Honest John - modern diesels

..any reasonable (i.e. not reverse if moving forward) gear, both feet on the brake pedal, grit teeth..easy. If that doesn't work, time to get a car with brakes.

Zathras gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I didn't say you couldn't stall it. I said you can't turn it off.

I kind of like it, but I've driven diesels for 10 years now. It does take some getting used to compared to an average petrol though.

It's a pretty spectacularly rare fault though.

Doesn't the supercharger fill in the hole before the turbo spools up? I'd imagine a 1.4 petrol turbo off-boost would be a bit limp.

That relies on the driver realising what is happening /before/ it goes bang :-)

"Duncan Wood" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

No, it isn't.

True - but if it costs £1 per car, and they sell 10m cars, that's quite a saving. What the manufacturers do is balance the cost of warranty repairs (ie. frequency of it happening during warranty period) against the cost of avoiding it happening in the first place. If the warranty repairs are cheaper, then they can save the money, and pick up the cost if it does break during warranty - alternatively, if it fails out of warranty, they can either sell a new car, or fix it at significant cost.

Really. It's never happened to any diesel engine I've been involved with. Running on carburated petrol engines yes, never seen it on a diesel.

Checking the dipstick once a week in your weekly checks you're supposed to do would have achieved the same thing...

Tyre pressures I do weekly. Everything else tends to be every couple of weeks.

With a twin spark Alfa you need to check the oil whilst driving the bloody thing, never mind once a week.

for the Mondeo, 6 litres of oil in 7000 miles is a bit heavy, don't you think?

If I had a new vehicle I would check the oil regularly, at least till I knew what it was like on consumption, the average woman and lots of men would think it unnecessary on a brand new car between services. I am certain that massive oil consumption would not occur, full stop, on a Toyota (for instance) engine in its first few months.

That's got to be an issue that the sales team should mention though.

"Duncan Wood" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Find me a handbook that DOESN'T say "Check the oil level regularly"

Pete M gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Is that the manufacturer's fault?

Find me an average driver who reads the handbook.

I do, but only to find the little tricks that tend to be hidden on most cars.

I believe it's fairly common for riders of new BMW motorbikes to observe quite a bit of oil usage for the first few thousand miles.

I've never had a new anything so wouldn't know. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

No, but for the sake of saving a quid, tops, the manufacturer can end up with an awful reputation for unreliability. See Fiat / Alfa / Rover for details.

Trabant, Wartburg, Saab 93...