November 2009
If you bumped your car (i.e. a family member reversed into your car) but had it fixed without going through insurance ? would you tell the person buying the car as and when you sold it? Read more
Hi Guys,
I need your help in making a decision regarding upgrading my car. Ford has offered me this deal out of the blue and I have been thinking ever since.
I have a 16 month old Fiesta Zetec Climate (3 Door). I bought my car on Passport finance scheme and pay £170 per month. The scheme works in such a way that you pay £170 per month for 34 months and at the end you get a guaranteed future value, which is around £2900. At the end of the term, you can either clear off this and keep the car or refinance the amount, or give the car away to Ford altogether (provided it is in decent condition)
Now, I have already made a payment of 16months and got remaining 18months to pay before I reach the guaranteed future value part.
Ford has recently called and offered me an upgrade to the brand new Fiesta (the new design which has 5 star ratings everywhere). It will be the same Zetec model with Metallic paint, 5 Doors this time and the same 1.25lt engine as my current Fiesta but has more BHP and less engine weight.
The offer is that I hand over the keys to my old car and they give me the new car @ £200 per month, again for the next 34 months with a higher guaranteed future value, which is around £4800.
This deal gives me the newer car which has got good ratings, has extra knee bags, 5 doors, good future value, free bluetooth (don?t care much for this), USB port along with standard AUX for music system.
The -ve points are it looks like I have paid these 16 month instalments for just renting the car and will be loosing both time and payments.
So guys, I would like your advise on this. Given a situation like this, what do you do?
Personally, I feel that upgrading my car at this point will be more like a passion for the new one and nothing else. My 3 Door Zetec climate perfectly fits my life-style, but just now and then I keep missing the extra 2 doors!!
Thank in advance..
Regards,
Ravs
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Our old Jazz at £1000 per year for 6 years is looking like it was a bargain!
No wonder the industry loves PCP's - who could really figure out if the deal being offered is "good"?
I *think* I understand them, but after the dealer had talked us through PCP for our new Jazz I was feelling dizzy.
Oh and forget about the £500 deposit - that's gone.
Apart from myself does anyone use their cars performance, but treat it with care. Not holding the car on a slope with the clutch instead of doing a hill start, waiting at traffic lights with foot on clutch instead of handbrake and neutral, violent last minute braking. Driving over kerbs, not slowing down or driving around road imperfections.
And is it a company car or yours! Read more
The cooling down is for turbo-chargers rather than engines and is generally pointless unless you've been using plenty-o-boost (sounds like a Bond character...) just prior to the end of your journey.
More sensibly just keep the engine off boost (typically light throttle below 2000rpm) for the last mile or so of your journey and it's not really necessary.
If you've been zooming around, eg on a race track, the oil in the (red hot) turbo will carbonise and contaminate oilways/oil filters unless thee turbo is allowed to cool first with the engine running.
The rest of the engine will remain at the normal running temp assuming the engine fan/thermostat/cooling system are worming ok.
I have water that are entering the car and wetting the foot rest and carpet when there is rain. I have only just noticed the problem last night and assume that the bonnet seal has been compromised.
According to VW this is not a major problem and can wait until next week to be repaired. I took a look under the steering column and there are alot of electronics there, my worry apart from having wet shoes, is a short ciruit. Any thoughts.
Shouting amended,leave this in Discussion for now Read more
It's a regular subject. Take a look at this thread from a couple of weeks ago and you'll probably find an answer
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=79...1
We've been with the AA now for years and years, simply because they used to carry a small, fold up bike trailer in each patrol vehicle to recover motorbikes.
Earlier this year Mr pda broke down on the XJR, that we owned briefly, in Dagenham and when the AA arrived it transpired that Health & safety has now stopped them being able to use this type of trailer. Despite telling them it was a motorbike on the initial call, he had to wait for a suitable recovery vehicle to come out.
This week we had the renewal for the AA come through and realised that it was £194.00 for a year.
Since the advantage of using them had now gone for our situation, we decided to look on some comparison sites and have just managed to get the same level of cover for £81 per year.
I put on a very gruff voice yesterday and pretended to be Mr pda when I rang to cancel the direct payment for renewal of the AA policy, and was annoyed to find them very eager to offer me a very big reduction on that premium if we agreed not to cancel.
I had already signed up with the new company, so didn't actually find out what the reduction was, as the chappie asked what price we'd been offered and when I explained, he gave up!
What annoys me is that for years we have paid what they have offered us as a loyal and long standing customer, so why haven't we been rewarded as such, by being offered these reductions before.
In principal now, I would certainly not return to the AA, knowing they do this.
Has anyone else found this to be the case with all breakdown services?
Pat Read more
I got my RAC renewal this weekend. £241.00. Sharp intake of breath, reach for computer, got to comparison website.
AA quoted £159. Called RAC, told them of AA price and they beat it. Can't say I'm impressed with that way of doing business with a customer of 10 years standing, but hey ho, seems like both organisations do it. Six/half a dozen.
I could have saved more with an organisation offering a pay and reclaim policy, but I'd rather pay a bit more and not have to muck about with reclaiming if the need arises.
Upshot, I've stuck with the RAC.
Twice in a month a flashing car motif indicates unauthorised key is being used to start the car - and it aint. It's my car, my key.
First time after a few tries I turned the key over and all was OK. Yesterday doing that and trying the spare key failed to cure the problem. The RAC man came and of course - it was all OK when he tried it. The Dealer is quoting £600+ to get behind dashboard to change the unit. Any comments please.
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Is it not still covered by warranty?
hello ive recently changed a engine on a 1,2 16v corsa.i seen the new engine runnin before i changed it,whilst changing it i noticed a plastic connector was broken on the fuel injection system so i took the old one off the old engine and put it onto the new engine.included injectors,carb,other parts with it.all cos scrapyard were animals taken it out!!anyway i started the engine and its hard to start idles very low to start with n like its choking when u press throtle no respsonse n wonts to stall.if u let it warm for a minute it will tick over o.k but when reved it very splutery but will go through the revs.the engine light is on but havent had time yet or money to find out what for.ive changed the sparks and done full service on the car,tried changing the coil packs over from new engine from old and had no effect.anyone help???? Read more
What is the fault code? No point on guessing. This things have to diagnosed in a logical manor, there is no point on randomly changing parts which is what you are doing now.
Hi
I wonder if anyone can help, we desperately need to change our car as the fuel efficiency is quite dire (chrysler grand voyager) and have been thinking of taking advantage of the scrappage scheme namely for a Toyota Yaris.
However as this will have to be financed on a PCP scheme with quite a large final payment we are wondering if we may be better off with buying a second hand car, saving money is a top priority.
I was hoping someone might be able to offer a few suggestions...
I need 5 doors as two small children to get in and out but must also fit
3 in back seat as have teenager to ferry about also.
Fuel economy is most important, i travel approx 40 miles a day in the rush hour round town.
budget about 3k!
Doesn't have to have any extras air con and so on, i just need economy and reliability
Can anyone offer any suggestions as I just don't know what to go for
thanks
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Husbands is smaller, poss 1.6 or 1.4 he's only had it a year it was a company car work were selling off, so got it quite cheap - it is a good car though, he gets good MPG and it just sailed through an MOT which was a first for us, kinda get used to just forking out money all the time
Hi Folks,
Found a very nice '05' plate Peugeot this weekend. The AA Car Data Check highlights a mileage discrepancy:
BVRLA - MEMBER 18/04/2008 28,826
RMI MIL'GE - SCHEME 18/02/2008 24,463
RMI MIL'GE - SCHEME 24/08/2007 20,375
RMI MIL'GE - SCHEME 28/07/2006 10,782
Current mileage is just under 26000!
DVLA records show the car was last taxed until May 2008, so the car has been sitting on a forecourt for 18 months (unless driven illegally of course!). I guess it's possible the April 2008 figure is simply wrong: could it really have done over 4000 miles in 2 months? Any other explanations?
Many thanks for any advice! Read more
sounds dodgy
Sounds expensive! (unless someone else is paying for it of course)
I know this topic has been raised on the forum before and I seem to remember that HJ has raised it as a serious concern some time ago, but has anyone else noticed a spate of accidents on our motorways involving foreign trucks and a cars? I'm doing a fair few miles these days (between 1500 and 2000 a week) and almost every day see or hear from colleagues who have seen accidents where a foreign lorries are involved in accidents. e.g. Saw one on M40 on Thurs, wife saw one on A6 on Friday and there was one on M1 this evening between J29 and 30. Are there more than ever or is it just my imagination? And why are they so common and can anything be done about them?
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Westpig
I appreciate there are both good and bad police drivers
( and an uncle of mine was one for years on the motorway btw)
But I was quite disgusted to watch a police motorway driver ( on Police camera action I think)
Attempting to overtake a left hooker , which was already moving out into the third land.
And he had been correctly consistently indicating right the whole time
Anyway the muppet jammed the police car into an non existent gap
then blamed the truck driver for causing the accident!!!!
he also crashed a police car( on film also) driving down the chevrons
alledgedly "skidding" because a tyre blew out
Now
Iffen I tried that as an excuse with the Polis
what recption would I get??
cheers
M
Browse
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Yes your right - it went global and the chap who was selling lives around the corner from me. People started turning up to his brothers garage to take "undercpver" pics of the car.