August 2009

Boss Hog

Not sure who should be aware but this is the second time I have seem "mamoth " car sales say they have a Seabring on the road for £7,000 + giving you a £11,000 + saving when in fact the opposite is true.. the car is on sale for £11,000 + with a £7000 + saving.

Once is understandable but twice seems unusual. Read more

jase1

wouldn't pay 7 grand for a sebring with chrysler's current situation....

tack

My daughter and her husband are looking at an 09 plate Auris 5 door 1.6 Vmatic (valvematic) TR in a local main dealership. Has 2000 miles on the clock and are asking £11.6k.

Reckon there is room for manoeuvre on price?

They like Toyota's as they have a Yaris which they are keeping as a 2nd car. Although dull to drive etc, I understand Auris is reliable.

Cheers Read more

OldSkoOL

The 09 1.6 engine does have the 10% extra power / torque / mpg, even though the units are only minor lifts i would defiantly test drive both engines to see whether the newer engine is really worth the fairly hefty premium as the increases are only minor.

Technically the new 1.6 engine isn't going to be more reliable. The pre 09 1.6 has been powering auris and corollas for many many years with a lot of success. Fingers crossed that the 09 engines aren't plagued with high oil consumption as this is a new engine variant, with variable valve timing so the engineers have clearly been poking.

BobbyG

Although I have seen a few of these on the road, I haven't really seen one close up until today when one was parked outside the work.

A couple of design features that I don't like are the rear boot hinges and the front bonnet shape.

The boot hinges are very pronounced on the external surface so much so that they have designed 2 bumps around them. This almost looks like an afterthought.

For years now I have been seeing boy racers that somehow want to customise the front of their Saxos and Corsas by extending the bonnet slightly over the headlights. It looks silly on those cars and I don't think it looks any better on a brand new Scirocco.

Thoughts? Read more

alfatrike

saw one this morning twice. definately the same car, some weird greeny gold sort of dayglow baby poo. don't like the colour like the car. black would be good.

wjh2

I am planning to drive around Europe some time next year. I would love to do it in my current MX-5 but in reality it is probably too small to carry two people and all their gear on such a trip.

What are the thoughts on a Merc 190E? I quite like the idea of cruising around in a 2.6 litre safe in the knowledge that nothing's going to fall off because it's ridiculously over engineered.

Can't be anything too ridiculous as I'm twenty-one and I don't like paying insurance companies too much money.

Budget not more than about £2,000 as I want to keep the Mazda! Any thoughts?

Many thanks, Will
Read more

barney100

Seems really interesting to me. If you are careful choosing the car you could even make a bit of cash selling it on after the trip! A good older one polished up after would tempt someone. A garage gave lent an old 2 litre estate which went really well but was unloved but you could a few hours work would have it looking good.

Hector Brocklebank

Is it just me, or does the following not seem ridiculously cheap for such a pristine example of an undisputed classic? I mean, shouldn't it be in a museum or something?

tinyurl.com/lrkn2m

Isn't it amazing that you can buy a car that has had so much time, money, care and attention lavished on it for so very little? Read more

Hector Brocklebank

In summary then, the reasons why we are not driving around in the successors to such glorious cars as the Maestro and 200 series:

1. Lack of a coherent model plan due to unmanageble size of BL/Austin Rover.

2. Badly managed development programmes.

3. Lack of government investment.

4. Militant unions and economic malaise.

5. TC Mits (The common man in the street) behaving like a judas and buying foreign.

6. Jeremy Clarkson.

The only thing absent from my list was 'inability to build a descent motor-car' because this is simply not true.



Rattle

Despite the fact my dads car has just passed the MOT (with a load of advisories) the back axle bushes needed to be replaced. It was expensive because the rear axle had to be removed.

What exactly do these do? I understand what bushes in the wishbones do but I have never heared of the phrase axle bushes before. Read more

Old Navy

They are probably the bushes that the axle hinges on at the front attatchment to the car body. See torsion beam axle.


www.autozine.org/technical_school/suspension/tech_...m

loadsofpugs

Hi 406 HDi 90 Estate left hand indicators flash twice then stop,does the same with the hazard flashers. I can hear a tick tick like a flasher relay coming from the dash board with the end cap removed but cannot find it. Any ideas please, thanks Iain Read more

steve_earwig

On a '99 I'm pretty sure yours wont be com2000/multiplexed.

A3matt

Up untill yestaday i have had no problem with the changer, all of a sudden the headset does not reconise that there are any cd's in the changer. It loads and unloads with no problem. The CD player in the head unit works fine. i have tried to load the CD's in all of the slots one by one and still no success. If anyone has any ideas as i can not get any info at all from the internet. Read more

Peter D

Is it out of warrantee. He bought it 2 months ago. Did it come with an approved Audi used car warrantee. Regards Peter

autumnboy

I've been trying to solve my heater fan blower problem, where it runs at top speed no matter whether or not the LCD Climate Controller is connected. When the controller is fitted, you see the scale showing the speed adjustment fast or slow but the actual fan speed remains the same.

I've tried another controller without any difference.

Its weird where the motor runs at full whack even without the controller being fitted.

Any Clues

Thanks Read more

Peter D

J126 is a mosfet current control regulator there is no diode in the motor. As there is a short across the input and output pins in either direction the Mosfet has failed short circuit thus the motor only runs at full speed. Regards Peter

frogger

Agreed to buy a 09 plate Hyundai i20 with 6000 miles on clock from dealer (used by dealer staff and is demonstrator model). Placed £200 Deposit. Fiat Panda in part exchange.

While car was undergoing pre-delivery check, it was ascertained car may need a new starter motor. Part arrived, but was wrong part. Now apparently car does not need a new starter motor but needs a new head gasket!

Question: Should a head gasket need replacement on a 6 month old car. Should I still buy or leave well alone? I don't want to find I've purchased a 'lemon'. Read more

doctork

If it needs a head gasket at 6 months then I wouldn't buy it ! Get your deposit back and go elsewhere.