Car Mechanics

Car Mechanics is the UK's only car magazine with essential advice on maintaining and repairing popular makes and models. It’s an invaluable motoring resource that appeals to both the DIY car enthusiast and the more experienced motor trade professional. Car Mechanics has helped save money for our readers every month since 1958. Each issue includes a wide range of in-depth features written in a clear, straightforward manner: • Readers’ motoring-related problems answered for FREE • Real-life motoring dilemmas from our man in the garage trade • Electronic diagnostics delves inside a different modern vehicle each month to explain its management system • Survival Guide looks at new and used component prices for a particular vehicle • Used Car Focus is an in-depth buying guide on a specific make and model • Service Bay covers a full service with close-up images and comprehensive descriptions • Project cars are a major part of the structure of the magazine as we buy, fix and sell different vehicles over a period of months So if you're into saving money and being a home technician, Car Mechanics will help you out - guaranteed!

Insignia & Mondeo production to end

The Peter Simpson COLUMN • Classic or domestic utensil? Peter ponders the status of his Volvo 240 estate…

SALVAGE HUNTERS • Purchasing a salvage vehicle at auction is a great way to save money but only if you know what you are doing, as Rob Marshall discovers.

Tales from the workshop • Fixing advice from our garage proprietor Steve Rothwell

7G-Tronic autobox service • PART THREE: We continue with the brake overhaul, and refresh the automatic gearbox oil, filter and sump. Andrew Everett runs us through the third instalment.

Paintwork & more problems • PART SIX: In the final episode, Rob Hawkins completes the final jobs and visits the bodyshop to have several scratches and marks repaired on the exterior of our Astra.

OIL DRAINAGE EQUIPMENT • Rob Hawkins has spent time locked in his garage, testing 15 different oil drain pans, bowls, containers and drip trays.

Should you go ELECTRIC? • Misinformation about electric vehicles (EVs) can lead you to make the wrong car purchasing choice, leading Rob Marshall to kick off our EV supplement with an impartial look at the current situation.

What is an electric vehicle? • When salespeople struggle to define what they are selling, what hope do the rest of us have? Rob Marshall, therefore, clarifies how electrified transport is defined.

Once zapped, there’s no coming back • When working on a high-voltage vehicle, Rob Marshall finds that there is more to safety than not touching orange cables.

The DIY Potential • Like every car, BEVs benefit from owner care. Rob Marshall provides an overview of their similarities, differences and repair possibilities, compared to combustion-powered cars.

Leaf it out! • Electric vehicles are fairly expensive at the moment, and it looks like they will stay fairly high priced until the world calms down again and oil prices become less ridiculous. Eventually the prices of used EVs will fall again and the supply and demand will start to even out. Eventually there will be a good choice of older electric vehicles, so is there any merit in buying a cheap EV? Well, I bought one, and this is how it turned out...

Tesla Model 3 SERVICE • CM reader, Steve Everitt, bought himself a 60th birthday present – a new Tesla Model 3. Now, after a year with the EV he decided to it needed a service and didn’t want to be paying for someone to do what he could do perfectly well himself. This is what he found...

Charging up • The topic of charging seems complex and intimidating but Rob Marshall reveals it to be fairly straightforward, as he considers the basics.

BMW i3

HYUNDAI IONIQ

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