Had this car since 2004 and done 40k of fairly easy mileage, with no major servicing just oil/filter changes in the last few years due to the low mileage (4-5k pa). A few weeks ago during the really cold weather the car suddenly started blowing out lots of white smoke at startup and for a few mins thereafter. At first I thought it was excessive steam. The car isn't used every day but sometimes more than once a day and if the smoke appeared first thing it'd not reappear, noticeably anyway, that day. On the other hand when left for a few days the smoke would be billowing out on startup but still go away after a few mins.

Anyway, I took it to a main dealer last week and they did a diagnostic which showed no faults but told me it was symptomatic of a gunked up egr valve. They cleaned this on Tuesday and I collected the car yesterday to find the white smoke had gone. Result! Errrmmmm.... Well, I've just started her up and once again there's clouds of white smoke, I'm not entirely sure but there does seem to be a bit of a blue tint to it but not much to my eye. I idled and revved the car for a minute or two and the smoke went away as before but I'm obviously a) hacked off the £180 hasn't bought me a fix and b) wondering what I do now to find out what's wrong.... Read more

My Passat is rusting on the seams of all doors, boot and bonnet.

VW will not replace doors but are going to repair as discribed below:... Read more

Our Punto has developed an intermittent loss of power steering. Our garage has reset the steering parameters on the onboard computer and last week cleaned all the electrical connections. However we lost power steering again today. It can be restored by switching off the ignition and restarting but this could be dangerous in heavy traffic.

We are advised that the ultimate solution is to replace the steering column at a cost of approximately £1400 which to us is a major amount. The car was bought second hand in October 2012 with a mileage of 18,000.... Read more

The clutch failed at 10,500 genuine miles on my car that was just under 4 years old. Out of warranty, I had a local garage change it in March 2012 at great expence. I thought a proud rivet on the pressure plate was the cause, but since then it was reported in Honest John's web that AP and Borg & Beck clutches were failing due to poor materials, and being replaced with Luk. I did not like the look of the flywheel, and bought a Luk.

The garage replaced the AP with another AP, although I was under the impression they were fitting a Luk. This burnt out last February 2013 at 17,090 miles. Four independent clutch experts examined the two units, and they all said they had not been ridden. All Jaguar Customer Services have offered is 50% off the next service. My last message to Jaguar is that I feel badly let down, plus a few more comments; I am sure there is an issue here regarding Sale of Goods Act 1982? Read more

Living in North Nothumberland we already suffer from a shortage of Honda Service Centres, the nearest one being in Edinburgh, 60 miles away. Having a Hybrid makes this worse, as specialist equipment is required to service them. Does anyone else in the area have the same problem, and if so have you found anyone closer to home who can deal with them? Read more