Ask The Guide

Car alarms have a really bad habit of draining batteries. Aftermarket ones are the worst, but even the factory alarm can cause a run of flat batteries if it’s not working properly. The faster flashing red light on your dashboard is the clue that something has altered in the alarm or its settings.

An auto electrician can be your best friend in these cases. By the way, not all scanners are created equal and some of the cheaper, online versions don’t cover all the functions of a modern car. A Holden workshop will have the proper scanning tools to make a coherent diagnosis.
 

It’s tempting to draw the same conclusion as you have, Peter, but it may not be that simple. The fact is, there are numerous reasons a car will throw up a warning light on the dashboard and, in the case of the electrical power-steering in your car that certainly holds true.

Also, Hyundai was very clear that the recall for the faulty power-steering only concerned those vehicles built between November 1 2009 and April 30 2010. Your car was built after that date, so it shouldn’t be susceptible to the same problem. However, there is often confusion about build dates, so another way to check whether your car was one of the affected ones is to see if its VIN falls within the list of affected VINs according to Hyundai.

For your references, the affected cars all had VINs between: KMHDC81TMAU064300 and KMHDC51TMAU267226.

If your car isn’t within those numbers, then the likely cause is something different and a decent workshop should be able to scan the car and discover what is causing the warning light. It could be something really simple.

The answer all depends on what you call off-road driving, Javed. The Ford Everest, being based on the Ranger, is a very competent off-roader. In fact, it’ll handle anything most owners would ever throw at it, while the Endura is more of a replacement for the Ford Territory. Meaning it has abilities better matched to a trip to the snow, not a true log-jumping, river-fording off-road journey.

The Sante Fe is more of the same (as the Endura) that is; a car that can cope with gravel roads and slippery surfaces, but not the rough and tumble of the Aussie bush. So it really comes down to how far off road you need to go. And if the answer is a long way, even if it’s just occasionally, then the Everest is your best choice.

I would suggest it’s called marketing, John. Being able to advertise a low price is a good way to catch the eye of consumers and get them into showrooms in the first place. That’s when a dealer will break the bad news about the cost of options, but by then, many a would-be buyer has become smitten with the vehicle and the deal is as good as done.

This is a pretty common complaint from owners of a lot of European makes and models. To maximise braking performance, a lot of manufacturers (including Volvo) use a relatively hard brake pad and a relatively soft brake rotor. With the result that by the time the brake pads are worn enough to be replaced, so too are the rotors (discs).

However, the general expectation is that a vehicle should be capable of covering about 60,000km before this work needs to be done, so the 30,000km on your car suggests the brakes work harder than perhaps you think they do.

As for the price, I’d assume that to be using genuine Volvo parts. Shopping around and using aftermarket replacement parts could almost halve that quote.

If daily driving and passenger comfort are priorities, I think you’d be better off with a station-wagon style SUV rather than a dual-cab ute. The latter can be pretty uncomfortable over a distance and the rear seat accommodation, in particular, can be fairly primitive.

Your budget gets you into a Toyota Prado from around 2008 to 2012 (the later the year, the more kilometres it will have travelled at your upper price limit) and these will tow 2500kg with a braked trailer. This model was also available as a V6 petrol in case you’re worried about the long-term reliability of modern turbo-diesel engines (which some people most definitely are).

A five or six-year-old Nissan Pathfinder is also in your price range and these had a good V6 petrol engine that provides plenty of performance. The CVT transmission puts some people off, though, but the Nissan is still rated to tow 2700kg. The Toyota is definitely the superior off-road machine, however.

Unfortunately, any SUV or dual-cab ute within you budget is likely to have travelled at least 100,000km or so, and, in that sense, experience has shown that some modern, common-rail injected diesel engines can be ready for some expensive work at that point.
 

That’s an awful lot of money for a 2006 Nissan Patrol, Heather, but there are a couple of mitigating factors. The first is the incredibly low mileage and if there’s a GU Patrol out there with fewer kilometres showing, then I’d be a bit surprised.

The second thing in the car’s favour is that it has the mighty 4.8-litre petrol six-cylinder engine which is one of the best towing engines ever made for a passenger vehicle. A Patrol with that engine will always find a buyer even if, at $18,000, it’s right at the top of the price ladder. Then again, given that it represents more or less a brand-new 2006 Patrol (and this model was a cool $80,000 on the road back in the day) maybe $18,000 is a steal. Depends on how you look at it.

The only caveat is that it will use lots and lots of fuel and double that amount if you tow a caravan with it.

The D-Max would be a pretty good choice of vehicle for this task. The three-litre engine is well regarded in the trade and because it’s a little larger (in capacity) than some of its competition, it also has a bit more torque which is great for towing. With a 3.5-tonne towing capacity, it’s also up with the best of them.

As far as fuel consumption goes, you need to bear in mind that even though it’s a four-cylinder diesel engine doing the work, you’re actually asking quite a lot of it when you’re towing a caravan at highway speeds. With that in mind, you can forget about the official combined figure of 7.8 litres per 100km. Bank on at least double that and maybe a bit more, especially if the caravan is a bigger one.

Physically, there’s no problem with switching from run-flat to non run-flat tyres. You might even (almost certainly) find the car rides better than it did on run-flats and the Benz B-Class always had a fairly brittle ride, so any improvement is worthwhile.

Yes, you’ll have to arrange some sort of contingency should a flat tyre occur, but you can source a puncture repair kit pretty easily. There are even puncture-repair-in-a-can products (and have been for years) although they’re not always 100 per cent successful. If you’re keen, you could always find a space-saver spare from another model at a wrecking yard. Provided it’s the right diameter and the stud pattern matches, you’re good to go. Don’t forget to include the tools required to change a flat, though.

The other thing to do is to replace all four tyres at the same time. Driving around on a mix of run-flats and non run-flats is a bad idea and could give the car some evil handling traits, especially in the wet.

The degree of discounting Holden will employ will ultimately be determined by how many cars are still sitting at dealerships in the final few weeks running up to the closure of those dealerships. If Holden really can sell all its stocks of Colorados at $51,000 apiece, then that’s what will happen and no further discounting would be likely.

It then becomes a question of how patient you can be. If you don’t need the vehicle straight away, then waiting might be a good idea in case the cars are slow to move and Holden slashes the price again to get rid of them. Given that Holden is about to disappear altogether (for good) dealers won’t want to be sitting on any stock as the final hour approaches.

I certainly wouldn’t want to be paying anything like full retail price for a Holden, mainly because you’ve identified the one big problem: They’ll drop retained value quicker than a make and model that’s still in business. That’s a bit odd in a way, since the cars will still carry a full factory warranty and parts and service will be readily available, but that’s the way the consumer world works when it come to brands that are set to disappear from the landscape.

I’d be afar more inclined to spend the extra few thousand dollars and go for the Isuzu which is more highly regarded by the trade anyway, thanks mainly to its superior engine. The Holden would have to be considerably cheaper than the D-Max to earn my hard-earned cash.