I have seen quite a lot and am often puzzled by the driving habits of others. Here are a few observations.

1/ Why drive close to the vehicle in front. If you wish to overtake at some point, keeping distance will give a better view of the road ahead, and making up the distance is no big deal in a modern car.

2/ Why drive in the middle lane of a motorway if the inside lane is clear. If doing so makes you feel safer, would you not feel even safer with the unused hard shoulder on your left? Middle lane hogging is illegal now anyway and attracts a fixed penalty.

3/ On each corner of your vehicle there are little amber lights called "indicators" which are operated by a stalk on the steering column. Its easy to use with a little practice. If you tell people what manoeuvre you are about to do before you do it there is less risk of an accident.

4/ Talking of lights, its good idea to have these at night and bulbs can be bought cheaply from most service stations. So why so many drivers with only half of them working?

5/ I have a novel, unusual, and bizarre punishment suggested for those who use a mobile phone while driving. All it needs it to give the police the power to take it off the driver and stamp on it. That's not what you thought I meant is it?

On the other hand maybe my first idea would suit the phoning Fiat driver who was down to 30 mph in the outside land of the M54 causing a serious traffic build up behind him.

Congratulations on still being alive to the zombie who walked out of The Aleppo Merchant at Carno on the evening of Sunday 9th October right in front of my car. So engrossed in his texting he never saw me even after his near miss, his life is down to the good brakes on the Skoda RS and me driving within the speed limit and paying attention to what's in front of me.

Accident: Read and learn from my experience

One Sunday in July 2018 I was in a collision at Goginan mid Wales where I was almost shunted through a hedge and over a drop. I was stationary making a right hand turn with indicator operating when I was hit up the rear by a newish BMW and shot across the road and into a hedge with a 40 foot drop the other side. I knew this at the time and managed to hit the brakes in time with about a foot to spare.

Other drivers insurance accepted full liability and gave me an almost new Hyundai i40 for 6 weeks until things sorted out. I do have to say that the other drivers insurers, Saga, treated me exceptionally well. My own insurers wanted me to sign up to a 'scheme' which I now understand to be called “Credit Hire”. The issue is that I would have been responsible for any costs which were not recoverable from the other drivers insurers. I therefore wisely decided to deal direct with Saga Claims who arranged with Euopecars to deliver the nearly new big Hyundai with absolute minimum fuss, direct to my home the same day. They were great but rather suspect that they want to keep me sweet as I could take everyone to the cleaners if I was so inclined.

The Hyundai was very comfy, good air con, all the trimmings, but all the power of a Parish Council and was only returning a miserable 42 mpg from a 1.7 diesel engine. Checking on the web it appears that I was not alone in this. Also, although appearing as a hatchback, it isn’t and has an ordinary boot and sloping rear ‘hatchback type’ rear window but without a wiper. Buyers beware.

I am a fast driver and have speeding convictions stretching back years, but never had an insurance claim in 54 years (at time of writing) of driving but a string of successful claims against third parties who seem to hit me from all directions, the rear being the most popular ranging from me being
shunted forwards from the top of a motorway slip road where I was stationary into oncoming traffic and in the latest almost over a shear drop. I have only been knocked into a field once though, that being in a white XR3i many years ago. I have yet to do a shop front but possibly have time yet.

So in 54 years of motoring I have had three cards written off when I was stationary, on two occasions being told by the other driver “I never saw you”. Obviously because they were not looking where they were going.

Shopping for a new car I had decided that I wanted a Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi, new enough to have the latest high efficiency engine, but for a price limit of £10K because of the way I use a car. Unfortunately I could only find three within a 125 mile radius of my home. The one I picked was at Progress Skoda, Northampton and I noted that there was a Europecars branch there close by. I arranged to collect my new car and return the hire car on a Monday, a very nice lady at Europecars gave me a lift to Progress Skoda to collect my car. This was the first time I had seen it as I found it on the web and paid for it over the phone with a Debit card.

Progress Skoda were great and gave me the car with half a tank of fuel “to get me home”, a full MOT and some other goodies, so all worked out well. I did my homework re the new car and it is just what I wanted. Goes like a rocket and does up to 65 mpg on £20 a year road tax, and the most spacious hatchback in its class.

So, full marks to Saga Claims, Europecars, and Progress Skoda who are dealers to be trusted.
 

Generic Engineering

Its now well known that major car manufacturers  are using the same engines in different models, or maybe a new model, but with differing power outputs. Its also known that digital cameras manufactured by people such as Cannon are basically all the same throughout a model range the only difference being in price and firmware. People find ways of hacking into a cheaper version and getting all the features of the more expensive

Well car ECU s can be hacked and significant power increases gained by re-mapping.

This site does not do adds, but I can honestly recommend the level of professional service at reasonable price offered by Midland Remaps

These guys really know what they are doing. Highly recommended.