keystonedriving

Another point is that it is effectively going to be an unbraked trailer. How heavy is it and what are you going to tow it with? Somewhere at the back of my mind is the idea that any trailer over 750kg has to have automatic brakes. Not too many cars are rated to tow much over 500kg unbraked, either.

The new car seems to represent evolution, rather than revolution. I like the idea of it staying a bit taller, we don't all like to go around with our bums dragging along the road, some of us like to see where we are going. So far as the looks go, I liked the Mk 1 but have never been that happy with the Mk 2. To me this has something of an updated Mk 1 about it, it looks quite promising. I suspect that when all is revealed the rear lights will be our normal 'C' shape without the stuck on bit on the boot lid. Now it they would do a version with the 1.9 SDi engine.......... it may not have had a lot of power, but you didn't have to do much gear changing. (Yes, I do know that it can't happen). With the mileage I do, it has to be a diesel though, preferably with a bit of low down torque. Would I have one? it depends what the rear legroom is like. I got the Roomster primarily for that reason and have been seduced by its practicality. I quite like the Rapid Spaceback, but it has less room and the low roofline feels quite claustrophobic (the current craze for having funeral coloured interiors doesn't help in that respect) though a glass roof could help. It's a definite perhaps from me, so long as it can carry a full sized spare.

These were fitted to the Renault Scenic we made the mistake of buying. The bl**dy things were always failing so we replaced them with standard valves and just ignored the fact that the screen said we didn't have any wheels. It's just a scam to make work for the dealers when unreliable 'required' systems go wrong. Mind you all of the electrics on that particular heap of c**p were forever failing.

Looks like the offspring of a Mito / Elise mating.

Q. What is the difference between a London bus driver and a Birmingham bus driver? A. A London bus driver indicates and pulls out, a Birmingham bus driver pulls out then indicates in case you didn't notice (at least the ones on the 60 / 62 group of routes down through Tyseley used to). In fact the standard of bus driving varies enormously from one fleet to another. In this general area we have one fleet where the drivers are uniformly good, one where they are a bit variable and another where they are uniformly lethal. I think it all comes down to company culture. It seems to be the smaller companies which have the higher driving standards and the largest companies which have the lowest. I will generally try to help bus drivers, but there are a couple of places where I will never let them out. It's not down to them, it's down to the fact that the council has seen fit to place traffic islands in the middle of the road at a busy bus stop to ensure that it is impossible to legally pass a stopped bus. It's nothing personal, but if it means you will be holding me up for a significant period of time I'm not going to let you out. Pretty much anywhere else, I will.

The only Motorway in the UK which is not a dual carriageway has 7 lanes with a tidal flow system on the centre lane. I suspect that you are thinking that two lanes is what makes a dual carriageway but that is incorrect. A 'dual carriageway' is 'a road which comprises a centre reservation' whilst an 'all purpose dual carriageway' is 'a dual carriageway which is not a motorway' (from the definitions section of the TSRGD 2002). You can have a dual carriageway with any number of lanes in either direction and the same can apply to a single carriageway.

Just as a matter of interest, is 3 years free servicing actually 3 years or just 3 services (i.e. about 15 months)? Yes, I do a few miles.......

Actually, it does look pretty proportionate. It is pretty rare for burglars etc. to cause more than financial harm to others. It is far from unknown for people driving more quickly than is appropriate to kill others. Which is actually the greater crime?

Keep your eyes peeled if you are coming into Plymouth along Gdynia Way then. Average speed cameras in the 30 limit which are on permanently. There are a couple of estates in Gloucester which have them as well, the roads in question are popular rat runs apparently.

That certainly applies to the b****y seagulls in Whitby, twice in 15 minutes (with a hair wash in between)! I suspect that statistically they are just as likely to crap on a dirty car as a clean one, we just notice it more on a clean one.

Am I right in thinking that at some point the Ambassador started using Mitsubishi mechanicals rather than BMC? Are they still making Hillman Hunters in Iran?

One of the big selling points for the Roomster is that it is light and airy with pretty good all round visibility. Oh, and it's DIFFERENT. Why would we want to dumb it down to the same kind of euro box that everybody else makes? As for engines, the last thing I want is a miniscule petrol engine you have to rev the guts out of. You can't beat a good big diesel.

Wait, the garage door's not fully open........ oh ****, I told you to wait...... I've just had this great idea.......

Particularly if it's chocolate coated and has a wooden stick coming out the back.

I bought one (new - £1007) that was virtually that colour (that's a late one so will be Honey Starfire, mine was earlier so was Honey Starmist - slightly darker). Build quality was not great, fuel economy was not great and it didn't have a radio. To describe it as a dog is to insult canines! The new one is just a replacement for the Matiz, but with less character.

If you are offered a Speed Awareness Course, you should be able to do it in Avon & Somerset (several locations in the Bristol area, Weston-Super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton and Yeovil). It will cost you £80.

Having done over 300k in a Fabia (135k) and a Polo (173k) I really miss that seamless power delivery. There aren't too many engines which will let you pull away from rest in 5th at tickover. My daughter took the Fabia up to 210k after I gave it to her, all without problems. OK it only has 63bhp but an overall 54mpg, mainly with learners, ain't too shabby.

An intelligent camera-based sensor system detects other road users and actively adjusts the light pattern to avoid dazzle. I'm certain that Lucas was demonstrating a system like this (albeit not using lasers) back in about 1971! Actually, Audi DRL's are quite capable of blinding you without fancy headlights. It's a bling thing specially for the people who buy Audis.

If you have a good heater in a drop head it can be great to have the top down, even if it's cold (particularly with a tonneau cover). I fixed your original quote for you, by the way.

Because an analogue clock is easier / quicker to read than a digital one?

I ran a 54 plate Polo SDi for 173k. Not the quickest car in the world, but overall it returned 54 to the gallon including a lot of miles with learners at the wheel. It was pretty much bombproof. The only real problem was when the Alternator free-wheel pully went solid and it kept snapping tensioning pulley bolts until we found the cause. Insurance is low (it was about group 4 if I remember rightly). With a bsic engine like that there is very little to go wrong. I would say that the build quality on the Fabia SDi I had before was marginally better, but I am being very picky when I say that. In some way the Fabia was better, in others the Polo.

Picked up refurbished wheels with new tyres and had them fitted to the car. Winter wheels/tyres returned to their resting place in my garage. Guy at the tyre place commented "It looks normal now" when the silver wheels were refitted. I don't suppose there are too many Roomsters with Black alloys.

That would probably be why I very rarely encounter a truck which is sticking to the speed limit, and why a large number of trucks have speed limiters which are set significantly higher than the mandated 90 kph. The reality is that most truckers have only two speeds, they are either stationary or they are riding the limiter regardless of the road they are on. We don't have motorways in this part of the country, the A30 is mainly dual carriageway with odd stretches of single carriageway. Therefore the highest speed any truck should be travelling at is 50 mph. That will be the day, they are all going at whatever speed their limiter is set to. In some cases that is about 100 kph (by the way I can recognise the difference between a 7.5 tonne vehicle and an LGV). Even on the single carriageway sections they will be on the limiter, 15 to 20 per cent over the limit. I know that some supermarket trucks have lower limiter speeds, but by no means all. Even Tesco seem to be moving away from their 50 mph stance, if the newer ones I have been encountering at speeds over 60 mph (on a slight upgrade so it wasn't gravity assisted) are anything to go by. It's true to say that we don't notice the good drivers on the road whilst we certainly notice the not so good ones, but there are a goodly number of very poorly driven trucks out there. The reality is that many trucking companies encourage (even require?) their drivers to routinely break the law. I know that some take the opposite attitude, but we don't seem to encounter many of them down here. As for not being able to comment if we don't drive a truck, that strikes me as an exceptionally arrogant statement. We all share the roads, we all have an interest in being safe, I reckon that gives us every right to comment.

To be honest, motorways are not the problem as they have a very small number of incidents. From a practical standpoint, until there are motorways close at hand for everybody, it is unreasonable to require all new drivers to take motorway tuition. There are plenty of places which are more than 100 miles from the nearest motorway, so unless we get the system extended significantly it cannot happen. There is a far greater problem with people driving on rural roads. I would like to see driving on twisty single track roads to be made compulsory for all new drivers. That way they would have far fewer head-on collisions when they get onto them. It's about 5% of fatalities on motorways, 30% in urban areas, 65% on rural roads. We need to tackle the larger problems first.

When you see some of the designs used for their trains I can see where that comes from! At the end of the day, you pays your money and you takes your choice. It wouldn't do for us all to be the same.