May 2009
I have a friend who used to get into town in a car. Now he`s in an electric wheelchair and still gets into town, along the pavements.
Standing between the chair and the car is the mobility scooter. I knew someone who came up a steep Pennine hill and five miles into town on one.
There must surely be a market for the simplest possible electric car - ten miles at 20mph. That would get many people out and about locally. A sort of sub French micro- car. More like a Peel 50.
A simple lead acid battery array - nothing fancy. A new deal. Able to park in the City centre at no charge - except a `re-charge` parking meter style plug in re-chargers.
I think there`s a gap. Something similar in size to a Peel50/mobility scooter - but simple. If a mobility scooter can provide personal transport for twenty miles - why not? using cycle lanes.
You never see a cycle around here due to the hills and the cycle lanes are under used.
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As it says really
be safe when working on your car this weekend,as they are heavy things
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/8055802.s...m Read more
No point speculating is there - no doubt evidence has been gathered and will be presented to the Coroner's Court. Nonetheless good and timely advice. Locking it now.
tinyurl.com/p4hzqe
Horrifying standards in car design in the 60's. I am sure we have come a long way since then. I have never seen a whole bench seat with passengers (dummies, of course) come out of the drivers door before.
Link made non-clickable because the link has content on the right hand side that some may find inappropriate and also may get some members into trouble if viewed from work computers. Rob (Moderator)
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I think it must have been Ralph Nader, whilst recommending large side mirrors and full harness belts, said that the greatest safety contribution would be to reduce the maximum speed of vehicles by 30 mph.
What is the current trend? Even some of the smallest cars do over 100 and many eaisly double the maximum uk speed limit!
Dont try to tell me that drivers don't try it!
No car names. But do you start to make a (seemingly) involuntary purring noise like a cat when you think of your badge?
Or does it make you want to put a finger down your throat instead (as it passes) or perhaps you would buy the marque if.
A) You could have a rear window sticker saying you were `not the typical owner`
B) You didn`t have to see other `inferior` cars passing you in 5th on motorway inclines.
c) Write you own script - but thread rule is humour, not nasty-pasty
(as after all, they are merely cars and not worthy of actual emotion....)
Are they? ;-) Read more
Image means nothing to me.
Sure I've said this before but dropped down off of the Chiswick flyover many years ago guess 1976-77 following an Austin A35, black, standard steel wheels etc.. and when it opened out into motorway this thing just disappeared 'up the road'. What the owner had done was beyond me at the time. I couldn't see the front, but a shoehorned V8 maybe??
Also saw A Moggie minor years ago, Rover V8. Petrol, Nitrous and water mist injected. 0-60 in 3.5secs.
Q cars are the best...........Just ask the BIB
MD
Hello Forum
Today, I stalled the car reverse parking on an incline (Doh!) and lost braking and steering power. I was a concerned as I heard, just as (or just before {edited to replace 'txt' talk}) I stalled, a clunk that sounded very mechanical. Almost like a snap/spring/clunk low pitched sound under the car. I had to roll it down my hill and park using the handbrake. The car seems fine now having driven it round the block - BUT I want to be sure that this is normal, and that I shouldn't take it into a garage to check for an issue with the servo assist or something related to it.
Any thoughts appreciated.
James Read more
True, but not with the steering though.
My fiance is having new rear tyres fitted to her '07 Passat 2.0 tdi later this week. She will have covered just in excess of 70k on her original Dunlop SP Sports, and there is still some wear left. Her fronts managed 57k, again with a reasonable amount of wear left in them, before being replaced by Michelin Primacy HPs.
I was told, when ordering, by the fitter, not to expect similar mileage from the replacements as ''original fit tyres are always of a harder compound so you buy the same again''. Shame we can not put this to the test as we are changing brand.
I am very impressed with this wear rate on the Dunlops. Read more
<<...320 and the tyres must be made of concrete.>>
One of my cars has tyres with a treadwear rating of 520. Never had any problems
My journey to work is made up of five or six miles chugging through town, 30mph limit and several junctions, followed by five or six miles easy run on a 50mph dual carraigeway.
Am I likely to use more fuel going to work - when I do the poor economy part of the journey from cold, or going home, when the car is much warmer when it reaches the stop/start section?
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Try driving to Spain and back - you'll use about ten gallons more on the return trip - uphill, see?
An oil change perhaps? Maybe you`re going on a motoring holiday?
What`s in store for your car then?
A shock for it perhaps? washing last winters salt of the nether regions.. What salt?
;-)
Tell us about it, in a lighthearted way that lifts the human thingy, above all nastiness - which may or may not be elsewhere - but not here.
Regards ;-) Read more
Twickenham on Saturday for the Sevens Rugby - letting the train take the strain. Essex for a family dinner Sunday overnight. Steve Allen The Angina Monolgues at Hornchurch Bank Hol Monday afternoon with no doubt a traffic free M25 jaunt home early evening. Hmm.
You know how it`s often said that `manufacturer knows best` - despite turning out cars with known issues where it turns out the owner is doing the final stage of deevelopment.
What have you found? and more to the point. What have you done to the motor - as a modification to improve on the manufacturers development?
I fitted a finer mesh on the front grill (Praised by the dealer - yes, the marque main dealer) to avoid objects the size of golf balls being able to go straight through into the radiator.
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I fitted a full set of seats from a Mini Mayfair circa '85 to my Reliant Rialto - the seats are literally bolted through the glassfibre floor by way of a plate either side of the floor to brace it.
The guy who bought it off me thought it was fantastic as seat comfort with the original seats is rather limited - Mini seats were luxury by comparison!
It did involve also cutting the moulded doorbins from the plastic doorcards and making new ones which were much narrower and allow for the greater width of the Mini seats.
Id do it again if I had another Rialto - oh and my home modification DID pass an MOT
:-)
We wouldn`t want `standard cars` of course (would we?) but what components of a car could - to benefit of owner and manufacturer - be standardized?
Think of all those mobile phone chargers you have each with a different connector.. when the round Nokia one can just be slipped in - eyes closed.
Wiper blade connectors would surely be a start.. or light bulbs perhaps?
What`s your biggest gripe in this area?
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?You might think the driver could be relied on to brake hard in this situation
? says Ivarsson. ?But our research shows about 50% of drivers don?t brake at all
before a crash ? perhaps because they are paralysed by fear or simply distracted.
Yes, I know 2 people who told me about driving into the back of someone in traffic because they were distracted by conversing with their kids. I'm not sure that giving such people an excuse not to concentrate on their driving is really the way forward.
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I think that the 20mph limit is too slow - I remember being on a moped and felt really vulnerable at 30 - a vehicle which is bigger than a moped/motorbike but is limited to 20 would come under a lot of "pressure" from other bigger raod users... sensibly the limit would be better set at 40, but it should be restricted to urban use only...
Having said that, didn't some tests of the GWhiz mention that they felt vulnerable, and thats not that slow?!