Car Talk

[oldgregg]

5 hours ago, NeilB said:

When covid kicked off serval large car and truck manufacturers cancelled lots of raw materials including chips expecting a massive downturn.  When they tried to re-instate these orders the chips had been resold to laptops, mobiles etc. which were booming. Throw in a fire at one of the chip plants and you now have a global shortage!  

Indeed.... But do you not think it's odd that the Chinese manufacturers have been able to source chips much more easily. There was a phase of huge demand for computer chips (particularly GPU's), but the bottom fell out of that market quite some time ago.

Look at the number of new MG's and other Chinese exports on the road in the UK and compare to the volumes of vehicles from other brands that were launched at a similar time.

The Chinese government is actively helping the domestic car manufacturers kill the legacy brands, just like they have done in many other industry sectors.

Many automakers prioritised China as their most important export market and now their government has introduced new emissions standards which make it very difficult to sell those products. There are huge stockpiles of unsold cars in China which has caused significant financial trouble for legacy auto.

And guess who makes cheap EV's which will meet those emissions standards. Yep, you've guessed it.

Nissan, Ford and VW group are in serious doo-doo. Others aren't doing much better. VW were having to basically give away their stock at below cost price.

There's lots of analysis on this, but basically China saw their chance and seized it with both hands. Control the supply chain and you control the industry...

Now that they've had 15+ years of partnerships with legacy auto they're done - They know all the secrets and which brands to buy (Volvo being one of them), they can build their own cars to the same standard so why would they need legacy auto. Big changes are coming in that industry. 

[floydraser]

13 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

I mght be tempted to take that if the mileage agreed would cover my needs with a little wriggle room as car insurance has increased across the board I read an article that the fire risk from E.V,s had contributed to the rises as if they were involved in an accident nobody could assess the internal damage to the batteries,which are the dearest most volatile part of an E.V.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

 

 

Why should our insurance go up to cover the risks of EV's? It shouldn't! 

[MargeandParge]

Because that's the way it is the ones that don't claim subsidise the ones that do.

Also the government poked their nose in and said that when auto renewal happens it should be the same price as new customers to stop the runaway bills so that put pay to most loyalty discounts as the companies found it better to make existing customers who used to ring for  a deal up to new customer prices.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

PS The cheapest isn't always the best 

[Regulo]

1 minute ago, MargeandParge said:

 

Also the government poked their nose in and said that when auto renewal happens it should be the same price as new customers to stop the runaway bills so that put pay to most loyalty discounts as the companies found it better to make existing customers who used to ring for  a deal up to new customer prices.

 

Er . . . what loyalty discounts would that be? The point of the change was to stop companies hiking loyal customers' renewal prices in the hope they'd just cough up. It hasn't worked as planned, as now we all pay the higher prices. Does any intervention by government ever work?

[annv]

I have always used a Broker he then has the expertise to get me value for money. £17=00 increase on our fully comp Accord this year. John

[Bikertov]

Me and Mrs B. had a bit of a hike in our car insurance renewal offers this year - 40% and 60% respectively.

Called up and converted to a Multicar policy, and manged to get the overall increase down to 15%

[LondonRascal]

Insurance has increased across the board. I found a little trick, go looking for new insurers 30 days away from the current your current policy expiring - it will go up as the days pass closer to the expiry. I found this year oddly it was actually cheaper to stay with my current provider (Go Skippy). Firstly nobody was as reasonable to begin, but they did not know that, and when called to say I was very pleased with their customer service and package, but I could get a better deal with Admiral, they agreed (without any need of proof) to reduce the policy by £35 just for me asking.  I now only insure for third party fire and theft, sometimes it is cheaper but sometimes more expensive (depends I think on car and risk profile).

[floydraser]

I reckon you're about spot on there LR; I've just the latest email from the money saving expert. Their survey shows the best time to renew is between 20 and 26 days before renewal. 

[grendel]

Well thats good news at last, the garage have just called, the 3rd new ABS unit arrived friday afternoon, it has been fitted, taken to Volvo and successfully recoded, eliminating all the fault codes and warning lights, now my garage need to bleed the brakes, and redo the MOT and with any luck I should have a car again in the next day or so.

the repair shop took their time before sending this unit out to make sure it functioned correctly so soon my enforced carlessness will be at an end (my daughter has already booked me for a lift friday)

tomorrow will mark 2 months and one week exactly without the car.

[Bikertov]

12 minutes ago, grendel said:

tomorrow will mark 2 months and one week exactly without the car.

Wow - that is just mad !

But very pleased for you that you will be back on 4 wheels at last

[JanetAnne]

New MOT has doubled the value of the car and two months free storage..... result 

[grendel]

even better news today, the car has passed its MOT and is ready, at just a shade under £800 so the charges for recoding at volvo must have been shouldered by someone else as they wouldnt have been a lot less than that for the 4 seperate attempts to recode different ABS units.

[ExSurveyor]

You might need a refresher driving lesson it's been so long.

[FairTmiddlin]

18 minutes ago, ExSurveyor said:

You might need a refresher driving lesson it's been so long.

I know a good driving instructor if needed.

[BroadAmbition]

tomorrow will mark 2 months and one week exactly without the car.

Think of all the fuel money you have saved there.

Methinks you have been very lenient with the garage as after a couple of weeks you would have had a decent case for them supplying you with a courtesy or hire car

Griff

[grendel]

If i had been taking it to a dealership i would have expected the courtesy car, but the dealership would have insisted on fitting a new £2500 ABS Pump and the  final bill would have been vastly more expensive, as it was I was expecting the bill to be over £1000 as the ABS pump repair should have been £200, but after the courier losing my old pump the ABS repair shop stumped up the replacements and all of the costs of Volvo coding the part to the car (about £600).

the garage I use is run by an ex forces chap, with ex forces staff, and they live up to their name- affordable, furthermore they give forces and emergency services a 10% discount. as such to keep their costs down, they dont offer a courtesy vehicle, which I knew at the start, although privately i may have been pulling my hair out at the delays, I didnt pressure them, as I knew the circumstances were out of their control and they were doing the best they could in a bad set of circumstances. they were most appreciable of this fact and I believe dealt with me fairly when it came to the bill, charging just £41 to fit the ABS pump when they in fact had to fit and remove the original and the 3 replacements, so I am grateful that the charges were as good as they were, somewhere else may well have charged for each time it was fitted or removed. they kept me up to date with all the developments as we went along, so overall a good experience.

I always say that good customer service is not measured on day to day performance, but when things go pear shape, and in my view they have dealt with what could have been a disaster in an exemplary manner, which has retained them a customer.

[BroadAmbition]

Good points / reply - And agreed with

Griff

[Bikertov]

Says a lot for supporting your local independent garages, compared to the main stealers. 

Even more so that is is run by ex-forces - great to support those guys (and girls of course) if you can. 

[oldgregg]

I think mostly independent is the way to go, but there are times when the main dealer is the only option.

My car has a small coolant leak at the moment, round the city and going to work it will lose a bit and needs topping up every day. Go further afield (ie use main roads) and you'd better be carrying coolant with you.

About three weeks ago it was booked into an independent for them to investigate, they had the car all day and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

I ran the car over the weekend and sure enough I could get it to lose coolant from somewhere around the back of the engine (hard to say where without an inspection pit or lift).

So I bit the bullet and booked it into the main dealer, which meant waiting a couple of weeks for an appointment.

I dropped the car off on the day and went to work in the courtesy car (a mid-range electric car thankfully rather than the usual three cylinder rollerskate).

They probably only had the car an hour and a half when I got a video and quotation through showing exactly where the leak was coming from. A hose on the back of the turbo had started to split and that's where it was coming from.

Although it's going to be about £400 to replace (and the part might need to come from Korea, because I have a fairly rare model) it's a lot better than "sorry we don't know what's wrong, you'd better try the main dealer because that engine is quite complicated" when the problem is just a coolant leak.

[grendel]

that was the reason mine needed to go to the main dealer- basically to make the car recognise the new part.

[annv]

Hi One advantage with a main dealer is they get to know what models have the same problem, where as and independent dosn't get this repetitive problems. But for straight forward job's servicing, brake replacement etc,  they are much cheaper for the same high standard of work. plus you often can speak to the person who worked on your car. Un like the main dealer where you only have access to the reception. John

[oldgregg]

Well that's why it went to the main dealer really.

I had a suspicion it was a common failure point and given that my car is just out of the 7 year warranty and only has 37k on the clock then others have probably had the issue a lot sooner.

The speed with which they found the issue (and checked tyres, brake pads etc as dealers do) and quoted me suggests they knew what was likely to be wrong with it.

[BrundallNavy]

Took my car to the main dealer for a service yesterday, when I went to collect it the lady on reception explained that with the service I receive 12 months of breakdown cover including at home onward travel and over night accommodation if required all for the sum of £205. Halfords basic service was more than that and I would trust them with a barge pole.  

 

[CambridgeCabby]

Sounds excellent value , which make if car was that on please ?

[BrundallNavy]

2 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:

Sounds excellent value , which make if car was that on please ?

Fix or Repair Daily.