johnjohnhealy

There is a reason why Avensis' are so unreliable, and sadly it's because they are built in england. The Prius for example, which is made in japan, is very reliable!

Probably not over that period, as the majority would be covered by warranty, the difference is, the merc will do 500,000 miles without having any serious problems, and possibly a lot more, the Skoda (just like Fords/Vauxhalls etc) will be knackered by 200,000 miles, so you keep the Merc over a much longer period, and in the end, it pays for itself. Although at taxi driver prices, a C class isn't that much more than a well specced Octavia anyway! Well that depends if you trust the companies who put these surveys together, based on my own experience (which is quite comprehensive to be fair), I feel something is wrong with these surveys as they dont seem to ring true, wether it's down to peoples expectations of certain brands or not I dont know.

I own a cab fleet of 134 cars currently, and my experience proves as far as I'm concerned, that these reliability index's are simply complete crap! For example, take the toyota Avensis - suprisingly the most unreliable cars on the fleet. And mercedes which are meant to be unreliable, never go wrong. Mk1 Octavia was very reliable apart from SDI gearboxes and a couple of electrical issues, MK11 Octavia is very unreliable. These are facts, I have all the historys of the vehicles to prove it too.

But when the Golf MK II was a new car it didn't have a 250*bhp Audi Turbo engine in it! *at least!! Seriously, the single most important thing to getting the power down onto the road is your tyres, all the diffs and boost controlers in the world wont help if you have no grip, after spending all the money/time/effort in doing the car right, dont scrimp on the tyres, you'll regret it! I speak from experience, my supercharged SD1 just sits on the spot smoking the tyres if I have unbranded things like that on!

Lol, you'll need better tyres than that if you want to go in a straight line!! They'll never put all that power on the road, except in a line of black rubber and smoke!

Just a couple of points regarding Bluefin(I've got it on my ST). The maps can be modified by Superchips to take into account any further modifications you make to your car such as exhaust/air filter, they do this by downloading the new map to your bluefin device through your computers USB port, so you can do it all yourself from the comfort of your own home, the instructions are included with the bluefin on the supplied software disc or on the website once you register your handset, you just send them the map you want modified from the handset and in a couple of days you get it back. Once you have installed bluefin on your car, it will only ever work on that specific vehicle, it locks itself to the vehicles ECU so you cannot un-install it then sell it on, Superchips will unlock the handset so you can sell it, but they charge £250 for the privilege. Also worth looking into is dreamscience, they are doing some fantastic maps on Fords, and their hanset gives you 5 lives so you can sell it on if you remove the map from your car (unless your the handsets 5th owner!), they are currently very highly regarded in Ford circles but I dont know if they do Skoda yet (they are always looking for develoment cars though!).

You'll be suprised how well it will put down the power, your building it properly which is unusual with these! A mate of mine has a good one too, built properly but meant to look like a knackered old golf so doesn't have the attention to detail bodywork wise that yours has, he posted an 8min 50 sec BTG lap on the Nurburgring after only a few laps!

I have to drive a diesel for work, no one in there right mind would ever compare the sound of any diesel engine to that of a decent petrol one. I've owned, and still do own a few glorious sounding cars, for example - Alfa 1.5 boxer on webber carbs, Alfa GTV6, Supercharged Rover V8 on carbs, Honda VTEC, Subaru 2.0 turbo boxer. These are the cars that make you turn the stereo off, and wind the window down in a tunnel, my Mondeo would wipe the floor with most of the above in terms of performance/economy/comfort etc, but I never turn the stereo down or open the windows in tunnels.

I still want first dibs on it when you sell it! That or you got to build me a proper one too, too many of them are not built properly!!

I have both Audi's and BMW's as well, I cant knock them either, no real problems with either, except the Audi's share a few common VAG faults with Skoda which is a total joke, but then the Audi dealers are about as good as dealers get. The Jags compare very well with both, and are actually cheaper once you spec the Audi and BMW up to the same level, so yes I do believe the Jags are good value.

Obviously not driven any Jags recently then! I've got an X-type 2.0D sport and a couple of S-type 2.7d's and they are fantastic, very well built, reliable, fantastic warranty and dealer service and well worth the money, lets hope Tata dont f*$k it up!

Except that they cant actually build it for less than £5000 so if they do sell for £1300 they will be making an impressive loss! My next car was due to be an XF but i'll have to think very carefully before I buy one now, in particular i'd be worried about any cost cutting measures to either the vehicle, the dealers, or the warranty. all of which is currently brilliant on Jags.

You kinda expect that on Saxo's and other such pathetic shopping cars driven by Burberry wearing idiots in baseball caps, but on a Crosfire? no. (not that they are any good of course). There is a guy near me who has ruined his new Range Rover Sport by adding 6 big pipes on it, it does sound good I have to say, but it just looks naff.

Problem with the N96 is it's not very different to the N95, it doesn't have a touch screen (it's the latest thing you know!) and it'll be about ten years before it's available on 3.

Oh, does anyone know if you can watch TV on o2? I can watch nickelodeon etc on 3, just wondering if o2 provide a similar service?

I never knew they had removed the Micro SD slot on the 8GB version, thats that one definately out the window then! Oh I didn't realise that, whats the other one like, the 02 XDA Orbit 2? is it not as good as the stellar? it looks a bit nicer, how much bigger are they than a normal phone? I had a HTC phone before once, on Orange before I moved and didn't get on with Windows Mobile, it was annoyingly buggy, have they sorted it yet?

I'm sure you'll get itchy feet after a few months! make sure you let me know first as I did ask first lol.

Well I'm looking for something that equals or betters the N95, The HTC Tytn II is not available on 3 or o2 so thats out, I dont really like the look of the K850i and I dont like the square direction button. The 6500 is quite a step down from the N95 so thats out for me too. I do like the W910i but it's only got a 2mp camera so again thats out. There really is only a limited few phones that match the N95, and none of them have GPS (although it is cr@p so dont ever really use it), the LG Viewty again is one of a couple that match up, but I dont know if it's any good or not? Looked at a couple of magazines in Tesco earlier, there are some nice phones due out (Garmin Nuviphone looks good among others!) but not till autumn and I cant wait that long!! Just wish Apple would sort the iphone out with some decent specs as otherwise I loved it when I played in the shop!

Well it's that time of the year again where I get a new toy to play with. Problem is, I have an N95 and there isn't much apart from the N95 8GB thats any better, the 8GB is the obvous path but I'm bored of the N95 already and it isn't different enough. The only 2 networks I can consider are 3 mobile or 02 as no other networks work where I live. Anyone got any suggestions on which phone I should go for? prefer to stay with 3 as the mobile TV service is good, but I love the look/feel of the Apple iphone, however until it comes with a decent camera and 3g internet it's a definate no, any news on a better iphone being released anytime soon? Other than that, the only phone I can see that matches most of the N95's camera etc is the LG Viewty, I've had LG before and liked it, but I'm not sure about the Viewty, especially as it's already been about for a while, anyone experienced it? Any suggestions welcome, never been a Sony Erricson Fan but it's been a few years since my last and maybe they are better?

So, how much are you going to want for it when it's finished?

Both the ones I played in had a mechanical handbrake, it was a big U shaped affair, but definately not electric. One of my mates has a Zafira VXR, and yes, it is very quick, it eats tyres in 6k however and that includes the rears!! it's not a particularly good handler either and my Mondeo ST runs rings around it! They dont make one though, or I'd probably trade in for one!

They are very nice, been in a couple now and always impressed by the interior space, it's a Ford too so it will be reliable (trust me I run loads on the cab fleet). The police have a couple round my way too.

I run my Mondeo ST as a cab and am also getting p*ssed of at the cost of fuel. Anyone know if you can run the mk1 Octy SDi on veg oil? it must be a pretty basic engine, no turbo or anything. I'd seriously consider it at the moment!

I've been to a launch event at Jaguars invitation and - I love it, it looks absolutely awesome. The 2.7d was fantastic to drive, the gimicky gearbox was actually very simple and intuitive to use, and as for the big V8 beast - Wow.

See, that above pic just shows why the americans cant generaly build decent cars anymore (yes I realise i'm contradicting my 300c statement). The aerial is cheap, the wheel/tyre combo is cheap, the black plastic mirror is cheap, the hole in the front lower grille is cheap, the rubbing strip on the door is cheap, the black plastic sill cover is cheap, the suspension is too high etc etc. I could go on but I wont, the Americans have never been known for making 'good' cars, but at least some of them used to at least look good! They should enlist the help of guys like Chip Foose and Boyd Coddington (RIP) when designing cars, as it's obvious the corporate designers aren't up to it!