September 2003
Today a branch of the AA has named the Buxton-Macclesfield road as the most dangerous road in Britain.
Anybody agree that there are no dangerous roads - only dangerous drivers ?
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up Read more
I was going through the HPI checks website .
According to their info , they check
whether the car is a write off/nicked/has outstanding finance/total losses/outstanding insurance interests/national mileage register info/value of car.
for the grand figure of £37.95
Going through a similiar servive called carchecks
which checks stolen/written off / number plate change/first registration/colour change/chassis /vin/engine numbers/number of previous owners/date of last keeper change/imported
for £15 only
Wondering whats the difference apart from the price and how HPI checks manage to get away with it by charging more than double the price of its competitor.
Any ideas anyone?
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I used one of these as a cheap check when I bought mine 9.99.
You'll find the cheap ones don't offer any warranty about the data.
The don't check outstanding finance (most important)
Neither will show a car as a writeoff or stolen/recovered if the previous owner only had 3rd party insurance.
Martin
The position of the steering wheel and pedals on my Corsa 1.2 16V (Jan 2000) seems to be offset to the left relative to the seat. As a result, I'm finding myself twisting to the left while driving, causing some back pain on my right side after about 30 minutes driving.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? Are there solutions to this other than getting a different car?
Thanks
Ed
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This is common in most small cars, and a few larger ones as well. The Nova (Corsa's predecessor) also had the steering wheel offset on the column, so that it moved from side to side during parking.
Just out of idle curiosity prompted by the Peugeot Watchdog thread I clicked on the Vehicle recalls database
www.via.gov.uk/apps/recalls/default.asp
And there I saw listed as a vehicle manufacturer Al-Ko Kober
What on earth is an Al-Ko Kober?
or an Arvinmeritor?
Ayats?
Bajaj?
there are loads of them I have never heard of!
There has been no recall on an AL-Ko Kober BTW, must get one of those, safer than a Peugeot it seems Read more
Al-Ko Kober - Alois Kober - you can find more than you ever wanted to know here - www.alko.co.uk/group/history.htm
You'll be sorry you asked !
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
Hi,
I drove through a fairly severe fuel spillage on a roundabout last Wednesday (cars were sliding all over the place). Today is the first time I have used the car since and the steering still feels very light and there doesn't seem to be much grip. I would have thought that after 70 miles any trace of the fuel would have worn off the tyres.
Has anybody got any suggestions/comments?
Thanks,
Keith Read more
Try a power hose on your tyres, or at the very least, get some cheap washing up liquid, take your wheels off one by one and give then a good scrubbing with neat detergent getting into the tread, then rinse them off with water.
You may have trapped a bit of fuel in the treads and it could be seeping out.
If this doesn't cure the problem, you can atlast eliminate your tyres - and they'll be nice and shiny!
H
A colleague of mine, (honest, it wasn't me) crashed his car this morning into the back of a parked vehicle. Fair bit of damage to both vehicles, possible write off of his car.
He has failed/forgotten to renew his MOT and it is about 2-3 weeks out of date.
Whats the worst case scenario?
To my knowledge, no MOT invalidates insurance, and therefore he has committed a criminal offence. Is this correct?
Will his, and the third party's, insurers check his MOT? Read more
About six months ago my fathers car got hit from behind on the motorway. The Car was a write off and the Police were involved although the incident wasn't his fault.
On checking his MOT he found it was about 3 weeks out of date.
In the end the insurance company paid out deducting about £100 from the value. Plod decided that the MOT was a genuine oversight and decided not to take it any further.
I am thinking of taking H.J`s advice and getting the gearbox oil changed after the first service, and would like to hear from any B.R. members who know where to locate a gearbox magnetic sump plug ?? Thanks. Read more
Porsche fitted a magnetic drain plug to my 911; I believe this is common practice for Porsche.
Up till now I have been a firm believer in the fact that using a phone whilst driving was no worse than trying to light a fag, change a tape, argue with the wife, have screaming weans etc.
They are all distractions but only the mobile phone has had research into it and, subsequently action taken on it.
However, whilst I was sitting in a long queue of moving traffic today (see separate thread), the guy behind me was having a heated conversation into his mobile, one hand was holding the phone and the other was being used to express his actions that no doubt he was telling his caller.
So I am doing 50mph in nose to tail traffic, the guy behind me is driving without a single hand on the wheel!
I flick my sidelights on and the guy obviously sees these at the last minute thinking I have braked. He is totally lost in his conversation, the phone is thrown to the floor, his car swerves into the inside lane and he then gives me the finger and a bawling!
I now advocate a ban on phones! Read more
What about pedestrians using mobiles? a few weeks ago, I had to brake very hard and sound the horn at a pedestrian on a mobile who walked in front of me, luckily for him, I anticipated his actions and was ready for it.
I do agree that people should not drive while using a hand-held phone, I have done this before, and it is VERY difficult to drive, you don't have the extra concentration needed to drive with one hand.
I use a proper hands-free kit, and don't have any probs, I drive as carply as everyone else if I use a mobile in my hand, but I just drive as though Im talking to a passenger if I'm on the hands free.
My theorie, is that for an experienced driver, many driving tasks are automated with little concious intervention, but when talking more concious intervention is required, but when holding a phone to your ear too, so much concious intervention is required to drive, that you are as bad as a new learner.
Just wondering if any Backroomers could come up with some ideas for what is happening to my baby.
Normally I get around 260 up to 300 miles from a tank depending on what type of driving I'm doing.
The other day I noticed that the fuel gauge seemed to have dropped dramatically, despite me only having done 140 miles, it was already under half full.
I know that you can't work out miles per gallon etc. from the gauge, and that they're not terribly accurate, but this really did seemed to have dropped by an enormous amount compared to where it would normally be at that sort of mileage. So I went to the petrol station, filled up (until the pump stopped), so I sat down, worked out my mileage over the gallons used and I had acheived 33 mpg, just 2mpg less than normal (ok I may have been driving enthusiastically!).
So somehow, despite me actually getting largely the same economy as normal, worked out according to the tried and trusted method, my fuel gauge showed a much thirstier story. As I drove away, I noticed that the last bar on the fuel gauge that indicates a full tank was not lit up, after about 5 miles of driving (one journey) I looked again and now the gauge showed a full tank. It normally shows the full tank readout read out instantly.
After more driving, I've notivced that again, the gauge is dropping quicker than it should be.
Car is a 2003 Fiesta 1.4 Petrol.
Sorry about the rambling long post, but I wanted people to know the full circumstances and everything that I have done to try and work it out myself!
Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks
Blue Read more
It could be just a simple fault with the float arm, but, why are you asking such questions when the car is a 2003 model, it should be a case of, "Oi, mr Ford dealer, sort it.".
Pastyman..
I seem to recall that we have a number of Poole residents in the house - can anyone answer the following about the sandbanks to swanage ferry....
1. does it still exist?
2. does it run all year round?
3. ....7 seven days a week?
4. give a rough idea of frequency please.
Much obliged....
CF Read more
I think its great that for once the local people actually get a better deal than visitors. Bournemouths really expensive for parking and living here, but the wages aren't that great.
However, Sandbanks is a bit cheeky giving discounts seeing as its the 4th most expensive place in the world for land prices. Try £2.5m - £8m for a beachfront Sandbanks property....
Quite right.
I was brought up in North Derbyshire and the 'Cat & Fiddle' has always been heavily used by bikers looking for an opportunity to exercise their machines. This results in the inevitable high number of serious high speed accidents, many of which involve a loss of control and no other vehicle.