rurwin

You know you're on a petrol-head forum when you see a radio transmitter rated in brake-horsepower.

I have a 1.9 Elegence estate, and my MPG dropped from new. No mystery; I was running it in and so driving it somewhat less than briskly. Acceleration kills mpg fast, closely followed by speed; wind resistance increases with the square of the speed. So the most economical drive is slow and steady in top gear. The massive mpg figures you see quoted here are generally for 50-60mph, which is not generally a speed I do. At around 7,000 miles, I'm now seeing around 46mpg per tank (computer), 38 on town driving when I'm not concentrating. When I am concentrating I can keep that in the high 40s too, but you need to work the gears - 4th at 20, 5th at 30. On 50 mile motorway jaunts with town driving both ends I get low 50s. Yesterday I did a 120 mile motorway trip at 70mph on cruise control set by sat nav, and averaged 56mpg, which is generally the highest figure I see.

Damn. Thanks for that. Our dog enjoys jumping back and forward over the rear seats, but I do have the variable boot floor. I've already taken out the load cover, because it greatly reduces the space the dogs have. Maybe I should see if they're happy with the boot floor lower, and annoy SWMBO with another piece of seldom used junk cluttering the place up. *sigh*

Not only overkill; it may not work. The 7812-type regulators require at least 14V to operate. I suppose under that they'll probably just pass the input voltage through, but I'd have to try it to be sure. Bung a fiver at the charity of your choice, and I'll make up three for you and post them.

Check the continuity of each of the wires between the microphone and whatever they plug in to. If there is a bodywork earth on the microphone, check it is making proper contact. Then, unless you know someone who is into electronics and will be able to test further, you'll have to assume the microphone is bad.

Or if you don't want your car to look like you've covered it with logo'd duct tape, Acousti Products - AcoustiPack ULTIMATE Soundproofing Materials is much more understated. It appears to be significantly cheaper, but they don't specify it for in-car use. I can recommend it for PCs, and it should work just as well in cars so far as I can see.

Before you go crazy buying stuff, check the side pockets in your new car. I got a net of some sort (not opened it yet to find out exactly what it is.) It's a wholly different spec car to yours though. I'm seriously considering a dog-guard, and I can recommend the "dog-hammock" - although I only attach it at the back; our dogs are too heavy and active to trust it in hammock mode.

Yes, dead easy with those 12V ones. You could even use screw terminals if you didn't want to solder. No maths involved. The only danger is that the voltage may be a bit too high with the engine running. Their maximum voltage is 14V, and the car's voltage can be above that. But if they fail you'll only have to fit new ones, with resistors. No worries. We'll do the maths. Almost as easy. Not even any soldering unless you want to.

I didn't get away with it. At the weekend I washed the car for the second or third time since the incident. There are now a nice constellation of stone chips all around the blast area. Maybe one or two dozen of them. It just took the paint a while to fall off. :( I'll be calling in at the dealers on the way home. Edit: It's not down to the metal. I have a touch-up pen, and I'll be looking out my 00000 brush.

The LEDs referenced above already have resistors inside them, so you can just connect them up. Remember to wire them the correct way: the short leg (and the flat on the side of the plastic,) is the negative terminal. Strangely the green and superbright-green seem to be identical in every respect. You will need a resistor in line with normal LEDs, otherwise you wont even see a flash as the fine wire inside fuses. For standard LEDs you want to get 20mA going through them. There will be 2.5V across the LED, so subtract this from the battery voltage. resistance=(voltage - voltsdrop) / current For superbright LEDs the required current and voltage drop vary.

I neither had, nor missed, front fog lights on my previous car. I tend to use rear fog lights for about half an hour or less per year, when I find myself either glad another car has his fog lights on, or wishing that he had, then I turn mine on. And yes, only when there is nothing immediately behind me. The front fog lights will be used solely on the basis of whether they allow me to see better. So far I have used them once, and they did (rather contrary to my expectations.) I don't really trust that any time I will want the rears on, I will also want the fronts, but so far my experience is positive. Maybe having them on the same switch in the factory arrangement will work. I'll tell you in 2010 when I may have used them a couple more times.

295 ftlb

We had a couple of budgies that we hand-trained. They would fly around the room and sit on your finger. The first few times they fly in confined spaces you have to rescue them from tight corners they've fallen into, but they quickly get the hang of it. It's better for them and much more fun for you than keeping them cooped up in a cage all the time. Only for homes without cats though, remember to close the windows, and you can't house-train them.

If chinchillas are anything like rabbits, then no cable is safe from them. Could be fun in the computer room.

My experience is unusual, since I did get hit by the hailstorm delays, but I ordered in May, the car was built on the 10th of June, and was expected to be registered by the end of June when the financing deal ran out. I was told I couldn't order any options and still hit that deadline. The dealer can't register it until it is at least in the country. If it was hit by the hailstorm, then it was still in port on June 22nd - twelve days after the build date. The ship takes a week, and then another week before the dealer gets it. Then he has to do a Pre-Delivery Inspection, and get it valeted. That can take a few days. So from build it is supposed to take three weeks to get to the dealer, but sometimes takes more. 3-5 weeks might be more honest. Theoretically, the dealer can track when it leaves port, when it arrives in the UK, and when it has been allocated to stock. However I was told that the database is updated erratically, so they have taken delivery of cars that they thought hadn't even reached the UK yet.