February 2024
After a year of fewer than 6,000 trouble and penalty free miles in our now 4yr old Peugeot 2008, the renewal premium has gone up from £309 to £486!!!!! Looks as though it's meerkat comparison time. Read more
Hi all
I bought a car last week that had disabled tax on it.... Read more
Today I received a text message and missed called from an insurance underwrite asking me to call them about an alleged incident I was involved in.
Having checked that they were indeed the underwriter on a now-expired policy and that the number they gave was for that firm, I gave them a ring. ... Read more
Yes, she’s right, don’t worry about it. But sometimes we can’t help but be scared or cautious because scams these days are getting more creative.
I need an estate car. Budget is £3000. Need to keep running costs to an absolute minimum. Ford Focus estate seems to meet my requirements with a decent reliabilty record and less expensive repairs than rivals. They're more common and cheaper to buy too.
For my budget I can get early ecoboost models, a variety of diesels and normally aspirated petrols.
The normal petrols will cost me about £360-400 per year more to run based on tax and mileage than an ecoboost or diesel. I intend to keep the car for at least 3 years, so the lower running costs would save me over a grand by year 3.
However, the ecoboost and diesels introduce complications that are more likely to affect cars at the age and mileage I'm looking at. Turbo/injector/dpf problems could easily cost more in repairs than the savings made on tax and fuel.
It's a risk vs reward I'm still weighing up and it applies to most other makes and models when it comes to the choice between petrol or diesel.
My question specifically related to the Fords though are ecoboost vs TDCI. The ecoboost won't have DPF problems, and hopefully less soot/carbon issues than a diesel. Both could suffer turbo issues though. I've read plenty of owner experiences of the ecoboost turbo being a problem, but I can't tell if it's any more likely/expensive than typical diesel turbo problems.
My wife has owned two ecoboost fords but both were new PCP deals so never went wrong in the time we had them. Both were punchy and enjoyable to drive for 1.0 petrols so I'm tempted.
Big difference between her brand new cars and the 100k plus 12 year old cars in my budget though.
Which would be the safer bet for reliabilty and potential repair costs, the ecoboost or the TDCI? The TDCI would save me slightly more in fuel, but obviously introduced a DPF which is a big potential drawback over the ecoboost.
Thanks for any help, all opinions welcome and appreciated.
Read more
. My concern is reviews for all 3 suggest the 1.6 petrols are sluggish and lack acceleration. I drive a lot of rural/single carriage way roads so need to overtake slow vehicles often. I appreciate the confidence a bit of poke gives me when I need it. Have you driven the 1.6 Yamaha and is it nippy or lacking in that department?
Yes, our Mk1 Focus estate 1.6 Zetec was nippy enough. It had the reliable maintenance free 4F27E Mazda/Ford 4 speed autobox which provided skill-free gear changes at max revs ensuring maximum use of available power for overtaking. I don't know when this excellent TC g/box was discontinued and replaced by the troublesome 'powershift'. Anyway, there were no powertrain problems till it was sc***ped at over 160,000 miles -original cambelt and third set of spark plugs. Overall mpg 36-37.
When I bought my car last year (TDi) I was doing regular 60 mile motorway trips 2 or 3 times a week. Since then my circumstances have changed dramatically and I am now finding myself doing mainly town driving for short distances and I suspected that this may become an issue in time.
I am finding that the car is performing regens more and more often but have been caught out by quite a few of them (not realising - quite why clever manufacturers can't 'invent' a dashboard notification is beyond me) where I have killed the engine before it's been fully completed. Each time i have made sure the car's next run is a lengthy one at higher speeds and have noticed no repetition....until the next time when I have reverted to town driving once more. The need for me to have to take the car on a run purely to negate this is becoming irritating.... Read more
Just wondering what the logical connection is between heated mirrors and a diesel regen ... ??...
We all remember Victor Meldrew s exasperation when he played the cassette recorded by the Honda mechanics .
Much the same story from me -
Brand New Civic coupe 1995 sold 2003 zero repairs...
I'm wondering what a banger is these days? Twenty or thirty years ago a banger, IMO, would be considered a very rusty, shabby car on its last legs. When advice was asked this week on what someone should replace her Ford Fusion with, someone wrote £2000 was banger money. My C-Max I've just bought for £1890 is pretty well immaculate inside and out (bar some wear to interior door handle inserts and a scuff on the rear bumper), no way is it a banger.
So what is a banger? Sub £2000 cars have served me very well for over 20 years, except the £650 Citroen ZX I bought in a hurry, my fault I didn't check it over properly. Got shot of it within a year. Read more
ALL modern cars are bangers
My understanding of the term, is that it was originally applied to a disposable car for which a significant (perhaps MOT) failure would result in replacement rather than repair....
Hello All,
i decided to clean the injectors on my RAV 4 D4D 2007, which were badly carbonized and the spray pattern was out...i refitted them and the car started and ran a lot better than before, we had real issues even starting with the clogged injectors....Unfortunately for me, i did not change the small rubber join on the injector shaft which has lead to some problems...... Read more
Btw the DNPR has it's own injector & iirc the injectors use a copper washer.
You did put the injectors back in the correct cylinders that they came out of? Otherwise the ECU may need recoding/injectors re-calibrated. ...
I have just purchased a brand new MG ZS and the cruise control functionality is inconsistent, when using the lever to accelerate or de accelerate via the one mph increments. Sometimes it misses and you have to activate the lever again, sometimes it doesn’t work at all and sometimes it just jams the whole system up, meaning you have to turn it off and back on again to regain its activity.
The jamming up occurs, during deceleration when the speed reaches a figure that contains a 7 or a 2 in it, very strange and annoying. For example, if you decelerate from 40mph to 35mph using the 1mph increments it will jam at 37mph. If you decelerate from 35mph to 30mph using the 1mph increments, it will jam at 32mph. This happens in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s etc…..... Read more
Hi,
I am having the exact same problem. My car has currently been on the garage for over 3 weeks and still they have not sorted it. Have you had yours fixed?
A strange situation has arisen and for the first time we can recall my wife has been asked for proof of address. Historically we have used passport and driving licence but this time, for some reason, they want a utilities bill or similar. To cut a long story short, my wife doesn't have a suitable bill in her name alone. Bank statements are paperless and a printed one is not accepted as it must be original. I had a brainwave and I thought of the V5, which is a paper document and it has the full name and address. However, it seems this is not deemed suitable as the name a car is registered in is not cross checked. I that were the case then surely I could register my cars in the name of Prince William? Is this the case? Read more
Many of these institutions making these requests are not interpretting data protection rules correctly or the requirements under money laudering.
I'm regestered under MLR & Data protection....
Browse
.jpg)
Last year's premium with Direct Line was £350. This year's renewal, £550! I make that a 63% rise. Out of interest, I applied as a new customer and the quote was £770.
LV and Aviva both quoted £380 and Halifax, who are my bank quoted £370 so I have insured with them. Cannot understand the huge rise with DL.