Two Years On - KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi

Two years on, how is my KIA pro ceed (pro_cee'd, pro ceed, Pro Ceed, whatever!) doing?
 (This is a follow up to an earlier article after one year, click HERE)

A second year has passed, and the KIA is still going strong. Cut to the chase, I still like it, it's not been any bother (almost) and it still looks as good as new, inside and out.

And we still haven't come with a name for it other then the KIA. It has now covered a modest 12,500 odd miles, pretty low I guess. It's done school runs (but not any more, now it's Uni runs) and toured around Dumfries and Galloway on holiday. Over all that distance it has returned 54mpg.

Looking back over my previous article, little has changed in truth. In a nutshell, the car itself is perfectly fine, the software in the car is a bit dubious. Looking back you will see I criticised the sat-nav, the air-con, the stop-start and key-less entry system. None of them work all that well, but you get used to it - I mean they all work, it's just not that easy to get them to work somehow.

If I was to be even more picky, during a recent visit to Pentraeth Automotive I was given a Picanto as a courtesy car. Not in the same league as the cee'd but I have to say the dash instruments were way better. The cee'd has a red display which isn't the clearest, the Picanto was white on black, much easier to read.

Ah, yes, why was I at the garage? Well, I pointed out when the car was being serviced a few weeks ago that the alloy wheels appeared to be suffering from corrosion, a bit early on a two year old car I thought. To everyone involved's credit, I was duly offered a complete new set! I was amazed. Thank you KIA.

Unfortunately (in a way) while swapping the wheels the mechanics spotted a bulge on one of my tyres, which required replacing, damn these pot-holes in all our roads, don't get me started.

Returning to the car then, the only other gripe I have is that the Traffic Announcement system on the radio has been a bit flaky. I asked them to sort it at the service and to be honest I've not been off Anglesey since, so I'm not sure if they've fixed it or not. A nuisance but not fatal.

So, looking at all the twaddle above I've done nothing but moan. So I should put that right - I actually DO like the car rather a lot and its solid build, 100% reliability and its frugality are commendable, long may it continue. And just one more thing to praise, it managed to accommodate three adults and a serious amount of clothing, computer equipment, guitars and general junk while transporting my lad off to Uni, in other words, it's actually bigger than it looks inside!

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One Year On - KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi

One year on, how is my KIA pro ceed (pro_cee'd, pro ceed, Pro Ceed, whatever!) doing?

I've still not got used to that name, we never call it by its name, it's always just "the KIA". If we had two, I dunno what we'd do.

I'm sat here in my local KIA dealer, waiting for the car to finish its first year service. It'd freezing and the rain is drumming on the windows. I'm hoping their promise of a 90 minute wait turns out to be true!

(It was, under an hour and 15 mins actually, well done Pentraeth Automotive!)

So, a verdict on the first year. I'd better 'fess up' right away, we've not exactly thrashed the car. It's only done about 6,000 miles. School runs in the main, and a couple of trips further afield, but nothing major. One day it will tour the Highlands, but not quite yet. Maybe 2017.

One statistic I can reveal, the fuel consumption, which has been a predictably disappointing but not at all bad 54mpg. Comfortingly, this is what the car itself thinks it's doing too... I can verify this because sadly I have a fetish for recording such things.

Reliability has been 100%, not even a glimmer of a fault. A very, very slightly leaky rear tyre, that's it. It is dripping with electrical gadgetry, all of it works perfectly, and the oily bits have performed without the slightest problem. Well... I say things work perfectly, they do but maybe there are some design 'issues'.

For example, the keyless entry works, but you have to time your moves to perfection to achieve a smooth unlocking. You approach the car, the wing mirrors unfold, you press the door button JUST at the correct moment, you're in. But a second early or late, it takes umbrage and locks again. Now I just use the key fob. Oddly, the rear hatch works much better, approach the car with a shopping trolley in pouring rain and you'll find it's open, terrific.

And the Stop/Start thingy. I just don't like it. I'll roll up to a T junction and be ready for a speedy turn onto the main road, to find the engine is off (I missed this cos I'm listening to Def Leppard). Okay, it starts quickly enough, but it's disconcerting. And the bad thing is, you can't just disable this feature, every trip you have to remember.

Another niggle... probably connected with KIA's desire to keep your battery topped up so it can do the Stop/start... when you're sitting waiting in the car, engine off (which I often do) the radio/media player will go off after 5 minutes or so to save the battery. Bloomin' heck it's only a radio! This is annoying.

And the sat-nav is a bit weird, sends you off on some odd routes, don't trust it. And the air-con, well, the climate control, can go a bit crazy sometimes if left to its own devices, maybe they all do, I'm sure it's trying and its heart is in the right place.

(Actually, reading back over these whinges... it's not the car... it's the software that's to blame for any annoyances. As a programmer, I wish I could get in there and fix these things!)

And the only other thing to moan about would be... road noise. It does seem to make quite a racket on some surfaces. The handling is terrific and the ride is okay, but the roar from the tyres can get a bit tiresome.

These niggles aside, it has been a pleasure to drive this last year. It looks good, is comfortable, goes fast well, goes slow well, isn't too big or too small, MPG is acceptable and the in-car gadgets are pretty good. I like it.

Hopefully, more details to follow in subsequent years, if I'm spared. I wish I had its 7 year warranty!

Farewell Ford Focus

Yes, it was time to say goodbye to our Ford Focus Mk2.5, traded in for the KIA cee'd you will find detailed elsewhere hereabouts. I can't say I was sorry to see it go. Never bonded with it, somehow.

But as you can (almost) see here, it looks as good on the day of departure as it did in 2008 when it arrived all shiny and new.

Well... if you could see closer, you'd spot a lot of parking dents, and most of the Ford badges have corroded, which was quite annoying.

But generally speaking, looking good and the inside was unblemished, mostly. It had 89,369 when we handed it over, all done by us.

So... why the lack of enthusiasm for this car, which it has to be said, never let us down and returned a healthy 54mpg average over its entire life?

Well. Again, as detailed elsewhere here, it had followed on from a very similarly spec'd Astra, and that's the problem, it wasn't as good as the Astra. That car served us to about 130k miles, and was less trouble. I've had a few Fords, and I have to say that they've not been particularly well screwed together, in my opinion. Around the 70k mile mark the Focus started to rattle a lot and feel a bit 'loose', and that had happened in my previous Escort too. But the Astra was as solid as new over a longer distance.

And the Focus had suffered a couple of very costly 'mishaps' along the way, that have left a bad feeling, firstly about Ford, and secondly about my local Ford dealer. To the point that I would imagine it unlikely I'll ever by a Ford again. Sorry Ford.

The first disaster was the Fusebox saga, again, a post about that here. Turns out this marque of Focus has a design flaw that allows condensation caused by the air-con to drip onto the fusebox, corroding the terminals and causing electrical failure. I am not by any means the only sufferer from this problem, but Ford remain in denial - and are happy to extract upwards of £650 to put it right from your hapless owner.

And then there was my local dealer in Llangefni, who when I asked them to investigate a steering wheel wobble diagnosed the cause as drive-shafts, replaced them at huge cost, handed the car back to me - still with the wheel wobble. After much negotiation I got the massive bill down to £400. I then took the car to ATS and they balanced the wheels very carefully and the wobble was gone. As was my £400 and two perfectly good drive shafts. Epic fail, W R Davies, and I will never be back.

On the up side though, it went well, it gave good economy, it's smart looking, it started first time every time, and never let us down. It is a very nice red colour. It was quiet for a diesel, and handled very well.

It just never floated our boat, somehow. Good luck to the new owner, who I saw driving it on this very day. I expect it will serve you well. Just don't take it to Llangefni to get it serviced!

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KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi 126bhp 6-speed with ISG

Technically, the title of this piece is the title of my new car. Catchy, eh? When talking about it, I tend to call it "the KIA", or the Ceed, or the Pro Ceed maybe. Not, possibly the best car name I've ever come across, but it would be shallow to criticize the car itself for this shortfall.

No, because it's a jolly nice car. The missus and I visited our local KIA dealer, for the first time, to view a second had motor spotted on t'internet. It turned out to be disappointing - but we made the fatal error of actually going in to the the new car showroom. That new car smell... ahhhh.

We sat at a desk with the salesman and discussed options on new KIAs, specifically a Ceed. Sorry Cee'd. But my eye was drawn to the vision you see to the left here. Bit of paper in the windscreen read, "£4000 off". Hmmmm.

Well bless me if the next thing I knew, the darn thing was in my drive, with its keys in my pocket.

I'd been in the market for a new car for a while, as our Focus (about which I have posted) was showing signs of becoming unreliable. The Focus had been a disappointment over its lifetime with us, certainly not as good as its predecessor, an Astra. So, I had been looking at Astra GTCs, which are really nice looking cars. But a little out of our price range it transpired. But here was a looky-likey, the KIA equivalent of the GTC, the designation 'Pro' indicating the two door coupe version of the popular Ceed.

It was 'cheap' because it's not quite the current model and they wanted rid of it. Fine by me. It's loaded with toys and of course comes with that most warm and fuzzy-feeling bonus of a 7 year warranty. I even got a 3 year servicing deal thrown in. Magic.

It's a 126 bhp diesel (£30 road tax), with ISG - which is the Stop/Start system which frankly I could do without. It's got Climate Control, key-less entry, hill assist, electrically adjustable lumbar seats, and an awesome dashboard with fabulous Sat-nav, USB connection, Bluetooth, CD/Radio, and you can even talk to it. The steering wheel is covered in buttons for all that, plus cruise control and speed limit, and adjustable steering. Disk brakes all round, and stability control. Folding door mirrors. Headlights that see round corners. Auto dipping mirror. And a reversing camera with parking sensors. Phew.

There may be other things... I forget. Anyway... it's excellent. How does it go? Well, still running it in, but the signs are good. It handles beautifully, and the 'Sport' setting on the steering really is welcome when pressing on. It has 6 gears, which to me is one too many, and the dash is almost always trying to get me to change up - not always correctly IMHO. It cruises effortlessly at motorway speeds hardly ticking over. You wouldn't know it was a diesel except when idling - and even then it is quite refined.

After two fill ups, the fuel consumption is admittedly a tad disappointing, 50 MPG, but really the engine must be tight and I'm hoping for better things to come, because we've not exactly been caning it so far, so it should have done better I would have thought.

Time will tell I guess. So far so good. And the promise is that it really shouldn't cost a lot to run it for the next few years. Fingers crossed then.

As is obvious, it's early days with this car. I will write more as time goes by.

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Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 Kompressor - 2 Years On

Two years have passed since I took ownership of my SLK. Cutting to the chase, so far so good.
(see my previous post about this car, click here)

It's been an interesting experience for me. In my youth I was always underneath my cars, always covered in oil, always taking wheels on and off, doing my own repairs and servicing. And then along came newer cars that didn't need such interventions and which needed stamps in the service book. And I got lazy, and cars got complex.

So I fell out of the habit of lying on painful concrete in all weathers trying to loosen recalcitrant bolts. But needs must, and I have no budget for running the Merc, so it's down to me again. Question is... after all this time, do I really want to do it any more?

There have been a few problems with the car, but nothing major to report. In the two years I've only done maybe 6,000 miles. But most of those miles have been with the top down, and the complicated and expensive to repair roof mechanism is working just fine. I have lubricated all the joints, and I'm keeping on top of hydraulic fluid levels, but it just works. When you think the car is 18 years old, it's quite remarkable.

It's passed 2 MOTs in my tenure now, with no advisories. Both years I did prepare, I had all the wheels off and made sure the suspension was nice and clean and rust free. The exhaust needed a couple of replacement brackets having rusted away, but there's no blowing and it sounds very sporty on the road. The engine I keep very clean and tidy, you could eat your dinner off it.

I recently cleaned the MAF, which is an easy job and has made the car run more smoothly - at least I think it hasm could be psychological! I've fitted a new alarm, buying what I understand to be the very last replacement unit in the country, sorry everyone else! I've had a go at stopping the corrosion on the alloys, whether my efforts succeed is debatable, we'll see. They really could do with refurbishing, but maybe another day.

Interior trim is an issue, both door cards need removing and refitting, a common problem apparently, the clips breaking off too easily. All the electrics are working fine, the transmission is good, cruise control works, no problems at all. Discovered that checking your transmission fluid levels is a work of art, involving buying a special dipstick and only measuring the level when the engine is good and hot and all gears have been used, bizarre faff it is too.

So, it all sounds good, doesn't it... I'll move on to the bad news. It leaks. I don't know how, but the roof drips water onto the front seats whatever steps I've taken to stop it. I now park up and leave two rags on the front seats (the one that gets it depends on the slope the car is on!) which stop the water getting under the seat. Little thing but annoying, and I've lubricated the seals and everything looks fine. Don't understand it.

And then there's the big problem, the paintwork. The previous owner clearly had an issue with the top lacquer coat, so he had it removed... well that's what he told me when I was viewing the car - but I just filtered this info out of our chat, as I was falling busy in love at the time. Turns out he had the lacquer coat partially removed from some panels - but not all. Two years on and I've got a two tone car. I can actually make it look great if I buff up the unprotected panels and apply a top coat of wax, but it only last a few weeks before the bad panels go bad again. So - it needs a respray. Outside my budget. I'll have to live with it!

I was quite lucky recently to notice an oil leak, which, it turned out, was coming from the crankshaft oil seal. It looked a little tricky removing all the drive belts and getting at the seal, so the car had its first trip to a garage, and it went well, cost £150 including new belts. I should really have done it myself, that is the idea with the car, keep costs low, but I chickened out.

So... what's it like to drive? An interesting question. Having had the car for two years, I have to admit I've spent more time 'interacting' with it in my drive rather than on the road! When I do drive it, it's normally with the top down, and I'm never in a hurry under those circumstances. So, the 195bhp has as yet remained fairly unused. I have to admit I drive my boring Focus diesel far more quickly. I have put my foot down on occasion, and it responds well, the auto box is smooth and changes at the right time, and you can get a real lick on. And those wide tyres (wider at the back than the front actually) give masses of grip. Maybe I should book a track day with it.

I've been on a few long journeys, and they've been great fun. The heater is fantastic, even in the depths of winter it's feasible to drive top down. Top up it's quite quiet, though I must admit the creaking and rattles from the roof when up are a bit annoying. I can't seem to find the source of the noise, I think it just is all of it, there's a lot of mechanism back there for the clever old roof.

So, what have I learned in two years? Well, looking at the odometer - the main thing would be, that I should be using it more!

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130,000 miles in a diesel Vauxhall Astra H/Mk5

All good things come to an end, and I've finally, after 9½ years, said goodbye to 'the best car I ever had' - my Astra CDTI. 

Okay, well I guess 'best car' is pushing it, as it's certainly not one of the most exciting, but 130,000 (almost) faultless miles, can't be bad.

And, though complete records aren't available, from what I can tell it returned 54mpg when it was new, and it was returning 54mpg to its final day.

And hey, look left, the old girl isn't looking too shabby either... from a distance...

It's been replaced with the Ford Focus that appears in other articles on this blog comparing Astra with Focus, see the first one HERE and the second one HERE. To save you reading them, I'll summarise by saying that though the Focus is okay, it's not as good as the Astra.

But what it is, is younger. 4 years and 60,000 miles younger. And there was a rather alarming list of 'issues' to address in the not too distant future. Time to bail. Good luck to the new owner, you're getting a cracking car.

Here is a brief summary of how that 130,000 miles went: the car arrived late, having been found to have a faulty steering pump during its pre-delivery check, not a good start, but as it turns out not a sign of things to come. We immediately took it on holiday to Scotland, where its virtues emerged rapidly, low fuel consumption, powerful performance and comfort. It then spent a lot of time going from North to South Wales and back again, never giving the slightest trouble for around 80,000 miles over a four year period. I then took it over from the missus when she got a new company car (the Focus). I had to have new brake pads and disks fitted. It did school runs then for the rest of its time with us, plus the odd foray back to the Midlands. Eventually something did go wrong, the alternator failed and I just made it home on battery power. While fixing this it was discovered the water pump was on its way out, so another replacement. And a coil spring broke, and eventually I had new rear shocks, and some front suspension bushes replaced. Other than that it was the original car when I sold it, original clutch, exhaust, turbo, everything. The one thing that was a problem was the aircon. When it worked, it worked well, but during my tenure of the car, it hardly ever did work. I had it pumped up and checked several times, always failed after a month or two. Ah well, the weather has not been that good in recent years!

So, now I'm in the Focus every day, and to be honest I miss the Astra. It went better, had a less harsh ride, and had none of the irritating niggles of the Focus. As the RAF would say "Per ardua ad astra" - if I work hard I'll get another Astra. Ahem. 

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Mercedes-Benz SLK R170 (late-mid-life-crisis edition)

So, if you've read any of the other motoring related posts in this blog, you may know that I've had some pretty uninspiring cars in recent times.

It has not always been so, in fact for many years I had something 'interesting'... if not exactly good. But in recent times I have had a series of dull cars, and in fact the last two have been diesels. Ouch.

Last year I started to get very itchy feet about this, and started looking around for a nice ride.

I started my quest  by looking at the obvious choices, MG TFs and MX-5s. But neither inspired me, though especially the Mazda would be a sensible choice. Boxters were too much, and I was struggling. Then a local garage had a Chrysler Crossfire. I quite liked the look of it, but they got such bad reviews. Further reading on them revealed they were based on the Mercedes Benz SLK, which did not get bad reviews. Aha.

I started looking at these cars, and discovered there were loads of them. They varied in price of course, but the cheap ones were pretty cheap. I'd never really noticed them before, but the more I looked, the more I liked. The obvious appeal of the electric roof. They are handsome beasts. They are German built. Hmmmm.

Well, after much looking, I spotted a nice looking one locally, but before going to view it I rang a friend who I knew had had an SLK in the past, to ask what to look for. Turns out he still had his Merc, but it was SORNed. "Come and have a look at it..." I did. Next thing I knew it was in my drive. Love at first sight.

Guilty as charged then, of not looking into the fine print of the car before purchase, not having it professionally checked out, not even looking at it particularly carefully, and certainly not of having thought it through. But what the heck, it was only £2k. I say only... that's quite a lot to me, but it's not a lot for all the stuff I got.

It's a M-B SLK Kompressor 230, 1997 pre face lift R170 model, i.e. the original first 'pure' SLK before they started fiddling with them. Some say destined to be termed a 'classic' in a year or two. 195BHP, 0-60 in 7.5 seconds, top speed over 140mph. 5 speed auto with a supercharger. And a 'Vario' electric roof.

So far, so good. Nothing much to report. Everything works. It's a blast to drive with the roof down, really lovely. I haven't dared fully exploit its performance yet, but you can tell it's all there, under your right foot.

I will write more of my experiences with the car in time. One thing I have learned from hanging around the SLK World forums, is that the car is a complex thing, and I'm pretty lucky that nothing has gone wrong. Yet!

Update - read what has happened over the first two years of ownership, click here.

Bad Driver Hit List

It's that brief period between Christmas and New Year when I feel it's acceptable to be a moaning old grouch (like normal) without being accused of either ruining Christmas or lacking optimism for the New Year. So here goes.

When I am king, and I can decree that it is perfectly acceptable to have a bloomin' great laser gun fitted to the bonnet of your car with which to evaporate the bad drivers holding you up... then this is a list of people who had better not get in my way.

Ahem.

• Forty-mile-an-hour-ers. Usually driving a small hatchback, these idiots maintain a steady 40 in all conditions and locations. You come up behind them on glorious 60mph a-roads pootling along at their fixed speed, and of course there's another one coming the other way that prevents an overtake. But then you get to a town - 30mph limit, and they rocket off into the distance, mowing down small children and mothers with prams as they speed through the busiest of traffic. You lose them in the distance. You clear the town, and quickly catch up with them again. Doing 40mph natch, but now with the odd dead pedestrian impaled over their bonnet, unnoticed by the driver. Repeat until frustration level reaches 11.
• The Blind. Now I'm no spring chicken myself. And I won't be telling you anything you don't know when I say that there are a hell of a lot of elderly drivers out there who can't bloomin' well see where they're bloomin' well going. Oldies... step up to the plate, take one for the team... for God's sake stop driving when you can't see the road any more. Please. I know it'll be hard. But think of what you could potentially do to others by your actions. Use the Tesco home delivery service and buses. Come on.
• Can't-be-bothered-to-indicate-ers. What is it about moving your arm about a foot to use the indicators that some folk find so onerous? There's a roundabout near where I live where 90% of people turn left... so about 90% of these 90% can't get themselves motivated enough to indicate their intentions, I mean they always turn left there, I guess everyone else will know that... The number of times I've sat waiting to get on this roundabout, just in case one of the 10% are actually going straight across it... my life is ebbing away, and all because these peeps can't be bothered. There's another category of roundabout abusers who do the opposite, they indicate left an exit before they're actually going to take... this is actually worse, as you assume that they really are awake enough to indicate... but no, they're just very bad at timing. Come on everyone, indicating is not hard. It's considerate. It's good manners. It's being nice. In my new world order, indicate or die!
• Motorhomes & Caravaners. I don't need to go on, do I? You know that you're being totally selfish. You want a cheap holiday, the rest of us have to lose part of our lives so you can. I don't know how you sleep at night frankly.
• Farmers. Now... there seems to be two sets of rules for governing what you can and can't do on the roads. One set of rules applies to the majority of us, and the other set applies to farmers. Our set of rules is comprehensive, covers most eventualities and is vigorously enforced by the old bill. And the other set of rules for farmers appears to contain one rule, namely "Do whatever the hell you like". This allows them to drive untaxed, uninsured, clearly unroadworthy huge lumps of old tat at ridiculously slow speeds, spewing slippery excrement all over wet roads at any time of the day or night, but most probably during the rush hour. And if you ever see one pull over to allow traffic passed, you know that actually he's reached where he wanted to be. He'll open a gate into a field, drive around the field for a bit picking up as much mud on his tyres as he can, and then try to spread the majority of it over the nearby road, usually on a bend. Farmers live in a world where only what THEY are doing is of any importance, so all this makes sense to them. One day when all our food arrives on ships from China, the tables will turn. 'Fresh' is vastly overrated, give me 'Fast' instead. Vengeance will be ours as farmers slowly expire in the poo of their own making.
• Tail-gaters. Oh that's me. Oh dear. Okay... well, fair enough, I will make a New Year's resolution here and now to stop being a pain and stop tail-gating people. I've got to admit that my erstwhile theory that driving really close behind slow people will (a) cause them to pull over and get out of my way or (b) speed up, or (c) make them feel so guilty for holding me up that they swerve off the road into the nearest wall and die a fiery death - doesn't seem to work. I'll try, I really will. I mean, I'm an older chap in a diesel... it's not like a I really rocket around these days. But I do want to get home before the battery in pace-maker expires, so hopefully all the above guilty folk will try too. Yeah? Happy New Year then! 

Ford Focus Fusebox Fury!

Can I be a little self indulgent here? Can I get something off my chest? I need to have a shout and scream about my Ford Focus. Won't do any good to my wallet, but it might do some good to my psyche...

There have been a couple of posts on this blog about the long term ownership of a Vauxhall Astra and a Ford Focus, both diesels, very similar specs, used in a similar way. See here and here.

The Focus is four years younger than the Astra, and has done half the mileage. But recently it let itself down, it let me down, it let my local Ford dealer down, and it let down Ford UK.

See this picture to the left? See the small amount of corrosion on the terminals?
That cost me £639. Yes. £639!

(Technically, it's a Ford 1712211 "Gem Module/Fuse Box", "Panel Assy - Fuse")

One wet morning recently (are there any other sorts of morning recently?) I set off in the Focus on the school run only to find the wipers were not working.

My local Ford Dealer (understandably) took a day to track down the fault. In the passenger side foot-well, behind the glove box, resides a fusebox. It is a big lump of plastic with fuse holders and some sockets into which plugs the wiring loom. As you can see above, somehow the terminals for the wiper connection had corroded and failed. The dealer didn't give us the choice to just clean up this corrosion, but ploughed on and replaced the fuse box at a cost of £380 odd (or over 2 Xbox360's worth as I like to think of it). They found no evidence of a leak on the foot-well, so how it happened is a mystery.

I have subsequently approached Ford about the resulting alarming bill of £639, but to no avail. The car is obviously out of warranty. They are unashamed of the ridiculous cost of this lump of plastic. The dealership sticks to it's idea that no repair could have been attempted. So I've got to take it on the chin.

No explanation has been put forward as to how this happened, so there's no reason think it won't happen again. I doubt it, as I think the fault must have originated in the manufacturing process. I'd love to hear from anyone else who has experienced a similar problem. I keep thinking that if this fault had manifested itself on the motorway at 70mph in the fast lane on a very wet day, then I would have had a much harder time of it. At least only my wallet got hurt this time.

"Epic fail", Ford... yet another round in the fight to my reliable Astra!

Update 2015 - a few people have contacted me recently having suffered the same fate as myself on this topic. One unfortunate lady actually has had it happen twice! This has got to be a design fault, and Ford are profiting to the tune of £600-£700 each time they get to fix the fault for us. Outrage. Please get in touch with me if you've had this too.

Rant over. Do I feel better? A little maybe... thanks for your indulgence.

I wrote this article a few years ago now, and I must say it was a cathartic exercise to try and make myself feel a little better about this, um, misfortune. However, in recent times I have been contacted by several people in exactly the same position - I was not alone!

It seems extremely probable that the fault is caused in fact by condensation produced by the car's air-con dripping from the glove box onto the unprotected fuse box. In other words a serious design fault. For this, Ford are regularly charging somewhere between £700 to £1000 to put it right - this does not seem fair, now does it?

A recent victim has decided to set up a Facebook page on this subject, you'll find it here : Facebook

Could I urge you if you are a fellow sufferer to visit the page, or to contact me.

Time has passed, I've sold my Focus, but time is not healing the scars. I have heard from many people who have suffered from the same defect and all have been forced to spend large amounts of cash putting it right.

I think Ford should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of its customers - they made a design error, their dealers get to make hundreds fixing it, complaining does no good.

Plus, due to the random nature of which part of the fusebox corrodes, this is a safety issue too. It's a bloomin' outrage is what it is!

Suffice to say that despite my favourite car of all time being a Ford, and the fact that I've owned more Fords than any other make - I will NEVER buy another. Never ever.

Porsches on the Prom, Llandudno

Well, it was a grand day out to Llandudno on Sunday the 22nd of April 2012, to see all the lovely Porsches gathered there.

This annual event was blessed with fine weather, though rain threatened most of the day. The sun shone, giving excellent photographic opportunities, or just a nice environment in which to enjoy the cars on show.

The majority of the car were 911s, however there were many Boxters, Caymans, 924s, 944s and some terrific 928s, even a 968 and an old 356.

I had to leave early, but I believe they were all off for a tootle around the Marine Drive at the end of the day, which must have been a spectacular sight!

Many thanks to whoever organised the event (I think the Porsche Club of Great Britain), not often you get so much enjoyment for absolutely nothing.

To see some of my pictures of the event, click here to go to Flickr.

Chevrolet Spark LT - Fun or just Funny?

I recently had to take the Astra in to the local Vauxhall dealer for a service. They gave me a Corsa 1.2 courtesy car, which looked quite sporty but, it turned out, was one of the most sluggish cars I've ever driven. I almost turned around to return it as faulty, but in fact I was subsequently told it was just a dog slow car for youngsters to look good in without vast insurance costs. How shallow, but fair enough I suppose. Anyway.

The service turned into a longer stay for repairs, and they swapped my Corsa for a similar car by the garage's other dealership, Chevrolet. Now, I'd never paid much attention to Chevys before, except for Camaros. This wasn't a Camaro, sadly, it was called a Spark LT.

My 12 year old son thought it looked great, but I confess I referred to it during my tenure as the 'clown car'.

I must confess to be surprised to discover that the LT is top of the line and the list price of this car is £10.5k. Hmmmm.

Well, I suppose it is quite well equipped. Alloys, fog lights, air-con, adjustable seat belts, sports bumpers (?!) and a lot of stereo.

So, was it any good? It was okay. But the looks. I couldn't quite work out who would buy this car. Certainly not an old gadget like myself, it would be embarrassing. Young people then... but I'm not sure, it's not as appealing as some similarly wacky looking Citroens somehow. There's too much styling... what are those roof rails for? Are the black stripes and flashes helping, really, I mean they're just stickers. The alloys aren't alloy-ee enough.


The interior (again) appealed to my son, and I guess it was quite different. There's a lot of bare metal, but not in the name of austerity so much as style, and in places it worked. Though, quite often reflection from the metal of passing trees would momentarily distract. But it was comfy and modern. The instruments were odd, however, a strange combination of digital and analogue, hard to fathom what you were looking at half the time.


It grew on me after a couple of days I must admit. It wasn't fast but it was perky, it did the job quite well, the cabin was okay to be in, and of course from there you can't see the outside, possibly a blessing. Let's put it like this, it's not a boring car. Which is a good thing.

There's more info on the Spark here.

Arriva - Please Keep Your Distance

Last week I was merrily rattling along in my car on the old school run, all was right with the world, I was in quite a good mood (for me). I was doing about 50mph along a straight bit of road in excellent visibility, when from a side road emerged a coach. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the driver didn't even look in my direction, and he certainly ignored the Give Way sign staring him in the face.

He pulled straight out in front of me, causing me to brake violently. His smoking pile of junk then proceeded to accelerate at snails pace, belching toxic smoke, onward towards his next victim no doubt.

I avoided running right up the back of him by a few feet, and as I pulled back from him I glanced up at the neon display on the rear of this abomination. I was close enough to read through the grime, "62". For verily there is only one bus goes down this particular road, and it is indeed the 62. But there was more... the 62 disappeared and a message came up in its place. I approached closer to read it, ironically. "KEEP YOUR DISTANCE" it said.

My good mood shattered, I was stuck behind this flickering message for quite a long while, long enough for me to mull over some thoughts about this sign.

First and foremost of course, I heartily wished I could comply with this instruction, and keep a distance so great I would never have to see it again.

Secondly, just exactly what is "Your Distance", i.e. my distance, and what if my distance was about a foot... would that be okay? I suspect not.

Thirdly, which sad sack of bones sat down in his or her office at the Arriva HQ and thought to themselves, what on earth can we do now we've got these dot matrix signs for the bus numbers? Shall we flash up interesting info, like the time? (no! then they'd know we're running late!) or maybe a happy message like "Have a nice day" or "Sorry our antiquated piece of crap is holding you up"... No.

No... then inspiration came... "KEEP YOUR DISTANCE"... that's what we'll say to them. Ha ha!

Arriva, do us all a favour and just say "62" on your sign. That's all we really need to know. Thanks for the advise about the distance thing, but really, just a "62" will do.

A Personal History of Diecast Cars

Call me mad... but I decided to try and collect 1:43 scale models of all the cars I'd ever owned.

Had I realised the cost and difficulty involved, I would never have started... and, as you will learn below, ultimately the project led frustration and defeat!

So, what I always wanted was :

What I got was:

Ford Focus vs Vauxhall Astra - Revisited

Slightly over a year has passed since my previous article on this topic, so time for an update. (see HERE - and now HERE too)

Just to set the scene, I'm comparing a 5 year old Astra with a similar spec 1 year old Focus. However, I've driven both from new, so I think my thoughts are pretty relevant in a head to head contest as I'm sure the Astra hasn't changed much in the intervening period.

The Astra has now reached 92,000 miles, and the Focus is catching up, currently at 23,000 miles. In the last year neither has broken down, both have maintained their fuel consumption figures remarkably consistently, at about 53 mpg. In fact neither car has suffered any form of mechanical or electrical malfunction recently, a testament to how well they build these things these days.

I've just re-read my previous article, and to be honest, not much to say here in fact. Initial impressions turned out to be about right for the Focus. A year on, and many miles under its belt, it remains the same. The comparative lack of 'go' has not gone away as the engine loosened up, and frequently I get caught out trying to accelerate from low revs, as would be easy in the Astra, and the Focus just bogs down. However, on the other side of the coin, the engine is a lot quieter than the Astra, which seems to be getting noisier by the day, now very 'clacky'. Which is normal, says my local Vauxhall dealer. Hmmm.

Despite the sporty feel of the Focus, the ride remains harsh and noisy. It is more fun to drive on a blast down windy roads, it is not so much fun on a dull motorway slog, the quiet engine is fine, but the tyre roar is worse by far.

The Focus continues to niggle me with small things. For example, the Astra's electric windows still work for a minute or so after you've switched it off. So, if you forget to raise one of the windows, you still can. The Focus, no, you'll have to rummage for your keys and switch it back on. The Focus Radio/CD player does not pick up the time from the radio, and the clock runs slow. Every time you set the time right, the date goes wrong. It drives you nuts. The Astra does it for you. Small things I know...

So, not really a lot to choose, but on the whole we now regret choosing the Focus as a replacement for the Astra last year. We did it (well, okay, I did it... I'll take the blame) just to avoid being boring. But in fact a replacement Astra would have been better, we feel. Not that the Focus is bad, but it's disappointingly not as good as other road tests seem to imply.

The next version of the Astra is due out soon I think, and to me looks really nice. If my lucky old partner gets a chance to choose her next company car in three years time, I can quite imagine a new Astra will be returning to our driveway. Question is, in three years time, would I relinquish my Astra and buy the (by then) old Focus? I'm guessing not.

Police Car Chases

News today of yet another fatal crash involving a police chase. Can I put it to you that the police should NOT be allowed to chase vehicles on our roads, no matter where or why?

In life today, it seems to me, there are many, many rules and regulations that attempt to avoid death and injury, and some of these rules are quite obscure and 'only' save a few lives here and there. If it's your life of course, then they are very good rules indeed. Allowing police officers to chase car thieves and the like, however, does seem an outstandingly obvious area which should be tightened up. I don't care how many cars get stolen, it's still not worth a life (or lives) to catch the thief.

And I don't care how stringently the police say their drivers are trained, because the moment they set off in pursuit of an excitable teenager in a stolen BMW, everyone for miles around is in grave danger. Let them get away, catch them later using forensics or something, but DON'T chase them. Surely?

It's one of my pet topics, so I'll raise it again, but wouldn't it be interesting to see some really clear statistics on car chases. How many car chases per year involving the police are there? How many result in catching the thief? How many result in death and injury?

If the answer to that last question is more than one, then I suggest we make them stop doing it.

You're 14. You've fallen in with some bad mates. They have a few bottles of cider one night and decide to pinch a car. You end up in the back seat, lurching around, having a laugh. Suddenly there are blue flashing lights behind you. Your 'mate' driving the car panics and puts his foot down. Suddenly he's lost control and the car bounces off a kerb, and the last thing you see is the lamppost that's going to cause your death.

Or. You're out walking the dog. It's a pleasant evening, you cross the road to chat to a neighbour. There's squeal of tyres behind you and you turn to see a terrified teenager at the wheel of speeding car heading straight for you, closely pursued by the old bill. Your life is extinguished because the police were attempting to prevent the theft of an ageing banger.

So... maybe the cops should be issued with bubble cars, as above?

Ford Focus vs Vauxhall Astra

It just so happens that I'm in an excellent position to compare and contrast the merits of the Ford Focus TDCI and the Vauxhall Astra CDTI. The missus is fortunate enough to get a company car, and a few years ago she acquired the Astra.

After four years she had to change to a new car, and this time, mostly just for a change, she plumped for the Focus. And I bought the Astra from the leasing company. So we now have both, and I get to drive both regularly. They both have the 100bhp version diesel engines, of very similar spec. They are of a similar trim level. They have similar performance and fuel economy.

So, which (as Harry Hill would say) is best? Only one way to find out... fight!

Okay, not quite a fair fight, as the Astra has done 85,000 miles and the Focus about 3,000. However, I drove the Astra when it was brand new, so I think I can do a fair comparison.

Performance

Not much in it (yet - maybe the Focus will eventually free up a bit). There's no denying that the Astra has a noisier engine, when pootling along it sounds very tractor-ish, and the Focus does not. But when it comes to overtaking and so on, they are very similar - and that is to say they're both very good, considering. If anything, and I admit the Focus engine may be still tight, the Astra has more go. The Focus is quiet alright, but it also seems to need a few more revs to get going.

Economy

Not much in it again... though I know it's early days for the Focus. Over 80k miles the Astra has managed 53 mpg, and the Focus is doing 54 mpg so far, which is a little disappointing when they claimed it would do 60. Not too shabby though, in either case.

Handling

A clear winner here, is the Focus. However, it has got quite an advantage here, as its got nice low-profile tyres and is definitely a lot stiffer in the suspension. It also has adjustable steering weight, and when you crank it around to Sport mode, it's very communicative, and quite noticeably heavier to steer. The Astra, on normal boots and no such pretensions to sportiness, handles perfectly acceptably. I've never had a nasty moment in it, rain or shine. However, if you drive the Focus and immediately then drive the Astra, you start wondering if the Astra's tyres are the right pressure (they are) - it feels, in contrast, very imprecise compared to the Focus. So... Focus wins for sportiness, Astra wins for ease and comfort.

Brakes

Easy win to the Astra. Despite it's newness and it's higher price, the Focus has rear drums, the Astra has disks all round. The pedal feel is much better in the Astra, and though I suspect they'd both pull up in about the same distance, the Astra has a superior feel, giving greater confidence.

Body

Unfortunately the Astra is a (to me) nasty dark blue, whereas the Focus is a very bright red, and this helps the Focus look much better immediately. However, though the new Focus shape is easily the nicest incarnation of the marque so far, it still for me retains a somewhat dull jelly-mould outline. The Astra has a good shape... and when they make it into a coupé, well it looks really good. Shut lines are good on both. Not entirely sure the Astra headlights look good, I have heard them described as being like cheap plastic torches. The Astra doors clunk shut with a reassuring solidity, and the Focus in comparison feels slightly flimsy... and another small point, those places on door opening where the door is held mid-way... handy in tight parking bays... Astra's are good, Focus's are bad, no strength to 'em.

Interior

No contest here... Astra wins by a mile. Its interior feels classy, and again reassuringly solid. The plastic looks good, there are some nice styling touches, and nothing glaringly out of place. In contrast the Focus has one or two really nasty features. What were they thinking when they added the shiny stripes to the otherwise quite attractive seats? As for comfort, well, the Focus has lumbar adjustment and the Astra does not. Having said that, the Astra is more comfortable for me, reason being the Focus - even when adjusted to its widest setting - is still a little tight. I know I could do with losing a few pounds, but I'm not really huge. You could argue the Focus would hold you well while driving fast down country lanes, but in real life it just squeezes you (well me) a bit too much when cruising down duel carriageways.  The Focus cabin is a lighter and larger place to be, the rear seats of the Astra suffer from having quite deep doors, with small windows, not great for allowing a view out for youngsters. Instruments, well the Focus has an immediate appeal, but on closer inspection they look a little cheap somehow. The Astra is more classy, though mine lacks the computer display that the Focus has, showing all sorts of interesting if distracting information as you drive along. The Focus is four years more modern I guess, and did cost a couple of grand more, so fair enough, it wins on IT. One big feature of the Focus is a heated front windscreen, which is absolutely the dog's in weather like we've been having recently. Oh, and one last thing... the Astra does not have a temperature gauge. I don't know why, but I find them reassuring somehow and I miss it. Oh, and one last, last thing... the Astra defaults to AirCon off, the Focus defaults to AirCon on. I'm not sure why the Focus does this... I mean it's not the greenest thing to do, is it? I think on the whole I'd prefer to forget to put it on, rather than have to remember to switch it off every time I start the car.

ICE

Another clear win to the Astra, which has the best OEM in-car stereo I've ever owned. Your ears give up before the sound distorts, it's truly excellent. But more than anything else, I prefer the Astra because it has an MP3 CD player, and MP3 CDs on long journeys are fantastic things. Make up a 'mixed tape' of albums, and not have to fanny about changing discs for hours! Magic. The Focus may be four years newer... but oddly has just a normal CD player, no MP3. Neither has a USB port, though at least the Focus has a line-in connector, for what that's worth.

Reliability

Okay, well I admit it's early days for the Focus. But it was delivered in fault free condition, and nothing has gone wrong so far. The Astra has been pretty good over 80k miles, but has fallen down on a few points that are not uncommon, I've read. The pre-delivery check revealed a faulty power-steering unit. The rear tailgate opening switch failed. The petrol gauge gave an inaccurate reading, which resulted in running out of fuel, the only fault to cause a cry for help. The radio kept switching itself on in the middle of the night, and was replaced. It's currently suffering from a rear-brake squeal that no-one seems to be able to cure. But it's all pretty small beer... overall it's been top notch.

Result

Taking the age of the Astra out of the equation, so they're both sitting there in as-new condition, well, it's a close run thing. If it was me, I'd just go for the Focus, on the grounds that it's a sportier package, and the engine is way quieter. I think if you asked the missus, she'd pick the Astra, because she's not interested in the sportiness, and thinks the Astra is a nicer and more comfortable place to be. (Pity, therefore, we actually have the cars the other way around, doh!)
I will update this article as and when the Focus reveals its true colours... or not as the case may be.

And lo, a year on, I've posted that article... click HERE - and now HERE too.

A Personal History of Cars

The whole reason I set up the DriveArchive site was to find out where my old motors had gone to.

A chronological list of the cars I've owned:

	Mini First car, obvious choice. I had no idea what I was doing when I bought it, no idea about mileages, no clue how to spot a dud. I was lucky, it was actually quite reliable. I slowly trashed it. Bits fell off, I used and abused it, ultimately smashed it through a hedge, I bodged repairs, I bodged bodywork, oh dear oh dear. What I'd give to have it back, just as it was back then.
	MG Midget Suddenly got an idea that sports cars would be fun. And this was. If you see a Midget on the road today you'll know that they were named very appositely. They are so small, and as I am not myself, I wonder how I got in the thing. Went everywhere in it, usually with the top down. Not fast, not quiet, but very reliable and a good laugh. Except in snow. I really hope someone preserved it. I doubt they did. 0-60mph - 14.8 secs 95mph top speed 65 bhp
	Mini Clubman Estate What on earth I was thinking I don't know. I mean it wasn't a bad car. But why I went from sporty young blade in an MG to this shopping trolley I just cannot now recall. I'd just about got the hang of the mechanicals of cars by now, so I didn't cause this car anywhere near as much damage as the previous two.
	VW Beetle My mate Roy sold me this for next to nothing. I ran around in it for a few months, while bodging over the rust and tarting it up for a quick sale. An interesting driving experience, those girder like bumpers certainly commanded respect, and once you'd wound it up to speed, leaving your noise behind you, it was a relaxed motorway cruiser. 0-60mph - 20+ secs 78mph top speed 40 bhp
	Triumph GT6 Aha. Now this is it a bit more like it. Almost a proper sports car. The GT6 was fast. Great big engine, and hardly anything to it. A mini E-type. Sort of. I eventually stripped it out, replaced all the carpets, refurbished the mechanicals, rust-proofed it, and I hope that somewhere out there it still exists. Sold to a guy in Stone, Staffs, called Stuart I think. Bonkers rear suspension, though. And Overdrive! Huh? 0-60mph - 9.5 secs 112mph top speed 98 bhp
	Triumph TR7 Hang on a minute, I'm filling up. Oh how I loved this car. I know TR7s have a terrible reputation. I don't care. This car was just great. It looked great (to me). It went fast, it handled quite well. It was a full sized car, not like the Midget and the GT6. I went all over in it, even slept in it once. I cannot recall it ever breaking down. I was mad to sell it. Please tell me it survived. Please. 0-60mph - 10.8 secs 108mph top speed 105 bhp
	Suzuki SJ410Q And another odd choice. There I was with the love-of-my-life-TR7, and I decided to buy the slowest car in the universe. My first new car, it cost £4.5k, about the same as a Ford Fiesta at the time, but I thought it would be a lot more interesting. It was, in a cold, slow, bumpy sort of way. Good off-road, fun on beaches, nice on a summer day with the top down. Absolutely un-drivable on motorways. Top speed 60 with the wind behind you. 0-60mph - a long time 68mph top speed 45 bhp
	Ford Fiesta XR2 Another favourite, perhaps the best car I've had. It went like stink, really did. And, unlike previous cars I'd had, this one handled! Oh it was a harsh ride. Front tyres wore out in 6k miles. But it was fun, fun, fun. Nice inside too. Sunroof. Gosh I used to drive it fast. Never had a dodgy moment in it, though. Good brakes, good grip, just plain good all over. 0-60mph - 10.1 secs 106mph top speed 84 bhp
	Opel Manta GT/E This beauty cost me £7,500 back in 1984. At the time I hated Capris, and wanted something that did the same job, but was better. The Manta had a rallying pedigree, and looked just fabulous in white, I thought. I never quite bonded with it, like with the XR2 above. It was faster, but it felt slower. It was a lovely car, until the day I over-did it in the wet and bashed it up a grass bank. The garage botched the repairs, and it was never right after that. Its end was ignominious... it just rotted away. I waxoyled it when new, but blocked a chassis drain hole, leading to water just standing inside, which eventually rusted through. It only did 75,000 miles. What a waste. 0-60mph - 9.0 secs 122mph top speed 110 bhp
	Triumph TR7 Now you'd think I'd have learned my lesson, but no, I bought another TR7. This one, theoretically, should have been better. It was a five speed, and not Speke made. But it was pretty ropey. And, it was rusty. It had a very good sunroof, and did go quite well, but hadn't the charm of my earlier model. 0-60mph - 10 secs 110mph top speed 105 bhp
	Ford Escort MkIV When it was new, and owned by my then partner, this was a pretty good car. Unfortunately by the time I got it, it was somewhat tarnished. It had had a minor bump, which had holed the radiator, but the car was driven on until the engine exploded. The engine was replaced. But somehow the car felt loose and rattly and a bit rough after that. I should have kept it, with it's new engine, but for reasons which escape me now, I decided to trade it in for... 0-60mph - 11.7 secs 109mph top speed 90 bhp
	Rover 414iS I paid £12,000 for this car. Just before car prices started to fall. What a dummy. And the thing was nice, but it wasn't that much nicer than the Escort it replaced. It had one huge problem, that the transmission was very jumpy. To start off and change up through the low gears smoothly was impossible. I came to hate the car because of this, and nobody could seem to fix it... maybe it was me... maybe my clutch foot is just rubbish. I dunno. It had nice alloys, and it was quiet and comfortable and quite frugal. Once I'd sold it, I quite missed it. 0-60mph -  11 secs 111 mph top speed 103 bhp There's a full story of this car in the Articles section of DriveArchive.
	Astra 1.7 CDTI The more powerful of the two diesel versions available, thankfully. Has been 'in the family' from new, and I've acquired it from the leasing company as it turns 4 years old, having done over 80,000 miles. It's averaged over 53mpg so far, and has a fair turn of speed in the mid range, making it reasonably fun to drive. Slower speeds reveal a tractor-like engine noise, but the quicker you go, the less apparent that is. Hate the colour, should have chosen red. Nice alloys. Terrific stereo. Has been replaced by a leased Focus, with which it compares quite well, the Focus having a more sporty feel and more gizmos. However, it lacks the Astra's solidity, and surprisingly has an inferior sound system and interior trim feels less well put together. The Focus's engine (again a diesel) is much quieter and refined, though. 0-60mph - 11.3 secs 112mph top speed 100 bhp
	Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 Kompressor Now this is a bit more like it! Genuinely low mileage car, but it is 16 years old. So I am a little nervous about it, as if something major, or even minor, goes wrong it could be, um, awkward! Not had so much fun driving a car for the odd decade or two. And watching the roof go up and down is a blast. See here. 0-60mph - 7.3 secs 140mph top speed 193 bhp
	Ford Focus TDCi Somewhat predictably, I've ended up buying my missus's Focus as she has moved on (in a sense) to a newer Corsa. (Watch this space, but I'm rather hoping I don't end up with that particular car as a hand-me-down!) This Focus is much documented in this blog, in several comparison articles where, frankly, it comes off second to my now departed Astra. Having said that, it is a nice car, handles well, goes okay and consistently returns 54mpg on the school run. 0-60mph - 10.8 secs 117mph top speed 109 bhp

Slow Drivers, Fast Drivers, Good Drivers and Speed Limits

Now then. People who drive slowly. I got stuck behind one today, and it made me think... (I had a lot of time.)

Do you know what this road sign means? I bet you haven't seen it very often. I can't recall ever having seen one. But it's in the Highway Code. It's a MINIMUM speed limit of 30mph. Blimey! What a great concept! Woo hoo!

I live in North Wales - which means two things. Firstly speeding has become all but suicidal due to Ubermeister Brunstrom's obsession with sending his troops to hide around corners and in vans waiting to get you (I'm surprised they find the time what with all the other things they have to do, like, um, ah). And secondly, it's a major retirement area.

I'm not young myself, not by a long shot. But it's just a plain fact that older folk, in the main, drive slowly. I have no problem with that, I'm slowing up myself. BUT, and this is a big but, when the car in front of you insists on going at 20mph through built up areas, because there's a chance the speed camera van might be there, then it's all gone too far.

I mean, you (and all the other poor saps trying to get on with their lives in the queue with you) can't easily overtake, safely, in a 30 limit. You're just stuck. This is not fair. I've always said that I prefer speedy boy racers to slow coaches, because you see the boy racer, then he's gone in a flash, but the dawdler, you're stuck with, seemingly forever.

So... to address two problems in one go, here's my idea. Firstly, all 30 limits (and 40s, and 50s) have an IMPLIED minimum speed limit of their value too. Go too fast or too slow in these areas, and you're nicked, my son.

Cracking idea, huh? No! you cry, because who's going to police that idea. We are, that's who!

If you see someone who frankly ought not to be on the road going either too fast or too slow, you report them. However, to avoid vindictiveness, there must be, say, three independent complaints for it to proceed. And in a slow moving queue stuck behind one of these snails, that would be easily achieved!

Okay, okay it wouldn't work. But surely there's a way? Please. Somebody. Sort it out!

(oh and I would really like to see one of those minimum speed limit signs before I die.)

Petrol Prices

I was watching the old goggle box this morning, thinking that if the BBC spent as much on the programmes as they did on the bits between programmes, we'd all be a lot happier I imagine, when the topic of petrol came to mind.

And bubblejet printer ink. And saffron. And heating oil. I've had to buy all of these things recently, and they're all madly expensive, suddenly. Well, maybe not the saffron, that's always been a bit daft. Yesterday I order a 2 gigabyte SD memory card for my new Canon S5 IS bridge camera, of which more another day. From Play.com it cost 15 quid. 15 quid! It's amazing. I also ordered 4 ink cartridges for two printers. 68 quid. That's amazing too, but not in the same way. And when they arrive they will be weeny little boxes, massively over packaged, containing the odd drip of ink which may or may not come spurting out satisfactorily. Hmmm.

On the one hand, a marvel of modern technology, 2,000,000,000 bytes of information held on a thing the size of a stamp. £15. Some coloured liquid, £68. "Are they having a laugh?"

Anyway. Petrol.

So, oddly enough for a chap with a passion for cars, with a website about cars, and a section of his blog about cars - actually I don't own a car. I won't bore you with why not... though in truth it's just one word - impecuniousness (if I had a pound for every letter in "impecuniousness"...) - but at present I am fated to be using my partner's Peugeot 206. Which I hate. Again, another story.

But for reasons best known to my psychologist, I have been recording the petrol consumption of this car since it was new, back in May 2001. Since you ask... it's averaged 47.28 mpg over this period, which I consider to be fairly rubbish. Because in that time the thing has just pootled around, never going far, never going fast, (it's a 1.1 - it doesn't do fast) just a nice journey of 10 to 15 miles per trip - ideal conditions for good consumption. So 47 mpg I think is a bit weedy. But never mind, maybe I'm being harsh.

The point... back in 2001, I note from my rather sadly comprehensive notes on this topic, petrol was 68.9p a litre, or in terms my brain can more easily deal with, £3.13 a gallon.

My last fill up, buying as cheaply as I could from good old Tesco's, was 105.9p per litre, or £4.81 a gallon. I'm not good at maths, but I'd say that was an increase of over 50%.

Now, 2001 is not that long ago, is it? We've recently crashed through that pound-a-litre psychological barrier, and I suspect it will never go back. In terms of pounds per gallon (which let's be honest - a lot better way to judge, I mean we talk in terms of miles-per-gallon, don't we?) - the five pound gallon looms.

And at ever rise, Gordon's huge percentage tax take gets bigger and bigger. We had a strike for a lot less than this a few years ago. Is there nothing we can do? Are we just waving a white flag and giving up on this one?

If you're interested in mpg, then you might appreciate a bit Freeware what I wrote, it takes your readings of mileage and fuel price and amount bought between top-ups and gives the answer, it's downloadable from here:
Zip Version
or
Exe Version

Surveys on DriveArchive

Every few months I conduct a survey on my DriveArchive site about motoring related issues.

Here are a few results from recent times:

Near where I live there are several stretches of road where they've dropped the speed limit from a very fair 40 down to a totally stupid 30. You can tell it's daft because (nearly) everyone semi-ignores the new limit, except when the old Bill is about, not because we're law breakers, but because it's plainly daft. You wonder who makes these changes, and why.	If today's road tax was collected not by a yearly lump some but by a small percentage on the cost of fuel, wouldn't that be fairer? The more miles you do, the more you contribute to the upkeep of the roads, and if you're a low user, then you contribute less.
Question: There are signs for eveything these days. How about when a speed limit changes, they put up a large sign for a few months explaining themselves?	Question:  Wouldn't it be fairer to collect road tax from the price of fuel rather than a yearly sum that everyone pays, regardless of annual mileage?
agree: 58.1% don't care: 25.6% disagree: 16.3%	agree: 77.5% don't care: 3.9% disagree: 18.6%
Speed cameras. They may be a right pain, but maybe they do sort of work. But the truly galling bit, surely, is where the fine money goes. It goes into the coffers of the coppers, and they spend it on... erm, well, who knows? So, wouldn't it be better if the cash generated from speeding offences went somewhere better?	Is it not blindingly obvious (ho ho) that drivers should have regular eyesight tests to maintain their driving license? And that the interval between tests should decrease as age increases, until it's on a yearly basis? It wouldn't require a huge effort to turn up somewhere, read a distant numberplate and be allowed to continue driving. I see so many drivers who clearly cannot see where they're going.
Question: Would it improve the way you feel about the police generally if speeding fines went straight to, say, Children in Need?	Question: Should there be a regular eyesight test to maintain your driving license?
agree: 52.8% don't care: 16.7% disagree: 30.6%	agree: 82.2% don't care: 11.1% disagree: 6.7%
Is it me, or is nearly every white van man and small lorry driver you see these days using his mobile phone as he speeds between jobs or deliveries? I was recently nearly run off the road by a lorry carrying a huge mobile home, where the driver was breezing along with just one hand on the wheel, one holding his phone.	I'm not sure about the laws governing making a mess on public highways, but it seems to me that the you ought to be heavily prosecuted for making the surface of a road very slippy and dangerous. Yet in rural areas you are always coming across muddy bits of road which could be, and probably are, lethal - especially given a drop of rain.
Question: Would you like to see even more stringent rules on mobile phone use for people obviously conducting business in this way?	Question: Maybe the police would be making driving safer by keeping an eye on road surface abuse rather than getting so picky about speed limits?
agree: 82.9% don't care: 9.4% disagree: 7.7%	agree: 66.7% don't care: 23.3% disagree: 10.0%

If you want to participate in a survey (no signing up required) then visit here.