July 2012
My Peugeot 53 reg, automatic keeps cutting out when driving, then restarting immediately. Also the airbag warning signals and stays on and the fuel gage signals as empty when it isn't. What is going on please? she also drives slowly and judders first thing in the morning as if she is going to stop especially up hill. I have had her regularly serviced. Many thanks Read more
Thought I'd do a four year report. Mercedes CLK 320 Cabriolet 2000. Bought with 94k on the clock 4years ago from an indie for 10k. costs under £300 to insure, tax is about £190, mpg around 30 with a little care. Servicing is around £200 for an 'a'
service at the excellent specialist in Kingsclere and a 'b' service nearer £450 every 2 years. Apart from tyres and brakes the pse pump went which was around £600 and the roof mechanism failed....£1000 plus at the main dealers....£100 at indie who replaced a part. Passed its mot this morning with advisories on tyres. I've done 10k a year on average and have clocked up 140k. I could be lucky and get £3k in exchange if I wanted to swap. So far the tin worm hasn't got me and I've not broken down or failed to start. I was thinking of a practical classic car in my retirement but I'm nearly there with this one so hope to hang on. Read more
My wife has got a newer car and her old one is polished up for sale. It is in extremely good condition but now I thought I might run it around for bit as a second car ( I have only a SORNed MGB and a bicycle!) as it can't depreciate much further.
How can I best get , say, six months insurance and then get rid of it next Spring? Will I have to pay a full year regardless? You know what insurers are like!... Read more
Admiral Insurance do a multi car policy for 2+ cars.
Hi, I bought a second hand Vauxhall Zafira 3 months ago. Driving home 3 weeks ago, the car came to a complete standstill, seems the engine had packed in. I accepted that I wasn't likely to get the people I bought the car from to pay for repairs/ replacement as I couldn't prove it was their fault so bit the bullet and decided to put a replacement engine in the car. Garage have just phoned me saying that having put the engine in (and put new timing belt, oil etc) the engine is not working, no compression on chamber 1 (does that make sense?). The engine came with 3 months warranty but it states on the company website that they will not compensate for the cost of installation, only for the cost of the part. I just wanted to know if this statement was a legal one or if there was a case for claiming they pay for the cost of intalling the engine since they supplied a substandard engine. Obviously, this is not the fault of the gfarage that put the engine in and I will pay them for their work, just wondered if I could claim this money back. Thanks for your help. Read more
Hi, thanks for your replies. Wishing I had gone down the refurb'd engine route now. Decided not to originally as the car isn't that new and it seemed like a lot of money to spend. No, it wasn't that company that sold me the engine, thanfully. The engine supplier is now only willing to refund me the full amount I paid if I return the engine to them (thereby incurring more garage costs for taking the engine out) otherwise the are only willing to refund value of the engine minus thier original carriage costs of £60, which considering their failiure to provide an engine that was fit for purpose, seems a little bit tight! Plus they will presumably have to pay further carriage costs to get the engine back to them.
I used to like this car. [img]http://www.demama.info/g.gif[/img] Read more
Hi looking for some help, i bought a 2006 mazda 6 2ltr in march with 62k miles and 12 months mot. After a couple of weeks i noticed every time i stopped ie traffic lights and sat idleing i could smell rotten eggs had a diagnostics done no codes was told cat might partialy blocked and front o2 sensor was lazy.
Changed the cat and front o2 sensor which is a 5 wire 2 plug with second hand one,s which i was told was working fine on car they came off but the egg smell is still there.... Read more
Would it fail its MOT or would the emissions be ok?, its not due until march and thats
my main concern.Keep it and live with it or consider moving it on while its still has 7 months left
Question - do insurance companies have legal right to demand copy of drivers licence at start of new policy? Please read lead up to question below:
I took out an fully comp insurance policy with a new company to start on 9 june. They sent letter stating I must provide them with proof of my protected no claims and copies of drivers licence for all named drivers on policy - thats me and my boyfriend. I have had continuous insurance for over 20 years, my BF has been on my insurance (as well as his own) for past 3 years and I have never been asked by previous companies to provide licence for either of us.
I dont have issue with providing it, have nothing to hide but have had probs getting all info to them.
They gave me deadline of 24 June to get details to them. My previous insurance brokers were useless when it came to admin - have told them 3 times of my change of address and still not updated plus they had wrong number of years listed on protected no claims despite me faxing them proof from my previous insurers to them so after alot of mis information between the 3 various insurance co's I had to contact my original insurers (more than) to ask for proof of protected no claims so I could provide to my last insurers (Grove & Dean) so they could update their systems and then my latest insurers (sheilas wheels) could accept this info. None of them would deal with it verbally over the phone unless its deemed an emergency, until then you have to rely on snail mail and email.
I asked for an extension of time from sheilas wheels because more than would take too long to get it to me (10 working days) and sheilas wheels amended extension till 1st july telling me to just get intouch if there was still a problem with timings.
I had planned to provide both proof of no claims and my drivers licence in one hit. (my mistake was also not reading letter properly and just thinking they want my licence only but they were wanting mine and my partners).
I realised yesterday that I still hadnt received the letter from more than about protected no claims so chased them about it and gave them permission to speak to grove and dean if I could get them to call them and get correct up to date info.
I also called sheilas wheels yesterday and was told they could speak to my last insurers with me on the line to confirm verbally what proof of no claims should be. But that they still needed my drivers licence (no mention of my partners) and told me to fax it today - which I did and confirmed they received it. Problem is they told me today they also need my boyfriends drivers licence and could not extend the time any further so if I couldnt give it today he would either have to be removed from policy or they would cancel my policy. Boyfriend has sent his licence off to DVLA nearly two weeks ago (i only found out today).
Upshot is ive had to remove my boyfriend from policy, been charged an admin fee to do it and its increased my premium by £150.
I will add my boyfriend back on to the policy but i'm really quite angry at the hassle and added costs to me. Do they have the legal right to demand copies of licences at beginning of policy? I understand them needing it if you make a claim for accident, etc but not when no claim has been started.......
Read more
Your original post said
thinking they want my licence only but they were wanting mine and my partners). ...
Hi guys,
I'm currently looking at buying a used car. I've been looking for a while now and am now fairly set on a Fiesta Diesel. My budget is around £2500 and I've seen a few on AutoTrader at around this price. I did originally want a Citroen C2 VTR automatic but after hearing some very bad reviews I have changed my mind.
Now with regards to the Fiesta my main question is, is it worth buying a newer model that has higher mileage, or an older model which has less mileage? Theres an 06 reg one on there I have seen that has about 130,000 miles on the clock and an 03 reg one that only has about 80,000. I have never owned a diesel before and want one due to the low running costs as I do around 14,000 miles per year and the road tax is cheap.
So what do you guys think is best?
Many thanks! Read more
There is plenty of choice out there for Ford Fiestas. Make sure it has a full service record whatever the mileage and a long MOT, check body condition and underneath for damage (past and present), check tyres, check internal condition, check engine bay area for front end shunts and inside hatch area for the same reason, check if much smoke is emitting from exhaust as excessive (and black smoke) is a bad sign, avoid any added boy racer kit, avoid any car that has been modified or electronically chipped etc.
Ensure you have a long test drive over different routes, the car should sound and drive ok whatever the mileage, walk away if it doesn't.
Loads of choice, it's a buyers market, if you find/like a particular car then haggle over the price, there is always a discount to be had no matter where you buy from, walk away from anything that doesn't look, sound or feel right.
Hi!I have a Ford Fiesta 1.4 tdci 2003 and i have some problems.My big problem:the engine running dies,stops in whitout reason.The engine stops in time he runs.
P.S. sry my english pls Read more
The M6 was closed today for ages (5th July) because someone on a bus thought a dodgy looking customer was putting a IED together. The DT said the police were "forced" to close the M6 toll road. (obviously they were forced, by the great elf an safety god in the sky).
Ambulances, fire service, tent put up, all the passengers forced to sit in the road. Motorists waiting for god knows how long.... Read more
I think generally that the "operational rules" for the Police have over the years become much more unbreakable, whereas before they allowed for decisions to be made by local officers based on local knowledge and common sense.
That being said, there IMHO has been a sharp decline in "common sense", not just amongst Police officers, but within society as a whole, partly because the majority have allowed the fringes of political opinion, appeasers of law-breakers and related health & safety brigade (none of whom have any common sense - many have never worked outside of politics/government pen-pushing/trade unions/the law/academia to know what the "real world" is actually like) to gradually encroach on every aspect of their lives without a hint of protest until now (possibly too late to do anything?)....
Browse
Interesting - we can see why it cost £10,000 at 94,000 miles!
Still, for many of us interested in cars and their development, although we often say we want to keep a car for years, I think we get itchy feet and want to try out something else and, of course, with newer gadgets - sat navs, parking assists, folding mirrors, bluetooth etc.