March 2008
It seems that more & more manufacturers are not fitting these rubber mouldings for the side panels of new vehicles, leaving them totally exposed to damage from inconsiderates, especially in supermaket car parks.
Does anyone know of a supplier to source these trims, as if your car gets damaged, the cost of dent removal and re-painting is far from cheap. ? Read more
195/60 R15 88H currently on the alloy rims - 4 new tyres wanted.
Now, do I fit budget or leading brand - what is the best buy for my hard earned monies here?
Purchased budget tyres a few years ago. They had low grip in the wet and squealed when going around roundabouts and corners (at any speed) on dry roads.
I don\'t desire to go down that path again!
I took them off the car and replaced them with a leading brand within a few hundred miles. Yes, that bad.
I was told low grip/squeal was because they had a low rubber but high nylon content - hence cheap! Read more
Costco (about £20 pa to join) do Michelins at almost unbeatable prices. I agree with comments about cheap tyres, stay off them unless you have tried before you buy - eg many swear by Scudo Stunners that are now obsolete I think. However I have used some Kleber Dynaxer's that seem very good too at decent price from .... ATS (nice people) no less.
Had an interesting conversation at my local BMW dealer yesterday when I took my year-old 320d Touring in to have the creaks from the loadspace area looked at (and hopefully abolished). They found nothing amiss* and said that because there wasn\'t \"actually a malfunction or fault\" the labour cost of the work would be charged to me, although on this occasion the service manager smiled graciously upon me and waived the charge.
In 25 years of buying new cars I\'ve never come across this policy before. Is this just BMW? Or just this dealer? Or do other manufacturers/dealers take the same view. My stance is that a) it wasn\'t designed to be like this, and if I\'ve paid north of £25K I expect the sort of quality that should go with it. Based on past experience, dealers did their best (or tried to give some impression of doing their best) to keep customers satisfied to protect the brand. Apparently BMW and/or its franchisee doesn\'t give a monkey\'s. People like me seem to be viewed as time-wasters.
I somehow don\'t think my next car will be a BMW.
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*I wasn\'t surprised a) because I\'ve little faith in dealers\' ability to correct such matters, and b) because nearly new demonstrators - 330d and 325i - that I test-drove while I was there had the same problem to much the same or a lesser degree. Incidentally the diesel and the petrol returned almost identical fuel consumptions, according to the readout, on the same test route - same driving style, same traffic conditions. Read more
Had a Toyota that was making noises (well out of warranty) - Service manager confided in me that these type of things can take several hours to locate, so that it may cost a significant amount. I found the fault in my Toyota (er 1/2 hour of my time!), but under warranty some dealers will just allocate a small amount of time to finding the fault then say there is nothing wrong rather than we could not find the fault in 1 hour of looking at it.
I am considering fitting a \"Tunit\" to my car for more performance. This is an add-on module rather than a re-map.
Has anyone any experience to pass on?
Thanks. Read more
Is that the device that tells the engine it's always running"cold" so it puts in more fuel?
I am contemplating changing my Ford Fusion diesel and am considering the Renault Modus dci 86, New Corsa diesel and new Fiat Grand Punto diesel.
As I am a scrooge like motorist looking to use as little fuel as possible I wondered if anyone knows how realistic the claimed figures are?
For example the Modus claims 54.3 urban, 68.9 extra and 62.8 combined
Corsa 49.6 74.3 62.8
and Punto 45.6 80.7 62.8
I appreciate that driving style and road conditions wil impact significantly on consumption
but given that they are supposed to be tested in the same way (I presume) how can the Punto delver so much more extra urban than the others and the Modus a much better urban figure.
Are the claims really worth the paper they\'re written on?
Any of you technical chaps out there got a view on this please?
Read more
I want to make sure I'm looking in the right places.
Currently keeping tabs on the BMW only auctions at BCA and the adds in AutoTrader online. Where else is an efficient use of my time to look? I'm specifically after <60K miles 04/05 120d SE/Sport pref with sunroof in white, black or dark blue pref with black leather.
For the pre-facelift was there a Sport and an M-Sport? what was the difference 16" v 17" wheels? I'd prefer the former - cheaper to shod.
Am I looking at c. £500 buyers fee for private buy at BCA?
For the BCA BMW auctions, anyone know what the sale basis is ie 'sold as seen', 'no major mech' etc? These sales are bad finance or pre lease cars. Read more
Is it me or has The News on this site become little more than a collection of press releases stating the obvious?
I used to thoroughly enjoy reading the news from HJ's perspective, including auction reports.
Now it's just a collection of press releases, some of which are insultingly pointless.
I mean wasn't it just the other week we had a fantastic 'news item' from one company which said 'Research shows that car buyers are prepared to pay less for high mileage cars'. Really? Fancy that.
Today another, which prompted this mini-rant:
'Drivers 'lose out due to vehicle depreciation'
Really. Depreciation? Costs new car buyers money? Fancy that.
Can we have a return to sensible, intelligent news? Failing that can we be honest and rename it to 'Advertisiments and Press Releases'. Read more
Hi, I have a Citroen AX diesel that I am thinking of using as my second car. What is the cheapest way of insuring it?
Cheers, Ian Read more
Many Ins Co will allow same discount on 2nd car as main car - some do not - shop around
hi as anyone dealt with sonnauto uk ltd to buy a car please Read more
Anyone remember Redex?
I worked at a garage in the 1970s and customers would ask for a shot when filling up with petrol - not sure what it was meant to do.
We also used it lubricate sticking starter motors.
Read more
When I was in the Air Force, we used a mineral hydraulic oil known as OM15. It smelt and felt and looked exactly like Redex. We used leftovers (aircraft rules prevent storage of part-full cans for later use) in our cars, and it seemed to work the same as Redex too. The price to us was good, but I bet all those cans of OM15 weren't cheap to the Air Force.
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I had this problem with one of my current cars - it's got 'colour coded' bumpers, and I tend to nudge up to objects. I know I shouldn't, but my early cars had chrome-plated lumps of steel at each end.
LIDL were selling self adhesive chrome trim. I put it along the bumper where it would protect it. It looks quite tidy, and also now makes the car unique in any camera evidence.
Car paint shops used to sell this sort of stuff by the yard. You can probably get something suitable to stick on the side to help protect it.