Manatee

One thing the manufacturers aim to do with the tyre pressure recommendations is to maintain the handling balance. I don't mean at the limit, just normal cornering balance for normal driving. The handling balance alters with load because the weight distribution moves further back. Considering the starting recommendation of 3.1 bar at maximum load, you might reduce that a bit as you have only three passengers; but the fully loaded boot will still have a more material effect because of the greater distance from the c of g than the back seat. As the c of g moves backwards, other things being equal, the balance will move towards oversteer. Note that I am not talking about what happens when traction is broken, just what is happening with slip angles at normal speeds. The correction for that is to increase rear pressures relative to the fronts, to maintain the normal and desirable degree of understeer. You are not doing that by just adding 0.2 bar to each. Erring on the high side with tyre pressures is usually better than being too low. Personally I'd go a bit nearer the 'fully-loaded' figure for the rears anyway. If you want to split the difference for the bit-less-than-full-load, then 2.3/2.7 would seem more proportionate. Just increasing the pressures by the same amount front and rear will not correct the change in balance caused by moving the weight distribution rearwards. Assuming of course that the car is standard and that all the tyres have near enough the same characteristics and state of wear, or all bets are off. This is just my musing on the question - I claim no special insight or knowledge, and have never had a Superb. Incidentally - here is the plate for the Roomster Scout 1.2 TSI on 205/45R16 tyres - going from part load to full load means a recommended increase in pressures of a mere 0.1 bar (front) and a massive 1.1 bar (rear - from 2.1 bar to 3.2 bar). It's not mainly about load carrying, it's about handling is my conclusion from that.

I'm not really interested in extracting more power, but cleaner burning and reduction in clag (especially on a high-tech diesel with EGR and DPF) is of interest. About 6 years ago, a friend (no longer with us unfortunately) provided the following opinion of Millers Diesel Power (and a bit about oil which I've left in). He was a technical consultant to the petroleum fuel industry and knew what he was talking about (Millers Diesel Sport 4 has been rebranded since then; and I haven't seen Shell Extra diesel for a while). Millers Sport 4 additive: It does work - sort of. It's a mixture of 2-Ethyl Hexyl Nitrate (or 2EHN) and high aromatic naphtha (very similar to a blend of white spirit and petrol). 2EHN is a Cetane booster - a measure of the performance potential of diesel fuel - and in the early phase of the combustion process, 2EHN breaks down to form "free radicals" which enhances the burn (the Chemistry of flames is all about radicals). The engine runs quieter and produces more power - fantastic. Until the engine warms up and then 2EHN decomposes prematurely and stops working The high aromatic naphtha dissolves gums and crud deposited in the fuel system right to the tip of the injectors. But once burnt in the engine, it's gone - and any ability to clean the EGR is probably very minimal. The EGR is easy to clean if you like DIY. The very best diesel fuels are the new synthetics - such as BP Ultimate, Shell V-Power and Total Excellium - all are 55 Cetane fuels and can increase power by 5% and fuel efficiency by 5%. At the bottom end of the diesel fuel hierarchy are the basic branded fuels - such as Shell diesel or supermarket ultra low Sulfur diesel - which have a Cetane index of 51. Fuels such as Shell Extra are intermediate ... Adding Millers Sport 4 to a basic branded fuel will improve the Cetane index to an intermediate value. But if your engine is under any sort of warranty - then don't use it - the smell of 2EHN is very characteristic and lingers for months after you stop using it - and would be an instant get out for the manufacturer. Likewise lubricating oil - at the top are full synthetic oils such as Mobil 1 ESP (for cars with DPF) and Millers synthetic - and these are true synthetic oils made from a PAO base (polyalphaolefin). At the bottom are simple mineral oils distilled from crude oil. And in the middle lies an endless stream of marketing cr@p - my favourite marketing speak includes "semi-synthetic" oil - this usually means a mineral oil that's been passed through a minor chemical process and it's nothing like Mobil 1... And if you want to improve fuel economy - switch to a fully synthetic engine oil (from a PAO base stock - look on the can) and a synthetic gearbox oil (and rear axle oil if you have one of those) I will say that from 1998 to 2002 I had a Ford Scorpio with the fairly horrible VM diesel engine (old tech). It would get progressively smokier, not usually visible in daylight but you could really see the fug in the headlights of a following car. When it got really bad, or before the MoT, I would buy a bottle of Millers and double dose it a few times. It reduced the smoke a lot, which I put down to the injector cleaning effect. My friend reckoned the best way to maintain a clean engine though (diesel) was to use BP Ultimate/V-Power/Excellium. It just doesn't have the carp in there in the first place.

Somebody here has recently taken to parking half on the pavement outside their house (or sometimes mine). It brings no benefit, as traffic has to stop for oncoming anyway, and it obstructs the pavement which also has a ditch next to it making it difficult to pass safely on foot. Perhaps not as obviously to them, it also obstructs my view down the road when going out, making it more dangerous to come out of my drive. I wouldn't mind if they parked on the road. I don't think they walk anywhere themselves, just come and go by car. Laziness and lack of manners is my reasoning. I quite enjoy a little walk from the empty end of a supermarket car park. But why is there always somebody parked right next to me when I get back?

TopGear says the largest MQB vehicle will be Discovery sized with 3 rows of seats, and the smallest will be superminis. Possible on that basis that there will be a full size 4x4/crossover. http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/mqb-platform-explained-2014-3-21 I thought the Yeti was based on the Tiguan? It (Yeti) manages to be smaller outside - though having been in both, they feel much of a size inside.

Wheels on Fire

Surprising how many cars by 5+ years old look fine in a walk round, with no sign of corrosion, but are absolutely brown with rust underneath, both body and other parts. I've seen a Ford Ka like that. Worth ordering up a couple of waxoil sprays and coating the vulnerable bits when they are new, or new to you, for what it costs. Seems to have worked on a Panda we bought in 2005.

Loading aside, higher rear tyre pressures have another benefit when towing which is their contribution to trailer stability. I'd increase the pressures for towing regardless of noseweight or car loading. Whether a trailer goes unstable is mainly a question of whether or not it exceeds a critical speed (which is different for every outfit, but could be as low as 60mph or even lower). What that speed is, is affected by a number of factors including the lateral stability and overall stiffness of the car's rear suspension, of which the tyre is a component. The lower the rear tyre pressure, other things being equal, the lower the critical speed. The other thing to check of course is the trailer tyre pressures. On a two wheeled trailer these are likely to be higher than on a car of comparable weight, that has two axles. I have a 1200kg caravan. The handbook recommends 2.4bar. I noticed that after a run, the caravan tyres were quite hot, so I ran them at 3.0 bar after that (within the maximum pressure on the sidewall) and they ran at the same sort of temperature, tested by hand, as the car tyres. Around that time, the manufacturer revised its advice to 2.8bar! I have a pet theory that the biggest single cause of the thankfully small number of caravan accidents we see is tyre problems, either on the towcar or more likely the trailer. Under inflated tyres, if the pressures are well below what they should be, will overheat and fail at worst, or reduce stability at best. I'd post a link to a Bath University study published years ago but it's dead now. I have found a quote though - "the test car was known to have a fairly compliant rear end; the tow ball was situated quite a long way behind the rear axle, and the rear suspension bushes were known to be slightly worn. This compliancy had the same effect as having the car rear tyres at a low pressure, i.e. it increased the tendency for lateral movement at the tow ball point, which increased the snaking probability" EDIT: Sorry if the above is a bit tangential to to the topic. For what it's worth I usually leave the tyre pressures up in between as well - but on my tow car it's only about 4psi. I don't use the Roomster for towing but I see the pressure differential is much higher - so I'd probably adjust them in between.

Very highly regarded. I've just never tried it. I've been to Inverness relatively recently too - wish I'd had a look in now!

Do not confuse the 700 with the 900 - check the Amazon reviews. If I wanted something that would do regular duty I'd consider the 900 - almost no poor reviews and if the AA uses them they can't be that bad. Otherwise I'd spend a tenner and hope for the best! My dad had a brass-barrelled footpump, probably 1960s, serious quality. I wish I'd kept track of it. Long gone now.

I'd agree that a footpump should be all that's necessary - except that every one I've bought for years has broken in fairly short order. If it's possible to buy a good quality one I haven't found it.

We have one of these that has been going for a few years http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Q560WE Ring Automotive RAC630 Digital though we didn't pay £26 for it. I strongly suspect that this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0030FBSQ2 Ring Automotive RAC610 12 V Analogue has the same compressor if you can live without the preset / digital function, for £10. The connector screws on to the valve which is good, the tube is long enough and so is the cable. I think the key to making these last is ideally not to use them! Or at least not to overheat them. If I'm at home I use a proper compressor, but the boss uses the electric one occasionally.

I'm not convinced by this.. People who don't care about this sort of thing are perfectly capable of ignoring a warning light for months. They aren't the most reliable things either.

I agree. I think the cyclist was in the right here but aggression was a very bad policy (for both of them actually). You have absolutely no way of knowing what sort of person you are dealing with, and their mental state - something I made very clear to my daughter and son when they started driving. Even if they don't turn out to be Kenneth Noye, the probability of them apologising and promising to mend their ways is NIL. If they know they have made a mistake and want to apologise, they will anyway. If not, confrontation will only make things worse, and if you are unlucky, maybe a lot worse. The other thing about getting wound up is that the only person who is certain to have a higher stress level as a result is you.

I'm not saying what's right or wrong - if somebody really wants Tizer in their whisky then that's up to them - but this pretty much sums up my own view on the matter. http://www.whiskyforeveryone.com/whisky_basics/adding_water_or_ice.html

Should we have the discussion about adding water now, or later I like to sniff and taste neat, then add a bit of water (half as much again, a bit more if cask strength). It always seems to bring out more nose, and flavour. If your corporation pop smells of chlorine, best get some bottled spring water.

As a cyclist and a driver I'd go with the cyclist on that one. On the bike, he has car coming towards him at a 30 or more, and has no way of knowing whether he will be given room or not. My guess is that the cyclist had 'taken the lane' and the driver came on anyway, so he had to move over to give space for the car, whose driver could and should have seen him from 50+ yards away and eased off - he could have managed that without stopping. The fact is that he had to cross the white line and so the onus is on him to give way - even if he thinks the cyclist is using more room than he needs.The cyclist was on his own side of the road, and had to get out of the way of an oncoming car travelling at a speed that would have killed him, had it hit him. That's all a court would need to know. I don't condone militant cycling which is counter productive, unfortunately. I have long since given up trying to educate other road users. It's very scary being close-passed in either direction on a bike - cycling on a rural B and being passed at 50mph or more within a couple of feet is scary and dangerous - especially if there is another car following as there often is (what is it about drivers who follow the car in front without looking for themselves?). Some drivers just haven't a clue. The roads round here are now choc full of roadies at weekends- the best thing about the cycling boom is that drivers are now more likely to be cyclists themselves, and show a bit of sense.

As it's insurance data, I'd be fairly sure it's just claims for repairs categorised as "engine" rather than electrical, gearbox, suspension, or brakes etc. Could be anything from a failed sensor or coil pack to turbo failure or a wrecked engine.

I'm less worried about Skoda jokes (well you can't worry about image with a Roomster) than I am about people finally realising that the emperor has no clothes, that VWs and Audis are not very reliable at all, and Skoda's reputation being dragged down with theirs! It would be unreasonable to infer that VW/Audi are unreliable from my patchy experience with a Polo, a Golf, an Audi 100 and an Audi 80 all driven from new between 1979 and 1993, but they don't appear to have improved if this is anything to go by - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9815860/German-cars-lose-out-in-reliability-survey.html

I have a Yamazaki 12 year old here that I like. Others I have had recently that I like too include Arran & Aberlour 10yo, both widely available. Blended malt can be good too - Monkey Shoulder for example, said to be blended from Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie (the last one is nearly all used for blending). Last October I went to the Glengoyne distillery, never had it before but liked it very much. If you want to try something very different to Glenfiddich then Lagavulin would be my choice of Islay, though I like the much fruitier, unpeated Bruichladdich too. I just remembered Finlaggan single Islay malt - a curiosity because there is no such distillery (i.e. it must come from one of the seven? real ones). Very nice and not expensive, if you can find it - I have bought it several times from Wadsworths in St Ives (Cambs). An old island favourite is Talisker, from Skye. I did the distillery tour there in about 1990, and they say you can taste the seaweed...I am very suggestible so I can, even though I have little idea what seaweed tastes like but I like the whisky anyway! I won't bother pretentiously describing all those because TBH I don't claim to have a great palate and you can look them all up. I honestly don't drink much whisky:) but a nice 'everyday' malt is the 'classic' Glen Moray, which is often on offer and I have seen it at a good price in Aldi. Writing this has caused me to go and get myself a dram. May ye ne'er want a frien' or a dram to gie him!

I'm not familiar with it, and will happily be corrected if I have it wrong, but I believe dealers generally use the 'Automated First Registration and Licensing system (AFRL) rather than posting things off to DVLA or trotting along to the local office (now all closed down I think). DVLA print and send out the tax discs but they can be sent either to the dealer or to the registered keeper, and there is a dispensation for newly registered cars to be used without displaying a tax disc for up to 14 days. I believe the dealer still needs a physical insurance certificate though.

No excuse for not being straight with you and responding to your calls. Ring them tomorrow and tell them you are in the area and will call to have a look at it if you have time. If they start making excuses you know something's up. I assume this is your underlying concern. The one time I had a new car mysteriously delayed, it eventually turned up with one front wing in a slightly different shade of white. It was a company car so I reported it to the company and forgot about it, but had it been a private buy I would have been upset. And probably unable to do much about it either, other than getting them to 'rectify' it. We might be surprised at the number of new cars that need some 'rectification' before delivery, including some damaged at the dealer.

There's nothing to stop you going to any dealer or marque, and negotiating the value of your part-exchange in the normal way. The dealer you are buying from will settle your old agreement, so any equity can go into the new deal, whether or not you are taking out a new PCP. Basically it's a poor idea just to hand back the car if it is worth more than the "Guaranteed Minimum Future Value".

I used to do this stuff (financial services) for a living. PCP is usually just HP with lower regular payment and a large final one ("balloon payment"), with a buy back guarantee at the end if the customer doesn't want to make the balloon payment. The problem with just handing the car back is that you then have no car... Dealers and manufacturers love PCP because it's easier to sell a car with a lower monthly payment, and unless the customer is going to budget for the balloon payment then it is very likely that he (or she) will be in the market for another new car in 3 years time, and captive to another new car on PCP. If they are lucky, they will have enough equity in the car to pay the next deposit, and off they go again. One of the other benefits for dealers of selling on any form of credit is that the customer who is focused on affordable monthly payments can take his eye off the ball, the total cost. It's easier to sell an extra when it's only another tenner a month, not an extra £500 and a bit on the balloon payment that the customer has to part with. If you can budget for the balloon payment, you could instead save money (interest) by using an ordinary loan, not PCP, other things (especially the interest rate, but possibly also discounts) being equal. But...there are some bargains, simply because of the attraction to manufacturers of hooking people in to this form of new car addiction. They are looking at the "lifetime value" of a new customer. So when there is over-supply, old models to get rid of, or demand tails off, rather than just trashing the prices it can make more sense to promote a discount to people buying on PCP. That's usually dressed up as a deposit contribution, a boosted buyback guarantee (=lower monthly payment) or, as with the Skoda deal, a low or zero interest rate. A pal of mine got a stupidly good PCP deal on a Mercedes ML when the price of gas guzzlers crashed a few years ago. The monthly payments he made on a two year deal had covered about half the depreciation from the best discounted price he could have had when he just handed it back two years later. Just look at the numbers carefully and see if it works for you. But the starting point should be to determine the best discounted price you can get, and keep checking back to that.

I don't think one jack knifed caravan is proof that most caravans are badly driven, or was that another TIC comment? In fact I think the majority are very carefully driven. If they weren't, they'd be jack-knifed all over the place. You can't use big control inputs while towing, and to stay out of trouble you need to concentrate and anticipate well - something many non-caravanists could usefully try.

Diesels in particular seem to have little engine braking. Probably because they lack a throttle plate. In 'D' the 1.2 TSI Roomster has very little either, as the rpm are so low. Mainly though I think the heavy or constant brakers just don't look far enough ahead, or if they do they ignore what they see. At 70 on a dual carriageway, you can lift off before the 300m marker and often get away with a little touch of brake to adjust the speed at a roundabout. Nearly a quarter of a mile for no fuel! It also makes the brakes last a LOT longer. When I sold my CRV 3 years ago it was still on the original brakes at 95,000. The dealer said some need replacement at the first service (12,500m), otherwise usually the second. Maybe I'm taking it too far:)