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• Ford Dealer Incompetence 13 Mar 2005 (Forum)
  I find this catalogue of errors ridiculous considering the local Ford dealers charge labour rates that are almost on a par with BMW and Mercedes dealers located nearby. I am curious as to if anyone else has had any Ford dealer problems or am I just unlucky?
• You cant make it up. 31 Jan 2005 (Forum)
  Warden carries on, slaps ticket on car and now incandescent with rage Plod grabs warden, cautions him, gets on talking broach and whistles up another City of London plod car (BMW 5 series touring - dont the C-O-L use nice cars!) and warden is promptly bundled into back and driven away to much cheering and clapping of the now assembled audience. Plod issues bemused motorist with his 30 fixed, then takes the the ticket off the car window, and then asks man for name and address (presumably as witness for obstruction charge) It will probably bee the funiest thing I wil ever see.
• HELP -2nd insurance renewal! 25 yrs old 14 Nov 2004 (Forum)
  Passed my test Jan 04 (took me long time to get round to learning to drive!) I rewarded myself with 2002 BMW Z3. I thought being new, and a model that holds its price, I would save myself money in the long run. After buying the car I realised my insurance was going to be massive! First year £1500 - Bought a 10 month bonus excellorater policy.
• What should I buy....help! 25 Jun 2004 (Forum)
  - i am 19 and my mum will be using the car most of the time, so i will be a named driver - she has 2 years NCB, no convictions, no accidents, driving 33 years I have soo far thought about a VW Lupo GTI, Hyundai Coupe 2.0, BMW 318ci, Lexus IS200. I dont get much time off of work anymore so I plan to look at the best car and tuesday and make a commitment this week. Can anyone put forward their thoughts? cheers, Chris
• Diesel doldrums 25 May 2004 (Forum)
  2 Widen the search to include French cars - plenty around. Are my worries unfounded? 3 Buy a much older car like a MB or BMW diesel which stand up to miles well? But what does £7000 get??? Might make sense as retains value - hence the question about what £7000 buys you. 4 Pay over the odds and get a slightly older car from a main dealer with fewer history concerns etc.
• Auction Prices Manheim Bristol 23 Feb 2004 (Forum)
  All the cars had warranted mileage, all with FSH (Printout or Service Book) and all sold as seen direct from the fleet (PHH/Lloyds TSB/Vauxhall/GE Capital): Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 12v Club, 6 went through while I was there, all 2001/2002 51 reg, 13k to 20k miles, met blue/silver £3975 to £4400 1999 V Mazda MX-5 1.8 conv soft-top met blue 47k miles £6850 Ford Mondeos: 2000 V 2.0 LX 5 door h/b in met silver in nice condition 57k miles £3175 1999 V 1.8 TD GLX estate in met blue with a few small parking dents but OK, 75k miles £3600 2001 Y 2.0 TD LX 5 door h/b in met green 80k miles in good order £5400 And several BMW 320d SE 4 door saloons (none with leather): 2001 Y in met blue in nice condition 59k miles £11850 2001 X in dark blue good condition 76k miles £10800 2000 W in met silver excellent condition 41k miles £11700
• Police - "Illegal motors 'epidemic'" 21 Feb 2004 (Forum)
  including that of teacher Deborah Peaty, 26. She and her unborn child died when her car was hit by a BMW allegedly driven by Sri Lankan Ratnam Yogan, 29. He was charged with causing her death in the pile-up near Daventry, Northants. But he fled the country after a bungling judge overrode police objections and granted him bail.
• Accident (again) 2 Feb 2004 (Forum)
  Date: 31 Jan 2004, Saturday Time: 20:15 Location: At the traffic lights on A4 (London-bound) at the Chisick Roundabout. Car 1: My blue Nissan QX Car 2: Other party\'s black BMW 320d I was stationary at the traffic lights on A4 (London-bound) at the Chisick Roundabout. I stopped, checked my mirror that the car behind also stopped, and looked forward. Then the car behind drove into the back of me.
• How much more can I squeeze the Salesman 14 Nov 2003 (Forum)
  I have been to a dealer with these prices and have managed to get a quote of 15346.12 on the car with metallic paint, 0% finance on 6846.12 and the balance being made up of trade-in (5750) and cash (2750). It looks a good deal. My problem is that I am trading a BMW 318iSE saloon in metallic silver with 78000 miles on the clock and according to the Parkers personal quotation (price 1.99) it is worth 7160 in average trade-in condition, Glasses Guide, via the AA, values it at 6646 in average trade-in condition but the dealer wants to offer 5750 (which I have already negotiated up from the measly 5250 he started at).
• Advice Regarding garage issues 23 Jun 2007 (Forum)
  You can guess what happened next. Leaking, again. Sick of the problems, I took the car to my local BMW specialist. They called up with a diagnosis. The car required a new radiator, as it was leaking from the end tanks. I explained the situation and said I'd previously had 3 radiators fitted to cure this problem.
• More efficient propulsion 6 Jun 2008 (Forum)
  That low grade heat that is left is of a similar value to that discharged by the cooling system, not really hot enough to do useful work but of significant cost anyway. BMW made a demonstrator a couple of years back that captured exhaust heat to add extra power, and there's no reason why we couldn't do this to generate electricity or even run the air conditioning system.
• Live within your means 19 Oct 2023 (Forum)
  Almost daily we see someone asking for recommendations for a complex executive or performance motor on a sub £4K budget that once cost north of £25k. Sensible back roomers try to talk them out of the £3,000 BMW diesel or 100,000 mile turbocharged hot hatch with patchy service history but still they come and too many ignore the advice. But surely common sense should have them questioning the wisdom of buying a highly complex car on a tight budget?
• How far safety has moved on 14 Jun 2020 (Forum)
  Effectively you were dead at the wheel of the Fiat Croma, Honda Legend, Nissan Maxima, Renault 25 and badly injured in a Volvo 740. You would’ve walked away from the recently launched BMW 5 series and the Mercedes E class but the rest were mangled. It’s an eye opener into how poor cars were structurally before the 1990’s and a big thank you should be directed to the magazine for saving lives at great expense to themselves.
• New Used car - Which one 24 Jul 2017 (Forum)
    Auto Shift Paddles Electric/auto parking brake Parking senors front and rear Adaptive Braking Lane Assist Electric adjusted seats Xeon/ LED lights and Day time running Parking assit DAB Radio Keyless Go Stop Start Auto Climate control Speed limiter and cruise control Sat nav is poss Quite like the idea of all wheel drive Hill assist tyre pressure and run on flat warning headligh bulbs not working warning (if that is even a thing)   The ones Ive been looking at are Mercendes A200 2015 model that seems to tick some of the boxes but not all. BMW series 5 and Mercedes C class. But there are some many different trims and upgrade packages it is hard to tell what you are getting as the showrooms dont always list the entire features as some stuff comes as standard obviously.
• Volvo XC90 - Updating Volvo XC90 4 Mar 2016 (Forum)
  I looked at alternatives like Kia Sorento (new ones nice but too and heard bad things about build quality regarding older ones), BMW X5 (back row seats too small). I hate Discoveries, and the Land Cruisers are crazy expensive. That seems to leave the XC90 as the best choice. Looking in our target price (£10-11k) I found one that is 58 plate with 81k miles for £11k.
• Night-time Running Lights 6 Dec 2014 (Forum)
  Sorry, but my goat has been got by lumens, yet again. I note that recent BMWs in particular are fitted with very white illumination of their rear numberplate. And now, of course, the Barrys are rushng to keep up... AFAIK it is illegal "to show a white light to the rear of the vehicle, unless it is reversing", but this evening a mk6 Golf came past me with obviously nonstandard super-white numberplate lamps which were frankly ridiculous: I don't know if it was because they stood proud of where the normal lamps' direct light would have been shrouded by the bumper, or whether they were just SO bright that they were reflecting off the outer surface of the numberplate itself, but the result was that the actual registration mark was partially unreadable, and two white spots were still visible along with the red spots of the tail-lights when the car was half a mile up the dual carriageway and the rest of it was invisible.
• Volkswagen Golf VI - A tale of two VW dealers 17 Nov 2014 (Forum)
  Had several phone conversations with the sales guy. Have bought a couple of cars at a distance from VW and BMW dealers in the past, have paid up front and arranged to collect the car. Turned up for this car, and.... the car was in a pretty poor state (given it was one owner, 12 plate, with c 15,000 on the clock).
• British Car Auctions Price Increases 10 Jan 2014 (Forum)
  [U]Here is the original price:[/U] Price Miles Size CAP  - New: £ 12,857  Ret £ 6,175  - - - - Cln £ 4,425 - - - - [B]Avg £ 4,025[/B] - - - - Blw £ 3,625 Lot Detail Blackbushe, 10 January 2014   And here is the new price: New: £ 14,852 New: £ 13,797 Ret £ 6,895 Ret £ 5,845 - - - - Cln £ 4,975 - - - - [B]Avg £ 4,550[/B]  - - - - Blw £ 4,075 An increase of £525 Cap price today 09/01/2014 Average dealer retail £5,975 - £6,525   Private sale price £5,275 - £5,650   Trade in clean £4,000 - £4,275   Trade in [B]average £3,650 - £3,900[/B]   Trade in below £3,300 - £3,525     This happened on the cars by the BMW Group but not with cars from other dealers that I was watching.   Not illegal but not very ethical, but it is BCA and now they are owned By Vulture Capitalist, things will only get worse, as they strip the firm in preparation to dumping it, I wonder if they will try to float?
• Buying my Second(ish) Car - Medium Hatchback 10 Nov 2013 (Forum)
  I'm looking at 2007-2010 models based on what I can afford (I don't really want finance, I'd rather buy it outright straight away). My shortlist is essentially: Ford Focus Audi A3 BMW 1 Series   Has anyone got any other suggestions (please don't say Golf)? For some reason, I've also set my heart on having cruise control. Bad idea?
• Choose A4 or Volvo or Lexus or Subaru 10 Oct 2012 (Forum)
  (Auto,Petrol)Subaru outback 2006(06 reg),MIleage:80000,Price 5700 5. [Optional choose][Diesel,Auto],BMW 320D SE,2005 (05 Reg),Mileage:83000,Price:6000 Becauase of the low mileage i will use, the only concern i have is not sure whether above cars could have significant mechnical flow or any well know major issue on such high millage which will result in expensive repair cost,and then I would like to choose the most reliable ones from above.