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• Frightening incident - tailgated down the M4 22 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  Perhaps in the original incident he was having trouble getting between me and the lorry behind me. But if that?s the case, he should have backed off and merged in behind the lorry.
• Vauxhall Astra F (1991 - 1998) - 96 1.7 Diesel. Wierd fault: fuel stop / cut off so 28 Nov 2009 (Forum)
  My neighbour's 1996/7 Astra 1.7 TD has a strange problem developing (I think!), related to the fuel cut-off solenoid(s?) on the fuel pump. He has had difficult cold starting, (turning over for ages, unevenly, then eventually starting with a cloud of smoke and still uneven for a few seconds), so I checked the glow plug feed / timer, and then replaced the glow plugs.
• New Jaguar XF spotted? 30 Apr 2007 (Forum)
  This was nothing though compared to what came 30 seconds later; with the car leaving the village, I could it for an age as it disappeared in to the distance up the Fosse Way. That V8 woofle had become a hard metallic wail more like an M5's V10, each gearchange banging in without pause; almost certainly a good paddleshift gearbox at work, and infact so quick acting I thought "DSG". After some considerable time, I caught high rev downchange after downchange followed by one last acceleration wail as the sound evaporated in to the afternoon air.
• Motoring in Tenerife 3 Dec 2006 (Forum)
  A Transit Connect Tourneo and a Citroen ?Jumpy?! We ended up with a brand new Jumpy - just 160km on the clock. It?s a Citroen Dispatch van with 9 seats. Raised a few laughs when I brought it to the apartment, but to be honest on very twisty and steep mountain roads the 2.0HDi was just the job. On a few occasions we came across other visitors in hired Fiat Pandas etc really struggling on the 1 in 4 hills - I simply stuck the ?
• Running a BMW.. 29 Nov 2005 (Forum)
  You'll note some of those seem a bit ambitious for under £10k in 6 months time - well, I'm not scared of high mileage so am prepared to own a car with more than 100,000 miles on the clock if it means I can have a newer/higher specified example, and looking at HJ's recent auction reports I don't think those are going to be too far out of reach with the possible exception of facelift E46's in Sport guise. I don't know much about these. If I am honest I prefer the E39 in terms of... everything, but the performance of the 3 is tempting. Evo clocked a 330i @ 5.9 seconds to 60. But a 3 is only acceptable as a facelift Sport.
• Don\'t mess with the DVLA 21 Nov 2003 (Forum)
  Firstly, the duty solicitor refused to assist me as I wasn\'t being charged with a criminal offence. If you declare a SORN and use the car while it\'s in force then you are liable for any backduty up to a maximum of 2 years. This applies regardless of if the car was ever used or parked on a public road. They don\'t care if you used it or not, the law has changed and they WILL get \"their\" money.
• Is this (motoring) email a scam? 9 Jan 2003 (Forum)
  With Best Wishes for the New Year and Kind Regards, Thanking you, Yours sincerely, ROAD SAFETY ALLIANCE Please contact us if you require any further information(s)
• Freelander Campaign 2002 9 Jan 2002 (Forum)
  The gear stick is bendy, the sun visors tacky and wobbly, the window buttons difficult to reach, the cup holder is ridiculous, the tyre noisy and un-grippy, and the stero drowned out by the various rattles. At least, I assume that the ridiculous bit of sticky-out green pastic belt on the door pocket s a cup holder. Goodness knows what else you'd do with it. The sunroof makes more windnoise than Blazing Saddles, assuming that it hasn't broken for the third time and therefore stuck half-open, or half closed if you're a salesman trying to see some good in it.
• Any - Turbocharger Care 1 Dec 2021 (Forum)
  These kind of intervals are to keep service costs down for fleet operators, not extend the life of your car for 100’s of 000’s of miles. I recommend changing oil at least once per year or at 8-10,000 miles. I also recommend a flush at each change (I use Comma Flush Out which is readily available). If you like the convenience of these devices that suck oil out of the dipstick hole, then drain from the sump at least every third change.
• Subaru Forester - First 2 months and 2,000 miles of ownership 27 Aug 2020 (Forum)
  It hesitated when I tried to take off, It seemed to kangaroo after gear changes. It has two ECU modes - I for “intelligent” and S for “sport”. I tried changing between the two, but no difference. I was when looking through the manual I found the suggested gear change speeds – in essence you need to keep the revs at about 2,000.
• My Recent Driving Trip to France 17 Jul 2008 (Forum)
  Channel Tunnel back home We were fortunate to follow a Porsche GT3 and an Aston Martin onto the Tunnel Train and this made my son?s day, especially when I asked the drivers if he could have his picture taken behind each wheel which they duly obliged. Isn?t it great when simple gestures like that can make a wee boy?s day, and holiday!
• Peugeot Woes 23 Nov 2005 (Forum)
  The sales manager informed us that to reject the vehicle we had to write direct to Peugeot themselves. This is in fact wrong as per the law it?s the dealer who sold the car who you have to reject the car too. Several strongly worded letters later, diary of all the telephone conversations and still waiting for an answer. Had a call today for the director of the Peugeot garage .
• Nissan Leaf - Leafing my wallet alone! 18 Apr 2025 (Forum)
  So, am I fully convinced by electric cars? No, not at the stupid prices people are paying for them new. I see new VW ID3’s sitting at our local dealer at well over £30k and that’s just daft. A new big battery Leaf is closing in on £35k according to the local Nissan dealer who tried unsuccessfully to convince me of its value.
• Petrol, diesel, hybrid? (No EVs please) - Advice on car for retirement 2 Aug 2022 (Forum)
  Hence a succession of big Citroens, Alfas, Saabs, Lexuses (Lexi?) and latterly Jaguars. I've had my current XF 'S' Premium Luxury 3.0 auto for seven years - it was six years old when I got it and has still only done 118k miles. I actually love it, it's comfortable, looks great and has been ultra-reliable (apart from a dropped rear window, this past 50k+ miles it's only had consumable/service items required though I did have the cam belt done at 100k).
• What do they teach learners these days? 5 Dec 2019 (Forum)
  Watching instructors in town when I am walking about does make me wonder if they should be doing the job (texting whilst teaching etc) but surely they must have passed some form of qualification. The number of driving schools has increased hugely since I learned to drive in the early 70's and whilst in my youth they all had nice new cars (Mini's, Imps, Escorts mainly) which were changed annually these days any old wreck seems to be the norm. They do not seem as professional as they used to, even the local Taxi's are in better condition.
• Bought a new car 1 Dec 2019 (Forum)
  Very nice car, very well finished car. Had everything I wanted on it. LED headlights as standard (as they are on all the A1’s). Ticked all the boxes. However, it was just too expensive. Ended up looking at the SEAT Ibiza. To get the spec I was after I was going to need to go for FR or Xcellence Trim levels. The Trims below this didn’t have any of the following: Heated mirrors, Cruise control, LED Headlights.
• New car - making a shortlist 28 Feb 2016 (Forum)
    In alphabetical order: Audi Q3     Nice and high off the ground, but two friends in the village have them and both say there's no fun in driving them.  One calls it a 'lump'.  The automatic, called 'S-tronic- is basically a DSG. BMW 2-series Active Tourer     Silly name, but a good car that could be a front-runner.  220i petrol probably - I had five diesel cars in a row before this and the last Octavia and I'm not sure I want another.
• Ford Mondeo - Rant about blatant lies from second hand dealer 10 Sep 2015 (Forum)
  When I said about £25 he said I was being ridiculous. On the test drive the car felt fine but towards the end the n/s back suspension started squeaking. Afterwards he insisted that if it he hadn't fixed it when I went to pick the car up I could have my deposit back. When I went to pick it up it wasn't squeeking so I assumed he'd fixed it.
• Audi A3 Sportback - HELP!!!? 2 Jun 2015 (Forum)
    For the new car I’ve just spent £300 replacing tyres because they were classed as dangerous and £200’s worth of replacement brake pads and discs waiting to be fitted at hom again because they were dangerously low.   I have 3 options I think.
• Nissan Almera - Almera MOT Brake trouble!! 7 Mar 2012 (Forum)
  Hi there,  I took my 1998 S reg 1.4 almera to get its MOT done today. I was reccomended the MOT centre by a colleague from work - as I am working away from home and was not sure of any decent local garages. I was very happy when it passed with no advisories :) It has a great service history, so I was expecting it to pass.