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• Buying a Second Car? 22 Sep 2017 (Forum)
  Those who followed my recent saga with my Jag x type (04, 174k miles) and its extended holiday in France will know that I had reason to contemplate scrapping it and buying a new car (Dacia was top of the list). I have lost some confidence in the old girl and don't know whether I'd trust her for a foreign trip again.
• New Buyers Help 14 Mar 2012 (Forum)
   Part of the problem is that we need a automatic gearbox (the wife cant drive stick) and in France you are looking at 10,000 first price for something decent.   What  I really want is a small-medium MPV/Crossover AUTO, but again the good ones start at 15K (with a automatic gearbox).
• Citroen Xsara - 1998 XSARA Hatch - Door Locks do not open with key 1 May 2010 (Forum)
    I generally do the work on cars myself but i am not great with electrics ( i never have got my head around how relays work)   So, the car door locks do not work... the seller told me this when i bought ti so i was not concerned, i was more concerned with a reliable engine after the last 2 cars i have had(Fiat and a VW...   not time for France's turn).   if you try to unlock or lock the drivers door with the key, the barrel just turns and turns, either direction.   if you try and do the passenger door, then it seems seized and will not turn either direction.
• Skoda Octavia II (2004 - ) - Five weeks with the Octavia 6 Jun 2008 (Forum)
  Economy when it came was under 50mpg (50 on the trip) and now it is 60mpg+ on the trip and still improving. 600 on a tank not a problem. Boot really is huge and swallowed everything we would have put in the Honda for the trip to France (and the Honda was an estate which we would load up to seat level). Performance and economy did not suffer that much with the load (still 55mpg loaded and with air con on most of the time). Stereo is good although the CD changer is largely redundant (must get around to recording some MP3 CDs!)
• french car makers on the run 31 Jan 2003 (Forum)
  The association "securite-autos" is being backed by the magazine "que choisir" (a french "which?" magazine). note that peugeot france had issued a technical bulletin extending the guarantee upto 120 000 kms on the engine. the association notes an increase in the amount paid to new claimants since the association has become involved.
• Any considered - Best car to buy at 3 years old 25 Nov 2014 (Forum)
  I'll have the opportunity to buy my next company car after 3 years and this will be my retirement car to be used 1 day a week for work and the rest for visiting relatives and several drives down to Normandy and a couple to south of France  each year. I currently do about 24k miles a year and that will reduce a bit to around 20k. I'll need a large estate for our large dog and all our  clobber, something Mondeo sized or bigger is probably best.
• Analysing Road Accident Statistics 18 Sep 2011 (Forum)
  The WHO ranks nations on road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and we come out 5th best, with the better ones being three minor islands and Sweden. 3.59 per 100,000 a year approx for the UK. 4.5 for Germany, 4.7 Ireland, 5.2 Australia, 6.9 France and a staggering 12.3 for the US. You're three times more likely to die on American than British roads. Most broadly, road deaths accounted for only 0.5% of deaths last year, 33% of deaths were due to heart disease and cancer weighed in with a quarter.
• Friday Journeys 26 Oct 2005 (Forum)
  Why do we expand access to all sorts of other things (TV channels, internet access speed, air transport, shopping hours, pub opening hours etc) yet restrict peoples' access to efficient use of their beloved cars? Sorry for long post - we were really fed up on Friday night, got to France too late for a meal and had to drive down the motorway to the first services to get a coffee and a sandwich! Phil
• Citroen Xantia auto gearbox problem 9 Oct 2003 (Forum)
  It is used for a mixture of short and long runs and towing. A fault recently developed while he was on holiday in France while towing a small caravan severe wet weather. The car became very sluggish to set off in first or reverse. When towing he could hardly get it going at all. Up hills solo; the same. At some point in the story the gearbox went into "fault" mode where the gear indicator lights flash, but that particular symptom has gone away.
• Help can’t decide on family car 16 Feb 2025 (Forum)
  Live in ULEZ area so would prefer petrol car. Can’t have electric as live in terraced house and couldn’t charge it at home. Drive down France couple of times a year to visit family and camp so need a decent boot space. Trying to save to buy first home but have to use savings to buy car - would prefer to spend under £15K or as little as I can get away with.
• The death of the diesel engine? 19 Oct 2013 (Forum)
  Some 50 per cent of new cars sold in the UK are diesels, well behind the 70 per cent in Spain and France, but not far short of the EU average of 55 per cent. Europe is by far the biggest consumer of diesel-powered cars. As recently as 2010, Japan and the US had only a small, single-digit take-up for diesel cars.
• Any - BMW vs AUDI 14 Jun 2013 (Forum)
  Next thing is even more laughable, they gave me details of the dealer in Chesterfield, and said they have a demonstrator I could borrow, so I duly arranged it, and as I was travelling back from France on the train, on the alloted day I got off in Chesterfield and got a taxi to the dealership, picked up the car and went off. before I had left the guy clearly told me he would give me a lift back to Sheffield when I dropped it off.
• Chevrolet Epica - Chevrolet Epica diesel 1 year on 12 Aug 2011 (Forum)
  (first year service done before delivery) 2 front tyres changed at about 16000 miles, (could have got more out of them but was going to do a lot of miles going to france-belgium and changed the tyres to have new tread on the wheels) very little wear on brake discs, and no recorded problems except a "change oil soon" light that came on 5000 miles after service, but 12 months after previous oil service, so maybe not reset. national tyres did oil change castrol edge turbo diesel, (6.2litres) for £51, so no complaints.
• Review - Punto van Mk2b 1.3 Multijet (pre DPF) 9 Apr 2010 (Forum)
  I love it`s basic nature - and much to Mrs O`s amusement I wouldn`t swap it for anything - although I could if I wished buy something much more luxurious. Shortly it will be in France and then Germany and Koblenz - no complaints then on load space when Mrs O is on a thousand handbag mission. oilrag  
• Renault Clio II (2001 - 2007) - Car goes on fire! 23 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  This turned out to be the heat exchanger (though they told me it was the radiator at first) and they would have to get one from France. When it arrived the next day it turned out the one they had ordered was for the later model and didn't fit my car so they had to order another one. This took three days to arrive! I didn't therefore get my car back until the Friday (I'd left it in on the Monday!).
• Go back to petrol: would you? 3 Apr 2007 (Forum)
  * The pump price differential between petrol and diesel seems to be here to stay, which offsets the extra consumption of a petrol engine. (Although I'd miss diesel when I go to France - but that's only once a year.) * It may cost less to service a petrol engine. * A petrol engine may be less likely to fail expensively in later life. * At current fuel prices, the difference in fuel cost between a 31 mpg petrol car and a 43 mpg diesel is about 3.1p, or about £1,600 over 50,000 miles.
• Renault's Timing Belt Recommendations 4 Nov 2006 (Forum)
  I would like to ask if anybody has had a timing belt go just after 18 months? I also heard that Renault lost a case against them in France for a similar argument that if the part is recommended for change after 72,000 miles or 5 years then it should be fit for purpose up to that. Otherwise if you take our garages advice then you should change your timing belt every 12months so that you are covered by warranty.
• Return from Val D'Isere 2 Apr 2006 (Forum)
  The minor shunt damage is theoretically insured although time will tell whether the collision damage waiver and excess waiver is worth anything. Comically, I wasn't able to pay the parking fine in France ! The Tabac didn't sell des timbres and the Poste wasn't open any time I was available. Giving up skiing time to pay a parking fine is not in my order of priorities. I'll have to send them a cheque in Euros to settle it.
• keep 306 or s/h almera-primera-mondeo? 4 Feb 2004 (Forum)
  I have done 164k miles in it in just over six years and am doing about 16-20k miles per year at the moment. This year I'll probably do the same including a 3k mile round trip to France, 18 miles per day commute and numerous 200-600 mile trips to the coast and the mountains. Do you think the 306 has had it given that I will have pay for fixing problems that I know (shocks, glow plugs, bodywork)and possibly then having to shell out for problems yet to arise?
• martini publicity car by viotti turin 18 Jul 2002 (Forum)
  The coupe was used for a whole string of classical manifestations (tours of italy , mille miglia, tour de France, etc.) Just before the war, the Martini subsidiary in Brussels was opened. They could use a publicity car and the coupe was send to Belgium. The car was used at numerous events like the 24 hours of Franchorchamps, the races at Zolder etc At the end of the forties, the car was technically outdated, the cable brakes did not stand up to the modern demands and it was decided to place the coupe on a more modern chassis.