March 2009
Friend has an FR-V diesel that was bought new just over 3 years ago ( 3 years and 3 months ). He is considering doing the 3rd year service , forgot the get the 3rd service done within the 3 years.. should he stick with the Honda main dealer or go indie at this stage ?
Car has done 25 k miles from new Read more
Just had a letter from Ford asking if we would consider either:
1. Selling your car back to us? Or...
2. Part exchanging for a newer model
It ends with " never again will we be able to offer you such a good price for your car"
Strange times... Read more
2nd hand cars (good ones) are actually more in demand than they have been for a long while; probably because more people are not buying new ones and thereby limiting availabilty on to the market.
Actual sales are still hard to complete for various reasons, including finance, but a good trader (dealer or independant) that has got good examples and can afford to be patient, knows they will sell for the price asked (or near to).
Better to make more off less cars than vice versa right now!
A Turkish man declared that "life is beautiful" after he survived a collision between a lorry and a train that was captured on CCTV.
tinyurl.com/dn9gqb (links to www.telegraph.co.uk)
EDIT:- found some more footage on BBC. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7925009.stm
With that kind of luck I'd be buying a lottery ticket at the weekend if I was him.
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Was anyone else hurt? Truck driver, train crew?
Hello All
My pug is giving me very poor mpg around 40miles to £10 diesel. Iv'e checked for leaks and there arnt any.
The other day i had it diagnosed by an electrician with a modis first it showed ecu error he then cleared it and told me that the egr is not working shows no othr fault codes apart from a break in the glow plug circuit which is strange as it starts fine.
I have had the fuel rail changed a couple of months ago as it developed a leak other than this no other parts or sensors have been changed.
Any ideas?
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The injectors have not thrown any fault codes and there is no excessive smoke. But i will have em checked.
A Porsche Carrera that has been sitting in a car park for three weeks could be crushed if it is not reclaimed.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/7929156.stm
Seems a very odd story. Read more
gathering dust (literally)
When I used to frequent all four terminals of Heathrow, there was a car or two in each mult-storey that you could write your name on in the dust - this was three or four years ago too in the days of heightened security patrols etc. One IIRC was a 5-series that looked as if it had been there a minimum of 6 months.
Front page of the Manchester Evening News today told the story of a local mother and daughter who had fiddled the social out of hundreds of thousands of pounds with multiple false identities.......so far so good. The motoring link here is this, the daughter, Lorraine B**** ran an Audi TT with the number plate LOZZIE B..now I've racked the old brain cells and havn't come up with anything that might make this up...I tried a tenuous Irish LOZ 2138 but that doesn't come up on DVLA vehicle check. Any ideas ?
Mind you, how stupid can you be ? If you're running a huge criminal scam, why pick a number which is going to alert every patrol car and anpr camera in the country ?
Ted Read more
why go to the trouble of doctoring a real number - why not just make up anything of your choice
There was a chap three or four years ago being shown on one of the Police Crash Action Chase programmes with an 02 plate Corsa who'd altered his number plate with black tape... but only the 02 part! So it read (with example letters) AB62 CDE. If you're going to do that, wouldn't you at least make it a feasible combination? ;-)
You sit in the middle of a motorbike, well you have to I suppose. Drivers sit in the middle of F1 cars, probably because there's nowhere else to sit.......
Seriously though, I'm guessing that the convention for a car's driver to sit to one side depending on the side of the road used in that country, stems initially from the days of horse drawn vehicles and more recently from the need to have a transmission tunnel down the centre line of the initially, mainly RWD cars ? Add that to the convenience of not having to wriggle across to a centre seat and the convention seems to have stuck.
A centre seating position for the driver might be an interesting change. Maybe it would be more natural ? Perhaps it would do away with the need for LHD and RHD tooling ? Possibly it would allow three abreast seating ? Maybe it would be safer in terms of spacial awareness. I'm sure it has been tried but I wonder why it hasn't caught on ? The majority of everyday cars are FWD now so cabin space shouldn't be the limiting factor. There must be more downsides or is it just lack of commercial bravery ?
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Some up to date examples.
img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/beachhop/BH2008/Ca...g
tinyurl.com/b9d9qe
Gibbs Aquada
www.autoindustry.co.uk/images/1076004148894_263
www.totalkitcar.com/tkc_article_982.php
Please can someone offer some advice, I have been everywhere and am really stressed and fed up?
I am having engine management problems on my 55 reg Zafira. The car does not start, all the lights come on, but the car refuses to start and I have to wait about 5-10mins, start it again and it comes on, but the engine management light stays on the entire time. The repair has been attempted by the dealer twice under warrenty. They had car for 3/4 weeks in Oct and again for 2 weeks in Dec. They gave me a courtesy car both times. However, the problem has came back again. In Oct they advised that they were waiting on some specialist coming back from holiday at Vauxhall and I know they have been intouch with the technical team. Previous repairs have amounted to over £1000. The car is in the garage again and the dealer is talking with Vauxhall re: repairs, which I have stated that I am not paying for them, as this is a fault reported and attempted prior to warranty running out (ran out at end Dec 08). Meantime, both the dealer and Vauxhall have both refused to give me a courtesy car. I have a job which where I need my car, as I am out and about all day. Given that it has taken between 2-4 weeks for repairs and also given that the dealer does not a clue what the problem is, I do want to hire a car. I dont actually want to have the car anymore and would love for them to replace it.
Does anyone know what my legal rights are re: courtesy/hire car and also what the situation will be if they cannot repairs it? I am assuming that Vauxhall are agreeing to pay for repairs, but have not heard back from garage! Read more
can anyone tell me the approx price for a new clutch , parts and labour 97 mondeo 1.8 td Read more
thanks
once again came very close to being totally wiped out by a left hand drive foreign HGV, Spanish this time, driver clueless how to handle town centre roads, and poor visibility when looking right to pull onto roundabouts etc
how long can we let this unsafe nonsense continue?
why cannot we leave the LHD cabs in Calais and the RHD cabs in Dover and only take the trailers on the ferry? let the HGV companies use a cab with the wheel in the right place for the country they are in
ridiculous
I really object to having my life put so badly at risk for no reason
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Nearly killed by a LHD HGV again!
Didnt learn from the last incident by the sound of it. On a daily basis I see car drivers put themselvs into dangerous situations with HGV's, probably totally oblivious to the danger. If all drivers were trained to the standard of UK HGV drivers a lot of these incidents would not occur. A combination of poor driving standards, and blame culture account for most complaints about HGV drivers here.
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If he knows a good independant - go with them every time.