November 2007
A policeman who told Central Scotland Police he had drunk "a bucketful" when stopped for driving a damaged car has been banned from driving.
Douglas Reid, 48, who is due to retire from Strathclyde Police, was given a 15-month ban at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
Reid was stopped in Shieldhill, near Falkirk, in the early hours of 16 December, 2006 by officers who noticed extensive damage to his Honda Accord.
Sheriff Neil MacKinnon also ordered him to pay a £540 fine for the offence.
The court heard that when Reid was stopped and asked to step out of the vehicle, he was abusive, swearing at officers.
£540 fine + 15mth Ban - is that enough for:-
1) Seriously over the limit
2)Abusive to the Police arresting him
3) A Person who should show an example and should know better
50 years ago being abusive and swearing at a police officer would have merited a stiff fine or prison on its own without any driving offences. Read more
Hi, Anyone know how to open the 3 button fob on a 2002 VW Passat to change the batteries. Regards Peter Read more
Yes I spotted that but was unsure. I assume it is the same as the old 2 button and uses two 2032 SOxide Cells. Regards Peter
I use theAA.com route planner as an excellent and free alternative to SaT Nav.
In my experience I have found that if I input the postcode for final destination in England it has always been accurate and have never had a problem. However I have recently made 2 trips to Scotland; Edinburgh and Glasgow and in both cases have been sent on wild goose chases and ended up nearly 10 miles away from where I wish to end up and late for both meetings. I then have to nip into shops or ask taxi drivers for directions which is also not ideal.
Can anyone suggest a free postcode route planner that actually works in Scotland?
Thanks in advance.
Read more
Thanks for these suggestions local yokel, I will try out both!
partner's sons car a Suzuki Swift CV joint is knocking on full lock I'm going to replace asap he wants to know should this fail the mot? i say not there is no real play to the shaft etc,
Are these like most cv joints like vx held on with the circlip & knock off?? Read more
I always send a photo when i make an online request,the brilliance of the internet i think,
at one time you could spend all day ringing or calling at bone yards,now i just tabulate away on the old keyboard,much more civilised and you dont get cut, get bitten by rabid dogs, or get punctures in your wheels as you drive over old talbots and simca bits that have been used as car park tarmac substitute.
Page 34 of today's DT says the Polo BlueMotion saves, in carbon pollution, the equivalent of more than 5000 330ml aluminium drinks cans in a year of motoring. Assuming only one layer of cans I reckon the picture behind the Polo shows around 25000 or even more. Naughty or what?
I suppose the ad agency's get out clause is "more than 5000". Read more
Sorry FT,
My fault entirely. I should have put in LOL or some such thing. It was truly meant to be a joke.
An overtaking question..if you were driving at the speed limit down a two way A road and you gain on slower moving traffic, the vehicle at the rear of the line of traffic is hanging back very far, 5-6 or more seconds behind traffic at 40ish mph, you then take a fine opportunity to pass this last vehicle. It's a perfectly safe and legal overtake, admittedly to very little benefit, apart from being potentially one or two cars closer to the inevitable truck or slow driver that may make the difference between being able to pass the slow vehicle at the next available opportunity.
If the driver you just passed then begins flashing his headlights, drives extremely close and is clearly ranting, and then at the next roundabout he enters in the wrong lane, cuts you up deliberately on the roundabout in a 'revenge' overtake-is that justified? Just wondering what the consensus is? Read more
...... else find yourself unable to take advantage of the
next opportunity-the subsequent opportunity being a couple more miles away for example.
So perhaps the other driver was also aware of this fact and why he took umbrage to your overtake.
I don't condone his subsequent actions, though - just trying to offer an explanation.
So I see Alonso is leaving Mclaren with no financial penalty on either party. Wasn't a surprise he'd be leaving though was it. Looks like a move to Red Bull or Renault most likely. So about to see a shake up of a few teams then - cannot be good for some drivers. Read more
Locked now - Volume 19 follows.
I wondered if Texaco still us the 'clean system 3' type petrol, I remember a few years ago this was described as a top quality high detergent fuel but when I last visited one of their sites I didn't notice the labelling.
I suppose standard Shell, BP or Esso is of similar quality or do the premium 99 octane versions have extra cleaning content? I have seen BP Ultimate and Shell Optimax but ignored them due to not needing the 99 octane properties, but would use a 95 octane fuel that is high detergent.
Checked the website and found that Chevron now run Texaco.
Thanks Read more
I wonder if this explains why every Texaco fuel station is almost 10p a litre more than Shell.
A friend says he owned a Leyland car in the seventies than was rather an insepid colour. He is trying to remember the name. It was a single word stating with an 'H' and not Honey. Anybody remember the name?
SLT Read more
the 1100 and 1300 had remarkable ride and road holding for the time.
------------------------------
< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
Not in technical as it's not car specific and the questions are a bit general. Answers probably apply to lots of cars.
It's undoubtedly a nice thing to have, but two basic questions, both of which are influenced by the fact I don't use the car every day, and some of the weekdays it does get used, the running time is short, ie not properly warmed up. Weekends are different.
In what I'm thinking of getting (110 Defender), it's roughly a 1000 pounds extra. One could reduce the figure by saying, no need to buy a sunroof, but actually, it's not that great, and I've got my doubts I'll bother with a sunroof whatever I do. So is air con worth 1000 pounds?
Usage. I know you need to exercise air con to keep the seals in good order, but with my pattern of usage, and the fact that in spring or autumn the ambient temperature does not need modifying, am I likely to have problems? Or is it one of those things that a switch on and couple of minutes running is as good as a longer spell?
I might go and annoy the dealer on Saturday.
Read more
The Mondeo's air-con comes on automatically whenever the air direction control is set to screen, so it tends to get run for a few minutes most mornings until the screen is nice and dry. Air-con is a superb demisting tool.
In general driving, it's great on those humid, sticky July or August days when you're stuck on the M25 in rush hour, but otherwise I actually prefer having the windows open and some fresh air in my face.
If/when it breaks, I probably won't bother getting it fixed unless we're talking peanuts of course.
SWMBO would have a breakdown if forced to live without it in the Scenic. She loves air-con. I told her it works better when you put diesel in the fuel tank though.....
Cheers
DP
--
04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
Browse
Bathgate hasn't changed in 40 years then!!
--
2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS