Questions from May 2009
A friend tried to contact the local Director of Roads in order to complain about the condition of the road surfaces locally. He also wanted to bring to his attention an accident he had witnessed in which...
I'm looking to purchase a car £6,500-£7,000 inclusive of trading in an 02 Nissan Almera Tino. I need a car that is fairly high (as the Almera Tino) to sit in but smaller in length as I have arthritis in...
My son is on my car insurance policy and whilst working a while back as a delivery driver he collided with another vehicle (probably 50:50 blame). A third party claim was being made through his employers...
I would much appreciate your comment on a very odd discovery when I checked on the spare wheel of a recently purchased 6-year-old second-hand Honda Jazz car by my 84-year-old neighbour. This spare wheel...
As a regular reader of your column, I am looking for some advice on a potential speeding offence. On the evening of 06APR2009, I was flashed by a fixed camera in what is now a 50mph area (was 60). My...
I am looking for a large 4x4. Having read reviews including your own I am drawn to the VW Touareg 3.0 diesel but to get the spec I want I need the Altitude spec, which will cost me £20k. For this money...
Regarding the letter about short measures from pumps. For many years I was a service engineer covering filling stations for a number of oil companies. Part of the work was testing and recalibrating meters...
It would appear that I am not alone in my anxiety and apprehension when joining and being joined by sliproad traffic on UK motorways. The Highway Code manual is by no means specific or clear cut in this...
I have owned Nissan Micras since 1997, trouble-free until I bought my present car in April 2007 (12k miles to date). Since then I have been rescued by the RAC and AA four times with the same fault - malfunctioning...
I would be very grateful for any advice. I would like to buy a car with small body dimensions and a great automatic gearbox because most of my driving is in heavy traffic. The car needs to be as small...
I'm looking to buy my first car, as my 17th birthday is in a few weeks. I'm not looking to pay very much, as I'm hoping my parents will be supplying the cash. I was just wondering if a VW Beetle is a good...
I’m just about to buy a 2007 Freelander 2 Diesel Auto but need a detachable towbar to tow a boat trailer occasionally for a short distance. I have been quoted between £325 (Non Land Rover) to £792 (dealer...
From 1926 to 1930 under a nationwide 20mph speed limit, vehicle
numbers rose by 35% but deaths rose by 50%. From 1930, with no limit whatever except 30mph in towns, until 1938 (the last full year before...
Politicians do not think like ordinary people and sadly they are rarely "honest". The intention to introduce blanket 20mph speed limits on residential roads and 50 mph limits on all single carriageway...
When you're selling a car via an advert to a complete stranger, what's the safest way to receive payment? Cash, banker's draft? I've looked on FAQ but could not see this one covered.
Two days ago I received a letter from a solicitor in Essex stating that my car - and it then gave the number plate of my car, but described it as a Honda Honda - had been involved in an accident in which...
I just received my car insurance renewal from a well-known company. Last year it was £597.00. This year it had gone up to £984.30. I tried confused.com and the same insurer has re-quoted a price of £577.85....
I am writing on behalf of my 86-year-old father. He has a 2004, 1.6 automatic, 5-door Ford Focus. He pays £210 per year for road tax, but has noticed on other Focus seen in car parks that none of them...
They tried lights on the slip roads at J11 (eastbound) and J7 (westbound) on the M27 a year or so ago and they rapidly caused big tailbacks at peak times. The upshot was/is that they were removed after...
Want to save millions of tons of CO2 per year? Want to improve a car's mpg? Want to save the NHS £M's per year in medication prescriptions for high blood pressure? EASY. Just turn off all traffic lights...
I believe I may have been flashed by a forward facing traffic camera doing between 35-40mph today in an area, which I then found to be 30mph. The route is the A62 AKA Manchester Road in Oldham. I travelled...
I have recently fallen foul of new parking restrictions and had my vehicle removed by a local clamping company. The cost for return of my vehicle was £540. The excessive penalty, the underhand way the...
I tried Shell V-Power to see if it made any difference to mpg, largely because of your newspaper column. I drove back to the UK from Frankfurt in my 1998 Merc CL500 last week, averaged 136km per hour,...
With hundreds of thousands miles behind me, happily accident-free, I reckon I generally know when I am driving at a safe speed for the conditions and, given fair reminders of the speed limit (often lacking)...
In July 2006 we purchased a smart ForFour 1.1 Passion on a 3-year lease purchase finance deal specifically to take out to Portugal and leave at our villa. Using it for only 10 days 5 or 6 times a year.
We...
You are my last resort after ringing round insurance companies. I bought a MINI One in April 2008, after checking with our insurance company, Direct Line, that the premium would be OK including my daughter...
I will keep this as brief as possible but I thought you might appreciate some clarification of what goes on behind the scenes with these 'after accident' claim firms. As an insurance broker for 30 years...
I have seen a ‘new’ pre-upgrade MX-5 2.0i Sport on offer for £13,635. This seems almost too good to be true but how do you feel about the 'old model' against the recent upgrade? This price would not buy...
I have the balance of a two year lease on a 2008 Audi Avant 2.0 TDI. Unfortunately the particulate filter light comes on at relatively short intervals - variously 180 to 350 miles, which is very inconvenient...
I would most appreciate your advice/comments on the following issue. I have owned a metallic silver (what else?) Mercedes C220 CDi Avantgarde since new in 2001. Over the life of the car it has suffered...
At 4,800 miles and one year my X-Trail required new discs and pads on the front. The technician who diagnosed the fault said that I had not really used the brakes enough to bed them in. To the point;...
I have a 2005 MINI Cooper. I would now like a car with a softer ride but with the acceleration and road holding of the Mini. I would be grateful for your suggestions and advice.
My faithful Daihatsu Fourtrack has a rusty chassis, so I will have to replace it. I need something pleasant to drive, reliable, diesel, economical and that can pull up to 7.5 tonnes. Any suggestions?
I recently had my 55 plate Vauxhall Corsa serviced. On the service invoice, it stated that the front brake disc and pads needed to be replaced as they were worn. The car has covered only 19,500 miles....
I bought a new Mercedes 230TE auto in Oct 1987. It is in excellent condition. I have been the only driver, mileage is 153,000, M.O.T till mid September. Please would you let me know the best way to sell...
I've had a new Fiat 500 from May 2008. It is a Cha Cha Cha Azure Blue colour and I have problems with very little black and orange marks, like pinpricks, on all the panels except the roof and the bonnet....
I thought you might be interested in a NIP I received. I sold the car to a dealer in November 2007. I informed the DVLA and now they expect me to know the owner. No doubt the vehicle was disposed of through...
I have just recently bought a 2004 SEAT Ibiza 1.2. The oil warning light came on after driving for approx. 20 mins and intermittently thereafter. I have taken it back to the garage and the pressure switch...
Are Volvos losing their much vaunted engine reliability? My 2003 S80 SE S5 auto with 60,000 plus on the clock has injector trouble and a friend with the same model and year has had two injectors go at...
I purchased a low mileage Mercedes C220 CDI coupe from a Mercedes franchise, part of a major chain of UK franchises. A new tyre was needed after a couple of thousand miles, so I took it to a well known...
I have just purchased a dealer pre-owned Hyundai i30 CRDI Automatic, which I was told was manufactured in South Korea, I am also informed that the next i30 CDRI Automatics will be manufactured Czechoslovakia....
I was interested to read your recommendation of the Isuzu Rodeo pick-up in last Saturday's Motoring, as I have been considering buying one. It seems that the 'Max LE' version, with the Prodrive upgrade,...
I have a 57 plate BMW 118i with auto stop start engine. Throughout last summer the auto stop start engine re-activated itself after a couple of minutes. The car was returned to the garage and BMW became...
I was told recently by a bank official that if I were to present a cheque showing decimal parts of a penny, that it would be considered invalid, even bordering on illegal, as it was not, in effect, using...
How can I find out which alarm my 2005 Ford Mondeo Mk3 3.0 Ghia X has, because I am being ask by some insurance companies.
Do you not think that to promote electric cars there needs to be a change in the law so that some electric vehicles could incorporate a small engine without running into all the legislative problems of...
I thought your readers would be interested in the Ford Motor Co.'s quaint idea of Customer Relations. After experiencing a front coil spring breakage at only 26,000 miles on an 05 Fusion I wrote to the...
My 2003 E39 530 Diesel Automatic owned from new is going in for service soon at 105,000 miles. (I need another 200k miles and it won’t owe me anything.) What is the latest thinking on Auto Gearbox Oil...
I've owned a Mondeo SCI 1.8 Ghia petrol since new in 2005, and always had it serviced at a franchised Ford dealer at the correct intervals. At the 50k service I was advised to replace the back brake pads...
My daughter will be 17 soon and I am starting to think about a suitable car. Due to a shoulder condition she will be limited to an automatic. I would prefer to keep the price as low as possible, but am...
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