Paladine

I'm glad it wasn't more serious. I bought two Blackvue 380G cams from Advanced In-car Technologies and fitted them to my wife's car the day BEFORE it was involved in a car park prang. I bought two more for my car and another for my granddaughter's! No connection with the firm, other than a very satisfied repeat customer. Good price and nice to deal with.

I'm with More>Than for one of my cars. Have contacted their Customer Services on a few occasions and have been dealt with very well. No problems for me, I'm pleased to say.

Obviously the word hasn't reached Norfolk yet! I asked Robinsons' Service Reception for a quote on 8 winter tyres, got that, then was told they wouldn't be able to store the summer tyres for me. Just as well, at that price!

Norwich is in England.

That is for the whole year, though. KwikFit charges £60 per season (six months). It doesn't seem as much when you cut it in half...until you double it for the annual charge!

When did this start and where is it advertised, please? Wanting both my cars fitted with winter tyres (on existing wheels), I asked about tyre storage at Robinsons Skoda in Norwich last Friday and was told they didn't have enough room to store customers' tyres. Also, to change the tyres back to the summer ones in the Spring would cost £90 + vat per car. I went to my local independent tyre firm, got both cars shod with winters, free storage for all 8 summer tyres, and re-fitting in the Spring will be £50 per car (incl. new valves and balancing).

Do spiders bleep? :think:

It may well have been renamed to avoid confusion. There is Skoda Roadside Assistance, a vehicle recovery service (provided by the RAC) and then there is Skoda Ensurance, which is an accident management service (administered by LawShield UK Ltd). They are not mutually exclusive, you can sign up to either or both (or none).

I recently bought a year-old Octavia Elegance from a Skoda dealer and commented that the material floor mats were missing (standard equipment from new). The salesman's comment was that, when a car was PXed, one of the first things to be done was to remove any mats, as the next purchaser would pay out for new ones! (The sales manager's policy, not his.) My view is that if something is standard equipment it should be there. I got him to include a full set of rubber mats in the deal (easier to clean than the material ones).

I'm currently going through a claims process using Ensurance. My insurance company hasn't shown any signs of hostility yet.

So, having printed off the confirmation, you apply for a refund and put your car on the market. You show prospective purchasers your 'confirmation'. How would the marks be able to check whether the car is taxed or not? I suppose that depends on how often the DVLA site is updated. Not exactly a panacea for all the DVLA ills.

...as was your obvious intention. "Old people often complain of loneliness, the internet can fix that too. They can come on forums and meet like minded people and communicate with one another without leaving the safety and warmth of their dwelling." ...to be abused by anonymous key-board warriors? I prefer to choose my real life friends, thank you. "It's getting that way so adapt and learn would be my advice or wait for headlines like 'Silly old bu99er crashes car into bus shelter full of children when attempting to sync his ration book with his Honda Jazz. 9 dead'" ... such headlines are, thankfully, much, much rarer than these. Some of these stupid young people need an operation to separate them from their technological wonder devices. Back to the topic. I don't have a problem with paying for my VED online, having my pension paid into my on-line bank account, setting up DDs for regular bills, paying one-offs by BACS or shopping with Amazon (other on-line retailers are available). But just because I, and many others, can and do doesn't mean that those who can't, or won't, should be forced into it. Given the problems with computerised systems (NHS, RBS, NATS all just recent examples), how will you be able to prove you've paid your VED if "The computer says 'NO'"? Will you be able to download and print a replica tax disc? There must be some method of confirming the payment to, for example, a prospective purchaser of your vehicle***. Oh, I've just realised...it's Sunday. Time for my weekly 40 mph run down that lovely empty centre lane. Nurse, would you bring my Bentley round, please. ***I suppose the DVLA could always send you a neat circular receipt!

"Four million homes in the UK are still not connected to the internet, the Office of National Statistics said. The ONS's data said the majority, 59%, of those unconnected said they simply did not need to be online. Twenty per cent said they lacked the computer skills needed to get online, while another 10% said they could not afford it." (source:BBC) Your pong turn...

At Q3 of 2013, 7.0 million adults (14%) in the UK had never used the Internet. (source:ONS) Ping-pong, backwards and forwards. No point really.

I would very politely like to point out that my rural village Post Office is 200 yards from my house. My nearest library, with Internet access, is 10 miles away, and computer use must be pre-booked. Not everyone lives in town and cities, with services on their doorsteps. So it is much, much quicker (and cheaper) for our local residents to pay their excise duty at the Post Office than at the library, if they do not possess an Internet-capable device. Or perhaps such devices will soon become standard equipment for all new cars.

Thanks, everyone.

Just been out to try the parking lights. It gives a higher pitched, slightly faster sound, but thanks anyway.

Eddie-NL, the outside temperature was 8oC and the sounds 'played' when I opened the door and before I actually got in. I've had VAG cars foryears and this is a sound I haven't encountered before. Edited to add: Thank you, ChrisRs, I did wonder, but the handbook doesn't mention it.

Why do you find it difficult to understand that not everyone has, or needs, a computer or other Internet-capable device? It's not a question of being old and/or infirm, it's more a matter of choice. Just because someone does not fit in with your idea of how they should live their lives is no reason to be gratuitously offensive towards them.

I’ve had my ’62 Octavia II for just over a month now and I’m still learning about it. This afternoon, when I opened the driver’s door, there were two rather melodic ’bong’ sounds, about 1 or 2 seconds apart. Not the higher pitched sound you get when you leave the lights on, though (and the lights weren’t on). There was nothing amiss indicated by the dash indicator lights. The car started normally, I drove for several miles, and the next time I opened the door…nothing. So what did the ‘bongs’ indicate? The only thing different on this occasion was that I noticed I had left the carcams on since the previous day. They draw power from the 12v socket beside the handbrake and I wondered if the sounds were a ‘low battery’ warning, although I’ve found no mention in the handbook. Does anyone have any ideas, please?

Thanks for that info, Oet. I've found that the safest way is simply to call the insurance company regarding anything that may or may not affect the cover. Even if they say they don't need to be informed, at least then there is a note made of the query and the answer. As they are taking the risks, it makes sense to ask their advice.

It won't necessarily be easy to spot visually. The following is taken from a (presumably) reputable tuning company's web site (their whole entry re DPF is dated October 2013): "What about new MOT legislation? The only new legislation we expect to be introduced in the next few years is a ‘visual inspection of the DPF’. This will be a very simple visual inspection of the DPF unit to ensure it is still in place, because of this new expected legislation we do not fit bypass pipes. Instead, we modify the original DPF unit, discreetly cutting away a small window in the top of the chamber, removing the internal filter before rewelding the window and refitting to the vehicle. This way the vehicle still appears to have a DPF fitted and appears unmodified in anyway." It has been said that, although using a car from which the DPF has been removed is illegal (contrary to Con & Use Regs), the garages that remove them are 'blameless'. If, as it appears, the garages know what the legal situation is, I would have thought an offence of 'aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring' a summary offence should be considered.

Oet, I can only speak from my experience with BlackVue (more expensive, I know), but their cameras have three recording modes - Normal, Event, Parking. The software is set up so that each mode occupies its own space on the MicroSD Card. I think the default is 20% Normal mode, 60% Event mode and 20% Parking mode, but this can be set to whatever proportions you like, using the provided software (which is really easy to use). Just tootling around, the recording will be made in the Normal mode. When the 20% of the card allocated to that mode is full, the oldest Normal recordings are overwritten by the newest Normal recordings. Similarly with the other modes. Each section is only overwritten by the same mode recordings. If the recording is being made in either Normal or Parking mode and an 'event' occurs, i.e there is an accident, the recording automatically switches to Event mode, which retains several seconds of the recording before the actual impact and a minute or so afterwards, in the Event section of the card. That recording will be 'protected' and will only be recorded over if the 'events' continue for a considerable period of time (possibly several hours, which is unlikely). After entering the Event mode and protecting that minute or so of the recording, as long as there isn't another 'event' (when the process will be repeated), the mode switches back to Normal mode, then, after 10 minutes of no movement at all, the mode automatically goes into Parking mode. The chance of an 'event' being recorded over after a serious accident is, IMHO, negligible. This seems to me to be a better setup than stopping recording altogether. If the camera isn't recording and another 'event' happens...?

You've just got to laugh, haven't you? The sellers are from Wales? I don't speak Welsh, but I don't think the address given in the contact details is anywhere in that lovely country. "The First Floor, NO.23-17 Yi San Road,Jiang An Development Zones 537000 Guangxi" I think you generally get what you pay for. Stopping the recording a couple of minutes after the accident is hardly a benefit. Better carcams continue to record, but 'protect' the event recording. As several hours of video can be recorded on a 16 Gb card, the likelihood of losing the important bits is small. Caveat emptor!

So much spin on this it makes me dizzy. If I pay, for example, £1,000 a year now and the increase is 9%, I will pay £1,090 next year. If the increase is 4%, I will pay £1,040. Will someone please explain to me how paying £40 more next year constitutes a price CUT? All that has been cut is the amount of the INCREASE. Please let's not give this con trick any credence by referring to it in terms of lower prices. If I only had to pay £950 next year, THAT would be lowering the price.