July 2009
Claims the car was ' too dirty " because of some crumbs on the passenger seat.
tinyurl.com/ln4xyo
Petty Britain... getting pettier by the day. Read more
Can anyone point me out to a source of information regarding the guarantee period that auto dealers give. My son has bought a four year old car from a large and successful 2nd hand dealer, huge site - hundreds of cars on show. The dealer has given a 30 day guarantee. I've seen HJ quote periods many times, including sale of goods legislation, but my memory has never been much better than that of a goldfish. Read more
Could it be a 30-Day MONEY BACK/EXCHANGE guarantee, i.e. if he doesn't like it he can take it back and get his money back or exchange it for another car, or is it a 30-Day WARRANTY ?
A little while ago, my parents bought an Oxford Green 520i Touring. It looks gorgeous and I swoon every time I look at it. Anyway, to brass tacks. It had about 54700 miles and 1 owner from new in April 2001 and they bought it from a small independent dealer near Hemel Hempstead for £3990. Does this seem reasonable to the rest of you?
Also, we're trying to offload their Orient Blue 99V 318i Touring (E46) but we could do with another car. I've seen another E39 Touring - a dark blue 530i - with c. 103400 miles (the 3er has about 106500). The seller (again, a small independent, this time based at a petrol station near Epsom, Surrey) wants £4995 for it. Again, does this seem reasonable, or should my parents try haggling?
Oh, and if anybody would like to make an offer for the 318i, send me a message or reply on this thread (or I may start a new one in the sales section). Read more
Both E39 prices look in the right sort of ballpark to me although the Sport models seem to be the only E39 still easy to sell.
The sat nav in my 54 reg motor will not pickup car position Read more
Did you manage to get the problem sorted with your Allroad Sat Nav? Mine is doing exactly the same - any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Just back from France and whilst waiting to board the ferry I noticed a German reg BMW with a missing front number plate. Went to speak to the driver and he was mortified, he had not noticed the loss and asked me if it was possible to get a replacement in England. At this point I was struggling a little with language, but managed to point him towards the AA as being most likely to be able to help.
Does anyone have any constructive advice for dealing with such a situation? Read more
German plates are of particular signicance because they carry the Tuv date and road tax/emmissions one on the front one on the back.The only way to get plates in Germany is to go to your tax office where you originally taxed it(the place where you are registered) with all the docs get a certificate and then take it to a plate maker in the building then return to the tax office who will then put the correct sticker on it,but you cannot drive the car on one plate you would not last half an hour before you were stopped fined and the vehicle empounded its not like the anything goes attitude in the UK Germany still has some respect for the law and enforces it.
Usual story - it's insurance renewal time, website price finder offers me a policy about £65 less than my current insurer with (on the face of it) better conditions too in terms of excesses etc.
No experience of Zurich Connect, no reviews I can find on interwebs, no meaningful results from a forum search here.
Anybody using them? I doubt my insurer will price match that much and improve their conditions too, although not tried yet. Read more
Zurich have been around for 150+ years. Zurich Connect is their new offering in the UK, although it has been out in some other European markets for a year or so. Older Zurich policies will have been Zurich Solutions which is still available via brokers.
When it comes to claims, I imagine the service will be the same as usual. Most will say good, but a few will have horror stories. That probably applies to all insurance companies.
The factory fitted radio in the Peugeot 206 car was on then stopped working. Later I tried to switch it on and it started working again. Again it stopped while it was on. At first I thought the fuse had gone, but it wouldn't have started again if that had been the case. Any ideas? Read more
No, it happened both time while driving. I have removed the concil / radio and checked the connections etc, but everything looks OK. I suspect it's the power to the radio and not the radio, but other than a faulty connection I don't know how that would happen.
Some advice would be most appreciated?.
I am in the market for a car. Went to look at a BMW 530i sport. Considering it was a Y plate car, it was very well presented, almost totally rust free. The paperwork was okay, and seemed to have been regularly serviced, although it seemed to have missed a brake fluid change one of the designated intervals.
I requested that the car was started as soon as I saw the car, and leave it running while I checked over it. After about 8 or 9 minutes, the temperature rose beyond the midpoint. I currently have an E46, and the temperature never rises beyond the midpoint whatever I do. I then went for a test run, and the temperature needle duly settled at the midpoint. Is this a sign of a head gasket failure?
The DSC light was permanently on. The owner initially claimed that it was the ?steering sensor?. When I said that that this cannot be the case, he changed his story to and said ?it has always been on?, and ?I don?t know about a DSC, I just drive it and don?t muck around switches on the dash?. Depressing the DSC button on the dash does nothing to the light. The car has a very recent MOT without any advisories. Surely, a faulty DSC would make it impossible to pass a MOT?
It drove very well.
Read more
Hi Everyone
i have a bmw 3 series 318i reg 2002 and have had a few problems with it in the last 3-4 months.
i cover 30miles each way to work and on each journey usually when accelerating independent of whether its in a low or high gear the battery light flickers on for a split second accompanied by a jerk.
i had it checked by an independent garage and was told that this was related to the alternator thus that was changed
the problem continued and got worse after 4-5 weeks until 2 weeks ago when the engine management light came on and the power was reduced. 4 ignition coils and spark plugs were change.
unfortunately this split second flickering of the battery continues.
i have no problem starting the car
does anyone have any bright ideas about this problem????? Read more
Had a similar concern on an Escort-turned out to be a bad connection on the alternator-connector was changed and no further problem.
Did anyone happen to go to a great weekend at Mallory Park over 11/12 July?
This was graced by Phil Read, Mick Grant, Tommy Robb, Carl Fogarty, Jim Readman and others all having a good thrash around an "un-chicaned" Mallory. There was one parade with all 1960's Honda 4's - about 20+ bikes on open megaphones......music to the ears.
I had a few laps on my own more modern (1990) OW01 Yamaha and it was the best 70 odd quid I'll spend this year Read more
I did Nick; I was there with our club, Harley-Davidson riders of Great Britain.
Went round the track meself, though at a slightly more sedate pace than you I suspect as I was on my 1942 WLC side-valver; rode it there and back as well though, 500 mile round trip!
Some pics here from one of our members; that's me in the "fetching" orange jacket!
tinyurl.com/m28auh
the girl on the green Sportster is my wife BTW; first time she'd ever been on a racetrack, I was rather proud of her!
Browse
Since Stagecoach Manchester fleet is virtualy brand new (they purhcase a lot of their new stock for Manchester than cascade them into other parts of the country after a few years, it means we get a huge amount of brand new buses) they are very very clean. Main problem is pensioners throwing their free tickets on the floor.
Trains are usualy very clean but oddly I don't find them as clean as buses.