I now live in France and need to re-register my RHD S class and have it comply to French specification. There is no information to show that the existing lights can be adjusted so I have been quoted £540 for new lights or £106 for new lenses but MB Technical Department, UK, will not commit that just changing the lenses would be sufficient.
Anyone have information on any of this query Read more

I just wondered what mad modifications people had come across over the years.

For me, it was almost 20 years ago when a neighbour of mine decided to buy a landrover. For the benefit of mankind, I'm going to call him "Dave".

The vehicle in question was a defender type thing, that looked like it had just been dragged off a farmyard kicking and screaming that very morning... "Dave" then set to with the 'cunning plan'. Over the next couple of weeks, he removed the weedy diesel engine, and neatly inserted a shiny Rover V8 in its place. Job done!

Of course, he *could* have carried on and upgraded, uprated or at least serviced other, less important parts of the vehicle. Examples might include items like the suspension, the brakes, the steering, and tyres. Perhaps "Dave" felt that the car was best enjoyed in its 'natural', 'raw' state. Perhaps "Dave" was an idiot?

Sure enough, after a few practise runs, the day came when he invited me for a ride in the passenger seat...

"Raw power" probably doesn't quite do justice to what had just been created. Yes - it had plenty of "go" - but there seemed to be so much play in the transmission that there was a detectable amount of time between hearing the revs rise and the power reaching the tarmac. I guess astronauts get that same feeling at T-1 seconds - you know what's about to happen and you're just sat there clunching your bottom cheeks waiting for it all to be over.

But aside from the "go" it also had very little in the way of "stop". What felt like all-round drum brakes had obviously seen better days - that was before the extra horsepower had been added in. Below 30 mph, the brakes seemed to do nothing but make noise - at one point I was wondering whether we should deploy a small sail to improve retardation.

Ride and handling were also compromised. A good sports car feels 'connected' to the road - you can just feel every bump in the road through the steering wheel and the seat as you fight for grip in the corners.

"Dave" had somewhat uniquely managed to sever the all important link between driver and road, and in this case sandwiched an inflatable bouncy castle in its place.

The car wasn't so much riding on wheels as on rountree's fruit jelly. Turn the wheel to the left with the right foot anywhere near the loud pedal, and the landrover would (after all the play in the steering rack had been taken up) reward the driver with what felt like up to 45 degrees of body roll to the right. If the power and the steering had some relationship with the controls in the cabin, the shift between "no steer" and "wildly optimistic oversteer" would have been at least predictable. As it was, the only true indication that something was terribly wrong was best observed by keeping a very close eye on nearby objects outside.

Sadly, after remembering to tell his insurance company what he'd done, "Dave" was finally forced by his wife to sell the vehicle on. He continued to tinker with other cars, but never produced anything so grand, or stupid as his landrover V8. Read more

Can any one help me please ? I have a 1994 Prelude 2.0i Auto which developed a problem today without any warning. The ignition switch turns on ok..... everything powers up, all dash lights etc. turn the key to the engine start position and engine fires up as usual first time............. when you then let go of the key to return to normal running position ...... all the dashboard lights go out and the engine stops ................... only way I can keep it running is to start engine and then keep rotational pressure on the key but turn it back only part of the way to stop the starter motor engaging. The car will then run normally but the minute you release the key all the dash lights go out and the engine stops.... can anyone tell me if this an ignition switch problem or an ignition relay problem??? any help would be appreciated. Read more

Hi i have a 2003 1.9 passat tdi and i have starting problems with it, it starts sometimes and other times it dosen't the lights all come up on the dash as normal but is just dead when you turn it over and you have to rock the car back and forth and after that it usually starts and runs fine so i dont know, i just want to know what it is so i can sort it. Read more

i've driven a few of these mondeos, and really like the idea of something with that kind of pull at those kind of running costs.

however, i've also read a multitude of horror stories online regarding dmf problems and injectors packing in. what kind of mileage are we talking about before these problems manifest? what steps (if any) can i take to avoid them?

and are we talking about a high percentage of cars with these issues, or have i got a really unrealistic impression from the internet?

if the risks are high, what would you recommend i look for instead about the same size / economy ?

thanks for any thoughts. Read more