Dan

Thats a fair price, but don't forget to negotiate

In general all manufacturers are about the same and its still the best Warranty you can get. It helps if you have a good relationship with the dealer because they know how to present things to the manufacturer to make a succesfull Warranty claim. We have had hundreds of jobs done under Warranty and to be fair if it's a genuine thing they will pay up. It's just when you get into the "grey areas" that they will do their utmost to weasel out of paying, just like any Insurance Company does Be aware that if you let your local garage mess about with your car and they don't use genuine parts your manufacturers Warranty is going to be invalidated.

Thats clever stuff, I didn't know that. Then again I'm not always driving a Zed so I would be interested to know how many other cars do this.

As always with these things it comes down to cost. Nissan have chosen a clutch that they think is up to the job and came within budget. To be fair to Nissan the clutch isn't a common failing at low mileage - as far as I am aware - so I guess Nissan don't see a problem. We recently had a young lady with a Metro Convertible who had a new clutch about 2 months ago. She was back last week needing another clutch. When we removed it the clutch was totally burnt out, I mean completely fried. When we spoke to the lady she told us the car had an idling problem and spent most of its life doing 3000 rpm...so in effect she was doing a grand prix start every time she set off ! We reset the idle speed and showed her how to do it for herself next time it stuck at 3000rpm. Its a 30 second adjustment that will save her a fortune in clutches It just shows how quickly a clutch can expire if its given a hard life.

You should use your Air Con regularly to keep it operating properly. I never switch mine off unless I need that extra bit of poke £89 for a re-gas is top money, you will get it cheaper just about anywhere else.

The nicest sounding starter motor you will ever hear ! What planet is he on !

I can see what your getting at but they can't build an indestructible clutch ! If your hard on it, it's going to wear out quicker than if your not, and someone who lives in a city and powers away from traffic lights all day long is going to get through one quicker than someone who lives out of town. Thats exactly why they usually are not covered under warranty.

I think speed cameras are totally futile devices and I love them ! My reasoning is this : Most motorists drive the same routes over and over again, I know I do. It doesn't take many trips to learn and remember where the fixed cameras are and where the Police operate the mobile speed traps on that route. The camera can only see 50 yards of road, leaving you free to drive as fast as you like the rest of the way. The cameras have no intelligence and no judgement, like a Traffic Officer would have. I can't remember the last time I saw a Traffic Policeman except on the motorway and I wouldn't have half the fun I have in cars and on bikes if the roads were more heavily policed. P.S. This is meant ( slightly ) tongue in cheek. I drive high performance cars and bikes on a daily basis. I speed every single day of my life but I have not had an accident in 20 years and I have a clean license. I don't speed through built up areas, I stick to 30 and 40 limits and "blend in" on the motorways. I save my fun for the rural roads when nobody else is around. Time and a place, and all that

First off they should never promise what they can't deliver. It was highly unlikely they were going to get that done in a day. Secondly its common courtesy to keep the customer informed if the car isn't going to be ready in time. Every garage has jobs that run over time, most often due to waiting for parts from third party suppliers, but you should always keep the customer informed. Thirdly they should never have told you the Clutch was going to be under warranty. Clutches generally are NOT covered under warranty unless there is an obvious manufacturing fault with the unit when it is removed. What they should have told you was they would strip the car down and report. Bad form in my opinion, but we all make mistakes

£7,100 for an '86 528i with 100k, in White ! If he gets that for it he can come and work for me

I got 8. The question about spilling someone's pint was tricky, I would expect to get slapped

Property prices around the country are amazing aren't they. In Blackburn that house would be £100,000 absolute tops and £400,000 would get you a large 5 bed detached or a farm house with land etc etc. I dunno how young people just starting out are supposed to buy houses these days, earning say £15k and really crappy terraced houses costing nearly £100k ! My first house was a 3 bed semi and I paid £30k for it and I was earning about £15k at the time. I paid about half of it cash and my mortgage was next to nothing. Those houses are selling for over £130k now so how is someone on £15k supposed to afford that !

I hate my neighbours. I have to drive past Keiron's Arnage T and Bentley Continental Mulliner ( owns a chain of carpet shops ), then Lee's Gallardo and Landcruiser ( 30 years old, owns a company called Law Line doing the no win no fee claims ), then Steve's 911 Turbo and M5 ( not certain what he does exactly, but suspect he is a drug dealer ! ) before I get to my house. Keiron pays over £6,000 a month for his cars and paid £60,000 deposit ! I never understood if he had £60k for a deposit, why didnt he just buy a car for £60k ? I console myself with the knowledge that the bank doesn't own my cars, but still it's very tempting to sign on the dotted line when you see these motors every day. P.S. The Gallardo spends more time on the back of a transporter than it does on the road.

I thought it was a GSXR1000 from the clocks. Funny how he kept slowing down to let the copper catch up, toying with him. That poor Volvo was well run in after that !

Service interval is every 9,000 miles or every 12 months, whichever comes first. If you have your car serviced late, either in terms of mileage or time, the manufacturers warranty is invalidated and beleive me, Nissan WILL get out of a warranty claim if they can ! I charge £179+VAT for a P2, including supplying the Oil - but Forum members get 10% discount on that. If you want to supply your own Oil I will deduct the cost, BUT, unlike most garages I do not stock a big tank of Oil and put the same stuff in every car, I buy Oil seperately for each job and use the correct grade etc. Look in the forum discounts section and click on The Glen for more information.

If you haven't already driven both cars, start there. It's quite possible the decision will be very easy after that. The Zed is a brilliant car but it won't thrill you in the same way the VX220 Turbo would. As this is a second car, primarily for fun and the odd track day, I would go for the VX220.

I disagree, a bit of effort in the presentation goes a long way and good photographs are particularly important in this internet age because that is where most people will first see the car. I try my best with my photographs : www.TheGlenOnline.co.uk but I'm no David Bailey

High mileage fleet cars drop like a brick and are ten a penny in the auctions. If he wants a prestige badge he could pick up a high mileage X-Type for very little money and then perhaps a Corsa, Fiesta or Micra for the missus. The X-Type diesels are a good drive and give close to 50mpg for that European jaunt, and there are loads on lease clocking up the miles. Same with the Passat, loads of them about with world tourer mileages but the mechanics will stand it. Personally, I would rather buy something slightly older with less miles, or spend a bit more money

I'm self employed and just switched to Orange after being with O2 for the last 7 years. The Orange tariff is significantly cheaper but their customer service is crap. They gave me a dodgy phone - Nokia N73, don't touch one - and I had to tolerate 3 identical replacements, all demonstrating the same faults ( which are well documented on the internet ) before they would give me a different telephone. In all, it took me over 4 months to get a working handset out of them. Even now the phone occasionally fails to register on the network and quite often displays missed calls without ever ringing, the caller goes straight to answer phone. My staff call me several times every day when I am out and one missed call can mean a missed deal, the phone bill pales into insignificance when you take that into consideration. I never had any problems at all with O2 and I wish I had stayed with them.

Thats more expensive than a main dealer mate. Last time I got one it was £90+VAT from Nissan. Always check your main dealer first, SOMETIMES they are reasonably priced, unlike the Almera CD Player I had to replace today which cost me £594 at Trade ! To rub salt in the wound I bought the car 2 months ago and had it sat for sale all this time, when I bought it the car was still under manufacturers warranty, so if I had it fixed then it would have been a free repair - DOH !

My view of private plates is that if they actually say something then they are cool, but if you have to think what the plate means then they are crap. For example, Paul Daniels has MAG1C and Jimmy Tarbuck has COM1C, which are pretty neat. I also used to see 4RE every morning on a Testarossa and thought that was cool. But I recently took a Merc CLK in part exchange and over the phone the owner was saying it had a private plate which said HORNY, but when it turned up it actually said H10RNX

I'm in this months What Car ? magazine. I must admit I'm quite pleased about it. As a sad young anorak I subscribed to What Car ? for many years right through my teens and memorised the BHP, 0-60 times and top speeds of just about everything ! Yes, even the Zastavas ! So to appear within the magazine is quite a buzz for me. I really must get out more. They wanted my opinion on the Micra, as an "Independent Nissan Specialist" so I told them what its common problems were. No doubt Nissan will be preparing the law suit as I type... I'm so pleased about it that I'm actually going to post this !

I've heard the Speed Limit + 10% + 3mph before. So that gives us 80 mph before we get booked. If we than add 10% for speedometer error, we can do 88 mph without a care in the world So then why did I get done at 86 mph three weeks ago P.S. Yes, I'm being silly. By the way, the most innacurate speedometer ever measured by What Car ? magazine was a 1983 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit which was 11% fast at 70mph ! I have no idea why I remember this stuff !!!

So your saying your making enough profit on this deal to "invest the excess in property" !!! Do you want a job, I could use a new salesman ;-)

The driveability thing is a very good point. I've had literally dozens of Supras in all stages of tune. Once you get much past a genuine 400-ish bhp they start to become a bit of a handful, especially in the wet. The standard traction control is quite slow to kick in and you can easily have the car half way through a hedge before it tries to help you out. I had one running a big Single and claiming 550bhp and it was mighty quick when it found grip but it was a total liability on the twisties. They are much better to drive on twisty roads with a fair bit less power. A standard Uk Supra ( ie Twin Turbo ) is quite a bit quicker than a standard Z, especially in the mid range where the Turbos deliver the most benefit but you have to bear in mind the Supra was a £40k car when new - and that was over 10 years ago - so it makes the Z a total bargain ! I'm still hoping Nissan will bring out a 350 bhp Turbo version of the Z because the chassis can handle it...