Ask The Guide

Your car is now nine years old, which makes it difficult to claim on VW, but it has only done 70,000 km, so that’s in your favour. If a VW dealer had been servicing it I would attempt to convince VW to cover at least part of the cost of the replacement. Otherwise I think you will find it hard to get VW to cough up.

The tyre guys are correct that carmakers set their pressures based on a blend of performance, economy, comfort and wear. Tyre companies generally advise that you run higher tyre pressures for better performance and economy, but that will compromise the ride comfort. I would run a higher pressure for the benefits to handling and fuel consumption. Make sure you rotate your tyres regularly, that will even out the wear over the life of the tyres.

It’s still under Skoda’s new car warranty, so they are responsible for fixing it. You should continue to attempt to deal with the company to get it fixed. If you feel that Skoda is not taking the appropriate action than take them to the ACCC and try and get something happening that way.

Sales of the Equinox have been slow, even Holden admits that. Just 364 were sold in February, which left the Equinox trailing the class-leading Mazda CX-5 by a huge 1817 and leaving it in 11th place for the month.

It’s probably best to get out of the car rather than continue to try and rectify the problems. You could try and negotiate a better deal as a trade-in, but if you did that you would be left driving another VW and that’s probably not what you want. You could seek advice on your legal options from the Queensland consumer affairs department. But the best option might be to trade the car in on something from a rival brand.

There’s no rule about when cars should or shouldn’t need repair. That Nissan has offered you a deal to cover half the cost of a replacement turbocharger is tantamount to an admission that the turbocharger shouldn’t have failed at that distance. If you feel that Nissan’s offer isn’t up to scratch take them to VCAT.

Since its introduction in 2006 Holden has sold the Daewoo-designed and built Captiva crossover SUV in both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. Although they have sold a range of different engine and transmission options there has never been a rear-wheel drive layout offered.

Removing the grille from an RG-series Holden Colorado is fairly simple. First, get hold of a T20 Torx bit and a 10mm socket. There are seven fasteners on top of the grille, which you can remove by opening the bonnet. To remove the entire front bumper assembly, you need to remove the T20 Torx bits holding the bumper to the inner guards on the left and right (in front of the wheels). There are also three 10mm bolts holding the bottom of the bumper to the undertray which need to be removed, before slowly prying the bumper away from the car. Take note of a clip under the outside edge of each headlight, prying those clips away slowly.

Mazda produce their super-popular compact car, the Mazda3, in several facilities around the world, including Hofu, Japan, Bogota, Colombia, Tehran, Iran, and Taoyuan, Taiwan. It is built by Mazda themselves, who call it the Axela in Japan and China.

Though they were originally rear-drive, Aussie Corollas have been driven by the front-wheels since the era of stonewash and perms (that is the 1980s, kids). We also had a Corolla-based four-wheel drive in the early '90s badged Tercel, though it didn't last long. Overseas, the Corolla has had all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive variants, some even featuring turbochargers. For Australia, the last rear-drive Corolla was the KE70-series, though the early 1980s rear-drive Sprinter was also based off a Corolla platform.