December 2008

Mapmaker

www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=5516

HJ reports a Micra selling for 5k, and a Porsche selling for £400 more. Admittedly the Micra is '08, and the Porsche '00 (and the Porsche was actually worth a fraction more than the Micra, so my heading is not quite right), but still... a Micra...

And then we read that Aston Martin are laying off one third of their workers.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7759239.stm
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Rattle

It all depends on the context, I could buy a good Porche for £2500 if I wanted to, as long as i had a VW trasnporter for spairs :D.

M.M

A mention of Cargiant in another thread led me to look at their website and then that of Autoquake. We have been looking locally for our £4kish second car but it seem in the Astra/Focus market these guys may enable us to get up to the post 2004/5 shapes which would be a great advantage.

Any info on these or similar outfits within reach of Peterborough appreciated?

David Read more

M.M

Steve, thanks I should have seen that.

Sorry for the guy who had the hassle but any car we bought from them is likely to have a genuine 50,000mls+ showing and we wouldn't buy a Renault.

There are risks in all things but the availability of a much more modern model than we would otherwise get really attracts.

They also seem to do a 7 day exchange which would be long enough to weed out a wrong un.

David

nattaz23

I was wondering if you could advice me before I call to book in my car I have only owned for 10 days. I?ve just brought a Y reg 1.2 16v Clio.. only 47?000 miles on clock.

So the car?s been fine until the other day and a little orange/yellow coil light came on and engine cut out and poor idling. Seemed fine until it done in again yesterday but had to try a few times to get started then fine again, this happened again this morning.

I?ve looked in the manual and it states this is fault with heating plug?? Can you advice me please as I have also looked up this fault on a consumer site and this seems to be a common fault with most clio?s from 1999 onwards and dealers will try to rip you off trying to fix lots of different things at great cost oh and it also states this fault doesn?t appear on a fault test.

I have just came across a few threads where they have seemed to fix the fault by cleaning the throttle body and caused down to corrosion on the pins!!!???!! and Renault will try to say you need a new one.. I don?t have the money to start fixing lots of things as I?ve only jus paid 1450 for it? all my savings.

Does the above soound right?? could this be fixed without costing hardy anything??

living in herts, don't have lots of people i can ask & hardly any money.. simple, affective answers be most grateful... thanks

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hm

Hi all,

I'm sure the answer is yes. In the process of buying my wife a 2003 A4 tdi quattro... but now I live in Prague we need snow tyres....

Been offered a set of Quattro alloys from a 1998 A4...just trying to be sure the wheels will be interchangeable.

Genuine Audi Alloys Wheel.... 205/55 R15 currently on the car and on the other set offered.... both 5 stud..

just scratching my head over the offset..... sure the answer is yes just looking for a little more comfort..

Cheers

H

slt Read more

hm

205/55 R16....

my typo.. teach me for typing in the dark and not reading !!!! well spotted

mark830_1

Hi there,

Been through a particularly demanding 2 months when i was told my job was at risk/redundancy or to accept my job moving 75 miles away. All now resolved to the extent that i am going to do the long commute. Facts are
76 miles each way
152 miles a day
760 miles a week
3040 miles a month
34,960 miles a year based on a 46 week working year.
Company to pay fuel costs for 1st year and a 50% contribution in 2nd year with hopeful salary adjustment.
We run 2 cars, a Toyota Rav 4 1996 that returns approx 26mpg and a petrol 1.8 Picasso 2002 that returns 34.9mpg on above route. Will use the Picasso.i think.
Company contribution is £550 nett per month for 1st year.
I either run the Picasso or RAV. RAV is elderly now and not efficient as above figures show. Picasso is low mileage just 56K and fighting fit. RAV happens to be fantastically reliable.
1)Not sure if to sell the RAV and pick up an elderly but maybe reliable diesel.
or
2)use the Picasso each day
3)at some point convert the Citroen to run on lpg
4)Buy a used LPG car, maybe a Vauxhall Astra duel fuel.Old shape Astra's available for around 2K.
Unleaded currently 90.9 pence LPG 53.9 pence maybe available cheaper.
Conversion cost £1200-£1500.

We live in Norfolk, route would be A140/A14/A12 back to Essex. Fuel consumption friendly a lot of it steady 50mph a little 70 mph but traffic flow means 50 mph likely.
Appreciate there are some good number crunchers on this forum that can advise me, as well as if it's possible to run a sub £1000/£2000 car to this short of mileage.

I am prepared to drive anything, like driving and regard any car as a challange, be it poor handling, poor performance. Fairly obviously economy the main consideration.

Even looked at a new Fiat Panda 1.1ECO combined 56 mpg £5K new online, colleagues think i am mad to consider Panda for such a journey. I might just be mad? Think it's out of budget new anyhow.

Sorry for long post, have been keen to get this posted for some time, thinks a little calmer at work now.

All views welcome.

MW




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boxsterboy

The Picasso will be fine for that commute - comfortable and nice and airy inside. But for you to survive, you have to be in the right frame of mind for the journey. Just go with the flow and don't fight for every inch of the road - that way lies madness. Relax, put on some good music or talk radio and you will arrive in a far better state.

tamcox

Hello,

Just wondered if anybody could offer me any help??

I phoned the vauxhall dealer this morning to enquire about getting a spare remote key and was told that it would cost £100 which to me was a little rich,

Does anybody know where I might get one from with a more realistically priced, or is that the normal price that one would pay,

Thanks

Tam Read more

SpamCan61 {P}

I suppose plan B would be to get a functional blipper off ebay, then find a tame TECH2 operative to code it to your car for you, then get a duplicate of the metal part of the key cut at any old locksmiths and mate this with the ebay blipper....

brholmes

Hi Was just wondering if there was any way of bypassing the immobiliser keypad


Thanks in advance Read more

jonboi

I owned a 1995 VSX 2.0 a long time ago & was told the default code was 1111, never needed it though

charliandmike

i have a running fault with a Peugeot expert 2.0 hdi. it starts and runs with 298 bar at the fuel rail-not fluctuating when idling. it will sit idling all day but when u switch off it runs on for 5 secs. when you try and drive it just cuts out but will start up and stay idling. i've replaced rail pressure sensor, in tank fuel pump and also fitted a re=con high pressure pump. checked all the wiring. keep getting fault code p1138. after replacing the hp pump it did run ok for about 4 hours. any ideas? i am stumped now.


Shouting silenced in the subject line - moved over to Tech. Read more

badbmw999

hi have you had any luck with this fault and have replaced same as you also injectors and cam and crank sensors, think its pointing to ecu now but im hoping not as it means a new ecu , bsi unit and key chip, im getting a different code to you though p0230 though have same symptons. mines a 406 2.0 hdi 90 rhy
any ideas verry apriceated
thanks danny

Mapmaker

Anybody have any experience of what a motor trader means by guaranteed minimum trade in. As a wreck will make £20 at a scrap yard, I guess that he's basically offering £500 off the advertised price?

Or, in other words, £500 more than book suggested trade-in price?
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Mapmaker

>>Maybe he is just desperate for a Vectra? Anyway, perhaps the answer is to bite his
>>hand off before he realises his mistake. :)

Even at 1k for the Vectra, he's trying to sell the car for too much.

FotheringtonThomas

Acrivated the ALB in the ice last night - a few seconds of clicking/whirring "clockwork" sounds afterwards, seemingly from the front LHS (under the bonnet?). Is this symptomatic of something going wrong? The brakes worked/work fine, BTW. Read more

FotheringtonThomas

The ALB light comes on for a couple of seconds after starting the engine. The brakes worked/work fine. The only thing is this whirring noise continuing for a several seconds after releasing the brake pedal. I don't know whether it's OK or not, having no experience of Honda's ALB system of this era. More modern ABSs I've used have not sounded like this.