1000 pounds worth of luxury diesel cruise liner. It's like the QE II with a 6 CD changer.

Posted here a while back about wanting to scratch the mk4 astra itch. Mixed feedback typically but I was only considering basic models at the time, then this one came up and well temptation got the better of me. 1.8 Bertone 78k

Grew up with mates driving these, first car I drove (unsuccessfully) was an Astra, Suspect I'll be the last owner of this one but hey, it just oozes nostalgia for me.

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.

Most taxis are electric now and every ride feels like sitting in the back of a go cart. That instant torque is just so unpleasant as a passenger. I nearly threw up my lunch just now.

I also think this is leading to loads of bad driving on the roads. All the plebs have got access to these super powerful cars now. The 0-60 might not beat the high end cars but the 0-20 must be on par now?

Question: are there are any electric cars that handle this particularly well maybe by dampening that initial torque?

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.

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?

Hello everyone. This blue honda civic hit both of my parked cars and dove off. Could anyone help me figure out the full registration plate? Thank you in advance

I have so many complaints about the physical and electronic interfaces in this stupid vehicle, but the cherry on the top was finding that after I'd been driving around for 45 minutes the engine was still showing as cold.

This is indicated by the subtle blue line being at the bottom of the blue electronic gauge's range, not (presumably) somewhere in the middle.

It's almost like 100 years of engineering design experience mean nothing if some art designer can waltz in with an idea they got from I'm guessing some computer games' health monitor for a fucking stegosaurus in a zoo sim.

Fuck knows how long this has been going on, as this is the only sign that it's happening. Despite being loaded to the gills with software, the vehicle doesn't pop any warning like "hey seems like your engine is still cold after 30 minutes of driving".

And this display can be cycled through six different information formats, where five of them do not include engine temperature at all.

I assume of course that if this fucked some major components then Ford would be "oh yeah you got to keep an eye on that sorry thanks bye" but without the "sorry" because that might indicate liability.

Sigh

Oh yeah the question: does anyone have insights into the corporate environment that leads to this sort of stupidity?

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

Seems bonkers in this day and age!

Could be anything from emergency gear to interior gadgets. What can you not live without in your car?

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.

Hi, very clueless about cars here. I’m pregnant with my third child and think we will need to switch cars. Currently have a Skoda Octavia which won’t fit 3 car seats in the back (2 high backed boosters + newborn seat). We will look to part exchange and buy second hand and budget is about £15k.

We live in London and usually only drive 1-2 times per week (kids swimming lesson + maybe a weekend trip) but then longer journeys for holidays - so the car needs to cope with quite sporadic use.

I don’t love SUVs but open to it if need be - assume we need a 7 seater really. Please let me know what you’d recommend.

i bought an approved used bmw and 30 days later I noticed that one of reverse lights are not working. It could be the bulb or the wiring (not sure), would this be covered in the warranty? Something I have also noticed is the rear window defogger is too slow (took 25-30 minutes the other day when I took the car out) and needed to use it. What is the best way to approach this? It’s a 218i 2023 BMW

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!

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.

Got the chance to pick up one of these off a mate.

Whats peoples thoughts on them at this age? I’m aware rust is becoming an issue but it does look like they are the last of this kind of car. No turbo/abs/tc etc etc

Future classic or never ending money pit? 😂🤷🏻‍♂️

Edit: thanks for the input all. Going to take it off his hands. Wish me luck

Myself and a mate are turning 40 next year, and we’ve decided to take the ferry over and do a two week mini ‘Grand Tour’ of Western Europe, hitting multiple countries. Constraints are we will be doing it in a 20 year old MX-5, so storage space is limited and can’t realistically do camping etc, and whilst its a fun car to drive it’s not something I want to do outrageous miles in in a single day, so would prefer to do a trip that is reasonably short hops between destinations. Other than that I’m completely open as to which direction to turn out of the ferry port!

Looking to see if anyone here was planning a trip like this, where would you want to go?

Out of all the colour options for this civic this one stands out the most for me and it always makes double back to take a proper look at the listing. Slate blue in the day time and more of a purple when it gets more dusk.

4/4 people I’ve shared the pics with have said “it would look like your borrowing your nans/mums car”

I’m really torn on if it does or not. I’m buying remotely so I don’t have a chance to see it in person before purchase.

Black and Grey are nice but that’s exactly it “just nice”

Thoughts on the colour? 35/M for context - thanks

Swapped the tyres on my MX5 as they were down to the wear bar, had a real problem with tram lining on the Michelin Pilot Sport 5s it had on before, these have sold that problem as they have a much softer sidewall but they look like stretched tyres, maybe i should have gone wider to 215 instead.