According to the BBC the Government is planning to sell off the Dartford River crossing along with some other assets.

So any hopes that the Government might make the crossing free of charge - as originally promised - will probably be dashed.

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Today, I paid a deposit of £500 for a Volvo XC90 T6. (Purchase price £11k)
When I test drove the car, there was a strange noise when putting the car in reverse. The dealer said that he wiuld investigate and fix it.
However, I have now looked on the internet and fond that the car is prone to gearbox failures which generally cost in the region of £5k to resolve. I cannot take the risk of buying the car but can I get my deposit back?
The noise only happened once when I was driving it so it could be argued that the car does not currently have a major mechanical fault. Is there anything I can do other than appealing to the good nature of the dealer. Read more

hi new to forum recently bought a old cav as a winter hack while motorbike comes off the road for the winter.was running perfect when i bought it.parkesd it on the drive about a week later replaced rocker cover gasket as it was leaking,topped oil up with some 15w40 semi synthetic.started it up and now there is a horrible vibration when inside the car and the engine is slightly misfiring.removed plugs to find out which cylinder was misfiring seems to be no.4 as plug is a soot black colour where the other 3 are tan.replaced all plugs and leads but still with no joy.is it just co incedence that this occured when i changed rocker cover gasket.also cyl no.4 lifter is tappy which it wasnt before i changed gasket.the old gasket was a cork one and had to be scraped off,if a bit of old gasket flung intothe top of the engine.could this cause the misfire.or is it a sticky lifter as it had sat for 2 weeks before i bought it.i have put some hydralic lifter treatment in incase it is a sticky lifter but cant drive it as am not insured yet so can only rev it on the drive to work the treatment round.
any help suiggestions greatly appreciated as unsure what it could be
it is a 94 lreg cavalier 1.8 auto fitted with c18nz engine and it has the ignotion where there is no dizzy cap.thanks Read more

I bought a new mondeo march 2008. I noticed after a few weeks it had a missfire between 1100 and 1200 rpm, the car has been back to main dealers between 10 and 12 times to be re programmed on the computer, during this time ford technical took up the case and kept telling me to go back to the main dealers to try again.
To cut a long story short ford technical now say they have checked many 1.8 tdci cars out and they all have the same problem and say they cant do anything about it its just a characteristic of the vehicle.can anybody advise what I can do now.
Thanks
Mark

Wavering between putting this in Tech or leaving it here... Read more

A couple of days ago my neighbour asked if I could run him down to Scarborough from Sunderland to look at a car, on private sale, for his son. "OK", I said, but it turned out that we had to set out at 6am this morning (Sunday). Something to do with the vendor of the car needing to get to play football.
My alarm went at 5.30 am, just in time to prevent me from entering a Bruce Forsyth game show wearing only my pyjamas (in my dream, I must add).
So, we set off in darkness at 6am, surprising how many other cars were on the road at that time on a Sunday morning. However, we had a lovely run, chugging along at well below the speed limits and seeing so much of the Yorkshire Moors and the lovely town of Whitby in the emerging daylight. Sometimes it was a bit misty but generally bright weather. We drove through real "Heartbeat" country and I almost wished we'd been in my neighbour's Morris Minor rather than my Panda.
Got to the house of the car vendor almost dead on 8am. Nice bloke, made me a coffee, though in a "Grumpy from the 7 Dwarves" mug, must have detected my mood. The car on sale was a BMW 3 series hatchback in really nice condition for its age, 1980 I think, and miles, 130,000, again I think. But then it only cost £450 and drove faultlessly back to Sunderland.
We stopped for a huge breakfast at the Flask Cafe on the moors and "admired" a LHD Smart and a BMW C1 city scooter parked up there.
I think we only saw the sea a couple of times but the beautiful villages we drove through and the moorland scenery more than made up for that omission.
The downside to this tale, poor young Steve, who is to drive the BMW, when he gets his licence, will have to pay £3000 insurance, on a £450 car. Good job he's honest or there would be another uninsured driver on the roads.
Makes it good to be alive, doesn't it?
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