May 2009
hi guys
i have serious problem here.
My car was stolen and after five days it been recovered. Now i have the trouble with insurance. They don't want repair my vehicle.
They said your car could have stolen before you took the policy, and secondly there is no theft damage, like not the window broken.
But the car has been damaged, it has a dent on the driver side door, and broken mirror, plus the clutch cable is broken. They want to return that vehicle with out repair and ask me to get that repair done and withdraw the claim.
I don't know what to do?
{some punctuation added to make the question easier to read and understand} Read more
My Pug 1998 GLX 2.0i has started to misfire or seeming to stall when running. The engine appears to stall and then fires up again immediately and gives a real thump in your back when this occurs. It is random event and can be once a day or a number of times on one journey and then the symptoms disappear. A Pug mechanic could not trace any malfunction with his equipment.
Mileage is 101,000 with regular servicing and usually fill with BP unleaded.
Any ideas as to the next steps I should take would be much appreciated as the mechanic seems to think it may mean a new ECU (ouch) which I would like to avoid if possible
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At a party on the other side of Kensington High Street last Saturday I met a lady who was trying to persuade her young nephew to help her get rid of an N reg Rover 416, taxed and MoTed until August I think.
She said it was good and respectable looking and hadn't had any head gasket or overheating problems. She didn't know if the engine was a K series but didn't think it was a Honda. She said she hoped to get £300 for it.
Sounded like my sort of car. I almost arranged to go and look at it but reflected that my K reg Ford, although not pretty, may be less hassle to maintain. But may not of course. And even these late Rovers have interiors that are charming in a way, certainly visually preferable to Ford ones.
Is the 416 a pile of carp, or was I silly to pass it up? The owner said it had covered 80,000 miles, a bit more than half my car's mileage. Read more
AFAIK all 89-95 Rover 416 will have an Honda engine as will 95- automatics. Manual versions of 95- will have Rover K series. The Honda engines are installed the opposite way round with the cambelt on passenger side (as viewed from front of car) whereas most transverse cars have cambelt of drivers side.
Just wondering if anyone has experience of changing a clutch slave cylinder on a "5".
How easy is it and what sort of labour time is involved? I suppied this car (55 reg) to a customer about a year ago and a local mechanic has noticed it now leaking. Read more
What's up with Honda UK cars. 5 years ago, they were in the ascedancy with the mk1 Jazz, the bland but very practical and sensible Civic, including the classic Type R, the S2000 was still wowing the press, the last Accord was a well-specced alternative to a boggo E46 BMW 318i and certainly better than the last C-Class, build-wise. It drove better than the previous A4 too.
Now, the company seems rudderless, and the UK range is, at best, middle of the road, and at worst, dated. Worse, for a company that claims it's the world's biggest engine-manufacturer, they offer so little to the consumer choice to the UK driver.
Current range -
Jazz Mk2, a fundamentally good car but it seems not that much better, than its predecessor. The auto-gearbox "issue" has been well debated here already. Also, better engines available in other markets.
Civic - the novelty-factor has long since worn off, and we're left with a car that's dynamically well behind its competitors and comes with a weak petrol engine and one solid, but uninspiring diesel. It's also dealt a blow to Honda's reliability claims.
CR-V - Middle of the road SUV, and definitely one of the ugliest in its class. Comfortable, certainly, but not exactly a brand flagship.
Accord - A failed wannabe 'premium' saloon that looks badly dated next to E90 BMW and latest C-Class. Mondeo also thumps it dynamically and value-wise too.
S2000 - Now discontinued. A great car, but a niche car and off the class pace for a few years now. The popular CC sector cars sidelined it years ago.
Insight - A Prius-facsimile, deliberately manufactured to be cheaper and scarcely more economical than it's petrol and diesel-powered rivals. Hardly 'The Power of Dreams'.
FR-V - Decent but again, a dated car, have you ever been in the front centre seat of one? It's comfortable but disconcerting to have no window beside you, no dashboard in front of you and no sense of protection. Exposed is how it feels and so it's never sold in decent numbers. No one could sit there on a long journey.
And that's it. That's what a Honda dealer has to offer. No small-capacity, efficient petrol turbo engines, no coupe or sports car, no funky small car (their biggest mistake in my opinion - the Toyota iQ is the car Honda should've made first). Just flawed and old-hat cars with little variation and, now the S2000 has gone, Honda no longer make class-leading engines, which is a massive shame.
I used to love this brand and you could sense their core values of technical innovation, design and attention to detail in their cars. Now its just a hotch-potch of forgettable models and so-so build quality. Some say the dealers arent the generous, attentive bunch they used to be. I'm not surprised, trying to offload that range of cars every day must wear one down.
What do you think?
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With all the problems with the diesel mazda 6, logged on this site.
The mazda is the only jap car i wouldn't buy. The japanese are no longer the clear winners in the reliability stakes.
When the jap economy nosed dived, and european companies bought in, that was when things started to go wrong.
I had one of the first honda accords brought into the country, it was a great car at the time, and 10 years in front of ford, unfortunately the sub frame assemblies were rusting away, so at two years old it had to go.
I have always fancied another Honda, but they have never brought out a car that i really wanted, one of the early preludes attracted me, but it came with too much technology, and so was expensive.
When i took a test drive in the CRV, i was very disappointed,(and not just with the ugly back end) the car wasn't bad, but did nothing to inspire me to buy, i had read how quite the engine was, quotes like "i wouldn't have known it was a diesel" were made.
All i can say is the engine on the move was no quieter than my Xtrail, but was noisier than the forester which i had just driven, the forester diesel is very impressive, shame about the interior!
So that for me sums up why Honda have never really made it "big" in this country, theirs lots off better cars around, at a cheaper price, that look better
Father-in-law recently had his car serviced and MOT'd at the main dealer. He was told it needed a new fuel tank and was relieved of £600. For a Fiesta fuel tank. Is this excessive? Just seems a bit wrong that a service and MOT ends up costing an OAP the best part of a grand for a Fiesta he bought from them, albeit used, just over a year ago.
Strangely enough, the car he owned previously (Fiesta, bought from the same main dealer) is still being driven round his parish even though FIL was advised to get rid as it would cost more than the car was worth to get it through the MOT.
Is someone having a very expensive laugh at an OAPs' expense? Read more
To Lud. Not as much pain as a lingering death from burns. Too many flashes and bangs have occurred to people unaware of the potential of a flammable mixture and an ignition source.
According to today's paper, the US president has announced that new US cars will have to average 39 mpg by 2016, with light vans and pickups averaging 30 mpg. One assumes the gallons mentioned are niggardly American ones.
No presidential order can ever have been more realistic than this one. A lot of cars that can do that easily are made by firms associated with the US companies and by the companies themselves. Internal and external facelifts and a bit more slop engineered into the suspension (but not too much one hopes) could do the trick almost overnight.
Americans get better cars; the Obama administration looks good; oil lasts longer; and oil companies can hide a bit more profit in petrol prices with cars using less of the stuff. It's a win-win-win-win situation unless you are a Detroit auto worker. Read more
I wouldn't pay too much heed to that statement.
They're already calling him 'Backtrack Obama'.
Recently ,due to old age, I have found myself unable to tell the difference between a new Ka and a new 3 door Fiesta from the front especially. Apart from the badge what are the tell tale differences?
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Interesting comment about the Mazda 2 V's the Fiesta. I was going to wait until the Fiesta arrived before deciding between the Mazda and the Fiesta. In the end I went ahead and bought the Mazda before the Fiesta was launched. On seing the Fiesta I thought it was ok but I still preferred the Mazda. However, the point is that I bought the Mazda on the basis that once the Fiesta was launched they would become common quite quickly. This has now been borne out by the fact that they are now a far more common sight than the Mazda even though they were launched over a year later. Give me something a bit less common every time.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8058935.stm
£3 for a 'comfort break' seems a bit steep, when you've been battling queues all morning Read more
public toilets? whats that then?...my city doesnt have any , goodness knows where the public go for a leak nemind the cab drivers
Hello, I want to make a Bush Removal Tool to change the Rose Joint Bushes on my car.I plan to use some old sockets and some Threaded Bar. I have access to Threaded Bar from work,but wondered if anyone would know what Diameter and Length I should use (I don't have a manufactured tool to copy from.I hear they are quite weak, and overpriced). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Read more
Shame doofer - I'm in Leeds ! It would be cheaper buying one ,than all the Petrol involved lol -Thanks anyway -Very Kind - Mick
In my opinion, you have two options:
1. drop your claim, as others have already suggested. You Insurance company may secretly mark your file to suspect any future claims from you as potential fraud.
2. If you are 100% innocent, talk to a solicitor, as your Insurance Company probably thinks that you are making a fraudulent claim.