July 2015
have been told that this model has a Turbo fitted but when u look up engine spec no mention of it ,can anyone help Read more
In Cologne for a few days, noticed that when using a pedestrian crossing even taxi drivers stop. Usually lucky not to get run over by the chancers in colchester. Read more
Something has changed. I often see pedestrians walk across a road at a T junction without looking to see if a car is about to turn. In Slough I regularly saw cyclists at night without lights, or cycling towards me on my side of the road. Lycra cyclists often cycle in groups making it impossible to overtake. There seems to be a lack of awareness of ones vulnerability.
My VW polo 1.4 SE 2009 (mileage 25975) broke down 2 weeks ago. The engine suddenly switched itself off while waiting at the traffic lights. I ignited the engine again a couple of minutes later, drove 100metres and the engine switched itself off again.
I brought it to the VW dealer for repair. The technician said it cost £1943 to fix it. 12 hours labour work, replacing the engines valves, striping the engine for proper clean, then rebuilding the engine.
It is only 6 years old with reasonably low mileage. Is it worth fixing the car or buying another car? Read more
I think (might be wrong) that a 1.4 2009 polo has the old cambelt engine where the belt needs changing at 40k / 4 years or whichever sooner.
Should be a much cheaper fix at an independant. There ae TWO belts on the engine - change water pump and antifreeze at the same time....
As most new BMWs are owned by Businesses, I doubt if a £140 annual bill will be of too much concern to their drivers.
My bigger concern is the assumption that Diesel-powered cars are less damaging to the planet than petrol cars, because of their lower Co2 emissions.... Read more
No-one ever mentions the noxious emissions produced during the manufacture of every new car which are massive world-wide. Far too many vested interests and jobs involved to do anything about that! Maybe we should all consider running our cars for an extra year or two before changing which would help reduce manufacturing emissions.
Hi Dan
Thank you for your article regarding the changes due in 2017.
As a small business owner currently thinking of buying 3 new vans I was just wondering if there was any update on how these changes may effect commercial vehicles?
Cheers
Rich Read more
Hi Richard,
I'm Harry, I work for a Vehicle Finance company....
Some might argue that the new scheme has little to do with reducing emissions but more to do with raising revenue. Assuming that the personal income to purchase the vehicle has been ethically earned, it is grossly unfair to penalise a buyer for pending more than £40k on a car with green credentials. If someone chooses a BMW i8 over an old Ferrari they should not be penalised. It is a disgrace that for example Tesla and their customers should similarly penalised if the car has zero emissions.
Arguably the government should be penalising on high emissions NOT list price. Manufacturers invest huge ammounts in developling & making zero or lower emission cars & considering VED rates.....only for the chancellor to move the goalposts.
I totally agree folk who are relatively rich should pay more tax but this is arguably a lazy and thoughtless way to get it. Arguably more should be done to look at currently legalised corporate tax evasion rather than punishing folk for spending a relatively mere £40k on many cars which are far cleaner than many others.
Top points to the chancellor for demotivating manufacturers to make lower emission premium vehicles.
Some might now instead choose to buy a fuel thirsty supercar instead of a low or zero emission car that costs £40k or more.......A total nonsense
Read more
Vehicle drivers already pay taxes proportionate to their usage (Fuel Tax). If VED is supposed to be the tool for funding road maintenance how is it fair that a vehicle costing £39K should pay less than a car costing £40K? What is more concerning is the confusion around the definition of List Price. Joe down the road has exactly the same car as me but I have a tow bar. That tow bar has just cost me an extra £310 in tax because my car now costs just over £40K. If I had added an aftermarket towbar I would end up with the same result but will pay less tax! Madness!
Is a towbar tax actually the way forward?
no longer pressure to buy low emission cars, everything £140/year might as well have a V6 then.....after all we spend 50% time sat at temporary lights and so yet again everyday tax payer is hit ! Read more
Hi, can someone help me please?...I put a new battery in my wife's 07 plate Mondeo, fitted with a 6000CD radio. We did not have the radio code for it, but I got one from an e-bay site today. It does NOT seem to work. The radio serial number (obtained by using buttons 1 & 6) came up as 053472; I was given the code 7204. Having entered the code I pressed 5 to save it, but it didn't save. The enter code ---- came up again with [1] after it. I tried it again (in case I had mis-entered it), the same thing happened but with [2] at the end. Am I dong something wrong or is this perhaps the wrong code or could the radio have been re-coded at some stage, she is 2nd owner. Read more
Hi There,
yes you are correct but we do supply them 65% cheaper than Ford sell them at check out OnlineRadioCodes.co.uk ...
I am going to buy a used car from a local car dealer, the MOT for that car is less than 6 months,
I was told the car dealer has resposibility for the car dealer to extend the MOT to 12 months if they sell a used car with MOT less than 6 months.
Is it correct? And if so, what regulations or law should it apply to?
Thanks Read more
An interesting slant on this thread is the law on selling cars here in France.
Any car sold privately or by a dealer must have a french mot certificate not more than 6 months old- cars are tested every 2 years here....
hi, just replaced clutch cable on my daughters 2002 1.4 206, clutch worked once and then a bang and now pedal goes to floor but doesn't disengage clutch, making an awful noise when engine running. Have checked cable and it's working but the clutch arm on top of gearbox can now be pulled with one finger.... Any ideas what is the problem now? Is it likely to be the clutch itself or summat like the release bearings, the noise with the engine running sounds like something is grinding... Any help with this would be fantastic. Read more
I had exactly the same on my first Fiesta - the clutch cable breaking was an indication there was a problem with the clutch. The weakest link in the chain of problems was the old clutch cable and it failed.
New cable fitted which was of course stronger, this put extra strain on the failing clutch components and they failed rather than the cable.
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