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• Rover 75 - Rover 75 Turbo Failure Dispute 20 Sep 2011 (Forum)
  At the end of June I had a full service done at my local garage in the UK at 94000miles. 1500 miles later, when in the south of France,  the low oil pressure warning light came on  and it took 4litres to restore the level.
• Citroen Berlingo Multispace - Importing a previously registered UK car 5 Aug 2010 (Forum)
  Hello,   This October I'm planning to fly out to Alonissos (a Greek island) to pick up my Granddad's X reg Berlingo, and drive it back to the UK via Italy, Switzerland and France. My Granddad bought the car in the UK as normal back when he lived here, and used it to travel out to Greece when he moved there. Back in 2004, he officially exported the car from the UK. It was never registered in Greece, as it was over 10 years old and could not be registered.
• The Donkey trap future - motoring with no motor 31 Mar 2010 (Forum)
  Shambling figures in tatty jeans, bloated by the puffery of wadding and internal padding. Long gone, the effort or fashion of looking good - except in France, where the odd female of a certain age stands as a beacon of desire and fashion that actually attracts the jaded eye. Best not mention the blokes, pants hanging off flaccid bottoms and in age, gardening blue jeans and fleece tops - multi piled with 10,000 washing cycles on 60c and twinned with the rotting garbage sack, composting under the apple tree in outer Mongolia.
• Is a tyre company fobbing me off? 23 Sep 2009 (Forum)
  A local branch of a well known national tyre fitters said they could do the work, so they fitted tyres and my tubes to the new wheels. I was in France about a month later and had a puncture on the motorway, which seems to be due to a failure of the tube rather than the tyre. When I took it back to the fitters, the manager refused to look at the wheel as apparently they "never touched wire wheels", because of the difficulties associated with fitting tubes.
• Renault Espace (2002 - ) - 05 2.2 Grand Espace - electrical 16 Sep 2009 (Forum)
  Wish I'd done a bit more research (eg Googled "Espace problems") before buying 2005 2.2dci from a crook last November but.... Already been through the usual cracked inlet manifold at 70k miles - fixed by Renault France - and all has been fine for 12k since then and I do like the car. Now couple of dashboard issues I'm hoping you guys might be able to help with: The car lives in the Alps during the winter and when it is very cold (less than -6 degrees say) both ESP and ABS lights are illuminated on starting - which is a bit disconcerting on icy roads!
• Setting records for age of fuel in the tank 28 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  Petrol and diesel. (I touched on this a while back) I was just reflecting on it. Arrived home from France early July, the remaining diesel from Calais then lasted a few weeks. Refueled and weeks later still have a 2/3 tank of derv left. Now the next continental trip in the van, has been canceled and we will be flying out to the far east - even for the first time using a taxi to Manchester airport.
• Winter Biking. 7 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  Surrey to Switzerland on a Honda 350K4. Off the ferry at Dieppe at 4am (ish), lovely ride across France, nice lunch somewhere. Then it got cold. Somewhere near Dijon I stopped to put plastic bags over my gloves and boots. Then it started snowing. I was riding with my feet down, following some car tracks in the snow.
• Driving on side lights 24 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  A resulting front end crash could destroy any evidence that the car had no lights on, leaving the other party to pick up the insurance claim. I seem to remember driving in France a few years ago, seeing a roadsign that showed rain and a car with its headlights on. How difficult would it be to introduce a simple lights policy law, instead of leaving it to the cheapskate drivers who put themselves and others at risk.
• 130gm per km CO2 the new benchmark for VED? 18 Oct 2008 (Forum)
  In Japan, Toyota's September sales fell from 213,042 in 2007 to 144,260 this year. China's car sales, after months of rapid growth, have slumped, and in Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany and India sales also fell: there is almost no one in the world, it seems, who feels that this is the right moment to buy a new car. To make matters worse, the financial turbulence comes just as restrictions on carbon emissions are finally catching up with car makers.
• Excessive oil company profits? 1 May 2008 (Forum)
  And then I started thinking of what I get for all this tax, especially since I am I am lucky enough not to have been to the doctors for a few years.................and then I got home and had a glass of wine and a little cigar which cheered me up a bit (especially since I bought them in France at about £7 for 5 litres and 6 euros for 20 cigars - less than half the price here). Sorry to burden you with my rambling - but it gets it off my chest which is more than the cigars do!
• Renault Megane II (2002 - 2008) - Headlamp Bulbs 28 Apr 2008 (Forum)
  Told one side takes 2 hours and the other 1 hour, labour charge is £40/hour and bulbs are £7.50 each. Total £135. Going to France next week. Don't have the time or (apparently) small enough hands, and definitely not enough patience or big enough swear box according to SWMBO so Main Dealer gets £50. Job done in 35 minutes. Three comments.
• What do I replace the Honda with . . . . . . 2 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  Climate is a must and heated seats preferred Reliable, I do not pay to fix it but I don't like being stood beside the road waiting for recovery (so not French or Italian). Reasonably attractive (so no Toyotas) Suitable for long distances (We drive to the south of France twice a year) Don't need it quite as fast as the Honda but it has to be quiet and comfortable at 70-75mph. Capable of high milages - Honda has done 112k in 44 months. Target list price of sub 19k - again for tax reasons.
• Aids to avoiding speed cameras counter productive? 3 Jan 2008 (Forum)
  Or is it just useful on unfamiliar ground? I also noticed that there are third party POI camera databases for France, surely illegal? Or is that for `active` Radar Detectors? Regards NB, Sat Nav mainly bought for use in Europe in finding Hotels in unfamiliar cities.
• probs after intercooler pipe failure v70 21 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  Hi, vehicle is volvo v70 2.5tdi with msa 15.8 I recently had the bottom intercooler pipe come off. This happened in France with a ferry to catch, fully loaded vehicle, children etc. no tools. I chose to drive the 80 miles to the ferry (low speed, low revs - lots of smoke) rather than risk missing the boat. Once back in the UK, I checked the car over and found the problem with the intercooler hose.
• Citroen C6 - Tow-car par excellence 12 Oct 2006 (Forum)
  We have just returned from a very enjoyable 2 week stay in France. While driving up the A28 between Le Mans and Rouen I looked in my mirror and saw a car and caravan behind me that I couldn't remember overtaking. I checked the mirror again and found that he was actually gaining on me.
• Away to Europe- in what? 24 Aug 2005 (Forum)
  A slightly long and involved post, but.. Mrs O and I are off round Europe (Berlin, Krakow, Vienna, Salzburg and back through Germany/France) in August. It'll be 3000 miles or so. I'm currently trying to work out whether we should take the XJS or not. It's good fun and comfortable, but desperately thirsty, and it may break. What are current petrol prices like?
• Whats in your Car 1 May 2003 (Forum)
  Cleaned mine out properly for the first time last w/e and I had: Childs fishing rod Childs seaside spade Bucket 3 golf umbrellas 4 golf balls petrol receipts fag packets 3 pairs of sunglasses childs rubber ring (deflated) crushed coke can 14 pens warning triangle (broken) first aid kit (out of date) two UK road atlas's Belgium road map Holland road map French Atlas Little chef vouchers (out of date) 4 cassettes (unplayable) Spare bulb kit (three bulbs missing) 6 balls chewed by dog Mobile phone charger (broken) Frisbee (chewed - child or dog not sure) 10 franc piece (for the supermarket trollies - now redundant) £2.50 in loose change 3 CD's Game Boy Advance game (mario super Karts) 4 opened packets chewing gum Mickey Mouse sun shade 35 pay and display tickets Warwick Castle guide book 1 x Evening Standard 2002 (complete but yellow) Leather mobile phone case (chewed) 1 Sock 1 baseball cap (peak on the back) The Scenic is a great car, but it swallows more junk than the dustcart....
• New Speed Limits 21 Apr 2003 (Forum)
  Their own tests showed a modern Mondeo was able to stop 22 metres shorter than a 1960s Cortina. Thie suggestion is that we follow France\'s lead and have an 80mph limit in dry, clear conditions, dropping to 65mph in rain, ice or fog. All sounds like common sense to me. I\'ve said in a number of threads that the measures traffic planners use to slow people down in the urban environment are becoming so complex that they\'re almost self-defeating (too much signage, furniture and baffling traffic calming).
• Car Alarms 7 Jul 2001 (Forum)
  I was on holiday in France recently and visited a local town, I parked in the town square and locked my car using the remote keyfob which locks the doors and turns on the alarm. On return the car would not open using the keyfob so I got some new batteries, no joy.
• 
  How do we go about driving a classic car through France's clean air zones? 22 Feb 2018 (Ask HJ)
  I was under the impression that the French authorities had banned classic cars - even if they were over forty years old - from entering major French cities....