New car needed

Thanks Longk.

Honda lawnmowers are pretty good too!

 

Thanks all for your input, great as ever. I think I'm quite liking a Ford Focus as they seem pretty good value for money but I am wondering if there's going to be a sting in tail?

For example:

http://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2005-ford-focus-zetec-climate-1.6-petrol.-silver-/1061750773

http://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/ford-focus-zetec-1.6/1079689903

Too good to be true?

 

Percy has gone in for his repairs today so we'll see what the damage it. I tried looking for the airbag cable under the seat but the only thing I could find is a small black blocky type of things which seemed pretty stuck in its place.

£50 to 'put it on the diagnostic machine' my backend! I hate that! You mean plug it in to your handheld device for about 2p?! I could be wrong of course.

 

And thank you for car links, there can be deals if you look for them it seems.

 

You are! I'm just about to commit £20000+ to new equipment (plus another £1500 a year subscription for updates). I too will be charging £50 a go. It wrankles if they just plug in and pull a fault code - most engine and powertrain faults at the very least require driving with live data. So a straightforward diagnosis can be half an hour, less straightforward faults can take longer.

 

You can buy basic code readers for less than a hundred quid, but all they do is basic fault codes and live data for engine and some gearbox issues.
This will be a bespoke machine for several manufacturers (not all manufacturers) that is dealer level. That means it will do all systems and do programming of new parts (which is getting ever more common). It includes training courses and full technical support too. Plus regular updates.

Exactly.

 

Thanks longk and FC for the clarification, it still hurts though! Thank you for the links JWK.

We took Percy in last week and it was £160 for the lamp, track rod end point ball rod track point rod thing, another thing and he sorted the airbag without a replacement. But there is a problem, the steering wheel now doesn't sit level when steering, it is turned off slightly to the right and the car pulls very slightly to the left.

Am I right in thinking they haven't done the steering/tracking properly?

 

Why? Half an hour minimum of my time and thousands of pounds of equipment is not worth fifty quid?
My hand tools alone are insured for £38000 (not a typo)!

Probably. But, sometimes the geometry is set up "off centre" to counteract the heavy camber of UK roads. So they may have done it to the book. However, they should have realigned the steering wheel afterwards.
That said (bearing in mind the limited adjustments on a Reno) it probably is out a bit.