May 2007
Wife and I are thinking of buying a high performance diesel sports car, and are looking at the Trident Iceni. Does anyone have any views or taken a test drive? We've requested a test drive and are awaiting a response.
Dudcol
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I have just bought my first car with bi-xenon headlamps - a 2004 model Saab 9-5. Although I am currently asking Saab UK about how to adjust them for continental use, I'm expecting that they will just suggest lowering them. This doesn't seem very satisfactory TBH, as the lighting will then be barely adequate (inadequate, IMHO) for safe motoring. IIRC some cars can be adjusted (usually dealer only) to adjust the asymetric beam from RHD to LHD, usually by dealers at a silly price.
How do other backroomers deal with this? Read more
Please no one exhume any more of my old jokes :)
If your are driving a car belonging to someone else and the MOT has expired who is responsible if you are stopped and asked for the docs - you or the owner? Read more
Section 47 Road Traffic Act makes iof an offence for any person who
Uses (the driver),or
Permits (Generally the owner) or
Causes
vehicle to be used on a road without a current test Cetificate.
Both drivers and owner could be summoned. For m /car Max £1000 fine no points etc.
dvd
We have a MK5 Golf GT 2.0 TDI 150BHP [2006]; which has 17" Grand Prix wheels fitted as an optional extra...
Spec from VW website
Alloy wheels - Four 7J x 17 'Grand Prix' with 225/45 R17 tyres and anti-theft wheel bolts - includes sports suspension
After 15K miles we discovered that something had been rubbing against both front tyres [on the very inside tread] to the point where the fabric was clearly visible! The rest of the tyre was fine.
As luck would have it this was discovered when, on one of the tyres, a neat strip of rubber cut away and started to flap against the wheel arch, making an almighty noise.
Obviously this could have had fatal consequences!
The questions are:
1. Has anyone else experienced this?
2. How does one position this to VW as this would appear to be a serious manufacturing/optional extra issue?
3. How many miles would a standard tyre with sensible driving last? [I thought around about 27-30K miles]
4. In general, what are peoples thoughts regarding the quality of VW's these days? Read more
If there is severe wear on the tread area of the tyre (i.e. the part that contacts the road) then severe mis-alignment is the likely problem. The wheel alignment it set at PDI and not all dealers bother (since tyre wear/misalignment is not a warranty matter). Have a full 3D laser alignment done (Bear, Sun, Jim Beam etc) - cost is £50 - 75 but will be worth it in the long run.
If the sidewall of the tyre is damaged then this is likely due to the tyre contacting the suspension during turns. It could be that a wheel with the wrong offset ('ET') has been fitted - but I would have though this unlikely if they were a dealer-fit item.
After swapping the brake servo on the weekend I discovered that my brake lights are now not functioning. Does anyone know where the sensor is on this car. I hope to be able to reconnect it before driving it home.
I have a haynes at home but hope to reconnect before driving home with no brake lights.
Any help much appreciated.
Regards
Ian Read more
Hey, the switch is not your everyday pressure switch. When the pedal is depressed, the switch goes to earth, completing the circuit and lighting the brake lights. Is it accessible to get to it with a multimeter? Try probing the rear of the switch with Ign on. Should read 12 V when depressed. lol, i think!
... So many people I know and work with change their cars religiously every 3 years. In france it's barely the case, they only chuck them when the engine is dead! What is it with you brits and cars!! Read more
You sure that's not a mis-build?
Don't think so, no - glow plug lights and so on all work correctly. Seems to be a feature of diesel-engined small FIATs - my father's Grande Punto is the same. They just seem to stick in an instrument pack with a rev counter that reads up to 7k, with no red line on it. Handbook doesn't refer to different ones, either.
When did the Welsh discover they don't actually live in Cymru but some place called Gymru?
You'd think that being so proud of their national identity, they'd agree how to spell it right. Read more
"Ysbyty"
NLSWMBOFPCR* says that Ysbyty is a very old Welsh word going back to the days of Knights Templar as found in the village of Ysbyty Ifan (James' Hopsital) on the A5 in Gwynedd), I'd like to know the origin of the word Taxi, doubt very much if it originated in England anyway. Heddlu appears on the bonnets of Brunstrom's fleet, nobody moans about that. WDB you exaggerate about Cwmbran's roundabouts there are only 23.5 million roundabouts I drove round them all for a laugh last year looking for the Pontypool Holiday Inn (honestly - I thought it was a joke as well).
*No Longer She Who Must be Obeyed for Politically Correct Reasons.
Hallo, I have a Peugeot 406 estate, the badge on the boot has gone missing, do you know where I can get another one please?? Read more
Or Fleabay.
That's where I got a green HDi badge,strangely enough,for my HDi.
From AOL's newspage:
Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been rapped by the media watchdog for describing a car as "a bit ginger beer'' - Cockney rhyming slang for "queer''.
Ofcom said there was "no justification'' for the comment. Clarkson was discussing a Daihatsu Copen during an episode of the BBC show last year.
He referred to it as "a bit gay,'' adding: "It's a bit ginger beer.''
Ofcom said use of the word "gay'' was not necessarily offensive. It referred to the Oxford English Dictionary definition of "gay'' as "foolish, stupid and occasionally inappropriate, disapproved of and lame''.
But the watchdog said: "In this edition of Top Gear, the presenter's use of a Cockney rhyming phrase made clear he intended to give a particular meaning to use of the word 'gay'... ie, not to restrict its meaning simply to foolish or stupid, but clearly linking the reference to homosexual people.
"This, in Ofcom's opinion, meant that the use of the word became capable of giving offence. In the context, there was no justification for using the word in this way.''
Ofcom said the complaint had been resolved because the BBC had already warned the production team and producers not to repeat the offence.
The BBC's own investigation upheld complaints about Clarkson's use of the word "gay'' during the episode screened in July last year.
{Subject header renamed - see further down - DD}
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That's even better than Vauxhall calling their small car the Nova back in the day
I'm sure that it means "doesn't go" or something like that in Spanish.
The one that always amused me was the meaning of Skoda -- "damage(d)" -- in Czech
Well that was a masterstroke wasn't it?
The circumferentially challenged Jo Brand is saying on TV that older drivers cause a disproportionately higher number of accidents than others. But insurance companies rate drivers under 25 as high risk based on the number of claims, so obviously the minimum age for a driving licence should be raised to 25 in the interests of road safety.
Another matter, I find that women drivers do not pull out of side turnings in front of other vehicles with right of way as men do. Is this because they have been programmed by nature to survive in order to protect the survival of the human race, or because their lives being so much easier than men`s that they are more relaxed? But younger women drive much too close to the car in front. Omegalen Read more
>> the minimum age for a driving
>> licence should be raised to 25 in the interests of road safety.
That might not make the degree of improvement you predict. I think it's only partly
to do with immaturity at a young age. The rest is down to lack of
driving experience.
L\'escargot.
That is certainly my thinking. But I learnt to drive at age 35, and after passing my premiums for full comprehensive cover were about £300 per annum (this was 8 year ago) which was modest. So I think age is the key factor in the calculation. It is unfortunate for those youngsters who are sensible.
Regarding women drivers not pulling out, I've nearly driven into the side of at least one car driven by a women which pulled out of a side road. My experience is that women drivers tend to be more 'silly' and men more 'aggressive and bullying'. That is reflected in the stats as (I think) women tend to have more minor bumps, but less big crashes.
You're pretty certainly correct..........I think the figure refers to consumption at a constant 50 mph; at that speed I get over 60mpg from my Passat, though I certainly can't get to 60 mph in the 4 seconds claimed for the Iceni, nor get anywhere near its max speed.