yankeesiter

In towns, slow down for every intersection and be prepared for another car to come in from the right. They have "priorite a droite", (priority on the right) in France, Belgium, Holland and Denmark that I know of. You must give way to traffic entering an intersection from the right unless they have a give way sign or double lines painted on the road. Even if there are flashing yellow lights on each intersecting road, priority on the right still operates. Since the late 70's, early 80's when they changed their roundabout system to give way on entry like ours, they have gradually reduced the amount of priority on the right intersections in towns. Ironically this has made the situation more dangerous as you don't know which ones are and which aren't. So, my advice would be slow down to a crawl just to make sure, even if it annoys everyone else. Hopefully these countries will soon creep into the 21st century. Rules like these are not just part of the cultural differences we go to enjoy like the chateaux, museums, wine, sun, motoring and motor racing. They are, at the least, expensive when things go tits up and life threatening at the worst.

I hear what you say about only being interested in the headlight question but don't forget to delete speed camera warnings off your sat nav if you have one. It's a new one this year together with the removal of signs warning you of cameras in advance, plus the installation of 400 new ones. Big fines and confiscation involved if you're a bad boy.

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Makes me embarrased as an owner of one.

Are they all a bit like America then? what's an example of what I wouldn't get in say,Germany that I would here? France is excellent for health care but then they pay a lot of taxes. When they go for medical treatment or get prescriptions, they may pay a percentage of the costs but then claim them back through private insurance. I've been in hospital there a couple of times and can't speak highly enough of them as I can't speak highly enough of the treatment I've recently had in Norwich. Other than that, you can go to America. They have excellent doctors and hospitals if you want to take a chance on whether or not your private insurance will pay up which I understand can cost around $800 per couple per month.

Seems to have gone awfully quiet here in the run-up to the much vaunted Bahrain. Meanwhile over on PH, some interesting and diverse arguments. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... S%2A%2A%2A

Fair enough just wondered, also as it is already insured how does that work? There has to be a 'but' somewhere there always is even with the most cunning of plans.... Say the other person decides to run the car uninsured and you have it insured and they crash it? When you buy a car off someone, you go and get yourself an insurance policy and that car on the day you pick it up has two completely separate insurance policies on it at the same time for different people. Completely legal and clean as long as you do not lie about ownership status if you do not actually purchase the vehicle. There is nothing stopping you buying your own insurance on a friend's/relative's/any car you wish on the premise that you think there might be a time when you would have to drive it. There's nothing stopping you going and buying yourself insurance on a Ferrari you saw on TV as long as you have over the money. I've seen it done before (although it will not work in most cases price-wise) where buying two policies can be cheaper than one on its own Two companies I spoke to said you could NOT comprehensively insure a car belonging to someone else to test drive it in anticipation of a purchase. What you have to do is get the owner to put you on as a named driver for the minimum period.

I was listening to Radio 4's "Any Answers today when they were talking about the tanker driver's dispute. Some guy phoned in to say that, although he got pretty good mileage anyway, he decided to drive that little bit more carefully. Upon checking his computer, he learned that he was getting 99.9mpg AND it said he could go 1400 miles before filling up. "Advice for us all", as Jonathan Dimbleby tactfully said. Below is the link and if you move the cursor to over the "D" you will hear the relevant part quickly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f1kh0

Supply and demand. Basic tenant of capitalism.

Supply and demand. Basic tenant of capitalism.

Panic over: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49b267d0-78f2 ... z1qUQtINgq Now you just have to get your knickers in a twist over those "nasty petrol tanker drivers "

Out of interest, what do the engine mods, exhaust, wheels and brakes add to your annual insurance premium?

Hi I bought this from Gadgetracking on E-bay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... TQ:GB:1123 Then I bought a 32gb card for £24 which gives 18 hours of recording time. Seems to work pretty well and it works at night too. Initially I had a few queries about it which Gadgetracking were not very good at helping me with and later I saw another one for around £30 on E-bay but I'm not sure if it was exactly the same ie. perhaps no night capability.

Silver GT at Aylsham, Norfolk. Parked near The Feathers (I think it was) pub

I get round it by turning the key once but not enough to fire it. The second time the engine usually turns over a few times before starting, at least allowing the bearings to get some oil.

Ha ha, im only 28... but anything with an engine interests me When I was your age, I had a push mower. Did a great job. You can pick them up from a car boot for less than a fiver and think of all that good excercise you'd get.

I try to buy privately. I came slightly unstuck when I bought a Mondeo from a dealer once. A problem I find with buying privately is paying. From the seller's point of view, the rules about bankers drafts have changed and now they are no different than cheques ie. take 3/4 days to clear and CAN be stopped. As for the buyer paying cash there is no "paper trail" which would provide proof of a transaction in case things go belly up. Plus the risk of carrying large amounts of readies around. Also there's the business of being insured to test drive the car. The owner would only have third party on you, the buyer, unless he specifically added you to the policy before you came. To do that he would need all your details, driving history, etc. and pay about £10. Actually I think the seller has to take a lot more on trust in a genuine private sale.

Yes but will they pay out when it comes to yours? The views of 319 people: http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews11381.html

Good point. It passed the MOT in Sept.2011 and it was fitted then but I will call in and ask the garage about it when I pass by next time.

No problems with it so far. Actually the extension is bent slightly down towards the floor so that even with the brake pedal pressed fully on, it's not possible to accidently accelerate the engine if my foot was half on the brake pedal. To get the "blip" on downshifts, I just rotate my foot over quickly. It took some practice at first but seems to work fine now.

Free but effective.

I just made up a small plate out of mild steel and screwed it on with a couple of self-tapping screws. May not look the greatest but works a treat.

I got mine from Zmanalex. I gather he has sets to fit all pockets.

If that's the kind of jack I think it is, you'd be struggling to lift the front end. I have a 2.5 tonne Bradbury jack that I use which works well and looks something like this: http://www.garageequipmentdirect.co.uk/ ... jacks.html I have to use the Zed's scissor jack to get it high enough to get the Bradbury under though.

I am led to believe that the reds are only getting issued when a change of owner is notified or when you buy another car new or preowned. You will not have any issues when you come to p/x Alex Alex, I got a unsolicited red one and I'm not selling the car. Don't know why.