Ask The Guide

You can google this request and come up with a few websites that say they offer a free workshop manual, as well as a few less sites that actually do offer a downloadable (usually as a PDF) workshop and service manual. The content may or may not be factory content, however, so keep that in mind.

Many of these websites are sneakily constructed to make you click on a link that is nothing to do with the manual allegedly being offered, and you can wind up going down some long advertising rabbit-holes that will ultimately take you nowhere.

Possibly a better bet is to find a reputable online book retailer which offers the workshop manual you're looking for. In many cases, this will still be a PDF meaning you need a computer to access it. Experience suggests that a hard-copy workshop manual is a much better idea as it can be taken with you to the driveway or workshop and referred to quickly and easily part-way through a particular job. And given the modest price of such books, it's a small percentage of the cost of a repair you can now do yourself instead of paying somebody else to tackle.

No, there is not. Obviously, being a small manufacturer, Ineos needs to rationalise as much of the vehicle as possible, and adding a manual transmission version would have cost a lot extra in terms of design, development, engineering and testing.

The good news is that the standard transmission for the Grenadier is the rather good ZF eight-speed automatic that has been used by car-makers all over the world. It's a smooth, clever transmission that seems to suit many vehicles very well. And while the hard-core off-roaders out there will complain about the lack of a clutch-pedal option, the reality of modern automatics is that, for most drivers, they actually work better off-road than a manual ever did, particularly in sand or when tackling steep climbs.

The clue here might be in the fact that this problem occurs when you drive slowly for an extended distance. This could suggest that something (engine or transmission perhaps) is becoming hot and the vehicle is switching to limp-home mode to avoid damaging any components. Also, it could be a dodgy sensor which is simply making the vehicle 'think' it's getting hot.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but driving slowly can lead to overheating as there's less air flowing over the radiator and/or oil coolers to whisk temperature away. When you stop the car and re-start it, the on-board computer goes back to its default settings and away you go again until the sensors detect more heat build-up.

With that in mind, I'd be checking the radiators and oil coolers for a build up of dust, mud, leaves and other rubbish which could be blocking airflow. But before you start replacing sensors and other components, have the car scanned (by a mechanic) to see if any fault codes make themselves apparent.

The smart money says go with a Toyota. The RAV4 is popular but within your budget, you'll be buying a 12- or 14-year-old car with at least 200,000km on its odometer. Which still means it's probably a pretty good thing in terms of reliability, provided it's been serviced correctly up to now, but you'd have to buy carefully. A second-hand Kluger can also be a good deal if you can afford the fuel, but comes with the same caveats.

A Honda CR-V won't be much different to the RAV4 in terms of its price versus model year, but you stand a slightly better chance of finding a CR-V with relatively low kilometres. Don't be afraid to get a bit alternative and look at things like the Kia Sportage. Your ten-grand gets you into a Sportage of around the same vintage as the RAV4, but is likely to have as many as 100,000 fewer kilometres on board. Again, check for a full service history.

And given your usage pattern, don't be temped to stump up more for a hybrid SUV; there's just not the pay-off at the pump for a car that does mainly highway and open-road work.

If you do all your driving in an urban environment and you can recharge from home, then an EV makes some sense. But if you ever travel beyond the city lights and/or can't plug in to a power source at night, then the lack of recharging infrastructure in Australia right now means an EV is probably not a viable solution for you.

A much better idea right now is a hybrid or, better yet, a plug-in hybrid. A hybrid is most efficient in urban running where the electric motor can regenerate power to the batteries every time you slow down for a red light. But even on a freeway with depleted batteries, provided you keep putting petrol in the car, it will keep going as far as you need it to.

The plug-in hybrid is an improvement on that design because it has a larger battery that will allows for something like a couple of day's worth of electric-only running. So, you plug it in, drive around the city to and from work using zero petrol, then charge the batteries back up and go again. And if you do need to travel in regional areas, then like the normal hybrid, the petrol motor is your back-up.

The other good news is that within your budget there are literally dozens of hybrid and plug-in choices. You should be easily able to find what you need with the options and extras you want.

The allowable maximum tow-ball weight for the Sportage will have been calculated by Kia using all the available information from the car's weight distribution to the spring rates, the ride height and wheelbase measurements and even the way the rear structure of the car is physically constructed. So that's what you should stick to and, yes, 100kg is the official tow-ball weight for this vehicle.

The theory that holds that tow-ball weight should be 10 per cent of the towed weight (while the reality for a lot of makes and models) is really just that; a theory, a rule of thumb, and definitely not a hard and fast rule. As such, there's nothing to force car-makers to stick to it. Which is why Kia hasn't for the Sportage.

There's another school of thought in other countries that the tow-ball weight should actually be closer to five per cent of the towed mass, at which point the Kia's limit starts to make more sense.

This will all come down to how much you love that particular car. Because the economics of privately importing and then getting the car legal to drive on the road here probably don't add up.

You'll spend at least a few thousand dollars (and possibly a lot more) to ship the car here, then it needs to be cleared by customs and the import authorities, fumigated, then inspected and any changes carried out. At every stage of this process, somebody will be taking their cut, too, so be prepared to spend plenty. And that's if nobody finds anything wrong with the car that requires big, expensive engineering changes to put right.

Looking at it dispassionately, you'd almost certainly be better off buying the same make and model here. Aside from anything else, an Australia-delivered Jaguar will probably have less rust in it than one that's spent its life on the UK's salted/gritted winter roads. The exception would be if the particular model you want wasn't' sold here or, as we suspect, there's an emotional attachment to that very car. At which point you have no choice but to take the plunge and privately import it.

If that's the way you go, be sure to consult a shipping agency at both ends of the journey who will be able to guide you through the process and help take some of the stress out of it.

The Preve was not a huge success in this country, which is probably why many parts outlets don't carry spares for it in Australia. But if you jump online, you'll soon find plenty of overseas suppliers selling what you're looking for.

Alternatively, you can ask a transmission specialist to investigate supply of the cooler. Perhaps that same shop can match the cooler with a part number from another car that will fit and do the same job. As a last resort, there's every chance a completely different cooler could be adapted to fit your car. This could take some fiddling and workshop time, but if it keeps the car on the road, it's probably justified.

Good news; Ford Australia is indeed set to launch a new, limited edition run of the Everest Wildtrak very shortly. Although no firm sates have been set, the Wildtrak version of the Everest could be hitting showrooms in the next few weeks, maybe even sooner. The model has already been launched in New Zealand, South Africa and Thailand.

But while we don't have firm dates yet, what we can tell you is that the Wildtrak Everest will slot in between the Sport and Platinum trim levels and will use the 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine mated to the 10-speed automatic transmission. Price is expected to be $73,090 plus on-road costs.

Like a lot of relatively modern vehicles, the X200 doesn't use a throttle cable, but is instead what's known as throttle-by-wire. That means that the accelerator pedal tells the car's computer what position the driver has placed it in, then the computer tells the throttle to respond accordingly.

It all works on electronics and position sensors and if anything goes wrong with that arrangement, you can get erroneous messages being sent to the throttle with the symptoms you've mentioned. An electronic scan of the vehicle should reveal what's wrong as the computer will have recorded fault codes with any of this electronic gear.

Beyond that, it could also be something rather more mechanical such as a sticky stepper motor (that physically opens the throttle) or even a vacuum leak. It could even be a fault with the electronic protocols that tell the engine to increase its idle speed when, for instance, the air-conditioning it turned on. Again, though, a scan at a workshop should reveal all.