November 2008
Gentlemen -
A chap has - let us say - 5 or 6 cars kept off road. V5 left in previous owner's name in all cases. Cars offered for sale, but with the very firm condition that there is no warranty. I thought, surely that's illegal?
NOW - I checked trading standards who redirected me to "Customer Direct" who say - if you trade in cars there is no obligation to provide a guarantee, have premises or insurance. Readers of HJ on a Saturday will no doubt be aware of the obligations bona fide dealers have... but TS or customer direct had never heard of this applying in the case of the home trader.
Does anyone know if 1. customer direct are wrong and 2. if so what is the Act or clause that they can be directed to?
Cheers
BS Read more
Why is it that anything with a blue oval on the front seems to get rave reviews despite the opposition?
They are not all that good. Yes, the later focuses handle and drive well, but the front wheel drive transmission noise on these, Ka's, fiestas sound like a tractor.
The 1.3 engine in the old Ka [and some of the old fiesta's] is little changed from the unit in the old 1960s Anglia.
And the seats in the Mondeo are the only car guaranteed to give me back-ache aftre more than 30 mins.
Mind you, Ford's corporate hospitality is legendary!
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Hi all.
Is it me or have the standards gone down hill with some motoring journos?
What with all the emphasis placed on performance, alloys & low profile tyres and ruler flat cornering but now I read this on a motoring mags website -
'Meet the C6 Pallas ? a one-off edition of the firm?s distinctive flagship, which revives a name last used on luxury versions of the legendary Sixties? DS.'
Now I acknowledge that I'm a Citroen fan and should know such things aren't correct but surely so should someone writing for a motoring mag or his editor come to that. It's not as if the CX Pallas was a rare car in it's time.
I'll get me coat.
Steve.
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Hahahahahaha!
What did I tell you?
In today's local motoring supplement - IN THE SUB HEADING - they refer to the new Merc as the Sterling Moss edition - even though they use about 15 'Stirlings' in the copy, and the picture caption!
Another motoring website (Autoexpress) is showing pictures of a new Focus due in 2010. They are calling it the Mark III (but it's different to the Mk III shown in the HJ C-b-C).
Given that the current model only appeared this year, are manufacturers down to a 2+ year cycle now? Read more
And Erik C drove for Saab....
No, that wasn't helpful, was it. An Escort agency is a Ford garage isn't it?
There seem to be occasional references to this, but no centralised 'record' - maybe just my search skills....
My D5 tensioner has collapsed, slipped timing of course, but also sheared off the mounting lug so engine write off (?) at 60k - with 96k replacement interval.... Great!
Any similar experiences? I'd be happy to hear from anyone - and any better prospects for fixing the problem.
D Read more
Many thanks both Peter and Paul. Tensioner has definitely sheared its mounting lug so engine a write off. Writing to Volvo to suggest a change from the initial 'robust' response..... hmmmm. A
Hi, was wondering if you could help me.
My partner owns a NISSAN MICRA SE AUTO 5 DOOR HATCHBACK 1386cc (20-10-2004) PETROL, and sadly when it comes to anything technical he's not the brightest spark in the camp and I am concerned that he is being 'ripped off'.
The car recently started 'misfiring' whenever it was cold or going slow.
He took it to the garage last week and was charged £150.00 for a replacement part that did not fix the problem he took the car in again this week and they changed the spark plugs which fixed the problem.
The garage told him that they would not charge him for labour - only the plugs. His bill this week was £48.00. Do Spark plugs really cost £12 each?
Sorry for being so suspicious but it does seem that any time things go wrong with this car the garage replace one part only to discover that it does not fix the problem hence my partner having to take the car in for a second time.
Is it time for him to go elsewhere? I'd really appreciate any of your thoughts on this.
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Why do mechanics get away with this? I have a computer here which I fixed my simply rewiring the PSU connectors, two weeks later customer tells me its gone again. I've traced the fault to a dodgy motherboard which will cost a fortune to fix so I am either going to offer to do the job minus £20 (the price I charged to fix it originally) or give him the £20 back.
When ever we had these problems and my mechanic is not sure he will justy say a tenner now and give me another tenner if it solves the problem. I understand mechanics have to earn a living and can't keep test parts of every vehicle but at the end of the day this garage has charged you a part you didn't need (assuming it is the coil pack) without looking at the most obvious sympton of miss firing - the plugs.
Went into a Chrysler Jeep dealer yesterday and was quite surprised to see that although the Jeeps were shod with Goodyear Wranglers, the Chrysler Avengers and Sebrings were wearing Khumho rubber. I expected to see Goodyear or Firestone but Khumho? Or am I just a tyre snob? ;-) Read more
Massive problem here with Fortuna drivers, and the tyres fitted as OEM.
Toyota is going to take a kicking replacing a LOT of tyres after some serious deterioration of roadholding characteristics reported by many drivers!
Nissan Primera 1.8 P11-144, X-plate, 200+K miles.
When the weather is dry, after the car has been for a decent run (say more than 20 miles), a grinding noise can be heard on acceleration. Take the foot off the gas, or dip the clutch, and it goes away.
If the weather is wet, no noise at all. If the car is cold, no noise.
Seems to me that there's something that's being lubricated by the spray from the road but is otherwise dry and hence noisy. Any ideas what that might be? First thought was that it might be an alternator bearing but the symptoms don't seem to quite match up.
Thanks. Read more
Anyone?
Over the last 2 weeks a severe clutch judder has become noticable when first starting off in 1st gear (only first thing in the morning), it only happens for the first 2 times when I bring in the clutch in 1st gear, and then it doesn't occur again. No judder at all when using the clutch in any other gear.
Has anyone else had this problem or know what's causing it and what's the solution ? Read more
Any ideas anyone ?
Hello there,
My car insurance is due on the 28th November and I've received my renewal quote today from my current insurer (Post Office) for £523.36 (ouch!)
Car is a 2001 Volvo S60 2.0TS, comprehensive cover, 8-years protected no-claims, £500 excess, 9000 miles a year, no previous claims.
I've got quotes from the compare sites and swiftcover comes out at £351.24, ibuyeco comes out at £361.99 and through confused.com, the Post Office comes out at £384.41.
The Post Office quote is through a different insurance company than the company they have based the renewal on.
I've never had to claim through The Post Office and have never heard of ibuyeco, so don't know what their customer service is like, but has anyone had any experience to help me choose.....
I have liked renewing with the Post Office because they have a UK based call centre, but if they're useless at processing claims then where they are based is largely irrelevant.
Thanks in advance, Chris. Read more
Hi
I live in Eastbourne (in a nice area...) and the car is kept outside overnight on the drive.
I've tried LV, but they quoted me £733! Privilege quoted £404.
I've got a quote through from Zurich Connect for £337.79.
Adding an additional driver (my sister, age 38, no claims or convictions, full license since 17 years old) doesn't change the premium one penny.
Changing my employment to anything other than IT Professional actually increases the premium so I guess it is where I live.
It's funny, I've never really thought about it until I wrote this because I've not had any problems but last year there was an 1988 'E' Ford Escort stolen from the driveway where I live (converted flats) and then a couple of roads behind where I live about 10 cars in a row were vandalised (cars keyed, tyres slashed etc) and that's the two events I know about.
Requested a quote through NFU, so I'll wait to get a call back.
Thanks for everyones help, Chris.
Browse
now this is really annoying. Been to the auctions but didn't fancy anything, so checked autotrader online, filtering private sellers only. In OVER HALF of the calls I made, the response to the question "Is it your name on the V5?" was "er...... no."
It's me father in law's and he's not well so he don't want anyone goin round
I just bought it and I'm emigratin so there wasnt no point.
It was me wifes company car
etc etc
tut tut I think autotrader should be able to do something, their website is very sophisticated. Some of these sellers must be well dodgy. Pity the Irish dude from that other post didn't ring one of them - all scammers together!