**WARNING**
IMHO it is imperative that you keep an eye on your NCB and demand a letter stating exactly what your record is. Don't let them waffle their way out of giving it to you.


I have 11 years no claims. This is constantly giving me a headache at renewal/change of insurer.

I was with Tesco, and when I went to them in 2002 I gave them a letter saying I had 8 years. Before I took out the policy I asked CS (customer service) when it came to renewal would they supply me with a letter stating I had 9 years, she said 'yes'.

Ok so I took the policy and stayed with them for 3 years. The in between years I was never given anything saying more than 6 years, no problem because I wasn't changing insurer. Until now, I have have changed insurer this year to Nationwide. Whilst Nationwide only goes up to 5 years or more, there are companies out there who accept more than 5 years. and if I accept a letter from Tesco now which is innaccurate then I will have lost my true record.

I asked Tesco CS last week to send me a letter saying 11 years, and the guy I spoke to agreed it was 11 years and I would recieve such in a letter. Today the letter arrived saying 6 years. And so starts the merry-go-round.

I phone up Tesco and the usual arguements come back at me.
"we only go up to 5 years or more"
"no other company goes over 5 years"
"no other company goes over 65%"

Ergo it is irrelevant what you are asking for and we only issue letters saying "5 years" (even though mine said "6 years")

My responses to them:
"It is irrelevant what *you* go up to, other companies go over 5 years and I need to keep an accurate record, When I arrived here in 2002 I supplied a letter saying 8 years."

"Many companies do go over 5 years, Frizzell and Esure are two but there must be more."

"Many companies do go over 65%, Frizzell, Esure, Norwich Union are just 3 to name a few."

The merry-go-round continues until they finally conceded to send me a letter saying 11 years. Took at least 15 mins on the phone...luckily I had phoned via their head office freephone 0800 number and asked to be "put through"....see this website..."saynoto0870.com".

Frizzell goes up to 9 years and offer up to 68% or 70% for those with 9 years.

Esure goes upto 20years iirc and offers upto 75% for those people - though I have not confirmed exactly who gets the 75% and what is the meaning of them asking about ncb upto 20 years. It may just be that although Esure is not competitive to me at the moment with 11 years, in 5 years time when I have 16 years, they may be the cheapest. I have to be able to prove my 16 years at that time.

I hope you all keep your records accurate. If these companies are going to offer more than 65% for more than 5 years then *all* the companies should be aware of this and supply the accurate details upon renewal. Read more

I've noticed a weeping from the seam just under and around the area where the fuel filter is. I'll have a go with some sort of patch system, any products that you recommend would be warmly accepted, however, should the tank have to be replaced does anyone with any experience have any nuggets of info that would help me along. I've spoken to my local garage who didn't want to give even a rough price due to "rusty bolts, cracking pipes etc etc".

regards

Ellis Read more

At 5pm On Saturday I had to travel from Headingley in North Leeds to the M621 in south Leeds - 5 miles. This journey took an hour, the inner ring road and surrounding roads in Leeds were gridlocked. I thought the reason was beacuse Leeds United were at home and the ground is next to the M621. This was partly to blame, but two other issues were causing problems.

The inner ringroad on the carriageway in to the City is being worked on and the outside lane of three is sometimes coned off. On Saturday all three lanes were open and the lane closed signs were flipped over - fine if you are heading in to the City, but heading out the signs could be seen through the frame and it appeared the outside lane of our carriageway was closed! This is near a major roundabout so drivers thought a lane on the roundabout was closed and were moving lanes!

Secondly the newly installed lights for our exit on the roundabout near Elland Road were on sequence of green for 15 seconds, red for 1 minute 45 seconds - I presume to get traffic away from the ground. The irony was there was barely any traffic leaving Elland Road and for most of the time our lights were on red and no traffic could be seen.

Leeds have just failed in a bid for a tram system and gridlock is envisaged. Maybe the traffic engineers could look at sources of gridlock other than volume of traffic. The problems on Saturday were both their own making. A simple rephasing of lights could have solved this - surely intelligent lights have been invented which monitor the traffic speeds and sequence the lights accordingly.



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Hope someone can help

My wifes aging fiesta is suffering from all sorts of problems, however, this morning, driving along there seemed to be a lack of battery power (although the car started first time). At one point, the radio turned off, the blower worked at half speed and the internal and external lights were all very dim. After about 90 seconds, it reverted back to normal.

We also get a screeching noise (alternator?)

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks
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I noticed that there is a 4mm tread depth minimum as stated below.
Seem logical to me but I was unaware of this to date.

www.bridgestone.co.uk/
When is a tyre considered to be worn out?

In Europe, the legal requirement is that the tread grooves retain a certain minimum depth, when measured at any Tread Wear Indicator (TWI), located around the circumference of the tyre. For summer tyres, the figure is 1.6 mm, while for winter models it is 4 mm.

It may nevertheless be advisable to change a tyre at an earlier stage if there is a discernible loss of grip or deterioration in handling performance ? or if you are driving regularly at high speeds, under extreme weather conditions or over hazardous terrain.

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