November 2005
I understand the last Rover produced was a 75 and that's now at the Gaydon museum.
www.carpages.co.uk/mg_rover/mg_rover_images/mg_rov...g
However a quick look at this site shows that there were several others behind it on the line!
www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=208 Read more
Nearly missed an article in Sunday Telegraph 6/11/05 (Money & Jobs Section) titled "Black box motor insurance trial takes a a wrong turn".
Unfortunately this is not available online so I have typed it for all to read.
The Government could be heading for a major jam over its plans to introduce motorway charges using satellite technology after it emerged that the system is not as reliable as first hoped.
Norwich Union is currently piloting a pay-as-you-drive scheme where a driver's insurance premium is linked to road usage. But it admitted to the Sunday Telegraph on Friday that a 'significant number' of the 5,000 black boxes that have been fitted into policyholders cars to monitor driving habits have had to be replaced after technical problems.
The trial uses Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to monitor a motorist's mileage and driving habits. For example, certain types of road and times of day are higher risk than others.
The Government hopes to use the same technology to record how often drivers use motorways and at what time of day.
Martin Otter of Norwich Union said the problem had arisen because chips in the black boxes had failed. For very heavy road users, this had typically happened after six months.
He said 'This is all part of the learning process, The technology is developing all the time. Obviously we are dissapointed with this setback. It is an expensive business sending out engineers and inconveniencing our customers. We pick up the problem as soon as the signal fails, but the driver has no idea anything is wrong.'
I know this is still early days but I cannot see how a road pricing scheme could be run that was 100% efficient. This experiment is with just only 5,000 cars not 12 million vehicles, and is causing problems. Could this just be another attempt to expand the number of state employees with no added gain for the taxpayer. Who is going to pay for the technology necessary and who is going to pay for it's maintenance. What happens when it inevitably fails or someone works out how to avoid it.
What do you think?
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
Read more
From that article, it seems to be getting even more big-brotherish.
Norwich Union acknowledged that my mileage and time of usage was very low risk, but said it would need to study which roads I drove on to get the full picture, but this data will not be collated until the autumn
Some advice needed here .......
My mother has just called. She found a ticket on her car.
D13 - Failure to display road tax
It says there is a £30 penalty
She's checked, and sure enough last year's disk is displayed which expired 30/6/2005.
She did renew road tax in time and has V11 with reciept from post office, but cannot find the tax disc. Presumably she got mixed up and threw the wrong one out.
OK, it's a fair cop, guilty as charged, we'll pay the £30.
I assume the police are aware that the tax has been paid and would have issued a different ticket if they believed the offence was 'failure to pay'. Please confirm this.
Having paid for but misplaced the tax disc , can we get a replacement ? or do we need to pay again for new tax disk ?
Once this £30 is paid, will that be the end of the matter, hopefully no points on license or any such thing ? Read more
> V20 Form from the post office,registration document and £7.00 fee, dealt with at local D.V.L.A.office not Swansea
spot on CQ !!
We went to the local DVLA , filled in the V20, handed over £7 and got a new tax disc, bearly 4 hours after the ticket ;-)
No intention of contesting the charge. Life is too short, and as I said we were at fault.
I know that top range tyres such as michelin, good year etc are a lot dearer than budget tyres ( as much as twice as dear in some cases ) but why, budgets must be good enough surely. Read more
budgets must be good enough surely.
Not sure if the Chen Sing tyres are still available, but you would retract that statement if they are.
I was interested to read how the pirates who tried to hijack a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia were repelled;
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4418748.stm (cut and paste - clickability removed on purpose)
Inside a previous car of mined I fitted two small, hidden, but painfully loud and utterly piercing sirens to deter theft. They were triggered by the main alarm but had a safety override enabled by pressing two of the normal dash switches to activate a couple of relays. I removed the setup after advice from a solicitor friend that I was open to prosecution if a thief hurt their hearing (quite likely), so I guess the high seas are something different! The spec of the sonic device used on the ship is impressive given that every increase of 3db is a doubling of the perceived volume. Ouch! Pardon? Read more
>>is very good at giving people who upset her severe earache ....>>
But surely she would have a similar experience?
Re doubling of sound in the original thread i.e. every 3dB. It's not perceived, it's a fact.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
I've just bought a P reg Micra Shape from the auctions and it seems fine, apart from the fact that there is no fog lamp switch!
There's a factory-fitted blanking panel just left and below of the steering wheel where I'd expect the switch to be. I can't see anywhere else to look.
Is a fog lamp a legal requirement on a P reg (1997) car?
PS The car came with a fairly new MOT! Read more
Our 2001 Micra has the foglamp switch on the indicator stalk.
There's the bit you twist for the headlights, and next
to this there is another twisty bit for the foglight.
Thanks - found it now. I've been driving Metro's for the past 10 years so it's just a case of getting used to an unfamiliar layout.
Coming in to work this morning I hit a sheepdog that was running loose on the road. It was on a B-road, still dark, water everywhere, oncoming vehicle approaching fast, so I followed standard advice and simply ploughed into it and then stopped at the first safe point.
The dog at first appeared dead, then started twitching. I dragged it to the side, fearful that it would wake up and attack me. Then it suddenly got up, ran back into the road nearly causing another accident, then ran off across a field. It seemed to have a broken leg, at least.
This was open country, no houses or farms for miles.
I rang the police when I got to work and reported it.
My questions are:
1) is it still necessary to report dog accidents, now they don't have licences?
2) what should one do with an injured dog in the middle of the road?
3) is the owner automatically committing an offence by letting a dog run loose, or only if it actually causes an accident?
Incidentally, it was extremely difficult to find a live policeman to report it to. The two stations I passed en route to work were shut. The Helpline button outside didn't work. The out-of-hours phoneline eventually re-directed me to somewhere else.
Yet it obviously didn't warrant a 999 call. Read more
Thanks, N-W. No, it's a fair point. I don't think I was going too fast - about 45-50 mph. The dog ran out, narrowly missed an oncoming vehicle, and then straight in front of me.
I could stop within the distance I could see to be clear, and it was clear until the dog ran into it.
I've noticed that sheepdogs often play these games of running out unexpectedly, but in this case unfortunately it probably was confused by the unexpected confluence of two vehicles from different directions. I had the impression the other vehicle was travelling much faster, but even two safe speeds could easily have combined to give 100mph closing gap.
"Uninsured drivers are to be tracked by police using camera technology, who can then seize and possibly destroy their vehicles, under new measures."
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4417330.stm
Now, isn't that good news? All strength to that campaign, which will catch plenty of other criminal activity too. Read more
Erm... surely the obvious response from the Crims to this CRIME FIGHTING INITIATIVE will just be more cloned plates.
On first driving off on cold mornings my New Panda with the 1.2 petrol engine seems to misfire just for a few seconds. As this engine is also used in the Punto, if there is a common fault I'm sure someone out there will be aware of it.
OK, I know the car is under warranty and I could ask the dealer to look at it but it would be hard to reproduce the fault and if I can go to the dealer and say "I believe this fault is due to a faulty x, y or z" then I know I will get a lot further towards solving the problem. Read more
I'd check that the spark plug leads are all securely home at both ends first.
If it starts on three first thing in the morning, and then clears reasonably, quickly you could be looking at a head gasket problem.
Hello all,
I took delivery of my Mk3 MX-5 LE last Thursday and have been using Mazda's 7-day free insurance since. I currently have a policy through the AA which is paid for up until April (at which point I'll have 5 years' no claims), but they've been really crap at getting me a quote for my new 5.
So far they've been able to find only one insurer (Norwich Union) with a quote of >£1400 and keep saying 'that car's not released yet' etc. as an excuse as to why they can only offer this single prohibitive quote. Even if I was to take up this policy I would have to cancel my current one (obviously at a disproportionate loss) and thus my 5 years' NCD would be delayed until next November instead of April as they do not carry months over between insurers.
Where do I stand here? I guess they've probably got me over a barrel, but it's not as if I'm trying to insure anything weird or outrageously powerful (I'm 25 yo, with 4 years' NCD and clean license). I'm going to try and speak to a manager tomorrow and see if they can pull their fingers out, but I need to get this sorted by Thursday.
Your advice is greatly appreciated,
RP.
*FYI Mazda insurance quote ~ £880 / Top-spec Mk2.5 valued at £20k ~ £700 on AA site Read more
Also look at any insurance offers available via an affinity groups you belong to eg trade union, staff association, football club/charitable membership...
I once got incredibly cheap home insurance via a flyer that fell out of an MBNA credit card statement.
Is your current insurer refusing to carry on cover on your new vehicle until at least renewal?
Browse
It's all a bit sad.
Just goes to show the confusion at the end, they didn't know to stop making the cars so materials were still getting ordered, parts were still being assembled...