January 2007
The government has decided to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18. They say this will discourage youngsters from starting to smoke and reduce death rates.
While they are about it surely it would be sensible to raise the age limit for driving a car to 18. It could be argued that this will also save lives as young drivers are more likely to have an accident.
Being able to drive is like a badge of honour and would compliment being able to buy alcohol, cigarettes and vote, making coming of age a real change. It might also help to reduce congestion slightly.
What do BR's think?
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
Read more
Now that Hogswatch is over, we're about to have a visit from the road hump gnome. Does anybody know the required specs (max height, width &c.) as if it's got to be I'd want it to be done properly. Otherwise any offers on the spell to dispel them Read more
Sorry, but I thought I noticed people bothering to complain about loathsome gratuitous bumps put in the road by monkeys in so-called 'office'?
Would have thought all that went without saying. However having scanned the specifications given in the weblink above I think I can say that a lot of the damn lumps of rubbish in this town are bigger than they ought to be. Just an impression though.
My car (VW Golf Mark 5 TDi) will be visiting VW again tomorrow for a noise which i can only say is described as a squeking noise from the off side front suspension. Driving around tonight when i got to a dip in the road i thought i heard a knock? Any suggestions please as i've got no hope of them actually finding a fault have i. The noise is only really heard when going over speed bumps and bad road surfaces. Any suggestions please. Many thanks Read more
Lets hope the mechanics come back from the christmas season in good spirits and find the fault. Also when i was out tonight at idle with the cabin light on it 'sflickering/pulsating. The aircon was on to clear the front window too if thats got anything to do with it? Should i mention it?
Common on Aston Martins (though perhaps "common" and "Aston Martin" are mutually exclusive) however my mother inlaw's 2002 Focus has a signature and date in white painted neatly on the aircleaner housing, the date coincides with the car being built.
Anyone else come across this?
Regards. Read more
Table leg.
We have an early model Mondeo with sticking door locks - the key turns but nothing happens in the cylinder barrel. Drivers Door remains unlockable
Both front doors key activated not worked off the ford alarm,
Any tips on what to do or what to avoid when swopping the driver door lock (barrel ) with the pasenger door lock
Have swopped barrels on French/German cars in the past
Hope the Mondeo experts can help
Olduser1 Read more
A friend of mine is looking for a small car around £5000.
From my own personal opinion and a look through this site and prices on Autotrader, I have come up with the following suggestions:
Honda Jazz
Toyota Yaris
Nissan Micra
Hyundai Getz
Kia Picanto
Any other suggestions or reasons not to avoid any of the above?
Thanks for any advice
Read more
The latest Micra has had a few problems, and as a Nissan fan it pains me to say this but I wouldn't have one.
Hyundai/Kia is great for those who realise how lame the "image" word is, and it must be said that the resale values are orders of magnitude (almost not exaggerating here) compared with a few years ago. Kia especially.
Skoda Fabia, Seat Ibiza, Toyota Yaris, Honda Jazz, Hyundai Getz, Kia Picanto (Rio? Motorpoint doing 1yo 1.4s for 5 and a half grand which seems good to me for what is a fine little car), Ford Fiesta, and the Mitsubishi Colt.
Maybe even a Citroen C1 -- looks good value to me, and a straightforward little thing with the petrol engine.
Hi to all, we swapped an omega 2.5 diesel engine [95-7] to a bmw 525 td 1995. After the swap, car wouldnt start with the light 'fuel inection system fault' came up continously. We had a chat with afew people and the y said put the bmw pump in place of the omega's unit as it was working before. We need to find out if any one out there has done this conversion and what went wrong and how they got round this.........many thanks...dave
{Duplicate post made in 'Discussion' deleted to avoid repetition of replies - DD} Read more
Can you scan for a fault code?
The M51 engine is the same in the Omega and the BMW, although there were 4 versions of it during it's life between 1993 and 2001, but as long as you got like for like, they are the same. The only differences were in the ancillaries, such as harness, ECU, piping etc... There were 3 types of injection pump over the years, two types of injector (including needle lift sensor)
Where was the photographer standing and what type of lens did he use?
Hi there
Can anyone help my clutch has gone in my Seicento 1.1 y reg
Does any one know how to fix it and get in to fix it
Thank you Karen
{Shouting, ie, solely upper case text amended - DD} Read more
I think this is a common problem on this car, possibly due to the way the cable routes from the pedal to the gearbox making it prone to failure. Not sure what is involved myself, could be an awkward job disconnecting from the pedal but not impossible.
I have seen a few previous posts on this topic but you can also check www.fiatforum.com where they have loads of advice on these cars.
My sister is just about to sell her MG to downsize on running costs and improve security for her parking issues.
Shes quite keen on the Puma, but due to the issues with short cold runs with the 1.7 model ( which is her primary driving ), she will only consider the 1.4/1.6 models which are quite hard to find compared to the 1.7.
Anyhow, shes asked me to see if there are any other possible options which are fairly small engined coupes which are very reliable and cheap to run also.
The two Ive come up with are the Civic Coupe which should be reliable, but the Citroen Xsara 1.6 VTR - I know nothing about these so dont want to recommend them unless they are as reliable as the Puma and Civic.
Shes not bothered about how they drive, she just wants something that looks sporty/young and is cheap to run, esp insurance.
Ive checked the CBC section and there is no mention of the 1.6 that I can see, so is this a reliable unit and what about the rest of the car? She would be looking at one from around 2001-2.
Her definaition of reliability is that it simply doesnt go wrong aside from wear and tear items.
Read more
My sister, love her really, has now in her wisdom if you can call it that, decided that she really likes the look of a Daihatsu Terios with big wheels - no accounting for taste but she is insistant that she wants something a bit different, and I guess for her mainly town driving, a high driving postion and narrow width is a good thing. Personally, I think she just likes it for the wheels myself.
The funniest part is the the test drive success depends on how fast it can pull away from the lights - thats the instructions her fiance ( who will be away when she test drives it ) has given her as he has to negociate a very dodgy roundabout that requires a certain level of performance to get across safely on his way to work...
Anyone else have to deal with young womens flights of fancy when it comes to helping them buy cars? My sister is driving me up the wall.
Browse
I couldn't agree more. There are lots of examples as well as the Dangerous Dogs Act you mention.
The legal age of 18 for alcohol purchases does not stop our parks being littered with inebriated 13 year olds every weekend.
The current legal age of 16 for tobacco purchases does not stop 11% of 11-16 year olds currently being regular smokers.
It just smacks of the government "being seen to be doing something".