djbobbins

Second number slot on the chassis plate is blank so I assume that means it is not homologated for towing.

Can anyone help me out with a query? I have recently had, as a works vehicle, a Kia Niro (petrol electric hybrid). When the car was launched, they said a towing option (for up to 1300kg towing) would be coming at the end of last year, but have since change their mind and are not going to offer this as an option for the UK. The company website towing capacity is nil, which was backed up when I spoke to Kia UK before ordering. However, now I've had the car delivered, I read the manual and it says (for European spec vehicles) that you can tow up to 600kg unbraked or 1000kg braked. I'm therefore curious as to which should take precedence. Can I reasonably rely on the handbook, get a towbar fitted and not invalidate the warranty / be in trouble with VOSA if I was to get pulled?

If anyone wants them, I have got six empty builder's bags left from some work we've been doing. You know, the ones that hold about 850kg of sand or gravel, or about 300kg of loose thrown logs, which apparently is known as a "tonne"... 😚 Collection only from Hatton Station, just west of Warwick. Completely free but if you happened to have some arisings to drop off in return, that'd be even better!

Google Venice Verte as well, that's a region of drained marshland with loads of drainage canals which are navigable by boat plus some nice (not very strenuous) cycling. Same area of France.

We went to the west coast (Vendee, between Brittany and La Rochelle) a few years back, but later in the year - October half term I think. Lots of beaches and resorts, the Ile de Re was very pretty but I would imagine would be absolutely heaving during summer. We got the ferry to and from Le Havre and from there it was about 4 or 5 hours as I recollect. There are a couple of different routes, one of which saved about £30 in tolls for the sake of doing an extra ten miles or so, all still on dual carriageway.

I have done Cannes to Calais in about 10 hours, once when I was young, single and daft. Wouldn't want to do that with family in the car though. Off to the French Alps this summer which we will do from Dover as a single day's travel and I think will be a bit of a killer.

Here you go Steve... https://www.hochschwarzwald.de/Card It looks like the card is "free" although I suspect you would have to pay the tourist tax! The list of attractions might have change but if it's anything like it was three years ago, it still made for a good holiday. Plus which, a case of 20 x 500ml bottles of pils supermarket can be had for about six quid, if you are happy to drink non-mainstream brands (which was what my German colleague recommended).

Steve, we did the Black Forest a couple of years ago and I would highly recommend it for a few days. We stayed in a place called Todtnau, which is about 20 miles south of Freiburg if I remember correctly. There are camping grounds etc and it is not too far from the border into France and Switzerland (Basle, nice city, has a zoo, bloody expensive though!). In Todtnau area itself there is great scenery but brilliant thing (in my opinion) is a gravity rollercoaster, which descends about 500m in altitude down the mountainside. There are a couple of Freibads (open air swimming pools) and a smallish theme park, barefoot walk etc. If you want an idea of the scenery, think along the lines of "Where Eagles Dare", albeit without the spectacular mountaintop Schloss. If funds are not brilliant and you want a holiday with plenty to do, I'd recommend it - when we we we stayed in an apartment owned by an old German Doris who must have been about 90 if she was a day. Anyway, when we got there she made us fill in these little cardboard forms and pay the 'tourist tax' which I cynically thought was a bit of a get on, about €2.30 per adult per night I think it was - so something like €26 for us for six nights. Turns out included in the tourist tax is all public transport all the time you are there (which included the train into Basle), entrance to the open air swimming pool, entrance to the theme park, once up the ski lift and back down on the gravity coaster and a range of other stuff that we didn't have time to do before we moved on to our next accommodation in Munich. Will see if I can find a link to the tourist card now for latest prices and what is included...

Come to think of it, we were a bit bemused why we started out with a whole frozen salmon but ended up with swordfish... (Sword fish = sawed fish, geddit??!)

Done this in the past with frozen whole salmon to cut it up into steaks. Can't see why a frozen turkey on a circular saw. would be a problem, other than the need to remove the guards?

f@&!?rs! Hope you manage to get sorted soon; lots of shed and garage thefts being reported around my patch at the moment too (just west of Warwick).

Bass, snare, couple of roller tom-toms, floor Tom, hi-hat, crash cymbal and a stool?

If that's not too battered on the body, it looks like a good buy IMO. Might be due a cambelt though?

Or a Yeti, depending on budget? Rear seats can be lifted out, creating plenty of space for laying longer pieces in up to circa 2m long. I have had loaded mine up to base of the windows on a couple of occasions and it's been fine, plus towing a well loaded (but not huge) trailer at the same time.

If the OP is going to be able to shift a few logs every day, then surely it doesn't need to be a huge car? Just able to get into the yard for loading up, with more focus on the economy and space aspects. Anyway, what about something like a Peugeot Partner Combi - 5 seats, decent ride height and a reasonable amount of load space?

Obviously I've taught my wife well then, she has no problems getting the stove lit! Not seen dragon's den but £500?! For me that sounds like a "FFS" moment but I guess there will be people who'd be willing to pay the money to have the stove already lit when they get in through the door.

Maybe; the car I'm thinking of was about 1987 age. Just thought the symptoms sounded identical.

Has it got a carb or is it fuel injected? We had similar symptoms on a carburated VAG engine, it was a fleck of crud in the slow running jet that was stopping fuel getting through.

I had a 1993/4 3.2 V6 SWB auto box as a backup car / winter vehicle / log fetching toy; loved it. I think I got more than £100 for scrap but it was a few years back; it was still fine on the body but the cambelt tensioners were failing, they are an Isuzu only part and the garage couldn't be certain that spending £500 doing the belt and tensioners would solve it, so it went to the big junkyard in the sky. Made a great noise and only once once ever let me down (when it was parked for four months under a leaking gutter, filled the passenger footwell with about an inch of water and drained the battery). The other thing that cost me a few quid was a rotten rear crossmember, which had to be fabricated in situ to avoid the need to taking the fuel tank off. Liked a drink though, especially on short journeys. Best I ever managed was a cruise from Staffordshire to the Lake District and back again, at about 52mph on the cruise control it averaged 21mpg.

Thanks everyone for your replies; I've placed the order for the Kia today. Just got to wait for a suitable moment to tell the Mrs; she didn't want an automatic!

That's about hit the nail on the head, the Skoda is more practical but I think every time I walk up to it / get in, I will feel like I've missed out on something more interesting. I can opt out of the scheme but company rules say that any vehicle has got to be less than 5 years old, so I couldn't get a premium car and pay the finance off within that timescale - it'd mean buying something like a 9 month old Vauxhall Meriva.

Yup, I'd seen that too (and also that in Belgium, Kia dealers sell towbar kits) - but I've asked the question twice of Kia UK and on both occasions (over the phone and then via email) they've said the UK model has no towing capability, nor do they have any plans to add it - apparently it involves updating the brakes (?) and they don't believe there is any demand for the Niro to be able to tow. So yeah, nobody buys an SUV to tow with - wtf?!

Yes, mainly just driving, sometimes with a couple of passengers. I do about 22,000 miles a year, which is typically quite a lot of "not sparing the horses" A road driving, with the occasional 300-400 mile daily round trip to visit one of our operational sites or customers. We also tend to do a driving holiday to Europe in which we'll cover 2,500 miles or so in a fortnight, with the wife and two kids plus luggage.

Okay, before I start, I know I'm in a lucky position to be able to choose a new car, however I work hard, do a reasonable amount of business miles and it's a bit of a park too. Plus, the taxman makes a fair whack out of it, so... I am coming up to the end of my lease period on the current company car, a Skoda Yeti Greenline Elegance trim (1.6 turbo diesel, leather seats, dual zone climate control etc). I have to pick another car, or opt out of the scheme, take a cash allowance and buy something. I've ruled out doing the latter as whilst the numbers work (just about) I like the fact that on a company car if I get a cracked screen, nail in a tyre etc it's not my risk. So of all the cars I have looked at, I am down to two choices: 1) Skoda Octavia hatchback, 1.6 Greenline SE Technology trim, with winter pack (heated seats and screen). 2) Kia Niro 2 1.6 petrol / hybrid, with advanced driver assist pack (adaptive cruise control and bits). Over the lease period, taking into account tax effects, likely real world fuel economy and the lease fee, these will cost me almost exactly the same. The Skoda has the advantage of being able to have a towbar fitted (no towing capacity in the Kia, as confirmed by Kia UK despite what it said when they were launched) which I'll use for towing about twice a year and mounting a bike carrier to. The Niro is a bit less proven but when I test drove one over the weekend, I was impressed with the hybrid system and the oomph the battery gives, plus I've got a bit of a dodgy knee following a tug of war injury years ago, so the fact that it's an automatic appeals. However the boot is a bit smaller than I'd like and the lack of towbar is frustrating, although we can get one fitted to the wife's car instead. So both are nice, shiny and new, but neither really float my boat. The Skoda is probably more practical but I just feel that if I get it, I will look at it every day and feel like I've given up. If anyone's got any experience or thoughts, please feel free to shout!

My folks have got a field with a load of naturally seeded Rowan, probably not quite that tall but I expect there are a few of 4m and above. They are on the north Staffordshire / Cheshire border a few miles south of Macclesfield. If that's not too far and you can give an idea of going rate, I'll be happy to have a word. You would need to different the trees out yourself.