January 2018
The sad reality is that I'm in a financial pickle but still need to buy a used car. So my thoughts are all about cost, both in terms of the initiial purchase price (looking at £600 ish) and potential future costs.
I've seen a Mitsubishi Space Star (1.3 petrol) for sale that looks genuine, well maintained and very reasonably priced. But I'm wondering if any future repair costs would most likely be much more than for a more well-known car. Are parts much more expensive for this somewhat obscure vehicle?! Is yer average mechanic going to be utterly unfamiliar with a Space Star? Would that matter? Etc.
I've also been considering Citroen Picassos because they tend to be cheaper to buy at my end of the market than, say, an equivalent Focus etc. but the ones I've seen so far have all had obvious faults.
So the querstion boils down to: Would I be shooting myself in the foot to buy an obscure car such as the Space Star? Or could doing so be a way of getting a much better car for my limited funds?
I have just read that the VW Passat Estate is now available withe the 14 TSI engine.
The passat is quite a large estae (obviously).... Read more
I own an Octavia Combi 1.4Tsi and consider it of a similar size to a Passat Estate, I owned a model B5.5 many years ago.
Overall I have got 47mpg (according to the computer) but on long runs over 54mpg is possible. Hanging bikes on the back knocks off 10% at least .
I have a iveco daily 2012 2.3 s11
And every time the diesel goes below halfway she starts to put out smoke and will stand up on road but will start again straight away but if full tank there us no issues
Anybody else have this issue Read more
I'm in the process of buying a 2 y.o. car from a car supermarket. On top of the price of the car, they are charging me £150 for "indemnity insurance". As far as I can guess, is this to protect the dealer (maybe for professional negligence?) rather than me? Why am I having to pay for this? Does this insurance perhaps protect the dealer if I sue him (e.g. for false representation of the car, etc...?). Are there any circumstances where this insurance is of benefit to me? Could I claim against it, and if so, for what? Read more
Ask to see the policy documents and what you can claim against what false histories. That should provovke an interesting conversation!
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Hi all, first post here although I have been an fan of the site for many years.
Last Feburary I was involved in an accident and would like some advice or views. As a simple summary I drove into the back of a van that was stopped on a roundabout. At this level I do not think there is much question about who is at fault 99% of the time however I really do not think it is as straight forward as that.... Read more
Batsrman you have done your research and made an arguable case. Unfortunately I agree with the posts that you have the responsibility of being able to stop. Even a 50/50 would be of little if any benefit....
Where is the best place to get unbiased information about the quality of a car's headlights ?
I have read critcism of the length and width of illumination with some car headlights but wondered how much is purely subjective.... Read more
No probs, happy to help :)
Hi,
My rear window wiper has stopped working. I checked the fuse and it is fine. I then removed the rear door skin and unpluged the electrical connector block and tested that there is power coming through to it with a test light. There is 3 places on the connector plug where the prongs of the wiper motor would connect / join. The middle female part of the connector plug made the test light come on. nothing happened when i tested slot 1 and 3 slot.... Read more
Do you have a code reader? I use to have mk2 Volvo s40. The front windscreen wipers would periodically stop working. Clearing the DTC for the car made the wipers work ok again. Never did figure out what the car thought the problem was.
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hi,
we got a new peugeot 5008.... Read more
hi,
we got a new peugeot 5008....
Yesterday I realised I had not recieved my road tax reminder so have just spent much of the morning looking for my log book, which at the momengt I cannot lay my hands n. The website says it could take up to six weeks to obtain a new one. With the tax expiring in a few days what is the best way forward? Read more
You need the reference number off the reminder or log book to do it online!
This days there is increased use of technology in car parking = ranging from ANPR through pay-by-card to parking apps. However, the one area where there is absolutely no progress is making parking charges more linear (and fair). A few days ago I picked up a friend from a hospital in the area when a decision to discharge them was made at six in the evening. The pickup area is limited to ten minutes and so I used the car park. But with a slight delay I went over the 30 minutes for £1. The next level is £3 for two hours so the extra two minutes cost £1 each! I had a similar thing there some months ago when I took someone to the hospital for a small procedure. Things overran slightly, as they often do in these cases, and again there was a £2 hike (50%) for about five minutes over. Motorists are a soft target for councils and hospitals but at least they should play fair!... Read more
... I don't agree with charging for parking at hospitals.
Neither do I in principle, but neither do I agree with being unable to park as an out-patient because of the visitors' cars occupying all the spaces. Some urban hospitals' car-parks could be occupied by all sorts of other 'visitors' as well....
Browse
Used to flog these new and they rarely go wrong even in their dotage.. Robust and simple but watch for serious rot on the front crossmember and subframes. Condition and how it drives are more important than make and model at this money and while new dealer parts are expensive they share running gear with many other Mitsubishi’s so parts aren’t that hard to come by at scrap yards. These make great banger runabouts. I’ve seen ex driving school Colts with this engine and gearbox with over 200k and running well.