February 2008
Dont blame them, the emphasis put on the private motorist is completely out of proportion to their actual contribution to CO2, they are just a high profile target.
Good to have a manufactuer like Porsche putting their head above the parapet and supporting the beleaguered motorist against an exchequer bent on using misguided environmental ideals to rip off a significant majority of the population.
BBC link replaced by www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=4406 Read more
Hello,
I need to change my car - I want a big diesel with plenty of luggage space and power enough to tow a caravan.
Does anyone know of an easy way of working out annual fuel costs based on average mpg?
I want to work out how much, say, a Nissan X-Trail would cost per year in diesel compared with a big estate like a Ford Mondeo.
I would be upgrading from a Ford Focus diesel estate so I know everything will be more expensive on either car (though insurance and purchase price of either would be v similar - just more tax on the XT)
Thanks in advance....
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If you are buying new, Auto Express does a PPM (pence per mile ) running cost for each car over 3 years.
X-trail diesel varies from 51 to 58 PPM depending on model; Mondeo diesel is 48 to 63PPM.
Re ANPR and insurance certs I used to arrange a fleet policy for about 35 company cars of the 'perks' variety i.e. very rarely used for business and the insurers, a Lloyds syndicate, would issue one cert per car without any reg no. but stating words to the effect that it covered any car owned by the company and anybody driving with the company's permission subject age limits etc. This also avoided paperwork as the company tended to change cars as and when rather than altogether.
I' ve now retired and recently heard that this type of general cert is no longer acceptable and that a reg no. must be shown and purely out of interest I wonder if anybody can tell me if this is so?
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Our company used to work like that - now, if we hire a car or get a loan car, we have to phone the transport section to advise them of the registration number before we are allowed to take the car on the road.
Bit of a pain when they had gone home when you tried to collect your car from a service and it wasn't ready - but so long as you told them next morning they were fine.
Now, a leasing company (which my company owns) has taken over, and I don't have a clue (a) what insurance we have or (b) who it's with. The leasing company won't issue us with copies unless we have been given a producer (not often these days with computerisation). If we have an accident, we phone a hotline number and they allegedly handle it. The only thing we do know is from the HR site that says "only immediate family members of company car users or other employees can additionaly drive the vehicle". They don't, and won't, say what "immediate family member" means.
Hullo folks,
Can anyone advise on traffic conditions in Birmingham morning rush hour, and how much extra time to allow?
I've got to get to a seminar at Aston University (Aston Triangle) for 9am on Thursday, from Nottingham. Looking on MS Autoroute and on Google Maps they both say 1 hour for the journey.
Can anyone advise with local traffic info particularly for the last stretch, going from M42 onto M6 onto A5127 Aston Expressway?
I?ve only driven into Brum once in the last 10 years and that was late morning..
Also the info I have from the University is that parking will be limited due to construction work, are there any public car parks near to the ?Aston Triangle??
Cheers,
Rich.
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I'd take the train. You might have to get up earlier but you can sleep on the train.
Buying tickets for particular times in advance can be a big saving. Buying singles can also save.
2001 1.8i LX Petrol {year and engine details should have been in subject header! - now added as per ignored requests}
On cold mornings my car takes ages to get to temperature. The temperature gauge hardly moving until I have covered upto 6 or 7 miles. The heater output consequently is also very poor. The revs at idle even after a considerable distance show that the mixture is still rich. Any ideas please
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I to have the same problem on my mk 3 2.0ltr petrol have done since before xmas
have bought thermostat and housing (complete unit) off ford parts direct and was over £20 cheaper is a bit of a job to do also looks like il have to remove steering pump.
for now though till weather gets warmer and i have time i have coverd 3quarters of
the radiator with turkey foil to help speed up warming and this has helped and it
does not over heat in traffic.hope this helps
Today while spoilt for choice when buying an air freshener I convinced myself that I had made the best choice, but then got home and realised I had just bought two fluffy dice. I was thinking of giving them away, but Googled a bit and was reassured on a number of sites that they are a "retro classic" and are "back in fashion".
Since I don't want to be pulled over by the fashion police I'd be interested to know where other motorists stand on the fluffy dice issue.
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The Mods have some Pink Fluffy ones as well !
I had a cheapy chinese twin cylinder footpump for a while and eventually the mickey mouse metal gave way and it collapsed. It was a terrible thing and took ages to pump the tyres so was pleased to have an excuse to replace it. Went to my local motor factors and bought a twin cylinder michelin footpump, to match my set of new pilot primacys, for £18.50. What a difference! Well made, nice to use and tyres inflated with just a few strokes. Highly recommended. But why dont they put a valve in the line so that you can check the pressure without removing the rubber hose connector from the tyre? The gauge on the pump is not sufficiently accurate for me.
MGs Read more
Been looking at replacement exhaust front pipes and cats (one piece, ludicrously) for my blowing front section on the Mondy. The quotes for parts only (a mate will fit it for me). Timax come out consistently the cheapest, and by quite a margin. A Bosal item is coming in at about £120 and the Timax is a little over half that. Both include the cat and the flex-coupling just before the joint flange.
Is there a good reason why the Timax is cheap? I don't want to lavish a fortune on the car, but neither do I want to lose what little performance it has, compromise economy, or end up having to do the job again in a year assuming I keep it that long.
BTW - this car is on its original exhaust (from the front section back is one piece, and the silencers have Ford stamps). It's done nearly 8 yrs and 141,000 miles, so can't really grizzle.
Advice and opinions welcome.
Cheers
DP
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I found I had same result with my Audi 80. Anyway bought 3 piece set except back box (oroginal) and I havent had any problems. Had a recent post where it was loose but that was fixed nothing wrong with exhaust just bad fitting kit. Good buy in my opinon. Cost me £128 for downpipe, cat and centre silencer plus fitting kits.
Im sure you hear the opposite and insist on not buying budget parts
I'm scrapping a 1990 Range Rover 3.9 I have purchased a 1992 replacement Rangie. I'm selling most of the bits to raise some cash but have noticed that the ABS unit looks to be new. Do these units keep ok if removed and say boxed up & placed on a shelf? I'm concerned about internal corrosion due to the nature of brake fluid
Any advice would be welcome
Thanks MM Read more
Don't know about a used ABS unit, but I do know that new Vauxhall brake master cylinders used to have a use by date.
Hi folks,
This seems like such a common conundrum but I can't find anything definitive on the subject. So here goes...
I'm a part-time trader with only a little experience, and I've been offered an ex-lease car without a logbook. As any fule kno, to get the logbook replaced I need form V62 and complete it as either (a) the existing keeper or (b) a new keeper.
The problem here is that I have no idea who the current keeper is, and nobody in their right mind is going to buy a car without a V5 - especially when a warning to that effect is splashed across the 'Buying and Selling' section of the DVLA web site.
What to do? In fact is there anything I *can* do? I phoned DVLA and the doris there simply repeated the obvious, i.e. that I needed form V62. I explained that this wasn't any good, because V62 would only become useful *after* a sale, and I wanted the V5 before. I got nowhere.
I dunno, all this fuss. You'd think I was buying and selling Kalashnikovs rather than metal boxes with a wheel at each corner!
Any thoughts gratefully received, including the obvious "Go look for another car!" :)
Cheers Read more
I was offered a Micra that didn't have a current V5, but I found an old-style one amongst the MOTs.
The engine had been swapped - which probably explained the huge clouds of smoke from a 'low mileage' car.
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Lol This is funny as I was just thinking the same