Hi

I forget the figures (or the units for that matter!) exactly, but if any of you have read The Sun today then you would have noticed Clarkson mentioning the fact that in 1960, there were 9 million cars and 200 thousand miles of road. In 2005, there are 31 million cars and 240 thousand miles of road.

Now to the untrained Sun reader's eye, it appears that clarkson is making a good point about the level of road growth in this country, and that we should all march down to Downing Street on Sunday and demand that the magic some new roads up for us to combat congestion. My question is, however, is do these figures include motorways as one unit length, or does it account for the fact that motorways have 3 lanes and hence count motorway miles thrice?

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Mike Farrow Read more

The wife returned from the shops yesterday visibly shaken.

Appears when she was returning, she misjudged the speed of a clapped out white van at a roundabout and pulled out in front of it (in a 30mph limit by the way!) Next thing she knows, the white van is alongside her and the chav drivers girlfriend is hanging out the window screaming and bawling horrible obscenities at her, with Mr Chav gesticulating wildly from the drivers seat. Next thing, the idiot accelerates past, swings wildly in front of her and in doing so claps on his brakes forcing her to do a full blown emergency stop. She had the presence of mind to pull out and drive on immediately before Chav/Mrs Chav had a chance to come back to the car.

She readily admits she made a mistake, but there is no excuse for this yobbish behaviour! She's now saying she isn't confident about driving in the area in question again. The wife by the way is 5' nowt and wouldn't harm a fly!

It's high time something was done about the level of aggression displayed by some people, but then that would actually mean an effective policing policy, laws that protect the innocent rather than the crims, punishments that befit crimes and a visible police presence, something that seems to be sadly lacking in our country at the moment.

Oh and by the way, take the law into your own hands in a matter like this and guess who ends up with the custodial sentence? Read more

hi,

i've got a problem and need help.

i bought a new model 3 year old vectra from a hyundai dealer a month ago. Straight away there was a problem with a warning light and i also discovered creaks from the suspension and rattles from the back (really loud)

i immediately took it back to get it fixed, it was sourced to the vx dealer nearby to fix them all.

i have had a curtosey car for the past 3 weeks will this has been getting done, i went on thursday to pick it up and the hyundai dealer said it was the warning light that was the problem and why it took so long (new computer ordered)

i drove the car away and the creaking from the front and loud rattle were still there after 3 weeks!

bearing in mind i'm not overly impressed with the car i have decided to take it back and get my money back. but when i went today they said they couldn't accept it as they are fixable problems, they would have to speak to their director.

What are my options here, i didn't know whether to start mention trade descriptions act cos i didn't think it was a bad enough situation.

i don't want to keep the car

i had a month period to get any problems fixed, which i am still in. would that include taking it back?

help me, what are my rights? Read more

2004 Vectra 2.2 DTi auto estate. 28,000 miles. Lost all transmission without any warning, whilst in traffic queue. Car recovered to Vauxhall dealer. After a few days they replaced the autobox ECU. Car initially ran fine but broke down while dealer test driving it.
Still with dealer after 9 days. Vauxhall Technical HQ now considering replacement box. This is an unusual spec car but I would appreciate any comments, suggestions or details of similar auto box problems. Thanks. Read more

Hi, I'm going to start looking around at the 6 soon, I'm hoping to part -ex my 2001 Mondeo Ghia 5dr 2L with 20k on clock FDH. I'm looking at the 5 door in Sport with the 2.3 litre, otherwise it will be the 2L in TS2 grade. Would like one with under 10k on the clock and I'm in the Surrey area.

What sort of deal do you think I should push for? What sort of value should I ask for my car? In the past I always up the value against the screen price of the new car rather then try to knock of money.

I have heard about the clutch problems and worn seats, is there anything else I can look for? Any comments on the dealers round here? (or rather lack of them!)

I've always had Ford so I have high expectations of Mazda in terms of quality and the dealer service.

Cheers all and have a nice weekend.

James Read more