shocking bill on a modern

[warren t claim]

Indeed, never owned an 820 that didn't have window problems. Bloody nice to drive though.

Would you like another?

[chester drawers]

And let's take into account other cost of ownership factors with a new car. Anyone looked at the tax bands for April-registered onwards? Bloody hell

[dollywobbler]

And let's take into account other cost of ownership factors with a new car. Anyone looked at the tax bands for April-registered onwards? Bloody hell

Yeah, well done government. Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, who build lots of lovely cars here in the UK, aren't going to do so well now!

[chester drawers]

And it's not just high-end stuff either. So that's £415 for 12 months of 2.0 S-Max then; almost double what it currently costs. A few cancelled orders perhaps?EDIT: Before I'm jumped on by new car salesmen, yes it raised a wry smile but no quite evidently it's not a good idea.

[warren t claim]

We may have an inward snigger now but who will pay up to a grand a year to tax an Jag when they reach banger prices?

[Justin Case]

And don't forget depreciation. If you want to lose less than £1500 in the first year you can buy a Honda Jazz or a Fiat 500. That's it

[Pillock]

Dealers have been forced to slash prices, both by grey imports and by teh recessionz, so they need to make money back by encouraging manufacturers to employ increasingly ridiculous repair methods.Plastic panels which shatter on a 5mph impact, but cost as much as metal? Check. Headlamps which involve dismantling half the car? Yup. Electronic devices tied to the ECU for "security" meaning you can't go scrapyard shopping? Yeah, that too. Even wiper blades are being made in increasingly odd sizes, with odder fittings, so they're dealer-only @ a zillion quid.

[Hudsonpie]

Fucking swizz all of it, I doubt I will ever own a modern car even if the old Lotto numbers came up.... One of our neighbours got quoted £10 for a sidelight bulb in her Yaris, I had a bulb knocking about in me toolbox and fitted it for free. She popped back in the evening with a giant bar of Dairymilk...nice

[Barry Cade]

Even wiper blades are being made in increasingly odd sizes, with odder fittings, so they're dealer-only @ a zillion quid.

Fitted a pair of blades to a newish Scenic the other day. 46 quid... less than half dealer price

[FredTransit]

Wonder if you can nail on the pound shop wiper blades?

[Cavcraft]

Indeed, never owned an 820 that didn't have window problems. Bloody nice to drive though.

Would you like another?

I'd have an early one yeah, really liked the drive and right into AS territory I reckon.This car tax band malarkey is silly. There's a few seriously cheap (compared to cost new) shiters kicking about from about 2001 or 2002 on but sod paying £400 per year tax.

[FredTransit]

On the subject of road tax, I think there will be a two tier classic price, those that are tax exempt and those that are pre 2001 and PLG tax. Specially for the V6/V8 fraternity. 2000 V8 £205 a year, 2002 V8 £400? It's a no brainer.....

[Mash]

I had an Astra as a hire car a couple of weeks ago and I was very surprised to find there was no temperature gauge. Maybe people don't look at stuff like that nowadays and wait for the car to tell them of impending HGF with a little light and buzzer, but I found it most disconcerting.

[Polystratus]

I had an Astra as a hire car a couple of weeks ago and I was very surprised to find there was no temperature gauge. Maybe people don't look at stuff like that nowadays and wait for the car to tell them of impending HGF with a little light and buzzer, but I found it most disconcerting.

Not entirely a new thing, Renault 5 Campus I had some years ago didn't have a temperature gauge just a red light to tell you the engine is cooked, but it's becoming a more a common thing, fuel gauges will be the next thing to go.

[dollywobbler]

Not unusual MINIMAXIBIGTHINGS don't have one either. S'pose that does make them like hte original as my wife's Mini only tells you the temp because someone fitted an aftermarket gauge (which was nice of them).But the BX doesn't have one, so randomly not fitting them seems to be a regular occurance through motoring history.

[warren t claim]

I had an Astra as a hire car a couple of weeks ago and I was very surprised to find there was no temperature gauge. Maybe people don't look at stuff like that nowadays and wait for the car to tell them of impending HGF with a little light and buzzer, but I found it most disconcerting.

Not entirely a new thing, Renault 5 Campus I had some years ago didn't have a temperature gauge just a red light to tell you the engine is cooked, but it's becoming a more a common thing, fuel gauges will be the next thing to go.

If you play with the screen you will find a temp display in there somewhere...My old alfasud had a temp light but it worked the other way, to tell you the engine was cold and not to be thrashed!

[Tayne]

.

[pogweasel]

Actually, I would not oppose that as a reason for non-operation. Though an explanation would be useful. One of the main reasons we sold our picasso was that the brake light switch failed 4 times in 12 months, the first you know about it is when nearly get rear-ended by an artic.

[brammy777]

Apparently the new Focus had some sort of water issue so the boot would leak and short out the rear lights, at least I think thats what I was told.I remember trying to get the front light off of a Volvo S80, and I was shocked at how much it just didnt want to come off. It had lips keeping it behind the bumper. And the glass lenses were just asking to be dropped and shattered. I bet that happens alot. Its stupidly complicated, doesnt help that they seem to hide all the bumper bolts as well.

[wuvvum]

My old alfasud had a temp light but it worked the other way, to tell you the engine was cold and not to be thrashed!

Yup, but it also comes on if the engine overheats. One of the few electrical items that worked properly on my last Sud.

[Guest]

You can change the bulbs on the C4 fairly easily at the front. The rears are piss simple if you pull a couple of underlay covers off and have a Torx screwdriver (the French love Torx screws for some reason).

 

The only thing with the fronts is that you have to have tiny hands with slender and strong fingers to twist the main bulb out of its socket and to get the spring off.

 

My hands are stumpy and fat. I couldn't do it. Fatha Wat couldn't do it. In the end, my friend Lisa did it for me, as she could reach in far enough without wedging her hand in the access port:

 

 

Oh the embarrassment.

 

Tax for it actually isn't too bad, and is set to go down if I'm reading the new list correctly. I'll be bummed for £120 for 12 months rent. Not too bad, although the Volvo is better (free) and the Celeste will be £190 - robbing sods.

 

The wipers are a piece of piss to change as well on it. Pity the NS doesn't sit properly and wibbles all over the screen, but that's just a classic case of Citroen completely missing the point as they have with the rest of the car.

 

It also has a full set of idiot lights, a temperature and fuel gauge.

 

God help me when the OS front bulb goes though - it's inaccessible because of the way the slam panel is mounted and some hard points next to the wing.

[Lukas]

A friend of my dad drives (or better drove ) a 2001 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI with ~ 100.000 miles on the clock. One day, the vehicle stopped running, so he had it towed to a MB-garage. The turbocharger was kaputt, the engine got parts of the turbo inside it´s system. The whole commonrail-system had to be changed, the high-pressure injection pump had to be changed and some minor things so that the engine run well again. He payed 7500 Euro for this repair! A friend of mine is a mechanic and a car-dealer, he sells and repairs a lot of new cars from all manufacturers. He said the new cars in the last ~ 10 years are not bad, but they will become very expensive to run when they get older because there are more thing that can and will go wrong when the car is older than 10 years. One of his customers has a Toyota Avensis T25 2.0 D4D with 80.000 km on the clock. One day, it had almost no power. The Toyota-garage said the high-pressure-pump was not working properly anymore, it´s needs to be replaced. This would cost him almost 4000 Euro, thankfully he still had warranty for this car. He is buying cars from the early 90s now for his own.

[garbaldy]

, another one was a VW diseasel that wouldnt start , My mate told the customer to turn on the ignition and check the brake light , customers really confused but did it anyway , no brake light , Apparently brake light switch fails , this is linked to some computer that thinks the car has no brakes whatsoever so refuses to start .

WTF is the world coming to

It shouldnt have stoped it from starting though

when a bulb or brakelight switch goes it causes a fault code in the ECU and a light on the dash to flash, this is because the ecu doesnt know when the brakes are applied,

all vag group cars cut all fuel to the engine while the brakes are aplied on the move this makes them more economical and also stops you from left foot brakeing

 

a simple way to check this is to start your car hold the throttle at 2k revs then keeping your foot still aply the footbrake with your other foot,

the engine should drop off to tickover and when you release the brake the engine will shoot back up to 2k,

[myglaren]

Halfords have a book or something saying which cars they can change bulbs on, I know my C5 is on their no no list. You can change the bulbs on it without removing the bumper but it is a hell of a lot easier with it off! Only takes about 10 mins to get off.Sounds like you mate has Xenons on his Saab and they do indeed require 35000 volts to fire up,they use some sort of capacitor arrangement to fire them but once alight the run on normal 12volts. The bulbs are supposed to last a certain amount of hours use and it certainly ain't 10 years, aound 500 hours springs to mind but I stand to be corrected.You can get the bulbs for around £30-40 if you search around

I got them (Halfords) to fit new headlamp bulbs in my C5 after hearing what a bugger they were to do. Watched the guy do it and discovered they aren't that difficult.Unfortunately I dropped one of the clips on one occasion and just stuffed the bulb into the holder, which was fine for a year and a half. Two days before MOT, I noticed it was pointing at the ground right in front of the car - then promptly forgot it.Failed the MOT of course and was told it needed a new headlamp unit @ around £300.Got a new clip from the scrappie, removed the front 'bumper' (it isn't, just a pile of plastic covering the bumper) pulled the unit and fitted the clip/bulb.Removing the bulb and headlamp was quite simple although not having done it before I could likely do it in ¼ of the time now.Needs to come off again anyway to do the washer pump.

[Tayne]

.

[oldford]

I've seen loads of VW group cars with failed brake light switches and not one of them has ever refused to start because of it. I've seen a few refuse to move because of it, which is down to the interlock on the automatic transmission selector not getting released.