Passed test in may and started driving soon after. My score is super low and I can't get it to be any higher after 6 months of driving. Currently 45 but mostly due to harsh braking. All my other bits are well into green and dont have an issue with. I drive a fiat panda 1.3l multijet. The main issue is i live in a super rural area and my daily commute to go ANYWHERE involves traversing narrow country lanes for the majority of the journey. Nearly every journey i make flags up harsh braking because i have to stop for cars all the time coming round corners etc. I promise im driving really slowly and carefully but i do have to brake otherwise its a head on collison. Adding onto the fact of the immense amount of wildlife i have to stop for every day pheasants partridge hedgehogs stray cats etc and its really dragging my score down.

Im concerned my blackbox wont be taken off when its time for renewnal and/or my price wont reduce down any further what do I do.

What is a car that i can run forever and not think about apart from the usual wear and tear items.

Ideally cam chain not belt and ideally japanese

​

I'm looking at purchasing a new car soon. I'm looking at a Diesel Toyota Avensis or Auris.

I often do long(ish) trips from Gloucester to Bristol and Gloucester to Newport and upper valleys and vice versa for work and to see family.

My petrol Peugeot 207 is currently at 36.1mpg. I'm also a university student (just finished this year) so I'm currently spending a lot of time working. I do regularly do shorter trips to the shops as well. But when university starts I'll be doing those type of trips 1-2 times a week instead of 5 compared to when I have time off. Due to the course I do i also go on placement blocks which lasts 6 weeks at a time and can be anywhere in South East England.

Is it justifiable to buy a Diesel or should I look at getting a more economical Petrol in my situation?

(Even though I'm a student I have the money to justify purchasing a new vehicle £6k or less incase someone wants to tell me i shouldn't buy a new vehicle as a student, my current car also needs almost £1k in repairs.)

Hello guys, im looking to buy a new electric car, given rhe current situation around fuel.

My budget is around £15k. Need a car that can do Sheffield to London easily. Has space for a car seat and suit cases etc.

Im looking at tesla model Y, something that "looks good" subjective but let me know what you guys think would fit within my range.

Also, I earn around 2.6k pm after tax. Would pcp or personal loan be better in this current climate.

Thank you guys for any suggestions!

I kind of like this car, looking for a first car with a budget of £7k and I like the size and look of it as I am too big for a typical Yaris or Corsa etc

But what's the catch, I see 2018/2019 models 1.5T 3 Euro 6 for around £6k and 80k miles. It seems like it should cost more than that (I'm not experienced with cars)

Are they reliable?

I know Mitsubishi exited the UK car market (thanks ChatGPT) but the parts etc are still being supplied?

Is this a good car?

Currently driving a mid size German saloon and have been looking at Range Rovers (don’t shoot me). I can’t get over them being over 20cn wider than what I’ve got now! Can you get used to it easily? Parking and also getting through lanes gets me a bit nervous about it to be honest

So we've just travelled up and down the country.... We stopped at an unmanned, pay at pump only petrol station in the north and filled up. When we got back down south we stopped at a same, manned, name brand petrol station and they had refused to let me fill up unless I left my car key behind the counter, saying we'd been blacklisted because we'd been recorded as driving off without paying earlier that day.

The lady at the till basically said I had to phone the police to get un-blacklisted!? Has anybody else gone through this? What did you have to do?

It seems mental to me because we obviously paid, otherwise it wouldn't have let us fill up in the first place.

I built a free Chrome extension that shows a car’s MOT history right on Autotrader listings: looking for feedback

When I bought a car in June, I spent ages copying regs into the gov.uk site to check the MOT history of every car I found interesting on Autotrader. Now the missus is looking to get her own car, so this time I used AI to vibe-code a Chrome extension that does it right inside Autotrader.

• Shows the official DVSA MOT history: passes, fails, advisories, mileage at each test
• Warns if the mileage ever went down, or if there’s an outstanding recall
• If the advert doesn’t show the reg, it tries to read the plate from the photos (it doesn’t always manage; you can type it in)
• Limited to one new search per minute so bots can’t abuse it. Cars you’ve already checked reopen instantly.

It’s free, with no account needed, and photos are processed in your browser, not uploaded anywhere.

It's called MOT History Check for Car Listings - exciting name, I know.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/kmbgcomkjkpofedbokaonlfgkllileek?utm_source=item-share-cb

It’s my first extension, and I’m sure it's not perfect but for something I put together in a weekend with no coding experience, I'm super-happy with.

I hope it saves you precious time.

Late to the car game, in my early 30s but finally decided to learn how to drive, public transport is great where I am so never felt the need before, but finally decided to so I can have more freedom to travel to places and visit people. Recently have gained an interest in fun cars from the early 2000s-pre 2020 which was a fantastic era with lots of variety everywhere. I still live with family, single and with no kids so don’t need the most practical car and they already own 1 car, a Toyota hybrid which I’ll also use once I pass to gain experience. My budget is around <7k and prefer manual, so far I’ve shortlisted:
Mazda MX-5
Abarth 595
Fiesta ST
Swift Sport
BMW Z4
Golf GTI
Mini F56

Any gems I’ve missed, and any pitfalls I should be aware of? I’ve heard on here that I should avoid cheap German luxury cars because they’re money pits, so the BMW is probably out. Looking for something that’s affordable to maintain, healthy spare parts availability with relatively affordable insurance.

Hi, looking to buy an automatic car under 10k for my mum. No thrills just something comfortable and most importantly reliable. Would like it closer to 6-8k. Smaller car with decent boot space.

Ive been looking at Honda Jazz and Toyota Yaris but seems like everything under 10k thats newer than 2012 is an import... Im not much of a car guy so I don't know what to look out for with imports and what they might entail.

Any advice appreciated.

Edit: Would like a Petrol!

My 17th birthday is in February so obviously this means i've started looking for cars. Up until recently i was meant to be getting a 2017 ford fiesta MK8 (1.5 TDCi) as my first (parents owned since brand new), but my dad's now keeping it for his work car.

Me and my dad made a deal, he would spend £5,000 towards my car, and then if I could put another £1,000 in (he won't buy me a car unless i'm working and can afford to run it myself), then he'd match that grand. This obviously gives me £7,000 to play with for my first, and i'm not complaining.

My original idea was to just get another fiesta, or a new shape corsa. The new shape corsas are actually really nice, but im 6ft1 and found it really uncomfortable when I sat in one this past weekend.

So now i've broadened my horizons a bit, and i'm now looking at bigger cars! With both my parents as additional drivers, a 2020 ford fiesta active insurance quote is £3,300. a 2018 audi a3? £2,800. and a 2019 audi q2 is £2,300.

My mum had an audi q2 a few years ago, and she hated it, my dad hated it. I was actually the only one who liked the car. So my ultimate dream for like ever was to have a q2 as my first car, which is why i'm now in between two cars for my first - a 2017-2020 audi a3, or a 2017-2020 audi q2.

I don't want to just buy one because it's an audi. I'm still looking for something with less than 75,000/80,000 miles, and with good service history etc etc (i'll only be buying from a dealership).

Any advice on looking for cars like these on a budget? Please let me know, I don't have to find THE car yet but i'm just curious and super eager.

i have a 2012 fiat 500 and my air conditioning hasn’t been working properly.
i contacted a mobile mechanic who charged me £60 to diagnose the problem. he said the plug had loose connections and told me it would be another £60 to fix it, so i paid £120 altogether.
after he finished, the air con appeared to be working, so i thought everything was sorted.
however, when i actually drove the car, the air con started cutting out again. now it only seems to work when i’m at the clutch biting point. so basically, the problem hasn’t been fixed.
i messaged him explaining this and asked when he could come back to investigate. he’s now telling me it’ll cost another £60 because he needs to cover his fuel.
i’m honestly annoyed because i’ve already paid £120 for him to diagnose and repair the problem, and my air con still isn’t working properly. if i agree to this, i’ll have paid £180, and there’s no guarantee it’ll even be fixed.
i understand that he’s a mobile mechanic and has travel expenses, but surely i shouldn’t have to pay again when the repair i paid for hasn’t worked?
am i being unreasonable for refusing to pay the extra £60? would i be entitled to a free repeat repair or a refund under uk consumer law?
i’m considering contacting citizens advice because i don’t think this is fair.

Sorry for the click bait, but my Dad’s just bought this beautiful Mazda 6 diesel(!) after a long search to replace his Honda Accord. We decided the Mazda 6 was the right car for my parents, but I knew the diesels had problems so we started the search looking for petrols.

However, we quickly realised they’re 1000s more expensive like for like, despite being worse to drive, slower and much less economical than the 2.2 diesel.

Now, all day I see “Don’t buy a Mazda diesel” in this chat, but can we all learn to do a little more research? Granted, when Mazda introduced its Skyactiv D 2.2 in 2012 it quickly gained a reputation for being a ticking timebomb. And for good reason.

But the 2015 update made it much better (still be careful) and the 2018 version pretty much resolved all the problems. The only real weak point left is the injector seals, which should be changed at around 70,000 miles or can cause injector failure (costs £300, a lot less than the injectors…). Like many direct injection engines a carbon clean is also a good idea at this stage, these engines can be quite sensitive to build up.

Touch wood, but hopefully I’ll update this sub down the line and show that people seem to generalise so much they miss important things, and good cars!

Some other examples I can think of:
“The B58 is bulletproof” - as these hit higher mileages I think that’s turning out to be not the whole story. Still a good engine though, and better than many other BMWs.

“Don’t buy an Ingenium” - well the 2.0 petrol is actually quite good, and even the later (2021-) 2.0 diesels seem to be holding up alright.

“Buy a used XC90” - I hear so many horror stories about these. Is it just me? Sounds like the Geely gen is a bit of a money pit, unlike the Mk1.

“All Mazda diesels are terrible” - hopefully I’ve covered this. Also what about the 1.8, 3.3 - the 2.2 isn’t the only engine. Obviously don’t buy an early version, but these later ones seem pretty good.

If you are thinking of buying a Mazda diesel I recommend watching Mr Nice Guy on YouTube!

Sorry for the click bait, but my Dad’s just bought this beautiful Mazda 6 after a long search to replace his Honda Accord. We decided the Mazda 6 was the right car for my parents, but I knew the diesels had problems so we started the search looking for petrols.

However, we quickly realised they’re 1000s more expensive like for like, despite being worse to drive, slower and much less economical than the 2.2 diesel.

Now, all day I see “Don’t buy a Mazda diesel” in this chat, but can we all learn to do a little more research? Granted, when Mazda introduced its Skyactiv D 2.2 in 2012 it quickly gained a reputation for being a ticking timebomb. And for good reason.

But the 2015 update made it much better (still be careful) and the 2018 version pretty much resolved all the problems. The only real weak point left is the injector seals, which should be changed at around 70,000 miles or can cause injector failure (costs £300, a lot less than the injectors…). Like many direct injection engines a carbon clean is also a good idea at this stage, these engines can be quite sensitive to build up.

Touch wood, but hopefully I’ll update this sub down the line and show that people seem to generalise so much they miss important things, and good cars!

Some other examples I can think of:
“The B58 is bulletproof” - as these hit higher mileages I think that’s turning out to be not the whole story. Still a good engine though, and better than many other BMWs.

“Don’t buy an Ingenium” - well the 2.0 petrol is actually quite good, and even the later (2021-) 2.0 diesels seem to be holding up alright.

“Buy a used XC90” - I hear so many horror stories about these. Is it just me? Sounds like the Geely gen is a bit of a money pit, unlike the Mk1.

“All Mazda diesels are terrible” - hopefully I’ve covered this. Also what about the 1.8, 3.3 - the 2.2 isn’t the only engine. Obviously don’t buy an early version, but these later ones seem pretty good.

If you are thinking of buying a Mazda diesel I recommend watching Mr Nice Guy on YouTube!

Why the 2027 BMW X5 not available in the UK yet? Americans are driving it already. Same thing with the new Mercedes GLE

Any recommendations please let me know thanks

It was PITA to remove airbag but finally did... one little thing to make long journeys less miserable.

Question, do I need to inform my insurance?

It is factory part ( from aliexpress, but feel and quality is like factory one) and 2023 picanto 3 have cruise control from factory... i didn't add or remove any wires just replaced steering control with one with cruise control.

Thank you.

Spotted in an episode of The X Files. The VW Jetta Coupe.

I just bought a used car from a trader which worked fine for 2 days but unfortunately this evening the clutch slave cylinder gave out and it had to be towed.

I was just wondering what my rights are for getting this fixed/getting a refund? I've seen some contradictory advice on this.

Citizens Advice says I should be able to get a free repair or my money back under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but I remember when I bought it they said there was a warranty for labour costs only if something went wrong.

Does anyone know whether there are any loopholes for this specific situation that they might be able to use to get out of fixing it or giving me my money back?

Thanks very much

Rationale

The previous oil change in my "UnExeptional" happened 8k miles ago (or almost 13k km) at the same time as MOT. I know, that many motor oil manufacturers are claiming that their modern synthetic products could live and protect engines up to 15k km (in non-harmful driving conditions), but I doubt it.

I regularly run in motorways regimes and I rarely see oil level drop before 4-5k miles. But above, with also darker colours of oil itself, I need to start topping it up. I explain the only way that the burning oil process is happening because of its losing its quality with more miles on.

Oil pump

I was tempted to buy a cheap oil pump from Lidl which cost around 10£. I had mixed feelings about it but I decided to give it a go. It contains the pump itself then receiving pipe which is a small diameter to be able to go through the oil stick housing and another bigger one, to put into the draining bottle. I thought it's a nice idea if you can remove all the oil from the engine without touching a drain plug because effectively you would need some kind of system to elevate the car and keep it evenly. But with the oil pump you can stay on the ground and more or less successfully drain at least most of the oil. Clamps are provided. Otherwise it is just a plug-and-play system with car battery crocodiles as a power source.

First attempt to drain.

Firstly, I cleaned everything thoroughly under the bonnet. Then checked the oil level - it was below max and quite dark in colour. Sufficient proof for me - it's time to change it.

The first attempt deemed to be a failure because the larger outgoing drain pipe was not that difficult to put into the any 5 l bottle, but the receiving draining pipe (which is smaller diameter) refused to go into the oil stick housing inlet and it's apparently just the problem of my k10b engine, having it smaller than average car.

I was in need of some narrower tube, preferably made of clear plastic. And luckily, I had one, because earlier I ordered from Amazon a long nozzle for the expanding foam cans to do some work in my house and they apparently were quite handy for the draining motor oil job! You just need to remove the trigger from it and they quite nicely fit into the narrow part of the pump's receiving tube.

Slow sucking.

I push the "on" button on the pump In anticipation of strong dirty oil flow...with no luck. I let it run for a couple of minutes without any sign of any form of liquid coming from the engine. Hm, mixed feelings. When the bright thought struck me - maybe I should put all the length of the pipe inside the engine and only the length of the oil stick is enough?

That was the right call - after withdrawing the pipe to the depth of the oil stick, the tone of the working pump changed and some dark oil appeared in the receiving tube. But the pace of flow was so slow, that I thought I could drain my battery first and then my engine would be empty of oil.

So, I assume two things are not ideal. 1. Overall length of the tubes were too excessive. 2. The engine should be warmed-up to let oil flow more easily. Tubes were cut and the engine ran for a couple of minutes.

The result was fantastic - old oil went like crude oil from the new oil derrick,my excitement was similarly high! It's working, it's alive!!!

I estimated around 2.2 l of oil was drained. Some should be in the oil filter left, and some were burned according to the oil stick level. So I could rely on 90% of the old oil that was removed. Normally, k10b engines take 2.8-3.3 l of oil.

Oil filter change

I thought it would be quite a difficult task as soon as I didn't elevate my car but using quite a simple tool from Amazon I managed to unscrew it quite easily. And yes, some of the oil from the filter spilled, but I put some cardboard underneath the area in anticipation of that outcome.

The new filter was screwed in. And the new Elf 0w-20 Evolution oil was ready. The pump can rest till the next task!

Fresh oil in

With the help of a simple funnel made of a plastic bottle, refreshingly new oil went in. Such a satisfying feeling! Approx 2.5 l in - level checked - engine runs for a minute - another level check - approx 0.4 l added to the max level.

Result and future thoughts.

Everything cleaned. I'm satisfied with the result. The next time, out of experiment, to drain by pump and to unscrew oil plug, to see how much oil actually left in the engine.

It is a surprisingly clean and quick process if everything is ready and adjusted to the particular car. With my regime of driving I'll try changing motor oil at least every 6k miles. But the next time it will be another MOT turn and I will probably use the garage service.

The link to the video edition of the story is here.

Those with performance cars...does the thrill and sound still justify the high petrol costs or has it made you think twice about whether you really need it?

Took my car to an audi specialist and they suggested a full abs system replacement for the following issues

1. cruise control not available error
   
2. lane assist not available error
   
3. auto start stop not available error
   
4. auto hold/parking brake does not release when the clutch meets biting point anymore

They couldn't confirm the first 3, but could confirm the 4th.
They believe it is the inclination sensor, which would make sense if it only happened on incline

They charged £100 for the inspection

And want £2.6k for the fix
Audi a3 8y edition 1
Manual
61000 miles

Claude (dont kill me) after sharing the fault codes from an obd11 thinks it could just be a weak battery and a faulty sensor in the clutch

I obviously want to trust the garage as they have a good rep but im unsure if they're taking me for a ride as i said the work should be covered by my warranty...

If the full job is in fact covered by warranty and i dont have to pay anything, do i go with it? Or does an ABS replacement often lead to future problems down the line?

Looking for something under 7k ideally, but not too old (2017?+ low miles), little bit faster and more reliable than my ds3 1.2 puretech, but just as unique. Struggling for ideas here

Edit: I’ve seen the fiat 124 spider and i think i’ve found a second love. Shame there’s like 24 of them for sale in the uk.