I have sorted out a problem with water coming into the drivers side via the heater air inlet as leaves had blocked the drain channels in the bulkhead. When I took off the housing attached the the bulkhead it has a small aperture which I thought (wrongly) was the pollen filter. When I went to buy one they all referenced a much larger filter and this would not fit anywhere on the car.
Its only a base model Lupo so I was wondering do only the a/c versions have cabin filters fitted?
Appreciate any comments to help?

Also as a side question what is the best way to dry out the carpets on a car that have been saturated with water? I mean maybe 1/2 inch of water above the carpet level. Of course I have taken out the lower underlay and sound proofing to dry but the carpet is not easy to remove without cutting and I'm a little loathe to do that.

Thanks Read more

They just dont seem to want my money either that or they cant be bothered to help out.
i have been shopping around looking for a decent deal and now have come to the conclusion that dealers are doing rather to well for themselfs to be intrested in selling cars at the moment.

First off tried skoda dealer no 1 told him what spec octavia i wanted he said dont have one you can test drive bit strange that i said, he said he will call when he gets one i can drive,

skoda dealer no 2 took all the details off the car i wanted and off my trade in then told me he will give me a call with the trade in price and balance to pay and said test drive can be arranged to which i replied i am here now so can test he said demonstrator is not available at the moment he will call when it comes in.

skoda dealer no 3 was however a bit more helpfull took my passat through to the workshop 15 minutes later gave me a dire trade in price then gave me price to change and informed me that a car is at the docs ready to be delivered all i have to do is say the word and pay the deposit, i replied saying i would like to test drive one first, was told yes youve guessed it no demonstrater available at the moment so he will call me when one is available.

so i decided to give up on skoda and had a look in a seat dealership got a trade in price straight away to my amasement, got a new car quote and a delivery milage car quote everything sounded a ok and he then told me he would get the figures checked with his manager and call me back.

mitsubishi garage couldnt quote me a trade in price as he had no idea what a passat was worth said before i can get a price to change he would have to do some homework and call me back.

Kia garage took all my car details told me all i wanted to know then gave me a test drive and told me he would call me with the price to change.

Now i bet you cant guess what the one thing all the above dealers have in common.









yes youve guessed it not one call back from any off them what gives.


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I just thought I'd give you my first impressions of the Multispace II.

First of all, that "Multispace" name. Yes, there are lots of spaces, but most of them are useless. Having moved up from a tiny polo to this enormous van-like creature I thought I'd have loads of space - but oh no. The door pockets are not big enough to take a road atlas, and the overhead shelf is too small. The only place to keep it is on the back seat. The door pockets are not even the right size and shape to take a can of anti-freeze.

Talking of those overhead shelves, my National Trust and English Heritage handbooks, which fitted nicely in the compartment near the driver's knees in the Polo, keep falling off the overhead shelf. I can't think of anything much smaller that one would want to keep on there.

While we're mentioning handbooks, I still haven't received a service manual from the dealer yet!

All over the place there are "cup holders" which are just too small to take a cup, or even a soft-drinks can.

The glove compartment (which also acts as a cool box when the air-conditioning is on) is too small to take a coupld of soft drinks cans, or even a small boxed salad from the supermarket.

The rear load area is good, but there are only four points for tying things down, all at floor level, and for anything of an upright disposition there is nothing higher up to which a strap can be attached.

I'm getting 50 m.p.g out of the 1.6 110HP engine, and its got a nice bit of torque at low revs. However I find that whenever I've had it in reverse, I invariably select 3rd instead of 1st gear - that 1st gear position is an awful long way over. I'm also finding it quite difficult to get used to how little there is of the car at the front - as I turn into car parking spaces I expect to take a chunk out of the side of the adjacent car, only to find when I've stopped that I'm quite a way from it, and have to reverse out and drive in again so that the people can get in to the car on my left.

The other slight snag I've found is when approaching a Y junction from the top left hand corner of the Y. The combination of the passenger head rest, the central door pillar and the handle of the rear door gives a huge blind spot. As I use such a junction I've got used to bobbing backwards and forwards to see round it, but its taken some getting used to.

Generally I quite like the new Berlingo, and it is so much easier carrying large things around - which is one of the main reasons why I got it. Its the little things that it doesn't do well! Read more

hi

after yet another, COMMON FAULT, on my 2002 1.6 focus. we have decided to get shut of it before it costs more money.

The wife wants a scenic or a Zafira, which would be best in anyones opinion.

cheers

Any comments, good or bad, appreciated Read more

In the hope that some senior car company executives read this

I know that we buyers always want more and more for less and less ? but, you very nice, very helpful people, this would be a way to improve customer service / satisfaction pretty cheaply.

With apologies to any firms that are already doing this - in recent years I have only really looked at Ford and Fiat user handbooks -

Please only put into the handboook the stuff for the car in question

If I?ve got a petrol 1.6 with such and such tyres and dashboard don?t make me look at two dashboard layouts, three specifications of engine oil, five sizes of tyres. Spare me a lecture on diesel technicalities and the stuff about how to get at the spare wheel on the estate. Don?t make me have to flick through the bit about how the cabriolet roof works. I don't want to examine all the car entertainment options for the small details that distinguish mine. Cars are filling up with such a lot of kit that we can do without extra hassle.

If I do later buy an mp3 player, a satnav or some fancier wheels off you, supply inserts for the manual with them at the time.

It would be a bit of fuss to sort this, but it shouldn?t be that hard in this age of bar codes and databases, where everything is computerised already.

As well as user satisfaction it would save on some paper to help your green PR. And add to safety - I don?t want to shock you but I suspect that there are people out there who haven?t taken in every detail of their car?s handbook - make it easier for them.

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