March 2007
So there you are, going about your business and someone pulls out on you, or cuts you up, or otherwise inconveniences you by any combination of stupidity, bloody-mindedness or ineptitude. What do you do? You're a thinking motorist or you wouldn't be reading this. A combination of your competence, quick reactions, sound attitude and a generous dollop of luck has prevented an accident. Do you react? A blast of horn, a flash of lights and a rude gesture? Or do you proceed in unruffled Zen-like calm?
The motorist that has just nearly tripped you up won't be going on an advanced driving course anytime soon or they probably wouldn't have messed up in the first place; they would have been concentrating, or be more skilled, or have a better view of motoring life. Is the horn, lights and gesture scenario a means of educating the uneducated and letting them know that their behaviour is unacceptable? If they drive solo a lot, your reaction could be the only hint they ever get that they aren't playing by the rules. Or should their behaviour go unremarked and their next piece of education be filling out an insurance claim form?
In short (thank goodness, they all cry), are we actually performing a service by reacting when another driver causes us problems?
Over to you ...
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land Read more
I'm sure plently of queries have com in on this one but is the trick that Golfs and Audis seem to have of their elec windows lowering after locking the car remotely a common one?
and is it a fault or just some wierd settiing if you press the remote button a special amount of times?
Ultimately, can it be stopped so you don't return to your locked car to fine all four windows open!
Read more
I have had a couple of VWs and one Audi. The Audi only did this from the key and the VWs only if you held the lock/unlock button for more than 5 seconds and then it would lower or raise them all.
I'm not a fan of motorbikes, but I can see their appeal. Not happy with screwing the motorist in every possible way, Politicians are turning their attentions to motorbikes.
Read the latest report and be afraid!!
uk.news.yahoo.com/29032007/325/motorcycle-top-spee...l
Particularly like this well informed comment by the reports author
"Giving evidence to the committee, transport author Stephen Plowden said he could not see why anyone needed a bike with a top speed of more than 65 mph."
Yet another notch on the big stick of despair!! Read more
What aircraft? They'll all be in the 'mind'.
Hi, we have a Mk2 Golf 1.6 auto, that drinks more petrol than a hummer... really im doing about 25p to the mile. When mates from work drive behind me they say they can almost taste the fuel and it smeels really strong. Ive just had a quick look at part of the air filter as i dont know how to get the whole cover off, and the filter stinks of petrol???? any ideas please.
Easy to fix and what sort of price are we looking at?
Many thanks
Graham Read more
Check that your choke vaccume pull-down unit is working. It partly opens the choke flap during a cold start, when it's diaphragm ruptures it leaves the choke flap closed until the combined coolant and electrially heated bi-metal coil of the choke take over control.
When i learned to drive performance cars were able to do a ton whilst the rest of dreamed or frightened ourselves in souped up Escorts etc.
It would seem that any car these days is well capable of speeds exceeding 100 mph whilst human and especially teenage evolution in road skills has stayed the same.
Rather than all of us paying ultra high premiums that reflect the costs of said teenagers wrapping their performance pram around the local oak tree, why not make all new and learner drivers drive a low perfomance car ?.
How about retooling for the dear old Moggy Minor with a few modern safety additions but no performance additions ?.
These cars would recognisable at a glance especially if a uniform colour and would not be capable of any high speed nonsence.
There then could be a set insurance fee for the newbys and the rest of us would watch the insurance companies come up with another reason to keep premiums high.
What do you lot think ??. Read more
The Australian system for inexperienced drivers seems to have some effect, even though the favourite vehicles are the 4-litre Fords and Holdens which can scamper along. [ The Vauxhall Monaro is just a warmed-over Holden with a couple of doors missing.] After passing their test, drivers must, for 3 years, display a "P" plate in place of the "L" plate. Whilst under probation, they are subject to much more rigorous punishment if they transgress in any way, and there are sufficient cops on the roads to enforce it. Anything that would score "points" usually means some duration of loss of licence, and anything above zero in an alcohol breath test is automatic disqualification and re-taking tests after at least a year off the roads. As roadblocks for random breath-testing is commonplace both there and in New Zealand, the risks of misbehaviour strike terror into the hearts of the great majority of younger drivers. Not having a driving licence is about as low as you can get in our teenage society.
I recently got conned into buying a volvo s80 2.5d. The car looks the part and in the main drives fine, the only problem is that it was massively clocked to the tune of 130000 miles.
On having the car delivered nothing on the dashboard works except the emissions light. The indicators will indicate but they do not show that they are on the dash, no rpm, no speedo, no computer nothing.
I had an electrician look at it and he feels that the dash itself is fine and that the problem is more likely to be some form of software corruption caused by the clocking. But he does not know what controls the dash in the car.
Can anyone tell me if it is the ECU or is there some other control module that runs it. I have been told by nearly every garage that volvo are the only people that will be able to help, but from the sounds of it a replacement ECU and their charges for labour, I will spend more than the car cost.
I also cant belive that pluggin in a computer should cause hardware to malfunction so could it not just be that the module needs to be reset? Is there any DIY option?
What the hell do I do??
Any help would be massively appreciated. Read more
If you're five minutes from BBA; then try Kevin Apps in Gillingham. BBA will definitely have his number.
Reloading the software will be a dealer issue; a hardware fault may well be repairable without disturbing it.
The dash wiring system will likely be the same on all the models; there may be slight variations on different years.
To the BMW X5 owner who decided to occupy four parking spaces at the local Sainsbury this morning during the busiest time, the dent on your nearside is from a car who struggled to squeeze in next to you, at which point the wind appeared to catch his door as he opened it *very* carefully, and the scratch on your bumper is from a heavily laden trolley, which also got caught by the wind. Sorry.
Before any more finger pointing occurs, David Horn has asked me to point out that he had played no part whatsoever in damaging the vehicle mentioned above. He only observed the damage occurring as an innocent bystander. DD Read more
>>> I'm giving serious thought to carrying a camera around with me capturing the spectacularly stupid, selfish and arrogant parking that I see on a daily basis
8< SNIP - the swear filter is there for a reason. Trying to work around it will just make me delete the words manually instead of the filter doing it automatically. DD
Close, but it was a Citroen 2CV dumped in his skip.
www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/onefootint/onef...m
off to Texas saturday morning with SWMBO for a 2 week holiday, based with friends in Houston, but will be travelling around quite a lot .....inc South Padre Island, down near the Mexican border .
have already pre-booked a group IC car with Alamo.....but don't mind paying a bit more
does anyone have any idea of a decent make/model to ask for.....as i'm fairly cluless with Yank cars (hired a Mustang 5 years or so back and thought it was dreadful...flat as hell)
thanks in anticipation
(MTC, the 300C is a maybe) Read more
National/ Alamo is the company that I normally use for car rental in the US. At some airports they offer Toyotas and I recently had a Toyota Avalon which is a large, nicely built, well handling saloon which perfectly illustrates why the US car companies are in such trouble. The last Chrysler 300C I had felt like it was built from cardboard after driving this. If you need a bit more space they also offer the Sienna people carrier which has 7 seats and the Highlander SUV which, again, is so much better than the price comparable Grand Cherokees and Trailblazers it's laughable.
Audio recording of a Nurburgring lap....
www.autocar.co.uk/VideosWallpapers/Video.aspx?AR=2...B
That is the most saliva-inducing engine noise I've heard since a Ferrari F40 on a flying lap of Donington.
Cheers
DP Read more
Useful for all those times when you need to race up to 150 against another executive saloon
Browse
Clearly the guy hasn't seen this, then:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZy105010SI