a bad earth then the earth lead from chassis to engine may be the first point of looking?
Upon replacing (can you believe the AA located this fault and fixed it roadside?) all was and has been fine.
Other symptoms: Engine would just die. Alarm would go off when driving causing immobiliser to kick in, this killed engine (!!!!) when driving down the road, door locks would just keep locking/unlocking whilst both driving and parked - that was until the battery went flat and poor charging leading to yet another flat battery.
That or a loose connection/bad earth again on one of or even a faulty door lock activator motor?
Fault diagnostics on electrics = complete nightmare and it is nearly always something dead simple that is the cause - like a bad earth!
I have just swapped my 1999 Focus 1.6LX for a brand new 1.6LX. Although an improved car I am disappointed by the increased tyre noise. The original car had Michelin Energy tyres, whereas the new one is fitted with Pirelli P7's.
Does anyone know if there is a reason why the new car should have increased tyre noise, especially at motorway speeds, or is it just down to the Pirelli tyres? Read more
We've always been concerned about the level of road/tyre noise on SWMBO's 1.6 Focus Chic (52 reg). It came with P6000s on alloy wheels; these have worn well - we obtained 32k miles on the fronts and changed them for Firehawks, and the rears are still the originals at 53k miles. In the next month or two, however, we will have to replace all 4 as the front Firehawks have caught up with rear, original P6000s.
I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has successfully, by changing tyre brand, managed to reduce noise. Has anyone tried Vredesteins?
In this model, the seats are leather and pretty comfortable; fuel economy is average 37mpg, with 42mpg easily obtainable on a run; I've never had a problem with water ingress to spark plug wells - at least, not that I've known about.
Have had a couple of experiences with Honda garages that lead me to believe that Honda are giving their dealers a rough deal with respect to warranty claims.
The first issue was a faulty bluetooth device which my supplying dealer could not repair due to a design fault. This ultimately led to a very difficult discussion where they have blamed the whole issue on Honda and feel badly towards me because they have lost money on the attempted repairs.
Recently I took my car to another dealer with a cold running problem, which has been there for 4 weeks with no resolution. It would appear that the dealer is only working on this at quiet times as they are not reimbursed by Honda unless they carry out a recognised repair e.g. replace a faulty component. I strongly suspect this also means that they are taking spares off 'donor cars' to assist fault finding. The end result is that the car is taking too long to be fixed and to be honest whilst I have every sympathy for the (very courteous and helpful) dealer in question, it means that my 'super-reliable' Honda is not much use at the moment.
I would be interested to know if this is a common situation as I have been told it is not unique to Honda
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Cheddar you're taking my post far too literally.>>
Perhaps so I accept that and apologise.
We have a Renault and a Ford, combined age 14, had one since new, one since nearly new, combined mileage around 180,000, have suffered less faults between them than your Honda and only immobile twice, flat battery on the Clio fixed in 30mins and sticking brake caliper on the Mondeo when nearly new.
Moving on, I would rant at Honda and remind them of their well earned reputation.
However I feel that Honda and Toyota may have got to where VW did a couple of years ago, VW had a good reputation for reliability and marketed on the back of it ("a man has to have one thing he can rely on" etc) though got to the point where the reality could not sustain the reputation.
I have a car with a semi-automatic gearbox. It's a Jan'07 model so well
within the manufacturer's warranty period. I have posted previously about the very snatchy nature of the clutch take-up and finally after a number of attempts I have got my service garage to admit there is a problem with the clutch. However, they want me to commit to pay for the new clutch & fitting (approx £1500-2000) - they say they will want to examine the failing clutch before any admission of a faulty component. They have suggested that the clutch failure is due to mis-use i.e. holding the car on inclines using the clutch rather than the brakes. This is a ludicrous suggestion on three counts firstly, I simply do not follow this practice and never have in 10+yrs of owning cars with auto boxes; secondly, I live and drive almost entirely around Warwick where, as anyone who knows the area will confirm, there are precious few inclines where you can hold your car whether on the clutch or brakes. Thirdly, the car had only done 5,000 miles when this problem started - it has even now only done 9,500 and even if I did practice holding it on inclines with the clutch, surely there's no way it should burn out so quickly. The situation has now deteriorated to the extent where it is impossible to inch forward or backward without bunny-hopping accompanied by some serious banging noises from the general direction of the transmission. In my view and that of various passengers whose opinion I have also asked, the car is somewhere between undriveable and unroadworthy.
I am concerned that the manufacturer is simply going to pin this on me rather than the failing component. They say they will examine the clutch when it is replaced (at my committed expense of course) and then make a decision. I have zero confidence of a fair assessment, and would want the clutch examined simultaneously by an independent assessor of my own choosing, otherwise there will undoubtedly be an institutionalised closing of ranks at the manufacturer / service garage, and I will be left with no comeback. I'm currently over a barrel in that if I don't commit to pay for the work, they won't do it. And once I've paid for it to make the car driveable again, what chance do I have of recovering my money?
I would welcome any suggested course of action
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I don't know whether an update would prove of interest. The car in question was (and still is) a C
I see on E-Bay these chips are on sale for around £145.00. They promise good improvements, from 115bhp to 140bhp for example, and 5-7mpg extra.
Are they worth it and would there be an extra insurance premium to be paid?
Has any one had any experience with them?
Thank you.
Happy Christmas to one and all.
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Roverron, who does tuning boxes for Rover 75 / MG ZTs and others is now doing them for the Mondeo. I would expect them to be better than a remap as they are in the Rover / MG cars.
tuning-diesels.com/index2n.htm
A sight cheaper than a remap too!
Hi, thankyou for the useful advice re cam belt tensioning but have hit a major problem possibly design fault with the engine. On close inspection of head i noticed cracks between each valve in each combustion chamber. After much phoning around breakers all I could get was a complete engine. I took head off to swap them and this one is cracked in the same place!!! Is this a common problem? I'm at a complete loss as to what to do cos any further engines may also be knackered and car although in good condition (apart from head!) is only worth 500 quid! Any advice is truly gratefully appreciated.
slt Read more
The 106 diesel is notorious for a poor design of hoses... with bleed screws in them. The cooling system is fragile and requires weekly inspection. The radiators corrode as well with age and salt.
I assume it's a 1.5 diesel.. see tinyurl.com/3akuxe
madf
This last week, I have noticed that several garages in my area (SE LONDON) have been very low on fuel with many pumps closed down.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
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For the record I'd love fuel tax to be reduced and income tax increased to
make up the revenue shortfall that would suit me nicely !!
Don't wish too hard; they might cut your Incxapacity Benefit instead.
Don't be concerned, I've never claimed benefit and I've paid enough contributions to get full pension when I get to 65.
My income is all derived from tax-free sources, not difficult but it does need "thinking outside the box".
My 1999 VW Lupo 1.4S (about 65,000 miles) stalls when approaching junctions or when in traffic. This has been a problem for quite a while and I 've tried putting cleaning addatives in the petrol tank but this has had no effect. I mentioned the problem at the last service but they couldn't find anything wrong. It is okay when it is run from cold but stalls after it has warmed up. Could anybody tell me what is the likey cause and what is the cheapest to try first? Read more
A toothbrush and carb or brake cleaner works best; pay particular attention to any ridges of hardened crud on the throttle body or edges of the butterfly.
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What I gathered from my friends in other European countries (Norway/Sweden/Germany/Cyprus etc.) - used car are usually cheapest in UK :)