March 2002
I/we have an old (1991) H reg 405 GTX estate automatic. The poor old thing must be getting to the end of its natural. what do I/we do?
Flog it privately? put it into BCA at Blackbushe? part exchange it, or what? How much am I/we (notice I am being very careful to include her indoors in this decision making) going to get?
On the plus side, it is very comfortable and bowls along at respectable speeds, I quite fancy a Honda Civic or possibly a Ford Focus. Any advice from you guys and gals out there?
Don Read more
Had to laugh whilst watching the goggler last night. I understand that John Law has been known to prosecute people for drinking pop, eating sarnies, using phones etc whilst driving along. I don't know what the programme was called but it was all about armed response vehicles. The bit I saw showed the passenger passing a loaded handgun to the driver whilst in motion. The driver then put this into the holster by his side, still whilst in motion. This was a loaded weapon since the commentary stated that the handguns and rifle are kept loaded. Surely, the driver was not concentrating wholly on his driving whilst putting his gun away. Hopefully the safety catch was on but even so surely this is a most dangerous thing to do, especially as the car was travelling at speed on its way to an incident. Read more
Andy
You've obviously never had proper weapons training. Never, never trust a safety catch!!
Regards
john
I have a 1999 1.4 Ford Focus Zetec. I do not have remote central locking but there is central locking with the key. The central locking function comes and goes and is currently inactive and I have to manually lock each door. I suspected that it may have something to do with the fuse, however, when I went to check the fuse, fuse number 63 according to the manual, I found that the fuses in both the main and auxiliary fuse boxes only go up to number 64!
Am I missing something here?
Tom. Read more
There are two fuse boxes on a Focus, one under the bonnet and the other behind the glove box. Sad the things you remember eh?
Have you seen the latest piece of EU legislation (DT today) that will hit us soon. This is the EU Physical Agents (Vibration) Directive and it seeks to impose time limits on the numbers of hours driving or operating vibrating machinery.
It concerns, mainly, lorry drivers and farmers and might result in, for example:
Lorry drivers being restricted to 6 hours driving per day.
Tractor drivers being restricted to between 6 and 8 hours driving per day. This is double the original proposal, resulting from objections by the NFU. Farmers have also been given 5 years extension to convert existing machinery to comply with the new directive.
Other affected activities would be: chainsaws (1.5 hours use per day); dumper truck driving (2 hours per day); road drill (47 minutes per day).
Apparently, the limits were agreed in Brussels yesterday and will be published this summer. The directive now has to be rubber stamped by the European Parliament and the EU's Concil of ministers. The UK Government will then have 3 years to implement the regulations.
All the above apprently stems from a desire to protect workers from lower back injury, and uses some arcane formula to measure "whole body vibration".
Did I miss a few weeks, or has April 1st come early?
Ian Read more
or you could take their chairs away from them.
Apparantly traffic jams and rush hours cost this country £1.9 billion.
How naive from our local Philippines press!!!!!
And yet London can't hold a candle when it comes to Manila traffic congestion, so I guess I can see why the local journos snapped it up!
follows.......
Mayor of London Favors Bikes to Reduce Congestion and Pollution in the City.
London's Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced that he?s going ahead with plans to charge drivers £5 a day to use central London roads. Motorcycles and scooters will be exempt from the charges so the £25 a week saved will make motorized two wheel transport a very desirable thing for Londoners.
The area concerned is circumscribed by a ring road running from King?s Cross station in the north to Elephant and Castle in the south, Victoria station in the west to Fenchurch Street in the East. It covers around eight square miles.
The rule will apply 7am to 6.30pm each week day. It is due to be implemented from February 17, 2003. Sales of scooters and motorcycles are expected to rise significantly while traffic congestion and pollution levels could drop to a fraction of what they are now. Are you reading this Mayors of the Philippines?
THis is *not* smut. Start with the FAQ's.
homepages.ihug.com.au/~webwrx/motosex/index.htm
These guys are weird - normal men can only get it on looking at bikes... Read more
That is funny. I mean, if the cars were draped with women, then maybe.
My wife bought a 206 (new) in September last year. It only came with a cassette player as standard and she'd like it upgrading to a CD player. The garage tells me that this variety of 206 has 'multiplex' wiring and that the installation of the CD player should be done by them rather than a general audio dealer.
Are they trying to pull a fast one here? Read more
My Accord has multiplex wiring. Fitting a new radio was simply a matter of finding the correct harness adapter in Halfords and fitting the new unit. The problems start when the display is separate from the radio, or there are controls on the steering wheel. These operate through the multiplex system, so the new radio needs to be able to read the signals.
Andy
Just got back from a big auto show/conference in Detroit. One of the more interesting events was a debate about trying to convert Americans to the idea of driving diesels. The govt regulators there are very keen that diesel take up increases and Ford seem to be leading the efforts to educate. (except in California where they don't want to know apparently).
Why does Europe have such a high proportion of diesels? Is it all to do with fuel costs do you think?
(A conference note: The (ex-Jaguar MD) new top Ford guy Nick Scheele was an excellent speaker and comes across as very credible. He certainly wowed the audience. Doubt he's so popular in Dagenham)
One questioner asked if it was the smell of diesel at the pumps (where available) that could be putting the US consumer off. The oil baron on the panel replied that whether gasoline or diesel, it all smells like money to him. Good answer! Read more
S320CDi has got to be one of the best cars on the market. Period.
I have a W reg Avensis 1.8GS which I use as my company vehicle - I chose my own car rather than take the company vehicle and am pleased to say that I seem to benefit.
In the last couple of months I had noticed, with increasing frequency, that I occasionally experience a 'clunking' noise from the steering. I drive reasonably high mileage and my warranty at 60000 miles would expire this week. As my next service is not due until 63000 miles I thought that I would report the noise to my Toyota dealer at 59850 miles and hence claim warranty. The car has always been serviced correctly and the cam belt is being changed today.
To my surprise they agreed that this steering clunk indeed was an issue and that it would be sorted out under warranty. When I queried the remedial action I was told that the steering column requires removal and Toyota's 'fix' is to pack the joint ( or whatever is causing the clicking ) with 'special' grease. I booked the car in and left to ponder this apparent 'fix'.
I left the car there this morning, now with 60200 miles on the clock, and again queried the solution and asked how long this was intended to last. I was told that Toyota did not consider that this was a long term fix and that if the problem returned outside warranty then the cost would be down to me !!!! I questioned further as my warranty now expires this week but was told that this is the only solution. As I drive high mileage I am obviously concerned as to whether this short term fix is really acceptable if they know that the problem exists, it seems that thay are just doping the car to get it through the warranty period. Is it likely to be a safety issue ?
If anybody has any similar knowledge or advice this would be appreciated as I now also intend to write to Toyota HQ UK.
Many thanks. Read more
Spoke to Toyota GB today who will now also discuss with the dealer and get back to me. I will keep you informed of any useful development.
Question: Am I reading this as the 4 year warranty only applied to 1997 build year ?
One hears lots of criticism of the Beeb, but for an expat, it still remains a source of excellence in broadcasting compared with what we have to put up with here in the Land of Sun and Fun. 120 cable channels with about 4 worth watching. When the chips are down, if you live outside Britain BBC news reporting is incomparable vs. the alternatives, even if often weighted unevenly in terms of time allocation to things it seems to have a bee in its bonnet about (Zimbabwe elections etc), or endless John Simpson wading through muck and bullets somewhere where it's very dark and he has to shout all the time.
However, I fear the comments I read about the Beeb's perceived decline in standards may after all have some validity.
Yesterday my BBC World TV programmes started being over-dubbed with spoken Japanese. Now then, I could care less about missing the football results and What Doctor Mugabe Did Today Shock Horror, but I do get teed off when I can't enjoy the re-runs of The Car's The Star which are currently being aired, especially as I want to tape them. As HJ pointed out, this is an excellently produced programme, and the choice of classics it covers is impeccable. It must be, since they include the Mustang ;-). Now, while I have a faint grasp of Nippongo, mainly gleaned from nights in hostess bars and trying to find my way out of Shinjuku underground station (which is like a ghastly computer game, only this time it's real), it's not much; neither do my abilities extend to lip-reading Quentin Willson.
I call my cable provider to enquire. No sir, no idea. Started yesterday, maybe BBC changed the frequency or something. Maybe somebody moved the satellite sir. (I liked that one). Called some friends with different cable providers. Yeah, we've got the same problem. Must be the Beeb. Oh alright, let's call BBC World in London.
We learn first that the hours for BBC World Customer Service (that's W-O-R-L-D, as in globe, Planet Earth, different timezones etc) are 0900-1730. How convenient (for them). We also learn that the Beeb has one of those push-button menus that you know, you just know, is going to be answered by someone called Darren or Tracy who has a doctorate in speaking in a featureless monotone from a prepared script. And, lo, so it transpires, even though after the obligatory 3 minutes of Mozart while the phone meter's running, Darren introduces himself as Robert.
No, that's impossible, we don't overdub our transmissions to the Philippines.
But somebody is.
Talk to your cable provider......sir (afterthought).
I did, he doesn't know any Japanese and everyone has the same problem. He says have you moved your satellite.
Satellites don't move sir.
I don't know, he just said to ask you.
Well, we don't know anything about it.
Let me illustrate for you (takes cordless phone to TV and holds it over Quentin Willson who looks right out of character apparently describing MGB bumper heights in Japanese). You hear what I mean.
No, not really .....(sir).
So you can't help me?
No, not really.
What do I do then?
Really can't help you (no "sirs" any more).
Growler feebly attempts joke: surely you don't want to make me migrate to the Fox News Channel instead ho ho? (anyone familiar with Fox News will know the irony of this remark).
That's your choice entirely, of course, proclaims Darren/Robert, right on course for Humorless Drone of The Year Award. Will there be anything else?....
........I'm still getting the weather forecast for New Caledonia in Japanese but least Robert didn't tell me to have a nice day.
So, and this is the serious part of this post, if anyone has a set of The Car's The Star on VHS, preferably in NTSC format but PAL would do at a pinch, let me know..... Read more
The television equivalent of Pearl Harbour, perhaps? :)
what maddens me in these days of technology is the NEED to overdub stuff. Subtitles have been around for years, so why not have them, not some mindless commentary...
Is it because people have forgotten hoe to read?
I have seen some overdubs where the "new" commentary lapses - and what the guy is saying is TOTALLY different to what is coming across on screen ...
Browse
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Bummer - you got me her under false pretences. First car was a 404 (73 on an L so it was a late. Had the "vibrating rear axle" that blighted these if the wrong oil was used in the diff plus the tendancy to lose 3rd and 4th gear when one of the connections from the column change came loose.
Guess I'm a bit misty eyed but it was built like a tank and it would be great to have one again - just to do about 1000 miles a year in.
The tinny 405 was a bit of an insult to its memory.