General 500 collection Wednesday

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General 500 collection Wednesday

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Aug 14, 2021
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Finally found a dualogic 500 lounge for my wife, we are collecting it Wednesday, it is 2018 but just 580 miles from new.
We have paid for a 3 year Bristol street extended warranty for a bit of extra piece of mind.
Any tips for a newbie owner would be appreciated
 
Thanks John, I’m guessing you are not a fan of the auto, my wife will only do about 3000 miles a year so hopefully it will survive but only time will tell.
Michael
 
Can anyone tell me how to select park with the dualogic cars? It mentions it in the book but vague as to where it is
 
Can anyone tell me how to select park with the dualogic cars? It mentions it in the book but vague as to where it is
It is not an automatic gearbox in the traditional sense . It is a manual gearbox with a clutch both of which controlled by a computer and actuators. The computer and actuators are often referred to as "a robot".
Therefore it may not have a park position , try the forum search function.
 
Hi Jack
That is what I thought but it does mention P in the handbook section on the dualogic
 
Are they that bad?
When they stop working it costs far more than the car is worth to fix,if you can find someone to attempt to fix it.

You have been given good advice regarding dealer warantee - Do check that the dealer will cover the full cost of any repairs during warantee period and do not excluded any part of the dualogic system and clutch -get this in writing from dealer.
 
Are they that bad?

For a start, they don't work like a conventional auto with a torque converter. Some folks are fine with this; others just don't like the way the car drives. That's why you must always, always, always take the car for an extended test drive before committing to anything.

Then there's the reliability issue; they don't always give trouble (some here have seen >100k miles without issues), but generally after 40000-60000 miles, parts will start wearing out. Many, though not all, will be difficult and costly to fix.

Basically, once you're out of warranty, you're just one warning light away from a potential £2000+ bill that could appear at any time, with little or no other indication that anything is wrong. At this point, if they can clear the warning light, many folks just trade them in; they almost never get fixed before being sold on; there are dozens out there right now on forecourts, just waiting for some unsuspecting punter to come and buy them, which is why I recommend anyone who does still want one to buy it new and trade it away before the warranty ends.

On the plus side, in 1.2 form, they're one of the most fuel efficient automatics you can buy - not having those torque converter losses saves you 15%-20% on fuel compared to a slushbox.
 
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Well all went ok yesterday and my wife seems pleased with her 500, we still can’t figure out the procedure for stopping the car, the handbook says to select P which is supposed to light up in the speedo display but we can’t find how to activate P, so if anyone knows do let us know, it clearly doesn’t like being turned off in neutral.
 
For a start, they don't work like a conventional auto with a torque converter. Some folks are fine with this; others just don't like the way the car drives. That's why you must always, always, always take the car for an extended test drive before committing to anything.

Then there's the reliability issue; they don't always give trouble (some here have seen >100k miles without issues), but generally after 40000-60000 miles, parts will start wearing out. Many, though not all, will be difficult and costly to fix.

Basically, once you're out of warranty, you're just one warning light away from a potential £2000+ bill that could appear at any time, with little or no other indication that anything is wrong. At this point, if they can clear the warning light, many folks just trade them in; they almost never get fixed before being sold on; there are dozens out there right now on forecourts, just waiting for some unsuspecting punter to come and buy them, which is why I recommend anyone who does still want one to buy it new and trade it away before the warranty ends.

On the plus side, in 1.2 form, they're one of the most fuel efficient automatics you can buy - not having those torque converter losses saves you 15%-20% on fuel compared to a slushbox.
Thank you for this info, the good news is it was registered in January 2019 so still hopefully in warranty and then Bristol Street Motors sold us a 3 year warranty, there own I think by Motor Assured so hopefully we are covered.
The car is ultra low mileage with just 650 miles on it when we got home and my wife will probably only do about 2000 miles a year in it so we maybe lucky
 
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