December 2003
Have noticed that more and more roundabouts in my area seem to be getting "protected" by these high set concrete kerbs that are possibly, say 2 feet or so high.
My question is - are these built to protect the pavement at all cost - I know from personal experience what damage these can do to a car at a slow speed, at a fast speed I reckon they would rip the whole axle off!!
My dad, whilst driving in France, misjudged the slip road off a roundabout, was only in second gear in his Peugeot 306, and his inside wheel clipped the kerb. If this had been a crash barrier
a. He would have seen it better and
b. His car would have suffered some scrapes down the wing.
Instead the wheel hit the kerb and was pushed back into the engine bay damaging various parts of bodywork and engine, and triggering all the airbags!
What are the accident statistics etc for these kerbs, do they absorb energy just like crash barriers? Does the car bodywork remain untouched - but apart from its chassis? Read more
I have a 48,000 VW Bora 2.0se,fsh,esr,cdmulti,climate,alloys etc and I am at the moment looking at vw dealers and brokers.
A vw dealer today was approx £700 more than the exact same vehicle on drive the deal.
I don't know if I am correct or not but I assume the vw dealer tried to get the price down as low as he could but reduced the part ex on my bora to compensate.
Does anyone have any advice that might be usefull to me, the part ex was for 2 months ahead as I want an O4 plate.
On parkers I should be getting £5,545 not including the above extra's.
Don't know what the best thing to do, like the idea of going to a dealer, just don't like him ripping me off with my part ex. Read more
B,
It all comes down to the actual trade-in figure offered. If you are confident of exceeding that in a private sale then go for a broker at maximum discount.
Do bear in mind that your old car will be "a year older" at the time the new car arrives and booked at less than current figures.
Also that often private cars will stick this time of year unless you pitch them at the trade-in figure, not the private sale figures which are ofetn unrealistic.
Last of all at some point it is worth going to the dealers just to save trouble. My personal opinion is that once the dealers get within £500 (price to change) of the cheapest broker offer it would be well worth thinking of going to them.
Often when I help folks buy cars we end up getting something private where the guy took a chance on not trading in to get a better deal and then finds selling at the Parkers private guide price is not so easy.
One a while back was where the owner didn't trade in to save £500 on his new car, and because he was"insulted" by the trade-in offer of £1200. So he put his old car up at £1600 advised by Parkers for a private sale. It stuck and stuck with him reducing the price each week but never finding a buyer. The advertising costs mounted up and after a month the tax ran out so no-one could legally test drive it. Then he had it over Christmas/New year so it lost value in the guides by the year turning.
It was sitting on the grass outside his nice house and annoying the neighbours. Eventually we bought it for £700!
It isn't always that bad but that has to be a risk in the back of your mind.
M.M
Back to page 11 of the Daily Mail again. Research reported in the British Medical Journal shows that drivers of silver cars are only half as likely to have a serious accident as drivers of cars coloured white, grey, red and blue. Black, green and brown are the worst risk.
How's that for a story? Perhaps HJ could persuade the Telegraph to put in a feature about it. Read more
99% of people have more than the average number of legs.
I've been looking at another Website forum and a chap has asked the question : what causes a bulb to go black after a short time, IE: tail lamps. A fault or quality??
Curious to the answer as no one has yet answered to the question.
Autumnboy Read more
As most check out the connections to the light cluster`s at least I assume so.And the problem seems to occur on cheaper bulbs it may not be down to the connection`s apart from inside the bulb.apart from complain to manufacturer what can you do.except pay more?
Did anyone else see page 11 of today\'s Daily Mail? An old chap (I presume he is old)selected reverse by mistake and did wheelies up the bonnet of an MPV behind him. I don\'t think I could do that with my Legacy! Read more
Rob... the Galaxy is just small fry to Polo. He likes to take on big lorries.
Mind you, I doubt even I could manage to reverse all the way up someone's bonnet and not notice. Of course old people are safe to be on the roads!! :-/
My daughter has emigrated to Winnipeg and has the use of a \"Chevrolet Cavalier\" which she might be able to purchase. Does anyone have any knowledge of this model?
In the UK she ran a KA which she was happy with but in Canada small cars are frowned on. Any suggestions?! She basically has the proceeds of the KA - £4000. Read more
Thanks very much - that gives us a start!
James Hill was jailed for 8 years today for killing 2 young girls when he lost control of his car during a road race on a the A46 near Grimsby. Apparently he had been banned from driving 5 times before, has previously been jailed, twice, for driving offences and was 3 times over the limit. I can't imagine what the parents of the girls must be going through. Was 8 years enough for this man?
He will be free in 4 years and although he was banned for 15 years this apparently won't stop him getting behind a wheel. Read more
With a couple of exceptions (Steve42's suggestion of chip readers in cars) this has been a thread on sentencing and prisoner rehabilitation. Sorry folks, thread locked.
No Dosh
mailto:Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
Several threads recently on blue lights in various odd places. Saw some yesterday evening that capped the lot:
Blue rear number-plate lights.
Why, please? Read more
Our latest fashion: blue turn indicator lamps in clear lenses. Try seeing them when the sun is in your eyes.
They do have one saving grace. Their owners tend to use them to show they've got them whereas about 90% of Philippine drivers either don't use turn lights or have them but they don't work.
I bought a 'T' Reg Mazda 323 (1.5 engine) on 11 November from an independent dealer. The car had 32,000 miles, 1 previous owner and a FSH. Within a day or so two faults became apparent:
(1) jerky throttle response and intermittent flat spots - lifting off the throttle would sometimes result in either too much loss of speed (felt like engine braking was coming into play even if I lifted off at 40 mph in 5th gear) or slight 'run on'.
(2) brakes squealing when applied at low speed (eg when inching forward in a traffic queue.
I hoped that the poor throttle response might be due to the car needing some long runs so I ran it for a few weeks, gave it a shot of Redex and made sure I stuck to Texaco petrol.
After a month the dealer rang me to see if I was happy with the car. I explained the problems and booked it in to be looked at. The service manager said that they could stop the brakes squealing but the problem might recur because "brake pads can't contain asbestos anymore". The car was with the dealer all day on 18 December. When I picked it up one of the mechanics explained that the jerky throttle response had been because of it being "coked up" and that they had used some kind of throttle cleaner. When driving the car that evening I noticed that the brake squeal was as bad as before and that although the throttle response was smoother there was still the occasional 'flat spot' feeling, most noticeably at 15 mph in 2nd gear.
I visited the dealer today (19 December) and explained that I wasn't happy. The service manager suggested I bring it in on 23 December and we would take it for a run together so he could see what the problem was. He also said that the flat spots might be a characteristic of the engine rather than a fault (which sounds to me like a version of 'that all do that, sir').
I'm wondering if these flat spots and squealing brakes are to be expected on a 4 year old Mazda. I'm also concerned that when the service manager goes out with me on 23 December the intermittent flat spot might not manifest itself.
This is the first time I have bought a car from a dealer (have always got cars from family members in the past) and I have no technical knowledge. I would really appreciate the thoughts of any backroomers on how best to proceed in this situation.
Thank you
Pete Read more
I was assuming that the seller was going to pay for this - so whether they run it round to the dealer or hire a suitable code reader shouldn't matter to you.
HI
I have an almost new celica 6 speed. The gear change is very notchy and quite difficult to change fromm 2nd to third gear. This is the same when cold or hot.
The car has about 1000 miles on the clock.
Do you think this will settle down or is it worth changing the gearbox oil to a fully synthetic oil to help smooth it out?
thanks for any ideas
alan Read more
I would give it some more miles and give it some use,chances are it will settle down.
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There is a roundabout I use each day on the way to work that has pretty high concrete kerbs, complete with plenty of scrape marks. What I find most worrying is that you encounter a large number of drivers who consider roundabouts to be a straight line here, yet when you are on the inside you tend to like to keep a goodly gap from the 'barrier' to make sure you don't hit it... I've started intentionally hanging back from other cars just to make sure I don't get pushed over on to it these days - at least with a normal kerb you have more of an exit route when you encounter an idiot.