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• Mercedes E230 spare wheels. 30 Jan 2001 (Forum)
  It does warn of this in the manual, and I know that Honest John says "always read the manual", but is everyone who borrows a car expected to read the manual too? I call this bad design. It gets worse. The same applies to the same car when fitted with factory alloys. Mercedes only supply a steel spare, which is thinner than the alloys.
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  My car isn't being used right now. Should I let me insurance policy lapse for a few months? 4 May 2020 (Ask HJ)
  My car's insurance policy ends shortly and I want to know if I can let it lapse for a few months until more is known regarding the usage of vehicles under...
• Nissan - Tyre wear not proportional to age 9 Sep 2016 (Forum)
  Think I've been a bit stupid and trusting of a franchised Dealer. I have just purchased a 6 month old Nissan from My local dealership. The car ( so I've been told ) has been A demonstrator and used by one of the garage staff. It has covered 5200 miles. The car has a number of options that made it An attractive buy - sunroof, 18 inch wheels and special paint.
• Travelling to buy a (used approved) car? 22 May 2014 (Forum)
  Or is it a case of negotiate over phone, drive down, test drive, agree to buy, drive home, wait a week, repeat to pick up the car? Not knowing much about what makes a good car, and what makes a lemon, should I be able to trust any used car a Toyota Dealership provides?  Do I need to check everything (electrics etc) at the time I pick it up?
• Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 03 1.6 Advice please on buying this car ? 15 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  It has 2 previous owners and Full service history and 12 months warranty from a Ford garage. However I have a couple of concerns about it. The trouble is the car was first registered in December 2003 and by June 2004 the car had already covered 12k miles and then by about the same time in 2005 the car had then completed about 21k miles. At this point in time the second owner took ownership of the car (an older driver) until the present day (now 37K miles).
• Rover Streetwise (2003 - 2005) - No fault accident advice please 9 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  Advice needed in how to deal with insurance company. Firstly should we not accept the car back with cash if not roadworthy (No brainer I think). Secondally how do we get insurance company to 'write off' the car and give us a reasonable settlement. Obviously we will need to go after the other driver for policy excess and compensation to cover difference between insurance company payout and the cost of replacement car
• Scrape in Car park - hit and run ? 14 Aug 2008 (Forum)
  Went to the local Audi showroom for a simple MOT and unfortunately as I was backing out , heard the L front bumper scrape the 6 month old A5's L back door. Stopped car , went inside , spoke to the salesman, who mentioned that this car was unfortunately a customers car and that he would come out and take some photos of both cars , which both of us did,also that he would contact the owner of the car and that he would get the other person to contact me with his insurance details.
• Vauxhall Astra F (1991 - 1998) - 95 1.4 petrol - Not Starting... 19 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  The car is a Astra 1.4 petrol 1995, my wife drove the car yesterday, she told me the car began to lose power and as she pulled over the car cut out and refused to start. Having towed the car back home i was able to look at it today, first i removed the cambelt covers and found that the cambelt had shed quite a few teeth off , so i fit a new belt thinking this would sort the problem, having put the belt on and lined all the timing marks tried starting the car, no joy infact the car spins over really fast like it has little compression, i removed the spark plugs no petrol on them at all, so then i removed the fuel supply pipe and get my lad to turn the engine over whilst i hold the pipe in a jar, just to make sure the fuel pumps working ok, which it is.
• Cost of motoring 28 May 2004 (Forum)
  The cars have covered around 133,000 miles in that time. This makes depreciation a shade over 4p / mile. Pretty good, I thought. Then I worked out the total cost (I also keep reasonable records of money spent) - I find that my cars run at around 17p / mile all in.
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  I need a large family car for low mileage use. Would a plug-in hybrid suit? 22 Apr 2021 (Ask HJ)
  I'm looking to buy a secondhand family car. I will do short commutes to work (7miles), schools trips and occasional long journeys. It will need to be a...
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  A friend opened my car door and damaged another vehicle - am I liable? 28 Aug 2019 (Ask HJ)
  A friend asked if someone with whom he had done a house and car swap, could drop off his car at my house. When the car arrived he had his wife and two...
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  I bought am ex-demo car and the clutch has failed after 5500 miles - should the dealer repair it for free? 16 Jan 2018 (Ask HJ)
  On 1 June 2017, I bought a Nissan Qashqai ex-demonstration car with 2000 miles from a Nissan main dealer. The clutch failed last week, so I took it in...
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  Car hire at Malaga Airport - what do you think of this? 19 Oct 2014 (Ask HJ)
  Seeing in your column the many horror stories about car hire abroad felt it only fair to recount our recent experience at Malaga Airport. We had booked...
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  Damaged vehicle repairs 10 Jan 2012 (Ask HJ)
  My wife has just had an articulated lorry rip the side off her car on a roundabout and, of course, we are now in the usual insurance tangle. The car...
• BMW 525D Touring E61 - Poor Service & Rejection 19 Jul 2011 (Forum)
  I arranged to return the car again, coupled with installing Ipod connectivity at a time convenient to me. The car suffered with random alarm soundings, until early June when it was going off early one morning! When I went to start the car, it didn't with loads of dashboard lights flashing at random intervals.
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  Which car i will keep, Nissian Almera 2.2 or Vauxhall astra 1.6 17 May 2011 (Ask HJ)
  I have Nissan Almera 2.2D sport (52 reg 84,000 miles). But it failed its MOT and I had to spend £900 to fix it. It took 3 months to fix. I bought it...
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  Bore and stroke 27 Mar 2010 (Ask HJ)
  Please can you give us any advice regarding a problem with the Toyota Avensis? Earlier this year we noticed our car was using a lot of oil and our son...
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  Keyer ceased 27 Feb 2010 (Ask HJ)
  My father's Motability car was stolen from the rear of his driveway. My mother started up the car to go and post a letter. She noticed that the letter...
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  X Klamation 9 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I have just bought a 2003 Jaguar XK8. I was told I would get a 12-month warranty with the car and when it was delivered by the salesman, I was asked to...
• Mercedes-Benz A-Class - Lacquer peeling on RED Merc A class 2016 19 Apr 2024 (Forum)
  I contacted the Merc dealership & there workshop assessed it and said they would make a case for repair to Merc UK, they admitted they had seen this before on other cars. Merc come back with a 50% goodwill saying the car come with 3 years warranty which is now obviously passed. Ive heard there is a separate warranty or cover on paintwork but im finding it difficult to get a confirmed timescale for that, does anyone else know if there is such a thing?