November 2018
On my last trip to the UK I had a scary moment on an unsignposted roundabout, one of a series running from Rugby past DIRFT East to the M1 (where the A428 crosses the A5). A very pushy van driver came tearing up the left hand lane and suddenly indicated right. Once on the roundabout he nudged past several cars (including mine) and peeled off on the third exit on the last stretch of the A5 towards the M1 - in other words, he stayed in the LEFT lane to turn RIGHT. (The roundabout has four exits, equally spaced at 3, 6 9 and 12 o'clock.)
As he came quite close to my car at one point I made a very gentle warning toot of the "I say, ahem, cough, would you mind awfully?" variety and was rewarded with numerous hand gestures and unintelligible insults yelled through the passenger window. The driver veered towards my lane a couple of times to reinforce whatever point he was making. My ignoring them seemed to inflame the driver even more.
The roundabout has no signposting or direction arrows; it is wide enough for two lanes, but there are no markings. 90% of the traffic seems to be motorway bound. I have subsequently been informed that drivers are "allowed" to use the left lane to go right, so "Local knowledge" seems to trump the Highway Code. Which is great for local drivers, and madness for everyone else. I can't help wondering how a collision would pan out in a situation like that. The council(s) seem to have abrogated all responsibility, figuring that drivers will just work it out amongst themselves. Read more
Dreadful presentation. Would have liked to have seen More of the items and details of the new car, and not just quick Millisecond captions, . Why does the camera spend Ages and ages show the Face of the presenter, talking doing the presentation, when we could have seen MORE of the Car and NOT of him waffling in a dreadful accent. Voice over is OK, but vision is important. Read more
No problems with the accent, but the cutaways are annoying and add nothing.
Bearing in mind the date, 11/11, if you happen to have missed it at the time BBC4 over the last week showed a three episode documentary featuring video testimony recorded over the last three decades from the survivors of the Great war featuring camera footage and photographs from the time.
Its called WW1: The Last Tommies, and is available for about the next 3 weeks on i Player.... Read more
It can be terribly sad to think of what happened to so many. My Grandad survived WW1 but was really affected by the gas and general conditions. His lungs were never the same but he did live into his 60's. My own father, who would have been 103 a few weeks back was a regular in the RAF. from 1933 until the late 50's. He disliked talking too much about the war but occasionally, usually after a drink or two he would part with some information. His attitude was that is was all too awful to glorify it with storytelling. He did tell me once that the airfield he was at was bombed. A bomb landed close by and two of his mates were disintegrated beyond any recognition. My father was simply blown over and was relatively unharmed. When I say relatively I had no idea that a conclusive blast from an explosion yards away could be so devastating and he spent weeks in hospital. took him weeks just hear again. That finished his air crew duties, he lost an ear drum so could not fly again. He never complained, except about the parsimonious MOD and the measly addition to his mention for 'war injuries'. I still remember our GP, an ex military doctor, coming to the house to remove bits of shrapnel from various parts of my fathers body as they came to the surface. This went on into the early 1960's. He never complained, just did his duty, and cashed his chips at 87. I am afraid they broke a lot of moulds when they made some of that generation.
Watch the Peter Jackson documentary, it put things into perspective....
Nothing wrong with your choice of wheels, but I don't quite understand the selection process. A T5 is a van,the others aren't (apart from the caddy) Read more
There's a logic to it, well, at least to me. The T5 may not end up being solely a van.
Ah, camper conversion!
Is it a common problem on 03 Fiestas for them to overheat through temperamental thermostats or is there a known common fault please.
Thank you.... Read more
I wouldn't say there is a common problem on these,but certainly a dodgy stat can cause overheating. What engine do you have? have other components been checked, water flow, rad fan operation??
I purchased a 2015 Corsa Excite AC, 20k miles, 3 door petrol 1.4 89ps with metallic paint, FSH, one private owner, with inspection report for £6k. Same car at dealer was £7.5k.
Car has most options but no Android/Apple carplay as this was introduced in 2016 and no parking sensors. Condition was Grade One, it needed a £100 paint job and polish. ... Read more
I did wonder if the purpose was to promote a given auction house, and if so, it has failed miserably.
I think that is what they intended although didn't work out well at all.
www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2018/3007.html
Interesting case regarding legality of test purchase by trading standards. ... Read more
Shame on Halfords trying to mount a defence by splitting hairs on interpretation of a reasonably clear law.
Surely in all common sense and justice it matters not whether Trading Standards are a 'consumer' or not. Halford were contracted to service the vehicle to a reasonable standard. QED. If I took my daughters car to Halfords for service (God forbid) are they saying that any ensuing faults due to lack of care are nothing to do with them because it was not my car, therefore I am not a consumer? Ridiculous. The whole thing should have been laughed out of court and Halfords given the most severe penalty simply for trying it on....
I’m on 9 points, and have received a NIP for 57 in a 50. Speed Awareness course and potential hardship aside, 3 of my 9 points will lapse on 26th November. If they don’t get round to issuing a summons until after 26th November, will the summons automatically lapse, as when they check my record, I’ll only be showing 6pts, and if that is the case, will they just send me a 3 point penalty and a £100 fine?. Read more
Whats wrong with suggesting the obvious.
Because the OP did not ask for advice on how to avoid more points in the future. He was asking about his current problem and in particular whether he could avoid disqualification. ...
Hi
We are in the process of selling our MX-5 which has a Private Reg Plate, how do we go about selling it and where would be the best place to advertise it?... Read more
Tried that site but as predicted they offered £400 to buy a Reg which could be used as a girls name . That seems to be the price unless you go for auction.
But which firm is recommended in that case ?
Reading HJ agony column this week customer bought a new Ford Kuga and was shocked to find the first year tax is £830 on a 1.5 ltr and an unbelievable £1240 on a 2ltr diesel and the government wonder why sales are down. Nice to think that the people of the UK are saving the planet all on their own Read more


After 28 years living and driving here, I could write a thesis on Spanish roundabouts! Years ago an utter nincompoop in a government office looked at the thorny question of roundabouts and decided that rather than treating a roundabout as a junction, it is rather the circular continuation of a general highway, to which existing traffic rules must be applied.
Thus the outside lane has priority, which leads to ridiculous situations, such as the driver taking the final exit who curls around the outside lane centrifugally, asserting his priority over everyone else.
It is also apparently illegal to exit a roundabout in any lane other than the far outside one - even if there are three lanes exiting! - so no cutting-in (lane changing) is allowed. Finally, there are no lane markings to speak of, less still direction arrows - and of course indicators are a total irrelevance.
Santander has introduced "turbo" roundabouts recently with proper lane markings and arrows and people are finally getting used to them, but in the rest of Spain roundabouts are a manic free-for-all. "God knows how they managed to get an Armada together", as Basil Fawlty once said...