Having just taken delivery of my new CRV I am thinking of parting with £830 cash for a fixed price servicing deal. This covers the next 5 years servicing. Money wise i think i would be about £300 in pocket over the 5 year term. You have to pay upfront for this deal. Can anyone see a down side to this, it certainly looks worth doing to me. I would be grateful for your thoughts or anyone who has taken it out and had any probs or wish they hadn't. Read more

Hi, I have a friend who has recently bought a new spare key for his new astra,and as i work at vauxhalls, he thinks i,m an expert on astras (not). He informs me that he recieved the key at a cost of over £100 and was given what he thinks is a code. Can you tell me how to Re-programme or set his key.It will not operate the ignition. The dealer says he might have to bring it in at a cost of £40 to re-programme the key. As you know sometimes its as simple as turning the key a few times in the ignition.(fords) Read more

Hi, my astravan has done 126,000 miles and i am about to change the cambelt, is it advisable to always change the tensioner at the same time. Some cars i know are prone to break up after a certain milege. This is it's second cambelt, but i don't know whether the tensioner was changed last time.
Also i have another problem, when pulling away from standstill there seem's to be a dead spot up to about 1300revs but then it takes off like a rocket. Hope someone can help me. Thanks in advance. Sparky 100. Read more

Been driving a C4 Picasso the past few days around Andalucia. Thought I should post some comments on it.

It's a modern and spacious car with some nice touches on it -especially like the super high windscreen that goes into the roof - when the sun is at its highest there is a blind/visor combo to keep some shade, but the windscreen and all the glass make for a very airy place to sit. Aircon is powerful and dual zone with good controls in back to, impressive.

The A pillar is spit into two thin slices - much better than our C4 coupe. visibility isn't impeded at roundabouts - however, the armchair seats with their giant headrests do make a dent into the view when turning around to look over your shoulder.

We got the exclusive diesel auto which I think is 138BHP -certainly it's nippy enough and a blast down the motorway last night saw it crusing happily at, er, let's say 120 kph. Although I'm pretty sure it would be as comfortable at 145, I should imagine. Plenty of pull in all the gears and even at high speed in 5 or 6th it still pulls well.

Parking sensors all round and to the edges of the car -very useful and I like the car diagram on the dash showing what you're close to. And you can change the colour of the confusing display from white through shades of blue.

Now then, the stuff I don't like.

Flappy, paddle, gears. In auto mode under any kind of acceleration, car turns into Kangaroo. Makes some weird decisions when trying to overtake, hunting through gears while you helplessly shout "come on car" hoping the speed picks up so you can get past the diesel berlingo ahead before the gap's gone. In the end, had to use manual mode for overtaking so that it didn't decide to drop a cog/up a cog at exactly the wrong moment.

When you reverse it dips the passenger mirror so you can see the kerb - nice except that it doesn't then return to its normal position until you're moving forward, not much use when you're relying on it to see traffic...good idea, badly executed.

The handbrake is electric. The gears are fully electric, just an indicator type switch on the steering column. The mirrors are electric, the windows and everything else is really. Including the tyre pressure sensors.

This is where I start to worry - the car has been complaining that a tyre is low on pressure since I got it, and is whingeing for SERVICE. The tyres are all at the correct pressure - a fault with the system and not with the basic functioning of the car. Parked literally at the top of a mountain today and pulled the (P) button to engage the handbrake. It whirred and the light came on, then as I took my foot of the brake pedal, the car started to roll backwards and I noticed it had disengaged the handbrake. Goodness only knows why. Luckily I was able to stamp on the pedal.

SWMBO pressed the button to open the rear tailgate but it wouldn't open. Weird. I pressed it, nothing. Thought I should lock and unlock the car to try a reset. Car won't lock. Checked doors, tailgate and tried again. Still nothing. Ten minutes of cursing later I realised there is a second button you can't see near the rear number plate that opens the tailgate window. Only you can't see that it's open - but it's enough to stop you locking the car. No indication anywhere of why the car won't lock. Opened and slammed the window shut and bingo car now locks.

I've complained on here about the economy mode on our C4-well, they've fixed that on the Picasso, it does what you want it to - you can listen to the radio, the interior lights stay on and the courtesy headlamps work when you need them, well done. Hopefully I can get the same functionality BACK on our car with a firware upgrade.

So, in short. I like the car, but the reliance on wires rather than levers worries me, especially when it's already having brain fade. These cars (and most cars now) are great for the first three years when you can take then to a dealer and get them reset for free, but they are so unnecessarily complicated that software glitches will cost you real £££s down the line.

In terms of making use of the technology, they need to hire someone who understands what gives useful and clear and rational help rather than leaving it to the nerds who can program to make some random decisions that spoil the experience. Good technology supports you and you don't realise it's happening. Bad interfaces and implementation ruin good ideas.

Oh, and the radio is rubbish for a car that should cost nearly £24k new.
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Well My C1 just had its 1st service & 1st time back to the dealer since purchase this time lst year. Well what can i say, its been perfect. Can't fault it for a cheap car & my daughter loves it.£35 for a years tax & only needs filling up once a month.
No rattles, no sqeaks & no issues so ticks all the right boxes for me. Holding its price quite well is an added bonus. lets hope the 2nd year is as good as the first. Read more