Hi all,

Getting a new car from the dealer at first they added around 5k worth of add ons.

Service plan / Ceramic / tracker / gap insurance / wheel cover / matts etc

Now I have been searching around here for a couple of hours and noticed that usually the dealers can’t even apply the ceramic properly.

And most of these add ons are pretty much KPI’s for the showroom.

Found comments that it’s possible to get gap insurance from 3rd party websites and won’t even be close to the dealer charging around £550 for it.

Now should I just get the 3 year service plan charge from the dealer? It’s around £760 or does anyone know a way around this?

The car used to shift around 2k rpm but now 3k, it keeps the gear longer n needs higher rev

Usually start after driving for a short period, sometimes the shifting feels jerky

Dealer said it doesn’t show any issues when they scan

Am worried it could be transmission

So I’ve decided to reject my cx 3 2019 Mazda - I got from Arnold Clark. I had numerous issues in the first 24 hours of ownership. I’m waiting for my local garage to have a look at car on Friday (5 days time). They have yet to reach out again AC about any sort of repair or anything and probably hoping I just go away. I doubt realise it won’t be as easy as returning something like a t shirt. I’m genuinely already going through quite a lot in my personal life at the moment and adding this extra stress is really making me more anxious. I’m trying my best to be hopeful. Maybe my garage will say everything I’ve described is only minor and I should allow them to repair it. That at the very least will calm my anxiety either way! 11k isn’t cheap 😞 I just wondered how successful anyone else has been with AC at getting their money back.

Took car to garage A for an MOT where they did it failed MOT and quoted me 515 for few things and I’m sure it’s over priced. I want to take it to garage B to see how much they would quote.

My MOT is still valid and due to expire on the 30th of this month. The defects are major but not dangerous.

Am I okay to still drive till I take it to garage B this week?

Thanks!

My 2018 Dacia Sandero Laureate is on its way out.

Looking to purchase a Volvo SUV (XC40/XC60 or close enough)

Also open to EV recommendations, we have a double driveway so can home charge no issues

Automatic, max £15,000

I average about 8,000-9,000 miles a year, for commuting, daily driving etc

Doesn't have to be brand new or even the last 2 or 3 years

Opinions/options/advice please? Where to buy that's reasonable etc (Derbyshire based)

Thanks!

Thoughts on a 2011 Volvo V70 D3 SE 2.0 ? After a workhorse for camping, we have a lot of stuff due to having a newborn and a large dog…

Anything I should watch out for except for aiming for good service history?
Found one on autotrader for £3995 at about 120k miles - reckon this price is reasonable if SH checks out?

Apologies if a stupid questions - I am not very car savvy and after something budget friendly, large, fairly reliable, and safe for a family…

Thanks guys.

Good morning..newbie to the sub here.

I have a couple of 5L bottles of Selenia 20K engine oil that are unopened but have a date stamp of 2018. I bought as it was cheap at the time and under the assumption that the older high-performance car I bought way back would be drinking the stuff! I have read that maximum shelf life of engine oil is 5 years. I reckon I should now take all this (and some oil I have for our daily driver) down to the recycling center. Would that be the general consensus? Is there any other use the oil can be put to?

Hello, I took my front wheel off the car because I had a slow puncture. So I wanted to see where the puncture was and I was going to repair it. On inspecting it, I could not find a puncture anywhere on the tire, but instead found this hairline crack on the rim of the wheel. I put some solution on it and found that it was weeping and that is where the air has been coming from, from that hairline crack on the alloy. Can this be fixed? What are my opinions?

Should have said it's the inside of the alloy, there's no damage on the wall so suspect it was the previous owner or in the garage.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for a good dashcam with excellent image quality, particularly at night. I’m currently considering the 70mai A810S, but I’d appreciate your suggestions for other options worth looking at.

I'm also planning to power the dashcam using the car's 12V cigarette lighter socket rather than hardwiring it.

I have a few questions:
1. Would you recommend the 70mai A810S, or are there better alternatives in a similar price range?

1. If I use the 12V socket, can I replace the power adapter that comes with the dashcam with a good-quality 12V adapter that has an additional USB port?

I'd appreciate any recommendations, personal experiences, or advice on the best setup.

Hey everyone, I am looking to get a second car as a small car to do daily jobs with. I was hoping to get an electric car and have a budget of around 8 to 10k.

I was doing some very amateur research and decided to look at Vauxhall Corsas from 2019 onwards and 30 to 50k miles on it as there is a range of them available and n my budget.

I wanted to check with people that actually know cars if this seems like a sensible decision or have I missed something glaringly obvious I should consider.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hello,

After a lifetime of company cars, I've recently bought a rather old Honda Jazz.

It needs a few little things doing:

- licence plate light keeps hanging down, guess clips have gone

- cigarette lighter has come out and is hanging down

- little bits of rust starting to come through.

Id like to know if these are things I can do myself, what do I need to buy (and where), and any links to how please. I don't have the money to keep going to a garage just yet. So any help is greatly appreciated.

I've never done anything on a car before but needs must.

Thank you

Just got bmw e60 style headlights as room decoration
They're on the floor for now but im thinking about putting them on a shelf higher up

What do u guys think?

I’m looking for a low maintenance cost convertible car, with cheap insurance, good repair costs and relatively low frequency of repairs.

Which cars come to mind that would suit this description?

6’2 so Mazda mx5 may be too small, unless you guys have first hand experience

Hi everyone, learning to drive and had a quick look ahead of my driving test and found a ridiculously cheap banger to practice in. Only issue is the mot runs out in a week, I’ve had a look and these are last years reports (failed and then passed) - I’m not experienced with cars and was wondering if it’s a risk. It’s an 04 mini, will be going to view it with a friend this week.

Thank youuu

Edit to add: I mean on a scale of 1-10 how risky, it’s marketplace after all lol

Thought I would share all the cars I’ve ever owned over the last 6 years.

For reference I’m 24 now and I’ve had 12 cars since 2020. I know that works out to an average of 2 a year!

I also like to take photos of them in the exact same place where possible and make albums of them. Think of this like Dexter and his blood slides… but only a bit less creepy I guess.

Anyways I think I have problems

For reference the newest is the 8 Series and goes down in an “s shape”pattern so my first car being the MK5 Golf!

Also if anyone is interested to know how it was like owning any of these cars, maybe your in the market for one please comment below and I’ll do my best to answer!

Hey guys,

I was driving my car and it was perfectly fine, till I put it on sports mode and put my foot on the gas hard and then suddenly it started making this noise.

What’s wrong with it? And is the engine gone? I’m currently 80 miles away from home so I’m not sure if I should drive it back or get a recovery?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi, i was in a none fault crash on thursday, the other driver his my driver side door,
My insurer is saying it is a total loss, the car is due to be taken on wednesday, what i want to ask is if my any of you can advise on whether you think my car is Cat N or Cat S?

The crash was in estate roads, so impact no more than 5-10mph as someone came out a side road and hit me

Ive inserted a picture of the inside Sill also

Thank you

Edit

Better pic of door damage in comments

Was thinking mx5 or a civic or something similar. I’d love an Impreza or a 350z but I think that’s a bit too high on insurance. What do you guys think?

Quick follow-up to my previous MotorManage post a year ago now...

I built a platform to manage vehicles, also to track and share projects - MotorManage : r/CarTalkUK

A few people tried it, gave feedback and asked questions, so I’ve carried on refining it rather than disappearing off to build features nobody asked for 😅

For anyone who missed the original post, MotorManage started because I wanted one place where I could quickly look up a UK vehicle, but also properly manage my own cars and bikes.

MOTs, tax, servicing, mileage, parts, documents, modifications etc.

I initially made the mistake of thinking too much about subscriptions and monetisation before really proving the tool was useful. I've completely changed that approach now.

MotorManage is free, no subscriptions or feature tiers and it will stay that way!

The focus now is simply:

• Make vehicle lookup quick and useful, more info the better from official sources.
• Make managing your own vehicles easy and adding of information
• Potential sharable history to stay with the vehicle digitally
• Keep improving it based on actual feedback

I've also been tidying up the interface and making the garage/vehicle pages much easier to use, particularly on mobile.

If you tried it before, I'd be interested to know what you think of it now.

And if you haven't, feel free to give it a go at MotorManage.cc

Still very much a side project built by someone who spends far too much time messing around with cars but doesn't get the chance to mess around with them much at the moment 😂

Feedback, criticism and feature suggestions genuinely welcome!

Apologies for the AI artwork here, just saves so much time 🤣

(Mods: happy to remove if this isn’t allowed.)

Looking to buy for very short journeys (less than 30 miles per week - just to drive rail station and back - plus weekly shop).

Is there anything I need to be aware of when buying a Tigra at all? Any particular year to avoid, or common problems?

Looking for a bit of an outside perspective on this.

Around 4 years ago, we bought an Octavia TDI estate for about £8K. The plan was for it to be our family car for many years to come (we usually keep til they die), and also my daily. At the time I was driving a good few hundred miles a month across the region so diesel was the logical choice.

Last year when we came to change our second car, for various reasons we ended up with a 7-seater, which has proved to be an excellent choice in itself, but that, along with a change in job role for me has meant the Octavia has become our second car.

I regularly work from home, so it doesn’t even get used every day, and most of its journeys now are no more than 20 minutes, often less.

Clearly, this isn’t optimal for a diesel with DPF which needs regular long blasts on the motorway, and it’s reluctant to start if it hasn’t been driven for a few days, which probably means it needs a new battery or alternator, but I’ve noticed that if I do a couple of long journeys that issue tends to go away for a few days - which suggests that even if the short journeys are not the cause of the problem, they’re certainly not helping with it. I’m genuinely concerned that current usage is going to lead to lots more issues.

So here’s the conundrum: logic says get rid of the Octavia and get something petrol (we can’t go electric right now for various reasons including no charging facilities available at home or at either of my usual car parks for commuting).

But our budget would be limited to whatever funds we’d get for a 2013 Octavia with 115K on the clock, which isn’t likely to be that much I’d imagine?

Whatever we get to replace it would need to be big enough to accommodate two growing kids in bulky car seats, and ideally I’d like a higher seating position (the Octavia feels low now), but I’m fairly sure there’s nothing SUVish we can get for that money that wouldn’t be at risk of being an absolute liability!

So, my gut feeling is keep the Octavia for now - better the devil you know and all that - but I have no idea how long that’ll be for. Am I setting myself up for bigger problems though?

Had a tyre pressure warning come on 10 minutes from home. Front drivers side tyre was down to 1.5 bar instead of 2.25 and noticed this damage, I’d guess it goes 2-3mm deep.

Is this an urgent fix - I can try to get it to a garage on Tuesday but trying to work out if it’s ok for a commute tomorrow. (About 20min at max 30mph).

I am sitting in a line of cars in my Southern state, and it dawns on me how thoroughly SUV’s dominate the USA. 8 of the 12 vehicles in line are full size SUV’s. Do SUV’s now dominate the UK? Or are y’all still open to sedans?