Spent a few days in Ireland recently.
We specified an auto from the hire company and got a Nissan Tilda saloon. It must look better in the 5 door version (which looks like a larger Note) because the 4, though it has its merits, is a very ugly car. However, with a 1.6 engine and a conventional auto box it took 4 people around in reasonable comfort.
The Irish do seem to love Nissans. There were loads of Almeras - many the 4 door saloon - Notes and Qashqais. I noticed at a dealer that they were giving 3 years VED on some Qashqais which is worth quite a bit since the Irish green car tax is eye watering though their petrol is less expensive then ours.
Ireland is a lovely country, and what was refreshing is that in our touring of County Kerry I didn't see a single speed, enforcement, police monitoring, fund-raising, average-watching or any other kind of camera but the ones being used by tourists to photograph each other and the landscape. Nor did I see anyone driving too fast or stupidly. Roadside signs said there had been 55 deaths on Kerry's roads in the last 4 years. Someone on here will probably be able to do something with that statistic. I think the lack of cameras made driving more relaxed: not because I wasn't going to get flashed and points, but because I could just drive.
Back in England last weekend we drove up to Holmfirth via the A1, A57 and A616. The landscape was ruined with warning signs about speed and sinister images of cameras. On the A616 just off the M1 huge gantries have been suspended over the road to hold cameras which monitor average speed. Outside Holmfirth the number of the road is painted on the white lines for the speed cameras so you'll know where you were when you got done.
Relaxed? Fun? Enjoyable? I don't think so. But top of the morning to you, anyway!
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Tend to agree with all you say Optimist.
I have family in Co Galway, once got stopped for speeding on the Athlone bypass in a hired Toyota Carina (again the 4 door not 5dr) picked up at Dublin airport, the bypass had just opened (and "Built with EU grant" sign unveiled) and a country Garda jumped off the hard shoulder into the fast lane as I approched at 70, I just about screeched to a halt in time and there I was sitting at standstill in the fast lane as he lectured me on the fact that it might be a dual carriageway though it is only a 50 limit. OK that was perhaps 17 years ago when Gatsos were just appearing here though was a refreshing approach that still exists today.
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The Irish do seem to love Nissans.
Toyotas too, I've noticed - at least in County Mayo.
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On holiday in Ireland three years ago I got stopped for speeding by an unmarked Garda car :-( I was on the receiving end of a stern telling-off and a fine.
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I did a 3 week tour of Eire a few years back and noted lots of Toyota Corollas at the time.
I wondered whether there was some import tax break they received or maybe the Irish were just savvy and realised Japanese cars were better than european ones?
One reason I would give for not speeding is their dire condition of the roads. Some holes were more like open cast mines and as for the sign posts...well!
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I wondered whether there was some import tax break they received or maybe the Irish were just savvy and realised Japanese cars were better than european ones?
There's no tax break for Japanese cars, or any other nationality. Toyota has been the best-selling marque in Ireland since the early 1980s, based on reliability: for several years at that time the Toyota ad on radio was a jingle which started "is it true what they 'bout Toyota//Do their cars really go all the time?". Ford had a huge lead in sales before then (over 50% of the market in the early 70s), but lost on the reliability stakes and through the closure in the early 80s of their manufacturing plant in Cork.
One of the big differences to the UK market is that a much smaller proportion of Irish vehicles are company cars. I guess that when buyers are putting a lot of their own money into a vehicle, they are much more likely to be concerned about reliability than with fashionability, the last few percent in handling, or the prevalence of electric toys in the cars. For that reason, a Toyota is an aspirational car in Ireland, a vehicle which offers the important promise that it will serve you for years without trouble, rather than a "boring" choice as in the UK.
I noticed that during the years of the Celtic Tiger, there was a growth in the number of German cars. But those tend to be regarded in Ireland as a luxury good, a fragile treat if you have the cash, and I expect that the recession will push buyers back to the Japanese marques.
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Ireland is a lovely country and what was refreshing is that in our touring of County Kerry I didn't see a single speed enforcement police monitoring fund-raising average-watching or any other kind of camera but the ones being used by tourists to photograph each other and the landscape.
There are already a few speed cameras, but very few. However, a big programme of speed camera installation is due to start soon, and the govt has been taking a lot of political flack over the delays. The plan is for unmarked and hidden cameras to be run by private companies on a bounty-hunting basis, focusing on the areas of the road network identified by the Gardaí as having the biggest accident problems: (see www.garda.ie/safedrive.html )
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