Have now used the motorshow tickets, and had a brilliant day out on Sunday that all the family thoroughly enjoyed.

Journey up was a piece of cake, sailed across London. Left Weston Super Mare about 9am, and despite 25 min stop to buy supplies for the show somewhere in London, and another pit stop about 5 mins later for #1 daughter to use the loo (then get more supplies as stopped in supermarket car park that needed a valid receipt to be let out of) arrived at the show at about 12.40. In the end we all got in for nothing, as they waived the ticket price for my eldest daughter as only recently turned 5.

All the staff and visitors there came across as extremely friendly, and chatted to quite a few people. Only exception was the coffee stall in the central aisle, who were as miserable as sin and treated customers with utter contempt despite extortionate pricing.

On to the cars, although we missed a lot of stands found a lot of noticeable things on the ones we did see. Biggest revelation had to be the Citroen C5. Sat in the tourer, and whilst it was the top of the range model, it felt very very special. The interior felt more like something out of a prestige german executive model, not a mainstream fleet model. The only other car I sat in on the day that gave me a similar feeling was the Mercedes CLS. My wife was bowled over by the new Citroen Berlingo, and now wants one. Excellent use of space inside, with a massive boot and a nice easy to use driving position. The other big surprise for us was on the Kia stand. Have been a fan of them since renting a Cerato a couple of years back, but they have come on in leaps and bounds since then. The Karens 7 seater is a brilliant family car. Although quite small compared to other MPVs the access to the 3rd row is far superior to the C4 grand picasso I hired recently. The rear seats are much better too, tried them out myself and a tallish adult could easily ride in the back in comfort with plenty of leg room and 2 full size rear seats. Only downside is a lack of bootspace with the 3rd row in place.
Sat in the C'eed Estate too, and was amazed by the boot size and the rear legroom. Are both definitely cars I would be more than happy to own.
Of the premium brands fell in love with the Merc CLS I sat in, but was left a bit flat by the S Class, and the SL. Guess without actually driving them cant get a complete picture, but whilst the CLS gave me a feel good factor from behind the wheel, the others didnt.

Other let downs included the new Vauxhall Insignia. Although all the press seem to be raving about it, the rear end of the hatch looked just like a Proton Gen 2 to me. Going back to the feel good factor, the biggest disappointment had to be the new Ibiza. Looks very good on the outside, but the interior is horrendously cheap and nasty. Specifically looked at this car as my parents test drove one a couple of weeks back and hated it. Mum said that she thought the interior of the Citroen Dyanes she had in the '70s had more of a quality feel, and having seen it now I agree. The plastic used reminded me of the thin crinkly red plastic used in biscuit selection tins. Looked really hard and cheap. Actually said all this to one of the reps on the stand, the only thing liked on the inside was the steering wheel. The worse bit was that Seat seemed to have taken a backward step from my old 2000 model year Cordoba!

Away from the car stands, the Honda show was well worth the money, with some amazing driving/ riding- although the hosts seemed to be local radio wannabes- and "to dream the impossible dream" was sung/ played ad nauseum. Dont know whose stand it was, but there was a track where punters could be taken out in westfields power sliding and doing doughnuts, which was good to watch. The girls got very excited by the Disney Cars roadshow, and had photos taken next to a full size Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.

Top Gear stand was quite small, and not a lot happening, but did have the Police cars from the latest series. Funny part was, on the TV the Lexus looked like it had been professionally repainted in white, but standing close to it looked more like domestic gloss white, and am sure could see brush marks in it.

Going home, we did get stuck in traffic, but did detour to show the girls Buckingham palace, but both were sound asleep by the time we got there. Left the show 6.30, and were home before 10 though.

To me it would make more sense to have the show at the NEC, just to make it more accesible to more people, as it was a long day driving there and back. Overall though, we had a fantastic day out, and even without winning the tickets we probably would have gone anyway. If anyone is going though, would suggest taking along your own refreshments- especially as it was absolutely baking hot on Sunday, even inside.

Pete. Read more

Can someone please give me some advice about a claim I am making that seems to be going nowhere.

Last week I was driving down a dual carriageway when a car on the opposite carriageway spun round and ended up on their hard shoulder facing the wrong way. On the way their rear wheels skidded over the gravel on the central reservation kicking it up onto my carriageway so that it sprayed my car.

I now have various dents, scratches, broken wing mirror, etc on the bonnet, windscreen, drivers door and pillar. It is all fairly cosmetic, but very extensive and I am expecting a fairly hefty bill for repair. (My car is only a year old, so to maintain my warranty for rust, it needs to be repaird properly).

The police were in attendance and we swapped insurance details via the police officer. Luckily there was no injury on either side, and as far as I could tell, no major damage to anyone. No one else was involved.

I have made my claim through my insurance company, and it now seems that the other party have decided not made a claim. So my insurance company now say that they are unlikely to be able to recover the cost as the other insurance company don't have a record of any incident and therefore no record of responsibility being accepted. So if I want to get repairs done I will have to pay my excess, lose my no claims, etc.

Surely as we all have details of the other driver, someone should be contacting them and at least asking for their side of the story as a claim has been made against them. As I understand it, you are obliged to report any accident you are involved in to your insurance company even if you don't want to claim, as someone else might need to. The police can confirm what happened.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks for reading this, I'd really appreciate any suggestions.
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I have recently returned from Prague and was impressed with the way that trams and road vheicles integrated on city centre streets. Can anyone explain how the introduction of trams has gone anywhere? When the trams start running in Edinburgh I suspect the bodyshop owners will be rubbing their hands with glee at the expected increase in work. Read more

I caught the tail-end of a programme last night discussing the manufacture of golf balls. I knew that the dimples were there for aerodynamic reasons, but hadn't really thought any further on it, and was surprised to learn that a dimpled ball will fly twice the distance of a smooth one because of boundary layer effects.

If this is so, does it not apply to aircraft and cars (trains, even), or am I missing something obvious? (And if not, I claim intellectual property!) Read more

Afternoon Back Roomers!

Hoep you are all well.

Some of you might remember me posting around this time last year, asking for advice regarding what car we should take on the Student version of the Gumball Rally (www.studentbrakeaway.com). we ended up with a J reg BMW 730i, which until the engine gave up, was ideal for the job.

Its that time of year where we are requiring another car for this years rally, which involves us driving to Croatia, via belguim, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia, and i thought who better to ask for advice than you fine people.

Shortlist so far is;

Lexus LS400
Volvo 960 (3.0 24v)
Mercedes S-Class
BMW 7 Series (again)
Volvo 850 T5
Honda Legend
W124 E Class estate

Please feel free to suggest any others though, bearing in mind our max budget is £1k
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