October 2023
There are errors of commission (usually obvious) and omission (often not so obvious). I sometimes wonder if one of the biggest political errors the UK made was not to convert to LHD like Sweden did when I was a teenager. At that time the UK still had an important car and truck industry. Now, apart from the relatively unimportant high end market, it struggles. Anyone who travels abroad will realise what little choice there is in the UK as so many manufacturers just don't bother with RHD versions of some models, and in turn we seem now to export relatively few LHD vehicles compared to other LHD countries with a well developed vehicle manufacturing base. Read more
Standardisation of steering wheel side and traffic side could potentially have been done on a much larger scale following the 1926 Paris Convention, when most countries chose LHD/RH traffic, largely owing to USA-led mass car production and a desire to "standardise". This desire was not felt in countries with an imperialist history (UK, Japan and, in pre-Napoleonic times, the Netherlands and Portugal), hence the plethora of former colonies which continue to drive on the left. Parts of the collapsed Austro Hungarian Empire (including Yugoslavia) continued to drive on the left until WW2
Over the centuries, common (and economic) sense led to the move to the right - or fully to the right! - in territories with land borders (Canada, Gibraltar, Sweden, Poland, Spain), although post-independence nationalism may have played a part in many cases (Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Bahrain.)
Foreign "imports" or anything less common or requiring adaptation is inevitably going to cost a bit more one way or another, but if the whole world had miraculously decided to drive on the same side a century ago this would have undoubtedly evened the playing field.
Hi all
I have always had Vauxhalls, so parts and servicing are cheap. However, i have been tempted by a Scala. I test drove a 2021 1.5 petrol Scala and a 2019 1.0 Turbo petrol Astra, the Scala was so smooth, although the Astra did have more mileage. But both had good engines.
From what i can see online the Scala will be more expensive for parts and servicing than an Astra, but more reliable?
Read more
“ Well done SLO, I only posted this morning in jest and in no way meant it to be offensive to yourself, don't always agree with everything you say but hey life would be boring if we all had the same opinion, hope the leaf is still going OK btw....”
Not offended at all, made me laugh.
Leaf is keeping SWMBO happy so it’s solid gold as far as I’m concerned.
Hi All
We have a 2013 X1 Xdrive which is shared between the family. We bought it about 6 months ago. Its the 2.0 20D version 2013. It only has 80k miles on it and all of that is BMW services... Read more
If my son in law’s experience in typical you should get rid of the X1 PDQ. Last year his 13 reg x1 diesel with about 80k had a major engine failure requiring £2.5 worth of work. It was never the same again and he nursed it for eight months until his new Toyota Corolla was delivered. He’s an engineer incidentally and says the quality of the Toyota is vastly superior to the BMW.
Great to see Toyota finally seeing sense, the new, great looking Prius will be sold in the UK.
Rear headroom is lacking in these so I do wonder how many will end up in the hands of cabbies.
Hello,
I purchased a used 2019 Vitara 1.4 allgrid auto a few months ago. This is my first car. I practiced in the last few months. The car is very easy to drive around town and turning is accurate. I found the car steering to be on the light side and feel a bit twitchy after 50mph. My sister used to drove Volvo V40 said steering is lighter than hers. Can someone tell me if it has speed sensitive power steering? can I make it a bit heavier at high speed or I need to adapt to it? My tyres pressure set to 33psi.
Thanks Read more
Korm**** tyres are a mid range tyre , part of the Michelin group . I’ve got them on my bmw . They are an ok middle of the road product . You may find the continentals a better proposition.
A large part of the attraction to driving an EV is the effortless way one can get down the road.
Now Toyota want to make it more difficult -
www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/toyota-manual-...s Read more
:-)
Great thread, really enjoyed the humour!...
Hi Folks,
I've a budget of 6-7K - I am looking for an automatic car without any problem and cheap to run, insure and maintain but unable to find a good car. I am ok with a hatchback or SUv. not a saloon at the moment. ... Read more
Hi Folks,
I've a budget of 6-7K - I am looking for an automatic car without any problem and cheap to run, insure and maintain but unable to find a good car. I am ok with a hatchback or SUv. not a saloon at the moment. ...
Hello everyone i have an issue i need to change my exhasut flexy pipe and apparently vauxhall don't make it. Can you advise how to deal with this situation. I have 1 year to change it.
Thank you... Read more
Hi
Super confused with the above two models.
Not sure which one would be the best for me. For my budget I might get a 70k mile example of both.
I would Lloyd to know your opinion on both. Please do let me know how reliable these cars are and how much it would cost for servicing.
Thank you Read more
This is my past experience of a BMW 1 series and a Seat Leon 1.4.
Mine was a 118D ES Edition. Had it for almost 6 years and other than servicing and consumables the only additional expense was battery (replaced under warranty) and a pair of front springs. Over those 6 years it averaged about 48 mpg (calculated not form the lying dash display). I accept they don't have great rear space but that was not an issue for us which was why we bought it. Compared to the other cars we looked at (Golf, Civic, Auris, Ceed etc) it was head and shoulders better and not a lot more money....
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