WesBrooks

"Finally got around to writing a complaint email...." Gmail is a web based email service. The email creation tools often have inbuilt active spell checking. Should have been 'used' rather than 'use'. Gained the PhD a few years ago, but thanks any way. I'm aware of many spelling tools but there are very few people who would fail to understand what I meant. I'm not going to continue this aspect of the conversation (way off topic) any further than reminding you to consider whether you'd directly mock someones physical disability to them, or perhaps suggest to them they'd walk better with a stick? If not why mock spelling or grammer when the original intent of the message is so clear?

Careful now, you'll make yourself look like a cross word loving waste of space. Sure your not! ;-) Happily use the spell checker on my Engineering PhD thesis, can't be arsed on a quick email. Have better things to do with my time! [Edit: besides I highly expect this email to get ignored, at which point I'll write a letter which would get checked before print. Gmail normally shows errors, for some reason it didn't that time.] Highly irritating how people seem to think it's acceptable to make fun out of symptoms of dyslexia etc, but see the sense in not doing so for other more physical disabilities.

Afternoon! Finally got around to writing a complaint email to the BBC about their handling of the traffic news and apparrent lack of co-ordiation between stations with shared boundarys. It'll be intereseting to see what they say and really helpful if they sort it out a bit! To: [email protected] Dear Sir / Madam, I commute from St Helens, Merseyside to Ramsbottom, Lancashire. For this route The traffic alerts for BBC Merseyside, Lancahire, and Manchester are relvent and my car radio will switch to any of these and BBC Leeds for traffic alerts. I presume radio station staff manually trigger a broadcast feature that allows my car radio to identify traffic news and switch to it, and this information is encoded in the BBC Lancashire transmision as it does not swap to independant radio and likewise if tuned to an independant I do not recieve BBC traffic news. While I can accept occational mistakes delaying the trigger to say the news is finished I find it irritating when it appears to be delaid to promote a later show, or indeed for the entirety of the sports news as is often the case with Merseyside. It is equally greaving if once the traffic alert is triggered the shows presenter engages in chit chat with the traffic news presenter rather than letting them get on with it. While this may seem like a petty complaint I'm sure that I'm not alone in having a commute that crosses radio station boundarys. Most would love a commute that stays within on stations range! Considering this it seems illogical that the triggers aren't managed more tightly - especially as for an unknown reason the local radio stations seem to broadcast traffic alert in overlapping slots. The combination of these issues means that drivers are forced to regularly take their attention from the road to cancel traffic alerts to try and catch the one that is most relevant. This is an increased risk which could be mitigated by better planning and co-operation between local radio stations. Yours Faithfully, Wesley Brooks

No point asking the driver to recall one or two impacts if the black box can recall g-force loading.

A hand brake would not hold against the force of an impact from behind of another vehicle. If you bolted the wheels to the disc assuming the bolts didn't shear the tyres would slide. Your talking massive forces here even for minor impacts. Hand brake is only for holding the car still and provides very little stopping force in these accidents. Try pulling it on (without yanking it to lock the wheels) and seeing how long it takes to stop the car from a low speed. Edit: I'm not trying to say holding on the foot brake is acceptable. I agree that hand/parking brake is the better than holding the brakes on. In terms of potential brake force the hill hold systems where you press hard on the brakes while stationary to engage them are probably best if they remain held in a collision. Do these systems keep the brake light on while the system is holding the brakes on?

My last car (Ford Mondeo TDCI LX) was bought in 04/09 at 112000 miles and sold at 202000 in 04/12. Still going according to MOT logs at around 228000. Thought that was about to die! '09 Skoda Superb 2.0 TDi CR 170 hatch bought 04/12 with 102000 miles. Now upto about 200700. Major expenses have been 3 sets of tyres (or 4 including the new winters with steels, but the 3rd set are in the garage ready to go back on), two xenon bulbs (ouch!), turbo vacuum unit, cam belt and water pump service, cruise control stick, and many services!

Every now and again when I check over my shoulder when merging onto the motorway I do find someone there who I wasn't expecting. Perhaps they moved over from lane 2 or 3, perhaps in lane 1 and not speed matched with the traffic, or perhaps sat in my blind spot as I approached. Thankfully in most cars a glance over your shoulder can reveal most of your mirror blind spot. I'm sure the blind spots are much bigger on the lorries, hence the troubles with HGV / cyclists & other smaller road users in built up areas. I've got the feeling that this lorry driver just wanted to spook the car driver by cutting in close but due to the acceleration while he was trying to pass there was a collision. Both drivers not fit to be on the road, but not as one sided as the two media articals I've seen on it.

Did think it was odd that there were so many camera angles! It looks to me like he floors it when the lorry is beside him. If this is the case then he may well have been in the blind spot of the lorry when the lorry pulled back in. After all teh driver was trying to make a move to get past someone doing less than 60 in the middle lane with nothing in front. Like others have said, the lorry driver shouldn't have done what he did, but all the same I think the worst driver here is the person who appears to be either purposely antagonising other road users or just a plain dangerous driver.

Not yet. I don't think I have the 10 speaker package. That's the uprated option isn't it? I'd like to do it but will need to wait to see what finances are like after the new year bonus! I'll keep an eye out for second hand ones. I'd have to check how it works with the reversing sensors and before committing.

Looks like my old '06 Ford Mondeo is still going! This does surprise me. Thought it's death was iminent. Having said that it's retired to the easy life. Only done about 26,000 since I sold it April 2012 with 202,000 on the clock. If it keeps going there's a good chance my '09 Superb will have more miles than it on the clock! Currently upto about 200,500, but down to about 20-25k per year now.

Yeah that's in line with the way I drive. If pulling up to something that I suspect may be a stop I'll drop the revs right down. If however I suspect that the hazard either doens't require a complete stop, or it will clear (like a red light on a duel carridge way with no one in the queue) I'll change down to keep in gears that I'd be comfortable accelerating in. What doesn't seem to fit in with the Advanced Driving guides I've seen so far is that the gear changes are made while I'm braking. As far as I understand it I couldn't get through the current IAM or ROADAR assessments doing this? On ice it makes sense as you don't want sudden variations in torque to the wheels - engine braking just being a negative torque. Brakes are far more controllable than the engine braking in this case. I've pitched a diesel Mondeo into a salom like skid on a straight road just by lifting off the throttle too sudenly when unbeknown to me I was on black ice. I often use engine braking when going down long hills, but it's more using the engine to stop the car accelerating rather than changing down the box to get the car to below 15 or so without brakes.

I've found the Bosch to have the best performance initially but degrade really quick, inside six months I wasn't as happy with them. I wasn't happy with the Valeo originally but they easily doubled the life of the Bosch pair.

Afternoon All, I know this is ca can of worms but I would like to understand why there is a need for complete brake gear overlap (BGOL) in general driving. I realise in assessment drives you can use BGOL on safety grounds or when going down hill etc. but I don't understand why you'd want to do it at all other than perhaps on poor road conditions. Here is a great description of how to avoid BGOL in practice, and the acceptable situations where you may choose to avoid it. Ben Colins How To Drive - Gear Change pretty much sums up my view of BGOL. Ok, I understand avoiding overlapping sharp cornering and dropping down gears. Generally you should be at the lowest speed before you enter the corner as braking forces can upset car balance and give you too many things to do when you may also need to control any unpredicted slips or unseen hazards as you move around a blind bend. Isn't it excessive to take a dim view on braking and changing down as the engine aproaches idle revs, or block changing while decelerating to the gear you want to use after the hazard while still braking. I'm not even advocating engine braking here. For me I'd rarely go down the box a gear at a time but could see making changes before idle engine speed means you'll have a benefit if you have to emergency stop (as engine revs are higher and will help brakes initially) or get out of a bad situation quickly (idle in 6th on a 2.0 TDI CR is about 35-40, the car will not be happy about/will not acellerate or provide torque to help change direction really quick if the throttle is applied).

So long as you've got a dash cam, or they get far ahead quick!

Something a bit more snappy than: If you can maintain your cool, give others space while they drive like self obsessed idiots and not raise your temper... Seriously though I think this must be one of the most difficult habbits to master. Not blocking people who are trying to force their way in, letting in people who have just undertook you and feed into your 2 second gap in the queue of traffic. Doing your best to treat all other road users as mere travelling objects on the road which may or may not move predictably and not personalise the drivers! By the book you the only communication that you should have with other drivers is to indicate your intentions, and in extreme circumstance to alart them to your presence by flash or horn if you think they are unaware of you. Shame they haven't got bad driving cameras along side speed cameras yet! I'd much rather see them.

What you describe is missleading indication as well as prolonged indication not what I was originally trying to ask about. As you say there are many cases where this can be dangerous. I was referring to three flashes as you pull on to the motorway, or change lane. Completely with you on straight ahead on a round about.

Appollogies, just saw the advanced driving section of the forum above. I'll know for next time! I agree about missleading indication. Where lane disapline on a round about shows intent then that suffices in my opinon. From the discussions here I'm convinced that I've not missed anything and the concerns around 'signal noise' caused by what I'm advocating is short lived (3 flashes ish) while as far as I'm aware there is no one likely there, and I'd be surprised if any one was irritied by it. If they were I'm sure they'd really be suffering stress at some of the driving I see on a day to day basis! Thanks for the comments.

Brigade? I can't see the harm it causes. Prolonged signalling and not cancelling signals is a seperate issue. Merging the two is a broad sweep. Generally aim for three flashes before making a move. Edit: As for noise in the lane change situation this is not a valid point. To the best of the drivers knowledge the situation is clear to make the move, and by the situations described when this optional signal is described in the tips the driver is not aware of any one else nearby. Therefore there are no other signals, and so no 'noise'.

This is kind of my point. I would assume that much of the driving techniques discussed are often about making many very small gains in safety and risk reduction as the big ones such as 'don't speed' are comman knowledge. Therefore why suggest indicating on lane change is optional, it only works against ensuring you are aware you can make mistakes and get things wrong. There is less to be gained from choosing not to indicate rather than always indicating?

Think the high way code for large multi lane round abouts says indicating is not advised until you wish to exit. In these situations your lane disapline should inform others of your intention. I would adapt that slightly to say that while in the far right lane of the round about continue indicating right. If for example you are in the middle lane of three then any indication could be interpreted as an intention to change lane which could confuse others and impeed the flow on the roundabout. Exiting without indicating is very frustrating for people trying to get on the roundabout, but all the same you can't assume someone indicating to exit will do so. Granted many people display very poor lane disapline when either they've made a mistake and got in the wrong lane or are insufferably impatient who think they've the right to progress at their desired rate at the expense of other's safety. Edit: My main gripe was the suggestion that indicating when you wish to change lane in a situation where it is permissable, generally acceptable, and highly unlikely to be misinterpretted to do so. Eg, entering, exiting, or changing lane on a motorway is optional.

Ok, that topic headline looks like I'm taking the **** from the start but that's not intentional! I've been looking into the various different advanced driving technique sites and had come across a guidance that confused me. Perhaps some members of these institutions could enlighten me a little! I always indicate intention of changing lane or exiting roundabouts unless the action of selecting the indicators would limit my control of the vehicle (eg I've had to break hard to below 10 while in 3rd in a Diesel on a multi exit roundabout to avoid someone cutting me up and need to change gear to allow reasonable progress off the roundabout), or I think there is a risk the indication would be miss interpretted. On a motorway the IAM tips seem to suggest indicating to enter a motorway, or change lane was optional when you thought there road was clear? I always attempt to drive knowing that others and critically I, myself can make mistakes. In the examples where you choose not to indicate is it inconcievable that you have made a mistake and missed someone? Someone could have moved from your near side to off side blind spot as you were checking you mirrors? I always though the practice of always indicating - while a little redundant at times - gives others an extra second or so to hit the horn for the 'hang on, I'm here!' alert.

No on two grounds. Emissions taxes are based on CO2, rather than oxides of Nitrogen and I'm scoring more or less exactly the combined MPG figure quoted in the specification. I do however appreciate that my driving should be scoring much better than the average figure, but dodgy MPG values (you'd asssume this has a near direct relationship to CO2) are an industry problem rather than VAG specific, one that the EU and UK goverments could have chosen to fix themselves and didn't. Therefore they are more complacant than your average motorist as it is them who should be looking after us on this front. I never base car choice on tax. So ignoring the CO2 figure not really being the issue with the current diesel problem they have not helped me. I'd question whether I needed a car at all if saving even the total cost of my yearly tax actually swung my car choice decision. Edit: Should have read I never base my car choice on Vehicle Exicise Duty. I appreciate there is tax on fuel too!

200,000 past! 2009 2.0 TDI CR Executive Hatch 97,507 since I got it in April 2012. 8547 Litres of diesel. Average MPG of 49.0.

Over about 97,500 miles my diesel has saved me £2800 over a 1.8TSI version of my car. Burnt a little over 7.1 ton of diesel and achieved an ownership average economy of 49mpg. Car scrappage to buy a new car makes very little finaiancial sense other than to those already considering getting a new car who curently have a car worth less than the insentive on trade in. Unless diesel gets very heavily taxed, or the emissions hoops presented to new vehicles significantly increases the prices I can't yet see my next car being petrol. However, I believe now hype is moving from diesel major european manufacturers are likely to re-invest in R&D projects improving the efficiency of petrols resulting in an ecomony boom in petrol. Throttleless engines and dieseling petrols come to mind. This might sway me.

Any one had it fitted inplace of the the Columbus? Does it play well with the reversing sensors? ...am I wasting money on this if I'm after better sound quality and not touching the speakers?