October 2003
Anyone with a Vectra LPG?
Any comments or views on it? I\'m looking to get a new one and wondered if owners rate them.
Thanks
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From todays Express & Star website.
Police descended on major Black Country roads to carry out a sting operation targeting scores of known offenders.
Officers on motorcycles swarmed the carriageways and pulled aside dozens of vehicles during the 'cherry picking' operation on Wolverhampton's Dudley Road and Stafford Road.
Six people were arrested including five for unrelated offences including two people thought to be responsible for thefts in the city.
In total 49 vehicles were stopped, 10 people were issued fixed penalty tickets for £200 for driving without insurance and 10 for other matters.
Around 30 officers were involved in the operation, which used automatic number plate recognition technology to match number plates to central police records in seconds, allowing officers to pull aside offenders.
Customs and Excise and Magistrates Court Service officers were also present and collected unpaid fines from offenders.
Among those caught during the regular operations are disqualified drivers, those driving cars involved in crimes, accidents or suspicious behaviour, without insurance, MOT or tax, and people using illegal red diesel.
Sergeant Pete Rawlins, of Park Lane traffic unit, said the ANPR system minimised disruption to members of the public and caught criminals, including some wanted for the most serious crimes.
"The emphasis is to focus on the vehicles that may have done something wrong so we don't disrupt ordinary law abiding motorists," he said.
"We are looking for crime and we have made quite important arrests. We are trying to fight crime, we are not trying to pick on the motorist."
Tim Stead of the Magistrates Court Service, said the operation enabled them to tie up a great number of outstanding fines. Read more
Reading several of the threads that have appeared lately (thinking particularly of the "Rant:cyclists" one), it seems to me that there is very little point in having a Highway Code these days as nobody seems to take a blind bit of notice of it.
I realise that learner drivers have to have a benchmark to learn by, and I also appreciate that the Highway Code can be quoted in courts to prove blame or secure a conviction. But most of what is contained in the Code is these days blithely ignored. And I'm not just referring to that bit about letting buses out of bus stops ;-).
I'd be interested to know when any of us here actually (and truthfully!) picked up a copy of the Highway Code, except for helping friends or relatives with their theory tests. It's an awfully long time ago in my case.
To my (probably addled) mind, the Code is no more relevant to today's motoring - despite the updates - than the Policecraft manual of the 70s.
Thing is, what do we have instead? Over to you...
Cheers
Rob Read more
Roger,
It'd certainly be more useful if the DVLA included a copy of the HC with your road tax reminder than all those daft leaflets that no-one ever reads!
Thing is, the section of the motoring public that are most in need of brushing up on their HC are the very section that are least likely to bother with such trifling things as road tax!
Cheers
Rob
Hi all,
I have an Escort 1.6 AUTO, 1998 model which had its front brake pads and discs changed and I noticed a loud 'tick,tick' sound whenever I turn to right. (I had a problem with stalling whenever I start the car first thing in the morning,for a few months now but as it was not troubling much I didn't bother). I took to the Rapid fit where I had the disc/pad changed and they are saying it has nothing to do with disc/pad change and that there is problem with the transmission. It seems like a big job and a big bill.Any one has any suggestion,please
thanks
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Stalling cold when selecting forward ( normaly ok if reverse is selected )is a known concern try www.fedauto.co.uk for help from some one in your area.
Have just seen advertised for sale an Austin Maestro 1.3, 5 Door, 12000 miles.
It is advertised as a 2002 '51' Reg.
Can this be correct? I thought they stopped making these about 10 years ago, so has it been lying around unregisterd somewhere for years? Read more
The basic Maestro concept was a trailblazer, just that the build quality etc didn't match it.
I seem to remember Top Gear doing a piece about some firm in the south who build and sell them for around £5,000.
I'm thinking of taking my Sharan on French motor rail (Callais to Narbonne) in August 2004. Does anyone have any experience of this service such as costs, reliability etc?
Keep upright
Chris
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Pre children we also went from Paris. You leave Paris early (or at least your car does) and there's then time for a morning at leisure, lunch, then catch the TGV to pick up your car.(this was to Avignon) They don't advertise that service over here, but it's the accomodation on the train that costs. Seemed like a good compromise to us, but, as I said, pre-kids!
Since then, have driven, many times. New motorway thru' Clermont Ferrand is good (and that one is free) when they've finished the viaduct at Millau it will be great!
Tim{P}
Hello,
My girlfriend's '95 Fiesta 1.1 has developed a problem. It's using approximately 1 third more fuel than usual, it is down on power and when pressing the throttle you can hear a high pitched noise that I can best describe as air being sucked or blown through a small gap. The noise increases in intensity the further the throttle is pressed. It ceases if you back off the throttle. The noise only seems to happen under load as when revving the engine while stationary I was unable to hear it. Can anyone suggest what this might be?
Her mechanic was unable to diagnose the issue and suggested that she take it to a Ford Gargage so I suspect that this is not his area of specialism. Can someone suggest a garage, tuner in the Bracknell (home) or Farnham (work) areas?
Hopefully, Wolfey Read more
Hello,
Thank you all again for your advice. My Girlfriend took the car to a local tyre and exhaust outfit where she suggested that they should look for a blockage. They seemed quite surprised that she knew what the problem might be but sure enough found that the baffles had collapsed in one of the sections. New exhaust back sections fitted (they said the CAT was fine) and the car's performance is now restored and wheezing gone.
Cheers!
Wolfey.
Playing devil's advocate again. Here goes...
I can't understand why anyone wants a 'personalised' number plate. Do the people who fit them to their cars feel inadequate in some way? The way they manipulate the numbers to represent letters & try to tell the world their name. A bit pathetic I think!
And the prices you see them advertised at - talk about fools & their money...
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Leon on Derv,
I suggest you re-read \"The Small Print\"
( www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm ) which you agreed to upon registering.
It is becoming tedious to keep on having to edit swearing and other remarks from your postings that fall outside the context of the T\'s & C\'s of this site.
For further clarification, you may also want to read www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=12524
This also applies to anyone else. Should this thread require anymore editing from the moderators, then it will pulled instead.
--
Dynamic Dave
Back Room Moderator
mailto:dave_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
Hi All,
Just wondering. Is it possible to have alloys reconditioned? By accident I scuffed the front passenger side alloy up a curb and it looks bit rubbish. Just wondering if they can be fixed rather than spend £200 - £300 getting a new one. The damage occurred around the outside edge of the wheel.
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Nice one. Should have looked there!!
What a good site this is!
www.autoweek.com/specials/2003_tokyo/subie_B9/imag...g
I love it so much already I am speechless! Who cares what engine is under that hood (bonnet?)?! Read more
Wot! no gold coloured alloys? not a proper 'u r a buS' without them...
John R
Browse
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>>> There is only one downside to this, in that it may create a motivation to use cloned number plates from law abiding citizens. <<<
Some years ago, several of my father's employer's mobile phones were cloned. The way that this was picked up by the network was that the 'same' handset made two calls from opposite ends of the country, within a few minutes of each!
I guess therefore that we now need ANPR version 2, where each detector is connected! Although there's a 50:50 chance that you would consequently stop the legal car, at least you would then know that you've been cloned, and the reg ID could then be added to the 'illegal' list.