hi, my older sister with soon to be 4 kids is looking at replacing her '04 renault megane with something suitable. she's found a 3.0 v6 auto grand espace on a y reg with 88k for 3.5k. she's looking at keeping it for 5 years at an average of 12k a year so i assume it should reach 150k in one piece. work will be picking up the fuel bill fortunately for her but just wanted an opinion on what you guys think of these?

what other options are there for 2 aults, 4 kids and 2 pushchairs around a similer budget, she had mentioned chrysler voyagers any opinions there?

chris Read more

Could anyone help me out with this ,my daughters 2004 ,307 90 hdi ,
last week it cut out on her ,after checking the diesel ,we decided to change fuel filter ,
and drain the tank incase she had got dodgy diesel ,cleared fuel lines ,then refilled tank ,car wouldnt start on key but started on a push ,it ran for two minutes then cut of again ,same thing happened yesterday ,restarted the car on a push ,but car drove for two minutes then cut out again ,started again on the key for a further three times ,before i got it home ,after talking to a few mechanics yesterday as the anti pollution light is not staying on ,they have said about the particle filter or the cat being blocked ,as its losing the power to rev up ,before i book it into puegeot would it be visible to try and clear exhaust with an airline .Thanks . Read more

My wife has decided that she wants to change her large 7 seater for something much smaller. Having looked at lots of models, the choice was boiled down to the following brand new cars - Toyota Aygo, Toyota Yaris or Mazda 2.

There were problems with the Toyotas; the Aygo has only four seatbelts (if it had five there would be one on our drive already) and the Yaris has a digital speedo which she hates and also no rear electric windows. She wants electric rear windows because she can turn them off so the children don't play with them. Manual windows will cause havoc with one of our children. The Mazda seemed to be very good, but she has decided that she doesn't want one, even though the top of the range ticks all the boxes.

I had a brainwave... Mercedes A-Class. Brand new the Elegance SE is about £16,000 as opposed to £12,000 for the Mazda, but I can find examples which are about 6 months ld with 5,000 miles on for under £11,000. The car is also slightly shorter but much more roomy than the Mazda and has a lot of hidden safety kit and other features that the Mazda doesn't have.

So, is it a sensible idea? Surely it will have lost most of its depreciation, whereas a Mazda will lose a fair bit in its first year. What do you think? Read more

hiya im having trouble replacing my front brake pads, im trying to take off the two 19mm bolts at the back of the calliper and they arnt moving one bit even after hamming it. am i doing this right ive been foing it clockwise becasue the bolts facing the other way. thanks Read more

I've been having a search around to see what combination of circumstances triggers / engages the transient overboost on the TDCi motors.

Ford make a big play of this feature in all its tech specs, but so far I've only found fairly vague descriptions such as " it happens when full acceleration is required" or "under hard acceleration". Nothing technical, or more detailed about when it happens, and the circumstances.


I'd be very interested to know:

--> is it only triggered when the pedal is floored (similar to kickdown in an automatic)?

--> or is the ECU clever enough to give overboost if the pedal is 'stabbed' quickly, over a certain defined range of pedal travel?

--> is it only available in certain conditions (i.e. coolant / oil temp above a certain range, exhaust gas temp in a certain range etc)


I would have thought the driver has to actively initiate it with a determined right foot -- especially after the "unintended acceleration" lawsuit that hit Audi in the US in the 80s.

Any thoughts / input / links gratefully received. Read more