The scenario in brief -

travelling home from Lake district, on A-road. A big tractor comes bombing down the hill towards me. All sorts of metal things, propshafts, crankshafts, whatever they were, suddenly flew towards me. Thank our Lord that they didn't come through the windscreen but they went under the car, and under another behind me.

Thought all was ok- no obvious damage apart from flat tyre - , and in a mad coincidence it happened outside a garage, so I bought one of those foam tyre fillers and limped home.

Insurance was comp so told my insurers the story, with full third party details. They then called me back saying they wouldn't be pursuing recovery of costs, as it wasn't the TP's fault just cos stuff fell off his tractor. OK I was comp but this would have meant loss of bonus and a "fault" accident on my record so I wasn't happy. Turns out my car was battered underneath.

I became my own lawyer and got full recovery on MY OWN... and a big apology from my insurer. But not from the dweeb who decided he couldn't be bothered recovering my costs. Read more

I was wondering if any one had any advice?

I currently drive a vauxhall zafira which is almost 3 years old. I bought it as I have a huge dog and she travels in her cage with me most of the time. I wanted to be higher up, but didnt want the running costs of a 4x4.

Although the zafira has been ok, it is quite low spec with a smaller engine and I feel it doesnt have any umph. Also, most of the time, I drive around without using any of the back seats. When I dont have the cage in and the seats are up, it just smacks of a family car and does not have much street cred (if you know what I mean).

I now want to trade in, but am not quite sure what would meet my needs! I need bags of space, higher driving position and with a wee bit more funky!!!! Read more

Hopefully a quick question...

When parking an auto (or DSG in my case) do you;

a) Put the car in Park and then apply the handbrake.

b) Apply the handbrake and then put the car into Park.

or

c) It makes absolutely no difference which way you do it! Read more

I am reminded by another thread that Pat Moss died the other day. She was Stirling Moss's younger sister and he taught her to drive. So as well as being a quite serious horse person all her life she was for some years a fairly successful rally driver.

Got done for speeding towing a horse box not long before she died. Chapeau!

I couldn't help wondering if her horses were experienced passengers, resignedly bracing their outside hooves against the walls of the box during high speed cornering... Read more

Having written off his Jazz last night (or rather, had the Jazz written off for him), my FiL is trying to work out what he could expect as an insurance offer. I wondered if anyone here might know?

It was a 1.4SE Jazz, 2004 (54) about 45k on the clock - if that makes any difference to the value.

(he was rear-ended at 30mph by an articulated lorry in stationary traffic, pushing him into the car in front. Thankfully just bruises and whiplash have come out of it: he's a lucky boy.)

I haven't seen the damage yet so can't give a full description, but the consensus of Plod at the scene was that it was enough damage for a write-off.

TIA Read more