July 2008
I had the misfortune, last night, of following a Mitsubishi Grandis, between Banstead and Purley. I couldn't get past this vehicle and therefore noticed how overbright the rear stop/tail lights were, up high, either side of the rear window.
Each unit comprised approximately 23 LEDs and when held up at traffic lights etc. they were exceptionally bright when the brakes were being applied and as this was an automatic it was very uncomfortable being the car immediately being said vehicle.
Surely there should be regs. limiting the amount of brightness emanating from this type of assembly - they should be attenuated during the hours of darkness.
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My old mum is upgrading her automatic Micra for a new Micra or Yaris.
She has an automatic licence. Is she allowed to drive one of the new semi automatic cars on an auto licence?
Thanks for you help! Read more
As some of you know, I have put off buying one these until the end of the year as I think they will come down a lot in price.
Thought it might be interesting, to post the average price of the three cheapest RR's on Autotrader on a roughly weekly basis. I will also include the average mileage.
Only rules are, that I will exclude ex-Motorway/Police cars and cars recorded as being damaged or written off.
Any anecdotal info from the trade as to lowest trade price seen for one of these would be great.
So this week:
Average price: £11095
Average mileage: 89087
Dramatic difference from even 3 months ago - unsurprisingly. Read more
Car on eBay - Thanks, but I am going to wait till Nov/Dec and bag one then.
Using the figure of 3% depreciation a month makes a cumulative discount of 14% on todays figures by December.
Therefore, say car list price is £11500 - 14% makes £9890 before haggling. My gut reaction, is they will depreciate by more than this, but I could easily be wrong. Certainly a haggle around Xmas is normally more effective than at other times in the year.
I want to Dinitrol the underside, but not sure which type to use. There's surface rust on the axles, suspension brackets etc. and I need to remove any of the flaky rust and old dry underseal.
I was under the impression that you can use the brown stuff initially that penetrates the rust, then go over it with the black elastic, semi underseal one (not the really thick rubberised one). Anyone know any different? Read more
I wonder if anyone can help? Have blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, but only at certain times. It only seems to happen after you come to a stop and then after about 10 seconds blue smoke starts appearing. It doesn't happen all the time and it doesn't smoke at start up from cold. I had a new head fitted last year, and a 30,000 mile turbo fitted as well. Could it be the seals on the turbo are wearing or could a blocked oil breather be doing the same thing? Read more
To cheer us up for the weekend, while we worry about the cost of almost everything, I thought it might be amusing to find the worst example of PC nonsense, the Nanny State, or call it what you will.
I will kick off with a story in today's DT which reports that a small UK airport has advertised for an Air Traffic Controller with 20/20 vision. The application form is available in Braille so that visually impaired or blind people cannot claim that they have been discriminated against in the selection process!
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Not much motoring discussion going on despite a couple of people hinting at returning it to that, so thread locked.
DD.
What happened to AWS (All Wheel Steer). Back in the 1990s Honda had few models which had AWS. When you steered the back wheel steered as well. At higher speed the rear wheel steered in opposite direction to make it easir to round corners. At lower speed the rear wheel steered in same direction to make it easir to park.
Where is this techonolgy now? Or was it found to be high maintenance in the later years Read more
Surely this is a subtle feature that most drivers perhaps wouldn't notice. It may have been invented to tweak the handling of cars without making them harsh. I don't think any cars are sold to ordinary punters that will nip sideways into parkers. That would be asking for trouble.
It can't possible be any use, surely, or do anything that a properly designed conventional suspension and steering setup can't do just as well. A bit of wear and dirt and it may not work properly too. I don't mind complexity and I love ingenuity, but I hate this kind of thing.
Wednesday 9th was a pretty grotty day for driving especially down south what with the rain & spray ,but a lot of drivers who passed me on the M40 s/bound around 7am ish were using fog lights, dazzling me, causing me to take my eyes `off the road` momentarily. This is not safe because if you focus on fog lamps you may not notice brake lights coming on suddenly, although if you`re at the correct braking distance it shouldn`t be a problem , but how many drivers maintain a proper safe distance? i.e a two second gap, i personally like to see plenty of tarmac between me and the vehicle in front but there`s always someone eager to fill the gap oblivious to the fact that my truck takes longer to stop the `his` car!
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I was recently working in an area where I didn't need to use my car for trips to the local retail park (I need to buy red wine and stuffed olives quite frequently, for health reasons ;)) so, on foot, over a few days, I gained insight into the use of front fog lamps in good visibility. My walk to the supermarket took me through a McDonald's car park and drive through, and, after a few days I noticed that many of the cars on the drive through and coming into the car park had fog lights on. It clearly is a sign that the driver is hungry (and quite possibly hearing impaired judging by the volume coming from their 8 track players).
Hello,
I have got one of those BMW Alarms fitted 3T to my old BMW however just today though it has started going off by itself. So I close all the doors and windows it has full closure facilites on it. Then I press the remote key to lock it which it does flases 4 times. A few seconds later it goes off. Then I press the key fob again which stops the siren and still remains locked. To then gain access to the vehilce I have to then press the key fob twice once to arm and then once to open it, if that makes sense.
I looked on the fault finding instructions all windows and doors are shut there is nothing inside mthe vehilce moving around.
Any ideas ladies and gents would be greatful
Thanks Read more
Bought an S-max. I like it, however in keeping with lots of modern cars there's no spare, just goo and a compressor. Have been thinking that this will be a real pain if I do get a puncture, and I think ruins a possibly repairable tyre.
Does anyone know if there are any tyre breakdown services for non fleet users? Annual fee or pay on call out? My breakdown cover is with autoaid (pay and claim and much recommended), not sure what help they would be but I can call my own contractor rather than theirs if I breakdown and subsequently claim the money back.
I'd have to check the small print of their policy but even if not covered I'd like to know of any 24hr national tyre services if they exist. All help appreciated.
{amendment to correct typo in header} Read more
Just for interest to peopke with autoaid policies and no spare - I emailed them. This is what I got back and offers some reassurance (however what happens with the puncture when the tyre places are shut?):
"Although the AutoAid breakdown policy states you have to have a legal spare tyre we are aware that some cars do not have this and have a tyre inflation kit instead, in the event of your vehicle having a puncture we would recovery your vehicle to the nearest tyre centre for you to get a replacement."
I've saved the email to present back if any problems (I agree their T&Cs don't cover this issue)
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Actually it's
No clutch pedal = Automatic
But otherwise yes.
Automated manual gearboxes have clutches but no clutch pedal!