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• Subaru Legacy - improving handling info 25 Jul 2007 (Forum)
  It should not be necessary to go to the third (stiffest) setting. Making the rear too stiff can provide a very 'neutral' feeling car on a good road but can lead to a loose feeling or snap oversteer in difficult situation and could catch an unwary driver (your wife?) out on a slippery road - so always live with a little understeer. The only downside to this mod is that you are increasing the lateral coupling between the suspension units and therefore making the suspension 'less independent' - this can manifest itself as slight 'corkscrewing' when one side of the car hits a bump or pothole.
• excess on the road 16 Nov 2006 (Forum)
  The same goes for people who drive 4*4's like the range rover V8, we understand our resources are finite, but we all have some concept of what excessiveness is in cars. It is this that have lead 4*4 drivers to be 'targeted' by the government. What we need to do is to ignore the rubbish about 4*4's destroying the environment and passing laws specifically to get 4*4's off the road. The reason being this is that 4*4's have become the icon of excess, hence the new 4*4 taxes being muted.
• G-Wiz no parking or congestion charges 10 Nov 2006 (Forum)
  It is also exempt from the £8 daily congestion charge and ranks in the lowest groups for insurance and company car tax, so the savings can recoup the £8,500 purchase price in just a year. By the end of next year, however, old-tech lead-acid batteries will be overtaken by lithium-ion or other technology which has four times as much ?energy density?. This will enable electric powered vehicles to run at speeds of up to 75mph and travel 100 miles before re-charging is needed.
• Well ND started it on the Computer Forum 17 Apr 2004 (Forum)
  Each ride has a designated leader who will navigate a section of the ride to a specific place, let\'s say a gas station with a Starbucks where we all take a break and then another leader will take over. He is responsible for paying the expressway tolls for everyone and leading the ride. At the back is a designated \"sweeper\" whose job it is to make sure everyone keeps up and to take care of a problem (flat tire, traffic violation etc). All have cellphones of course. especially important we all drink lots of H2O or Gatorade in this heat, particularly our girls with their small frames.
• A popular car in Iraq... 24 Sep 2003 (Forum)
  What ever you do, don't lock your keys inside! Other issues to worry about? Petrol at 70 to 77 octane, leaded only of course, although 95 octane unleaded is now being imported in large quantities from Kuwait by the Americans. Ambient temperatures of 50 to 60 degrees C in high summer and high humidity in the south.
• 
  My new car was delivered in bad condition - can I reject it? 21 Apr 2017 (Ask HJ)
  I bought a new Jeep Renegade via Carwow. Firstly, it was driven to my home, from the dealer, which I have since noted is some 240 miles away. This was...
• Happy Blue's rental car blog 10 Jul 2016 (Forum)
    Balloon tyres are great for road imperfections, but a heavily loaded car at speed causes bounce and float leading to claims of sickness from rear passengers.   The return journey at night showed the car to have good headlights and a surprisingly good turn of speed but was hampered by an odd gearbox.
• My question to an MP regarding Bio-diesel - Reply! 4 Feb 2011 (Forum)
  They believe that the dilution of this oil by unburnt diesel fuel causes a deterioration in its lubrication qualities, leading to a significant possibility of excessive engine wear and premature failure. They are also concerned because the recall campaign to repair the problem with the DPF has been conducted during the summer months, when regeneration is less problematical.
• Priu$ Worse Than Hummer 22 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot. One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses. http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?
• Tools 10 Feb 2002 (Forum)
  THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB: This is a misnomer, since the immutable laws of nature dictate this is about as locate-able as the Holy Grail, despite the firm delusion that you actually had it once. The search therefor is a fine stimulus to developing improvisation skills and usually leads to a deeper understanding of the Law of Unintended Consequences (see Mole-Grip, Philips Screwdriver etc above). Some claim the Right Tool is always found after the job for which it is required has been completed.
• Audi A7/A6 - Audi premium brand I don’t think so 20 Mar 2020 (Forum)
  In anticipation of this I had prepared a document a copy of which can be supplied, which outlined the circumstances leading to the repair and asked for an acknowledgement of my “paid under protest” status. The service representative said he was unable to sign this document but he would refer it to his line manager.
• Skoda Yeti - EA189 Emissions Update - my experience 2 Apr 2018 (Forum)
  I was also increasingly aware the engine appeared to begin developing power / torque approximately 300-500 RPM further up the rev range. This lead to me often driving in a lower gear, than before the update.  Fuel economy is admittedly an obsession of mine and my Fuelly account now covers in excess of 100K miles, covered in 3 Yeti's (x1 1.2 TSi, x1 110 BHP 2.0 TDi 2WD and my current 140 BHP 140 BHP 4x4).
• Ford Fiesta - Fiesta EAC FAIL 28 Sep 2015 (Forum)
  They did a lot of checking and were convinced it was not the tps but first suggested that I needed a new ECU. I immediately got suspicious and lead them to believe that I wouldn't pay to replace that, even though if I knew that was definitely the problem, I probably would. He kept the car overnight because the following day he said they had a ford technician going in to try and sell them some diagnostic equipment.
• Citroen DS5 - My Road Test Report 13 Mar 2015 (Forum)
  First impressions were good, bold aggressive styling with some neat design features. The chrome “blade” which runs from the A pillar to the leading edge of the front wing looked particularly good on this car which was finished in black. The DS5 looks good from the rear too with a squat stance set off by the roof spoiler and what look like twin chrome exhaust pipes.
• FAO Honest John, the Indian Dacia Duster Problems 5 Feb 2014 (Forum)
  Dacia unable to confirm if they should or should not be bunged up, they tell some owners its for drainage, despite the fact the holes are not at the lowest point, are lipped inwards and are huge. This is already leading to some rust.
• Choosing a second car - ideas? 10 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  As readers of some of earlier posts on this forum may know, we are a 2 car family, car 1 needs to be a full size 7 seater, and my story that lead to me a Mitsubishi Grandis is here: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=48948&v=f Car 2, is for fun, and spare when second card needed, I have flirted with various 2+2 coupes, wrote off a mint condition Nissan 200SX (aaagh!!!!!)
• Mike Rutherfords Champions 7 Feb 2007 (Forum)
  Citroën is a firm that, starting from an admittedly low base, continues to win promotion to higher leagues at an impressively quick rate thanks to a combination of industry-leading prices, brilliant designs and much-improved quality. This was confirmed by last week's Warranty Direct report that claimed that the French firm has moved to 10th best in the world. Skoda has a similar no-nonsense, value-for-money approach and deserves credit - if not promotion - for that.
• The hazards of cycling in the UK in 2004 28 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  As usual the park had a number of dogs being walked in it, and i was approaching a man walking his dog near the park's exit. The dog was on about a 30ft lead ahead of the man, and as i could tell that the dog had not noticed my presence i slowed right down to walking pace and hoped the owner would alert his dog (and ideally call it back to him or to one side).
• Dropped kerb in front of one residential property - Neighbour taken dropped kerb directly front my h 4 Jun 2020 (Forum)
  My street has a large green space with grass and trees between the houses and roads on both sides of the street, and my house has a dropped kerb in front of it with a long piece of tarmac leading up to my drive. The lowered kerb and crossover were constructed in 2004 and I was given a receipt for the work by the previous house owner when I purchased the property in 2012. There are neighbours further up the road that have driveways at the front of their properties with a dedicated crossover leading up to their respective drives.
• The unethical & deplorable actions of 2 companies 20 Mar 2018 (Forum)
    Has anything said by YY or XX been true, or just further perjury being committed? The admission of YY that liability should be accepted, followed by the radio silence leads me to believe that something untoward is going on – are they happy to facilitate the fraud being committed by XX? I raise the question – under oath – would XX stand up and state everything that has been said from the outset has been true?