June 2005
This morning a couple of druggies ploughed into the front of a car park at our local high school at very high speed, scattering kids all over and hitting (so I'm told) about 9 of them. Miraculously none were seriously injured.
Both were stoned out of their heads. One attempted a runner and was caught quickly by a couple of teachers on the scene. The other was too stoned to get out of the car - they did not know where they were.
No doubt they'll get a community service order, 12 month ban (which they'll ignore anyway) and, in our crim friendly society they'll be able to sue because they could have been injured when the school put bollards in their way (which they knocked flying).
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There's a new Government database that allows you to check if you've been caught speeding. I don't think I've seen it on this site before: www.e-database.co.uk/check.asp Read more
What, go like the blazes?
The reason I'm posting loads on here this evening is because I am hacked off. A very small woman in a very large 4X4 backed it into my Outback this morning but her car had a large tow bar assembly sticking out of its backside and the damage to my car is not insignificant. Surely it is not beyond the ken of the motor industry to devise a towing arrangement that is flush with the back of the vehicle. As an aside, the deliquent driver blamed the 'rubbish' visibility from the rear of her behemoth, not her driving technique. I give up. Read more
Factory-fit towballs only, IIRC. There is legislation that requires any towball (including aftermarket ones) to be removable when not in use if it partially obscures the number plate.
A man has just been imprisoned for 14 months for driving the wrong way along the M62 and M60 at speeds up to 110MPH. The police used a stinger to stop him but he did a U turn and drove on on his wheel rims. What on earth leads a man to deliberately drive like that? Many years ago on the M20 I was passed by a bloke driving the wrong way and it is a very frightening experience, the approach speed leaves you with split second decisions and I was'nt expecting it. Read more
Anyone know why he did what he did, and why for so long, and why then continued on the rims?
Think he should be given a cell with padded walls.
Have any of you guys(or gals)out there done any serious off roading in either an X-Trail(HJ is always reccomending),Honda CRV or Freelander.If so how did they perform?.My reason for asking is a relative of mine is moving to a remote part of Exmoor(off-road to get to house) and is considering purchasing one of the above vehicles.Most info.available is only about their on-road performance.
Any info gladly received. Read more
Some threads in the archive, also some pics on Lee's HJ photo pages.
I have been working in Moscow this week, so after jumping through the necessary 99 visa hurdles in advance, wife and I came out a few days early to do a spot of sightseeing as well. Sticking to a motoring theme - I could else be here all day describing the parallel universe that I found ? following are impressions formed over five days.
We were met at Sheremetyevo II airport by the driver my host had booked, his car surprisingly (to me) being a Rover 75. Moscow was the last place I expected to find such a car, but in fact they are reasonably plentiful along with MG ZTs (though not a single Tourer, ZT-T, or other MG Rover product could be seen).
We found the roads to be in a dreadful state, and driving hierarchy to be clearly driven (excuse the pun) by the size of engine, cost of car, and blackness of window tint, in that order. In other words, from extreme arrogance, through mere forcefulness, to meek compliance if your car has none of the aforementioned attributes or is of local construction. Think aggressive boy racer in tarted up and blacked out ten year old Five Series, and you are thinking of a mere beginner at the game. Undertaking, overtaking, weaving from lane to lane, all conducted with binary approach to throttle and brake, and at great speed along what were once impressive (and still are for sheer scale) boulevards. The masses of locally built cars and a reasonably smattering of mass market cars that we would recognize serve merely as mobile chicanes. Our Rover was being driven at up to 70 MPH through the city, undertaking and overtaking in the process, with us in turn being passed either side. Oh yes, along the dueled sections there are U-turners queued up in the outside lane to avoid, too. I have seen more (all of these cars painted black, of course) Porsche Cayenne Turbo 4x4s, current generation 750iL and V8 X5s, A8 W12s, Bentleys, and even Hummers than I have seen in the rest of my life, all adorned with acres of that aforementioned black tinted glass plus huge, usually chrome, wheels and rubber band tyres. Makes Prague and Shanghai (where I had previously seen such cars in their droves) look poor. If Saturday was typical, at night around the Kremlin and city centre, Japanese and Italian sports bikes are brought out to play, most on race exhaust pipes. The riders are usually without helmets or gloves and are stunt monkeys just out to show off. The police? From my own observation they stand and watch. Believe me UK Speeding Do Gooders worried about 32 MPH in a 30 limit or the need for yet another speed bump in your town, you already live in Utopia! Moscow would give you a coronorary!
Anarchy reins, if you have enough money; I saw many "ordinary" motorists ?pulled? for extremely trivial "offences". The police are allowed to supplement their poor income with fines, so it is apparently better just to cough up 150-200 Roubles (less than a Fiver) and be done with it. Oh yes; as an alternative to sports bikes, I've even seen and heard a deafeningly loud subwoofer equipped Honda Goldwing motorbike for the first time, with the 'three piece drum kit' (luggage) on the back converted to powerful speakers and amplifiers.
The Moscow Times yesterday reported Toyota investing US$140 million at a plant to be built near St Petersburg, with Ford already building the Focus, Renault their CEE market bargain basement models, and GM some Chevrolet cheapies in and around St Petersburg and Moscow. A few pages later, the subject turned to whether it will be sustainable growth for all (?An economic miracle? as it was captioned) or Big Time Bust. I look forward to reading the article properly when I have time to do so as my immediate impression is of plundered wealth being carved up between few. I saw hundreds of vans and minibuses that appear (from a quick Google) to be the GAZ Gazelle, a locally built, last-generation Ford Transit with locally sourced engines (from the different note) and a mild front end ?lights and bonnet? job. Otherwise identical to a Tranny, and with every standard Ford variant represented.
Connecting motoring with transport in general, the 'circle line' on the Metro is the line that has the famous stations that once would have looked fabulous; Beautiful marble, ceramic tiles, gold leaf, and crystal chandeliers. Now they are but a dirty, worn out, and shabby image of what they once were. To Moscow's credit though, the Metro is by far the best run I have ever used with trains every 45-60 seconds throughout the day. Cheap, too (about 25p regardless of journey duration), but I guess that's because those with dosh take the Beemer. All the station names (and city street signs) are written in Cyrillic alphabet though, so this is not a western tourist friendly place. To add to complication, station names change according to the line being used, so I would be totally stumped without my Czech, Russian second language, wife!
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The thing I noticed when Mrs O and I went to Moscow in February was that there were almost no lane markings of any description at all. There was the central Politburo/Mafia lane, but other than that, it was all a free for all. We were visiting a friend who works out there, and she had a flat on Kutzuovsky prospect (sp?) which, as reported elsewhere, has room for about 9 cars abreast in each direction. having been in the back of a Lada in the snow heading towards an oncoming wall of cars, it's quite "exhilarating!"
It's an incredible place, and absolutely fascinating. My best bit was being inside the Kremlin, and watching all the traffic outside stop, the traffic lights inside the Kremlin go green, and a convoy of large black cars (mostly BMWs, but I think there were a couple of Zils there as well) come shooting past us whilst the Kremlin guards snapped to attention.
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
Hi all, I've recently looked at information about becoming a driving instructor, I got the idea off my dad who said he thought I'd be good at it, and I have to admit, the idea of picking and choosing my own hours around uni does appeal to me.
What I'm not at all sure about is the intial outlay that I have to commit to, nearly £3,000 (almost the cost of another full degree on top of the one I'm doing now) in order to get trained.
After that I'm concerned about having an empty diary, from doing some basic spreadsheet calculations based on the figures The Instuctor College have provided I've noticed that my weekly income will be *very* sensitive to the number of students that I have on the books and in order to make enough to live off I would have to do at least 23 hours tuition on evenings and weekends. That's if I was self-employed, which isn't really an option as I reckon it would take weeks or months to get the diary anything like full enough. A bit of press coverage would help if I could get the local paper's motoring section onto the case though. I was basing my figures on a rate of about £17 per lesson and also based on using a fairly decent car that would do half my marketing for me (I'm thinking a low powered MX5, MGTF, or maybe something like a New Vauxhall Tigra) My driving instructor used to have an MX5 and he recokned that it did all of his marketing for him, young people just plain wanted to learn to drive in it.
If I worked for a school, which would be a much prefered option in the early days then I could earn around about £200 per week before tax but after expenses, that's based on figures provided based on someone operating an AA franchise and working 20 hours per week, again, I'm really not sure how accurate these figures are likely to be.
My other option is to keep going steady in a semi-secure call centre role that would certainly offer more stability than a driving school, but offers nothing like the level of flexibility that I would like in an ideal world and pays around £6.50 an hour.
I guess what I'm really after is general advice or words of wisdom from anyone who has had anything to do with driving instruction or better yet, has their own school.
If I think of any more specific questions as I keep investigating this possibility then I'll certainly ask.
Thanks in advance!
Blue Read more
I'm in the North East, Sunderland to be precise. I doubt if they cost quite that much here except with the national schools. I'm gonna do a bit more research today and am going to see my old driving instructor to see if he's willing to share any of his wisdom!
A girl I work with was telling me that her boyfriend is learning and they rang everyone in the local area and couldn't find anyone who charged less than £15 per hour and everyone had a two week waiting list to get in the diary.
Positive news really :-)
Blue
Does anyone know what the Valets at the auctions use to make the cars look and smell in such a way ? Straingly I quite like the smell!
Also any suggestions to the best leather clearer and treatment ?
many thanks,
Simon Read more
www.meguiars.co.uk for me.
VB
Link doesn't seem to work. Read more
I must be the one out of step here - maybe through advancing age (56). To my eyes the new Clio is much easier on the eye than the current model, which (especially the 3-door) looks as if the man who designed the front end didn't meet his rear-end counterpart till fairly late in the proceedings.
It looks more like a big Modus than a small Megane - again a good thing in my book, as the back end of the Megane is ugly and impractical for rear-end visibility.
I think it'll do well. Clearly, chacun a son gout.
The drivers front window on my 2001 Vectra creaks (loudly) when it's opening. A bit of grease required somewhere me thinks. I plan to take a look at the weekend but have a query before I get started.
Having removing the door card, I will then have to remove the plastic sheet to gain access and hence obtain a new one (per Haynes). How do you get the new plastic taught? Are they made to shrink when you apply heat?
Chris M Read more
Thanks.
Chris M
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I think amputation of the hands would work well.At least it would stop them driving.