Since this recent cold spell I've noticed an increasing number of pedestrians choosing to walk in the road rather than on the snow covered pavement, I've seen several cars having to swerve to avoid someone unexpectedly deciding to hop into the road because they thought it was a safer route.

I wonder what is potentially more dangerous, slipping on the icy pavement or being clipped by a vehicle?
Read more

The silver A class had just moved onto the chemist`s forecourt and as I reversed into position beside him, I noticed him pause as he opened his door and then smile slightly as we made eye contact on getting out of our vehicles.

I would place him in his late 80`s - moving slowly into the chemist, white faced and without much colour in his lips, let alone face. A heart condition perhaps or the normal aging process resulting in his body organs being hard pressed by his slow walk inside.

The A class outside gleamed, even to it`s alloy wheels - despite the heavy salting and filthy main road. I assessed it as a well cared for and perhaps even loved vehicle - being deployed into the salt as a necessity, due to frailty, rather than choice.

He looked vulnerable and I took his wisp of a smile as perhaps loneliness - was this trip out his only human contact today - or for longer?

I engaged him in conversation as we waited for our respective medications and despite being 61yrs myself - never had the 61 felt more like being 21 - if you know what mean.

We covered the weather, snow, the -6c of the previous night and of earlier decades. He really warmed to the contact and his face glowed with pleasure despite what looked like possible cardiac insufficiency.
We were back in the winter of 47 - a year before I was born and I added to that my Fathers story of the winter of 44 and him being on guard duty at an RAF airfield - the Battle of The Bulge going on inland and the expectation of German paratroopers.

I touched his arm as I left and wished him a good Christmas - he was not far from the limit of what`s possible with motoring and I felt great empathy for him as another Human Being - facing the final challenges and perhaps the prospect of a lonely Christmas.

oilrag Read more

Lots of 2wd vs 4wd discussion.

Let's see your Mondeos with traction control do this ;-)

tinyurl.com/yb9wapq

Read more

On the Scottish news tonight they ran a feature on why the country grinds to a halt with some snow.

As part of this they showed footage of the "old days" with bad weather and this showed:

a postman pulling a sledge full of mail over a frozen loch lomond
a full street of residents all out shovelling snow off pavements and roads
a steam train blasting its way through a snow pile up

Now OK we have got a lot more traffic , we have H&S and we have lots of wealthy lawyers but how many of this week's weather issues could have been avoided?

- everyone clears the pavement in front of their house, maybe the road as well. If neighbour elderly or infirm, do theirs as well
- rather than ignoring the "don't travel unless necessary" message, pay attention to it
- rather than blaming councils and everyone else about lack of gritting, what can you do to help? Start off with not being on the road to start with!
- so after having the weather warning, the don't travel unless necessary, why do people still go out without blankets, shovel etc ?

I just feel that we have become so entrenched in a society where we blame everyone else, we look to get money to make up for that blame and we are much happier complaining rather than doing something about it!

Rant over!!
Read more

Last year, I went looking at old Ford Fiesta Mk5s to buy my first car. First I went to see was a Y reg Fiesta Flight 1.3 in White, around 10,000 miles on the clock, supposed to be 1 previous owner, an old guy.

The salesman started the engine with the bonnet open, let me have a quick look at the car. Then I test drove it. It drove like new, as a car with only 10,000 miles on it should do. But the interior appeared to be in poor condition. Glovebox wouldn't shut properly. Seats were quite worn. Overall the car seemed decent.

The problem was the paperwork - only had 2 or 3 MOTs out of 5 it should have had, if I recall correctly. Logbook was missing. Owner's handbook was missing. No original invoice from when the old guy bought the car new. There were some "receipts", just scribbles on scrappy bits of paper. The trader claimed these were from the previous owner. Now, keeping all this in mind...this car was actually advertised as having a "full service history"!

I did do an AA data check on this car, cost me £30 or something silly, it checked out OK. Being as foolish as I was, not having a clue what I was doing, I paid the seller a £50 deposit. I was so excited about finally getting a car, that I just I didn't put much thought into the lack of paperwork until later. Yes, I know, very dumb. After a week of arguing with the seller, he refunded the deposit, but only after I threatened him with the police!

So why did I threaten him with the police? Well here comes the 'dodgy' bit, in my opinion. This seller has a forecourt with probably something like 20 cars at any one time. All of them are quite old, but all low miles - in the region of 10,000-20,000 miles. And this guy is snip - given your nickname not so hard to identify from the detail! Now, when on the phone disputing the lack of paperwork, I actually questioned the mileage on the car. This is when he got very aggressive with me, seemed to be very much insulted that I suggested he was winding back the odometers on his cars!

So, that was that. So then I went to visit another trader. This time a 2003 Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.25. This car was mint inside and out. The paperwork was all there - logbook, manual, all expected documents. But the problem this time was the salesman. He couldn't stop repeating that it had "original mats" - he mentioned it like 5 times. When I opened the bonnet to check the oil level/condition, he got all funny - "what are you doing, is that cloth clean?". He also tried on the "I've been selling cars for 20 years...blah blah blah..." crap.

So, he left us with the car (me and my mother). You would think he left us with it because he wanted us to check it out. But no, he locked it, and then walked off back to the office. So, we went inside, and I asked for a test drive.

He continued with his hesitant attitude, saying "Well, we get quite a few time wasters sometimes, so we require a deposit before a test drive.". At this point, my mum just said "Forget it, lets go." So we walked out. The salesman followed us, saying "You are missing out on a great deal here!!". We kept walking, and then after 1-2 minutes on another road, the salesman pulls up in a car! He winds down the window, saying "You can test drive it! You can test drive it if you want!". We were both absolutely astonished, and obviously kept on walking.

So after that mess, we decided to goto a main Ford dealer. Eventually bought a new '08 reg Ford Ka! Yes, quite a change from what I was looking at before. Never intended to buy brand new, but thats the way it worked out in the end. The buying experience was completed with no problems. Aftersales service is something else, but I won't go off-topic and this thread is already lengthly enough as it is. I don't regret what I ended up doing.

Anyone else had similar experiences? Read more