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I am looking at downsizing from the FSTi to something that is cheap to buy and maintain (max budget ~£3.5k or so), fun and reliable. I am thinking of a Fiat Panda 100 (they range from £2.8k - £3.5k depending on mileage), my dad has had a 1.2 Panda 4x4 for the last 7 years and hasn't had any problems (touches wood). A friend has suggested a Ka but that may be a too small and I think they rust a lot? I prefer a relatively economical petrol car (must be able to average 35mpg easily in mixed driving) rather than a diesel, we already have a diesel in the house. Reliability is important as it will be used to commute and I don't want a car with a million miles either. ClioSports 172 are within budget but I don't know anything about them. I test drove a Trophy a couple of years ago but I wasn't impressed (driving position and slack gear changes spoilt the driving experience). Civic Type-R EP3 may be another choice but finding a good one might be tricky. Again I test drove one when I had my fist sorrento GTi and didn't like it. It had absolutely no torque whatsoever in the mid-range. I may still have to revisit the above to see what I think if them now. There is also the Suzuki Swift Sport 1.6 VVT which start at around that price and have good reviews. What do you guys suggest?

Before I did the mi16 conversion my car had been juddering under braking. When I did the conversion I swapped the drive shafts and wishbones to a 309 setup, changed the discs / pads and fitted a power steering rack (new track rod ends) and for a few hundred miles it was ok. Then a while ago the juddering reutrned for some reason, so a couple of weeks ago I removed the discs and cleaned up the drive flanges (they'd been powered coated at some point). It seemed to be better for a few days but it's started again and seems to be getting worse... Anyone have any ideas what else could be causing this? Short of changing the wheel bearings, which don't seem to have any play in them, I'm a bit stuck... Thanks in advance Stu

HELP I have just fitted new Gaz rear shocks and even when turned to min the car feels like it is wandering or steering from the back. If i accelerate gently in any gear it feels like the near side rear is turning out. The front of the car moves over to wards the right but you get no feel of it through the steering wheel. I have checked the front wishbone bushes and even put a full lock on while trying to drive with the hand brake on. I could not see any movement in any of the bushes. I have run a string around around the car and it has a little more toe in on the offside rear than the near side. It also seems like there is about 13MM more wheel base on the near side. I am wondering if it is crabbing which shows more with acceleration. If I travel along at a constant speed the car travels straight. If I coast along it wanders slightly to the left. could the beam be mounted wrong? How is the best way to check the beam is mounted correctly. Note I have rebulit the beam and fitted it with nylon bushes. Any ideas welcome? Cheers Neil

Apologies if this is in the wrong section - the other sections are for 205 specific stuff. So I put it here. Mods: please relocate if needed My missus has just bought a "new" 307 1.6 16v Rapier. Its a 2003 model on a 02 plate, 5 door model if that helps. Its all perfectly fine and runs well except on one night after her work (9.30pm) she came out to the car to find the CD player on, the dash lit up with the STOP light illuminated and the empty fuel tank light on as well (tank was full though). The car was also constantly beeping from somewhere with the pattern of "Beep.........beep....... beep" etc and just kept going. I heard it over the phone when she rang me about it. Apparently the engine would still turn on and run fine, just that the dash was still displaying "STOP" and the fuel light was on and the beep was constantly going etc. She doesn't remember if she hit the remote door open button first, or heard the beeping first. Apparently her friend's 206 (unkown exact spec) does a similar problem occasionally and to get it to go away she hits the "open door locks" button the centre console repeatedly until it goes away. Armed with this new knowledge my missus goes back out to the car to do this, but finds the car is all quiet with no problems. Starts the engine and drives home fine and the car has been fine ever since (about a week since then). I've had a look inside the 307 manual that came with the car, but unfortunately it has no section for error codes and stuff. I've tried Googling the subject and didn't find anything like mine - only issues I could find was about the "triple beeps" where it only beeps three times, unlike our problem where it beeps constantly. Anyone got any ideas ? I've heard that the early 307s were plagued by wiring loom / electrical problems and I'm guessing we have a gremlin too.