On the right, in the news section, there are two stories today regarding winter driving.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=4109
Winter vehicle health advice 'ignored by drivers'
www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=4111
Seat checks 'to avoid winter discontent'
This leads to two questions in my mind.
1. Would the Seat winter checks satisfy the concerns expressed by Motorpoint in the first article?
2. The motorpoint article says "now that the Met Office has predicted this year's winter to be one of the coldest in recent memory." However, on checking the Met Office website, all I find is:
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/seasonal/winter2007_8...l
"For the UK as a whole, winter-mean temperatures are more likely to be above normal than either near or below normal."
So where is the scaremongering about "one of the coldest in recent memory" coming from. Incidentally, similar stories have appeared in the last two or three years warning of sever winter conditions, but the predictions were usually issued by "non-MetOffice" forecasting organisations .
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If we all want to keep going in the snow this Winter I just hope that those drivers of rear-wheel drive vehicles with rather too much power and fat Summer tyres (yes, you know who you are) would fit some Winter tyres with a bit more grip.
Then us normal folk won't get stuck behind them in half an inch of urban snow.
Peace, love, flowers.
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I can only speak for Toyota and Honda at the moment and they both do free safety checks on cars whenever you want. Obvioulsy you have to look out for the report that then try's to sell you something but my experience of both these is that they have been very good.
I would imagine most other dealers do it FOC and I would recomend anyone on long life service intervals to have it done at winter if you cannot do it yourself.
I do hope we have a cold winter.
There is usually some good advice of canadiandriver.com and they do have proper winters.
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For the vast majority of drivers, and for about 90% of winter days, there's no difference between winter and summer. I expect more vehicles are damaged by excess rainfall than by snow/ice. S of Nottingham I'd be surprised if there were more than three full days of real winter driving in any one year. Compare that with the number of days in some areas where flooding has been an issue.
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It never snows down here in Devon anyway. Although if it does, I'll just use the bus as I wouldn't have thought I'd get very far with an RWD car, 265mm wide rear tyres and no talent.
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According to the write up about the Seat service, the "worry of winter motoring for drivers is to be eliminated".
Do they guarantee that? Can I take my ancient Land Cruiser in for a check, knowing that I will then have no problems at all through the winter?
What a load of tosh. More marketing rubbish.
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and there's a spelling mistake in the article, I think we mean '..severe winter..' don't we ?
(or am I just being picky ?)
anyway, all pretty much largely irrelevant to most of the population where it will be unlikely to go below more than about -4 or 5 deg C and unless we have a load of snow it'll just be "a bit cold" and any borderline batteries will fail.
obviously this does not apply to areas of higher altitude or possibly latitude....
I'm alright though, nice sensible Japanese FWD car with nice new bit fat biffer of a battery and if it is that bad then I'll cycle to work. It'll be quicker than the car.
yours selfishly
Stu
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i must admit i'm the first person in the room that when i look out of the window on a wintery day/night and see a blanket of snow i really have to go for a drive just for the crack!!
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Same here milkyjoe, we had some great snowy winters in NE Derbyshire in the mid to late 90s. Nottingham in recent years has been rubbish by comparison. :o(
The Met Office forecast says it could be colder than last year with more precipitation, so we might get a bit of snow. Last year we got more snow than the previous couple of years. Our estate is not gritted so it was sheet ice for 3 days last year.
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i must admit i'm the first person in the room that when i look out of the window on a wintery day/night and see a blanket of snow i really have to go for a drive just for the crack!!
Oh yes!
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i must admit i'm the first person in the room that when i look out of the window on a >> wintery day/night and see a blanket of snow i really have to go for a drive just for >> the crack!!
I'm the second, then !!
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I'm the third. Never as much as when we had the MX-5 though. WOOHOOO!!
And a detour via Waitrose car park on the way home "to be a complete and utter child" according to SWMBO.... ;-)
Cheers
DP
--
04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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....a blanket of snow i really have to go for a drive just for the crack!
Likewise. Although tempered a little with the current RWD car. I had a FWD diesel CVT type car a coupla years ago which was absolutely excellent in the snow. The CVT fed gentle, very controllable power to the wheels (205x55 tyres) In the current RWD, I have to 'plan' more, especially getting up steepish inclines, where a run-up may be required. Having a 4x4, takes alot of the jeopardy & fun out of (real) winter driving somehow.
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Having a 4x4 takes alot of the jeopardy & fun out of (real) winter driving somehow.
Having a 4x4 in UK snow just means one slides faster and more expensively into the ditch on one's standard (slippery) tyres. Fingers crossed - not happened to me (yet).
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I was waiting for my wife in a very snowy shopping centre car park a couple of winters ago. It was early in the morning and the only other vehicle around was a large Luton van-type delivery lorry belonging to a big furniture outlet. The driver was clearly having the time of his life doing huge figure of eights and getting the tail to kick out and occasionally spinning it right round. I watched him for maybe 10 minutes or so and he was still doing it when I left.
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and no talent.
Oh Michael! Devon can't be that bad, can it? ;)
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