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• recalls and reliability? 17 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  With a few hours to kill at Toulouse airport on Monday I bought a copy of L'Automobile (www.automobile-magazine.fr) to struggle through. One of the articles was on manufacturers recalls in France and the relationship between recalls and quality. Does a large number of recalls indicate poor quality from the start or a manufacturer's intention to look after the customers at their cost? Top 10 starting with most recalls: Renault Peugeot Ford BMW and MINI Citroen VW Opel Toyota and Lexus Fiat Mercedes Most recalled cars in no particular order: Alfa147, A4, BMW 3 series, Citroen C3 C5 C8, Ford Focus and C-Max, Mondeo, Mazada 6, Peugeot 307 206 607, Renault Laguna II Clio II Scenic Espace IV, VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne.
• Motorhome hire or not? 22 Nov 2007 (Forum)
  Following a newspaper article we contacted a UK company who wanted people to go to Italy to collect their new fleet of motorhomes and drive them back to the UK on trade plates. As we have relations in South of France it seemed a nice idea. The new vans are to be collected mid-February and you then have 7 days to bring them back to this company's UK depot via whatever route suits you. Flights out and return ferry will have been prebooked.
• Max 6 months in rest of Europe? 29 Oct 2007 (Forum)
  One of HJ's old columns has a story about someone getting hit by an untaxed English registered car in France. HJ then says you can only use a British registered car overseas for 6 months on any 12. But where does it actually say this? Does that mean my brother who works 4 days a week in Belguim has to re-register his car?
• £1500 Student Gumball Car!!! 10 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  Our next major step is deciding on/purchasing a suitable car......... The route takes us through France, down through central Spain to Granada the back up to Valencia to 'La Tomatina' festival. We have decided that we want something a bit random to do the journey in, some big luxo barge would be ideal and we are seriously considering a classic range rover (1990-3 vintage).
• VW Passat TDI first service problem 16 Sep 2006 (Forum)
  The car was serviced at the time I bought it (VW policy to service cars that look like they'll need a service within the next 5 months). Now, after 5900 miles of steady motoring, 2500 of which touring in france (55mpg!) and the rest mainly motorway and extra-urban on flatish terrain, the dreaded service indicator light is telling me to get it serviced in 1900 miles! And here I am thinking I'd get around 18k miles before the 2nd service, not 7.8k!
• How many do you need? 28 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  It's Monday again and the DT Saturday edition has penetrated deepest rural France. I read in DT Motoring that the latest Lexus - described as unmemorable - has an eight-speed autobox and spends its life changing up and down for no apparent good reason. I see many recent cars have six manual gears.
• Sat Nav - standalone or PDA? 1 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  In which case why not just buy a standalone, plug it in and get on with it. especially as we are off to France in a fortnight and I want it up and running for our touring holdiay over there. I am not too worried about the relative costs involved and am more concerned about hassle free reliability. I would be very interested to hear any views on using Tomtom on a phone/PDA set up.
• Which SUV to replace diesel estate? 26 Aug 2005 (Forum)
  After 3 years with my trusty estate I'm looking to change my car. I do about 25,000 miles a year, including at least a couple of trips through France and Italy. I ski and also do other "pepsi-max" sports, so kit-carrying capacity is key. Things are looking up financially (whenever they do I find ways to spend it) so I've looked a little upmarket from where I am now.
• Accord Problems 30 Jun 2005 (Forum)
  I've just returned from France, after spending three months there, and I've encountered the same problem with my Accord that I had last time. Briefly, the 20 amp fuse that protects the brake lights and horn has blown a total of 23 times!
• Why's that, then? 8 Aug 2004 (Forum)
  Optimax sells at my usual garage for 6p per litre more than Premium 95 (at the moment, 87.9 as opposed to 81.9. Ouch.) Went to France for two-week holiday at the start of July. Ran car on a mix of Total & Shell 98 octane - car continued to run very nicely. The price difference, I was interested to note, was 1 euro cent per litre (?
• range rover head gasket leak 5 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  I have a 95 Range Rover 4.6.....and the really bad part of the story is i live in France and you cannot beleive how bad the service is over here! Anyway...I have very recently been loosing alot of water and the little garage i use, have taken 4 visits to decide it is the water pump. I have just ordered that and am waiting for delivery.
• Subaru Misfire 1 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  Hi, My Uncle has mentioned about an intermittent misfire coming from his 52 registered Subaru Forester 2.0 Sport. He reckons that when he and my Auntie went to France to their second home for a few weeks he filled up with a dodgy tank of petrol at some point and that's when the misfire started. Since then, (this is going back some six to eight months)when it started he's had numerous tanks of fuel and has booked the car in to Subaru in Widnes (twice) and they couldn't find anything when they plugged it into the diagnostics.
• Modern batteries just die? 13 Jun 2004 (Forum)
  A recent experience (in France) prompts this query to you experts out there. The vehicle (a VW motor home, 2.5 tdi) is 6 years old; had its original battery; electrolyte level was regularly and frequently checked (I'm of that generation!)
• Polo Alarm Problems 27 Nov 2003 (Forum)
  The question is - is this a fob problem or is it the alarm on the car that is playing up? I'm off to France in a few weeks so I don't want to be stuck out there and not be able to get into my car! Cheers in advance for any ideas/help. Ben
• subaru legacy exhaust 8 Sep 2003 (Forum)
  Incidentally, we have owned the Legacy for 4 1/2 years, it has covered nearly 90,000 miles, taken us on holiday all over France 4 times without a moments trouble. The only downside to an otherwise brilliant, comfortable load-lugger family estate is that it is rather thirsty (28-32mpg)It is without a doubt, the best car we have ever owned.
• Motorway services 4 Aug 2003 (Forum)
  I have often been driving my van or car late at night and stop frequently for coffee and a stretch to stay awake rather than pay those rip off services 5 or 6 quid to have a sleep We are also the only country where we must pay for air In France and Germany its an obligation that services provide free air for obvious safety reasons I know that we should all put road safety first but there is a kind of psychology that makes us avoid paying and putting principles of not getting ripped off first instead I think we've got our priorities wrong in this country and the government should step in to make some changes to bring us into line with the rest of Europe.
• Another virus warning. 5 Dec 2001 (Forum)
  It was first detected this morning in America but experts believe it was created in Europe. The US, the UK and France are the worst hit of the 17 countries affected so far. http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/04/uvirus.xml&sSheet=/portal/2001/12/04/ixport.html
• Rust 13 Aug 2001 (Forum)
  On another subject I recently returned to the UK to see my family and had to drive the full lengh of the M1 and M62 in both directions.As far as increasing the speed limit I found most Uk drivers are not capable of driving never mind driving fast.Also the truck drivers tailgating at 70mph should be locked up.I never saw one police car on the whole of the M1 trip and only two cameras both in Yorkshire.Laned disipline ,lack of indicating and tailgating well what can you say.I drove the previous month 6000km throughout Europe France Spain Italy Austria and back to Germany and never saw anything like the Uk .No wonder insurance is so high in the Uk compared to mainland Europe.I would say driving in Sau Paulo Brazil is saver than London,perhaps Mark will comment on that.
• SEAT Altea (2004 - ) - Altea in Provence (Road Test) 8 Apr 2008 (Forum)
  I?m just back from a couple of weeks in France, during which I hired a brand new (8km on the clock) SEAT Altea TDI 105. Impressions? Well, it drove pretty well. It?s a good engine, and had as much power and torque as I needed, though some aspects of it took a little getting used to - for the first few days I kept stalling it, but eventually got the hang of it.
• Renault Grand Espace, Ssangyong Tourismo - Renault Grand Espace or Ssangyong Tourismo? 28 Mar 2025 (Forum)
  This car will need to tow a light boat, and will also do a lot of miles, with regular trips to the North East of England as well as around 2 trips a year to France/Spain. I have £5k to spend, and both fit nicely into this price range, I just wondered if anyone has any advice or opinions on each, or what else I should look at? A Chrysler Voyager looks nice too, but not as big.