Ask The Guide

The Crown was a well-built, reliable car in its day, but you’re buying an old car so you should expect to have problems due to age and presumably high kilometres. The best thing to do is to contact a Toyota club and ask them for advice. They are the experts and should be able to help you.

Depending on the condition, service history, and past use it would be between $9000 and $12,000.

The C63 is a good car worth buying, if it hasn’t been thrashed and had a good record of regular servicing. With that sort of mileage on it you should be able to enjoy many years of reliable and fun motoring in the future. Costs of servicing can be high if you used a dealer, but you can reduce the cost by going to an independent Mercedes-Benz specialist mechanic.

Has any work been done that might have involved disconnecting the electrics? I would suspect that there could be a problem with the wiring connections. Best take it to an auto elec.

You should never assume anything; she should have asked if there was to be a charge before she left the dealership. It’s too late to complain now. As for the radar sensor, it does seem that it is very sensitive to being knocked out of alignment, and I would have thought VW should help out with the cost or realigning it. The dealer has offered to cover part of the cost, but not all of it. If you feel inclined you could pursue VW for the total cost of repairs, but it’s by no means and open-and-shut case that you would be successful.

I don’t believe there’s an SUV that would meet your needs. The best and most sensible solution would be a peoplemover, like a Toyota Tarago, Hyundai iMax, VW Transporter.

It could be, but it’s impossible to now for certain unless you have it dismantled.

I understand your frustration; I also agree that diesel buyers should be made aware of the possible consequences resulting from the way they will use the car. Blocking of the DPF because of being used on short, low speed trips is quite common across most brands, so it could be argued that you should have done you homework and known that. As to whether you have good grounds for a refund I can’t say, but I suspect you could request a refund, or part refund, as a gesture of good will from Renault.

It could well be a sensor problem, but actually pinning it down when it only happens intermittently is difficult and there might not be anything obviously at fault when the dealer checks the car. There’s no simple answer, except to keep on trying to fix it.

The problem with the lights could be a timer issue, have it checked by a dealer. The steering noise could be a worn joint, again, have a dealer check it.