November 2022
There is no evidence of a fuel filter change on my 2003 Verso.
is it worth including this on my service due in a few weeks and is it a complex job ? Read more
I wonder why, in this age of comfortable durable fabrics, the expensive preparation and treatment of cattleskin is widely used for car seats and surroundings. Very few would choose it for chairs in the home - why in cars? I much preferred the fabric of my old cars to the leather of my current one - on which I use a thin cushion.
If it was a cheap way of using a waste product from an edible animal it might make sense....but it isn't cheap. Perhaps I am biased; I remember the petrol fume and tobacco smoke laden stench of old leather invoking a Pavlovian retch response - an associated memory of childhood carsickness. Read more
We are quite often covered in mud at the weekends. Leather seats wipe clean. Works for us.
£20 instead of £0 is hardly a major problem… Read more
advised you wrong all vehicles on public highway must be taxed insured and a valid mot
EV to pay VED - about b***** time too
Why wait until 2025?... Read more
The running cost benefit of electric vehicles is becoming marginal. For instance electricity at a price of 38p per kWh and a real world 3 miles per kWh equals £5.70 to do 45 miles.
My petrol 1.4 litre Fiat does a genuine 45 miles per gallon. Petrol costs me £1.459 per litre, therefore 1.459 x 4.546 (litres in a gallon) equals £6.63 to do 45 miles.
Then take into account electricity prices rising further in April '23 and the economic incentive is definitely under question.
Sat behind two pick ups at temporary lights today. At the front, an early 90s Subaru Brat. Behind that, a recent Ford Ranger. Couldn’t believe the difference in size. The Brat looked like a Matchbox toy! Read more
Taking of weird European pickups, though, we used to go to Greece when I was a kid and our best ever hire car was something called a Renault Farma. Googling it (and without getting into the depths of the Renault-MAVA arrangements), it looked a lot cooler when I was 7. I'd happily have one (or a 'proper' 80s Dacia Duster) though.
Never come across the Farma before, but when I've been on websites selling cars from other EU countries, I have come across these plenty of times, 9583101087_52693b2804_b.jpg. This is, for all intents and purposes, a Renault 12 double cab pick up (also comes as a single cab). Ive also seen them with a large fibreglass canopy making them into a van. I believe engine options are 1.3 and 1.4 petrol or a 1.9 diesel (all n/a)....
Dunno if anyone else has been following this.
Four Welsh Footy fans are driving an EV to Qatar ,( from Cardiff) to watch the WCup.... Read more
Well it's an odd result. Social media is showing the guys in Qatar. But the car is reporting itself to be still in Amman. No word on how they got there.
For those that remember the original Top Gear, Sue Baker has sadly died.
youtu.be/8M0H7xw6jSY Read more
For a start, modern cars just, er, start. Remember all the business with whether or not to depress the accelerator or not, setting the choke, what do do if it flooded? Just owning a car required a bit of mechanical understanding.
Driving needed more skill with typically half the power to weight ratio, and often no power steering.
By comparison modern cars are about as engaging as a washing machine.
Now I'm old, comfort is top priority. When choosing tyres, noise level comes first. But owing to the odd way of measuring noise (logarithmic), and the difficulty of consistency and influence of variabilities makes it difficult to get an idea of how much more noisy one tyre is than another on looking at the charts. Apparently the noise is officially measured outside the car when rolling, presumably at the same speed on the same surface. But noise is generated by all sorts of different types of vibration and it could be argued that some might produce a rumbling or droning inside the car which might not be detected outside.
Also, road surfaces are very different. I've noticed the Goodyear vector 4 seasons on our Peugeot 2008 drone a bit on some surfaces, but are quiet on others. On the horrible concrete sections of the M25 I doubt if there is any difference between any tyre! ... Read more
It seems most tyre tests report on the noise from new tyres.
Personally I want quiet and choose accordingly from a "quality" brand. With (say) 7mm of tread, the noise is very different to (say) 3mm....
Morning All, after I've had a sleepless night ... on my way home last evening, in the dark, I'm coming off a roundabout at the 3 o'clock exit so I'm in the offside lane, on to a dual carriageway where I stick in the offside lane until clear of the roundabout because drivers from the 9 o'clock exit tend to shoot out when they think traffic in the near side lane on the approach is going to turn left at their exit. There is no 12 o'clock exit and only 3-4 metres between the 9 & 3 o'clock exits. It's one of those multi-mini-roundabout complexes where on my route it's a right then left then right sequence to get across, with very short distances to change lanes and people whizzing about cutting in.
I was indicating left leaving the roundabout, and continued to indicate preparing to move into the nearside lane when I heard a soft thump, my nearside wing mirror had been clipped by a driver who came from the 9 o'clock position and shot up my left side.... Read more
I reported a driving incident to the police many years ago and they took it seriously. I eventually received a letter saying that no further action would be taken but just the thought of a marked police car outside the other party's house and the ear bending from the wife were enough for me to be satisfied
I am older and wiser now so hopefully can avoid these things! Let's hope that the other driver learns from this!
Hi, just looking for some advice.
I bought a used car from a dealership around 200 miles from me. The vehicle was £11,000.... Read more
Vehicle was advertised as 85,000 miles, arrived on 89,000 miles. I can live with this, bit of a joke but hey. Also arrived and has several marks which were not pictured, once again it was priced well so I can get this repaired.
Perhaps this indicates that this car has been rejected more than once, but the first ad hasn't been updated ? :-)
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Thanks for that Doc. I’ll certainly take your advice and just ask my indie to stick to the basics.