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• Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles 14 Jan 2014 (Forum)
   But it is only slightly, and we still need the space of an estate, so this and the lower cost price, the 0% finance, the proper handbrake and the excellent dealer I use (Jewsons of Oxford, shortly to be rechristened Ridgeway Skoda) swayed it in favour of the Octavia. The icing on the cake is 40 mpg on a long run.
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  Why are two dealers charging different prices for the same used car? 30 Jun 2012 (Ask HJ)
  Searching on the official website I found two used Volkswagen Sharans within my budget of £20,000. One was at the local dealership, the other was in another...
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  I need to replace my Hyundai Terracan with something cheaper to run - would a Skoda Scout be suitable? 9 Sep 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I have a Hyundai Terracan 2.9CRDT manual. It has 118,000 miles on the clock, I'm lucky if it is worth £4000. The Terracan does 22-24mpg and I need something...
• MINI Cooper S R53 (2002 - 2007) - Rejecting cherished MINI Cooper S 13 Nov 2008 (Forum)
  I now have several other problems emerging that I am coming to see your service manager about tomorrow afternoon. Its annoying as when I agreed the finance with your salesman he told me how this car would only cost me a bit extra on payments per month than my previous BMW did. This is now not the case as each time I visits either dealership 1 or 2 I?
• Vectra - How much do you reckon... 17 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  ...this is worth? In a rare event of organisation, I was looking at my finances over the weekend and whilst they are in a bit of a mess, things might not be as bad as I'd previously thought. When I sold the Focus, I took out a £4,000 bank loan, put some cash to and used the part ex value of the Focus to buy a Merc.
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  Can you recommend some of your readers watch the programme "Classic Car Restoration"? 15 Dec 2012 (Ask HJ)
  I have no wish to be rude to your readers, but the chap from Bristol, who paid £22,000 for an unfinished Beetle restoration wants his brains testing. It...
• What's the point of the Hats?! 4 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  Sales manager then asks if I'd like to buy it - 'yes' - but only if it's got a Bosch pump (or, at least, not the horror story pumps) and we wouldn't know until Monday when the importers could be contacted. "No problemo", breezed the SM - except that the special finance deal was coming to an end, and if we were to benefit from it a car had to be ordered as soon as possible (I know...I know) SM made suggestion - pay a £500 deposit to allow an order to be placed on the system - and if it transpired that the fuel pump was one of the dodgy brand, no problem, the £500 would be immediately refunded.
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  Consumer rights 9 Apr 2012 (Ask HJ)
  I bought a 2 year old Corsa from a franchised Vauxhall garage last month and I have received what I would call "shocking" service levels from them. There...
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  I''ve found a Land Rover Freelander 2 for sale in Spain - is it safe to buy? 1 Jun 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I am in the process of buying a car UK registered car currently in Spain. The owner moved there some months ago and is arranging the sale via a shipping...
• Mitsubishi Outlander-Could it be a failed DMF on? 24 May 2020 (Forum)
  Trying to deliberately induce clutch slip - steep hill, manual mode, 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear results in wheel spin (2wd) or acceleration (4wd) with no detectable slip. Finally! The cars got a couple of years of finance left, so I can't really afford to ditch it at a loss. But I also have a warranty, however the nearest garage that is one of their "network" garages, that is even prepared to look at this is a Peugeot dealer - 100ml round trip (the 4007 was identical to the Outlander).
• BMW Z4 Coupe - Help needed please, mis-sold BMW approved used car 6 May 2012 (Forum)
  I have set out the situation below which is causing me a great deal of stress so hopefully someone can help me to resolve this. Recently decided to buy my dream car so got the finances together and started looking for a BMW Z4 Coupe. Decided on the BMWAUC route to ensure peace of mind when spending so much money. Found the perfect car, but was in a BMW dealership 300 miles away (this was 4 weeks ago) Registered March 09 22k miles Knowing how fast good examples can sell I called up straight away and was assisted by the sales rep who was really helpful and pointed out all the small defects on the painwork etc.
• Audi A1 - Reject New Audi 28 Mar 2012 (Forum)
  The car is on a PCP Agreement and during the period they have had the car 50 Days out of the 120 days I have owned it. I sent a letter of rejection to the supplying dealer, Audi Finance and Customer services and was informed they would not reject the vehicle as they believed they could resolve the issue and an agreement was made for the vehicle to go in on 1 further occasion: 23/2/12 and they would keep it for up to 1 month.
• Audi A1 - Reject New Audi 21 Mar 2012 (Forum)
  The car is on a PCP Agreement and during the period they have had the car 50 Days out of the 120 days I have owned it. I sent a letter of rejection to the supplying dealer, Audi Finance and Customer services and was informed they would not reject the vehicle as they believed they could resolve the issue and an agreement was made for the vehicle to go in on 1 further occasion: 23/2/12 and they would keep it for up to 1 month.
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  Cambelt and waterpump 5 Jan 2011 (Ask HJ)
  I own an 03 plate Skoda Octavia vRS and have, to date, been very pleased with it. However, six weeks ago at 74,000 miles, I had a cambelt change costing...
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  Volkswagen Scirocco Blue moan 15 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  Faced with repeated failure of the Bluetooth in my Scirocco with my Blackberry 8520, I devised my own shortcut to 're-booting' the cars cranky software...
• BMW X5 E53 SUV (2000 - 2007) - Advice needed re: used vehicle 18 Jul 2009 (Forum)
  I had previously sent a letter saying do not do anything to the car without my authority (as advised by the finance company). Suffice to say, I haven't been contacted. I'm not chasing them up at the moment, and will give them another day or so before I do. But I am seriously in danger of losing interest in a car I've just purchased.
• Red light on ? Keep driving ... 7 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  As far as I can gather from a morose 19 y.o. teenager, the events were as follows; a small sharp noise comes from the engine, simultaneously the lights dim and the battery light comes on; son stops car and phones g/f's stepdad to shepherd him to g/f's house (by this time some 10 miles away); son and g/f listen to radio until stepdad arrives; car starts reluctantly and covers nearly 8 miles until lights go to candle mode and engine stops; g/f's stepdad arrives, kicks tyre and they abandon the AX and travel to g/f's house, stepdad slagging off Citroens in general during the journey; son phones me to ask if he still has recovery service, I explain that he is part of the family's pay and reclaim GEM recovery service, something he has known about for 18 months; son goes silent for a long time and then says he has £6 in his bank account and the GEM membership card is in the car; before I go all sarcastic and congratulate him, Mrs H chimes in and says I should go and recover him, I ask what the point of paying for GEM mebership is if I have to turn to on a freezing night with a tin of Guiness consumed and rescue his nibs; having just put a new cat and lambda probe on the car, I insist that no attempt is made to start the car, even with the spare belt (under the boot carpet) fitted; I leave Mrs H and son to sort out the finances and irritably pour a Scotch; Mrs H says if I don't want the car started, I should go and supervise the recovery; I refuse politely; I warm to my subject and criticise son's lack of organisation and expectation that everything will be done for him, quoting the time I bodged a fuel pump diaphragm with a piece of plastic bag by the side of the road on my VW Beetle, and other exaggerated feats of mechanical ingenuity; Mrs H's eyes glaze over, she may have heard this one before; an hour later the car arrives on the back of a low-loader, with the key turned to free the steering, there is barely enough juice to light the battery light; the extremely helpful recovery driver and I push the car to where I can connect the battery charger while son makes phone call to person unknown; the battery charger reports that it's giving 8+ amps and I leave it to cook overnight.
• Ford Fiesta (2002 - 2008) - Does no one want my £8000? 25 Sep 2007 (Forum)
  (and that was the easy bit) 2. Went to look around showrooms at various garages ready to spend £8k cash (or take finance if it got me a better deal). About half of the dealers never came near us. I hate pushy sales men, but a salesman at all might help and even when you show interest they are indifferent.... 3. The test drive - literally 10 minutes down to the nearest roundabout, right round and back up.
• Replacement car suggestions 21 Aug 2005 (Forum)
  m thinking something like a 2001-2004 Golf TDI PD 130/150 or Seat Leon TDI SX 130. Incidentally, any replacement of this sort would be on finance. Insurance is not an issue, I live in cheap area and have 17 claim-free years. Any other suggestions? Finally, I could forget either of those and just buy an old clunker, enjoying ultra-cheap motoring for a while.
• Used cars of the year 13 Oct 2019 (Forum)
  I’ll put a second level at sub £4,000 too which is where I typically bought and sold mostly to cash buyers who hated financing a depreciating asset. Best city car. £8,000 Hyundai i10 A spacious and well made little car with low running costs and an excellent 5yr warranty if you find one with a full main dealer history.