Bear with me, this is going to be a wordy post…

After my whole issue with the Passat over the last 14 months, enough was enough and it was time to start looking for something else. There is lots to think about when looking for a new car, and one of the biggest is your budget. Part of the problem for me is that the Passat isn’t paid off yet, I still have over £1200 to pay on it. That said, I could pay it off any time, but of course that then immediately leaves me with that amount less in my bank account.

Remaining payments aside, I had to work out how much I could reasonably spend without looking into a new finance deal. This figure came out pretty small. After paying off the Passat. which I have to do before I can sell/part exchange it, I would be left with about £1000 to spend on a car, plus the (likely) £2000 the Passat is worth, so call it £3000. To get something decent for that would be a struggle.

Originally I was looking at a Ford Focus 1.6TDCi, 2010. It was £8000 or so. It’s a nice car, but after a test drive I wasn’t so sure if I liked the engine as it seemed a bit under powered. For that reason I hesitated and needed to put more thought into it. A few days later I suddenly thought to myself, “why am I thinking of spending so much money on a car?”. It’s a good question. Is it really worth spending that much on a car? I decided it probably wasn’t so that idea got scrapped pretty quickly.

So what now? I set about looking at what I could get reasonably. The first car to spring to mind was something I had owned before, a Peugeot 306. I knew them well, I knew they were reliable and not particularly uncomfortable (I’ll get back to this bit). I had a look on Auto Trader and there were a few to look at. I made some phone calls the next day and managed to arrange to go and look at one.

It was a 2001 306 HDi, the electronic version of the engine. Surely a big mistake but when I got there it wasn’t an opportunity I could dismiss. It was £900, a bargain really considering its condition. I snapped it up on the spot and the next day I picked it up. It needed a little TLC in the form of one new tyre and the injector lines needed tightening, but besides that it was in good shape. I couldn’t get those fixed until the weekend so I kept driving the Passat.

It took a few days to get the injectors right and in that time I drove it a fair number of miles. Every time I drove it I just kept thinking “I don’t like this”. It took me a while to figure out what it was, but I realised that I missed the luxury of the Passat. In comparison the Passat is a dream to drive. It’s smooth, comfortable, quiet, doesn’t rattle or squeak, etc (even if it is unreliable). I mentioned it to my friends and one replied saying it’s because I had driven a cruising car and I would find it very hard to go back. He was dead right. I just couldn’t see myself going back to a smaller more uncomfortable car, even though I’d owned the same car twice before.

What have I done with the 306 then? Nothing. It’s fixed, but it’s just sat outside the house not getting used, so I’ve offered it to my Mum to drive while I wait for the V5 document to arrive so I can sell it, but that’s a few weeks away. It’s not a big loss though. I’ve spent £35 on it since I got it on a tyre and fuel. Fixing the injectors was free besides the time. I will easily be able to make my money back as they are still fairly popular cars if the guy I bought it off is anything to go by. He said the phone never stopped ringing for viewings when he was trying to sell it.

So this outlines how hard it is to find a car. No wait, it’s easy to find a car, but it’s not easy to settle on one. Some people won’t care about some of the things I have as at the end of the day, it drives – it gets you from A to B, and hopefully back to A when you’re done. But I couldn’t get used to it. I still don’t know if it’s just the comfort I missed or if it was something else as well. All I know is that it’s not the right replacement to the Passat and I need to keep looking.

What do I get? That’s the big one playing on my mind, simply because every car has it’s own set of faults. There isn’t a single car in existence that doesn’t have problems and that makes it a difficult choice. I decided 6+ months ago I would never touch another VW, or anything by the VAG group (VW, Audi, Skoda) ever again – first impressions and all (VW didn’t do much to help me either). I’ve thought about Ford considering lots of people in the family have owned Fords without a problem. I’ve also thought Peugeot, but newer than the 306. One friend keeps trying to get me to go Volvo, but again I just don’t know. At the end of the day I think it’s going to be a “choose something you like, look up it’s faults and deal with it” situation. Time will tell, but for now I am keeping the Passat but I don’t know how long for.

I finally got the response from the finance ombudsman earlier today and it was not the news I was hoping for. They rejected the claim on several grounds, including the car’s age, the mileage at purchase and he said he was satisfied reported issues had been sufficiently fixed…

How he could possibly come to this conclusion I will likely never know. There is no point in me appealing as he already has all of the information I can possibly give towards the case.

So here I am now, stuck with a car that is broken, is going to cost me potentially thousands to fix when the clutch and gearbox finally go, and I still have £1,700 to pay on the finance. Selling the car will only get me back about £2,000 part exchange if I’m lucky – so in essence I’ve lost at least £3000 on this piece of crap car.

I thought from the beginning I was at least in with a chance with the finance ombudsman given that they are the governing body for finance, and they are government operated meaning it’s not in their interest to “fix” the outcome of the case. I would have thought they’d be a little more forthcoming especially given all of the evidence supplied. Apparently not.

My advice to everyone is research your future car and be absolutely sure you want to buy it knowing it’s common faults etc before you commit. This is exactly what I will be doing for my next car.

You live and learn.

It occurred to me a few days ago that this issue with my car has been going on for almost 10 months now, and that I will have owned the car 1 year in around 1 month from this post… How you’re probably wondering, has this not been resolved yet? The answer is time wasting by several parties.

I originally opted to reject the car 4-5 months after purchase when I found out I had the right to do so under the sales of goods act. From that point, everything has been slow. The finance company admittedly were fairly quick, organising the report within 2 weeks, but their report took a further 2 weeks to come through and was ultimately pointless because the finance company said no to my rejection request.

I then went to the finance ombudsman and this took weeks to even get rolling. Every time they contacted the finance company it was at least a week before they got a reply from them. When they did finally get the reply it was up to me to wait for the ombudsman’s decision. They kept asking for more details, which is good, because I want them to know the whole story. But the information they had was, in my opinion, more than enough to conclude in my favour (though I would say that, but you should see the evidence for yourself).

So here we are months later and I think we’re finally getting somewhere, and then they ask for another report to be done on the car. In my eyes this will prove nothing because what they want to know is the faults that existed at purchase, but all they can prove now with this test is what faults it has now. In any case, they won’t proceed without it so I have no choice. Thankfully for me, they’re making the finance company pay for it.

That brings me to yet more set backs. I contacted my local garage who got back to me quickly saying they couldn’t help. Fair enough, it was worth a try. They directed me to a local company who could do the reports so I got in touch. That’s where more problems started. They were far from professional. I had to keep chasing e-mails because they weren’t replying, I had to call them to give more details only to be told “oh, well, I’m not sure we can help, let me review the information again…” etc. 3 weeks down the line I’m growing impatient and my last 2 e-mails have gone ignored for over a week. I sent one last e-mail asking them to make a decision or I would go elsewhere. Later that day they said they’d spoken to their MD and they were not able to help me. 3 weeks to be told they couldn’t help me!!! Gah!!!

So now I have to find another local company I did a search and quickly found one. They are just down the road from where I work making it ideal. I sent them an e-mail and an hour later they said they were able to help me. I sent all the information I had and they said they were definitely able to help as they deal with such things all the time. Fantastic! I’ve got a quote off them and it’s been forwarded to the ombudsman who will forward it to the finance company next week for approval. Once I have their approval I can finally get it booked and done. At this rate I might actually have a decision by the end of the month or early March. Fingers crossed!

So what’s to learn from this experience? Well, don’t be so patient if you want things to move quickly. If you’re not getting the answers you’re looking for, move on to someone who will give you them. Oh and don’t buy a VW Passat either…

The title is describing what happened to my car this evening. Yes, another fail-wagon fail. Well, for a short time at least as I got it fixed quite quickly. Let me explain what happened…

I was on my way home from a friends when I turned a corner as normal. As I went round it felt like the car hit something but I thought nothing of it as the roads around here are terrible as it is. As I carried on up the road I put my foot down a bit to speed up when suddenly there was a loud “pop” followed by a very horrible “exhaust has fallen off” gurgles and rumbling. I noticed the lack of power as the turbo was no longer working and the first words to pop into my head were “FFS, now what”. I pulled over to investigate.

Before I even stop my mind has run over possible things it could be. It’s either exhaust related or it’s the intercooler pipes. It only took my about 10 seconds to realise it was an intercooler pipe that had popped off. Not knowing how to go about putting it back on properly I called the friend I had just left to see if he would come and sort it for me. He agreed. The car was still drive-able but the noise coming from it was pretty damn loud! I decided that since it was almost 11pm to take it very easy and keep the noise down.

10 minutes later, my friend turns up. His first words? “The fail-wagon strikes again!”. Yeah, cheers for that. No need to rub it in anymore than you already have previously! Anyway he gets underneath the car to have a look. Some mumbling could be heard from underneath followed by the odd profanity, until eventually he needed tools. We jacked the car up for better access and armed with a screwdriver he managed to put the hose back on in no time. We still don’t know how it managed to come off in the first place so I guess that mystery will likely go unsolved unless it happens again.

Once he had fixed it we went for a quick test drive with lots of flooring it to make sure it wasn’t going to pop off under pressure again. I booted it down the road several times through several gears and it seemed fine. So this time it wasn’t serious and the car could still be driven in it’s “broken” state, albeit with no turbo. And let me tell you, in a car that big you really do need that turbo to move quickly! Without it, it probably has about 70bhp, with it, that doubles to 140bhp and that makes a massive difference. I wouldn’t like to drive on the motorway like that (already did once when I got limp mode, but that’s another story).

So yes, I continue to own this fail-wagon, but hopefully in a month or two I won’t any longer. The whole situation with returning it is progressing, but slowly.

It’s been almost a month since my last blog and a similar amount of time since I contacted the finance company, so here is an update on what has happened since then. Bare with me, it’s a bit wordy.

I opened a complaint around the same time as my last blog and since then I’ve not had great news. The finance company had contacted the dealer and they refused to fix any issues on the car. This is hardly surprising given the fact that they’re not a very large company. Because of this the finance company was obliged to investigate further. In light of that they arranged for an independent mechanic to come out and assess the car. Basically this involves confirming the faults I have mentioned as actually existing. Of course when he assessed it they all existed without a doubt.

The most annoying part about this so far, is that the mechanic agreed with everything I said. You’d think that would be good, and don’t get me wrong it is. I was happy to hear that he agreed with me, it’s what I expected. Given the history of the faults you can’t deny it. Whilst driving he mentioned the fact that he had owned the same vehicle not long ago and admitted it did not drive properly because of it’s faults. This was great, the finance company can’t say no now.

How wrong I was. When I spoke to him he said the faults were clearly inherent because they occurred such a short time after purchase and that faults keep developing. However when he wrote his report and sent it off to the finance company, he wrote completely the opposite. I have a copy of his report and it says the faults are not inherent. That really pissed me off reading it. He had lied to me, and he has lied to the finance company. I can only imagine he has been paid a bonus to say they weren’t inherent because that’s cheaper than them allowing me to reject the vehicle.

I received the final letter from my finance company who were “not upholding my complaint”. What struck me was the fact that they also noted down the mileage I had done since I got the car. Bearing in mind that I do about 1000 miles a month, of which 95% of it is commuting to work 30 miles a day, I thought it was odd. They had tried to use is as part of the excuse for not upholding the complaint, stating that because I had done around 6,900 miles since purchase the faults are due to normal use and not due to any inherent faults. Hello?! The faults began less than a month into my ownership!!! You obviously have NOT read any of the information I gave you and went on the word of a single person! Absolutely ridiculous.

As you can imagine I was fuming after reading that letter. I was angry for several days and I may have even taken it out on friends/colleagues (sorry by the way!). Thankfully just because they have told me where to shove my complaint it doesn’t mean that’s the last of it. There is a service called the Financial Ombudsman Service that is there to regulate and deal with complaints about businesses who offer finance or other monetary services. I have now opened a complaint with them in the hope that given the evidence I have to support my complaint, that they will over turn their ruling and turn it to my favour. Given the fact that these issues started so early, and so many have developed, I whole heartedly believe they will go in my favour, but given my luck recently I’m not holding my hopes up just yet.

I’ve sent them a full detailed account of everything that has happened between myself, the dealer and the finance company to date and I’m asking for them to uphold my original request for rejection of the car and a full refund of all money paid minus reasonable costs. This means I should get back at least the £2,000 deposit I paid, plus extra for the part exchange, and perhaps some money back from the finance company too.

In terms of what I’ve sent them, almost everything I said to the dealer is in e-mails as that was how we communicated most of the time. I also had phone call recordings from the dealer but these didn’t have any useful information in them (yes, the dealer was aware I was recording calls as I did ask for his permission. I did white lie saying that it was for other reasons but he still agreed). Given everything that has happened, including the dates they happened of which most were in the first 3 months, I can’t see how they can turn around and say the faults are not inherent.

The only thing that concerns me now is that if they turn around and say no, I’m stuck. I can’t do anything with the car until I pay the finance off, of which there is around 18 months left, or if the finance company agrees I can sell it on and keep paying the finance (unlikely). Slap that on top of the repairs needed to keep the car on the road (most likely the clutch/dual mass flywheel which costs £1000 on it’s own), we’re looking at a minimum of £1000 and up to silly money if I need to go as far as gearbox replacement/rebuild, diagnostics of the electronics to find the fault with that, and diagnostic of the air intake or whatever it is causing the air noise. Keeping the car at this point isn’t really worth it. I’ve invested in this car on the understanding that it was in good condition. On the outside it certainly looks it but under the bonnet and underneath it certainly is not.

I wish I had researched this model of car more before I jumped in and bought it. I wish I had test driven a few more other cars rather than jumping in and saying “I want X car and nothing else”. I do blame myself partly, but at the end of the day these faults weren’t my fault. My faithful old little Peugeot 306, RIP =(, never had anywhere near the problems this car has had in its entire life. As they say, they don’t make them like they used to…

I’ll keep the blog updated when I hear back from the Ombudsman, but in the mean time please keep your fingers crossed for me so I can get rid of this God awful car and get something worth my investment.

Remember the car I bought back in March this year? The very same one that broke down twice within 2 weeks of getting it? Well it’s come to the point where I just can’t stand the damn thing any more. Let me explain…

Ever since I got it I’ve had nothing but trouble. First it was the parking brake (electronic, don’t ask why they did it that way), then the emissions light and injector failure. I thought I had the problems ironed out pretty quickly as they were both common faults that would be resolved easily by a trip to VW and a new button. Oh how wrong I was. Each month there was a new problem. First it was the clutch giving me problems that resulted in it being difficult to change into first and reverse gears, then the gearbox started to whine whilst decelerating in 5th gear. The next month the mass air flow sensor packed in, and the list goes on. Suffice to say since I got the car it’s had 13 faults. 13… In the entire time I owned a Peugeot 306 I never had that many problems.

To be honest I only have myself to blame. Before I got the car, I knew I wanted a Passat for some very good reasons. Firstly 2 of my friends had 2 different older models and they never had trouble with them. Secondly I test drove it and I loved the way it handled and drove (and I still do, sadly). However it wasn’t until after I bought it that I started looking into it’s common faults, and that took me by surprise.

The most common complaints were the electronic parking brake failing and the injectors failing randomly. I thought I’d had these resolved (and I have so far, touch wood). But other less common complaints were still “common”, if you get what I mean. Lots of people talking about similar issues but none of them quite the same as the others. The car was in good condition and looked like it had been well treated and maintained – it was one of the strong points I took on board when buying. However the big let down was that it’s modern, electronic, and a lot can go wrong. When they do go wrong, it’s all £££ to fix – sorry, ££££, since a lot of things are 4 figures to fix it seems.

Obviously this isn’t the sort of investment I would have made given I knew about this before hand, and it’s my fault I didn’t research the history of these models. That said, and the trouble I’m having I decided it wasn’t right that I continue to own it. I didn’t know early on that I had rights under the Sales of Goods act and that I could reject the vehicle because it was sold to me unjustly. I.E. it had inherent problems right from the date of purchase which can be proven in the number of faults it’s had since that time.

I contacted my finance company a few weeks ago who are currently investigating the sale and the condition of the vehicle (they’re yet to send a mechanic to look at it). The place I bought it (naming no names) has been given a short time to correct ALL faults on the vehicle free of charge. If they don’t come through then the finance company will look into the issue and make a decision from there. Given that the problems present are pretty significant (dodgy clutch, engine warning light, etc) I am confident that they will go in my favour. If this is the case I’ve been told by friends and family that I’ll get the full £2k deposit back that I paid, and I’ll be free from the finance agreement. The finance company will repossess the car and then deal with the dealer I bought it from directly. That’s then the last I should hear of that car.

So what am I going to go with next? Well I was thinking of going with a Ford Mondeo. They’re nice cars and my friends Dad has one. That same friend also has a Mondeo Estate. The problem is all cars are going to have common faults and will go wrong in some way, so it’s impossible to escape. I just wished I hadn’t got rid of the Peugeot 306. Sure it cost me a little money but it never ONCE let me down. Not once. It always started first time and it always got me home. Of all the times it did break it did it at home or was an issue that could be taken care of in a short time with no damage done. And best of all, that car was fully mechanical – nothing electronic on the engine to go wrong, it just worked. I’ll miss that car. Sadly I discovered it was recently involved in an accident with it’s new owner, so it’s likely in scrap yard now rotting away…

Still, life goes on. These things are here to test us, and test me it has. Now it’s time to move on and get something new. New heights, new challenges, and plenty of anger to go with it. Sounds like the perfect recipe for life.

Wow, what a week it’s been for me. You’ll have to excuse the length of this post, there is quite a lot to say.

Anyone who knows me and has me on Facebook will have been following this (or perhaps not, maybe I annoyed you so much you blocked my statuses, who knows!). This has been the worst week of my life so far this year. Doesn’t sound bad really but for me it’s been a royal pain in the arse and a huge let down and disappointment.

So that new car I got just over a month ago? Well on Monday I hit a dirty great pothole which managed to snap one of my suspension springs. Sure these things happen and we get over it. Well, we usually do. This time for me however the garage has severely let me down. Let me explain…

Monday

On the way to work this morning I took the route as I normally do. I was minding my own business and navigating a round about as you do, when suddenly *BANG*. What the hell was that?! The car was still moving, I still had engine power and there were no odd noises coming from it. Then it clicked. That noise was the sound of a suspension spring snapping. It wasn’t a bang as such, more of a twang instead. I pulled over to investigate, but upon inspection I couldn’t see anything obvious. Regardless I took it easy all the way to work just in case. It might not have been a snapped spring. It could have just been dirty great big stone.

When I got to work’s car park, turning the corners I heard some rattling. That was the dead give away that it was the suspension spring. With that, I sent an e-mail to the place I bought the car asking them to book it in for repair. Later that day they told me to take it to the garage in the morning. I arranged with a guy at work to pick me up from the garage and get me to work.

Tuesday

After a careful journey home yesterday I had to make the same careful journey back towards work but diverting off to the garage. I made it in one piece anyway.

The garage called later in the day to confirm it was a broken spring and said they would order the part, but it wouldn’t arrive until the next day. That was fine, and I arranged a lift home with one of the guys at work for the cost of fuel. It also stated that their main mechanics wife had gone into labour so he would be on maternity leave for a week now. This left only a single mechanic to do the work which meant delays were possible.

Wednesday

The next day at about 2pm I got an e-mail to say the part was delayed and had not turned up in that days delivery, so it would now be the next day before it turned up. I was a little annoyed but there wasn’t much I could do at this point. I did however receive the news that my air conditioning was now repaired. Brilliant! With the weather heading towards summer temperatures shortly it’ll come in handy.

Thursday

By Thursday I was getting pretty impatient. They’d had the car 2 days now and it still wasn’t fixed. At about 11am I got an e-mail to say the car should be ready today as the part had arrived. Brilliant! I was feeling pretty happy by that point.

3.30pm came around and I received an e-mail to say I would not be getting the car back that day, but there was no explanation as to why. I was very annoyed now as I had been told it would be back today. Very annoyed, I accepted the fact and looked forward to the next day.

Friday

Finally the end of a very long and irritating week. Well, in 8 hours it would be anyway. I was looking forward to the long weekend getting out and going places again given I couldn’t go any great distance all week. 10am I received an e-mail stating that the garage promised I would get it back today. The owner of the garage had even said so (the guy who was off on maternity leave) and that it would be prioritised.

At lunch time my Mum messaged me asking for a lift out that evening, to which I said not to rely on me as I may not have the car back. Yes I’d been promised but some how I knew that was going to go wrong.

3pm

I got an e-mail saying it would be ready to collect at 5.30pm. Brilliant!

4pm

I got another e-mail saying it now would NOT be ready by 5.30pm. WHAT?! By this point I was absolutely livid. I went and made a phone call to the garage to try and find out what was going on because this was turning into one huge piss take.

I was on the phone for about 5 minutes in total. The words that were spoken were very concerning. I was told that the guy doing the work didn’t like anyone who worked there, and nobody liked him either. He had no regard for his work, didn’t stick to deadlines and generally couldn’t give a crap. Woah, stop. That is NOT the kind of person I want working on my car at all.

I asked what they were going to do. I was told it might be done tomorrow, it might not be. Not good enough. They’d had the car 4 WORKING days now. That’s 36 WORKING hours for a 2 hour job to replace a spring! I told them to make sure the car was in a condition where it could be given (i.e. not in bits) and I would collect that evening and take it somewhere else to be repaired. They agreed.

5pm

5pm came around and I got to the garage to collect the car. My friend who gave me the lift stayed with me to make sure I got it alright. While we were there he asked how long the 2 cars inside the garage had been there. The guy in the garage asked what he was getting at. Why are those two cars in there and not mine was basically what he meant. He replied saying they’d been in there hours, and that any work they do is, and get this…

Work is prioritised by the amount of money they will make!!!

I was shocked at hearing that. I couldn’t even speak to him any more so I left and headed to the place I bought the car. I had an air conditioning repair report to pick up and a conversation to have with them.

When I got there I was greeted with apologies, even though it wasn’t their fault. I told him exactly what he’d said and he was as shocked as I was. He said they would likely fall out over this issue, and to be honest it’s probably doing them a favour as well. After some general conversation he advised me to go to another garage to have the repair done, to which I agreed and had already decided to do anyway if they would not choose another garage themselves. I was paying for the repair anyway so it didn’t really matter that much since it wasn’t a warranty job.

The guy phoned the garage to advise them to give me the spring so I could take it to another garage and get them to repair it, that way it saves time ordering the part. However when he called, he was greeted with “I’m busy call back later” and then he hung up. He tried again from another phone and got the same again. He was obviously pissed off, with a customer, or both. He told me to go there anyway and ask, and tell them to put it on their bill for now. I’d pay them when the spring was fitted. I agreed, we left and I picked the spring up without incident.

I thanked the guy from work for his help all week. He’d been a life saver to be fair! He was totally OK with it and said he didn’t mind if I needed help again, which was good to know. But despite the offer I didn’t want to rely on his help, it’s not fair.

6pm

On the way home, driving slow like a granny, I went to the garage I intended to use for the repair. When I got there I explained the situation and they were dumbfounded by the whole ordeal. Anyway I got the car booked in for Tuesday afternoon straight after the bank holiday, which was fantastic. However, when I mentioned the fact I had the part, his face dropped and he shook his head. He told me they can’t use customer supplied parts because of insurance reasons. Alright, I was OK with that as I had heard a few other places do the same. I hadn’t paid for the new spring anyway so it didn’t matter. I asked them to order it and I’d bring the car in for repair.

It would cost me a bit more but at the end of the day if you need a job doing properly and in good time (and that was practically “same day” service if it wasn’t for the long weekend), then you do pay for it. Anyway, that’s where we stand at the moment.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had to let my Mum down as well. She was disappointed but it wasn’t a big issue. She got her husband to drive them there and they had to leave the car and get a taxi back, and then pick it up again the next day.

Well, this is the longest full text post I’ve made so far I think. I think I’ve been very patient waiting all week for this very simple job to be done. Any other garage would have had it done in no more than half that time even with the delay on getting the part. Still, we live and learn, and I will definitely not be using that garage that’s for damn sure.

OK so I didn’t have the best of luck with my new car and just 5 days after getting it I broke down (this was last Thursday by the way, it’s Tuesday now). In some ways it was good that it broke now and not further in the future. Let me describe what happened.

I was travelling to work as I do every weekday morning and everything was as normal. But as I was a mile or so from my junction off the motorway the car suddenly lost all power, it made a bong sound from it’s instrument panel and “engine fault” appeared on the display. That was it, car dead. I had just a few seconds to move from the outside lane to the hard shoulder before I lost too much speed (I was going up a slight incline too).

After pulling over I shut everything off and after a minute or so I tried to start it again hoping it would have reset the ECU. It didn’t, and it just cranked and cranked until I pulled the key. Great! First time in 4 1/2 years of driving that I’ve broken down. Thankfully I had AA cover, so a quick call and 25 minutes later they were there to rescue me. I got them to take me to the garage I bought the car from (phoning ahead so they knew) and get them to sort it under the warranty.

This got me thinking it might be the fuel injectors as it was on recall and was one of the things that can cause the engine to point blank refuse to start. I got the garage to diagnose it and they said it was an injector. They recommended I get in touch with VW, which I did, as the injectors would all be done under their recall warranty scheme. £3000 of work for free! I’m certainly not complaining. However the only down side was it would be 4 days before they could fit me in.

I hate being without a car, it’s like a lifeline to me. It gets me everywhere from work and home, to friends houses, etc. 4 days would be a long time! Anyway it passed and today I got the car back with brand new injectors and she runs really smoothly again.

Now the rant. Why can the car not run without a single injector having failed? Well I know it’s a safety feature to protect the engine and/or catalytic converter from damage from excess fuel being shoved into it etc, but at the end of the day I’m the driver! I should be the one to make that decision! The worst part is that it fails in the blink of an eye, no warning. You could be anywhere, I just happened to be moving at a speed that allowed me time to pull over safely.

So yeah, safety systems might be saving the engine but they could put you in one hell of a situation if it fails in the middle of a street! End of rant on that one anyway… Lets see if my luck changes and I don’t have any serious problems from now on!

It’s about time I got a new car, and since I finally had enough money to get one I went out hunting last weekend. I knew that I wanted a VW Passat for some time. 2 of my friends have got them and they’re highly reliable. Nobody else I know who has or has had one had much of a problem with them. I visited a few garages and saw a couple of them but this one caught mine and my friends eye.

Upon closer inspection it’s pristine in pretty much every way, both inside and out. One of my friends told me I’d be stupid not to go for it. For the price of £4690, ~92,000mi on the clock and made in 2005 it was a great deal. A little older than I wanted but despite that still pretty good. We had checked the usual stuff out and it was all good. It had a full service history indicating a new cambelt 5k ago and services throughout it’s life by VW. You couldn’t get any better than that.

I did a test drive (I mean who wouldn’t?) and I loved it as soon as it left the forecourt. We drove on a variety of roads and by god does it shift! So much better than the Peugeot 306! The 2.0L TDi engine produces around 140bhp and 250+ lb/ft of torque (much better than the 92bhp/155 lb/ft from the 306) and it shows too.

When we got back after the drive we headed to the pub next door and mulled over the cost and various other factors. After some persuasion by my friends I decided to put down a deposit on it. We sorted out the finance that I would need (1/2 of the price) and off I trotted eagerly awaiting the results from the finance company. Two days later (Monday) I heard back that I had got the finance (Woohoo!) and I could drive it away the following Saturday (today).

A few removals from the Peugeot (bits and bobs from the boot, the tracker and the radio), and it was ready to part exchange. They offered me £350 for it which was a great deal considering I paid £500 for it 3 1/2 years ago! I couldn’t say no. So today I picked it up and paid the remaining money on top of the deposit to pay for half the costs. Within 20 minutes I drove away a happy person!

We immediately went to the first garage and I filled up £50. Guess how much the needle showed after that… Can’t guess? Half a tank! HALF! Bloody expensive to fill that’s for sure. A day of random driving enjoying my new purchase shows an average of 44mpg or so which is mostly down driving. On the motorway I would expect I’d get a fair bit more, closer to 50 or higher.

Now this car is modern, which means a lot of things are electronic from the throttle to the very dodgy parking brake. I should point out by the way the parking brake has already failed once! It wouldn’t disengage after I wanted to drive away and told me to consult the manual. I did, and found nothing. I decided to play the old “turn it off and on again” tactic. What can I say except it worked. It retried itself and it disengaged. It’s been fine since, but I expect this won’t be the last time it will happen. We live and learn I suppose.

The other thing is the air con not working, but I suspect this is a simple fault that can be rectified (low gas, blown fuse, etc). I will contact the car centre as soon as I can to report the problem. Everything else is pretty flawless.

So do I like it? I love it! The power is a nice change, and the low end torque is immense but it does hesitate a little on the low RPM’s. That’s to be expected because of the hybrid turbo. It does judder a bit but I’ve been told at low RPM this is to be expected, however despite that I’m going to research it just to be sure since it doesn’t sound normal.

Anyway, I’ve posted some pictures on my gallery and I will add more as and when I get them. I’ve spent most of the day driving around so I never got chance to take pictures!