Ask The Guide

The first thing to ascertain is what the fluid is. Is it coolant, fuel, oil or even brake fluid? All these fluids have different ways of leaking, so make sure you know what you’re dealing with. Also, don’t rely on the location of the fluid on the ground as a means of diagnosing the cause. Leaks can start in one place but appear elsewhere as they work their way along wiring, pipes, chassis rails and plenty more before they actually make it to the ground.

Meantime, if the leak is coolant and is actually coming from the back of the engine, there are a few likely culprits. There are heater hoses that run in this area and have been known to leak, as well as a welch plug that can corrode and cause a leak in this area. Other known coolant leak-points in the Territory include the radiator and the O-ring seal at the back of the water pump. If you’re really unlucky, the leak could also be from a head gasket. Have the car checked out by a mechanic, because coolant leaks only ever really get bigger over time, never smaller.

If you look on the major online selling sites (including this one) you’ll find that there are plenty of cars like yours for sale. Prices seem to start around the low to mid-$30,000s with lots of choice in the mid-30s to low-40s range. Prices appear to top out (generally) around the low to mid-50s.

Audi buyers tend to be pretty switched on, so a full service history will make your car more desirable. But prices also vary according to whether the car is a sedan, hatchback or convertible and what options are fitted. Even the colour of a car like this can have a big effect on the asking price.

The best advice is to tap into some of these sites and find an exact match for your car and see what the seller is asking. Don’t forget that dealers will be asking more than private sellers and that what is being asked in the advert is not always what is being paid in reality.

Ford replaced the Mark 1 Focus with the Mark 2 in June 2005, so interchangeability would depend on the build date of the 2005 Focus you have. While the Mark 1 and Mark 2 Focus both offered a two-litre four-cylinder engine (among others) the two engines were from different engine families. The earlier car used a member of the Zetec family, while the Mark 2 Focus two litre was from the Duratec family.

So, unless both Focuses are Mark 2 cars, there's very little chance of sharing things like intake manifolds, even if the spark plugs and ignition systems could be swapped between Mark 1 and Mark 2 cars.

It would be worth talking tom Consumer Affairs over this one, as well as asking the auto specialist who made the diagnosis whether they thought the problem was a pre-existing condition or not. I know that in most states and territories, second-hand commercial vehicles don't carry a statutory warranty even when bought from a licensed dealer. But the reality is not as simple as no-warranty-bad-luck.

If the vehicle was not fit for purpose (as the legislation quaintly puts it) and the gearbox fault was not disclosed when the purchase was made (if indeed it existed back then) then you may have some recourse in terms of getting the problem fixed or some compensation.

These disputes are looked at strictly on a case-by-case basis, but if the car was already damaged and you were not told about it, nor the price-tag reflected it, then you may have a leg to stand on.

From what I can gather, the engine in your Barina is an interference design. That is, if the timing belt breaks, the pistons and valves (in the cylinder head) will, indeed, meet head on at speed, turning the engine to junk in a slip-second. So make sure the timing belt is changed every 100,000km to reduce the risk of this happening.

Some engines with timing belts are non-interference designs, meaning that a broken belt will simply allow the pistons and crankshaft to continue to rotate without hitting (or damaging) the valves. Replacing the belt and retiming the engine will return it to full health. You'll still be stranded by the roadside if it happens, of course.

There are many reasons, some mechanical, some electrical, why a vehicle won't select four-wheel-drive when the driver requests it. But the first thing we'd check would be the electrical connections from the rotary dial on the dashboard and the mechanical components that dial controls.

In the old days, four-wheel-drive was selected by mechanical levers that moved the internal bits of the transfer case to the correct position to engage the front driveshaft and, in turn, the front differential and axles. But in your Pathfinder (and many other makes and models) manufactures started using electrical switches instead of actual levers. The idea was that by electrically controlling this function, there was less effort required from the driver. The reality is that these dials are as susceptible to electrical gremlins as any other part of the car.

Check the fuses that protect the selection dial and if that's not the problem, have the rotary dial itself checked for faults.

I agree that 136,000km is not a realistic lifespan for a modern car. Especially one that has been as meticulously maintained as yours. Hyundai engines of this vintage are not without their known problems, but in my experience, Hyundai has been pretty good about replacing them when the failures have been the endemic kind.

Your first step should be to by-pass the dealership you've been dealing with and talk directly to Hyundai's customer service department. The dealership, as you've correctly identified, will be more interested in selling you another car, while Hyundai head office is more likely to be interested in keeping you as a long term customer. Ultimately, the car will need to be inspected independently to figure out what went wrong and what caused it.

By the way, if the dealership is right and the 'damage has already been done' by the time the warning light illuminates, what's the point of having a warning light in the first place? The dealership in question has just revealed itself to be ignorant at best with comments like that.

By the way, even though your car has a 2013 build date, the warranty would have started the day it was first registered. Even so, it's well and truly out of warranty, but if the problem is one of the known faults of that engine, Hyundai may offer you a pro rata deal to assist in repairs.

The Kia Sportage SX starts at $35,000 in manual form and $37,000 for the automatic variant. The better equipped, more powerful GT-Line petrol version is available only as an automatic and costs $49,370. Those prices do not include on-road costs which will vary from state to state and even region to region.

The current Sportage was launched in 2021, so we can possibly expect a mild facelift sometime in the 2023 calendar year. But being such a new design, the upgrades are not likely to be major ones, so there’s no reason to hold off buying now or when supply allows.

At this stage, the smallest Mercedes-Benz EV is the EQA. Although there’s a Smart EV in other parts of the world, there are no plans to introduce it here. The decision not to make an A-Class hatchback EV is in line with the rest of the world’s car-makers who are ditching conventional hatchback and sedan designs in favour of the all-conquering SUV packaging.

However, while the EQA is physically larger than your current A250, it’s probably not by as much as you might imagine. In overall length terms, the EQA is about three centimetres longer and about five centimetres wider. The big difference is that the new car is a lot taller; about 19 centimetres higher, in fact. But even then, the EQA is still a pretty compact car, and if your garage won’t accommodate those dimensions, I’m wondering how it was ever council-approved as a parking space within a building.

As for your other requirements, the EQA has a theoretical range of up to 400km and can be fast-charged. As for more charging points in public areas on highways, I’m afraid that’s one you need to talk to your local government member about, not Mercedes-Benz.

A lot of people buying this type of vehicle are horrified the first time they work out their real-world fuel consumption and compare it with the official sticker on the windscreen. Frankly, very very few cars can get anywhere near that official figure. It’s the result of a standard test that bears little relationship with real driving and it’s really only for comparisons with other vehicles, not a realistic idea of what to expect.

Even so, 14 litres per 100km at highway speeds does seem high. Being a 2019 model, it won’t be that the engine is still brand-new and tight, so we can rule that out. But, there are many other factors that affect fuel consumption more than you might imagine. Does the car have a roof rack fitted, for instance? If it does, you can easily use an extra litre per 100km at freeway speeds thanks to the extra drag. And that’s if there’s nothing on the rack (it will be worse loaded).

Is the car carrying a lot of accessories such as a bull-bar, rear step, extra fuel tanks and maybe even a winch? All these add weight and weight kills fuel economy. What tyres are you running? Big mud tyres with an aggressive tread can drastically ruin fuel economy, so can taller tyres than standard which mess up the gearing and force you to use more accelerator pedal than a car on standard tyres. Also, the road from Melbourne to Wagga is mostly freeway with a 110km/h limit. Experience has shown that most cars will give their best fuel economy around the 80 to 90km/h mark, and every kilometre over that sees fuel economy go downhill. There could be a very big difference in your car between 100km/h and 110km/h. Even a stiff headwind in a big, bluff-fronted car like a MU-X can make a difference over the distance you’ve quoted.

If none of those factors are at work, then you really should have the car scanned to see if there’s any problem with the mechanical or fuel systems. Even a dirty air filter can cause a big hike in fuel use, so a once over at the workshop might reveal the answer.