Got to work at usual early start yesterday, i.e. still dark. When I went to park up and go in couldn't lock the car, although I had just emptied my things out of the boot. Next thing, couldn't undo boot, lock rear doors. Remote key not working, which I thought was the battery. Found I had no indicators, or rear wipers. Everything else was OK.
Assumed it was simply a fuse, so called in the Ford dealers to ask which it could be, and saw how many there are. I examined all the likely culprits but everything looked OK. The workshop was full, and wouldn't take the car in to look at it, but one of the partners had a look, but couldn't see anything broken.
The car is left with them now, and I am driving a Ka, which is a great little car, if a bit small.
Have to wait to hear from them whenever they can look at it.
Surely it can only be a fuse, but what caused one to blow, if that's what it is ? Read more

Interesting article in this mornings new scientist. An interview with the swedish director of traffic safety.

road deaths in europe are the equiv of a jumbo jet crashing every three days.

putting a little wire barrier in road centres reduced frontal accidents by 95% (does it also stop overtaking?)

ESC is twice as effective at saving lives than airbags. It is thought to half the number of single vehicle fatal accidents. Presumably also drastically reduces accidents.

All swedish vehicles will have alclocks by 2012, which prevent the car being driven if the driver has been drinking.

They are testing gps based speed limiters (and the uk DOT are said to be very interested)

The Director has (before taking this job) been banned twice for speeding.



I know we have several backroomers who spend time in Sweden, whats with the wire barriers ?

Mark Read more

In the pub last night a mate of mine was telling me his plans for increasing the power on his car.

It's a 51 plate Peugeot 307 XSi (2.0 138bhp)

After his sandard exhaust fell off, he replaced it with a 'performance' one which he was told should give him about an extra 8bhp. The company he bought it from then suggested that he could get a K&N filter and induction kit, an air intake which actually cools the air as it passes through, and a re-map/chip with the following benefits.

Filter and Induction kit: +12bhp
Air Intake Thingy: +10bhp
Remap/Chip: +30bhp

This would in theory give him a total of almost 200bhp from a normally aspirated 2.0 engine. They don't provide telemetry to back up the power increases however, so the only way to tell what diffence these mods would make would be driving feel.

I was pretty doubtful that these performance boosts could be acheived on a non-turbo car, but he swore blind that this was what they claimed. Are they taking the Michael? Read more

The new VW Passat has been round a couple of months now and I was wondering if anyone had any impressions of the car generally. I am looking to change my car soon, and I was wondering whether to stick with the Audi A4 or whether to go for the new Passat which is cheaper.

I know the new Passat now has a transverse engine and is based upon the Golf floorpan which is a bit offputting, whereas Audi have gone their separate way sticking with the longitudinal engine/gearbox layout. Basically, is the the New Passat going to be as solid and durable as the old one ? Read more

I stumbed across the following data from Admiral at www.admiral.com/pressOffice/pressReleases/250105.p...l and found it very interesting:


The best and worst places for motorists in 2004 revealed
Motorists in the Harrow area of London had the worst driving record of anywhere in the country last year, according to research by a leading insurer.

Financial intermediary Admiral has looked at the claims frequency of one million motorists across the UK in 2004 and produced a list of the ten best and ten worst places in the country. Motorists in the Harrow postcode area are top of the list, 9.6% of motorists living there had an accident that was their fault.

The list of the worst places for accidents in 2004 is, not surprisingly, dominated by places in and around London. Second in the list is Uxbridge with 9.2% of motorists there having a fault accident and third is north west London, with 9.0%.

People who want to avoid having an accident should consider moving to Scotland, as towns north of the border dominate the list of places with the lowest percentage of accidents. The Galashiels area is top of the list of areas with the lowest frequency of accidents. Just 3.9% of motorists there had an accident last year that was their fault.

Northern Ireland's motorists came second with 4.1% of those living in the Belfast postcode area causing an accident and third was Lancaster with 4.5%. Other Scottish districts in the list of best areas are Dumfries, Perth, Inverness and Aberdeen.

Admiral managing director, Jane Stone, said: "Our figures show the percentage of drivers within each postcode area of the UK who had an accident that was their fault last year. The difference between the best and worst area is quite astonishing. Motorists in Harrow were almost two and a half times more likely to have caused an accident than those in Galashiels. Our research goes some way to explaining why where you live has such an affect on insurance premiums."

The tables below show the ten best and worst postcode areas for fault accidents in 2004. The UK average rate is 6.5% of motorists having a fault accident.

Best Areas

Position Postcode Area %age of motorists with accident 2004
1st TD Galashiels and Scottish borders 3.9%
2nd BT Belfast and Northern Ireland 4.1%
3rd LA Lancaster 4.5%
4th FY Blackpool 4.7%
5th DG Dumfries and Galloway 4.8%
6th PH Perth 4.9%
7th WR Worcester 5.0%
8th IV Inverness and eastern Highlands 5.0%
9th AB Aberdeen 5.2%
10th LN Lincoln 5.2%


Worst Areas

Position Postcode Area %age of motorists with accident 2004
1st HA Harrow 9.6%
2nd UB Uxbridge 9.2%
3rd NW North west London 9.0%
4th CR Croydon 8.8%
5th SM Sutton 8.6%
6th N North London 8.5%
7th IG Ilford 8.4%
8th EN Enfield 8.4%
9th TW Twickenham 8.3%
10th AL St Albans 8.1%


Jane Stone, commented: "Although you would expect motorists in London to have the most accidents, it is interesting that those living in the outlying parts of the city, such as Croydon, Ilford and Twickenham had the worst driving record last year. Maybe those in the centre of the city drive less, or are just more careful."

Issue date: 25-01-05
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