Senior Citizens 'reasoning' (for new car)

[rwb]

Is it just that we want new cars

Guilty as charged.
Well, I wanted something faster, and a change.

its false economy to sell a car unless its fubard

this ^^

Is it that people would rather cough up in the hope that they don't have to take responsibility for running and maintaining such a very complicated piece of machinery? Drivers who think of a car as an appliance?

[mjb]

All my cars have been more powerful than the last, apart from the Golf TDI (I thought it'd save money on fuel over a 3yr period, but it really couldn't deliver the required mpg) and the 406 v6 saloon to v6 coupé change, because damn that coupé was good looking. All cheap cars too (the golf and bimmer being the only cars over £1000, yet they were still under £3000)

The wife's just gone from poverty spec 406 hdi90 to c5 hdi136 "exclusive" (exec equivalent). Both bargain bucket cars


Good upgrades

[GingerMagic]

Hmmmm, me too. I feel I have progressed through the car classes quite well.
I guess my next step from my 406 now that I'm getting on a bit is either a Volvo or a brown Mondeo......

[KozmoNaut]

C4 1.6D

While the C4 is a wonderful car to drive, and the 1.6 HDI is a gutsy little engine, it has a severe design flaw, and I'm not sure if an official fix has been made yet.

The oil feed line to the turbo goes through a banjo bolt, which incorporates a tiny metal mesh filter. This is meant to prevent any particulates in the oil from reaching the turbo and fouling the bearing. This is not a design flaw in itself, but unfortunately, the oil pan is designed in such a way that not all of the oil in the pan is extracted during a normal oil change. The drain hole simply isn't at the lowest point. This leaves a significant amount of particulates in the oil, which will clog the banjo bolt filter over time and starve the turbo of oil.

The solution to this is to drop and clean the oil pan on every oil change, which is obviously both expensive and time-consuming. The alternative is to fit an oil pan with a better design. I don't know what the situation is in the UK, but in Scandinavia, the Mekonomen service chain have marketed a redesigned oil pan that solved the problem. Another cheaper solution is to remove the filter from the banjo bolt, at the risk of shortening the life of the turbo.

[Welly]

Interesting stuff Kozmo and again something very simple.