January 2009
Why do magazines and web sites waste space on showing us a picture of car disguised like nothing it will look like and not come out for another 2 years.
Why don't they fill their space with something that might actually interest us.
I have just been looking at the new 5 series touring spy shot on carmagazine.co.uk and other than it might have some new round tail lights it shows me nothing.
A complete waste of space. Read more
I am selling my 307 and would welcome any recommendations on what car to buy next please?
Requirements please:
Diesel
£4-5K
I prefer the style of VW, Audi, Merc, BMW type cars
Reliable
Reasonable boot space (Hatchback or Estate, don't think I want a saloon though)
5 doors
Had 110 BHP before so would like similar feel if possible
(Dream car is a 2002+ Yellow Beetle but the diesels seem to be above my price range at the mo - £7K ish minimum).
Many thanks for any suggestions. Read more
If you are set ont he Beetle, and will not being doing huge mileages, how about a 2.3 V5 Beetle? Should be available cheaply now and prob notthat more expensive to run than the 2.0 petrol (which a friend has in a Golf Cabriolet, and drinks petrol at the same rate my 2.8 V6 Golf did!
HI All,
I am new to this forum and have found some good reading with solutions and suggestions to rectifying problems....keep up the good work.
I own a 2.0 tdci 130 Mondeo and have found that it is now producing lots of black smoke under acceleration, once i reach 70mph and from there on the car seems to hesitate and "two`s and fro`s" hope you understand what i mean. The car has an intercooler hissing under acceleration and i cannot hear the turbo (because of the cooler noise) is this normal? Is this the same for other TDCI owmers? To add salt to my wounds the car is also chipped so the power i had has been drasticlly reduced
My father has the X-TYPE 2.0D Sport (which has also been chipped) which has the same engine as my Mondeo (or so i am lead to believe) i used his car over christmas and ran it up the same steep hill and found his pulls like mine did 50mph and accelerating like my TDCI did...can now only reach 40mph and feel i should change down.
Please Help! it used to be fun to drive!
thanks
waz Read more
CURED.....Back to pulling with all 160 horses! Thanks Spikeyhead
1.6 Zetec Petrol. First turn of the ignition it starts then stalls. Second attempt it runs fine.
Anyway I thought I would give the Idle Control Valve a check and clean. BUT what does it look like and where can I find it?
Read more
Thanks. Will give it a coat of looking at in daylight tomorrow.
I drive a Merc CLK, my wife is second named driver on
I had a prang in another car in May 07, which wiped out a bit of NCD, at last renewal i was granted 4 years NCD
My wife drives a Mitsubishi Grandis, with me as second name driver on it, she has 9 years NCD
We do reasonably well at shopping around each year for our car insurance, tend to get good deals, and tend to get cashback via Quidco, as opposed to simply renewing existing policy.
Eldest child is now about to start learning, neither car is suitable for teaching/learning, so thinking of buying a mates VW Polo, 11 years old, well maintained, manual 1.6... but rusty but has jsut passed its MOT, bangernomics and all that, probably worth about £300 (still talking to him about it).
trying to get a car insurance quote for Mrs G to be owner, me to be additional driver no 1,. and daughter (on provisional license) to be additional driver no 2.
So far the only quote I got was £1350., WOW! thats alot
never before having insured for a learner (shes my eldest of 4).. I have no ideas if that is reasonable or no. the Merc and Mitsu each cost about £350 per year to insure and they are big powerful autos, but then again not going to be driven by a learner.
Guy.
Amended thread title to make it a little less vague, Rob Read more
Which ever way you go, main driver or named driver also ask the insurance company what happens to the premium when you advise them your daughter has passed her test. Often premium increases a fair amount, logic being she will use the car more and not be accompanied by instructor or parent.
Two years ago we used Liv Vic for my 17 yr old daughter prov license on old 1.4 polo they did not increase premium. This year after hrs of research ended up with Diamond.
These guys have been recommended on HJ before for young learners with old cars.
www.gsi-insurance.com/youngdrivers.html I think it's best to phone them
I've had my V40 from new and have been the sole driver. I've never hit a pot hole that I thought could cause damage, yet my car has just failed its MoT because of a fractured offside rear coil spring! And I thought a Volvo was well made and more robust than most cars. I've never experienced such a failure in 45 years driving. Could it be poor manufacture? I will be recovering the part to examine it. Read more
>>the springs aren't chamfered at the ends which over-stresses them and they crack.
It's not that common to find springs with flattened ends on modern cars - it's an expensive process. If the spring seat is well designed, then the stress can be kept within reasonable levels.
It's not just Ford vehicles by any means!
I think that with the perhaps laudible aims of decreasing mass, and in particular *unsprung mass, vehicle manufacturers have gone just a bit too far.
* Depending upon exactly how you choose to view the unsprung mass, between about 1/3 and 1/2 of the mass of the spring can be considered to be unsprung.
I have a Fiat Idea Active with no alarm, the indicators do not flash when the key fob is used to lock or unlock it. I have been on the Fiat Forum site which says it is possible to activate this feature when the car is plugged into the diagnostic computer.
My question is... does any one here know where the flasher setting is in the diagnostic menu system?
John R
Read more
After removeing and replacing the Head and the associated jobs I find that the engine shows no sign of firing. Before attempting to start I ran a fault check on the engine and no faults were displayed. I have checked that fuel is returning from the tandem pump (about 25 ml for 2 - 4 sec cranking). The live data appears reasonable but is obviously limited as the engine can only be cranked. I have discussed the problem with the man on the vag-com helpline and we are faily sure that the problem is not electrical. That said I have not yet run a full fault check or looked at the engine immobilizer module. Does anyone have experience of this kind of problem? any help would be greatly appreciated. Read more
Same on modern Fords;fuel needs to be sucked thro';there is also a cut-out in the fuel system which should stop the engine before the tank runs dry to stop these priming problems.
never buy a new car--wait 1/2/3 year on model u like
learnt my lesson
depreciation is awesome
even for a golf gti Read more
It took me a nanosecond to get that. :-)
My W (2000) plate Audi had covered 155k miles and has been written off by the insurance company and with the settlement, i am considering to replace it with a newer Rover 75 Cdti (2003) connisseur model with 80k miles, 1 company director since new with leather and all the equipment with it with FSH for £2700.00
Can anyone give me any information as to the general reliability of the 75 compared to an Audi A4. Shall i stick to another A4 or go with the 75.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me urgently. Read more
For wider ownership experiences also check out the owners club at www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum
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And, it's a good way of padding out the magazine when they've nothing interesting to write...just put in a nice big photo of a car covered in plastic bin-liners.
Ted