OldTrilobite

It began with a tyre pressure warning, but when I checked them all tyres were spot on. The a crop of other warnings on my Fabia: ABS, Front Assist, Skid Control etc etc. The front and rear parking sensors were no longer working, but apart from that the car drove normally (though carefully!). The local garage found one faulty wheel speed sensor in a front wheel. That one fault discombobulated the system and resulted in lots and lots of entirely spurious fault warnings. I consider it a design fault if the failture of one specific sensor can trigger a crop of irrelevant fault warnings in the whole software.

Insurance costs seem to be going through the roof. Last year my Fabia (and an off-road MX5) cost me £465 with the NFU. I have just received their latest bill and it has gone up to £1268 - 173% increase. Someone suggested that the repair costs for electric cars are so high that all insurance bills are going up, but this seems excessive. NFU have been very reasonable in the past.

Why are fuel gauges not marked in litres? On my Fabia it is just marked 0, 1/2, and full. OK, I can look up the handbook, where it gives the tank capacity as 'about 45 litres' (including some reserve). How many ordinary owners, who just use the car to drive between home, office, factory or seaside, have ever studied the handbook carefully? Do they just cautiously put in 20 litres at a time, or a fixed sum of money? Skoda claims on the cover of its handbook: "Simply Clever". Well, wouldn't it be clever to mark the fuel gauge in litres? Grumpy old trilobite.

Our local car dealer used to refer to these low profile tyres as "rubber bands" 😀 I have now narrowed my choice down to two or three bog-standard SE model, about 3 years old, and not too many miles away.

Thanks to all for your comments. I found a useful summary of the different specs for Fabia trim in a review of the Fabia 2019 in: https://www.motors.co.uk/search/car/ There is a lot of detail of the different specs in: https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/Skoda-models/Skoda-Fabia From these I decided that I did not want to pay a premium for a Colour Edition Fabia. Partly because I did not want 16" wheels, with (presumably) low-profile tyres. At my age I prefer a more comfortable ride than sports-handling. Thanks again. Martin

Slightly different query: apart from some fancy colour combinations, is there anything fundamentally better in a Mk3 Colour Edition, compared with an SE edition? I have been looking at some Fabias, 2018 to 2020, on sale in my part of the world. I am thinking of one of the SE versions with 1.0 l TSI engine (preferably 95 PS). The Colour Edition models seem to command a higher price than an SE. I might be prepared to pay a bit more for better equipment or performance but not just for some unusual colours. Thanks, Martin.

It is exasperating how unreliable even PIR floodlights are now. I have had a light over my garage, with a PIR sensor, for years. It uses a tungsten-filament quartz-halogen 'stick' bulb of 150W and has been totally reliable, except for fitting a new bulb a year or so back. Probably British made. The latest ones have LED lights, that use a fraction of the electricity, but the sensors seem unreliable, even those with good IP ratings. Several websites list what they regard as good security lights with PIR sensors (eg: Meikee LED PIR security light, or Zinc Dion Indoor & outdoor PIR twin sensor) but when one checks owners' feedback on retailers' websites even the recommended makes rate badly. Most seem to malfunction within a year of installation, and rainwater entry into the supposedly IP65 sensors seems to be a common cause of failure. A typical customer wrote that of the 4 he bought, 3 had failed within a year. Even those that cost over 30 quid seem no more reliable than cheap ones. Some seem to fail withing weeks. My LEDLITE LTFL 10 watt flood with PIR sensor is no longer working correctly, 1 year after I bought it from TLC electrical. As far as I can see most of them are made in China, to western designs. I suppose better-made ones could be manufactured in Germany or Scandinavia, but might cost five times as much. ☹️

One problem is that the ethanol can absorb water, and over time this can cause some corrosion and tend to emulsify old petrol. I have just bought a new Honda lawnmower and the instructions recommend using E5 petrol. The retailer said that E10 would be ok but not to use any that was more than 30 days out of the filling station pump! He went on to recommend using one of the commercial additives to 'protect' against this ageing effect. I don't know if he is right or exaggerating. 30 days sounds like a gross exaggeration to me, but as it was quite an expensive lawnmower I have bought some Wynn's E10 Protector to add to the jerrycan. Rather expensive - 12 quid for 250 ml at Halfords. Enough to treat 250 litres E10 petrol. Claims "Makes E10 safe for all petrol engines; prevents corrosion and fuel oxidation." I also try to run the Honda carburettor part-dry by turning off the fuel tap for the last few minutes of grass cutting (not practicable on most cars! Most have fuel injection these days.) My 2012 Fabia should be ok with E10 but my very ancient MX-5 does need E5, apparently. Not on sale in small rural petrol stations.

I agree that McAfee has a poor rating. I have it available because it is free from my ex-academic work, but I rely primarily on Malwarebytes to keep me clean. I doubt that McAfee poses an actual risk if it is installed. It is many years since I had a virus warning from whatever anti-malware I had at the time. I guess I am lucky (and careful) 😀

I am still using Win 7, although there are no more regular updates. I use a desktop PC because I don't much like laptop keyboards. I do have antimalware installed: McAfee is provided by my ex-academic link, and I have Malwarebytes free version to run from time to time. As I don't browse dodgy websites or reply to unwanted emails, I feel save to continue with Win 7. My wife had Win 8.1 on a laptop a while ago and it was such a disaster she gave the whole thing away to a post-grad student! My PC is probably too old to run Win 10 or later. With two-factor authentication, where a pass-number is sent to one's mobile phone, I think online banking is reasonably safe, though I would not use it for any major things like house or car purchase. I don't keep a big balance in my accounts, just in case.... Dealing with HSBC was awkward and one reason I switched to Barclays. I also use Nationwide: I like dealing with N'wide as the local branch are also so very helpful.

A little more info about rural bus lane enforcement: Trying to get definite times about the rural bus lanes in South Cambridgeshire, I contacted the County Council. They told me that enforcement on the rural roads was purely a matter for the police. Although the lack of times on the bus lane notices implies that they apply 24/7, the Cambridgeshire police tell me that their view is that outside conventional rush hours (07:30-09:30 and 15:30-18:00) all available lanes can be used by other road users without risk of a penalty charge. More sense than the desk-pilots in the council offices!

Typical of the thoughless decisions made by the planning incompetents that skomaz has been writing about. I was very grateful for dropped kerbs at the right-hand edge of a dual carriageway some years ago. I was overtaking two slow lorries, and alongside the rear one, when without signalling and obviously without checking his mirror, he pulled into the right hand lane. Thanks to dropped kerbs I was able to run onto the grass of the central reservation without damage. It did give me a fright though.

The cycle lanes in Cambridge town are used, but as measured in terms of people moved per metre per hour they are economically unsuccessful. Your comment on spending central government grants is probably spot on and the motive for much of these roadworks. The latest scheme includes building a cycle lane the whole 12 miles between Cambridge and my village. I would guess that this will cost the taxpayer at least ten thousand pounds per cyclist. It is part of a grand scheme for other 'improvements' on this road that the planners estimate will cost £42 million to £46 million - and we know how in practice the final cost ends up as double the estimated cost, or more.

Many thanks, friends, for your info and comments. I have sent a query to the Cambridge council asking for more clarity about the local bus lanes. At present, all the ones around the town seem to be 24/7, which is ludicrous when the buses are so few and far between on some routes, and at quiet times of the day carry barely a handful of passengers. I think I will try to get a bit of common sense out of our traffic planners. However, as some of you have noticed, many drivers fearfully avoid a bus lane at all times, even when they are allowed to use it!

Some bus lanes are reserved for buses, taxis etc the whole 24 hours of the day, while others are only reserved during the rush hours. I see that in some places the signs at the start of a bus lane might announce the limited reserve times, but here in Cambridge and the surrounding county none of the bus lane notices tell us when we may or may not use them. So, you guys, how are these lanes signed where you are? Do your signs tell you clearly when a lane is reserved for buses etc. and when anyone can drive along it? Can one assume that rural bus lanes are open to all traffic outside rush hours (usually 07:30-09:30 and then 15:30-18:00) even if no times are displayed? I have seen one website that says that if times are not displayed, the prohibition lasts the full 24 hours. Which would be ridiculous on rural roads. One main road between Cambridge and Haverhill has several bus lanes, with no times displayed, yet it carries only one half-hourly bus service between the termini and many villages, and none at all between about midnight and 07:00. Would one be liable to a penalty if one drove in such a lane at 3 am? Oh for some common sense in the planning departments!