How 'not very good(!)' Are These B6's?

[DSG4ME]

I'm in a right old huff with mine, in 3 years it's cost me £98 in parts other than service and tyres, I have a glowplug issue that is going to cost another £35 - £100 depending on if I do 1 or all 4,

THAT WILL make it potentially nearly £200 I've spent in 3 years on it, I really wish I'd bought something the motor press says is reliable and only spent £3000 on repairs now

I'm absolutely distraught having bought a car that means the service department is likely to go bust, and it's meant I've had no excuses for being late, now where is that Peugeot brochure, won't make that mistake again.

[Teflon]

Well chum, it's all much of a muchness. I've done a lot of car research over the last 3 months.

Mazda? There's a very vociferous internet campaign about inherent faults and shoddy dealers. Honda get a bad rep for some of their diesel engines.Toyota problems are well documented. BMWs drive owners nuts when stuff goes wrong, I couldn't believe the price of a thermostat housing for one I looked at recently. I won't bore you with the saga of the Alfa I tried to resurrect last year. I'm gobsmacked that it can take hours to change a headlight bulb on many cars. Don't get me started on anything French

I fondly remember the days when I could whip an engine out and rebuild it over a weekend, the most difficult electrical problems were wiring that you'd accidentally burnt through while welding new sills on and you could wander round a bone yard in the mud to find your own bits, take them off and haggle the price. I once did a clutch on a Cavalier in an hour, this included going back to the shop 'cos they'd given me the wrong friction plate. And it cost peanuts. Now, your DMF flywheel isn't going to last the life of the engine and will cost you big money when it goes.

I also remember problems starting when the weather got cold, having to park on hills in case I needed to bump start my car and having cress growing on the parcel shelf because the car was so damp. I still have some petro-patch on the shelf in the garage in the unlikely event that my tank rusts through. Plus some Radweld, a hose repair bandage and an emergency fanbelt.

They call it progress. I'm not so sure myself. Overall, I guess I'm happier forking out a bit more than laying on the ground in the rain swapping ball joints and prop shaft UJs. But boy, it's a close call.

[DSG4ME]

I'm thinking of LPG now Tefs

I know it isn't the greatest stuff but even after conversion you should get +50 mpg on the fuel difference price, i.e a 20 mpg car running on gas at 1/2 the price of derv = 30 mpg by the time you take the energy loss into account, add in no turbo possibly and no dpf, less gunk in the recycle cycle and a lighter drive,

You say about the Cavalier, you are on about when you could remove a plate and spin it round to get it out? I used to have a VX mechanic who'd supply and fit a clutch in a 1.6 petrol Cavalier for £50 all in, circa 1988 iirc.

[Teflon]

Yep on the Cavalier. I still have the three u-shaped locking clamps to put on the pressure plate (clutch pedal down), then release the pedal and undo the nuts as you rotate the flywheel. Pop the frictiion plate out through the inspection hole, reverse procedure, job done. They'll never get used again but I just can't chuck them out.

It was an A-reg in boring green. It needed all new brake pipes for its 1st test (I still have the flaring tool) and I managed another two years before I had to replace the cam.

I had a fair bit of experience with an LPG conversion on an old Yank V8 with a 4 barrel Holly carb on a stationary engine. First generation electronic ignition and the original dirstributor. I would have happily set fire to it more than once but thankfully the conversion kits are better nowadays. Or so they tell me.

[gupsterg]

I'm absolutely distraught having bought a car that means the service department is likely to go bust

Don't worry about them mate members like me are more than making up their sales figures on parts ...