Might be time to change the car blues

I was just repeating what I was told on the Tucson Ray. From what I could gather the Sportage gained a bit of length when the new model was introduced which was pretty recently just like the Tucsan.

There has been some complications on the way to the replacement.

Some years ago I bought a private plate. A silly one. Trouble is that once done I'm inclined to keep it and in the past have had it on car when I pick the replacement up. Seems it can't be done like that now thanks to local DVLA offices being closed. They don't allow any periods of grace for the change so have to put it on retention when I pick the replacement up. Then arrange transfer to the replacement car. Can't change the plates over until the new paper work arrives.

So tell the insurance company about the change then soon after tell them about the number plate change. Seems this can be 4 to 12 days later. Not sure if there are added complications on taxing the car. Generally the seller has done that on their own insurance for me. I suspect they may not be able to now. One told me once that they allowed him to do this because they knew he was an established car dealer.

Payment proved interesting. Can't use a building society cheque. They had some one stop one as soon as they had the car. The easiest answer seems to be to pay them into a current account and then pay by debit card. However if short of time watch some one behind the counter count out a lot of money. Plenty of other people can probably watch this as well. Take the cash to the bank and pay it into the current account.

John

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Pay the cash across to a credit card and then use it to buy the car, then you get extra buyer protection free!

Neil

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... and lots of Tesco 'points', if that's your chosen provider.

MichaelG.

No Neil if I did that I would find that the dealer would want circa 2% more for the car. I did pay for one that way once. I have a daft limit left over from times long since gone.

It's easier to transfer to a current account.

John

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I'd been told by a dealer that road tax will change significantly next year. Apart from the first year and more expensive cars what they said seems to be correct. A flat rate of £140 or 0 if a zero emission car. Details are here

**LINK**

I expect fuel prices to rise as well.

John

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It looks like I have bought permanent 4 wheel drive by choosing a diesel manual Forester. On that basis the consumption figures are surprising. I should be picking it up in the next few days.

Next thing is do I take out GAP insurance. I had never heard of it before I bought the x-type. The dealers offered it and I looked at prices at home and they were a lot less so took it out. It's the sort of thing that can be needed if n tonnes of artic runs into the back. Insurance companies depreciate cars very quickly and it can be tough to obtain a decent settlement. I'd expect that any GAP insurer would be very keen to sort that out.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 29/06/2016 20:03:01

Hi John

Take it out! In years gone by I would never have bothered.

Last month my wife's car was written off, not her fault. A transit van hit her on the passenger side, glad there were no passengers. Pushed her over a central kerb into on coming traffic! She needs a car for work and the payment ment she could get another car of similar / better spec quickly.

It was just before our holiday. It looked like I was a wife beater. Cheers Michael.

I have 2.0D XC , from new on a 15 plate. Just done about 6k now.

I have arthritis of the spine and I find it very good indeed to drive.

Don't do too many short runs, my MPG is 49.3 at the moment.

Working out the miles and diesel put in the car computer wotsit seems to be accurate to pessimistic. I think it does 52.1 ?

Faultless on delivery and still is.

Dave

Edited By Dave Daniels on 29/06/2016 21:05:41

I've just checked out autotrader's gap. Looks pretty good and the prices are reasonable. That's the one I bought last time. Under 1/2 the price of the one the dealers offered. There doesn't seem to be any catches in the policy other than the notification period if "things" happen. 120 days but that seems to be the norm. As usual they only rule out theft if the car is left unlocked / keys in it.

I have to add no guarantees given or implied to that but the policy is relatively straight forwards.

John

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Clutch needed replacing at 46K? I'm not lending you my car!

Steve

Clutch went at just over 44K. The clutch on the 2L Ford diesels were reckoned to last circa 80k if you are lucky but that was some years ago. Since then the engine power has gone up - and even further as the X-Type is the 2.2L. I also have a suspicion that as it's a Jaguar they let the torque out a bit more quickly than they do on the Mondeo's. It started slipping as soon as the engine warmed up but was fine before that. It would even slip in 6th gear at motor way speeds.

Having said that though one of the houses my son stopped in when he was at uni had an extremely steep drive. When I reversed up it I could smell the that the clutch plate was burning. The car had done around 30K when that happened.

On thing that was better than GM though on the SAAB I had before this was that the dual mass rubbish started juddering at around 25K. It seems that this wasn't that unusual and they replaced it FOC.

Oh for the days when diesels were an entirely different engine and always had a bigger clutch than the petrol engines.

Part of my reason for changing Dave is my wife but I'm getting older too. Since telling them to find me one I have wondered if i should have had petrol but I don't generally do short trips and drive fairly firmly most of the time so hopefully the particulate filter wont cause me grief. The mpg they claim for the auto petrol is pretty good but I often go to Wales and it would up the costs of that. They use a rather unusual auto set up. A variable speed pulley arrangement and it seems that helps. I did drive one. The kick down is spectacular and I'd guess that it would really wreck the consumption figures if used much. They also do the Forester with the engine they are famous for. Fuel wise that wasn't to bad in the Wrx type cars.

I've been wondering what Suburu Jason drives?

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 30/06/2016 00:50:59

Imprezes since 1997, got a ltd edition one at the moment with PPP (Prodrive performance pack) aluminium panels in place of steel and a few other bits, so STi performance without the gimics you only use in the first few weeks of ownership or at track days. My Dad has has a couple of Legacys too.

Did not think any of the Forseters came with a 2wd option, all have AWD as standard and put the drive to all 4 wheels. All have the boxer engine they are famous for, just depends what it's pumping out, you need about 600bhp to set the Isle of Man TT record and 850bhp to win the Goodwood hillclimb, all out of the same boxer engine

I'm not sure what's going on with their 4 wheel drive Jason. It seems the auto is different. The manual seems to be a 50-50 split. Other makers have next to none going to the back end and I think detect slip electronically. Not sure they are vague on the subject and mention numbers like 5% at the back if there is no slip at the front.

A lot of companies are using the Haldex 4 wheel drive unit. VW and Audi for sure. Curiously I was eventually sold to Haldex and did see some details on it. Oil and filter changes every 20k. I suspect you can guess what I think about that. I also came across a comment on the web - some one being told on a 4x4 that they needed a new one at 60K. Maybe things have changed. No idea the work was done in Sweden and the info more or less predates it's introduction by a few months.

Years ago a smaller garage mechanic told me that these days it wasn't a bad idea to change gearbox oil around the 30k mark on all cars. I'd drained mine by mistake so he wasn't aiming to do the work. When I towed a caravan I used to change the engine oil after any lengthy trips and got me drain plugs mixed up. There is a problem doing it though - they don't always use the filler hole to set the level any more. It's often lower. There can be seal and pressure build up problems if they are over filled.

I had the high powered Impreza model before the Wrx Jason. Wonderful car. It was the hatchback too so didn't attract much attention for a long time - then the break into houses to get the keys fad started in B'ham and I had some strange people knocking on the door. I just described one of them to the police and it stopped but not long after as I needed more space bought a Passat with the Audi V6 engine in it. The dam things are unstable at 100mph. So much for German engineering. Then came the message from the Gov - no more 90mph on motorways so little point really. It was just about ok at that. I also tried a poor mans M3 for a while. The standard car with the 3L engine. Handling was odd. Loved to follow any blemish in the road. Talking to a dealer later he said change the tyres to so and so and that stops but it does something else unfortunate instead. When I had the Impreza the recovery people were calling BMW's aqua vacs. Drive through a couple of inches of water and the engine blew up due to it sucking the stuff up. They had recovered loads of them, taken them to a dealer and then deposited them on the owners drive not long after - no warrantee claims accepted.

I swapped the BMW for a Lotus Elan and used that for daily travel. It's still around VOR and as I had to move it recently and sat in it I suspect it might be back on the road this year or on it's way to that. I've had 2 Lotus over the years. The first one was Loads Of Trouble Usually Serious but this one was ok used daily for work and popping about etc. Another make which is a pretty unique driving experience. I do fit in the earlier cars as Chapman was over 6ft tall.

John

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I'm no driver but the costs and paperwork involved in cars have put me way off driving speaking as a young man, i just could not afford it even if i had a really good job for someone my age.

The way i see it, (government rant incoming) This country is going to keep on filling up and putting more and more vehicles on the road, ignoring decades of warnings over managing a peak population. Theres only so much room and resources you can efficiently extract out of one place in time. It isn't opinionated or N.I.M.B.Y.ism it's just logical sense! You can't support an ever increasing population of cars and people. I stand to be proven wrong but i think once we get over the 100 million mark it might be "the straw that breaks the camels back." 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 30/06/2016 11:50:15

Politicians don't like to consider population problems Michael. One day electric vehicles will probably reach something sensible range and performance wise. Having worked on them I suspect 100 miles might be feasible but rapid charging something like that at a "petrol station" just wouldn't be feasible so batteries would have to be exchanged. Pollution wise metal hydrides have been feasible for a long long time. Fuel cells advance and etc.

One aspect of cars that is often neglected is that rather a lot of people actually need one.

Running costs made me smile. Like a number of people on here I suspect that when they started they did all of the maintenance themselves. I most certainly did including welding for the MOT and replacing what ever needed it. Also spraying the things if I fancied a change of colour. The way I used to look at it was that a garage would charge many n times what I earned per hour and that I couldn't achieve that even on Sunday overtime so did it all myself. I still do odd things now actually if I'm in the mood. Brake pads don't take long for instance but I had some one else a one man business do those last time they were needed. The Lotus will need a lot more doing in that area.

I just picked the Forester up. Came back just in time for the M5 to jam up around Worcester for several miles. It tells me it did 40mpg on the trip of circa 16 miles from the dealers. Given the conditions I reckon that is rather good - if it's correct. I need to study the book a bit as the figure comes up when the ignition is turned off. The effect of the 4 wheel drive when cornering hard under power is rather nice. Dead positive steering. My wife pulled a face when I gave it a little bit of stick but she really likes the seats.

I seem to have gained a sunshine roof and heated seats some how.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 30/06/2016 17:33:19

The way people use transport has changed a lot in a hundred years. It would be a brave man to predict what we'll be doing in another hundred. I don't expect oil will run out anytime soon but when it does perhaps we'll come up with a sensible solution rather than the polluting jokes we use at the moment.

That day came a while ago John, not heard of Telsa?

Have a look at teh bottom of the page you can enter a speed and it will give you the range. But 0-60 in 2.8sec and 300+ miles per charge both seem sensible to me and 30mins charge give you another 170miles range Oh and thats AWD

Edited By JasonB on 30/06/2016 18:31:01

I was at Thame Show when my casual interest in the Tesla on display attracted the salesman. I was concerned about the range and longevity of batteries, invited to sit in car he demonstrated the availability of charging points on my chosen journey to the south of France. Tesla fast charging points could put in 80% of the charge in 40 mins. As my long distance trips are punctuated by coffee and comfort breaks this made the 790 mile trip very doable. The charging points were free so a zero fuel cost. Range of the batteries decreased by about 10% over 7 years So not too much to worry about there. I was impressed by the practicality but the price of the car was still out of my range even when the whole life package was taken into to account. Don't hold me to the figures but I don't think I am far out.

Mike

Although not budget price cars the Telsa just like your average cordless power tool is priced based on kWh of the battery. With a jump of about £1000 per 1kWh there is a lot of difference between a 60kWh and top of the range 90kWh version. The forthcomming Model 3 should be a bit less and still give sub 6 sec 0-60 and 250m range

It came even a long time before that Jason. Googling Lucas electric vehicles will details up. Mostly vans but also a taxi plus a coach and what might be called a very plush cross over for HRH Prince P. Couple of them actually. The only problem was lead acid batteries. I also did some hybrid modelling work for Fiat and some others. The Fiat one was pretty quick if both fuel and electric was used at the same time.

LOL Charging. We did a portable unit that drew exactly 13 amps with a unity power factor. It melted most makes of UK 3 pin plug and socket pretty rapidly and even the best didn't last for ever. I notice Tesla have downgraded to 10 amps. 3 phase 16 amps would be much more like what would really be needed.

The batteries are interesting too. Talking to one of the 50mile range makers. They've replaced a single battery pack with separate units so that replacement can be cheaper - assuming only one goes. It's the bug bear of EV's. Lots of volts to keep the current down but maintaining equal charge in all of the cells all of the time can get pretty complicated. If one cell goes flat it effectively finishes up being reverse charged. If it wasn't for this sort of thing and fire risks sodium sulphur might have hit the streets by now.

It looks like grow you fuel is the way things are going for when oil gets too expensive. Diesel can be grown too. This is an interesting read

**LINK**

Seems they are also scraping their nuc power stations and switching to the same thing even though the Swedish houses I have stayed in have 3 phase coming in for heating. The UK and EU though don't really think much about the future and work on a just too late basis. Or better still copy some other country without really caring if it works. Always done too late of course.

John

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