Over the last two days there’ve been two news stories about some truly incredibly bad driving – they really do have to be seen to be believed.
First there’s the story of the person caught driving to the garage – with their bonnet up in front of the windscreen. How they were able to see at all is beyond me.
And then there’s the one (with video footage) of the truck driver pushing a car along the motorway. Not just pushing – the car is sideways-on, and the entire thing is happening in the outside lane. I didn’t think truck drivers were even allowed to use the outside lane…
Gob-smacking.
Well OK, I’ve had the car for three years today, but it’s actually six years old.
In the time since I bought it, I’ve doubled the mileage on it (57,000 to 114,000) which means I’ve averaged 19,000 miles a year in the damn thing. Thank God last year was a lower-mileage year, or I’d be well over the 20,000 per year. At the moment I’m doing about 350-400 miles a week in it, which is going to break out to be about the same again this coming year.
In that time I’ve had one serious clonk (December ‘09 with the fence) and three lesser ones (two involving deer, one just a smashed door mirror) as well as a range of scrapes that got documented a while back, although they’re all gone now thanks to the bodyshop farce after the December ‘09 crunch.
Somehow I’ve managed to not get any points on my licence – not even ones for speeding, which is nothing short of miraculous – and I’ve done well.
The only downside is that I’m back to square one with the insurance, having lost my two years of no-claims back in December. Ah well. Swings and roundabouts, and all that.
I don’t know how much longer the Mondeo will go for – it’s started having issues and needing work, as I mentioned when it got the MOT last week. But I’ll keep it ’til it becomes either too expensive or too much of a pain in the arse.
I’ve found myself being repeatedly annoyed by the stories recently about people in Toyota cars suffering from “Unplanned Acceleration”, where the card supposedly won’t slow down. All of the drivers keep on saying that they were using the brakes but not slowing down, and I’ve always wondered why those drivers don’t just turn off the engine, or put the car in neutral.
I still don’t get why they can’t put the car in neutral and coast to a stop, but I do understand more about why they can’t turn off the engine or pull the key out. Put simply, it appears there isn’t a key. The cars involved all appear to have these keyless start buttons.
I’d never really thought of keyed ignitions as a safety feature, but it sure seems like it might become one…
[Updated, 13th March : This YouTube video shows how to fix the problem of 'Unplanned Acceleration' in epic style. Love it.]
The car finally passed the MOT yesterday.
It needed a new brake caliper on the back which wasn’t expected, but that’s how these things work out sometimes. ( I was going to say “Them’s the breaks”, but decided I couldn’t be arsed with the pun) I was quoted £280 to get the replacement caliper supplied and fitted, plus the £[whatever] for an MOT test.
The final bill somehow worked out to be £260 – including the MOT test and re-test (as it failed first time round due to the brake caliper) and also a check/fix on why my rear-washer wouldn’t work. (the bodyshop had fucked up and not reconnected the pipe somewhere along the line) I’m not quite sure how that works out, but I’m not going to complain…
Once more, it’s time for the car to get its MOT test. That means I’ve had the car three years now – how time flies.
No idea how it’ll do – pretty much all of it should be fine. And if anything’s wrong on the front nearside, I’ll be exceptionally displeased.
[Updated : Report back from the garage - I've got a knackered brake caliper on the rear, so that's getting replaced.]
It seems to be becoming a bit of an annual event – the same thing happened this time last year – but once again I’ve lost a sodding hubcap from the car.
I don’t know how, I don’t know when. I assume it’s been to do with potholes, big puddles in the road and all that. But I don’t know for sure.
What I do know is that for whatever reason I seem to be really good at losing the sodding things. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a spare in the garage at the moment, but once that one’s used, it’ll be time to buy some more.
Fucking things.
I think I must be getting old. This week I’ve been spending some time online reporting potholes in the roads I use on my daily commute.
It turns out that Norfolk have a form for reporting these things, which has been pretty useful. I don’t yet know how efficient it makes things, except that the road I made the first report on was repaired within two days of me reporting it. Of course, it could be coincidence, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see when it comes to how long it takes to repair the other.
