September 2021
Looking at buying a Leaf from a dealership at the other end of the country and can't travel to pick it up, so doing as a distance sale. Obviously this comes with pros and cons that I've carefully considered.
I intend to mitigate some cons by getting a competant pre-purchase inspection on the vehicle - but have read some comments online about AA/RAC inspections being a total waste of time and carried out by staff who commonly miss issues. Given it's an EV and so there are other priorities to inspect vs. an ICE vehicle, this is a concern.
So two questions:
1) What are your experiences of using AA/RAC/other organisations with pre-purchase inspections?
2) Are there reputable EV-specialists that could come and do this inspection instead? Read more
Hi all,
I'm looking at getting my 2nd approved used from Audi, no issues with the first one but worried about the 2nd (not yet finalised).... Read more
My recollection is that when ex-rental has come up over the years that the consensus was that they could be good buys. Any second hand car is a risk.
The Pug 207SW I keep rabbiting on about has Peugeot number plates, was bought from a Pug dealer and was first registered to the dormant company that Pug uses for its lease or rental cars. I got it at 8 months and 13K miles old; it had very few signs of abuse, but for a small but surprisingly deep gash inside the driver's side window. I have no idea how that could have arisen, but like an unusual birthmark it could provide a unique feature if a stolen car had to be identified :-)
I've been doing bangernomics for a while, and have presided over the demise of five cars now, and not one of them was scrapped due to 'piston ring wear' - which is what everyone tells me you need to get the oil changed to prevent, so I'm thinking why bother changing the oil?
2 of them were head gasket going... Read more
Most of the cars I have scrapped have been due to timing belt failure, especially when they are over 10 years old
I have a strange problem with a Crossland which I bought 6 months ago it is a one year old car. On two occasions, I believed I had pushed the gear into first but it shot back. I was totally confused and didn't know how this has happened as I was sure I didn't lift the ring on the gear stick to engage reverse which is left to first.
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Thabk you Lee, I will take it back to them.
Down at the Kia dealer, taking the Sportage in for a safety recall, and was offered £200 less than I paid for it as a PX aginst a new stonic,2 .
Slightly smaller than the Sportage, which has done sterling service.... Read more
Hi, can’t get the castrol oil at any of the kent euro car parts but did find shell helix ultra 0w20 for £11.27 which is fully synthetic, my stonic is on 17 “ alloys and the spare wheel well is where the hybrid batteries live so it just comes with the Kia sealant and compressor, l have also bought a holts tyre sealant for a fiver from Tesco which was on offer! My onboard mpg reckoned after my first long run it was averaging 58 mpg! I did leave it in eco with out thought and varied my speed around 58to 65 on the motorway avg as obviously running in,by the way 2 weeks in and my sat nav has told me it has an update available! Which the dealership has agreed to do foc.
I bought an ex-demonstrator Xceed plug in hydbrid about 4 weeks ago and I thought I'd let you know my thoughts on it.
I managed to get a First Edition model which has every conceivable option on it.To name a few it has a power tailgate,electric memory seats,sunroof,heated seats in the front and rear,heated steering wheel,cooled seats,digital dash board and every safety item such as blind spot monitoring,lane keep assist,collision avoidance etc.... Read more
As an update on my original post,I have been away for a few days and got to test the car out on motorways and A roads. The lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control worked perfectly on the motorway,keeping the correct distance from the car in front and virtually driving itself with lane keep assist.I set off on my journey with a full charge(32 miles) and left the car in automatic mode to juggle the battery and engine as it saw fit.During my various journey's and the motorway back again the car returned 63.4mpg overall. The app that comes with the car proved to be a godsend.I could search for my destination in the hotel room and once found,send it to the car.When I then got in the car the destination was already on the screen and asking if I wanted to start navigation.Very handy and saved alot of time messing around with the touch screen.The car has a raised suspension height and so even on 18" wheels,it coped very well and was very supple. I did find that SPORT mode was hugely addictive on the twisty roads and sharpened up the response very well(at the detriment of the fuel consumption).
Overall I am still very impressed by my Kia Xceed and I think ORB is pleased with his new Kia.The quality and value for money has come in leaps and bounds and they are highly recommended.
Looking at a 2013 Petrol 1.6 Zetec Ford Focus.
... Read more
“ Unfortunately my budget cannot stretch any further. I have seen about 10 cars and this is the best of a bunch.”
I’d hold off and buy something older with less miles. Forget image and reg plate, buy something less likely to go badly wrong. The 1600 petrol Focus is a good engine but at 150,000 miles it’ll be worn out.
Hi folks, looking for a bit of advice with regards to charging my Mazda 6 battery. With working from home now almost entirely full time, my annual mileage has plummeted to such that I am only half way through my third tank of fuel this year. Naturally this has not been entirely optimal with keeping the battery in tip top shape.
To date I have had to remove the battery from the car once the start stop system stops working (this apparently happens once the battery drops below 65% charge) and charging it with my CTEK CT5 battery charger. Replacement Q85 batteries are expensive and I don’t much fancy having to replace one because it got damaged by being discharged too much.... Read more
From what I hear - rather like with traditional hybrid cars, these systems hate doing short journeys from cold. They need time for the main battery to recharge and only then will they charge the secondary system.
That's why I personally think it's daft to have such systems (plug-in hybrids and EVs are obviously less affected) in small city/shopping cars - like with this situation, they just end up as dead weight and cost a small fortune to replace if required....
Hello,
I have been informed my catalytic converter is clogged up.... Read more
People with clogged 2-stroke exhausts used to sometimes use oxy-acetylene. You got it cooking on the mix then switched to just oxygen.
You got a lot of smoke, and either a clear exhaust or a little pool of slag where it used to be.
If only more would follow their example. Perhaps Toyota could launch Daihatsu as their budget brand.
www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/dacia-keep-car...s Read more
I had the pleasure of sitting in a new Sandero today. A lass at work turned up with a new 1.0 TCe Comfort and I have to say that I was impressed. The price tag at around £13k is no longer the bargain it was but it’s a much nicer wee car to sit in than the first gen. I’d still favour a used Mazda 2 for that money though, it’ll still be running sweetly when the Dacia is falling to pieces but at £10k (ish) the lower spec 1.0 TCe Essential does make a great deal of sense new. It's comfortable and a decent size, the non-turbo 1.0 below that I’d expect to struggle too much with just 67bhp.
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Hi,
If the car is under 3 years old and has been serviced correctly, then you have little to worry about.
The UK wide manufacturer warranty can still be applied.
Do EV cars have a battery function like IPhones which tells you the battery’s health?
If so, it will be worth asking for this information.
I am not sure what the cut off would be, but assuming anything less than 80% battery health would be a reason to avoid as EV car as that means you have lost a 1/5th or more of its manufacturer charge potential.
Also ask the dealer questions in writing such as has the car been in an accident? Has it had any body repairs? What are the tyre tread depths?