I have bought in the past on Honest Johns recommendation a Nissan Cherry, (£400 6 years)and a VW Golf (£900 7 years).

The Golf was running OK but It has been hit from behind.

Now I need a replacement hatchback up to 1.6Ltr £1000 maximum.

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Recently had a new cambelt and tensioner done by a local one man garage and all was fine for a week. I now have a loud cracking noise coming from the exhaust area both when it's cooling down and also when heating up. Now I know that exhausts make a ticking noise as they cool down but this is more than a tick; also startled an old dear as she walked past the other day just after turning off the engine, it's that loud!

I went back to the guy who did the cambelt and asked if it could be anything to do with the work he did when changing the cambelt; his guess was that it was coming from the catalytic converter and maybe I need to get an emissions check to see if the cat is damaged. I had a complete new exhaust from the cat backwards about 6 months ago, so the exhaust itself is in good condition.

Do any of you mechanical boffins have any theories regarding this annoyance? TIA, Paul Read more

Is this engine still used in production cars today? I remember the early versions had problems with the seals wearing in too short a time. If fitted which cars use have them today? Read more

Arrive at dealership and have to walk past my car to get to front door. Notice some dried mud marks on paintwork. One suspiciously like a shoe print. Like somebody had hoofed it with the sole of their trainer. Mention this to salesman who explains it has been raining hard.

I am ten minutes late for appointment so I can hardly complain at being kept waiting ten minutes for attention.

Salesman takes me out to view car and show me controls. I notice similar hoof marks on walnut interior trim. No explanation this time but salesman says he'll have the car polished while we're sorting out paperwork.

We return to the spaceship dealership whose scale and openness I find a bit oppressive. I assume they're meant to be like that. He presents me with the invoice, which is for the correct balance, and I present him with my switch card, as agreed. Fully fifteen minutes elapse whilst he tries a number of times to get through to authorisation centre. Ample funds are cleared in my account and I have checked with the bank that there is nothing to impede such a transaction. Nonetheless, as an IT bod myself, it would not surprise me at all if some hole in the process scuppered the entire deal. I have never paid for something costing 30k by switch before. Paranoid, I suspect my behaviour betrays my growing impatience and unease.

Finally he's in and it's only another couple of minutes until the paper work is complete and he is able to take me out and, ehm, show me the controls again. I discover that I seem to have paid £205 for a USB extension cable as the iPod interface is standard on the car. I can go into a room in the office and emerge covered from head to toe in USB extension cables. Ah well, live and learn. Not.

The Montego blue does look nice in the sunshine, I have to say. I'm glad I ordered the black leather. I fancied the cream but my wife said it would be a joke to keep clean if I'm keeping the car for several years. The black looks nicely understated. I like the posh steering wheel with the chrome trim even though it is so small my thumbs chaff on it.

A rare, pleasant surprise. The steptronic autobox also includes a sports mode in addition to the paddle changers on the steering wheel. I am overjoyed. Only a manual car was available to test drive. Sports is the most I will usually need. It will hang on to the ratios long enough for my occasional traffic joining needs "with confidence." The salesman, perfectly pleasantly, doesn't know which way the paddles are moved to go up or down the box. Neither do I. I resolve to leave well alone.

And so we are rolling as I head out of the lot and into the setting sun heading for home. I notice once again that the engine is audible when cold but not intrusively so. I am relieved to find that the SE has slightly lighter steering than the M Sport with the bigger wheels which I test drove. The SE feels about right for my preferences, showing none of the run-flats' twitchiness which made the Sport feel like a skate, absorbing bumps without crashing but still changing direction quickly.

The engine takes about twenty minutes to feel and sound as if it's at operating temperature, at which point it becomes all but inaudible. This will take a bit of getting used to after a lifetime of petrol engines, the last fifteen years of which have been with thermally efficient (but not particularly fuel efficient) Audis.

I have given up on trying to get a parking heater fitted. I might as well have asked for dwarfs. I want some dwarfs in the back. Dwarfs, sir. They would look into that for you sir. And when they had looked into it they would tell you that it could be a little expensive sir because the exhaust would have to be re-routed.

Yet ask any dealer on the European mainland for a parking heater and they just tick a box, as if you've asked for leather or a sunroof. But you get a parking heater. It comes on an hour before you leave in the morning and the car's like toast at the first turn. Moreover the engine need never suffer another cold start.

At this stage I'm not surprised to find that the motor feels a bit unresponsive and not outstandingly torquey. It's only done 9 miles. It'll be a few thousand, I expect, before it begins to find its stride. The test drive car pulled like a locomotive.

HJ's guide to running in a diesel recommends 3000rpm max for the first thousand miles. It's going to be quite easy to keep it down to that. In fact it will be difficult to open it up progressively to the recommended 4500 and beyond eventually. It never seems to exceed 2500 left to its own devices.

I try not to crash into things on the way home. It would be good to show it intact to the wife. On the way I make another couple of re-discoveries. I cannot read the little motor bike instruments sharply with my distance prescription. I knew this from the test drive. I will have to get a new prescription. And I am not overly impressed with the audio quality. I knew this from the research. As a bit of a hifi anorak, still, I had decided to address this in the after life. After pushing all the buttons at random I stumble upon a crude equaliser function which allows me to obtain audio quality bearable in the short term.

On getting home I revert to anorak type. I put the car in the garage so that the neighbours can't see me then I sit in it for two hours and try to figure out every available function. It's a tall order. Things have moved on since I last bought a car eight years ago. Now the silicon has really got a grip.

First impressions? Do I like it? Yes, I do. Do I love it? No, I never intended to. Read more

Hey guys - am choosing between a Peugeot 207 1.4 16V S 90 and a Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLX. What do you reckon? They'll both be 07 plates.

Want something fairly nippy and reliable.

Thanks Read more