After a cheap diesel to get me from work and back (short motorway miles) and after saving up £1500 I've decided on either: Vectra 2.0DTI, 1.9 CDTi, 2.2DTi or Mondeo 2.0TD, 2.0TDCi. May be willing to push my budget to £1700 for a golf.

I've been reading about all the DMF problems and it's sort of put me off... Read more

hi i have a 2003 vauxhall combo that sometimes wont start when cold but will start with a jump start or a small push.when it is hot sometimes it will start other times it wont.the engine management light does come on sometimes and when i pluged it in the fault it said was the egr valve.someone told me it could be a heating unit at the back of the engine,or if i put a very strong battery in it.so if anyone came across this problem or knows what the problem is i would be very grateful.thanks Read more

I have recently had a BMW 520d SE on a 3 day extended test drive and here are my thoughts.

To put a bit of background to this, my company car is due for renewal and I had originally short listed a Merc E and a 5 series for test drives. Unfortunately the E has now been removed from my list so although I wasn’t that keen, I decided to drive an Audi A S-Line as a comparison to the BMW 5 series.

Anyway, the BM was delivered and had circa 5,000 miles under its belt so was loosened up nicely. Initial impressions on driving it away were underwhelming. I was expecting a lot but it just felt a bit flat. It felt a bit faster than the Audi, a bit better ride, a bit better handling but nowhere near what I was expecting. The car also had a very lethargic feel to it.

I parked it up and did some research overnight.

The car was loaded up with options and I believed it was also fitted with variable dampers. As I couldn’t get that option, I just left the car in comfort as I believed this was as close as I could get to a standard car.

However, the button that moved from Sport to Comfort is standard. It adjusts the weight of the steering, the throttle response and the revs that the auto gearbox changes at. The car did NOT have the optional variable dampers.

Using this button did make the car much better. Leave it in Comfort for most driving including motorways for a relaxing drive but a quick flick to Sport for overtaking or fast B road blasts and the car was much better. Still a bit of a barge but it is a large car and it you want total B road thrills, perhaps a 3 series is better suited.

On the motorway, it was excellent. 80MPH was 2,000 RPM in 8th gear and the car felt effortless. Steering weight was heavier than the Audi and had a nice feel to it. Wind noise was very low, lower than the Audi for sure.

Inside, the BMW did feel smaller than the Audi even though you did have plenty of space but I felt the seats were not as comfortable as the Audi’s. Surprisingly BMW charge you if you want to add lumber support which I think is a total rip-off in a car costing over £30k. All in all though, the BMW is an excellent mile muncher as I expected.

B road thrills are there if you allow for the bulk of the car but it is not streets ahead of the Audi by any means, slightly better, just a bit….

Boot size goes to the Audi. Officially there is only 20 litres in it but the Audi is a more uniform shape so is more usable.

If you are paying your own fuel, the BMW is significantly better than the Audi (according to trip computers). The Audi was about 40MPG, the BM about 55MPG with 55MPG easily shown on an 80MPH motorway run.

So, decision time after 600 miles in the BMW and similar number in the Audi A6 S-Line.

I went into the Audi expecting little but it over delivered. I went into the BMW expecting a lot and it under delivered. Ultimately there is swings and roundabouts of both cars but they end up both as very good cars and are difficult to separate.

I fully accept that some people may say that the S-Line Audi and the SE BMW are not fair comparisons and I should be comparing the M Sport. Well they are the same price to me from my lease company so that is why they are being compared.

The BMW is a slightly better driver and is more economical (however as I have a fuel card that is of no concern to me). The Audi has better equipment (Sat Nav, Sports seats with lumber, better quality leather, better stereo, Xenon’s) but lacks heated seats and electric seat adjustment.

Whichever car I choose, I think I will be satisfied. Read more

I have recently partially lost the use of my left leg. Therefore I need to purchase a smallish car with automatic transmission, preferably a diesel engined one as economy is also a consideration. I hva looked at Opel/Vauxhall Corsa. Citroen C3. Toyota Yaris. Chevy Aveo and similar cars. But looking on various forums it seems as though all references to smallcars with automatic transmissions seem extremely unreliable. Are they really that bad or is it just that only the faulty ones get mentioned, could there be thousands of happy car owners who have never had troubles with automatic, or semi automatic transmission units but just never put pen to paper, or fingers to keys. ??. I apologise in advance if this is an old subject on here, but I am new to this site. I would really appreciate views and advice from people with experience, good or bad.

I am leaning towards a Toyota Yaris diesel which can be purchased with a 6 speed automatic, second choice a Yaris petrol with Multi drive constant velocity set up. ... Read more

Due to a back operation I couldnt do my normal oil change. I saw this well known company advertising an oil change, using Castrol Edge 5w 30 fully synthetic for my Lexus at £38 including filter. I couldnt buy the oil and filter at that price so yesterday had them do it after thinking about if for a few weeks.

I woke up this morning to a quite major oil discharge over my new block paved driveway, something just told me this would go wrong.... Read more