I’m always surprise when I see your car pictures, at least here in my country, it’s uncommon that people take car of their cars. There is almost no car culture in that sense, there are an abnoxious amount of ricers and guys that put ridiculously big woofers and stuff in their cars, but the cars are poorly maintained.
And almost 98% of used cars are crap, scratch interior, engine with no service and faulty replacement parts. It’s pretty much a general consensus that buy an used car here is a pretty bad idea.
I think it is because I am proud of my car even though it is nothing special, it really isn’t perfect but it has survived the last 15 years well, my mums 4 year old car is in worse condition, people here unless they are petrol heads they really don’t look after their cars.
I’m not familiar with used car buying in your country nor am I familiar with the car culture (except for the Beetle fandom) but I think there are ricers wherever you go and there will still be used cars that are abseloute lemons in any country, I think buying a used car is down to luck sometimes
Is anyone able to identify what is wrong with this boot lock? I have never dealt with locks before and I feel that something/s are missing
Currently in unlocked position
yep, there’s a connecting rod missing
this is what it should look like (ignore the arrows, etc - I pinched this photo from seatcupra.net)
thanks, must be for my central locking to do the boot
Bath time for my car, must have a clean outside to match the inside, any advice on how to not get so many soap marks
Soap marks mean that you haven’t removed the soap entirely, which means you must use a bit more water to wash it off, and after you’ve done that, you should dry it to get the perfect looking paint job.
Ah right, so it’s not because I’m using cheap crappy car shampoo 
I would’ve liked to have used a pressure washer straight after shampooing but I haven’t got one, I got the soap marks off with a magic sponge anyway
Can’t you rent pressure washers in places like Homebase (or whatever it’s called these days)?
You’re still one better than me. My car wash is called the rain.
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I didn’t know you could 
I’m going to look into that
So my poor car has a couple of issues that failed the MOT and the garage wanted £575 to fix them 
turns out I can go on euro car parts and get the parts I need for £200 with self fitting, I was expecting everything to be wrong to be honest
Bummer 
Parts are the cheapest thing on a garage bill, I had a car where the lower wishbone arms needed replacing, was quoted £600 to fix (nearly 18 years ago). I got the parts for £55 and fitted them myself with the help of my father in law.
Took 4 hours for the 1st side and 40 mins for the 2nd.
Just make sure you got somewhere warm, dry and secure to do the work, in case it takes longer than you thought.
Last set of discs I replaced were a pain to get off, see if you can get hold of a “puller” as described here
http://www.cartechbooks.com/techtips/usingapuller/
although I might be telling you something you already know, for which I apologies
You’d be surprised how decent ultra cheap cars can be. My first car https://wheelwell.com/profile/55abef1d38571a271c1b241d/vehicles/56a25afbb9a74dc463c3b9b7/specs/
only needed a new transfer case (which I found at a local junkyard for about $100). And I didn’t even need that to register it.
This is incredibly helpful thank you, I have never used or even heard of a puller, I’ll ask around to see if any of my dads friends might have one as it might help because the garage did say the rear driers side disc was rusty
I have considered going junk yard exploring and eBay browsing
I wouldn’t bother with a puller, usually brake disks come off without to much trouble and if they don’t, I’m sure a hammer and a piece of wood would do the job.
Well I will do whatever I can but a bit of elbow grease and some wood is the only way I can do it as I don’t know anyone who has a puller
Well fuck! I bought an auxiliary belt from euro car parts and it turns out the belt I bought is twice the length of the belt I already have
Lesson learnt: don’t rely on the number plate search function
Has your car got aircon? Tends to be the reason why a belt “for that car” is a hell of a lot longer.