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• Low Tax band 31 Oct 2014 (Forum)
  Unfortunately, due to high emissions ratings, I feel forced to sell my lovely and very reliable 2005 Volvo V70 D5 as I am unprepared to pay approx €1000 on import tax, and a further €1000 on road tax, not to mention VRT test fees. :( Consequently, as a charity worker in a very expensive city, I am now on the hunt and engaging in detailed research on how I can make a good value purchase on a cost-effective to run "family car" (estate or MPV/SUV) with no greater than "Band C".
• Audi A4 B6 (2001 - 2005) - 02 1.9TDi 130 Avant brake failure 23 May 2012 (Forum)
  Audi managed to send me sales details but don't manage to call me in for what I consider to be an important recall. I would be glad if any other A4 drivers have had any similar problem and ask if you could post here if you have had the 'drain plug' modification done and whether you know about it. For something as important as brakes, I feel I am not going to be fobbed off quite so calmly, without a fight.
• Budget 2009 24 Apr 2009 (Forum)
  These will provide a stronger signal to consumers at the point of purchase. 7.53 To ensure that new VED rates and bands are clearly understood by motorists, the Department for Transport has worked with the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership to update the fuel economy label for new vehicles, and is continuing to work with industry to develop a fuel economy label for the second-hand car market. 7.54 Budget 2009 also announces changes to the VED rules on refunds, six-month licences and imported vehicles during the first year of vehicle licensing, from April 2010, as a consequence of the introduction of First-Year Rates, as well as general changes to the treatment of imported vehicles. Details are set out in Chapter A. 7.55 Company car tax (CCT) was reformed in 2002 and is now based on carbon emissions, encouraging the take-up of more fuel-efficient cars in company fleets.
• Ford Mondeo cambelt 12 Apr 2005 (Forum)
  Couple of months later I was doing some reading and found numerous postings etc to the effect that on a Zetec engine, it's very important that the tensioners are changed at the same time as the cambelt. Wary of this, I dug out my invoice and found I'd been billed only for a belt - no tensioners. A quick call to them revealed they did not change the tensioners becuase on the later Blacktop 2.0 Zetec, tensioner change was not required.
• Advice sought re Skoda Octavia 2013 2.0 4x4 DSG with 112,000 miles 30 Jul 2023 (Forum)
  Hi all, We’re about to move overseas for a bit. We can’t buy a left hand drive second hand vehicle there, so are thinking about importing one. We plan some big road trips so need a large(ish) reliable car. We’ve found a UK plated Skoda Octavia 2013 2.0 TDI Laurin & Klement 4x4 DSG with 112,000 on the clock. The asking price is £7995.
• Anyone used an online site to book a sevice? 4 May 2023 (Forum)
  I have a VW Golf estate import from Japan and though I don't drive it much - about 3k a year and the service light is on. I don't have the previous service book so I decided to book a garage for servicing and found the site - A garage service booking company who seem to offer servicing at major dealerships - but whats the catch?
• Looking for older joyful car 21 Mar 2023 (Forum)
  But there must be something better than my current focus..Here I am looking for make and model suggestion (year 2007 and Up), under £4000 (preferably way under ??). Fuel sort not important. I miss mondeo power. 
• Physical experience and touch when car buying 5 Mar 2023 (Forum)
  Hey all, I am currently writing my dissertation that explores whether the importance of physically experiencing and touching a car before purchase is changing, and whether technologies such as online car dealers are impacting this. It would be fantastic if any of you would spare around 6 minutes to complete my survey as I would love to get your opinions.
• Diesel to Hybrid SUV Choices 2 Sep 2021 (Forum)
    I have had my faultless CRV for a couple of years and am considering changing to a hybrid.  Reliability and cost are the 2 most important things and I have looked at: RAV4 Excel Hybrid CR-V EX Hybrid Both cars are under a year old so have taken most of the initial depreciation hit and are similar specs.  I'd be comfortable owning both of them given their reliability records but having never owned a hybrid before, only diesels, I wondered if there were views as to which is the better motor?
• Advice/recommendations for a second car. 18 Jul 2021 (Forum)
  I'm looking for a sports hatch / coupe within the price range of about 8-12k, reliability aswell as performance are equally as important although I understand both generally dont go hand in hand. General use would be commuting to work and day to day driving, I only really cover between 6-8k miles a year so a petrol will be most suitable.
• BMW X1 - SE 2017 used wrong tyres 12 Jan 2021 (Forum)
  He had confirmed via email that it was fitted with run flat tyres, however this is not the case. He is elderly and health problems so was an important feature. It has 3 X Turanza T001I They even stated the manager had double checked. They even fitted a new HyFly HF805 tyre onto the car which has a invoice value of £40. I've tried to find if this is a suitable tyre, regardless of it not being run flat.
• Parts and paint - Cost of car repairs 23 Dec 2020 (Forum)
  A small parking hit and run on my partners Flame red metallic Captur has opened my eyes to the importance of considering the cost of repairs when choosing a colour. Even with the paint code, there turned out to be four variants of the colour. So a paint analyser costing £4 k is essential to match the colour exactly .
• Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - ODB2 scanners 10 Dec 2020 (Forum)
  What has brought this on is on my 2017 grand c4 picasso one of the rear seat belt buckles is faulty and keeps sounding an alarm if not plugged in, and now and a little more important is the stop/start function has stoppped working but I'm not getting any warning lights etc so thought a quick odb 2 thingy might help. I've just started looking around for one but there is so many to look at and I'm just trying to narrow things down.
• VW Touareg - DVLA in a mess? Anyone have information on delays? 2 Aug 2020 (Forum)
  It is supposed to arrive 90 days before the birthday, but didn't. I'm away for a bit so it may have arrived in the last few days, of course. The important part is the extra paperwork and medical tests to retain the higher categories on my licence. I drive a Touareg (about 2.5 tonnes) and tow a Hymer caravan (2 tonnes) so the combined train weight is well over the 3.5 tonne limit.
• Ford /honda - Researching second hand car 2 Mar 2020 (Forum)
  Hello all again Still looking for a second hand car 10 to 12 thousand.and as it's my wife's car for the kid stuff etc reliability is important. I looked at a grand picasso which I liked it had all the practically from a family point of view but with advice from this website and checking out various things I decided it's a bit iffy with regards to mot failures , too many non specific faults with regards to warning lights covering SRS problems, tyre pressure monitor, etc etc etc.
• Rail replacement buses 2 Jul 2018 (Forum)
  Also-I presume that in the event of wide ranging cancellations the staff who were scheduled to drive or be conductors on the original cancelled trains are stood down  and are not invloved in any way with the bus service? Perhaps most important of all, I assume that when a normal 12 coach train is cancelled, the subsitute is one or perhaps two buses rather than the expected dozen?
• SEAT Ibiza III - Seat ibiza 1.2 tdi CFWA 31 Mar 2018 (Forum)
  Cleared all of them car was fine for few weeks but eventually came back but with a different combination of codes and they wouldn't clear. The codes are not really important here as it was a short cicuit.  Anyway after searching for a whole day I found the issue right by the ecu just as I was about to take the ecu out to test.  It was on the main loom under the ecu and had rubbed on the metal bracket.
• Any... - Small 4WD 11 Mar 2018 (Forum)
  We also want economy as far as possible and small as far as possible narrow country lanes and a small piece if front drive are important constraints. Petrol, manual gearbox. Our difficulty is that most 4WD cars are quite big. I've looked at a Jimny - fits all requirements except very dated and uncomfortable. Also a Panda 4x4 which seems to do rather better, and would be cheaper to run.
• New year, new car 1 Jan 2018 (Forum)
  My sons girlfriend is going to look for a new ( to her) car next year, atm she drives a fiat panda( 2009)which has been reasonably reliable so far, just the usual servicing although she had the cam belt etc changed this year, and apart from a few minor issues has been ok, she needs something reliable and is thinking about a Kia Picanto or Hyundai i10, although a couple of others might be in the frame, a Suzuki Celario, or Mitsubishi Mirage, her budget will be about 5k inc her px for the panda she mainly uses for short urban commutes and the odd journey a bit further afield although no long motorway trips, image is not important , what are your views on these cars, or is there anything else that would suit, .?, has to be small city car.
• * - Visibility/Positioning of instruments 14 Sep 2017 (Forum)
  In this day and age with the car work load increasing the positioning of important instruments is being ignored. With our speed now being monitored nearly everywhere it is paramount to be able to see ones speed without searching somewhere through the steering wheel, why are cars not fitted with either 'Heads up Speedo' or a small binnacle speedo at the foot of the windscreen so that speed can be seen without taking ones eyes from the Road?