November 2017
LOL! "Are drivers being fined for exceeding these speed limits" (based on environmental \ air quality criteria)?
Erm, the clue is in the "speed limit" bit. It doesnt matter why there is a speed limit. It is the speed that should not be exceeded, you dont get to be the arbitrator of whether the "speed limit" is valid or not. Read more
I have a previous version of this mini Dyson, and although it's fine in general terms there are distinct disadvantages when using in a car. You need to buy the additional really stiff brush otherwise the soft brush supplied merely tickles the dust and has no chance of lifting animal hairs or other bits stuck in carpets.
The supplied long "thin" sucker up of dust is useless as it's width prevents it going down between the car seats and central console and between the seat and door panels. You need to move the dust and stuck on bits with a thin manual brush with very stiff bristles (Asda £2 in the household section) first then suck up with Dyson.
The body of the Dyson gets in the way of seats, fascia, central consoles and underseat areas, but is ok in a big open area like seat tops, rear seats and boot areas.
I found that the old Dyson Animal (DC05) that is wheeled around, and supplied with a flexible hose is far better, admittedly it requires mains power, but you can grab the stiffer rounder brush and apply with maximum GBH to carpets, and other difficult to reach areas without the body getting in the way.
The Trigger Dyson is useful for a quick tidy up more than a serious clean, in my opinion, certainly worth having than not but bear in mind it's limitations.
Read more
Re the comments made on 5th November, I couldn't have put it better myself regarding the limitations of the V6.
36,000 miles over 6 years in a diesel. Unfortunately its a potential disaster waiting to happen, low mileage is simply not good for a modern diesel whoever manufactures it. Read more
Pre-2009 diesel engined cars are no trouble. The problems start after DPFs are made mandatory, and more recently the AdBlue issues especially with VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat diesels. Just avoid these diesels like the plague.
All electric charging points need to be available for all electric and hybrid cars there is no point in having charging points that can only charge particular makes of car the rate of charge is of no use if only a few cars can use the high rate the points need to be adjustable. petrol/diesel stations sometimes have diesel pumps which are for filling lorries, buses etc at a faster rate as they have large tanks. But ordinary fuel stations normally only take about 5 minutes to fill so 10 Minutes is not particularly quick. A flat fee is no use, pay for the electricity you are buying, again this needs to be the same at all charging stations.
Read more
I am looking at cars next week with my son. He is now looking for a 2012 onwards mid size petrol car in tha £8-9k price bracket. Snce my earler V40 thread I have suggested all the usual suspects but decent Mazdas, Hondas, Kia etc are very rare at present. Even 1.6 Focus are few and far between. We havent got a lot to see as yet but ther are still a few days to go. Civic remains my preferred option but its up to him.
Anyway he is keen to add the base BMW 1 to his list and there are a couple of nice looking cars in price range from specialist independents. Not my sort of car in base spec but quite insurance friendly for him.
Searching on this site HJ refers in one Ask HJ response to a known BMW 114.crankshaft issue but a wider Google search doesn't throw up any more info.There are a few references to MINIs - is this the same engine - but nothing I can see specific to BMW 1. Can any backroomer confirm if there is a crankshaft issue with the BMW version or not?
Read more
Thanks for advice to date. Doing a bit more digging it seems the engine in his price range is a version of the Prince engine developed with PSA. Its a 1.6 four cylinder with 102hp. It was indeed shared with the Mini and has been superseded by the 3 cylinder 1.5.
There have been various developments of the Prince engine to iron out problems. Its not clear to me iwhether these were resolved in later cars. At least a low power version will have lower stresses but the number of references to problems has put me off.
BMW engine designations are of course confusing......old 114 was a 1.6, new 118 is a 1.5 and so on. No logic. Hardly worth deleting the badges anymore ;-)
Just needing some conformation with my latest camber readout.
fl = -1.02
fr= -0.32
rl= -1.48
rr= -1.22... Read more
would those camber readings cause me issues when cornering at speed ?...
Honestly I only buy the paper for the crossword, ( i can usually do it with a bit of lateral thinking..)
But did this reviewer drive the car?... Read more
Only reviews I place much value on are located right here on the HJ site. I don't always agree but they do tend to be more honest and in keeping with ordinary Joe Punters requirements rather than just blasting cars round a track testing its ultimate handling limits which are largely irrelevant on most road cars.
I do often disagree with the advice given to people looking for used car buying advice but then that's just me being a stubborn know it all.
Downsized engines suffer from being far too small to do the job they are supposed to do properly and in the long term.
I remember laughing long and loud when Ford were crowing about how their ecoboost lawn mower engine's block footprint would fit on a sheet of A4 paper!
Copy of email to MG
... Read more
Given how few cars MG sells in the UK, you'd think they wouldn't care what cars they sold, as long as they did and the customer was happy with what they were buying? I and others have come across the same 'attutude' at Volvo dealers who don't want to sell us a petrol V40, and especially the T3/T4 engined models, even AFTER dieselgate had erupted world-wide. Did these sales people go to the 'Gerald Ratner University of Sales Persons?'
Unbelievable.
So after 80'000 miles the clutch went and we had it replaced at our local Renault dealer. Since we had it back we have noticed the biting point on the new clutch is very low maybe 2 inches from the floor. Is it normal to have it this low. All gear changes smooth. No issues with drive and no wierd noises. Read more
Do you have excessive free play on the clutch pedal? If so this would be why the clutch bites so low on the pedal. You will need to adjust the pedal linkage which should be easy to do. You should have about one inch of free play. If you do and it still bites low then there's not much you're going to do about it.
Browse
Isn't the Kadjar built in Palencia, Spain, where they also make the Megane?