I spotted our local taxi driver with an MG Zs EV as his latest taxi.

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Hello everyone,

Just had a £300 bill and I’m hoping it wasn’t all wasted !

On our way to Devon on Monday ( a 250 mile trip) for a family break. In the wife’s car , a 2015 Vauxhall Astra Estate. Car was brought 6 months ago and came with a Spoticar 12 month warranty.

Driving along the dual carriageway at 6am and suddenly the yellow engine management warning light comes on , along with the traction light and the ESP service light. My wife who was driving said it stated losing its top speed,

Brilliant ,that’s all we need ! Especially with two young kids in the car. We know there’s a retail park just a few miles up the road , a safer and more convenient place to wait for assistance.

We call the AA and after two hours the guy turns up. He puts on the diagnostic machine but no codes come up, just says misfire apparently. The technician says probably the spark plugs and maybe the coil pack too but changed the spark plugs to see if that’s the problem. He didn’t want to initially change parts that don’t need changing. He took the car off and went to collect the spark plugs , he came back about 20 mins later. No warnings light and the car drove fine.

After changing the park plugs , he told us to drive around the car park whilst he kept his diagnostic machine in and his laptop. Car seems fine and we’re about to go after paying him £50 for the spark plugs when all of a sudden the ESP light comes on again. He then has another look, changed the coil pack which cost us another £240 quid ! Car seems fine and we make it to Devon with no further problems. So spent just under £300.

I call Spoticar warranty phone line , to ask if these parts were covered. However, the kicker is , and I didnt realise this, was that under the warranty, we also got break down assistance and were supposed to call that number in the event of breakdown. And because I went straight through to the AA using my own policy, they won’t cover any works done by them.

My fault entirely I guess but you don’t always remember these things at 6am on a dark car journey with limited internet access and stress!

My question is , does anyone think the coil pack and spark plugs would have been covered by the warranty or is it likely they wouldn’t have been? An expensive lesson learned! Read more

Good morning I’m really hoping someone on here can give me some advice as I’m at my wits end.
I recently bought a Citroen Dispatch van for £7900.00 which was converted into a micro camper, the van was sold with an MOT which was not done by the seller. It had failed on a light and tyres but I have an email from the seller stating the faults has been ‘done’.
Bought the van and drove it for 6 weeks before putting it in for a service as I was off to Portugal on a road trip only to find the van has £4500.00 of repairs needed plus illegal tyres. My mechanic told me not to drive it as it’s dangerous so now the van is not on the road. Cancelled my trip and contacted the seller, they offered £1000.00 towards repairs but I said no and that I want to return the van, they basically told me to eff off. They said checking the tyres was down to me but they literally told me in writing that the tyres had been done, naively I thought well they must have been or else it wouldn’t have passed the MOT.
So I’ve contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau and am thinking I may have a good case to take them to the small claims court.
The issue is I think they’re traders which I’m sure gives me more rights they say nope, they only convert vans for family and friends so they’re private sellers and I have no rights. They’re saying the van they sold me was one they converted for their daughter but she’s moving to Australia so that’s why they sold it to me. I have a WhatsApp message dated 5 days before I went to view the van where she states that her daughter had already sold her van and I’ve found proof on social media their daughter had a completely different van which she did indeed sell. I’ve also found ads on Quirky Campers for at least one van they did up and sold as documented on their instagram page.
So are they traders or not??? If they are I’ll send a letter before court action (as advised by the CAB) and go to court, the thing that concerns me the most is that I’ve been driving around on at least one maybe two dangerous and illegal tyres.
I would appreciate any advice as I don’t whether to take them to court or just sc*** the vehicle as I’d have to spend even more money just to make it roadworthy to sell at a much reduced price due to all the repairs it needs. Thank you in advance! Read more

Hello All,

My wife was involved in a minor accident today.

She was parked outside our son's school, when another passing car brushed the side of her car.
The other driver apologized and exchanged insurance details with my wife.

After coming home I realized that it was just a few scratches, with most being on the plastic bumper, and 2 on the wing panel.
According to my wife, the other car also had a few scratches.

Given that it is a 16 year old car, and has a few other minor scratches, I don't think it's worth claiming from insurance.
I will probably just touch up the scratches with a scratch repair kit.

My wife omitted to ask the other person, his contact number. The other driver serves with the British Army and has insurance with Forces solution.
We are not sure whether he plans to report it.

Should we report this incident to either my wife's or the other party's insurance company? Any advice welcome...

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Just paid £1500 to replace all four injectors on my 2013 Vauxhall Astra CDTi. The work has been done and I've paid so too late to change my mind now but I was just wondering if this seems a fair price. The price also included some diagnostics on the DPF and running a regen to check it was all working correctly, as the DPF was having issues due to faulty injectors.

The garage I went to I've used plenty of times before and the mechanics always seem very professional and good at what they do so even though the quote seemed high I didn't want to risk going with someone I don't know. I use the car for work a lot and needed to get it fixed ASAP by someone I trust. Read more