Honest John: I don't want a German or French car, so what should I buy?

If your car has developed a fault, or for consumer advice, turn to Honest John by emailing honestadvice@Finance.co.uk

Foreign err

I am trying to find a new car to replace my 2005 Volvo V70 diesel estate. I need a more or less exact replacement (manual or automatic), possibly a hybrid but not a diesel due to our low mileage. I would be very happy with another Volvo, but the V90 looks a bit bigger and quite expensive. I do not like SUVs much due to the bulk and height. I do not to buy anything French or German, but a Japanese or South Korean car would be fine. A Mazda6 looks suitable, but I think it is a bit bigger than my V70. Any ideas? BC

A new Mazda6 SW measures 4,805mm, so it is only about 100mm longer than your V70. It is available with either a 2.0- or 2.5-litre Skyactiv G petrol engine. Hybrids are all automatic. You could look at a Toyota Corolla self-charging hybrid Touring Sport (preferably the 2.0-litre), which is 4,650mm long. Or a Kia Optima 2.0 GDI PHEV SW, 4,855mm. By ruling out French or German cars you are needlessly denying yourself some very good alternatives, such as the VW Passat GTE PHEV estate (4,767mm).

Premium service

My wife has a Motability car. She received a letter stating: "With fewer vehicles on the road due to lockdown, and fewer claims, we are sending out a rebate on the insurance premium." A £50 cheque was enclosed. We think this is a fine gesture and wonder if other vehicle insurance companies are doing likewise. Have you heard of any other insurers offering refunds? VS

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Excellent public relations. Hopefully the rebate was due to generally reduced use of cars during lockdown. I have not heard of a regular insurer voluntarily offering this rebate; rather the opposite. Some readers are managing to do deals for low-usage vehicles that are not regarded as classics, similar to limited-mileage classic car insurance. 

Guilty as charged

I bought a new BMW F20 118d from a main dealer in December 2018. In March this year, when the car had 12,998 miles on the clock, the battery failed. A breakdown service recharged the battery and checked the alternator. Over the next few weeks the battery failed again on a number of occasions: the charge only lasted 36-48 hours. A warning notice stated, “Battery discharging when stationary.” I booked the car for inspection under warranty on March 24 but, as lockdown restrictions had been introduced the day before, all garages were closed. Eventually I took the car in, only to be told that the battery had failed and was not covered by BMW’s three-year warranty, so I would have to pay £405 to cover battery testing and fitting. I reluctantly paid so I could get the car back. Can you advise on my next step? RB

BMW’s Efficient Dynamics system uses a regenerating alternator that recharges the battery when the engine is on over-run, for example when braking or descending an incline. The invoice states "check faults stored for poor driver profile" but does not state that anything was found. I suspect you have not been driving the car enough and/or have been leaving something on when not using it (if you don’t lock a car when leaving it, some electrical functions stay running). If the AGM battery is not covered by the BMW warranty, then there is no point going to BMW. It’s difficult to make a warranty claim against the manufacturer of the battery, so you have to revert to Sale of Goods and make a case against the original supplying dealer for supplying a battery "not of satisfactory quality". You would have to use Moneyclaim or the small claims court, but to be honest it’s hardly worth the expense.

Wrap artist

I have heard about new car owners having their vehicles covered in clear plastic paint protection film and/or given a ceramic coating, apparently to protect the paintwork. What are the relative pros and cons of these treatments, applied either singly or together, and are they worth the money? PG

Governments throughout the world have banned solvents in the colour coats of car paint for environmental reasons. This paint now has to be water-based, and if it wasn’t covered with something else it would simply wash off. So it is covered with a thin coat of solvent-based clear lacquer. That isn’t really adequate and explains why the paint protection trade has grown rapidly. Some people swear by wipe-on “ceramic” treatments. Some prefer plastic “wrapping” (which is very expensive but protects police cars quite well). I use wax, preferably Autoglym Hi-Def. It’s about £50 per tub and should be applied twice a year.

Chain reaction

I bought a 33,000-mile “approved used” 2014 Mercedes E250 petrol model in October 2017. It has a full Mercedes service history and is now at 60,800 miles. Recently, the engine diagnostic light came on and, upon investigation by a main dealer, it was decided that it required a timing chain change at a total cost of £1,622.29. As the warranty has expired, I asked Mercedes-Benz for a contribution towards the cost as a goodwill gesture, on the grounds that I bought the car from them and always have it serviced by them. They have come back with an offer of 30 per cent of the total cost. Do you think that is fair and reasonable? EK

I’ve had three previous reports of timing chain failure on the 1,796cc E200 CGI unit; none previously on the 1,991cc C250 CGI, which is a newer engine. The car is not quite six years old and there is a history of timing chain failure in W212 four-cylinder petrol engines, so you could argue a manufacturing fault, but that’s pushing it and I’m afraid that Mercedes UK is prone to playing hard ball in such circumstances. 

Riding lessons

Our son is learning to drive in his sister’s Suzuki Swift while she’s at home on furlough. We want to get him his own car to carry on learning, pass his test and have a first car, but he has stipulated that it must be big enough to accommodate his mountain bike (front wheel is detachable). Is there anything on the market that is under 1,000 cc and insurable, but also reliable? CW

The best, most reliable small cars under 1,000cc for insurance are the Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVTI (sold in the UK from 1999-2005) or the Nissan Micra K11 (1992-2003). The back seats fold but you will need to check if he can get his bike in. If he can’t and needs an estate car, then the only 1.0-litre model I can think of is the Dacia Logan MCV Access SCe 75. Cheapest I could find was a 4,400-mile 2019 car for £7,495. In any case, he will need telematics black box insurance to get affordable cover even for a 1.0-litre car. The low-powered Honda Jazz 1.2i VTEC from 2007-2013 is very spacious inside and actually cheaper to buy.

Odd one out

I purchased a 2016 Skoda Superb 280 4WD from a main dealer. The car is fantastic, but it’s clearly had a puncture and its front left tyre has been replaced with a budget alternative. The rest are Pirellis with about 5mm of tread left. The dealer assures me that replacing all four tyres was unnecessary. Will running with an odd new tyre on the front cause problems for the Haldex system or DSG gearbox? AB

If the dealer replaced a punctured correct tyre with a cheap alternative, then I don’t think much of them and any assurance should be treated accordingly. In theory, if all the tyres are the same make and type and the disparity in tread depth between them is no more than 3mm, the automatic AWD system should not be damaged. In your case, the characteristics of the cheap replacement tyre will be different from the others, so you need to at least replace that tyre with a matching Pirelli. 

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