I am in Australia and run a 4lt Ford Falcon wagon with LPG fitted as a dual fuel conversion. It has the gas filler under the flap beside the petrol filler. All neat and tidy. You need to talk to the conversion people about that before you decide who to get to do it. Another thing to talk to them about is what sort of fuel gauge they supply. The older ones just have 4 lights which gradually go out as your gas goes down. Not very satisfactory. I am told that newer ones have a proper fuel gauge. Mine has the lights so I use the trip odometer to tell me when it is getting low.

...

I think the difficulty in this "personal car with a bit of class" segment is notoriously fickle - you are aiming at people who could chose something more practical but instead buy something more distinctive/aspirational/of the moment. At the moment I'd imagine the Mini is picking up most of these sales and the A3 or 1series is hoovering the rep user chooser element. The idea of a volvo for thrusting young execs in the UK is still a harder sale. In the US Volvos were always marketed and also perceived to be the sort of thing that architects/designer/ad agency types bought. here there are more solidly middle class.

I've watched a few tv programmes featuring real life police high speed chases and its not a comforting thing to see. The chased driver will do anything to avoid the pursuing police car, mounting pavements, overtaking at high speed forcing oncoming traffic to get out of the way, etc etc. I can't see any real solution to it. I want the criminals caught but not at the expense of killing or injuring an innocent person

This one did the trick. Sorry if I have posted it before:

Ealing Council Parking Services BPU 7 July 200*
PO Box 46264
London W5 2UN






Sirs,


Strong objection to PCN *********

I have been sent a video still of my car encroaching on a bus lane in the eastbound carriageway in The Vale, Acton, a few yards before the traffic light at the junction with Askew Road. The notice informed me that ?the incident? had been recorded on video.

There was no ?incident?. The bus lane ends suddenly, without the usual diagonal dotted line, some yards before the junction. It resumes, with the dotted line, after the junction.

I remember the occasion well. There were several vehicles, five or six, waiting in the right hand lane to turn right into Askew Road. It is a junction where traffic turning right in either direction is often delayed. I drove across a corner of the bus lane to reach the non-bus lane part of the nearside lane before the traffic light. There were no buses, taxis or other authorised vehicles in the bus lane. I was not driving down the bus lane. I simply crossed a corner of it for a few yards. If there really is a video, it will confirm this. It will also confirm the presence of vehicles waiting to turn right into Askew Road.

Of course I fully understand the need to keep bus lanes clear for buses. I don?t drive in them. But regulations of this sort need to be applied intelligently. The Uxbridge Road under its various names is narrow, busy and with many junctions. What is to be gained by terrorising drivers intending to continue in a straight line into queuing endlessly behind right-turning traffic? Nothing but more congestion I would think.

More to the point in this case is the decision to crop the video still so that the right-turning traffic is not seen. This smacks of sharp practice to me. Does Ealing think we are all morons or chavs?

I will not pay this penalty if I can help it. I am prepared to defend this point of view in court if necessary. Of course the famous video will need to be produced in evidence. It may well be that the road markings in the Vale need to be reviewed. But in any case this kind of enforcement, whether unthinking or, more likely it seems to me, money-grubbing and cynical, wastes everyone?s time as well as being deeply irritating.

Yours faithfully,