May 2018
My wife's Qashqai is ten years old now. We've had it since it was 18 months old. She has really enjoyed this car and says it suits her perfectly. It's not a posh one, being the entry level Visia trim and a 1.6 petrol manual. No sports car but it bowls along ok and has been no trouble at all.
I steered her towards it in the first place because it's "a Japanese petrol manual" and that seems to have been a good move, because apart from normal servicing, brakes and tyres it's never need any work other than replacing the driver's door mirror on more than a couple of occasions due to her driving "style" :-(
She only does about 6000 miles a year so fuel economy has been acceptable, generally running at about 38 mpg on average. Of course it has never needed a cam belt as that engine is chain cam.
It had an MOT in March and passed without problems and has a short 70,000 on the odometer now.
The thing is, we're now sort of debating whether it's time to change it or whether just to keep it until it dies.
Budget isn't really a major worry in that we could fairly easily afford a new car without too much stretch, but it's the old thing about deciding if we want to or not, or indeed whether it's the clever thing to do given that all cars wear out eventually.
She's not all that bothered either way, her only comment being that she wants to able to rely on her car which seems fair enough.
In truth, for her usage now, she only needs a Yaris or an Aygo or similar, but she's a bit wary of small cars having had a nasty accident in a Ka years ago which resulted in her being cut out of it by the fire brigade. We went to see the remains of that car at the breakers yard and it still puzzles us as to how anyone could have got out of it alive given the crumpled mess it was in.
So, we'd almost certainly be looking at something "chunky" as she calls it if we were replace the Nissan.
Does the panel think we should just keep the current car as it's not showing any signs of being problematic yet, or bail out and buy a new or new-ish replacement?
If the latter, what do you think we should we be looking at given the criteria of "chunky" and reliable?
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Yet another example of the Mrs. May 'led' government pushing an important descion into the long grass rather than doing some work and making a decent choice. And they wonder why they aren't romping away in the polls and in elections of late? Read more
Not a fair comment Ian I'm afraid, this is taken from the 2015 National Audit Office report into the Department of Transport:
"In June 2015, our report on central government staff costs found
that although DfT operates a group human resources function, it
does not plan across the group. DfT believes its agencies are best
placed to do their own workforce planning and there is no need
for an overall plan. We believe that this is a weakness in DfT’s
approach to developing a strategic workforce plan, which could
hinder staff cost reductions."
Note that according to the DfT i.e. Minister for Transport who sets policy within the department, it is believed agencies are best placed to do their own workforce planning and that "there is no need for an overall plan".
So there you have it, planned in chaos IMO, don't expect any decision on plug-in car grant any time soon.
I have a 2011 registered Focus MK2.5 Titanium which I purchased on its third birthday back in 2014. I then converted the front fog lamps to DRL'S using 2 x H11 Cree 7 watt LED lamps and a DRL wiring harness.
The DRL's automatically come on when the ignition is switched on and automatically go off when the side / headlamps switch is activated. Not as is the case of the front fog lamps which are controlled via the front fog lamp switch on the dash.Whilst the latter switch is still physically there as is the wiring harness, it is not connected to any lamps.
Now on the MK2 Focus I had owned for five years before that purchase, I only used the fogs twice for circa two hours in total.
So will the new MOT rules force me to go back to a less visible on road vehicle, with a nigh on redundant set of lamps on the front of it ?
Regards,
JAS Read more
Like the 40yr driver above - I think I've only used mine around 20 or so times in my life time.
I was interested why you use them in mist and heavy rain. Possibly the two worst scenarios. Is it because you want to blind your fellow drivers who, because of your stupidness, cannot see your break lights or just plain annoy them....
I am sure a few years ago, the V5 document gave the number of previous keepers and the name and address of the most recent. However, the V5 which has just arrived for my wife's new (to her) car has only the number of previous keepers and no name.
The car is only 20 months old and was bought from a main dealer, so I assume it was a demonstrator or Mobility owner. In any event, I 'm not worried, only curious; but when did they stop putting the name of the previous keeper on?... Read more
V5C for our Yaris arrived last week and full details of previous keeper are on there.
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 125ps Se Nav
or
Seat Leon 1.4 150ps FR Tech
Both same age 2017 and under 8k miles. Leon has less.
Both DSG and petrol.
Seat has COD - cyclinder on demand and driver profiles.
Same price for both. Golf may ‘age’ better... and better interior.
Which would you go for and why?
I’m considering these two models.
Golf alittle more refined / quiet, and higher residuals but Seat very capable and more fun?
It’s tough. I like them both.
I’m buying car for long run / outright, so no pcp finance and changing in 3 years.
Any objective opinions welcome.
Thanks.
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I guess around 12k is my ceiling (psychological).That instinct has served me well on several occassions!
For 12K you can just about get one of the mildy facelifted MY17 Mazdas with slightly better refinement and updated interior (same infotainment I'm afraid...)...
Elon Musk was right about his prediction and this is only the start, fancy one in your house?
www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/05/11/boston-dynamics-te...l Read more
Not to worry our government is in complete control.
LOL LOL
I had the pleasure tofay of spending nearly an hour in the company of a hire car company mechaincal fitter/repair guy who was attending a relatives hire van
His pearls of wisdom - ... Read more
I assume he meant the current new shape vivaro as we where talking about new vehicles
I thought the head gasket issue on the vivaro was the previous shape (upto 2015/16)?...
Just bought a Toyota Celica 7th Gen, 190BHP, 2001. This was after my last Celica (99, 140BHP) failed MOT on emissions and had an engine fault with burning oil.
I checked everything as best I could, left no stone unturned before buying, but still I've managed to find an issue! I paid for the car, had it two days and now I've found that there's a leak.... Read more
In each of the front corners, there are drain tubes to allow rainwater to drain away, I suspect these are full of crap allowing the water to gather in the roof.
Thick oil in header tank. No smoke no scum just thick black oil. Had New head year ago, so not thinking it’s that ? Oil cooler ? Any ideas please. Read more
Oil cooler
Hi
Im after a replacement car, I travel about 20k, need a descent size car. top budget would be 11k(ideal 8-9k) mileage under 70k ideally. 2012 onwards. Options I looked at are... Read more
As it has to be an Auto, i'd go with the Hyundai i40, it has a torque converter auto. Buy as new as you can afford, and just to reiterate, it must have a full dealer service history, regardless of what any salesman might try and tell you!.
£9k would get you into a 2014 with > 70k miles, but up that to £10k and you could get into a 2015 model with 2 years warranty remaining, up that again to your £11k max, and you are into 2016 cars....
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Strictly speaking the Ignis is three star without the "safety pack" and five star with it. And, has been pointed out, the 2016 criteria was more stringent that the earlier ones. Having said all that the little diagram showing areas of strength and weakness has an unsavoury looking brown bit on the drivers side.... meaning "weak".