Picked up a new Ford Fiesta Zetec 'climate' yesterday from our main Ford Dealers and am very pleased with it, however the ride felt a bit firm and so having driven home the 1.5 miles from the garage decided to check the tyre pressures. The tyres are 195/50 Bridgestones on R15 alloys wheels.
Using two types of pressure gauge, I ascertained that all tyres had been inflated to 41 p.s.i (2.8 bar approx.)!! I rummaged through the user's manual and discovered that, for this type of tyre size/model combination, the 'normal' pressures should be 29 p.s.i (Front) and 26 p.s.i (Rear).

Why do garages do this? Don't they know the correct pressures? I could not find any car within the Ford range that would necessitate having tyres inflated to those pressures.
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Not sure if this has been done before or not, but what the hell...

Reading through PoloGirl's thread earlier, there was a little bit of banter over Polo's gender (the car, not the girl).

To her, Polo is most definitely male.

Now my 10 year old unmodified Escort i have always addressed as female. Not sure why, really. Perhaps it's a bit of personification (or doggyfication):

Imagine Terry Wogan sitting by a fireplace in slippers calling his faithful old labrador (if he had one) "Good Old Girl".

As you can see, its not easy to explain why you may have attached a gender to your vehicle. What makes a car 'male'?

Is it a car with aggressive looks, big alloys, high power?

ie. Subaru Imprezza = Male?
Nissan Micra = Female? Read more

I noticed that the EC is making proposals to end car registration tax throughout the Union.

More money out of our pockets? See below.

"The EU executive Commission is proposing a restructure of EU car tax systems which would lead to the eventual abolition of car registration tax in the European Union.
The main aim of the Commission proposal for a directive is to remove existing tax obstacles to the transfer of passenger cars from one Member State to another.
It is also looking to ensure an environmental element to car taxation by restructuring the tax base of both registration taxes and annual circulation taxes so as to include elements directly related to carbon dioxide emissions of passenger cars.
The Commission stresses that it only wishes to establish an EU structure for passenger car taxes. It is not looking to harmonise tax rates or oblige Member States to introduce new taxes.
The Commission's passenger car tax proposal contains three elements:
Abolition of car registration taxes over a transitional period of five to ten years. The Member States' revenues would not be affected if the gradual abolition of registration taxes is accompanied by a parallel increase of annual circulation taxes and, if necessary, other taxes. A gradual change would protect car owners from dramatic devaluations of their cars. The transitional period would also allow those Member States applying high registration taxes to make the necessary structural changes to their car tax systems.
A system whereby a Member State would be required to refund a portion of registration tax, pending its abolition, where a passenger car that is registered in that Member State is subsequently exported or permanently transferred to another Member State. This measure would aim both to prevent the double taxation that occurs at present and to make this kind of taxes fairer by relating them to the actual use of the car in the Member State concerned. A similar refund system would be introduced for annual circulation taxes.
The introduction of a CO2 element into the tax base of both annual circulation taxes and registration taxes. This would mean a tax differentiation on the basis of the number of grams of carbon dioxide emitted per kilometre by a car. By 31 December 2008, at least 25% of the total tax revenue from registration and annual circulation taxes should derive from the CO2 based element of the taxes and this figure should rise to 50% by 2010."

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(Headline changed by HJ for clarity, quite late, 20.00 on 8-5-05, so after some of the posts that sought to make this clearer.)

I like to go green and I have £7000 to spend.
I am thinking of importing a 3L car either A2 or Lupo,where should I start looking? Read more

Hi,

My apologise as this is the second thread tonight, but what is the best way to dissolve mayonnaise in oil filler caps?

Before I've used white spirit, finding it much more effective than parrafin, but is there something better I could use.

Thinners to hand include meths, turps, IPA, petrol.

Thanks all.



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Mike Farrow Read more