I'm looking to buy a used Japanese car. I had wanted a diesel automatic but they are rare. Then I realized there's something more important to me than out-and-out economy. I want serenity at seventy: a car that's nice to drive. I'm sure you know what I mean, though it's subjective and somewhat indefinable.

Moreover, I need reliability so well-proven that the car I settle on is in plentiful supply secondhand; and sorry, but it must be available as an automatic.

Don't want much, do I (like most of us)?

Thank you,

AF. Read more

Bought a brand new 7 seat Chevrolet Captiva from (can I name 'em?) in (can I name the town?)

Agreed a £400 'up front' service package of 3 years/60,000 miles.

Before completing the deal I discover a free servicing offer from Chevrolet on 7 seat Cap's - giving 3 years/30,000 miles of servicing worth £300 - with the option to upgrade to the 60,000 plan for an extra £100

Print off 'coupon', take myself off to the dealer brandishing said coupon to claim my free servcing - which would have saved me £300 out of the £400 I was being charged.

Sales managers scratches his head - 'Never heard of that particular promotion, best to do the deal and take it up with Chevrolet"

As I was about to take delvery I took him at his word.

Then I found out that the dealership's own website was promoting the free servicing plan that had so mystified the sales manager.

Printed off the various docs & proofs, faxed them to Chevrolet.

Chevrolet were very prompt and very helpful - yes, I should have had the free servicing, it must all be a mistake.

Then it transpires that, despite not knowing anything about the service deal, the dealer had applied the free package anyway ;) - and pocketed the £300 I should have saved.

Worse - the dealer had *only* applied the free 30,000 mile package - not the 60,000 mile plan that I'd paid for, thus putting a further £100 into his kitty.

Made calls to the dealership, sales manager invariably 'out', 'busy', 'off for the day' - would call me back. Never did.

Chevrolet pressed the matter - still no calls from the dealership, and (more impportantly) no refund of the money I'd paid them.

In the end, Chevvie sent me the missing £300 themselves - really great service (no pun)

They also upgraded the service pakage to 60,000 miles to reflect the extra £100 that the dealer had taken but not passed on.

So, many thanks to Chevrolet UK - and some derisory/obscene gestures at the dealership - who I know can't me named, but who left me feeeling rather less than Merry.

Sharp practice, I think - particulalry charging for a 60,000 mile package, but only applying the free 30,000 plan (which, of course, they'd 'never heard about')

Point is, quite apart from being overcharged, I would have known nothing about the missing service entitlement until I needed a 40,000 service - by which time the dealer might well have long vanished into whatever purgatory is reserved for bankrupt car dealerships...

Thanks again, Chevvie, best customer service I've known from a car company in over 20 years of buying new vehicles. Read more

Smelt burning paraffin on the M1 last week - near Sheffield and came up behind a small flat-bed (1 car) transporter. Only a few years old too.

A surprise really, what`s the benefit? Isn`t paraffin and a splosh of engine oil just about as expensive as Derv?
The last time I smelt paraffin was behind a Landrover during the last fuel strike.

I thought cooking oil had taken over as the engine wrecker

Read more

I am having problems with my engine cutting out while driving.
All of a sudden its like my engine isn't getting gas or something.
I don't think its missing but maybe. Could it be a fuel injector going out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Read more

* Do you own a gas guzzler? We want you to swap your 4x4/people carrier/gas

guzzler for a much smaller car for a week - and give us your opinion.