rabbitstew

I remember back in the 80`s paint on car respray kits were advertised in the back of some of the car mags. They boasted that the paint was special so you didnt get brush strokes when you painted your mk2 cortina etc....

welcome!!!!

Ive not had an audit, but I did have my insurance company ask me for proof that the registration number on my car was actually on the logbook, as when they did all their electronic checks it was flagging an alert that the number plate didnt match the car. (which wasnt supprising as id only just allocated the plate to the car the day before) I think in general insurance companies are trying to crack down on fraud more, so will be checking various databases - so if you have recently moved and addresses dont match, or if the car is in someone elses name etc. etc. could all potentially flag up red on their system.

Its mainly the bumper/bonnet and leading edge of the side skirt (in the wheel arch). I am concerned that for pearlescent white, I will end up with badly matching panels if I don't do a full respray. I don't intend to do it now as it's not too bad at all but am trying to gain a little knowledge in preparation. Any ideas on how many coats of paint & clear would be involved in a decent respray and the time taken if it is to cure properly with baking? Mismatching colours is definately one of the problems you may end up with. The reason being is that if your car is a 2004, then the paint on it is 7 years old or so, and it will have probably faded a bit with sun / weather on it. So if a paint shop gets some brand new paint in from the original paint code, it may end up looking a bit different on the car. The place I use can do that, or will just analyse the paint on the car and produce a match from scratch. Either way, matching the paint exactly can be hard. What some places will do is cut the old paint on the car using heavy duty polishing stuff which will restore it back to some of its original colour so any new paint work wont look different. Painting is a fine art. Ive resprayed more things than I can remember, using rattle cans initially before I finally went out and bought a proper compressor / spray gun and all the gear. The prep work is a royal pain in the backside and can take forever... stripping the car down, sanding all the bits, filling any stone chips, repairing dents, primering, then resanding.. and so on and so forth. Id definitely see if you can checkout some of the places work before you agree to them doing any work as even places which you`d think would be good could be shocking. For example, my missus had a prang in her car and the insurance company sent it off to be repaired to their approved insurance repair bodyshop. When it came back I had to send the car back 3 times for them to do the paintwork properly. The first time it came back the front half of the car was a completely wrong shade of blue. I dont mean a slight bit off, it was a totally different colour. I phoned them up and asked if Stevie Wonder worked for them it was that bad.

Prices will vary wildly. Paint isnt expensive, its the time and expertise involved in getting a good finish. Do you have to have the whole car done? Usually its just the bumper / bonnet which gets all the marks. I paid £250 for someone to repaint those on one of my previous cars.

It does cost a fair bit to run daily. Also the prices of zeds does seem to be seasonal. Its coming up to the snowy cold season so you`ll find prices will drop a bit, and the prices of things like range rovers & 4x4s tend to go up a bit. Come spring the prices will be a bit stronger for zeds.

Okay well just popped down my local Nissan dealer to have a quick snout about at the QashQai. After a good ten minutes or more of climbing in and out of cars, finally someone asks me if I need a hand. However, unfortunately all their sales people are busy.... looking about, busy means they only have 1 sales person on duty by the looks of it and they are sealing a deal on a car. The base model QashQai did look very boring and plain, but the N-Tec spec one they had sitting there did look very nice. Ive booked a test drive for tomorrow so will see what its like on the road. Only problem is, revisiting the spreadsheet of cars which the missus`s company have given her, only the lower 1.5Dci and the 1.6 petrol Acenta models fall within her bracket. Whereas with the Juke, because its a cheaper car, we could get a higher spec model for the same price.... so, looks like the Juke may be back in the equation. Sigh. Im tempted to just leave her too it, as i know she`ll end up going with the car which is the best colour, or has the cutest looking headlamps or something..... argh!

Brilliant!

Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of the ones you list, id go for the golf definately. Ive had 2 mk5`s and a mk4, really enjoyed all of them. Compared to the Focus`s ive driven they feel much better quality. But, thats just my opinion.

£2500? You`ll be struggling to get a set of wheels and a few bits for that. You do see very early high mileage coupe`s for 7k sometimes and thats about as low as it gets. If you want anything better you pay a lot more than that. I paid over double that for my car. The RX8 is cheap for a reason and that main reason being is the fact they drink petrol like no tomorrow. Really not many people can afford to run them at all these days due to the cost of fuel. If you really want a zed I think you will have to get a loan or save up some more. And dont just factor in the cost of the car, you need to think about servicing and keeping it on the road. I just spent 250quid on a set of brake pads, 500quid on a set of tyres, 460quid (less for older cars) on road tax and 700quid on insurance this month. Granted, I dont spend that every month, but thats an example of the sort of prices you`ll get. Also factor in your mileage. I put £600 of fuel in mine a month which is nearly as much as my mortgage. Good luck!

What sort of mpg does the 1.6 petrol get in normal use?

Nice choice of car you are moving to tho! All the best!

If its working in one direction then id suspect the switch just needs cleaning - switch cleaning fluid and a good wiggle may help.

Cheers Mate Just PM me an email address, as most of the stuff is quite large on Excel & PDF, whenever Will do. Intrequed as to what the difference is between the 1.5 and 1.6 diesels? On paper looks like very little, so why have 2? The 2.0 looks a bit more pokey, but the fuel economy drops loads.

Cheers Mate yep, she likes them too!!! Just been looking at them and it would cost us an extra 150quid a month, but they look awesome. Apparently 60mpg and 0-60 in 7.7seconds.

Its not so much a specified size, but what her car allowance will cover. She does cart a lot of rubbish about in her car as part of her job, so something "golf" or "focus" sized is what she has been looking at in order to get a reasonable sized boot. But with her allowance only covering smaller sized engines, we didnt want the car to be too under powered. The QashQai 1.6dci falls within the allowance by the looks of it - its on the companies "spreadsheet of approved cars". My only concern was would the 1.6 be too revvy. Im used to 1.9 or 2.0 turbo diesels which kick out 100->140bhp, and whilst it looks like the 1.6Dci does produce a reasonable amount of power, it must have a big turbo on it or be revvy to get that power? Ive been reading up a few reviews and they do seem to get good reviews! I`ll have to try and get a drive in one. Problem is, we are busy for the next 3 weekends and she needs to put her order in before then. May have to get a day off work or something I think or pop down my local garage at lunchtime.

It gets better!!!

The missus is due a new company car, so we spent a lot of the weekend checking out what cars are out there in her allowed budget etc... So we looked at: Honda Civic - she likes the spaceship dash & front lights... Honda Jazz - too boxy Renault Megane - liked looked outside and big boot, but inside she thought was rubbish Peugeot 308 - she ruled this out within seconds, looked too dated. Nissan Juke - She loved the way it looked, but no boot on it hardly at all, and inside felt quite cramped. Ford Fiesta / Fusion - too small & boring (she says) Ford Focus - old mans car, and indeed, her old man has one. Vauxhall Astra - possibly.. need to check one out in more detail. So shes narrowed it down atm to: Citroen DS3 DStyle Plus - 90bhp 1.5 diesel. You seem to get a good spec with this pack. We drove the 110bhp version and it was a really nice drive, sporty ride, very responsive - turbo kicks in low down and was quite economical & comfortable. Inside was surprisingly spacious. Im 6ft and could happily sit in the back of one with loads of room for such a small car. Only question mark she has is cos its a small car, the boot with the back seats up isnt as big as say the megane or the 308. Personally I loved it, and could see id have loads of fun in it, although I was worried about the French build quality - would the car fall apart after a few weeks. Interestingly a brand new one of these was coming in at less than I paid for my 4 year old zed. Nissan Qashqai - Yet to have a good look around one, but she likes the idea of this sort of car and hopes the inside & boot is bigger than the juke. Too very different cars surprisingly enough. Her car "allowance" is crap, so it would have to be something like a 1.5/1.6 sized car, she does 30k a year so we`re mainly looking at diesels, although with the Hondas they were petrol as apparently Honda arnt making another diesel Civic until next March. Anyone got one of the above or any experience of them? What did you think? Any other cars we should be considering? BMW 1 series is just outside her budget. Audi A1 just about falls in there, but think its going to be too small.... Skoda again she thinks looks old man, and she doesnt fancy a KIA or Hyundi.... Not much else left im thinking?

I found out this weekend that the idrive (assuming thats the media controller wheel thingy whatsit) actually runs on a ring network, with fibre-optic connectors. Apparently if anything in the chain gets damaged (headunit, navunit, bluetooth, CD changer, idrive wheel itself, etc, etc) it can cause the whole network to fail. Some right feck-tard must have decided on that topography when all other manufacturers are using a typical bus layout. A friend who told me this has learnt a lot over the past few weeks as a car he has interest in has this problem. It took a specialist about a day to find the reason the idrive wheel wasnt working right was because of a faulty bluetooth unit Thats mental. Mind you, my old neighbour ran a body repair shop, and I remember him telling me that if a headlamp on a beemer goes, you cant just nip down your local parts place, buy one and plug it in. It has to be coded to the car before the car "accepts" it which involves plugging the car into a computer etc... which from what he was saying was a main dealer job, which automatically jacked the price up to some ridiculous amount.

This is another job on my list, the drivers side handle on mine has a few scratches on it. From memory i think its a satin black sort of finish on it, so any touching up would need to be a satin paint id have thought. I`ll see how hard it is to remove the handle and if its not too much of a pain i`ll just repaint them.

Same thing happened to my missus`s iphone. We fixed it in the end by turning off icloud sync and "restoring" the phone twice. I bought a acer aspire netbook earlier in the year for exactly this. It cost me £200 all in, has dual core processor, huge hard drive and 2gb ram. I find myself using it more than my desktop or my top of the range sony laptop. It boots in about 2 seconds, is surprisingly fast, I can watch tv shows on it an surf whilst the missus is watching Glee or Eastenders and cos its got a proper keyboard I can do emails and work etc if needbe. Battery lasts about 12 hours, it weighs next to nothing and is ideal on the train etc.

This topic reminded me of the chasis bracing I did on my Renault 5. That involved getting a length of scaffolding pole, cutting to the right length and welding between the tops of the wheel arches in the boot. I did a similar thing under the bonnet which also involved a sledge hammer to modify the scaffolding pole enough to clear the air intake. Whole bracing modification cost me nothing and my god, the difference in stiffness of the chasis was incredible. Renaults are made out of cardboard, so flex like mad as standard. I wouldnt fancy doing the same thing to my zed however, but this thread certainly bought back memories for me!

welcome!

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