Ask The Guide

There’s nothing wrong with having your vehicle serviced by a non-Haval mechanic as a registered workshop will still be authorised to stamp your service booklet and maintain your factory warranty. For many people, a non-Haval workshop is the logical choice as the Haval dealer network is not as wide as some of its competitors. But some independent workshops will forget or not know how to cancel the service indicator on the dashboard, and that’s probably what’s happened in this case.

While some makes and models have a simple, DIY method for cancelling this reminder, it seems these late-model Havals do not and the service indicator needs to be cancelled via the diagnostic port and a laptop with the correct, Haval-specific software. Which could mean a trip to your nearest dealer. The other option is to phone around local workshops to see if they have the software to perform this task. The third option is to put up with the service indicator beaming at you constantly and remembering when the next service is due.

Based on the symptoms, it sounds like something is getting hot and shutting down. When you leave it to cool for those 10 minutes, it fires up again. This could be something in the ignition system becoming too hot, or the fuel system (fuel pump) or perhaps even fuel vaporisation.

However, the V6 engine in your Commodore is very well known – notorious, even – for a crank-angle sensor that can stop working when it becomes too hot. This is a condition that seems to set in with age and, as the sensor becomes less tolerant of heat, will simply shut own the engine with no warning. Here’s something to try next time it happens: Identify the sensor in question (it’s located down by the front pulley of the engine’s crankshaft. Keep a bottle of tap-water in the car boot. When the engine stops next time, open the bonnet and pour the cool water on to the sensor. In many cases, the water is enough to cool the sensor and the engine starts right up. Definitely worth a shot before you start replacing other bits and pieces.

You’d expect this to be a yes or no answer, but the reality is a little different. Your car can theoretically use E10 fuel, but only if that fuel has an octane rating of at least 95 RON. Much of the E10 fuel sold in Australia has an octane rating of 94, not the 95 you need, so unless the pump states that the fuel it dispenses is 95 RON, you might be better to stick with normal unleaded.

This suggests that while your car has the specific fuel system fittings that won’t be damaged by the ethanol content in E10, the engine is tuned for 95-octane fuel and could suffer pre-ignition (also called pinging or detonating) if run on 94-octane fuel. In turn, this is probably because the car was designed for a market where E10 fuel is, in fact, uniformly 95 RON, and Australia simply doesn’t line up with that.

I’m going to assume your vehicle has a petrol engine, as this type of question is usually one regarding the need, or otherwise, for high-octane (Premium) unleaded petrol. (Diesel tends to be diesel and that’s that). On that basis, your Fiat will be fine to run on standard ULP, and you don’t need to go to the expense of filling up with the more expensive PULP brew as you won’t achieve anything in the process apart from emptying your wallet faster.

You won’t harm the engine by using PULP, but there’s nothing to be gained. The other common question on this subject revolves around the use of ethanol-blended fuels (say, E10, which consists of 90 per cent ULP and 10 per cent ethanol). The short answer is that, no, a 2013 Freemont can not use ethanol-blended fuel without risking damage to the vehicle’s fuel system. The alcohol in E10 can attack the plastic and rubber parts of a car’s fuel system, leading to expensive damage down the track. If a car has been designed with materials to cope with that, then it’s fine on E10, but the Fiat does not fall into that category.

It’s almost a default setting now that the answer to questions like these is `something South Korean’. Put simply, there’s no better way to get as much vehicle as possible with a good reputation for durability and reliability at the same price. Which means the two vehicles that come into focus according to your requirements are the Hyundai Tucson and the Kia Sportage. Both have good turbo-diesel engines (great for towing) and they’ll legally tow a braked trailer up to 1600kg and 1900kg respectively. And if you shop for a car built around the 2016 or 2017 mark in a base-model specification (but with all-wheel-drive) you should be within your budget, if only just. Our pick would be a 2017 Kia Sportage as that vehicle will even (assuming it’s been serviced correctly) have a small chunk of its original factory warranty to play out, and that’s great peace of mind.

The other safe answer is a Toyota Rav4 from around 2016 which should also sneak in just on budget. The catch here is that you’re stuck with the petrol engine version with its 1500kg towing limit, as the turbo-diesel versions have a different transmission and are limited to towing just 500kg.

What does GUV stand for? Glad you asked. GUV is a relatively new term on the motoring landscape and, in bald terms, stands for Grand Utility Vehicle. The broad view is that it was an acronym first coined by Kia to describe its current-model Carnival on the basis that it was a step up in luxury from the average SUV and, therefore, needed a grander name; literally, Grand Utility Vehicle.

Like a lot of marketing, of course, the name is more or less meaningless when it comes to being an actual descriptor for the vehicle in question. Yes, the Carnival is well equipped and luxurious for a family vehicle, but 'Grand'? Grammatically, there’s also scope to interpret the vehicle as having a grand level of utility which, given its eight-seat capacity and family friendliness it arguably achieves. Beyond that, however, the definition is rooted purely in the imaginations of the marketing department. Searching for more GUV meaning than that is unlikely to expand the sum of human knowledge.

But now that Kia has slipped the genie from the bottle, you can expect to see the GUV tag applied to all sorts of vehicles formerly known as SUVs, both large and small, and both in Australia and globally. It’s also likely that the vehicles to adopt the GUV tag will be high-end versions of more prosaic SUVs, and there’s a good chance that the prestige brands might introduce the term to their brochures as well.

That said, GUV could also disappear without a trace. The same thing happened to Toyota’s AUV (Action Utility Vehicle) tag a few years ago which was applied to variants of the HiLux range. But the AUV moniker has since been reclaimed by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle industry which builds unmanned submarines to explore the undersea environment.

There’s another reason GUV could disappear from car advertising and marketing: In the US, rising fuel prices have forced older, gas-guzzling SUVs into the driveways of a poorer demographic who can’t afford anything more efficient. At which point, as Urban Dictionary points out, the term GUV was coined to describe the 'Ghetto Utility Vehicle'.

What does SUV stand for? It’s a question that more and more people are asking as the genre races to market dominance in this country and around the world. In the most literal sense, the acronym stands for Sports Utility Vehicle and had its origins in vehicles that were more or less civilian versions of military or commercial vehicles. The broad idea was that these SUVs could carry passengers in relative comfort but take them to off-road destinations thanks to their higher ride height and all-wheel-drive.

What do people these days really mean when they talk about an SUV? Although the term has been in use since the 1980s, these days it seems to cover a huge range of vehicles. The reality is that there’s no hard and fast definition of what an SUV is and isn’t. SUVs now come in all sizes large and small and everything in between and while they still generally still have a higher ride height and bold looks, the all-wheel-drive thing is very much optional nowadays.

Today, the term has been narrowed slightly to include vehicles which use a separate body on a ladder-chassis, much like old-school commercial vehicles and four-wheel-drives. That has led to the flip-side term cross-over, which describes vehicles with the SUV’s appearance and intent but that use a monocoque body like any modern passenger vehicle. Even then there are no hard and fast rules to this and some vehicles with traditional SUV qualities do, in fact, use a monocoque bodyshell. The other acronym to spring up has been AUV or Action Utility Vehicle, but this has its roots even deeper in marketing versus reality.

If you really dissect the literal SUV meaning, the name becomes a little comical as the extra mass of an all-wheel-drive driveline, the compromised quasi off-road tyres and higher centre of gravity means that the vast majority of SUVs offer less sporty motoring than a conventional car, putting the knife to the 'S' in SUV.

The phenomenal popularity of the SUV today is probably down to two or three factors: Firstly, there’s fashion. When the neighbours all have an SUV, the tendency is for the rest of the population to want a slice of the action. Secondly, SUVs are actually quite good to use in normal day-to-day use. You tend to sit higher for a better view of the road, and older folk who are not as flexible appreciate the higher seating position that is easier to enter or leave. The third factor is that some family car buyers think the SUV is bigger inside than the equivalent passenger car or hatchback. In most cases, they’re not as the packaging of the SUV’s mechanical parts eats into the interior space. Finally, you could add the notion that an SUV is a vehicle that can take its owners on that great round Australia road trip. The reality is that most people will never tackle this and that many SUVs have absolutely zero off-road potential beyond that of normal cars.

There’s nothing wrong with an SUV per se: They’re functional, practical and modern ones are nice to drive and fabulously equipped. There’s a strong argument for them when it comes to a higher cabin for older passengers or parents strapping kids into child restraints without bending over so far. It’s just that the term SUV doesn’t quite match the reality. And as with any marketing phenomenon, you’ll pay extra to jump on that bandwagon.
 

Ford Falcon headliner replacement cost will be somewhere between about $300 and $500, depending on a few details. Those prices are based on a modern Falcon, say, a BA Falcon or FG Falcon from this century, after Ford had switched to the one-piece, cardboard-backed headliner. However, the cost could be more if the vehicle is a station wagon or has a sunroof fitted, as both these things alter the amount of material used and the degree of difficulty in removing and refitting the headliner. 

Other variables include whether you take the vehicle to a motor trimmer to have the existing headliner recovered, or you call an onsite repairer to remove your old headliner and fit a reconditioned unit in your driveway or car-park at work.

You might be able to find a second-hand replacement headliner at an auto parts recycler, but the danger is that the headliner you buy might also fail in the not-too distant future. That’s because the modern one-piece headliner – including late-model Falcon headlining - is made from a structural backing board with a layer of foam sandwiched between the board and the vinyl or cloth that you see above your head. Over time and with heat, the foam layer breaks down into dusty fragments and the adhesion between the backing board and cloth or vinyl is lost. That’s when the cloth starts to hang down inside the car.

Overall, Falcon roof lining replacement is not a difficult job for an experienced trimmer, but it is a bit fiddly and will take some time. Many owners put up with a saggy headliner, but a fresh roof lining repair will make the car look and feel brand new again.

You can find more information here. 

You shouldn’t need to replace the entire roof lining in your car, but it will need to be removed to have the replacement foam and cloth covering applied. Any roof lining repair will involve getting rid of the old foam that has broken down and caused the delamination of the backing board and the cloth or vinyl. From there, the new foam and cloth can be applied to your original backing board and the assembly refitted to the car.

Another alternative is to have a new headliner installed, sometimes a reconditioned unit that some motor trimmers have on the shelf, ready to go. Some companies will even come to you and replace the roof lining in your driveway or work car-park. You can also source or buy a second-hand roof lining from a wrecked car which, in the case of a common model like a Holden VE Commodore shouldn’t be hard to find. You’ll still need to remove the old one and fit the new one, however. In some instances, you may still be able to buy a brand-new roof lining from the manufacturer, but that’s a long shot and will cost a lot more.

Meanwhile, a VE Commodore roof lining replacement cost will be roughly anywhere from $300 to $600 depending on whether you want the repairer to come to you, you’re happy with a standard (not custom) covering and the car is a standard model. A car with a sunroof fitted will add to that total as it’s a fiddlier job with more to remove and replace.

Repairing the roof lining yourself is not a simple job, as it requires the removal of a bunch of fittings such as interior lights, sun-visors, interior mirrors and that’s before you can even try to manoeuvre the single-piece roof lining out through one of the car’s doors. That’s the reason you see a lot of cars getting around with their roof lining patched up and held in place with everything from thumb tacks to staples.

This all goes back to the 1990s when car-makers discovered that a single-piece, structural-cardboard backing board covered in foam and then cloth or vinyl was a much cheaper alternative than the traditional metal-bow roof lining. The new system was also much faster to fit on an assembly line. But with time and heat cycles, the foam that many car-makers used breaks down into a fine, powdery dust at which point the adhesion between the layers is lost and the cloth sags down and billows into the cabin. Replacing the degraded foam and fitting new cloth or vinyl is the best solution and will return the roof lining to as-new.

There’s more information on what’s involved here.

When it comes to Bluetooth Toyota Corolla hasn’t always had a great track record with its factory installations. For years, many Toyota owners complained that the Bluetooth fitted to their cars was lousy with poor connection, frequent drop-outs and a lack of calling clarity. These days, those problems have been addressed thanks to Toyota’s troubleshooting and the Toyota Bluetooth systems are more or less the same as everybody else’s.

Toyota Corolla Bluetooth pairing (for either iPhone or Android) is a pretty simply process and involves following the on-screen prompts in the phone setup menu after the car has 'found' your phone (make sure your phone is in 'discoverable' mode). From there, you need to confirm that the security code displayed on your phone matches the one on the screen and you’re good to go. Once you’ve worked out how to connect Bluetooth to Toyota Corolla the first time, the system should automatically recognise your phone from then on. If in any doubt, follow the instructions in the how to pair/how to connect phone a phone section of your owner’s manual.

There’s a very good factory website at https://www.toyota.com/connect/ that can lead you through a list of what phones and apps are compatible with Corollas of the last few years.

All the current model Corollas feature Bluetooth connectivity, with the 2019 upgrade also extending to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility across the board. The previous model Corolla (2012 to 2018) also had Bluetooth from the entry-level model up, and the Corolla before that (2007 to 2012) featured Bluetooth on all but the base-model Ascent version. Prior to that, Bluetooth was not a factory fitment on any Corolla, but many owners added it with an aftermarket stereo head unit for better music quality.