March 2009
Worth a watch - history of the massive Ford plant. Read more
I'm after an E39 to replace my E46 Touring (318i, 1999, Orient Blue metallic, manual, 104,000 miles approx, 15" alloys, scuffed). I've found somewhere - I don't want to say where for fear of losing out to another buyer - a nice dark green 520i, post-facelift (so angel eye lights, 168bhp engine) with nice alloys, cream leather/real wood interior, manual, generally very smart, 106,000 miles, and all for only £4000. I need the extra space, and I insist on the manual gearbox as a matter of principle - I just don't do auto at all. What do you people think? Read more
Well, t'other buyer was supposed to be collecting the car on Monday, having put down a deposit on Saturday: the seller promised to contact me if it went wrong, but I've heard nothing more. The car had been given all the BMW Approved checks and had had a few very minor things fixed (I think one sill got re-lacquered as it had been grit-damaged), but it wasn't offered with a warranty. Anyway, it's not coming to me now, so this is all academic.
Looking at mkIV Golf GT TDI 130s and confused why most are simply badged TDI (with red DI), but some are badged 'GT TDI' (with red DI). This seems to be regardless of age or reg plate.
Does anyone know why this is the case, and if there's any difference between the cars? I must admit, I am surprised that you still have to stump up £5k for a <= 80,000 miler with the post 2002 handling improvements.
Cheers
DP
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VW badging has indeed been very strange: only with the Mark VI can you at last get the 2.0 TDI with SE trim instead of paying extra for GT or GT Sport bits that you probably don't want. With the hatch, you couldn't get the 130 bhp engine (Mark IV) or 2.0 TDI (Mark V) without the GT stuff.
However with the estate you could always get the SE trim: I had a Mark IV 1.9 115 bhp from 2001 to 2004 and my current car is a 2007 2.0 TDI SE estate. If your family fills the Scenic you could look for a Golf estate: I think they did them with the 130 bhp engine from 2002 onwards.
I posted a previous question about non starting and had to resort to getting an auto electrician firm out to fix the problem after spending 2 hours outside my house on tuesday in the rain they decided to tow it to there garage where they claimed to have worked on it all day wednesday cutting some security device off the back of the diesel pump telling me on Wednesday eve that it also needed new glow plugs so it would run just right.Got it back today with £350.00 bill but it now has a different problem than before,it starts ok now so that problem seems to be fixed but it flattens out like you have run out of fuel at between 20/30 it is as if it is being starved of fuel temporarily then as you drive through it it springs back to life. I have spoken to the garage who carried out the first repair who says it might be air? and should right its self but the van did not do this before the electrics were tampered with, could something (a fault have been introduced whilst dealing with the initial non starting problrem ) i will probably have to return the van but would like to know if there is any thing I can check first as it is incredibly inconvienient to have it off the road again I am self employed and have lost a lot of money having off the road to fix the first problem any advice would be great
thank you Read more
Don't mess with it take it back you have spent plenty they may have had to remove pipe work etc, let them try to sort it.
Had to go to Oxford today -240 miles round trip in 5 hrs - -- saw one Ferrari - two Aston martins - Two Q7's - a Porsche - a few Merc convertables - a 640 - a 7 series - - 6 new JCB's
-MX8 - a lime green Fiesta and said to SWMBO "I bet a girl is driving that" sure enough -- I was the only one who saw all these cars - I said to SWMBO - "did you see that Ferrari" - "What Ferrari" -- do all wives sit there and just stare ahead not seeing anything - she is more like her mother every day. - or am I getting old ?? Read more
Don't have this problem with my wife. If she sees any exotica she will ask me what it is. The embassassment is when I don't know the answer.
Hi All
My wife's 12v dc socket has broken. Does anyone know where i can by a replacement from. I've done some searches and all that appears is the multi adaptors. What we need is a standard cigar lighter or preferably a 12v dc socket (the ones with the plastic caps over).
I had a look on the maplins website, but couldn't find them.
Many Thanks
Jonathan Read more
Type "cigar lighter" into Maplin's search engine;it comes up with plugs and sockets.
Hi, I have a 2003 Vectra 2.2 DTi Automatic.
Just recently, every now and again, after a long journey, when stopping, enering an urban area for example, when I set off again after putting into Neuteral, it thumps into gear and not sooth like it does at a higher speed.
It doesn't seem to do it when the engine is cold, or if I drive short distances, any ideas guys? Read more
Is the fluid level OK?
Kevin...
I'm going to have a look at a Saab 9-3 sport linear tid (150) 2005. It has fsh up to 90K and is now on 104k miles. looks in good condition and is ex lease. Apart from new oil filters, what else am I likely to get clobbered with if I go ahead and buy? price is £4k Read more
Lack of parts and backup when GM ditches the SAAB brand.
Not so, as long as GM Europe continue to exist, Saab will continue to get parts and technical back-up from GM. Most parts are supplied from 3rd parties anyway, so nothing much will change in that sense.
However, if GM Europe are allowed to go under (not impossible at the minute), then all bets are off. Lack of access to the GM computer to perform software downloads etc could become an issue in the long term.
Still, there's lot of Rovers and MGs still on the road, 4 years after Rover went under...
I've got a 98 Citroen saxo vtr. It's had a hole in the exhaust for about 6 weeks now (not had the money to get it fixed) the hole is in the pipe that comes from the centre box towards the back box. The hole is quite big and believe it or not after having it up on ramps last weekend to see how bad it was i was planning to get it fixed this weekend. Today i started the car up and it got to second gear then just had no more power, I stopped and it stalled a few times when trying to move off again. The exhaust now sounds very rough (alot worse than before). I left the car and started it again tonight and drove it just a short way to see if it stalled again but it didn't this time but it didn't have the power there that it should have and is still sounding terrible. Could this just be because of the hole in the exhaust or has something else gone wrong now?
If anyone could make any suggestions or help in any way i would really appreciate it
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We don't have a crystal ball.
It's shot it needs replacing take it from there, i suspect has said above once replaced it will drive faster than it has in the last six weeks.!
There are some brand new Volkswagen Passats 1.8TSI Highline on sale at Motorpoint for about 6k under UK list price. Some of this saving probably reflects the fact that the cars are sourced from Ireland, not the UK.
Does anyone have any experience of trying to get a non-UK sourced car warranty repaired/serviced at UK dealers? Read more
In 2000 I bought a Cyprus-sourced Nissan Terrano 2 from Motorpoint. The dealer in Sunderland took a sort of "brass rubbing" from the VIN plate, after which it had the remaining 2.5 years of warranty. No different from UK spec so no servicing problems.
The car was thousands cheaper than if bought in UK and I still got back a third of what I paid at trade-in over 5 years later.
Browse
M63 went from the M67 to the M62. It could be quicker many years ago to go around the M63 orbital than to use A roads where I live to get to say Leeds.