I have listed my BMW 540i 2017 G30 B58 62k miles on autotrader at £22k initially then all the way down to £18k and still not a single person interested even being the lowest in the UK at that point, its not tuned got service history of all maintenance done etc im not understanding what I'm doing wrong, is it the fuel prices? The auto trader listing has now ended i tried ebay Facebook and gumtree too not a single interest in 3 weeks!! But i see other listings on auto trader for 19k and more and they selling ofc they are garages. Any advice? Motor moolah has given £16.8k but i think im just quick selling at that point?

[Update] I won't be able to respond to all messages but i will read them all thank you very much for making me understand the market better and giving tons of new knowledge on the car market. Directly message me if you have any questions..

Hey guys! I wasn’t entirely sure which community that would be able to help me, but I’m really struggling with these flies. I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks these flies being glued to my car constantly, but I don’t know why? They’re constantly flying above the car, then some of them just stick to the car. I try to swat them away, but they don’t seem to care about me trying to get them off because they land straight back on it. I’m starting to worry that they’re damaging the car, and I need some advice on what I can do as I’m not too clued up on cars.

Does Sunday just remove brain cells from people or something ? The roads must lose atleast 20% brain power when it’s Sunday because some people just don’t know how to act lol.

In reality i assume its just becuase people who don’t drive a lot, come out and all somehow all collectively need to do their weekly shop at the exact same time so it becomes a cesspit of unaware driving. Idk if its just a London thing but yeah its something that irks me

As per this update to the MOT regulations:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mot-special-notice-05-26-approved-led-replacement-bulbs-in-halogen-headlamps/mot-special-notice-05-26-approved-led-replacement-bulbs-in-halogen-headlamps

LED replacement bulbs with UNECE "E-Marks" are now approved for use in older cars.

---

I haven't been able to track down a supplier of such bulbs yet, but would like to.

My Landy is old enough (pre '83) to be exempt from the E-Marking requirements, so was always able to run retrofit LED's and I have had good results with the Warm White one's sold by Classic Car LED's... Unfortunately as yet their bulbs aren't E-marked though.

Now I legally can, I'll be upgrading the Volvo too when, as the extra luminous intensity makes a huge difference to not getting dazzled by the equally bright lights of oncoming traffic... But I do want warm white again because the extremely white/almost blue colour of modern LED's is just bloody unpleasant.

I’m 19 (turning 20 in December) and looking to upgrade from my Vauxhall Corsa D 1.3 CDTI, which has 135k miles on the clock and a worrying amount of knocks and bangs. It’s also developed an issue where it sometimes needs a few hours to cool down before it’ll start again, so I’m not particularly confident in its long-term reliability.

I’ve been into cars for as long as I can remember, and I’m sick of only having a Corsa to drive to and from work. I’m a solicitor apprentice earning around £1,450 take-home per month, with roughly £5k–£6k saved that I could put towards a car.

I’m torn between buying something older outright for around £5k or using that money as a deposit to finance something newer and a bit more exciting. The cars I’ve been considering are:

BMW E85 Z4 3.0i — around £5,500 outright
Audi A5 F5 2.0 TFSI — roughly £120–£150/month on HP
Mercedes C-Class W205 C200
BMW F30 320i
BMW F32 420i/420dt

For the newer cars, I’d be looking at putting down around £5k and financing the remainder over four years. Obviously, I’d also need to factor in insurance, fuel, servicing and repairs on top of the monthly payment.

My commute is around 20 minutes each way, including some motorway driving, so I’m not doing huge mileage. I’m leaning towards petrol, although I’m open to diesel if there’s a good reason to consider it. I’m also much more interested in saloons, coupes and roadsters than newer hatchbacks, and insurance quotes have made some of the hatchback options surprisingly unattractive.

I’m trying to strike a balance between getting something I genuinely enjoy driving and not making a stupid financial decision this early in my career. I don’t want to spend all my savings on an older car only for it to need thousands in repairs, but I also don’t want to commit to finance on a car I can’t comfortably afford to run.

Am I being daft considering finance at my age and income, or could a sensible deal be justified? Would you buy something outright for £5k, or put that money down on a newer car? And are any of the cars I’ve listed particularly good or bad choices in terms of reliability, running costs and value for money?
I’d appreciate honest advice, including suggestions for alternatives I might have overlooked.

TL;DR: 19yo earning £1,450/month with £5k–£6k saved. Buy a £5k car outright or use it as a deposit to finance something nicer? Looking for honest advice and suggestions.

So, I am currently looking for a new car to replace my Astra 2.0 diesel. I am currently working for a fast food place and since the diesel price has shot up recently it no longer makes financial sense to keep using the car I already have. I dread every delivery because I know they won't pay me enough to cover the diesel I am using.

I have been looking for smaller engined petrol cars and I worked out that I can save between £10 - £20 per week by switching to a petrol car with similar mpg. I have seen a couple of Astra GTC's in my price range, but I juat wanted to know if its a sensible choice or not. By the way I only drive automatics so my choice is limited.

How do you hit a car with a meter gap in between each bay?!

Car got hit and run today whilst I was having a Chinese at Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall. No details were left, parked in the car park opposite M&S in a disabled bay.

P*ssed off as I’ve had this car for 3 weeks. Driven for 5 years never had this happen before. Spent over two hours in the car park in shock about what happened and attempting to call Parking Eye LTD / the insurance. (Saturday evening - only automated robots to speak with) Now I’ve got a £100 PCN on the way in the post too for ‘parking’ to long. Hopefully I can appeal that.

Currently regretting speaking with the insurance after researching my premium will go up.

There are cameras all over the car park whether or not the police can get the footage we will see.

Asked for a few SMART repair quotes waiting to hear back, heading to a few body shops tomorrow morning.

Worst part about this is my colleagues at work all asking me “who did you hit with your new car” ffs can’t be arsed explaining it.

Having a bad day so I’m venting on Reddit.

Was looking at cars and noticed that the Nissan pulsar 1.6 DIG-T has the same engine as the Clio RS 200, just slightly detuned. I reckon if you put a stage 1 remap on it the car would go like the clappers and everyone would think you're driving a grandad Nissan on the outside. Also helps that its only 1.1k to insure for me vs a Clio RS 200 that is £1660 to insure.

Another car that comes to mind is the F20 BMW 114/116/118i, these have the exact same engine as the R56 Mini Cooper S but detuned, if you get them remapped you can easily get 200+hp on them. The reliability is not great on those engines though.

What other cars are factory or very easy to modify sleepers?

Looking to get a new car and the 1.8 Audi TT TFSI is particularly attractive. Other than people calling you a hairdresser amongst other names, Is it worth it?

It’s super fast for what it is, I’m mainly worried about reliability. If anyone knows anything about them, has one or has had one please let me know. Thanks :)

I'm currently looking at buying a used A4 or A5 from around 2017, 2.0TFSI. I've heard mixed opinions on the S Tronic and I was wondering whether anyone had been experiencing any issues in general. I was speaking to my dad about this; he used to have an A5 with the S Tronic and he said it was horrendously hesitant eg. he'd put his foot down at a roundabout to go and there was no power.... Is this a common thing?

Hello everyone, recently I’ve been looking into getting an aftermarket air filter for my car (Audi a3) and as I was looking I came across these filters I was just wondering what a “ turbo elbow” is and if it’s worth the £100 more. tia

Today I’ve started hearing a low grinding sound whenever I’m braking at low speed in my car. I suspect it’s the front and rear pads as I can see they’re getting low. How do the brake discs look? Is it worth me getting them replaced too or just stick to the pads for now?

2008/2009 Focus 1.6 TDCI (66 kW/90 hp version); 160k miles.

Engine is entirely original save for fluids filters waterpump belts and tensioners and PCV back in 2020 at 110k miles. And the intercooler/radiator but courtesy of a deer rather than wear and tear.

What do you check before throwing a set of injectors at it?

Running like even more of a bag of bolts than it did when I bought it six years ago; down on power; and smoking. Acrid white diesel on startup. Getting worse as it gets colder out. Grey black haze when hot and under load. Now problematically so.

Runs in 3? cylinders when cold at idle. 4th comes to life only at a fast idle.

Pulling injector plugs (after waving a piece of paper around to sanity check nothing untoward pishing from pipework) from 4 (left) to 1 (right) with engine warm but not stinking hot and air at +10 degC gives:

4 - moderate impact on isle

3 - big impact on idle

2 - no impact whatsoever on idle

1 - moderate impact on idle

Breather hose and turbo inlet oily but not horribly so. Doesn't huff and puff from the oil filler cap particularly.

Do these have a habit of burning pistons or valves? Is this typical of a shagged injector?

I loathe to remove the injectors to compression test it as removing and reseating those will be drama.

I don’t mind dropping £yes on injectors for it but don’t want to do this if the engine is likely toast in other ways.

Replacing the car I’ve tried…but the we both like how this one eats cargo whilst still being a piece of piss to park…and the wife likes the courtesy afforded to her in traffic by her face saying she can afford to destroy it in the same of right of way and it already having rounded corners and being covered in top to bottom in “couldn’t care less“ making this more obvious.

The shed in question:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Hu6BTI8E51A?is=MK1XtO-Y_CJwyDZ7

https://youtube.com/shorts/x3OE72q9EH0?is=IUvCTJMOjZWk9NNX

I test drove this car in 2019 and thought it was amazing. Now I can get one for 25K - what do people think? Are there major potential costs and how is reliability.

I've been driving a few months, after passing I got onto the motorway pretty much the day after, however I'm still unsure on the right way to travel on them as I've been doing it on my own.

Currently I do this:

Merge from the slip road into the left lane, hit 70mph - lorry ahead, move to middle lane. I see that there's a line of cars/lorry's in the left lane moving at 50/60, so I stay in the middle lane until there's a large gap and move back into the left lane. Sometimes cars are going slower than 70 in the middle lane, move to the next lane to overtake and move back to the middle/left when possible.

Is this correct? I find that most of the time I'm in the middle lane waiting for a gap to get back into the left lane, but there's a lot of discussion online about drivers hogging the middle lane. Am I hogging the middle lane when most in the left lane are driving 50/60 - there's been times where I've been driving for miles at a time in the middle lane with no reason to merge back because I'd just be overtaking again pretty much straight away.

Looking for advice on where I stand with Vauxhall after what feels like a complete mess with two recalls on my 2021 Grandland X 1.5 Turbo.

In June, I received a letter about a camshaft drive chain recall and booked my car into an authorised Vauxhall garage for 18 September. During booking, they also advised of an emissions recall relating to high urea pressure. I specifically told them my emissions warning light was already on, and they said it could be related.

The garage kept my car for two days. They replaced my tyres and a headlight, but also claimed I had a major oil leak that needed fixing before I could drive away. They subsequently let me take the car home without fixing it. My independent garage later couldn't find an oil leak.

When collecting the car, Vauxhall told me both recalls had been completed, despite the emissions warning light still being on.

About a week later, the emissions fault developed into a countdown showing 700 miles until the car wouldn't start. Two AdBlue specialists advised that the ECU was locked out, preventing repairs.

We were due to drive to France on 5 October, so we had to hire a car at considerable expense. The warning light eventually disappeared, but when I got the car valued, the trader told me the emissions recall was still showing as active.

On 17 October, my car finally refused to start.

A specialist has now advised that no ECU or emissions work was completed during the recall appointment. They also identified dangerously high DPF soot levels, potentially creating a fire risk.

I'm now facing a £350 DPF clean, with no guarantee it'll work because of the ECU lockout.

I have paperwork confirming both recalls were completed, so I'm seriously concerned about what actually happened.

My questions are:

- Can I get Vauxhall to cover the repair costs if the recall wasn't completed properly?

- Is there any chance of recovering the rental car costs?

- Should I let the original garage investigate, or insist Vauxhall gets involved first?

- Is it worth contacting the Motor Ombudsman or pursuing this further?

This is our only family car, and being without it is causing significant problems with work and childcare. I'm planning to make a formal complaint, but I'd appreciate advice on my rights and the best way to approach this.

Has anyone experienced similar issues with Vauxhall's AdBlue/emissions recall, or successfully challenged a manufacturer over poorly handled recall work?

Thanks in advance!

I don’t know much about cars at all, so I would like some advice about how to identify potential problems when viewing a used car. Any help would be appreciated.

I’m looking at buying a 2.2 64 plate Hyundai Santa Fe. It’s around 105,000 miles. Are these reliable enough? The service history is good. I had a look at it today and apart from some surface rust below and a leaking shock absorber it seems good.

I’ve never owned a Hyundai before so I’m not sure how reliable they are.

I’m after something that can tow 2t if anybody has any other recommendations?

Hi all. Looking for some thoughts from knowledgeable Octavia experts / owners. Went to look at and test drive a low mileage 2008 car with the 1.9 TDi engine and DSG gearbox.

1. Between about 40 mph and 50 mph it had a really awful low pitch droning noise that went right throw me. It wasn't a mechanical noise; it was more like road, intake or harmonic noise, or something like that. Is this normal for these? Any idea what it might be and whether it's fixable?

2. I found the A posts really got in the way at junctions, particularly the nearside; I was stopped at a set of lights on a roundabout and I really had to dodge my head around when the lights went green to make sure the way was clear. Is that typical at junctions for certain seating positions? Obviously the posts are where they are, just trying to understand whether it's problem for everyday use.

3. I think I had a couple of DSG moments, or the DSG was behaving oddly. The first was at the same set of lights I stopped and put the handbrake on at idle with the car in gear, as I might with a fluid flywheel auto, and took my foot off the brake. The car immediately tried to drive forward, dragging the handbrake. The second was parking it again on a very slight uphill; I tried to trickle the car forward but it wanted to jump. The acceleration also seemed a bit abrupt; moving away it was as if the clutch slipped for a bit then gripped suddenly so there was not exactly a thump, but it certainly wasn't smooth.

Just want to know whether this is typical before I bother looking at others.

Hi all, I’ve had an issue with my Astra GTC in that the front near side wheel makes a high pitch squeal after a driving a substantial distance, (see video).
I took the wheel and calliper off yesterday but couldn’t see anything apparent.

The sound goes away whilst braking and is loudest/clearest when turning steering wheel to the right. I also could feel a bit of heat from the brake disc when inspecting after a relatively long drive, but I am limiting my driving distance until I manage to fix it.

I’ve read that it could be a stone or rock stuck in the brake rotor

Trying to learn more about my car generally so would appreciate any advice.

Thanks in advance 😁😁

hi, I just passed my driving test recently - I’m 19 for reference. I want to come on here to ask for any car recommendations, as I will be travelling from London to Surrey via motorway 5 days a week (which is about 80 miles a day). My budget is also about 2-3 thousand.

Thanks.