hi all,am a new user to this site.Anyone help me on the following vehicle:VAUXHALL ASTRA 1.3 cdti estate.Have been offered a superb deal on line for this,which will be a replacement taxi for my failing OCTAVIA with 324000 on the clock.Dont want another Skoda,based on the Isle of MAN,local dealership now closed,so have to stick to main stream models that i can get back up from.Question here is does anyone out there know if this astra has A Diesel Particulate FILTER & B Dual Mass FLYWHEEL. Hopefully youll understand my concerns regards these expensive replacement parts & my concerns,have to keep the costs down.Further to this,any serious owners like to recommend a replacement vehicle,keep my thoughts above in mind,& the dealerships i have avail are FORD,VAUXHALL,ALL THE FRENCH CRAP,NISSAN,TOYOTA,HONDA,VW (VW & SEAT ONLY) thats it really.Would happilly have another Skoda but no dealership on the rock,current VAG GROUP dealership are crap,kept some of my colleagues of road in excess of 2 weeks,means no wages 4 us!!!!!!!
DAVE
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I'm amazed you can do 324,000 miles on the IOM
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Alternative, get away from Diesel and get a lpg converted petrol car.
One suggestion Vectra C, many of these came with the dual fuel option...others may have other suggestions of cars already (manufacturers agent) converted, Astra also available but Vectra probably better size.
This is assuming you have access to reasonably priced LPG on the island.
Unless you're going to get a car a few years old, the things you don't want will be on almost every Diesel car i can think of.
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Thanks for the advice re LPG.Something that to be honest I've not really considered previously. Will look into this seriously,LPG availability reasonable on the IOM,will check prices which I have no doubt will be more expensive than the uk as is our fuel. I think what put me off LPG was my lack of knowledge,read up on this all today & realised this is now a serious alternative for my requirements.
Modern day diesels sound great on paper but in reality I see so many of my colleagues basically living on the dealers service reception,there are no small companies that can sustain repair bills like these.
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I'm amazed you can do 324,000 miles on the IOM
I'm not surprised - I used to do 100,000 miles a year minicabbing around Bedford. Most days a Heathrow run would come in but that was only 58 miles each way, it was quite easy to do 200-300 miles in a shift without straying more than 9-10 miles from the office.
I did work very long hours to do that mileage, but an average-hours owner-driver could expect to cover 40-60,000 miles a year. On that basis a 324,000-miler may well only be 6 years old.
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Thanks for your comments Dave TD, just so all you non taxi drivers should no,to make a living on a cab you need to do in excess of 150 miles per day,add that up over a year & the exra miles done at weekends then my 300k is perfectly achievable.What the negative writer as to my mileage has to understand is that many prof. drivers dont buy brand new cars,mine was bought in 2004,an 03 plate with 48000 on.So work that out & perhaps realisation will kick in.My OCTAVIA sdi is still going strong,not without expense,but has been maintained regardless of expense,an excellent advert for the previous VAG diesels.Still have not sourced another cab,maybe should start a new one to determine the question. SHOULD MODERN DAY MANUFACTURES OFFER A SIMPLE OLD FASHIONED & UNCOMPLICATED DIESEL CAR........................BRING BACK THE OLD PSA & VAG DIESELS.WHO CARES ABOUT EURO 4
Snipquote!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 01/11/2009 at 03:43
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Would you not be better off with a bigger diesel engine say 1.7-2.0 not much use when you have a car full of fatties!
The vectra estate is a nice motor and plenty of them taxis around here aswell as the toyota d-4d engine models.
Or how about a merc c220 diesel these run in greece as taxis some covering 600,000kms without a problem on crete!
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Know what you mean, taxi. I'm seriously considering trading my VW PD model for an eighteen month older TDI. There seems to be so much to go wrong with the new diesel engines, and mine hasn't got a DPF, but it has a DMF which I am forever worrying about.
I too miss the PSA diesels, especially the XUD fitted to the 405 and others. Not to get overly nostalgic, the old diesels did break down, but when they did it wasn't overly expensive repair as you could use a local indy.
Unfortunately, due to the compulsory Euro emissions standards, the complex ecu systems and DPFs are here to stay. I wonder if it's legal to buy a new Euro 4 or 5 car and have it re-pollutionised by an aftermarket tuner by removing emission controls, DPF, etc.
As regards the DMF, I've heard that replacing it with a solid flywheel can cause problems as the engine and transmission are tuned for the formers vibration dampening abilities, so I suppose were stuck with DMFs.
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I don't think the 1.3 multijet has DPF if its a year or 2 old but I think the very latest ones do - not sure. I've read plenty about them on the Fiat forums - they seem pretty robust and largely trouble free.
Is it feasible to run something like a 1.6 or 1.8 petrol Toyota or Honda or similar? When I've been over in Cork or Dublin, the taxi drivers there seem to run them into mega miles - especially the Carina/Avensis etc. There's a lot less to go wrong with a petrol engine, although your fuel costs will be up significantly.
Many people have run diesel Fords on here to fairly high mileages (130K +) with significant fuel savings over the duration and no major problems. What I'm not sure of is the component life of the common rail system and whether you can go up into the 200K+ region without new sets of injectors/pump etc - and then that would be possibly uneconomic on a car that earns your living.
I think if it were me, i would be looking at 100K Japanese petrol saloons, buy cheap, run till 200K or 250K, possibly more and judging the right time as to when to do the same again. I think then your overall costs might be more predictable than the unknown of major common rail failure?
Cheers
Baz
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Most "Mercedes"(DB) used on the continent are not standard saloons-they are built as taxis and are a different specification to ordinary saloons in many components(not just taximeter wiring).Other manufacturers including Ford and Peugeot do the same.
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sq
Interesting what is the differance? industrial engine?
Edited by Pugugly on 01/11/2009 at 22:29
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I've just come back from a week in Paris and was surprised at the number of Toyta Pruises being used as cabs over there.
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Im guessing but the French Taxi drivers probably get them at a discount.
In Norway most taxis are big comfy Mercs, and they get a very good deal. Normal cars are VERY expensive in Norway.
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You say no to French cars, but my Citroen Xsara was very reliable (3 yrs 2nd hand and did 60,000 on top of the 40,000 already on the clock). My Megan has covered close to 50k in 25 months and nothing gone wrong at all, with 18k servicing intervals.
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