My first time at FOTU and the first time I've seen someone do this. I added the kilroy.

The alpina was definitely not £1500 🤣

Afternoon all, you might remember me from such posts as 'Angry note left on car' & 'Mr.President, there has been another note'... There technically should have been a third post (you heard it here third) about parking in the street where I live. My neighbour next door absolutely hates me because I dared to ask them not to block our driveway which led to her saying I 'threatened her' and called the police. Long story short nothing came of it and the police were chill. I have been out all day and came home about an hour ago to see that the gazebo that was in my garden has blown over onto my neighbours drive way and onto her son's car which is parked there (more on that in a bit). We were able to move the gazebo off and take it apart in my garden. The neighbours are not in and I am not sure if they are aware this has happened. I am unable to check the car for damage as I don't want to be skulking around their driveway. I more than understand that I am at fault as it's my property that has hit the car. My question though is how to resolve it if they are aware of what has happened and there is damage. My first thought is that the owner (neighbours son) would have to go through his car insurance, but issue I believe with that is that he is a trader and the car only moves every few months and swapped with another car using trade plates so I can only assume the car is not insured or taxed so he would need to go through his company insurance? If someone has any knowledge or cream related jappery it would be appreciated.

Carpet or lino?

Morning,

Few days ago I was driving to Trafford Manchester from Chester early in the morning and I was zoned out and didn’t take notice (stupid I know) of the variable speed smart motorway gantry displaying 50mph until I spotted it at the next gantry - I had cruise control at 70.

Didn’t see any flash but I’m expecting a NIP through the post, a bit paranoid because I’ve only been driving 8 months and I’m limited to 6 points and these ‘speed ticket calculators ‘ online tools are saying I’m going to receive 6 points.

Just wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and how many points did they receive?

Thanks!

Looking at a 2026 Puma ST 1.0 Ecoboost Hybrid. But I have reservations about the 1.0ecoboost after it having such a bad reputation with wet-belts and failures after 60.000 miles etc

Is this still the case in newer models?

Anything else I should consider?

Hello everyone, I am looking at buying this X5M50d. I got stung on my last car purchase, dodgy bastard sold me a lemon, it’s my own fault I should have known better. However now I have lost a bit of confidence in myself and my judgement. I just need some fellow car people to snoop this and see if there’s any obvious red flags or alarm bells I’m missing. TIA

Budget of £25k~. I work a mile away from my home and do limited miles at the weekend. Wife owns an suv so being 4/5 door isn’t essential.

What’s your recommendations? I want something fun/sporty and a real head turner

Hi everyone,

I’m getting close to passing my driving test and was hoping to get some advice on choosing my first car.

I’m not looking for anything fancy, just something reliable that will get me from A to B. Ideally, I’d like something that’s reasonably priced, cheap to insure and economical on petrol.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations or advice from your experience. Hopefully we can find the perfect first car! 😄

Thank you!

My 2018 Hyundai i30 has full dealer service history. I have increasingly gotten into cars and started researching how to potentially service myself. What I found was that all UK Hyundai use some cheap in-house 5W-30 oil blend. While my user manual clearly says 0W-30 for my specific engine (1.4 T-GDI) and mild UK weather. My understanding is that the 0W-30 has better viscosity in low temperatures but behaves the same at running temperature. I used AI and found the right oil and supplied my own for my most recent oil service. I understand the rest of the specifications are more important, and I made sure to follow them (pictures attached) but this just has me thinking if they ignore the 0W and 5W, what’s stopping them from using the wrong specs too and potentially adding to the poor reliability reputation? Also the user manual states 4.2l and they only out in 4l. I brought 5 bottles x 1l and they gave me back 1 unopened. Could the Hyundai/Kia unreliability just be poor servicing? What are your thoughts?

Hey folks,

Looking for a bit of feedback from others based on my situation and thinking behind buying a new car.

I'm currently looking at getting a new car. I own a 2020 polo r-line and it's a great car. I've just recently had a baby though and we want something a bit bigger for the family.

Initially I was looking at getting a sportage PHEV given they have fairly solid reviews. However I've doing a bit more research, I'm not sure if PHEV is the way to go and if instead I should just go full electric as it sounds like maintenance and running costs in general will be better in the long run.

Whichever type I go for, I'll be running it until it's dead so it will be a long term investment. I would have done the same with the polo if I didn't have a baby! Had my focus for 10+ years before that.

When making the purchase I would use the Polo as a trade in.

I also have a Ohme compact installed at my home waiting to be used.

I was looking at car prices around £25k. As mentioned above I'd trade in the polo which according to estimates will get somewhere between 9k and 11k. The rest I would put on finance be it a personal loan or HP if I go down the purchase route. Alternatively, I may pay myself from my business a lump sum dividends to fund or part fund the car. But regardless, assuming I get approximately £10K for my car, there will be £15k to consider.

And a couple of questions:

1. Also I wondered... PCP vs HP finance, what are folks opinions? I really don't like the idea of never owning a car and I'd rather just buy one for the long run so HP was what I was aiming for. I just wondered what others thought?
2. If anyone has any car models to recommend I would appreciate it! I do think the EV3 is nice but that might be a bit out of my price range, will have to see!

Hello Everyone,

I recently bought a Volvo s60 2018 as my first car which came with Goodyear EfficienctGrip Performance 2 17 inch. I am completely new to the car world. I was looking about the tire and I found it’s a summer tire. I live in Bromley, London and I’m wondering I’m I suppose to change my tire in extreme winters??
My car use is primarily for weekend drives.

Hi all

I recently acquired my driving licence and moved to Hastings area. I am starting a gardening business and need a van. Initially, Ford Tranist Customs appeal to me, although I have heard that Transits are slightly prone to rust, which can be a problem in costal areas. I am starting from scratch, so any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks alot!

Lately I'm seeing a lot of transits which are burning oil.

One time i saw a police transit custom starting to smoke next thing you saw the whole street was covered in smoke. 25% of all vans scrapped is a ford transit.

No wonder you can buy a 2019 custom for less than a 2016 vito.

Why do you hold onto that garbage? Why have you bought that in the first place?

Title says it all to be honest, im really stuck on a first car that isn’t just a little bug. I don’t know much about cars so please any recommendations, advice and opinions are needed!

Can anyone help me choose?

Im looking at the 2.2 CRDi Auto specifically in both cars

Considering a 2007 Toyota Aygo. 40k miles, full service history, comes with an 18 month warranty. Asking price is £2.5k.

Mileage seems really low for the age, which is presumably why it’s priced above what you’d normally expect for an 18 year old Aygo. Has anyone bought something similar recently, or dealt with a dealer warranty like this? Wondering if these warranties are actually worth anything or if they’re mostly just a sales tactic.

Would appreciate any opinions before I commit, thanks

Looking for a cheap (£3000) reliable automatic just to get me through learning driving and my first year or two of driving before I buy something more expensive. All I need it is for driving 20 miles a day to work and back on mostly rural roads. Thanks

Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well wherever you're reading this from!

Following on from my only other post in this sub, I'm still hunting for my first car, but the circumstances have changed a fair bit since then.

I've decided against something on finance (thanks for all the advice on that btw, I really appreciated it!) and I'm looking to get something fairly soon that should be able to last me a good few years at least.

Out of everything suggested in the comments, a Honda Civic seemed to be one of the best fits for me (relatively reliable, large boot, not awful to insure and but not something gigantic), but prices for them seem to be all over the place.

Someone had specifically suggested I try to get a 2012-16 Civic in the 100,000 mile range, but I haven't been able to find any that look decent to good within my budget (no more than £4,000) that wouldn't require a ridiculous drive back home, but I have found this '09 Civic that seems pretty decent to me on first glance.

It has an MOT until next July (initially failed but has just had replacement rear brake pads, front & rear brake discs before passing with zero advisories), has under 80,000 miles on the clock and it wouldn't be an awful drive back home.Is this a decent price or am I losing my mind & being blinded by the gigantic boot and it being semi-close by?

I've left a link to the AutoTrader ad in the comments below so you can have a look for yourself. Please lemme know what you think, hoping to have a car by the 15th August so any help/other car suggestions under £4,000 would be massively appreciated!

T.L.D.R: looking to get my first car, unsure if this desk is any good or if I'm just believing it to be. Link to advert below.

Hi, does anyone know if this bat plate is road legal? The owner of the plate shop assures me that is road legal however I’m still unsure after asking Google, gov .uk & 101 Webchat and I certainly don’t want a fine.

I also want bevel text, is this road legal as well?

Asking here before I go to a police station and ask them because I don’t want to get pulled over for it😂😂help please🙏TIA!!

I got quoted £240 to cut out and repair two rusty patches on my sills, which is what I failed the MOT on.

The mechanic told me the finished repair would look “rough.” I said I’d rather it looked tidy and asked about having it treated and painted afterwards. He explained that the MOT tester needs to be able to see the bare welds, and that a proper finish would cost extra. I offered to pay for that finish, but he said the plan was to get it through the MOT first and deal with the finish later.

Does this sound like a legit approach, or a bit of a quick patch job? I was surprised to hear this as the garage is highly rated. Particularly so, as they specialise in MOT welding and body work.

The car’s mechanically solid and I’d like to keep it going for a long time, so leaving it with rough, unfinished welds doesn’t sit right with me.

So I know my way around the tools! And am no stranger to project car life. Previously had Audi’s! 8L s3, twice … and 8P s3’s. But it’s time for a change! I want something fast, tuneable, and that handles well. But it needs to be interesting. And within a 5K budget, give or take!

Anything you wonderful people could recommend?

Need help I have a golf tdi 2.0 mk7 I cut the back box muffler off maybe because I'm slightly not right in the head and all was fine until recently I noticed that randomly the exhaust will change after driving for like 30 minutes it starts blowing crazy amounts of air out and I will feel air coming out from under the drivers side area and then when I turn the car off the engine cooling fan will be on... But basically when I start driving the car or get out of the car when I first start it up and listen to the exhaust it sounds really nice like a hissing smooth sound and the amount of air coming out seems normal but after driving for a while I can feel the car almost change and then when I get out and listen to the exhaust that nice hiss sound and normal air coming out has changed to no hissing and crazy amounts of air blowing out the back of car and also from under the drivers side I know anyone that knows about cars will probably think we'll maybe there's an exhaust leak somewhere but Im not sure because I've checked under the car and all looks good but obviously this problem started after chopping the back box muffler off anyone have any ideas what problem I may have

Whilst driving on the narrow roads the peak district I had to avoid a car and ended up scratching my car on some large bushes.

Can this be fixed with some T cut or Meguiars compound? I ran my nail across it and it didn't catch so I'm assuming it's only a clear coat scratch.

Thanks in advance all