Snow Day
Posted: Tue 3 February, 2015 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, M1, Weather Leave a comment »Last night it snowed in the area I live in. I’d been in the cinema for the evening, and came out to find the car covered in snow. Not lots – maybe a maximum of two inches all told. But it meant slower driving (well, except for BMW drivers, who were still their usual dickwhistle selves) and just generally being sensible.
Of course, at this point I know that various friends in different areas of the country/world are pissing themselves laughing (as usual) at Britain’s shitness with snow and inclement conditions. The only excuse is that we don’t have enough dodgy weather to invest in the infrastructure to deal with it. Canada, US and Scandinavia are all used to feet of snow, and have the machinery and infrastructure to deal with it. Here? Not so much.
Anyway, it made driving home a bit more cautious – although still not bad at all – and also made me thankful I was driving at midnight, rather than in peak hours. Even at midnight there were still plenty of idiots driving too fast for the conditions, and making things interesting.
And I’m very glad I was working from home today, rather than travelling on the M1 in either direction…
Service Reward
Posted: Fri 30 January, 2015 Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Finances Leave a comment »As I said last week, the Slab passed its MOT with flying colours. So I decided to give it a treat – as well as the service it was due for, I sorted out a couple of things that’ve been annoying, and all is good.
Since I got it – and obviously before that too – one of the information displays has been pretty dodgy. It’s an old-type thing with a dot-matrix screen, and there were obviously some borked connections, so it never displayed the entire screen at all. Depending on any number of random factors, it could be 75% working or 25%. It didn’t affect the functionality of the car, but it got annoying on occasion.
Anyway, with having had to spend Not Much (actually, nigh-on Sod All) for the MOT, I asked about getting a replacement (or in this case, reconditioned) display module. I’d thought about it before, but didn’t bother at the time.
The service was done yesterday, along with the new display module, and replacement of various fluids that were OK-ish, but got flagged up as “could do with being replaced”. (Brake fluid and the like)
The display now is ace – indeed, it’s taking me some time to get used to it being as bright and clear as it is. The service had a couple of small bits that also needed doing, but it’s been worthwhile, and still Not Much for a car as comparatively old as the Slab.
Of course, with new bits and now it’s all sorted and taxed for the next year, something major is sure to go wrong with it in the coming month or so. That’s just the way these things go…
Jammed
Posted: Thu 29 January, 2015 Filed under: BMW Drivers, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, M1, People, Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »At the moment, I’m doing regular drives on the Northbound M1, which is currently subject to no less than 15 miles (Fifteen Miles! For fuck’s sake!) of roadworks in one stretch replacing the central barrier, and another stretch installing ‘smart motorways’, in a similar way to how the Southbound M1 was screwed over a couple of years back.
Through both of these stretches, we’ve got the 50mph speed limit and ‘average speed cameras’, which seem to also contain some kind of mind-control that turns the majority of drivers into zombies who can’t see an empty lane, but can see a speed camera and slow down for it. (The phrase ‘average speed’ is utterly beyond them, of course)
It amazes me how bad the driving standards are in these roadworks zones – it’s as though people stick to the lane they were in when they entered the roadworks, and aren’t able to move from it. They don’t move in (or even pull out to overtake) despite any available space, or someone else driving even slower ahead.
I don’t know what can be done to change it – it’s just a human nature thing, I guess – but dear God, it’s bloody annoying to be surrounded by that many dickwhistles.
MOT – Loan Car
Posted: Wed 21 January, 2015 Filed under: Driving Leave a comment »While the Saab was getting its MOT yesterday, I got a courtesy car/loan car from the garage. Weirdly, for a Saab garage, it was a Renault. In this case, a Renault Clio Pzaz (don’t blame me for the fucking stupid name) which I can only describe as a hateful piece of shit.
I’m sure it’s fine for urban driving and commutes where you’re not travelling on fast roads or motorways – but on those roads, it’s a scary, underpowered piece of crap. I know, I’m spoiled by being used to driving cars with a 2L turbo engine – but I do drive primarily on motorways and fast roads. If I were doing that while driving something like the Pzaz, I’d be one scared driver – even getting up to 70mph was a struggle for it, and meant the motor was buzzing around the 4,500rpm mark, which is more than double the rpm the Saab uses for the same speeds and more.
Interestingly, I felt the same about the last Renault I drove – way back in Feb 2013. Obviously both were base-models, and thus the lowest of the low, but still, they’ve not been at all fun. I’m sort of surprised, because a couple of the car magazines I read recommend the higher-spec and better-performance Renaults. I haven’t played with any of those, so can’t comment – but I’m definitely unimpressed with the lower-spec base-models.
Thankfully, I only had it for a few hours. With luck, I won’t have to drive one again.
MOT – Passed
Posted: Tue 20 January, 2015 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Travel Leave a comment »The car passed it MOT with no problem at all. Needless to say, I am very happy with this news.
I had been getting a bit stressed about it, as I hadn’t heard anything from the garage by 4pm. In fairness, they’re normally pretty good about letting me know if something’s going to be expensive, so I knew it was likely to be OK – but all the same, it was a bit worrying.
Anyway, I called them just after 4, to find out what was happening. And all was well – it was just that the garage had forgotten to call me. Bit annoying, but far better than “Oh yeah, we had to do a load of work, here’s the bill”
As it turned out, it passed with flying colours. One advisory (an out-of-balance parking brake, of all things) and that’s it. I’m quite surprised by this – it’s a Y-reg with 125,000 on the clock, after all – but pleased. And considerably better off than I was expecting…
MOT
Posted: Tue 20 January, 2015 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Finances Leave a comment »Among other things today, the car’s getting its MOT done.
I’m hoping that it won’t need much. I’ve already sorted most of the known issues already, including new tyres, new wiper-blades, and a replaced headlamp bulb a couple of weeks back. Of course, the inverse of that is that anything that does need doing is likely to be expensive.
Still, we’ll see. But for now, fingers crossed.