January 2009
As many of you know, my Charade is a lovely shade of lilac and while its a practical choice, when my son gets a bit older, dad will look like a right twit turning up to visit him in it. Not gonna sell the Charade btw before anyone goes down that road.
Im just musing it at the moment as when I decide to buy a house, I may put a few thousand towards a car for occasional use, something to treasure and valet to oblivion.
Anyway, as I was driving back from my monthly visit to my little darling, I was mulling over what sort of cars seemed right. Heres a few that came to mind. I thought either a hothatch or a small 4x4. Maybe 2k a year.
Escort RS1800 - simple, working mans hot hatch and not vulgar like a Cosworth
Audi Coupe mid early 90's - just love them
Daihatsu Fourtrack - practical so manly
Mitsubishi Colt GTi - a bit more sophisticated than a Corsa SRi
Saab 900 16v 3dr - proper Saab
Thats a few that sprang to mind. I guess its an unusual idea!
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Starter motor runs on a bit when car starts, is this something I can easily fix? Anybody got instructions/pics? Read more
Just returned from two weeks in Israel on one of our regular trips en-famille. There are five of us, and this year we have rented small seven seaters and was given a Kia Carens (twice) an original Mazda 5 and the facelift Mazda 5.
Both Mazdas were streets ahead of the Kia in terms of space, performance, refinement and economy. The facelift Mazda has minor revisions to the dashboard and bumpers. The main difference is the additional of a five speed autobox instead of a four speed. (In the UK, the old model had no automatic and I think held up sales).
The car we had over the Christmas break was superb. We did about 1,000 miles including a long drive from the north through the Negev desert to the Red Sea resort of Eilat. The drive of about 370km is a mix of fast dual carriageways, single-carriageway roads similar to the A roads of 30/40 years ago and winding moutain passes. The car was full, with a bike hanging of the back on a rack and I had pumped the tyres up to 41psi as recommended. It drove fantastically well. Cruised quietly, rode smoothly overtook easily and was more than fast when needed and overall we got 33mpg from what I would call 'beating the Israelis at driving agressively'. We hit 100mph for several miles on a long straight stretch of desert plateau road, giving a taxi driver who had cut me up unnecessarily, a piece of my mind.....ooops
Everyone in the family from my four year old daughter upwards thought the car was pretty perfect and I found it easy to obtain the perfect driving position with a reach and rake adjustable wheel and a height adjustable seat. In fact my only complaint is that the car is a little narrow, so the middle seat is really small and not worth using for long trips and the boot is narrower than our A-class so that the buggy won't fit easily across, which is does easily in the small Merc. I missed cruise control, but that is not a complaint, just a point.
These cars are very popular in Israel where families are slightly larger than in Europe, with many non-religious families having three children and the more religious having many more, so the Mazda5 is an ideal car without being too big.
Strangely, friends who have just written off an original model won't look at the new model as the old one 'drove like a tank'. Well the one we had didn't, and I came home pretty impressed.
(Useful user test. HJ test at www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/index.htm?id=309)
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Chicken soup is highly recommended, swiftly followed on Friday nights with a decent single malt! I know its Sunday, but I may make an exception........
If you are going in April, remember it's Passover between 8th and 16th April and flights/hotels will be expensive and possibly unavailable for the period 5th - 19th inc. (my next trip is those dates). It's their busiest tourist season, (although the Yanks get frightened of little skirmishes and may not come in the numbers they usually do - wimps!)
Need a large 4x4 on a budget. Have come across a Jeep Grand Cherokee turbo diesel on an S plate, 120K and in good nick. This one has the manual box which is more attractive to me than the auto.
Not knowing anything about Jeeps and seeing them go for little money, are they a good purchase? What should I look out for when checking it out in more detail (have only had a brief look on the forecourt). Build quality??
Should I stretch my budget to a newer post 2001 diesel auto model (have seen some very nice examples around the 5K mark)?
Many thanks, Dan
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I had a 2001 3.5 diesel grand cherokee. Lovely car to drive, towed the caravan (1500 kg+) like a dream BUT
A money pit to keep running. 20mpg solo 15 towing (my record was 9 mpg towing on a French autoroute). In the end I spent over £1000 trying unsuccessfully to get a back-end rumble diagnosed and sorted, so I got rid.
Replacement Kia Sorento (2.5) just as able towing, not quite as comfortable but more reliable (so far). The only downpoint is you notice that missing 1 litre!
HTH
After seeing that someone had calculated the time it takes for the battery to drain on the Punto with the parasitic current draw can someone work this one out for me please:
If you have a 24v electrical system powered by two 12v batteries that are 120ah each, how long will it take a 2.6amp current draw to flatten the batteries. I'm guessing that it is just over 46 hours. Is this right? Read more
Not sure how much of a modern car's electronics will still function at 7.2V....
Quite a lot, most of the automotive stuff I've looked at has very onerous design specs, having to cope with low voltages, 100V spikes both pos and negative as well as a wide input operating range.
afternoon folks, the blower motor on my sisters megane has started playing up again. it started a few months ago with the well known issue of the wipers coming on if you turned the heaters on, this was fixed by bypassing the two earths in the connector block in the drivers footwell.
now the heater motor is playing up again, after some more investigating i've found that the problem appears to lie in a relay board under the wiper motor next to the battery, i conclude this as if you turn the fan on then wiggle the connectors on this board then the blower jumps into life so im presuming a loose connection somewhere, ive had the connectors apart and sprayed them with contact cleaner this helped for awhile but i decided the board couldn't be removed without removing the wiper motor which i haven't had time to do.
now what im actually asking is has anyone come across this problem before? secondly is it a known renault failing, if so what is the fix? what else do the units on this board control? (i ask this as the car has some other strange going on's which im convinced may be electrical failings)
cheers
chris Read more
Hello,
Just wondered if anybody could point me in the right direction,
The heated rear windows has just stopped working so I assumed it was a fuse, But after checking the 30 amp fuse which is ok in the passenger glove box just wondered if it might be a RELAY.....Can anybody tell me which one and colour as that is the only thing I can think of,
Thanks Read more
Wiper delay NOT working
In the last year I know of at least 3 local-ish Subaru dealers who have stopped selling new Subarus and moved to other brands:
Lockwood & Greenwood -Manchester (Nissan)
Triangle - Chesterfield (Kia)
Montys - Sheffield (Suzuki)
I was thinking of buying a used Legacy, and was waiting for prices to drop further. Now I'm wondering if I'd have future problems with parts and servicing if Subaru's UK presence disappears. Read more
Wasn`t there a marque from the Balkans that got caught up in the war -
leaving UK owners high and dry?
I can`t remember it - or what happened regarding spares..
Yugo ?
Whats wrong with a brand 2 litre diesel powered 40mpg+ 4x4 with less road footprint than a Mondeo?
I just dont get it Read more
And that's why its being locked - just going around in the usual circles.
I have owned a Honda Accord 2.2 ctdi for a year now. The problem i have is road noise, i have changed the tyres now quite a few times,and now have quite expensive ones on, but still there is a lot of noise comming into the car when it goes over 30mph. And this gets worse depending on what type of road surface your on !. Has any Accord owner had similiar problems ?
slt Read more
Thats interesting to no Bill, i wish i opted for a merc now !.
I like the styling inside and out of the car it is just the dreaded road noise.
A last resort might be to try and soundproof inside, there are various sites on the internet with different products.
Has anyone tried any of these products ?
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:-D excellent