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Another vote for the Rav4 from me!! We have a new Volvo V70 2.0D as our daily but after the bad snow in our neck of the woods last year I realised that just cos the Volvo has swedish roots doesn't mean its any good in the white stuff - anyway I borrowed a mates old Rav4, tidy-ish 98 3 door model that has diff-lock for when the going gets really slippy, and it trully goes anywhere that I would want to put it, IMHO unbeatable for the money for something thats as good as it is on and off road and is as reliable as all Toyotas are. It was that good we ended up having it off him and its sat on the drive now waiting for the winter )

I bought a brand new V70 in march of last year in black and although it looked good on delivery all shiny and new - the amount of marks from bird lime, scratches from bushes etc 18 months later is alarming. I think the paintwork on older cars was definately of better quality and you would have thought with todays scientific advances they would have developed a paint that was resistant to bird sh*t.

The car runs true and when moving is fine, infact it drives quite nice for an old small car, no knocking at all and no play in the top mounts that I can feel. The car is on 165/65/13's and I've increased pressures on front from 30psi to about 35psi which has improved it slightly, I had thought about dropping down to 155/70/13's to see if that made a difference.

I know its not Corrado related but thought someone may have come across it in their younger dub initiations - Ive Just purchased a '98 1.0L Mk4 for my son to learn to drive in. (I was keen to get him into a VW from day 1) its Very clean and original with no mods and a full history with only 72k on the clock. The only problem is it doesn't have power steering and hes finding it a little difficult to say the least, I can remember driving my old GTI's without PAS and cant remember it being this stiff. I Jacked up the front wheels and they dont feel too bad to turn when off the floor so I dont think theres anything majorly wrong with the column, although the steering wheel does have a little odd movement in it, infact if you try to turn the wheel while stationary it almost feels youre going to break it, it has a tiny bit of play in the rack but nothing major, CV's, track rod ends etc all feel and sound OK. Does anyone have any suggestions, top mounts, column UJ etc, is there any common faults I need to check for?? I know its never going to be as light as a feather, but my son struggles and I cant even imagine how a young female driver would ever being able to steer it as it is. Thanks.

Nice one Jim, I was at Prestwold Hall last weekend, it was my sons 13th birthday so we paid for him and my brother in law to be driven round for a couple of laps in the Porsche turbo, I wasnt going to have a go until my brother in law mentioned that they were just nudging 150mph coming up to the right hander after the straight, it was at this point I ran into the office and coughed up for my go :) I was slightly worried though that the driver didnt start braking until he'd passed both "brake now" signs, the power and acceleration was awesome but the brakes and the handling just took my breath away. Nothing beats driving em yourself though I had an Elise driving day at Donnington a few years ago and that ranks up there on my fave day list.

I used to have the 1.8 vti (british version) and to be honest wasnt as fast as the 1.6 vti (jap version) until like everyone says 70ish then mine used to real em in real quick, apparantly I was told it was something to do with headers being differently designed for the softer british market which in turn subdues the vtec tone somewhat also....bstads either way itll leave you for dead though :)

Only thing that puts me off is the spoiler, looks ok now but whats it gonna look like its seen a few speed bumps...:(

Thats some serious driving in what looks to be a seriously powerful car, unless the rear tyres are made of wd40 or something

I ended up doing with it on, but then again Ive done plenty with them off with no adverse effects

Sorted it, had to bleed from the master cylinder dont know how air got up there, the only thing I can put it down to is that the rear calipers were seized solid and the brake pads had almost melted onto the disks so could be that the fluid had boiled and created air in the system, but when I test drove it before the job the pedal felt fine although low on effort, oh well job sorted.

Yup ABS, rear brake compensator and was bled with the wheels down on the floor so it was open, handbrake off, fluid is being passed well when bleeding, pedal feels ok when engine off but as soon as the engine is started pedal becomes slack, Ive been in the motor trade for 7 years and am an MOT tester (or was should I say) so its not something stupid that Ive done wrong, Ive double checked everything and Ive changed dozens of mark 3 rear calipers in the past without a hitch. Its just the first time its ever happened and just thought someone else might have had the same prob.

Just replaced rear disks, rear pads and rear calipers on a Seat Leon 1.4, (same as golf) and now theres no pressure on brake pedal, with engine off I can bleed the brakes up and get a half decent pedal but as soon as I start the engine i can move the pedal up and down with my hand tried clamping one off and bleeding the other but with same result, any ideas anyone, anybody had the same prob The car failed its mot on low service effort, both calipers had siezed so they had to be replaced, pads were shot and disks werent too good either so I dont want to have to fork out for a master cylinder if for some reason Ive reversed the seals especially as I dont think it is that HELP!! :(

Welcome, you'll find us all a friendly bunch with only a little sarcasm thrown in for good measure. :)

As far as I can remember cos the last time I tested a car was about 8 years, it would only fail an mot if they were fitted and not working, if you wanted to quote the mot bible you dont really have to have headlights, if they are removed then they cant be tested so they shouldnt fail if you get what I mean. so same should go for the side repeaters. did that sound legible or did it just come out as waffle

Yum Yum , I have to agree the yanks are getting back to what they did best and that is to make a hugely powerful engine and slam it into a horny battleship of a car, Mustangs and Chargers have to be the sexiest cars on the planet without a VW badge surely.