Driving through Glasgow this morning, we had quite a heavy frost last night, down to minus 4.

Driving along at 7.30am I was amazed to see that in one area, the footpaths had all been freshly gritted over the top of the frost.

I think we have now gone the full circle here, why are we sending out workment at 6-7 am in the morning to grit footpaths due to there being some frost? There are no forecasts for snow, in fact it is quite sunny just now.

So following this to its logical conclusion, come summer, as soon as we have nice weather, will the council be blasting all pedestrians with suncream?

There is a four digit security code on my 98 2.1 exec

Switch on radio display will read Code
Press the pre-select button 1 display will read 0---
Press the left or right arrow key until the first digit of code
diplayed, ie 7 display will read 7---
confirm this digit by pressing the pre-select
button 1 and display will read 70--
repeat for the the three next digits.

If the correct code has been entered a high pitched bleep will be heard and system becomes operational. If not error code shows and you must wait 1 minute, this time is doubled each time an error code shows.

I will never forget the way the 306 offered such fantastic handling with a lovely supple ride. Even the XSi and GTI-6 would soak up potholes and sunken manhole covers without any crashing, yet the body control at speed or when flinging the car through a series of tight corners was little short of flawless. The steering was perfectly geared and weighted, and the turn-in pin sharp. You could even play with the attitude of the car mid-bend using the throttle, and make the tail break away completely if you were in the mood.

I find it amusing that so many modern equivalents, particularly those from German manufacturers handle tidily, but ride like skateboards. A friend has a new Audi A5, and it handles well, but the ride is just appalling. You can feel every grain of tarmac, and the road noise is abysmal. The damping finesse and polish of those old Pug chassis put everything since to shame IMHO. The Focus was indeed good, but somehow just that bit less agile, with a coarser ride, and with the feeling of a little more "rubber" in between you and the mechanical bits. It also didn't offer the throttle adjustability or sure fired knowing that the damn thing would just turn into a corner, even if you were overcooking it a bit. The 306 always would.

I miss my XSi. Nowhere near the quickest car I've ever had, but so much fun. Even after three years, I'd still take it out just for a blast, and come back grinning

Blocked filter?

So all owners of CR Diesel engine cars are sitting on ticking time bombs? Whilst

I agree CR systems can be complicated and expensive to fix when they go wrong

its a bit of a sweeping generlisation to say that they will all pack up.

Some manufacturers seem to have more problems than others so rather than the tech being

flawed it may well be the manufacture process.

CR Diesel FI systems and direct injection petrol systems work at incredibly high fuel pressures, this requires a pump with manufacturing tolerances that can be counted in microns, that's why that cost a fortune and is also why they cannot tolerate a poor batch of fuel - which happens more than you'd think. The tiny tolerances mean when they pick up and dump debris into the system, the debris is small enough to go through filters which then takes out the rest of the FI system. It does not matter what manufacturer we're talking about, 99% of cars are fitted with off-the-shelf FI systems so the car manufacturer doesn't come into it. Diesels have a double, sometimes treble whammy of complications thanks to the particulate control systems fitted to them, as well as troublesome dual mass flywheels to hide the vibes of the diesel. The cost of replacing that lot will be more than than the cost of a brand new small hatchback! Look at HJ's car-by-car stuff for supposedly reliable cars like, The Nissan X-Trail, Honda CR-V or Ford Mondeo - you see entry after entry of diesel related issues. These highly complex systems are a liability and if you keep the car long term it's only a matter of time before they bite you on the butt. You cannot expect space-age engineering tolerances to last in the real world of misfuelling, dodgy/dirty fuel, moisture and running out of fuel with has a very high chance of killing a modern FI pump. It's a shame coz engines are better than ever and should go on forever if regularly serviced.