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A few weeks ago I came across an almost new, Valeo brand, LED headlamp assembly. This one was from a BMW, but as it was a Valeo item, it is probably very similar in design to the headlamps that go in a lot of new cars. When complete in its enclosure there is nothing much to see, really. So, I did what any person would do, I sawed it in half to have a look. Beyond all the 'Angel Eyes' BMW bits, you eventually get to the main beam unit, pictured below. I should add that the two halves of the outer headlamp assembly are very strongly stuck together with mastic/sealant - these inner parts are not serviceable. You would only see these bits after you had destroyed the outer container. The main beam unit has five LEDs, three for low beam and two for high beam, I assume. The large heatsink sits inside of the main headlamp enclosure. Hopefully you can what-is-doing-what in the photos - these pics were a bit rushed. The LEDs lie horizontally on their heatsink and shine into the reflector, to be then turned through 90 degrees, shine past the 'beam cutoff mask' and then through the plastic lens. Nice, innit?

No - as someone who comes from a procurement background and is used to sourcing the market, the manufacturer will source from their supply chain, parts which meet their requirements/specificiation. Depending how close the relationship is between the manufacturer and component supplier and depending on the type of part, parts may well be designed by the component supplier to meet the requirements/specification. For some parts, vehicle manufacturers may have more than one supplier to ensure continuity of supply, but that isn't always the case. One example where parts used by a vehicle manufacturer weren't generally available in the marketplace was the Toyota Verso S, where the OE tyres were a specific, unusual (for the UK) size. These tyres weren't generally available in the UK for months and the tyre manufacturer (Dunlop) had no plans to introduce that size in the UK. The fact that there is so much choice in the UK for certain vehicles/parts, is down to third party manufacturers seeing there is a viable market for them to produce parts for those vehicles and nothing else.

Looks like I'm going to have to doesn't it. I thought it would be better to ask a designated forum rather than a generic moron in an office. Toyota don't even seem to have a name for this wheel in the brochure, so knowing the name or number of the colour seems very unlikely. I'll go down my local auto paint shop and see what I can match! Thanks anyway .

I paid 11k for mine, ex demonstrator, had about 4k on the clock,was under 12 months old, here we are getting on for 9 yeas later ,and apart from tyres and wiper arms,its only ever had a battery change, and i'm still doing a daily 92 mile commute with it.you only get what you pay for,aygo is built to a budget and its cheap to buy ,and it shows. I'd probbly be on my 2nd or 3rd aygo by now in that time, so in my head my iq3 is the better buy

A quick update on this. Firstly, thank you to all you responded & gave me lots of things to consider when it came to finding a suitable car My brother and I took my mother to see some Aygo's and Yaris's and TBH Mum preferred the Aygo so we set about finding her one. We upped our budget a little and last weekend we picked up a 2014 Aygo with 40k on the clock & FTSH for £3.5k which our mother is delighted with & we thought was a good buy for the money. Cheers Martin

Yes Ever last one I think, even the ones in Europe. Thanks

2008 yAris and just usual maintenance expenses.. over 350000 and running well..

I seem to have built up a bit of a back catalouge of videos to watch, so for the next couple of months I will be posting videos weekly, here's this rather normal episode.

Another new episode has just gone live 😄