Ask The Guide

Your best course of action is to take it to a dealer or an auto electrician to find what's causing the problem.

I would rule out the Cruze straight away, they have too many issues with reliability with them to be considered. The Elantra and the Camry are both good cars. Your budget should allow you to buy a 2014 Elantra, but probably won’t stretch to a Camry. You might have to go for a 2012-2013 Camry.

Diesels work at their best when they're running fully warmed-up and for long periods. If you aren't doing a reasonable amount of kilometres you can have trouble with the DPF system in the car, which can become clogged and require servicing to clear it. In your situation, doing very short trips to and from work each day I would buy the petrol variant.

To have a transmission fail after just 100,000 km is not acceptable, particularly when it hasn't been used for towing. I assume it's a dual-clutch automatic, which has been troublesome in many Fords around that time. Ford should be showing some interest in fixing it for you; at the very least they should be offering you part compensation for a replacement transmission. If you can't get any help from Ford's customer service people, go to the Victorian government's consumer affairs department, or think about going to VCAT.

It's odd that it only does it under acceleration. That makes me think it's not tyres or alignment; have the driveline checked, particularly the CV joints.

It could be something as simple as a stone caught in a caliper. If you can't get any satisfaction from your dealer report the problem to Kia's customer assistance service (131542) and request their help. Hopefully you can back up your claims that it was there from day one with some form of documentation.

The Hyundai i20 and i30 are both fine car, so too is the Lancer, of the three the i30 is the better. You should be able to find a 2010 model with your budget. You won't have any problems with getting parts if you need them, and they are quite reliable, so you shouldn't have any trouble with them in short to medium-term.

We contacted Toyota about your concern and a spokesman responded with the following: "We are very sorry to learn that your reader has experienced this accident. I can confirm that the power back door fitted to the 2011 Kluger indeed includes jam protection functionality, which reverses the direction of the door, should it detect an obstruction or resistance. Additionally, when the power back door is either opening or closing, the vehicle hazard lamps flash and an audible warning sounds, to notify the occupants and passers-by that the door is either coming up or down. During the final 330 mm (approx.) of the closing arc, the speed at which the back door closes reduces prior to engaging the lock mechanism. While the above safety features are built into the door mechanism, as with any automated function or technology, it is important that the operator ensures conditions are safe and appropriate at all times during usage. I hope your reader's son makes a full and speedy recovery."

The new car warranty was for five years or 130,000km, so while it still meets the time part of the deal it's beyond the kilometer limit. Any extended warranty you have would have come from the dealer rather than Mitsubishi, so you would have to read the warranty conditions to know if the turbo seals are covered. I would expect they are if they fail because of being faulty.

Your car is out of warranty, so you would have to make a goodwill claim for BMW to replace the bottle free of charge. I think they should come to the party with the cost of replacing the bottle, and by all means try that, but I doubt you will be successful. There are many plastic components used in the cooling system on BMWs, and like the expansion bottle on your car they all eventually give trouble. In my view it's poor engineering.