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Questions from April 2011
My ambition for ages has been to own a car with leather seats. I have a budget of up to £4000.
In the past you have recommended a Daihatsu Copen, which I am intrigued by, and a Mazda MX-5, but occasionally...
Hello, we ordered an S-MAX in September 2010 and paid a deposit in 02-10-10 at GATES of Dunmow Essex.
When we ordered it we were told it would be before Christmas 2010, and we agreed on that.
However...
I need a Focus sized, fuel efficient (but with a bit of power) car for my 60 mile round trip commute on mixed roads.
I currently use a 2002 Leon Cupra 180 (66k miles) which is great but too old and relatively...
I have a 2002 ford fiesta 1.6 freestyle and all of a sudden the radio has stopped working.
I took the radio out to see if there were any loose connections but there aren't any, so I looked in the fuse...
My relative has an original 1993 mk1 1275cc Mini which has been sat unused for two years or more.
What would I need to do before attempting to restart the car with regard to engine, brakes or anything...
I have owned a 1996 Peugeot 406 2.0-litre petrol 16v LX from new and for the last year it has had an intermittent fault.
It had covered 165,000 trouble free miles up until this fault. Sometimes it will...
The washer jets on my Ford Focus 2008 TDCi are not working.
I've had diagnostic tests completed by two Ford dealers. One tells me there has been water ingress into the car through the bulkhead seam (they...
I bought a Mondeo on a 53-plate. It's a 2.0-litre TDCi 130ps and the turbo pipe went whilst in cornwall.
I drove around 400 miles home with greatly reduced power and a lot of black exhaust smoke.
Having...
I own a 2004 Ford Transit Connect TDCI with 108,000 miles on the clock.
The Ford service guide recommends replacing the cam belt at 150,000 miles, but The Ford Transit Connect owners website has many...
We need to find a car with space for 3 child seats in the back on a Budget of £12k.
I want to find an alternative to an S-Max, which my wife wants. I don't like it as I feel like I would be driving a...
What cars have a folding front passenger seat? I sometimes have to carry long items.
The Golf Plus shows it on its brochure but dealers inform me it is not available in the UK.
Bought a Honda Jazz from 'The car shop megastore' in Doncaster, which was advertised online as having air con.
When I went I didn't know what to look for but on getting home I checked the manual and found...
The website for Santana 4x4 comes up in Japanese. Is there another route to them?
I have an R-plate two-litre petrol Ford Mondeo.
For as long as I can remember it has a had a slight hesitancy, which feels like a misfire. It occurs when driving slowly in fourth or fifth gear, and is...
I thought you might be interested in the parking regime at Arrowe Park Hospital on Wirral. It would seem that this car park operator has wised up to your 'minor breach of contract' advice by making it...
I think I have discovered a legal way to buy cheap diesel fuel. My work colleague buys diesel from a truck breakers yard in Surrey and gets it for about 80p. Apparently the diesel comes from old trucks...
I just received a text from a mobile number stating: "Free Msg; Our records indicate you may be entitled to £3,750 for the accident you had. To apply free reply CLAIM to this message. To opt out text STOP.”...
I have a BMW Z4 sDrive 3.5i and will be driving to France, Monaco and Italy this summer. I am keen to comply with all the regulations re travel, and have the reflective vests in the car plus all the external...
I drive trucks for a living and read most weeks about people passing comments regarding the hesitancy and slow changing of automated manual transmissions. Trucks also have them and I could pass the same...
A friend came to see us. When leaving he sat in his new-to-him, 2008/58 Mercedes-Benz A180 diesel auto. Without putting his legs anywhere near the pedals he turned the key and started the engine. To my...
Looking in my rear view mirror the other day, I saw a Mark II Jaguar although, on second glance, there was something slightly odd about its proportions. When it passed me, I noticed that the rear was completely...
I plan a trip abroad, which would include car hire for a 5-week period. I have heard that it is possible and preferable to purchase an insurance policy to specifically cover collision damage waiver, thus...
Regular followers of the fight against parking pirates will welcome the news that one of the Penalty Charge Notice perpetrators, OPC Parking, was fined £26,750 plus costs in Wolverhampton Magistrates Court...
I have a Volkswagen Golf Hatch 2.0 TDI GT (Automatic). The car does approximately 500 miles a week and has been serviced every 10,000 miles by the supplying Volkswagen dealer. At two and a half years old,...
There has been a lot in the news recently about pollution, with London's air quality being forefront. Boris Johnson launched a discounted van deal to promote the Low Emission Zone requirement on ordinary...
I don't quite agree with your suggestion that we should compare the cost of repairs to the value of the car. We should instead, compare the cost of repairs with depreciation and the costs/value of buying...
Last week, when 40 miles from home, my key fob failed to start my 2004 Subaru Legacy. I had to phone my wife to bring the spare key, which worked perfectly. I assumed it was the battery, but the Subaru...
I thought that you might find my experience to be a vaguely interesting contribution to the DPF discussion. I agree that, on the whole, they are probably an expensive invention of the Devil but sometimes...
Surely there is something fundamentally stupid about the way we are building cars today? I drive a ten-year-old Toyota Yaris, a wonderful little car. My wife has a larger car, a Volkswagen Touran, for...
I received by post a notice of renewal with a £350 premium from my insurer following my second year of cover. This was a £100 hike over the previous year. As usual, I surfed for competitive quotes and...
Parasitical private parking companies are now making it almost impossible to visit retail parks, supermarkets, motorway services, McDonalds and even railway stations without receiving exorbitant demands...
Your letter-writers often complain that they can't match their car's official EC mpg figures. Surely it's common knowledge (or ought to be?) that these are measured while the car is driven in accordance...
Please advise your readers, if they suffer a car accident that is not their fault, to sue the person responsible if they do not get suitable redress from that person. It’s a waste of time claiming on your...
Can you recommend a small petrol automatic hatchback to replace our Nissan Qashqai and Toyota Verso?
Having considered a rationalisation of our transport requirements, my wife and I have finally decided to address the situation. I am 81, and my wife is not far behind. At present I drive a 2008 Qashqai...
The last two years have seen us drive to our holidays in Southern France and Spain in our 2004 SEAT Alhambra TDI 130. The journeys have been uneventful, apart from a particular section of the Massif central...
Further to your reply to JH Saturday April 2nd re Jaguar 2.2 diesel DMF problem, my 2010 Transit 2.2 diesel has similar engine fitted and when you lift the clutch at idle, the engine software senses the...
I purchased a new Ford Mondeo 2.0 Duratorque TDCI (115PS) 6-speed manual in October last year. The car has now done 6,500 miles. The Ford brochure indicates fuel consumption of: Urban 44mpg, Extra Urban...
On retirement three years ago I bought myself a new C-Class Sport Mercedes-Benz and have done 30,000 miles. Its just had its first MOT and failed because of splits on the rear tyres. This is the third...
I purchased a 2005 Vauxhall Vectra V6 CDTi last November. I also bought a year's warranty cover for £350 from the same dealership. After three months a fault developed in the high-pressure fuel delivery...
I have now run a Chevrolet Cruze diesel auto for over one year. Since Shell introduced "Fuel saver" diesel, my consumption has increased to 27.86 mpg average over the past 1,138 miles i.e. five tankfuls,...
Further to previous correspondence with you regarding DSG gearbox hesitation on exiting junctions and joining roundabouts, today, on Skoda's request, I took my car to the local dealer for a 'new software'...
I have received a NIP after I triggered a Gatso camera whilst travelling at 51mph into a 30mph zone. I had been seeking an exit that would have led me onto the M4 motorway. This occurred when I entered...
I wanted to comment on a truly shocking car accident inquest, yesterday, into a mother who hit a pothole while driving her car. The mother lost control of the car and her 16 year old son died in a water-filled...
Rarely do I think you're not quite right, but your reply to JR, Pickering I think misses one point. I drive lots of motorways whilst delivering Mercedes-Benz cars, so I take care to assist the traffic...
I have a September 2000 Vauxhall Tigra with 67,000 miles on the clock. Since breaking my wrist earlier in the year I have re-discovered the joys of public transport and walking, and really don’t need a...
My wife needs to change her car for an automatic. She has arthritis in her left knee and is finding it difficult to drive in stop-start traffic. The sort of spec would be: Polo or Fiesta-sized, 5-door,...
I just bought a Ford Fiesta 1.6 TDI. It came fitted with Continental Premium Contact 2 tyres, which seem quite noisy.
Do you know of any tyres which would reduce road noise at all?
We live at the bottom of a steep hill on a private road which is not cleared of snow. All of our neighbours have four wheel drive and so drive on and compact any snow, which then freezes.
Will winter...
My dad has a 1998 Lexus that isn't used very often and so the battery has gone flat a number of times. He now leaves the battery on charge periodically. However, today he found that the car battery would...
My Skoda with 40,000 miles went for a service.
They rotated the tyres, moved the front to the back and vice versa. Since then the car drones, it reminds me of worn prop shaft groans in old rear wheel...
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