June 2008
"A useful piece of car buying advice for those looking for a new vehicle is to check a secondhand model thoroughly, it has been claimed."
Thankgoodness for useful press releases, all those years of buying clunkers are behind me. If only they'd said that 10 years ago. The money I'd have saved!
;)
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I have a gremlin to sort out on my Xantia, and so have been googling for HDI info. The general conclusion I come to is that there are lots of electrical/sensor/fault code problems that never get sorted!
So, have you ever come across an FAQ that deals with this?
If not I think I might have myself a project...what I have in mind is a list of things to check, common problem areas, which the competent DIYer could do. SO "clean connector x that sits here, it tends to corrode" or "sensor voltage should be between x and y". (Certainly not "take it to the dealer and expect the fault code reader to work on a 9 year old car" :o))
Any leads, or input, gratefully received.
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Well now had freelander2 auto 2.2d for 1 week & it hasn't missed a beat yet. First 1000 miles notched up. I have to say very pleased so far with the result. Autobox is a dream, no hunting or continual shifting & its very smooth & precise on every change. Performance is very good for a hulk & its no sloutch. It certainly doesn't struggle on hills at all. Steerings car like & precise. The ride is very good & very little tyre noise & I haven't been over 2500rpm yet but engine very quiet. MPG is around 31-33 so not bad for varied motoring.
I will keep you posted should it go wrong.
Rgds Inj Doc Read more
Thanks doc - keep us updated and let's hope the next 100K are as touble free as the first 1K.
A colleague has also got one but he went for the manual - company policy is no cars that emit more than 200g/km CO2.
He has done about 4K and is equally pleased although his aircon sounds like it has a nightingale singing to him at times.
Situation:
Nice looking grass verge in a predominately suburban area. Anything up to 3 cars parked on said verge with handwritten signs in windows For Sale followed by a mobile number.
Clearly the seller is buying and selling on cars and lives in one of the large detached properties surrounding the roadside.
Result: the verge gets churned up by cars. Nice area now looks like 'Dagenham Dave's Second hand Motoring Emporium (no offence to any similar sounding genuine garage of that name). Other motorists clog the road whilst they slow down to look or abandon their cars in order to look round and kick the tyres of tatty overpriced Renault Meganes/Corsas and the odd people carrier or two.
The vendor pays no nothing to advertise his cars, pays no rates for premises and a buyer would presumably have no comeback in the event he buys a duffer. Read more
Every town has a few "green verge" traders. Most of them are fine, however most towns also have a few the DVLA, Trading Standards, HMG or whoever are very reluctant to go near.
My local DVLA office has told me clearly when referrring to a couple of well known local ones "we aren't paid enough to have our houses burnt down". Everyone knows who they are but officially to HMC&E, DVLA, Trading Standards they are unknown of unknown address so can't be traced, fined, VAT registered or pulled up on a dodgy MOT. This is the "advantage" of no premisis, address or fixed line phone number.
Some of these dealers are doing 40-50 cars a month spread of various areas.
The guys doing 2-3 are usually people doing it part time in the evenings and often from home so are traceable and usually OK.
Can anyone advice what 3 year old 1.8LX's are running through the auctions at?
Someone has told me high mileage (around 8ok) ones are running through at an Archer which sounds ridiculously cheap. Read more
Carcoat Damphands lives! :-)
I see one of the car supermarkets is selling un-registered, but old model 5-series BMW's at a considerable discount to the current model. Does anyone have any information on these cars. I understand that they are the result of over-production. If so, have they been standing in a field for five years. Also would the road tax be based on the actual model and year of manufacture or be the same as a new model. Read more
clearly listed as 2008 cars abnd certainly look current. I think there was a tiny face lift in Sept 2008 but barely a visible one.
Did you mean Sept 2007?
Also, a national search on autotrader for 5 series, 525i, 2008, 0-1 years will bring up other dealers besides the "M" supermarket. Again, these are high spec models [some including comfort seats, adaptive lights, etc.] at very tempting prices!
I have recently had to change my bank account details as someone started setting up new car insurance policies online and paying via direct debits on to my account. They used my name but a different address and obviously not my car number plate.
Have others experienced this? I can only assume it is a scam to get cover on a car for a few days/weeks to avoid the new cameras for automatically checking whether a car has insurance?
The insurer (Zurich), my bank (Cahoot) and the police (Thames Valley) haven't really been very helpful in the matter.
My bank suggested I do nothing as it only happened twice and just wait and see. They were really annoyed I insisted on a new account number. They were supposed to transfer my existing direct debits but in reality simply canceled the existing direct debits. This caused me to receive letters from the companies concerned asking why I had canceled my DD and threatening me in some cases (phone company 3!) with immediate legal action for unpaid bills !
The police are treating this as a crime against my bank. As they haven't formally complained they won't be pursuing the matter so the crime number I was given has been filed.
The insurer thinks they did nothing wrong as they have no obligation to check the individual insured lives at the address supplied.
It would appear there is a gaping hole following the enforcement of insurance requirements which has the potential to cause great inconvenience to innocent victims. None of the interested parties police, insurer or bank seem concerned about resolving the matter.
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I don't think the Fraud Act is responsible, jbif. If you have a look at the Home Office identity-theft.org site you'll see an agreement between ACPO and the banks from 1 April last year. I think this is causing the problem.
At this rate you'll only tell the insurance company when your car is stolen or your house burgled and they can decide whether or not to tell the police. Or the hospital if you're assaulted, for that matter.
Recorded crime will tend to go down if it's not recorded.
Carlos Ghosan of Nissan has said that the price of new cars will inevitably rise given the massive increases in the cost of raw materials and of energy. This despite the potential for falling sales also because of energy cost increases.
So if new car prices go up, won't those of used follow as people are priced out of the new market? Read more
The price of the Hyundai i10 has already risen by a few quid this month, and it was only launched in the UK in April!
Detectives have traced 30 caravans in Spain they believe were stolen during a spate of thefts in Lancashire.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/747...m Read more
I accept my inhumanity to caravan owners. :-(
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735846
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Panasonic has just launched three new sets, 42in, 46in and 50in, with a built-in BBC/ITV Freesat tuner as well as the Freeview and analogue versions - Freesat set top boxes are available, Humax brings out a Freesat PVR in September and, if you already have Sky, you can fit a second LNB for the service (still need a set top box or PVR).
I second rtj70's mention of Panasonic, it makes probably the best large screen TVs you can buy.
You really need a large screen set to see HD at its best.
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Thanks for the link, I had seen it in the past and forgotten how useful it was.