A few weeks back the response times of the HJ site was poor.

It got better but it seems the advertising is acting up or my PC has slowed down. Read more

My factory fitted radio set on fire. I bought a second hand one, which works fine but there is no display on the centre column screen. This is proving to be a real headache as the Sat Nav wont show up and the Air Con is now on all the time and I can not turn it off, Nissan want a hefty sum to look at it which is money I just don't have. Does anybody have an Idea as to why the screen wont come on and the air con wont turn off any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks Read more

I checked the level on my wife's car today and it has dropped significantly (but not to the 'minimum') from 6 months ago when new shoes were fitted and the fluid level set was then set at 'maximum'.

I can't see any evidence of a leak around the wheels or anywhere else so might it be normal for the shoes to bed in causing the brake fluid level to drop a tad? Read more

Grateful for any advice as in a bit of a conundrum here, and apologies in advance for the length of the post!

Decided we would part exchange both of our cars for one family car, and went to a garage this morning to try to get a good deal.

The cars we want to part exchange are -
55 reg Honda Civic VTEC Sport with 56000 miles
56 reg Nissan Micra c+c Essenza with 9000 miles

Both in very good condition, especially the Micra.

We were looking to buy a new Honda Civic Type S, and had the Parker/What Car etc baseline valuations to hand for our old cars - about £5000 for the Civic and £7700 for the Micra.

So we were a bit shocked when we were offered £9500 for the both of them - indeed, we were shown the guidebook which apparently confirms these prices (though I am pretty sure they could do better than these!). Furthermore, Honda didn't want to budge on the price of a new Type S, saying they may be able to knock a couple of hundred quid off the exchange cost (which would be £7500 to start with).

I realise it's not a great time to be buying/selling cars (particularly for Honda!) but I am pretty shocked at the part exchange prices being offered - particularly offering only £5450 for a car which is less than 2 years old, which was worth £15000 new. I would have thought that Honda would be prepared to compromise on the cost of a new car if they are offering such low part exchange prices, but they didn't seem bothered when I said I'd go to other garages to see how much they could undercut the price.

Possibilities are:
- Keep both cars, which seems pointless since one of them is seldom used and is apparently devaluing at £375-ish per month, according to the guide Honda used..plus I could really do with a diesel given that I do around 18000 miles a year
- Take the deal above - just does not seem good value to me though!
- Try a different Honda dealer - though are they just going to say the same thing?
- Perhaps part exchange the Civic and try to sell the Micra privately to get more money - although that may take some time and I'd rather not have it sit there for another 6-12 months waiting for a buyer

Any other options? Drivethedeal has good deals on new Civics (e.g. 5 door EX down from £19k to £16k) but would need to sell both cars privately, presumably.

Does anyone else think it unreasonable to offer such paltry part exchange prices while refusing to budge on the price of a new car? Read more

Hi

Does a 93 1.6 mx5 have an oil cooler as standard?

It's too cold and dark for me to check, so hope someone can tell me,
Thanks Read more