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• Alicante Classic Car and Bike show 2010 11 Apr 2010 (Forum)
  Lots to see and do, but notably the focus was European brands with very few British marques - apart from the ubiquitous Minis, one showroom condition Morris Traveller and a few Jaguars. Mercedes of all eras seemed to dominate the show - whether that's an indicator of longevity or simply aspiration I don't know.  I don't think Janis Joplin ever dreamt of being bought a Citroen.
• Local paper campaign - using mobiles 13 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  My local paper has decided to run a campaign identifying use of a mobile whilst driving. They plotted up at Wilsons Corner in Brentwood town centre (a busy double mini roundabout). They took a picture of 50 drivers in 1 hour using their mobiles whilst negotiating this tricky area. Funny thing is, all the faces were blurred out and the cars were not identified, so I couldn't see the point of it.
• Hyundai i10 (2008 - ) - Small new car with sunroof & fold flat boot? 26 Apr 2009 (Forum)
  I've been doing my research (online, on foot & in magazines) to find out which new (nearly new) small cars have: i) a sunroof option (opening - not just fixed glass) ii) a boot that folds completely flat After many many hours of looking I'm beginning to lose track but I think the options are: -Hyundai i10 1.2 Style -Vauxhall Corsas (but not sure which models - can't find simple list of options vs model) - Fiat Grande Punto (I think - maybe Panda too?) - Mini Clubman - but way too expensive! - Older Honda Jazz - but rare, aging and expensive for age I'm after an economical car (low tax, insurance, running costs) with good reliability and I'm leaning towards the Hyundai i10 but before I commit, I wondered if anyone here knows of any other newish small car that I've missed that has the sunroof & fold flat boot?
• Weekend in Paris 9 Dec 2008 (Forum)
  Sure a few Merc taxis/limos and one 5-series taxi but otherwise the usual Euromix of small/medium hatches with loads of Smarts, Fiat 500s, Merc A-classes and MINIs. No BMW 1-series (is this a UK only model? - joke). Clearly a large car is a liability in Paris, so why are they so popular in the UK's cities. 4. No Subarus (of any description) were seen - they don't know what they're missing.......
• I want a gorgeous car... 23 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  I like the Celica, but insurance is too high. Maybe a Hyundai Coupe...but I don't know much about them at all... I am thinking possibly a MINI but I won't be able to afford a post-04 model, and all the pre-04 one's have fragile gearboxes I've heard? I'd consider a new car with finance across 3/4 years if anyone knows of any 0% deals, because I refuse to pay interest...
• Herringbone car park bays 18 May 2008 (Forum)
  (Yes, you could reverse INTO the bay and maybe gain a bit more clearance by driving out forwards, but then you have trouble at the boot-end with kids' pushchairs and supermarket trolleys, and the associated risk of scraping adjacent cars in your efforts in getting said pushchair/trolley to that location.) The car park's through-traffic gets held-up by vehicles having to make mini '3 point turns' to get out of -and often into- their bays, when the turn has to be 90 degrees. And no wonder so many carpark dings and scrapes occur. For the sake of losing maybe a couple of spaces per row, why don't car parks have angled bays arranged in herringbone fashion?
• Renault Clio III 197 (2006 - 2009 ) - Experience of Renault Clio Sport 197 15 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  I spoken around and it seems you either get a good one or a really terrible one. Also consiering a Mini Cooper S which will probably make more financial success. Think is the bespoke naure of the Renault Sports is Very mouthwatering. They are made in their own small factory apparently like much more expensive cars.
• FIAT 500 (2007 - ) - New Fiat 500 11 Sep 2007 (Forum)
  A lovely young lady with legs that went on forever, allowed me inside to fidddle about. What a cracking looking car. This, Mr BMW man, is how to do Retro. UNlike the new mini, Fiat have captured the spirit of the old 500 superbly. Sure its bigger, than the old one, but all the styling cues of the old one have been carried over, including the inside where plastics have been cleverly made to look like painted metal dashboard.
• Ford Ka - Cam swap 26 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  The last engine I removed was a Dolomite 1850 in 1988 (and a Yamaha R7 in 1999, but that doesn't count), and the last cylinder head was a GSXR 600 in 2003, but I reckon I can still cut it (famous last words!). I'll try and do a mini blog on here of progress, but the only thing I've never worked on is air con. Haynes are doing the "you'll die" bit if the a/c isn't depressurised by a grown up, but as it isn't working anyway is it reasonably safe to stick a long pointy thing into the service ports to check there's no pressure?
• 4x4 the safest by far? 17 Oct 2006 (Forum)
  The safest cars for drivers are the Land Rover Defender, Mercedes ML class, Toyota Landcruiser and Isuzu Trooper. The cars with the worst records for driver deaths and serious injuries are the old-style Mini, the Fiat Panda, pre-1993 Nissan Micra, Daewoo Matiz and Suzuki Swift. The DoT looked at police reports of more than 138,000 crashes from 2000 to 2004. Drivers of small and medium-sized cars involved in collisions with another car had a one in 200 chance of being killed, compared with fewer than one in 10,000 for drivers of people-carriers and 4x4s.
• Peugeot 406 auto gear change 28 Nov 2005 (Forum)
  s just "not right". I?m taking it to be prepared for winter on Friday (winter tyres, oil, antifreeze, mini service etc), should I have the transmission fluid changed at the same time? I saw Ed China and Mike Brewer cure a dicky Range Rover gearbox by simply doing this. And how often should I be changing gearbox oil?
• Rumble Strips on a Hill 5 Oct 2004 (Forum)
  My question is, how are these strips going to react to ice? Without any technical knowledge at all, it seems to me that they will each become mini ski-jumps, making it far more likely that a driver/rider will skid off the carriageway. Whilst on one side, there is a steep soil bank with scrubby bushes at the base, the other side of the road has a thorn hedge followed by a very steep slope down to the valley floor.
• escort 1.8td head gasket 3 Nov 2003 (Forum)
  (engine temperature has always been easily in the normal range, never venturing hotter than half way up the scale). if it does need doing what precaution should i take (i've done head gaskets on a few mini engines and a ford 1.6 zetec). i have the haynes manual for the diesel engine but it doenst cover the turbo. does head gasket replacement get trickier with the turbo involved or is ti fairly straightforward?
• Crossover technologies 1 Oct 2001 (Forum)
  On a thread on directional tyres a few days ago Stuart B mentioned a bicycle with suspension designed by Alex Moulton along similar lines to his design for the Mini (BTW Stuart, I tried out the new Land Rover badged version of the Moulton APB, and it didn't seem as bouncy as I remember - maybe it's because I'm 30lbs heavier than I was then). Most European car manufacturers started out making bicycles, and learned a lot about manufacturing, metallurgy and frame design from those days.
• MG MGF (1995 - 2002) - Modified MGF - worth a punt? 2 Mar 2009 (Forum)
  Receipts for most parts (ex UK) Printed ECU manual Maintenance manual List of handy MGF sites At present has Sony Mini Disc head unit, this may stay with the car, and will also be supplied with mini disc stereo component to allow recording of minidisks from CD or this may be exchanged for Sony CD head unit currently in another car.
• Mazda Mazda 5 7-str (2005 - 2010) - Mini-test of facelift Mazda 5 4 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  Just returned from two weeks in Israel on one of our regular trips en-famille. There are five of us, and this year we have rented small seven seaters...
• RIP handbrake, spare wheel and 4th cylinder 3 Sep 2024 (Forum)
  Come back, Wartburg, all is forgiven - although unlike Ford and their "seen and not heard" V4, the East German maker never pushed smoothness as its USP. I'd be more than happy to hire a BMW or MINI on my next trip away, to see if they have found the magic formula to get their three pot to run smoothly.
• For a 25 year Old - Fun throwaway (hopefully not) 19 Dec 2017 (Forum)
  At home he drives a choice of family cars from a BMW328ix, a mercedes c250 4wd and a humble toyota mini MPV (which is what he goes out and drives when he doesn't want to go fast but enjoy pushing it a bit. Last week I took him off for a well deserved week in spain, and he hated the fiat punto i hired, which was strange as he didn't drive it in spite of pestering me as he had forgotten his IDP...
• Any - The death of recycled parts? 24 Oct 2017 (Forum)
  This could explain why we see so many stories here of customers experiencing major difficulties in convincing dealers of an intermittent fault because they may not be reimbursed by the delver . He has none of these problems with his second car which is a Mini Moke.
• Vauxhall Corsa D 1.2 - Accident damage 12 Jul 2013 (Forum)
  Corsa hit from front left at mini roundabout by heavy high crossover vehicle.  I had just managed to stop but she hadn't seen me and hit me at 10-15 mph,  coming from nearside to offside and slighlty towards me since she was turning right.