Car Talk

[gancanny]

5 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

 vRS TDi DSG doesn’t use AdBlue, but is ULEZ compliant with just a dpf in the exhaust.

what on earth is all that jargon,  far too complicated for me,  what happened to getting in car, turning the key and driving off. 

[Bikertov]

27 minutes ago, gancanny said:

what on earth is all that jargon,  far too complicated for me,  what happened to getting in car, turning the key and driving off. 

The Green Brigade - that's what happened ...

[annv]

Hi Floyd my 2.4 Accord needs a plug change every 100,000 miles according to Honda. Only done 46,000 so far , thinking to get a small electric car as the Tesla is working out well with no issues, I like the ability to switch the heater on from the phone so it is nice and warm when we drive it away. John

[floydraser]

27 minutes ago, annv said:

Hi Floyd my 2.4 Accord needs a plug change every 100,000 miles according to Honda. Only done 46,000 so far , thinking to get a small electric car as the Tesla is working out well with no issues, I like the ability to switch the heater on from the phone so it is nice and warm when we drive it away. John

In that case I would say there's little in difference. The biggest difference is probably when it comes to careful driving; I don't think diesels handle being thrashed as well as petrols.

Best of luck with an electric. Ex colleague of mine used to clear the ice from his wife's car in the morning as he was out there doing his own. Then he got an electric BMW and de-iced it from the app. Mrs was not best pleased! 

[twowrights]

1 hour ago, gancanny said:

what on earth is all that jargon,  far too complicated for me,  what happened to getting in car, turning the key and driving off. 

British Leyland. 

[gancanny]

1 hour ago, twowrights said:

what on earth is all that jargon,  far too complicated for me, 

technology travels fairly slow where we are,  in a small village in the sticks of northern england.

it is where some farmers are still using binders, reapers and threshers and the sight of a grey fergie tractor is not uncommon.

           back in july half the village had turned out, i thought charlie and camilla must be passing through but it was one of the local farmers had hired a contractor to bale his hay and had turned up with a fancy machine that made big round bales, fascinating,  castrol is still posh oil up here

[floydraser]

2 hours ago, gancanny said:

technology travels fairly slow where we are,  in a small village in the sticks of northern england.

it is where some farmers are still using binders, reapers and threshers and the sight of a grey fergie tractor is not uncommon.

           back in july half the village had turned out, i thought charlie and camilla must be passing through but it was one of the local farmers had hired a contractor to bale his hay and had turned up with a fancy machine that made big round bales, fascinating,  castrol is still posh oil up here

Be careful what you wish for up there; "levelling up" will see the end of all that! 

[Matt]

6 hours ago, Mouldy said:

Not strictly true.  My 2016 Skoda Octavia vRS TDi DSG doesn’t use AdBlue, but is ULEZ compliant with just a dpf in the exhaust.

As is my 2016 Tucson Diesel along with £30 a year road tax! 

[MargeandParge]

5 hours ago, annv said:

Hi Floyd my 2.4 Accord needs a plug change every 100,000 miles according to Honda. Only done 46,000 so far , thinking to get a small electric car as the Tesla is working out well with no issues, I like the ability to switch the heater on from the phone so it is nice and warm when we drive it away. John

Yeah works for me too. I just give Ole Marge a call. Keep  that to yourself. .kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

 

[Troyboy]

DPF has been the cause of a lot of VW group diesel problems. I wouldn't touch a modern diesel now. Ad blue now has to be added to modern VW cars to make them work properly. 

As said, the tighter the emissions control the more unreliable some cars have become. 

 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Troyboy said:

DPF has been the cause of a lot of VW group diesel problems. I wouldn't touch a modern diesel now. Ad blue now has to be added to modern VW cars to make them work properly.

The biggest issue with dpf’s is using vehicles so equipped on short journeys, which doesn’t allow them to get hot enough to work properly.

Ive had two issues with my diesel Skoda in 96,000 miles, water pump failed at about 60k and a glow plug failed about two years ago.

My previous Skoda was a petrol one and that had more issues at a lower mileage, the butterfly in the (plastic) inlet manifold failed costing about £800 to replace and shortly afterwards the coil packs failed, which wasn’t a cheap fix either.

1 hour ago, Troyboy said:

As said, the tighter the emissions control the more unreliable some cars have become. 

 

All cars have become more unreliable as more and more electronics have been introduced.  There are far more things to go wrong and everything now seems to be throwaway.  Just wait until some of these dance LED lights fail and instead of a bulb costing a few pence, new lamps have to be fitted at a cost of several hundred pounds.

As for electric, just not interested.  Too expensive and currently (no pun intended) too impractical.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Friend has sent me this link, Im thinking it`s Snake Oil what say you?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeRKu14W/

 

[Regulo]

9 hours ago, gancanny said:

what on earth is all that jargon,  far too complicated for me,  what happened to getting in car, turning the key and driving off. 

Ha! You must have had it easy. Get in turn the key. Listen to the starter churning over with no sign of life from the engine. Keep trying until there's just a click from the starter solenoid. Get out. Swear profusely. Kick the nearest dog, if available. Get the bus to the station. Return in the evening, upon which the b$%^£*d thing starts first time. Ah, the 60's - gotta love 'em!

[oldgregg]

I think cars peaked somewhere around the turn of the century...

Safety and economy were much improved and reliability was much better because they weren't burdened with all of the emmissions tech that we have to put up with now.

Think of the VW group's 1.9 AHF (the simpler predecessor to the PD). With a turbo it had decent power, yet was insanely reliable and also pretty economical.

It sounded like a tractor on startup and wouldn't pass current emissions regs, but there are 25 year old cars running around with that engine and half a million miles on them.

The PD was basically the same engine with a different head but with unit injection and is also pretty reliable but parts will probably get harder to source over time.

The later 2.0TDI that followed the PD was an absolute dog initially, having been built the last time the VW group was close to bankruptcy (ironically, they're in that place again) and so corners were cut everywhere.

We all know how good accountants are at engineering, you only have to sit in an ID.3 to see it. It's basically just another household appliance.

[Bikertov]

It always worries me seeing new cars with all-digital dashboards - basically a massive TV/tablet/iPad screen

I know that screens don't last forever - I've had enough TV, tablet and phone screens pack up on me over the years. Then what - you have no dashboard and £1000's to repair or replace it, if you even can ! 

Give me old-school dials every time !

[annv]

Hi Back in the 70's when automatic choke's stated to be fitted, drivers didn't know/or didn't set them before starting they then would flood then call us out, by the time we arrived the the flooding would have evaporated we then pressed the throttle then turned the key!! Walla it would start, some would ask us what the magic was that we used. Since then it's been down hill all the way since green issues started. We had a similar problem with diesels, when emissions started people that had diesels and just drove around town would clog the exhaust up and fail the emissions. We then had to thrash them in low gear around ring road to clear the particulates partials. Diesels dont do well in short runs at slow speeds. John

[floydraser]

58 minutes ago, annv said:

We had a similar problem with diesels, when emissions started people that had diesels and just drove around town would clog the exhaust up and fail the emissions. We then had to thrash them in low gear around ring road to clear the particulates partials. Diesels dont do well in short runs at slow speeds. John

My Corsa was bought new by a chap through the mobility scheme but he only wanted a little run around for local trips. He soon got fed up with lights coming on to tell him something was wrong so traded it in with just 5K on the clock. I was doing 30 miles each way to work mostly motorway which soon cleaned it out. Now I occasionally get a message telling me to continue driving to clear the filter. I just keep the revs over 2000 for about 10 minutes and it clears. 

[Troyboy]

I loved my  1.9 pd Skoda Fabia Vrs. So much so I've had 3 of them. They were a fantastic car to own. That 1.9 pd engine was super reliable and no dpf to worry about. Also great performance with the 130bhp. It was a little gruff sounding but I liked that.

[Mouldy]

3 hours ago, Troyboy said:

I loved my  1.9 pd Skoda Fabia Vrs. So much so I've had 3 of them. They were a fantastic car to own. That 1.9 pd engine was super reliable and no dpf to worry about. Also great performance with the 130bhp. It was a little gruff sounding but I liked that.

No dpf, but the egr valve was prone to failure.  Surprisingly lively little car though and the run out Race Blue versions with full leather are still worth a fair bit of cash.

[Troyboy]

13 hours ago, Mouldy said:

No dpf, but the egr valve was prone to failure.  Surprisingly lively little car though and the run out Race Blue versions with full leather are still worth a fair bit of cash.

I had a race blue car. They really are a fantastic little car. Funnily enough I'm pondering over an 18,000 mile race blue Vrs that has just come up for sale. They are a future classic car.

[Turnoar]

I’ve crossed thread here, I wonder what the underpinnings of the Outspan could be, the Peel P50 perhaps but no not with 4 wheels... maybe Commuter Cars Tango?

Jesting aside I wonder if we’ll see single seat vehicles catch on in a bigger way in future, only 2 for sale on Autotrader, a Renault Twizzy and a BAC Mono.

 

10 hours ago, ExSurveyor said:

Is your new Norfolk runabout car ordered yet.

 

 

 

[BroadAmbition]

Finally got MrsG Q5 onto its winter boots.  Z3 passed its mot this week with no advisories, first one under my ownership.

I'm going to Sorn the Q5 on 30th Dec as we paid the £500 road tax in October.  Then on Jan 01 I'll tax it for a year at £180.  That'll give us a free refund from the treasury 

Griff

[Troyboy]

5 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Finally got MrsG Q5 onto its winter boots.  Z3 passed its mot this week with no advisories, first one under my ownership.

I'm going to Sorn the Q5 on 30th Dec as we paid the £500 road tax in October.  Then on Jan 01 I'll tax it for a year at £180.  That'll give us a free refund from the treasury 

Griff

Could you explain how that works. I take it that the car is 5 years old between October and January. 

[BrundallNavy]

If you buy a car over 40k new , secondhand you pay £500 odd until the car is 5 years old then it drops to £180. By putting it on sorn you declare it off-road   Then when you re tax it you pay the lower amount. Only problem comes if you have a private plate you cannot take the number off on line if the car has been sorned in the last 5 years it has to be done by post. 

[Regulo]

I've been reminiscing about my early years of car ownership in the late 60's, and recalling the "extras" you had to buy and fit yourself. Here's my list:

Windscreen washer electric pump. 

Wing mirrors (yes, drilled holes in the actual wings, kids) 

Radio and aerial (ditto) 

Reversing lamps. 

Fog and spot lights. 

Radiator blind

Electric radiator fan

About 10lbs David's Isopon and chicken wire to suit. Not really an "extra", more a necessity on my cars. 

Baked bean cans and tins of exhaust putty. 

There seemed to be an independent car accessory shop on every other corner in those days, sell you anything from an instrument panel bulb to a re-con engine! 

What are your recollections?