J.T

He'll only get it wrong the once, I bet his insurance wouldn't cover him for working on them if he hasn't had the correct training. I could be wrong about the carbon fibre part, it did just look like a broom handle painted black to me lol. The first Auris hybrid that I sold had 3-4 inches of water in the spare wheel well from the usual leaking in from around the rear lights problem, I was trying to imagine what would have happened under heavy braking to all that water sloshing around right next to the battery pack under the back seat! I think they might have been able to claim under the consumer rights act if I fried them with 20,000 volts of electricity.

Even that's old technology, I remember in the 80's my mates dad used to run the TV and lights in his front room from the lamppost at the back of his flat.

I'm surprised that Mitsubishi and other manufacturers have been allowed to get away with their claims, I'm just looking at an Outlander 2.4 4x4 PHEV on Autotrader and they are claiming it does 139 mpg (combined) and that the emissions are 40g/kg with an electric range of 34 miles. If you do your 34 miles on electric then how the hell do you get another 105 miles out of a gallon of petrol, in a 2.4 litre 4x4 automatic? I also don't believe for one second that the emissions are that low either running on the petrol engine. Did they go to the Diane Abbott school of economics?

I'm a bit confused by the Ebay business model at the moment, they rang me too saying they had bought Gumtree and would I like to advertise there as well. If you think about it you're just paying the same company twice for the same thing and that doesn't wash with me, for example if they started a new site called EbayMotors 2 and rang you and asked if you'd like to advertise on there you would probably ask the same question. Surely they must have a conflict of interests as they now own multiple sites doing the same thing, when they could have invested the money ($81.6 million) in to making Ebay Motors a better platform?

I've always wondered that too, just put an electric motor in the normal cars and they'd sell a lot more.

I'm in advance, probably for the reasons others have stated here. Sometimes people just want to take the car there and then which when the mot's been done it makes it much easier. My MOT station do any re-mot's at half price if I get any stuck up my backside and end up redoing. Customers being able to check the mot history is becoming a bit of a nightmare though, the amount of time recently I get people saying "On the mot history from 5 years ago it had an advisory for such and such"

I think they got it wrong with plug in hybrids personally so I tend to avoid them, why would you want to plug in a hybrid it makes no sense. I did see a Mitsubishi plug in hybrid in the block the other day that was 4 years old and had done 197,000 miles! I can't imagine that many of those miles were done on electric as they have a limited range.

From what I understand they are around £800 - £1000 to have one installed, one of my workshops has just installed them though I've never seen anyone using them. They have done the training and bought the special insulated tools that are required for working on electrics and hybrids, they also have a special carbon fibre pole for flicking off the mechanic when he gets electrocuted!! I think they get a couple of quid when someone charges their car, but as that is few and far between I don't think they'll be getting their money back anytime soon. Your location has to be right to make money from it. The Co-op next door has a charging point so if I ever need it I'll just run an extension lead across the car park when they're not looking.

We Buy Any Car.

As others have said selling a car stating 'sold as seen' is a big no no, you can sell cars like that without any warranty but you can't take away the customers consumer rights. It would be probably cheaper to get a new MOT on it from a tester that is a bit more reasonable, I think the MOT test should be if oil drips on the head of the MOT tester then that is an oil leak but if it's a slight misting of oil because it's a second hand car and perfectly normal then it shouldn't even be mentioned.

Have you had your cambelt changed recently?

I got in to trouble last year for blacking up, apparently it's not PC and not what Black friday is meant to be about so I don't think i'll bother this year.

Has the cambelt been changed, how long have you had it in stock, what's your best price, also I've seen one advertised much cheaper in Orkney so can I buy yours for the same money? Damn that felt good to be on the other end for a change!

Mr VAG man is obviously busy as he asked Mrs VAG man to ring on his behalf on friday, "I'm ringing on behalf of my husband, are the stamps Skoda main dealer?" I don't know I say looking at the torrential rain outside. "Could you get soaking wet and go and have a look and I'll call you back, because I'm too lazy to come and have a look at the car myself", ok she didn't actually say that but that's what I was hearing. I get wet, she rings back, yes they are I say it has 4 stamps all main dealer, "what's the date on the stamps?" No offence love but I just got bleeding soaked and I'm not going out there again! Then came the question I was waiting for all along, "has the cambelt been changed?", so I immediately counter with is it a belt or a chain on those? "Ooh I don't know, what's the difference?" "All I know is they are supposed to be changed every 3 months or 300 miles according to what internet says" I really must stop buying VAG cars, it's not good for my stress levels!!

Yet there was a lady selling her car on Autotrader which had 'climax' control fitted to it.

Well I've just reduced my Autotrader bill as £2000 a month for 24 cars is just taking the proverbial, it's gone up £200 a month in the last 2 years but i'm not seeing a 12% rise in sales from Autotrader so how can they justify this increase? All they've done in those 2 years is add things to help the 'consumer experience' whilst continually kicking us in the knackers, and quite frankly I've had enough of them ripping us off.

That does sound a bit on the expensive side for a smart repair, my bodyshop would charge that and would be a much better finish. I pay around £40 - £60 for a smart repair and would expect to pay £120 -£140 for the work you described plus vat. If you think about it that's half a days work if he cracks on and he wants £350 for it, that sounds more like retail prices and not trade.

https://www.cleanairforbristol.org/faq-items/how-are-the-300-deaths-in-bristol-calculated/ They just basically made that 300 figure up, not one single person has actually died from diesel fumes. Maybe they'll send the revenue from the fines to the 40,000 children who work in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo for 50 pence a day, digging Cobalt for their electric cars batteries. It would be interesting to hear from the Peugeot dealer in Bristol that is situated in the banned diesel car zone.

I'm not Googling that, i'll end up on a register.

I have two Ring chargers, had them both a few years and still going strong. For conditioner I use L'Oreal, because I'm worth it.

Unless it's something VAG where the first question is always has the cambelt been changed, my response to people asking that now is "is it a belt or a chain?" 99% of them say "ooh I don't know", then they quickly change the subject and it's never mentioned again because they don't know and it's just something that they have heard somewhere before and think they should be asking it.

Find an old timing belt and leave it in the passenger footwell, clean off the shocks, grind the lip off the disc's, change the oil £10, wipe the filter with an oily rag, hoover the air filter and MOT for £36. You won't be seeing much change out of £50 I'm afraid.

I just brought up a little bit of sick reading that thing from Autotrader, when are they going to realise that we are the ones that pay their wages not the customers on their website. Has anyone else noticed that you can't leave Autotrader a review on Google? Strange that, especially when they tell us how important reviews are from our customers.

You stole her childhood, I hope you can sleep at night?

Who wouldn't want a Citroen Berlingo with an 8.4 litre V10 Dodge Viper engine, I think it's a great idea.