My partner is selling her car 'cos she no longer needs it for work.She has full ncd but is concerned that when she cancels her insurance,the hard built-up ncd will disappear in the mists of time.If she were to buy another car in a couple of years time,how does she revalidate the accrued ncd?And how long do ins. cos.keep it live? Read more

morning all.

ever tried to "do the right thing" and got it totally wrong?
i did last night, i was driving home from town about 10.00pm, and had just entered a twisty, narrow section of road that is a couple of miles long, when suddenly a smallish white van (escorty type) came right up behind me flashing its lights and blowing it's horn. this was closely being chased by a fully regailed police car, with blue lights and siren.
thinking that the van had been nicked by joy-riders, i tried to slow it down to allow the chasing police car to either try and effect a stop, or to set something up further up the road. i must of held it up for about five mins in all!. however, when the road widened again, both the van and the police car shot past me, and it was only then that i saw the words "police dogs" emblazoned down the side of the van and across the back doors!.
drove home very sheepishly:-(.
this morning (09.40) answered a knock at door, only to be confronted by a police constable and constabless, who asked if i owned and was driving vehicle reg no******* last night, to which i replied "yes", they then proceeded to give me a real ticking off, and at one stage warned that i may be charged with "obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty",
although after i explained, they weren't in a better frame of mind, but at least they left without actually charging me.
sometimes billy can't do right even when he tries!!!:-(. Read more

Bit of a long post, but it could happen to any of us:

Some friends of ours had an accident in August last year. They were driving along the M62 when they hit a sudden rainstorm, hit an area of pooled water and ended up doing a couple of three sixties before hitting the central reservation and halting a couple of hundred yards later on. Damage to car - one rear wheel was ripped out along with the driveshaft, front spoiler was smashed in two and two airbags deployed. The car was transported off to the local repairer (the car is a smart and they wanted it to go to a smart specialist, but insurance recommended repairer said they knew how to fix smarts).

After the accident our friends advised their insurance company that the car would need a full and proper check. If the Tridion (the metal part of the body) was twisted it would have to be written off. The insurance company refused to right off the car.

In November, depite chasing the car was still being repaired - the repairer were waiting for parts (the car had customised wheels which needed to be ordered).

Chasing continued and my friends were told the car should have been written off as the company had spent so long on the car it was costing the repairers money - the insurance would only pay up to the quote they offered.

The repairers had a problem they couldn't solve and sent it to a smart dealer, they refused to touch it due to the standard of the work which had been carried out to that point! (They know this because they know the guy at the smart centre who made the assessment).

This weekend the car returned to them on the back of a truck as according to the repairer it was repaired.

After being unloaded my friends looked at the car and were straight on to the insurance company. Before the accident the car was pristine. It now looks like the car has been stored in a muddy field for the past six months, the inside is soaking wet so it may have been kept outside with the roof open (the car is a cabrio and the roof stopped working after the accident - this was found after the garage thought they had fixed everything), the carpets are thick with mud, the leather seats are stained and covered in white stains where the water has dried.

The roof still doesn't work, one of the tyres has a spilt in the side wall, the panels and tridion are covered in deep scratches, on lifting up the carpet in the rear to check the engine bay a wire has been duck taped across the back of the car (we don't know what it's for as our smart cabrio doesn't have a similar wire). Half the parts which were supposed to have been ordered aren't on the car, including a new seat back which has to be replaced if side airbags are deployed (has the side airbag been replaced or have they just put on a cover?) there are exposed wires behind the seats and the front spoiler has been stuck back together and is hanging off.

To top it all someone at the repairers has stuck a 'Max Power' sticker in the cabrio window - 1) They wouldn't advertise Max Power 2) Anyone with a cabrio will know not to put stickers on them as the glue can ruin the plastic.

The insurance company sent a recovery truck to take it to the local smart dealer who are to assess the car.

What should my friends do? Can they have the car written off due to the cost. It will need at a minimum a new interior, new roof, new panels and a respray. What recourse do they have against the insurance company and the repairers (who obviously knew nothing about smart cars)?

Needless to say after 6 months they are totally p'd off. They have had to SORN the car and it's obviously dropped in value. If the car is written off can they insist on the value when the accident happened?

Read more

I felt really chilled at the start of last week, and consequently for the first couple of days my driving style was different. I was sticking to 70 on the motorway and not pushing it to 80, and was accelerating gently from standstill and also when picking up speed. After a couple of days I noticed that there was a marked increase in my petrol consumption, so I carried on with the same style.

When I filled the tank yesterday, just after the warning light came on, I had done 370 miles, compared to the usual 300.

I average 30,000 per year, so instead of 100 refuelings, at this rate I would only need 81, and at £40 per tank, that's almost £800 worth of savings, and it's only added a few minutes onto my daily commute.

This week I'm going to attempt the 400 mile barrier. Drove to work today and didnt enter lane 3 at all, instead choosing to mix it with lorries (when the gap was big enough) and stick around the 60 mph mark.

Sadly I know that this attitude won't last :o( Read more

Need cheering up on a Monday morning?

Have a look at this -

www.stupidnorthernmonkey.co.uk/index.htm

Especially like the tin can used as a big-bore exhaust!

(Beware some of the language wouldn't make it onto this forum) Read more