This Guy Needs A Bridging Loan

That picture of a collapsed bridge is taken from this MSN story about a Chinese truck driver fined £15.5 million for driving a seriously overloaded truck over a bridge which collapsed under its weight. This could affect his no-claims discount. It doesn't state whether or not there was a sign at the bridge with a max weight limit - something I would put as crucial to his guilt. But, in any case, it is a fine excuse for me to publish these photos I found on Google Images:...and my particular favourite...

Jaguar Re-Branded

A silly little story from AutoGuide today about quirky, hairy comedian Russell Brand being photographed with a Jaguar XKR that has been "tagged" by a "famous" graffiti artist.

I've put "tagged" in quotes for those of you old duffers (the sort of person who would drive a Jaguar) to remind me to tell you that tagging is something that those of us down with kids refer to as identifying and labelling a piece of urban art (graffiti) with a particular urban artist.

I've put "famous" in quotes because I've never heard of the bloke. Then again, the only person who does this that I have ever heard of is Banksy - and he's more art than graffiti.

Anyway, the gist of this story is that the tagged Jaguar (or "Taguar" - I just made that up!) is trying to move the Jag image down an age-group or three - and Russell's endorsement is adding to the effect.

As a middle-aged Jag driver (me, not the car being middle-aged) I have absolutely no problem with this - although the XFR, XKR and proposed X-Type replacement will have more of an impact on this.

Otherwise, the story is just an excuse to use Russell Brand to get a bit of attention.

Disgraceful! (That post from 2010 is my second-most clicked-upon)

Olympic Mindgames

Found this picture and the associated story in Friday's Mail Online.

The sign is quite funny but actually refers to a road called "Ha-Ha Road" - it isn't taking the mickey out of Londoners inconvenienced at preparations for the London Olympic Games.

It should, however, always be read in the voice of Nelson Muntz from The Simpsons.

The story then goes on to describe how the council are ripping up speed bumps to make a smoother ride for the Olympic dignitaries - this does appear well out of order given that councils always claim that speed bumps are there for residents' safety. Being a Mail story, I have to be a bit sceptical when they say it will cost at least £50000 - at the expense of the local tax-payer - but, even so, whatever it costs, and whoever is paying - it is very wrong. The Mail also seems obsessed with the fact that BMW are providing the vehicles for The Olympics - they mention it for no apparent reason and include a picture of one driving over a patch of fresh tarmac where a speed bump used to be.

Never mind, I'm sure the Mayor is on the case...No, not Quimby, the other guy.

Parking Space Sex

The Telegraph had this story today, but not in its motoring section. It's about how the mayor of the German town of Triberg has "courted controversy by allocating so-called easy parking spaces to women"

Controversial!

It is probably a publicicty stunt - he does try to imply this when interviewed - but it will bring back once more the old arguments about who makes the best driver.

Their motoring section does cover this woman driver though:
Although it is the bloke who was in the passenger seat who is an idiot - albeit a lucky one.

Cosmetic Surgery Gone Wrong

Couple of stories from Autocar this week about facelifts.



The first concerns the Suzuki Splash. This car is being updated from looking like this......to looking like this...Not exactly earth-shattering changes there but if anything, I prefer the older version.

Now, what does this mean for The Splash's sister car - the virtually identical Vauxhall (or Opel) Agila? Maybe they are too busy at the moment facelifting the Insignia Estate (or "Sports Tourer" to give it it's proper name). Autocar's second facelift story this week covers this with some spy-shots of the face-lifted car...My usual gripe with spy-shots is that they are completely pointless - you usually can't tell anything from them anyway.

but this!?

WHAT THE BLEEDIN' 'ELL IS THE POINT OF A SPY-SHOT OF A FACELIFT OF A DISGUISED CAR!?

What do you say, Jackie?

What's the Point?,,!'*-."

I saw my first VW Up! today.It looked OK - I quite liked the snazzy rear lights but apart from that it was unremarkable - so why does it get an exclamation mark!?

That got me thinking about punctuation in car names. Volkswagen weren't first to use an exclamation mark - the Scandinavians got there first with the mostly defunct TH!NK electric car that also used the rather shouty CAPITAL LETTERS too!

Alfa went with the full stop in their Mi.To while Top Gear's "Reasonably-Priced Car" is Kia's Cee'd.

It all seems a bit daft to me - marketing types would find it impressive but nobody else would bother.

So, to take my mind off it, I might go for a drive in my X-Type, perhaps to Westward Ho!




P.S. A note to my American readers - Westward Ho! is a real town in the English county of Devon - it doesn't mean the same thing as in America and has absolutely nothing to do with prostitutes.

Just like the Devon town of Ilfracombe.