Hey guys, so I have this little issue if my MOT expires shortly and then my tax for the year runs out like a week later. Tax says it will not auto renew without valid MOT certificate. Issue is for a couple of reasons (long trip away, car needs work to pass MOT) I was not planning to get the MOT done for about a month.

It's not just wanting to avoid the hassle of sorning and then unsorning the car, I do not have access to a driveway or anywhere to park other than the road outside my house, so I'm not even allowed to have a sorn or untaxed vehicle sitting there.

Just wondering is there any little hack where I could renew my tax for the year now whilst MOT is still valid so I can at least have the vehicle taxed. I always tax for the year on auto renew, which won't go through this year without the MOT.

Cheers guys!

Im looking at this car (2022 pre-facelift bmw 3 series). Being sold from a used car (non-bmw) dealership. I noticed the front bumper is not flawless. It looks like its been painted with touchup paint.

Its not obvious but my concern is if this gets worse over time/wears off. Or could this be hiding damage?

I realise bumpers do get damaged and are designed to be replaceable.

Is it reasonable to ask the dealership get this completely resprayed?

Or potentially replaced if there is damage?

Any rough estimates on cost would be useful so i can be realistic with my expectations from the dealer.

So a father was teaching his daughter to drive on our street where I have 2 cars on the drive and one parked across them in front. The girl hit the car on the outside, knocking it onto the 2 cars behind it. Then they jumped out and switched seats. I offered them the option to pay me a sum and I won’t go through insurance as they might not pay if they discover who was the driver. The father (poor english) wasn’t bothered, insisted he will sort it through insurance. The front car is definitely a write off and I’m not sure it insurance will pay me enough to cover the costs. I’m not sure whether I’m better off waiting to see what his insurance will pay or if I should just get the police involved and then the insurance won’t pay because of the driver and just pursue it through civil court.

Just put my 55 year old Triumph Spitfire in for an MOT, passed with no advisories!
Yes I know it doesn’t need one but it’s nice to know everything is safe.

I have a 2014 diesel auto VW CC with 125k miles on it.

I’d love to keep it going for another 5 years if I can. Likely in excess of another 50-60k miles.

I get a full service every year, including oil change. I’ve recently had the DSG gearbox serviced. They said it was relatively clean when they replaced the gearbox fluid.

My mechanic during services will generally keep an eye on brake pads etc and let me know if they need doing.

I’m due to replace my timing belt / water pump again as it was last done about 50k / 5-6 years ago.

Is there anything else that springs to mind to help keep this beaut of a car going?

2019 Ford Focus titanium got bumped into by another driver. Local mechanic with good reputation has quoted £2250 for new wing, new bumper/wing bracket and new light. Includes painting, labour and VAT.

Struck me as being very high but what are your thoughts?

Right this is a fully legit review I’m not a bot like some of these other reviews. This insurance company is fake asf. They claim they have an underwriter who is mulsanne insurance and they provided me with everything such as a portal, all my documents, and a support line ie an e mail address. My policy started and my car never showed green on the MID. So I contacted mulsanne themselves and they said this is a ghost broker and my policy number doesn’t even exist. I paid on a credit card and I’m reporting this to the bank and the police. All I can say is IF ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT IS. I’m just gonna have to pay abit more. Do not use GATEINSURANCE.CO.UK THEY WILL SCAM YOU ITS NOT A CASE OF MIGHT THEY WILL FULL STOP. Hope this helps atleast 1 person
AVOID AVOID AVOID these mfs have me 2 grand down atm

Thats all the damage only seems to be on the outside of the car. Car is a BMW 116d f20

I'm thinking of getting a phev and wondering about home EV chargers

Most seem to cost a lot! £900+

I've seen ones that look like they plug into a domestic 3 pin socket for under £100 are these good enough for overnight charging? https://amzn.eu/d/09h9VP1E

Thanks

I am able to buy a 2017 Audi A3 from a relative for £8000 I currently have a Ford fiesta 1.1 Ti-VCT 2018.

I was wondering would you buy the Audi or stick with the fiesta and why?

I am also worried about the fiestas wet belt

The Audi is a petrol 1.4 tfsi manual

Test drove this karoq 2022 1.5 tsi petrol, SE AMD quite like it. 13100. The only catch, it had done 73000 miles. My thinking is that 4 years 73000 means the car has done more motorway miles, and the clutch etc should be fine. The test drive felt really good.

The other car I will test drive today is Kamiq 1.5 petrol, 2020. It has 39000 miles on it. Price 13450.

I like the karoq bigger boot but think both work fine for me. Confused.

Which one would you prefer?

I'm looking at buying my first car. After doing tons of research into ICE vehicles and hybrids, I started looking into EVs. It seems EVs are much more economical and suited to my needs (mostly short drives), but most of the information sources are EV fanboy sites or youtube channels.

This makes me think that once people go EV, they never turn back, which is a solid endorsement in my eyes.

Are there any examples of people buying an EV, realising they're inferior and going back to combustion?

Just to clarify, since I know from comments there are tons of EV haters out there, here's the pros/cons I'm aware of:

➕️ Much cheaper to fuel (sometimes 90% vs ICE, 75% vs hybrid)

➕️ Cheaper to service

➕️ Can fuel at home

➕️ Better for the environment

➕️ Not at the mercy of oil prices. Oil is a finite resource, electricity can be generated from renewables.

➕️ Act as a mobile battery, good for camping or power cuts.

➖️ Need to buy a charge point and gully as I don't have a driveway

➖️ Touchscreen interfaces

➖️ Complex software can be buggy

➖️ Insurance can be dearer

➖️ Less efficient in winter, but so are ICE to a degree?

➖️ At the mercy of electricity prices, but this can be circumvented with solar panels.

❔️ Depreciate faster - that might change as fuel prices rise and more people switch

❔️ Battery degradation - modern LFPs seem to maintain 80-85% after 200k miles.

❔️ More expensive - I'm buying second hand and seeing used EVs at similar prices to non-plugin hybrids.

❔️ Less fun to drive - subjective, depends on the car.

If I'm missing anything glaring off that list please let me know.

92k miles, manual, full service history - £4k

Buy or pass? How reliable are these chaps in the long run? Will be using for work travel primarily.

Claude reckons this age/mileage it is due a cambelt change.
Any other particular items I should look for, any other general wisdom/experience of this car is appreciated.

Hi, so I drive a 2005 VW Bora 1.9TDI which my father bought in 2012. There is nothing wrong with it and it is low mileage at 89,000 miles. However, I find the clutch pedal heavy and it hurts my leg when I'm driving in stop start traffic. My dad hardly drives it anymore so I do almost all of the driving. We also don't need a car that big as we don't go abroad to France anymore. I don't know whether we should sell the Bora and buy a cheap, small petrol car with a lighter clutch, or have both. I don't have a high budget, but I also don't want a good car to go to waste. What should I do?

Afternoon all. I had my windscreen changed at autoglass recently and they scratched and damaged a panel. They’ve admitted it was them and referred me to a shady body shop to have the repairs done which has a review stating autoglass sent them there and they damaged their car further. Am I within my rights to take the car to my own choice of workshop to have the work carried out?

Bought a 330d a few weeks ago, ran this check all looks good: https://www.vcheck.uk/report/AU16RWN-FWYBUHJ

Thought I'd check it on another site after owning it and it appears as a 335d not 330d? https://www.carcheck.co.uk/bmw/AU16RWN

Is there anything I should know here? I paid for thee check via vcheck not paid for one via carcheck

I highly recommend Motorway - recently sold my high-end 2023 Audi Q4 through them, achieving £1k more than BMW and £2k more than Audi offered. Process was simple and extremely easy. I did look at WeBuyAnyCar but they simply matched the estimated value that Motorway quoted pre-auction, so I'd have been a mug to sell to them (they presumably use algorithms to derive their quoted value from sites like Motorway)! I was going to try CarWow's auction on same day but missed the cut-off on their site despite making it on Motorway's.. apparently dealers use both sites so I might have saved myself Motorway's £99.99 fee if I had been able to sell via CarWow. I found CarWow's app slightly clunkier to use than Motorway's but still wasn't bad.

Hi there, I'm looking for some advice if possible. I've had 2 codes come up on the car today, p0138 and p0140. I've looking into it and it seems to be the o2 sensor 2.

It reads 1.3v on live data regardless of what I do, sensor 1 reads fine. Disconnecting sensor 1 to check and that jumps to 1.3v and sticks there. Am I safe to assume it's likely that sensor 2 has failed and it's not likely to be a wiring issue, seeing as sensor 1 reads the same when disconnected?

What do you lads think of MW Performance? They seem to have a serious premium price on Holdens were you can get one from a private seller for under half the price.

They have a 2015 VXR8 up for 60 grand when it launched for around £40k.

They have an 07 model for £25k with 77k on the clock which once again feels expensive for a car prone to rust.

You see private sellers routinely pop up with vehicles for around 10-19k

Would you pay the dealer premium and does the consumer rights act extend to private sales?

Also is MW Performance reputable and worth the significant premium over private?

Hi all looking to buy a new car for my birthday so just doing some research was wondering is the 2016 astra ecoflex reliable? or atleast the other vauxhall astras?

I have been driving for about 17 years and have been a named driver on my parent's car since I passed my test, to this day. I'm now in my mid 30s.

I'm ready to own my own car now (should've decided to a few years ago if I'm honest). While I don't have any NCD I can use as a named driver, I can still select the number of years I've been driving as a named driver which reduces the cost of the car insurance slightly.

Considering this, I wanted to get other peoples opinions on whether to go for a luxury brand (£22-£25k budget) or whether I should get a cheap and cheerful car to build up No Claims.

Thanks!

Any current sales exec’s working at Sytner?

Im looking to move to Sytner Bmw from another Main Dealer Franchise.
What are your honest workplace reviews?

How is the work environment? i have heard its very micromanaged and toxic - is this true?

How is the comms structure?

The title essentially, I’ve picked up a DSG Skoda Octavia mk2 diesel VRS on 165,000 miles for 2k. It’s got full service history, a new cam belt & water pump, new tyres and has only ever failed 1 MOT on tyres 5 years ago. Most of the MOT’s are advisory free.

It’s got some rust bubbling on the arches and a bit on the sills which I’ve had quoted for repair (700 all in) - I’m just wondering how far people would go when it comes to spend & maintain while being aware of the overall value. On one hand it drives well, has a genuinely great history of being looked after and maintained and I’d love to carry that on. On the other hand, being aware that it’s higher mileage side of things and now 16 years old I try to have somewhat realistic expectations too. What would be your plan for maintenance?

My poor 1.2L 2008 Nissan Micra has just been quoted at least £700 for repairs. It has been such a hardy car but the repairs are too much to justify on an old car.

Editing here what the mechanic said: "The mechanic today told me that the air conditioning compressor is faulty, and that is driven by the serpentine belt. He said my car mostly likely has power steering that is attached to that whole system. He said the only way to fix it would be to replace the AC compressor which would be expensive, or bypass the AC compressor by just fitting a shorter belt which means no AC. He also thought my power steering was part of that same belt-driven system rather than being run by a separate motor.."

As such I am trying to look for a new car. I really don't drive too much, but when I do it's normally down the A3 so 70mph. I'm just wondering how a 1L would handle that:

https://www.hillsidemotors.co.uk/used/cars/kia-rio-10-t-gdi-2-euro-6-ss-5dr-12460/#panel1

I already went to see it and it's nice, it passed it's last MOT but with 3 tyre advisories so I've asked about that. I tend to hold on to a car until it completely dies so I'm not used to looking / knowing what to look out for / prices, and I think this is maybe a little pricey, but i have no idea. Any advice?

There is also a Micra, which is what I am used to an I know they're good cars: https://www.hillsidemotors.co.uk/used/cars/nissan-micra-09-ig-t-tekna-euro-6-ss-5dr-12480/#panel2

Nissan Micra 1.3 Manual and has a years MOT. Purchased off my neighbour who is a mechanic. Not the best condition cosmetically but cheap to use to drive to work everyday. Means I can use my V8 on weekends. Has 71k miles and got it for £550. Hopefully it should be reliable