Toyota 1120000, RAM 243

If I recall correctly, two weeks ago I pointed out Tesla winning a Recall score with Toyota.

Now Toyota have fought back and, along with their posher brethren over at Lexus, recalled approximately 1.12 million cars which have airbags that may not understand if there is a child in the deployment zone or not.

This is on the same day that RAM announced it was recalling 243 RAM 1500s.

Funnily enough the RAM 1500 DOESN'T have a 1500cc engine - this differentiates it from the Triumph 1500 which did.

Anyway, it took me some time to get my head around this story.

"Due to a manufacturing defect, the locking bracket installed to secure the centre front seat in the down position may not operate as intended.

This seating position is not fitted with a seatbelt and could be used by an occupant if the locking bracket does not function correctly.

In the event of a collision, an unrestrained occupant would be exposed to the risk of serious injury or death."

So they are saying that the front-central seat lock-down bracket can fail meaning that you could use the front-central seat as a seat.

At this point, I should point out that I got these stories, like a lot of my recall stories, from Australian site drive.com.au

RAMs converted to right-hand drive for the Aussie market have the front central seat fixed down so it can't be used - don't know why - I guess it must be something to do with the conversion.

So if the lock-down bracket fails and the seat actually CAN physically be used as a seat, why not install the seatbelt?  Otherwise, rather than have a locked-down seat, take it out altogether and put some storage there.  It feels like the Yanks are mocking the Aussies - G'Day Bruce, look at this seat we won't let you sit on!

"Owners have been told to not allow occupants to use the front centre seat until the repair is completed."

At which point, they won't be able to sit on the front centre seat!

Strewth!

Question Time

But that isn't Question Time!

No, that isn't the right-leaning political show - that is actually A Question of Sport.

But last time I actually mentioned Question Time, I titled it "A Question of Sport" so this makes up for it.

Anyway, the question Paddy McGuinness must be asking himself is, "What have I done to upset the BBC?"

After several years of being given (inappropriately) lots of TV shows that he really shouldn't be fronting, first Top Gear gets canned and now A Question of Sport has gone the same way.

As I have previously stated, I DO LIKE PADDY McGUINNESS!

But not for Top Gear.  And I know the Question of Sport fans preferred Sue Barker - a UK tour of that team drew in the crowds after they were booted off showing that the BBC sometimes make daft decisions - I refer you back to my 2018 Post M'Lud.

The BBC needs to be careful - I mentioned earlier this month that YouTube is now my main source of motoring information, education and entertainment - Lord Reith should be spinning in his grave.

I am actually subscribed to 14 motoring YouTube channels (15 if you include Dominic Chinea)

There are the three I really like who specialise in driving old cars with bits of maintenance jobs and other interesting stuff interspersed:

• Hub Nut - the nerdy one
• Idriveaclassic - the woman one
• Twin Cam - the young one

My highlight of the week is Dennis Collins' Coffee Walk on a Friday which also usually involves food and there is his Dallas-based neighbour Gas Monkey Garage.  The other American ones are:

• Jay Leno's Garage
• TFL Classics

There are the electric ones:

• Electric Classic Cars - the Welsh one
• The Fully Charged Show - the Kryten one

There is Top Gear which is a good addition to Top Gear Magazine although I actually prefer reading their stuff but it is nice to hear the voices of their journalists.  And if you want Clarkson, May & Hammond there is DriveTribe - mostly Hammond these days.

The Late Brake Show is Jonny Smith's vehicle (if you'll pardon the pun) - very entertaining, especially his barn find episodes.

Great British Car Journey is these people - and they have added Sarah Crabtree.

And finally, there is Edd China - who I'm actually a bit worried about.  He was the highlight of my week for a very long time but hasn't posted anything new in ages.

So there you go - and here I go.

To catch up on some YouTube.

Tesla 2000000, Toyota 1

That isn't an impressive home win for Tesla.

Two recall stories today.

Tesla recalls two million cars in the US over Autopilot defect while Toyota recalls one in Australia which hasn't even been sold yet.

Although that should probably read...

Tesla "recalls" two million cars in the US over Autopilot defect while Toyota "recalls" one in Australia which hasn't even been sold yet.

The Tesla recall will involve an over-the-air software update and the Aussie Toyota is already at the local dealers.  Here's a helpful picture of what the Toyota Supra (for that is what we are discussing) in question would look like (if it's blue and somebody has risked taking it out of the dealership)

I can't recall the actual colour.

But Seriously...

Last month, The BBC announced what many people believe to be the end of Top Gear as a UK television programme.

They then announced that the last bit of the last Grand Tour had been filmed.

One of those saddened me more than the other.

Hagerty have now produced a very interesting article  by James Mills suggesting that we need a new, proper car show rather than an entertainment show.   It also points out how the success of Top Gear 2002 (as I think of the Clarkson era) was down to the hard work and skills of Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman - which would explain the success of The Grand Tour.

It is a very well written article - apart from where Sabine Schmitz is described as "a little-known German racing driver."  You may not have heard of her James, but true Top Gear fans know exactly who she was.

The article goes on to say why Top Gear was never going to match the Wilman/Clarkson era and how we need a proper motoring show now more than ever - especially as the motoring world is evolving into an electrically-powered world.

In a way we have that though thanks to YouTube.  I get most of my motoring fixes that way now subscribing to about ten different channels.  I even have my own channel - not that I think I'll ever use it.  I only created it so that I could add a reply to someone commenting on a Lotus Europa in the background of this video.

But, if you are not a fan of Youtube, maybe you should write to the BBC and tell them to take note of the words of the prescient young-ish blogger who wrote this 10 years ago.

Cop Out!

Crime prevention is much better than having to catch criminals.

And while it is a tad harsh to describe people committing certain motoring offences as "criminals", it is better to stop them committing the offences in the first place - hence lots of signs around warning drivers about speed cameras.

So I figured that crime prevention was behind the headline in drive.com.au that reads,

Police thwart speed camera revenue by warning motorists

But when you actually read the story, a very different narrative emerges.

It seems that the local state government enjoy the profits from the speed cameras in question and the Police are happy for motorists to speed because they get caught and pay fines.

Although, at the  moment, they are getting motorists to slow down to cut the income from the fines going to a party that they are in dispute with.  The dispute is, as is often the case, about wage levels and since they can't take strike action, this has proven to work in the past so they are giving it another go.

Apparently, another tactic in the battle is "an automated voice when a police station is phoned" - not sure what the automated voice is going to say but given that the state in question is Victoria, I hope it mentions Victorian Values.

Now, as a bit of a Leftie, I tend to be on the side of the disgruntled employee - and as a motorist, I'm happy to be warned about the presence of speed cameras.  Although, as a Volvo driver, I am concerned about the safety element of wanting people to speed.  Although, if you are going to speed, you need to do it in a safe car like a Volvo.  Although BMWs are safe too - as long as you don't write slogans across the rear window.

Although the biggest take from this story is...

THEY ARE DEFINITLEY SPEED CAMERAS NOT SAFETY CAMERAS.

Pop Goes The Weasel

 I don't know why this Auto Express story pleased me so much this week.

But it did.

Plane to see the problem

I think this is why you don't have drive-ins at airports.

I wonder what he'll put on his insurance claim?

Something similar to this bloke from 2016 I suppose:

Electric Fires

 

I think we used to have one like that.

But, of course, that isn't what this post is about.

It's strange how the news stories I find to comment on come about.  There were only four in October while I've already done four this month and there are TWO that caught my eye on the BBC News site today.

The first one annoyed me - it is top of the most watched videos at the moment.  Now I realise that it is the job of the news to report on unusual events and, compared with those happening to fossil fuel cars (as Moggy from electric Classic Cars calls them) or piston cars (as Jonny Smith from The Late Brake Show calls them), electric car fires are very rare - even if they can be more spectacular - that rarity isn't mentioned at all.

In fact, given that the Liverpool Arena car Park fire was caused by an old Land-Rover and the Luton Airport Car Park fire was caused by a Range-Rover, then maybe the BBC should look to be covering the next JLR car to catch fire.

Talking of London airport car parks, the other story today didn't annoy me.  It tells of temporarily repurposing a car park at Stansted for a drive-in movie location.

"Airport bosses have stressed that pilots will not be distracted by a large LED screen at a temporary drive-in cinema at its site in Essex."

The whole article goes on about how it will be safe and all checks and authorisations are in place - I'm not sure why the whole article is about that - NOBODY HAS SUGGESTED OTHERWISE!

Do they think that some passing pilot might fancy watching Top Gun? It has been suggested before.

Master Stroke

As recently as Tuesday, I was reminding you all of how much I admire the writing of Car+Driver's Ezra Dyer.

Well, it looks like Hagerty also have a motoring wit in Matt Master.

Not sure why Hagerty (or maybe Facebook) waited until today to introduce me to the author of this article from May last year.

In it, Master so eloquently muses on how the Nissan Qashqai heralded the beginning of the end of the world as we knew it - and I totally agree with him.

Yuk.

OK, maybe we can't blame it for Brexit or Trump - blame The Daily Mail and Rupert Murdoch for those. But we can blame it, and moreover its success with Mail readers, school run Mums and the Chinese, for the demise of fun cars.

The article is well worth 4 minutes of anyone's time.

Judging by the comments at the end, he's managed to upset a lot of Qashqai drivers - some of whom can't even spell Qashqai.

Good.

The Nissan Juke is shit too.

Booty Fool

Another excellent Ezra Dyer piece the other day.

And, like one of his pieces I highlighted back in Feb, it involves Florida Man.

This particular Florida Man has done up his truck to look like a Border Patrol vehicle with a slightly different message on the side.

His says "Booty Patrol".  Amusing enough except the local law enforcement didn't see the funny side and ticketed him.  They got a fair bit of stick for it too - including from Ezra.

I think I may have to disagree for once with the brilliant Ezra here though.

Gabriel Luviano, who according to Scottish Legal News is only 18, was actually charged, not with the wording but instead with having blue lights on the truck - and given that the Police had put out earlier warnings of someone impersonating law enforcement, I wonder if he had been stopping young women in their cars in the hope of seeing whether or not they had nice bottoms or not.

That would make him officially creepy.

And how the hell has he got such a nice truck at the age of 18!

The Police must have been a bit worried of getting a conviction though as Florida Man with a Chevrolet Silverado sporting a backside reference got the last laugh last time.

Leap of Faith

 Those bloody Chinese ripping off western cars...

I mean just look at that uglified Fiat 500 clone - Fiat must be furious.

Actually it is Fiat that is going to be importing it into Europe!

It's called the Leapmotor T03 and Autocar have the story here.

They seem to think that it could leapfrog the competition to become the cheapest electric "proper" car on sale here.

One of the YouTube Channels I subscribe to is The Fully Charged Show.  I'm a bit in two minds about it because I really like Robert Llewelyn but I was really put off by this video. The woman presenting it may or may not have been correct but her attitude and arrogance made me feel like she was going out of her way to prove that synthetic fuels would never be viable so the whole piece felt too biased to be useful.  Then the chap on this piece just seemed to be trying too hard - he's talking about the forthcoming Citroen e-C3 which is another contender for the cheapest electric "proper" car on sale here.

Which is why I suddenly starting talking about YouTube subscriptions.

It wasn't a leap into the dark.

Smashed against a Wall Street

 I wonder if a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio will attract more clicks than Sylvia Krystel.

Although this post is more about the Lambo from "The Wolf of Wall Street" rather than the wolf himself:

Does that look silver to you?

It's white.

And a bit of a fixer-upper.

It's one of two nearly identical limited edition Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition cars used in the film.  The only difference between them is that other one hasn't been wrecked.  The story is here.

The thing is, both cars are coming up for auction. One in Abu Dhabi, then the other one a fortnight later in New York.

Why not auction them together? - it'll make it more convenient for the new owner because I bet it is the same person.

And if it isn't, what is the future for the wrecked version?  It's going to take some buffing out and I wouldn't be surprised if the engine won't start - buying it could be a titanic mistake.

E-Manual

No, it says E-Manual, not Emannuelle - but I'll leave the picture because more people are likely to click on the story than if I went with this one:

I bought my car because I liked it and I wanted it.

But I'd have liked it and wanted it even more if it had a manual transmission.

Unfortunately, they don't do Volvos in that flavour any more.  In fact, they don't do saloons or estates any more either here in the UK.

Which is very irritating.

I had sort of resigned myself to the prospect of no more manuals given the rise of the electric vehicle but wasn't expecting to have to suffer all cars being SUVs too.

Good job first MG and now VW have come to the rescue with the all-electric ID7 estate:

Even if it does look a bit Toyota-ish.

But then Toyota have come to the rescue over the manual transmission problem - Autocar have the story here of a Lexus UX300e (yes, an SUV but this will be offered on the entire electric Lexus & Toyota ranges) which has a fake manual transmission fitted. You can set it up just how you want it and even "stall" it if you've forgotten how to drive a stick - a niggling fear I have now since I've not had a go in one in over 12 months.  I was particularly heartened to read this paragraph...

All the usual manual features are there: engine braking, coasting and, most amusingly, no torque when you suddenly try and accelerate in top gear, which then brings with it the synthetic sound of parts of the cabin trim rattling. It sounds like a gimmick but it’s actually all rather believable.

We are almost in fantasy territory here.

Carry on, E-Manual.

Tinie Package

Yo!

Apparently Tinie Tempah now calls himself just "Tinie."

Dropped the surname.

Has he had an embarrassing divorce like Cheryl or Rylan or Roseanne?

Apparently not.

But he is fronting a new car show - Bangers: Mad for Cars.

Which, based on the first two episodes, is badly mis-named.

A Sierra Cosworth, a Volvo 850R, a Porsche 911 and a Honda NSX can hardly be purchased for banger money.

There are only 4 episodes and so far, I'm up for watching the rest.

Tinie is not a racing driver or a motoring journalist so there is an element of my (one of many) pet peeve here in that he shouldn't be fronting a car show.  Although he's a bit better than Paddy McGuinness & Freddie Flintoff - but just as crashy.

His side-kick is a racing driver.  Not one I'd heard of before but she has had a little success (dare I say a tinie amount?) and is by far a better motoring presenter than Tinie.  Meet Naomi Schiff:

Interesting that she is wearing a ROKiT logo there.  They sponsor Nicholas Hamilton, younger brother of her mate Lewis. I just realised that I haven't a clue what ROKiT actually do so I looked them up.

It seems they do everything.

Meanwhile, back to the show. Tinie & Naomi have to choose a car each and perform some sort of challenge down at Llandow Circuit overseen by a local.  But most of the show is Tinie trying to choose his car - which is actually quite interesting in parts.

He also spends a lot of time driving around in his own G-Wagen.

Wouldn't you have thought that if he wanted a 4x4, he'd have got a Disc-Overy.

Falling for it.

That title would work better with American readers.

And it's taken an Australian site to point this story out to me.

It's a crime that only works in the Autumn.

A UK driver taped a leaf over one letter of his number plate in order to fool speed cameras.

Ingenious.

Until you think about it.

That last character must be a letter of the alphabet but can't be an I or a Q.

The remaining characters are visible and the colour, make and model of car will be visible too - I wonder if it was a Nissan Leaf.

So not surprising that he was caught and fined.

So no more Autumnal tomfoolery.

He'll have to wait for Spring now when the blossom is out.

Rattily Engine

 This guy travelling upstate from Brooklyn got a shock en route:

I hope he managed to get rid of it.

The last thing you want is a rat in a car.

Drink-Driver caught on the M6.

He only got a £100 fine though.

It's one of two short motoring/Police videos today on the BBC News site.

He also got a telling off!

Meanwhile, over in The States, a driver managed to get into the staff room of a New Jersey Police Station.

I can't believe how non-plussed the officers are to find him there - especially since one could have been badly hurt if they were in there at the time.  He was named as John Hargreaves of Belvidere, New Jersey and is facing charges of burglary; criminal mischief; possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes; aggravated assault; harassment; and terrorism. Nice chap.  The phrase "right-wing nutter" comes to mind.

And he's damaged a filing cabinet with his car door.

This couldn't happen in Britain.

Because The Tories closed all of the Police Stations.

A Weighty Problem

The latest Corvette has had the engine moved from the front (typical American muscle car) to be mid-engined (let's tap into that European Supercar market)

Only trouble is, they don't seem to have told the guys in the dealerships doing the servicing.

Normally I'm not into putting "amusing" music onto such videos but this works rather well as the side of the car is gently being sliced through.

I'd have been intrigued to hear the real noise it made though.

And do acceleration figures count if the car is travelling vertically?

How Big is The Dog?

Autocar are reporting on the latest Quadricycle to start deliveries in the UK.

And when I say "start deliveries" I mean it is being delivered to customers not that it is making deliveries.  I think it is a trifle too small to be used as a delivery vehicle - unless perhaps you want to deliver trifles.

It is called the Ark Zero - maybe its successor will be called the Ark One.

And the models draped over it at motor shows will be called Ark Angels.

It's all very clever and it is aluminium - the website is here.

But it looks like a certain beagle.

The one on the right is the car - the one that looks cross-eyed.

It is a two-seater like its rival the Citroën Ami but has the more antisocial "tandem" layout of its other rivals the Renault Twizy and the Messerschmitt KR200.  The Ami is probably the only one I'd a want to have a go in.

The interior looks, let's just say "cosy".

Which brings us back to dogs. Ark claim that this car is big enough for two adults and a dog - hence the title of this post.  You'd never get a Saint Bernard in there though.

But it does remind me of  a quote from nearly six years ago now in this post.  It is why I rather maliciously included the Messerschmitt as a rival:

"at the back there is a bench which will hold a small wife and child, or a larger wife and a shopping basket."

Or a huge wife and a Yorkshire terrier.

And why on Earth does it need a reversing camera?

Back To the Future

No, it's not a DeLorean story, it's a BMW story.

Most motoring websites (like Car+Driver here) are picking up on BMW's Vision Neue Klasse which is supposed to be the electric future of the 3-Series.

and it looks bloody good:

Probably because it is s retro design harking back to the beautiful BMWs of the 1960s.  Although the back is very Alfa Romeo:

The important thing is it doesn't have the stupid nostrils/beaver teeth of the modern cars:

Interior looks more like a conservatory and the seat covers are corduroy:

Yes - corduroy!

The sort of material you would find on the trousers of the people in this video from the past:

Parrot Fashion

The BBC have reported today on a motorist being stopped by Police for driving with a parrot on his shoulder.

I don't suppose it was this chap?

Now, I don't actually see anything to  wrong with what this driver was doing - it's not like it was a cat or a Border Collie up there - but apparently "animals should be in suitable carriers or restraints"

Surely a shoulder is a suitable carrier for a parrot?

It is not reported as to what the parrot said.

Dead Dogging

An interesting story came to me from America via Australia today.

San Francisco and drive.com.au to be precise.

Now San Francisco is famous for The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and homosexuality - I have experienced at least two of these.

And it is also famous for Autonomous Robo-Taxis.  One of which ran over a dog.

Apparently, people get up to naughty things in these taxis.  There are rules that you can't smoke or drink alcohol in them but there isn't anything specific about sex acts.

Since one of the main robo-taxi companies is called "Cruise" I think they should have been specific.

Especially as they have cameras inside to make sure people aren't smoking or drinking alcohol.

Now, in Cornwall, rather than using AI to drive the cars, they are using it to spy on persons within the cars.

The BBC News story is here.  It'll be a good thing if it gets some dangerous driving habits discouraged.

So, at some point in the probably not too distant future, you could have AI watching people dogging while being driven about by AI and maybe running over an escaped canine - and no other humans would be any the wiser.

Would that negate the enjoyment for those doing the dogging?

Or just negate the dog?

A Lot More Rubbish

Last week I pointed out that I don't like Repair Lot.

This week I watched episode 3.

I think I've figured out a big reason why I don't like it and also why it shouldn't have an audience.

I know very little about vehicle mechanicals - but it feels that the audience they are aiming this show at knows completely bugger all about vehicle mechanicals.  The two mechanics sound like they both think that the other one is an idiot - it isn't quite "The black bit on the outside of the round thing is a tyre." - but it's not far off.

People who struggle with knowing what a tyre is won't be watching a show about cars.

Episode 3 should have appealed more though - they didn't have the stupid automobilia bit and the two cars they featured were relatively interesting.

One if them, a 1991 Mini, was owned by someone who "takes pictures of it in front of famous locations and then publishes them"

What!?

That must have a smaller audience than Repair Lot.

And has he never heard of Photoshop?  Here's something I cobbled together in 3 minutes using Paint...

...without the help of Dean Westmoreland - look him up if you want to get the relevance to this story.

The main issue with the Mini was that its suspension had been set up by a moron.

And, both the cars they worked on had no external work done on them so when they were unveiled and the owners had to say how wonderful they looked - THEY BOTH LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME AS WHEN THEY WENT IN.

I've taken it off series-link.

This Needs Fixing

 I really like The Repair Shop.

So a car-based version should be ideal viewing for me.

Dominic Chinea could present it.  For those of you  who aren't familiar with him or the show, he's the bloke at the front with the beard who does the metalworky stuff for them.

And he also restores vehicles.

However, somebody else has had this idea - it must be someone not connected with The Repair Shop because it's called "Repair Lot" not "The Repair Lot"

And it doesn't work.

According to The Telegrah & Argus, a Bradford-centred publication?, the show is hosted by Abigayle Andre.  She's a Tik-Tok star apparently.

It isn't.

The actual host is somebody else I've also never heard of - Charlotte Vowden.

The format of this show is exactly the same as that of The Repair Shop in that:

• They get someone into their workshop with something of sentimental value that needs fixing.
• They have a chat about what needs fixing.
• They fix it.
• They get the owner back in and unveil it to them - literally.
• They show lots of short clips of the outside of the building and the local wildlife and rain.

A simple format that doesn't work with cars.  It is not possible to really engage or empathise with someone who has a Peugeot 306 with a leak, a semi-working door mirror and a dodgy rear light cluster.

The "experts" are fine.  You've got a bodywork specialist, an interiors specialist (with a scary sleeve tattoo thing going on) and two mechanics.

The first mechanic is called Hannah Gordon but she isn't the actress who I always think of in one of two ways:

• The one who isn't Susan Hampshire
• The one who killed Victor Meldrew

The other mechanic is Derek Drinkwater who, if my memory serves me correctly, considerably helped Elvis when they did the Bedford Dormobile on Wheeler Dealers.

But that isn't many experts so to try and match the Repair Shop who have experts in metalwork, horology, soft toys, ceramics, upholstery, jewellery, electronics, woodwork, leatherwork, cycles, musical instruments, millinery, bookbinding, paintings, cobbling and I'm sure I've missed out a few more, Repair Lot have an automotive memorabilia bit which is where the aforementioned Abigayle fits in to it - pointless.

So, do I like it?

Not a lot.

Conceptually Too Tall

Nik Berg is "a multiple award-winning branded and editorial content creative, specialising in lifestyle, automotive and technology for print and digital media."

He tells us this on his Linkedin page.

I've never had a LinkedIn page.

Which is probably why I've never progressed very far in business.

Or social media.

Anyway, he's written this article for Hagerty about the Pinifarina PURA concept car which I don't like.

Just to clarify, it's the car I don't like, not the article.

It looks like something heavy has been dropped on it - like a fully-loaded skip.

It looks like that because the bit between the waistline of the car and the roof of the car is very small - but you can still fit actual persons in it because IT'S ANOTHER BLOODY SUV!

Nik Berg, says that the PURA (why it has to be in capitals I don't know) designers looked back to the 1947 Cisitalia 202.

I think that their time machine may have been faulty:

Last Chance Saloon

If your Audi starts with a Q or your Volvo starts with an X then I'm not interested in it.

Today's Hagerty story has been on the cards for a while now - I reported precursors in March 2021 and again that September.

Volvo have stopped selling saloons and estates in the UK.

Maybe that will make my S60 a bit more valuable because if you want a new one now you will have to either...

a) Find a country they are still selling them to - or

b) Join the Police.

They will still sell them to law-enforcement officers - presumably because everyone knows that proper cars handle a damn sight better than bloody SUVs.

When mine was in for its first MOT, there was a Cheshire Police one in there:

Jolly nice.  I wonder if the mechanics get to test drive them.

I've just checked out the Volvo website and nobody's told them about not selling saloons and estates.

Yet - this could be your last chance to get one.

Grand Touring Blitz

That's what VW are calling their electric four-wheel-drives according to this Autocar article.

Here's the logo:

That squiggle is meant to be a letter I stylised to be a lightning bolt.

Their non-four-wheel-drive (but still a bit sporty) VWs are labelled as GTX.  Can't see anyconfusion there, can you?

Priceless

Back in 2010, in my third month of this Blog and I was a bit more serious because I didn't know then what I wanted it to be.

Here's the story I did then on fuel prices.  I was paying 107.9p a litre back then.

This week I paid 138.9p a litre.

But when this photo was taken, people using Lancaster Services were paying 151.9p a litre.

Which, while feeing quite steep generally, isn't too bad for motorway services although...

a) I don't know when that photo was taken and...

b) the fact that sign exists implies that they are trying to sell fuel cheaper

If you are wondering what I mean by point b there, take a read of this from Auto Express this week.

Moto Hospitality, the main operator of UK motorway services, claim they want to reduce their fuel prices but can't because National Highways won't let them put up signs like that one at Lancaster.

Say what now!?

Their argument is, "At a couple of our sites where we lowered the fuel price but we didn't have a sign, there was some increase in volume, but it wasn't enough to justify lowering the fuel price.”

That is because motorway services have a bad reputation when it comes to expensive fuel!

If they sold reasonably priced fuel and everyone knew that they sold reasonably priced fuel, then people would go and buy reasonably priced fuel in big enough numbers to justify selling reasonably priced fuel!

It's not difficult.

And it's not like there isn't an easy way of telling the price of fuel at your nearest motorway service station:

Petrolprices.com - I mentioned them back in that 2010 story and this week they pointed me at the 138.9 unleaded I bought.  Pity The Government aren't aware of petrolprices - they are talking about a similar guide except the retailers will need to provide the up-to-date prices.

So, what has actually changed in the last 13 and a half years?

Petrol is even more expensive.

And what has stayed the same?

I'm still using petrolprices.com and there are no jokes in my fuel prices stories.

Supercar Showroom

I saw this programme advertised a couple of times on Quest:

I decided I probably wouldn't watch it because I wouldn't like the customers - and I'd be bloody jealous of them too.

Then I accidentally caught episode 4.

There was one really irritating customer - but she wasn't buying a Supercar - and the car she did buy she wanted wrapping in a garish pink.

Yuk.

I've watched episode 5 now too.

The rest of the customers all seem really decent, knowledgeable people.

The idea of a car showroom with an airport runway to test-drive the cars on is a brilliant idea.

The supercar showroom in question is The DMB Collection.  The D stands for Dean (the boss) - he is played by Brian Cox:

No - the other one.

The rest of the cast are is main salesman Brad, his office manager Trudy (who I think I may be in love with), his daughter Ellie and the bloke in the control tower who is called Alex and is played by Caleb from Clarkson's Farm.

It's only the first series so the bits where they have been told to react in certain ways for dramatic purposes still look a bit wooden but it is good enough for me to have set the series-record link.

I do hope though that Ellie is not as dim as she is made out to be - i.e. really dim.

And I do think that Dean is changing the perception of car dealers;

No Offence

Etiquette is described by The Cambridge Dictionary as "the set of rules or customs that control accepted behaviour in particular social groups or social situations"

Or by Wikipedia as "the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a society, a social class, or a social group."

So who is the expert on etiquette?

Vauxhall apparently.

Although they have had some help from Debrett's.

They have produced this handy guide for polite behaviour at electric vehicle charging stations.

I'm surprised that a Debrett's guide would include such a common word as "bollard" but there it is in the "Be Streetwise" section.

I am also surprised by the "Be a Good EV Guest" section which states that, "it is quite likely that your host will not have a home charger, so you will have to rely on using a standard three-pin plug cable."  Surely anybody consulting a Debrett's guide wouldn't have friends without an EV home charger!?

But then, I'm not known as a diplomat.

Unlike Vauxhall:

No More Electroclash Grey

Autocar claim that Fiat are going to stop making grey cars.

I've just been on their configurator so it looks like there will be no more of these:

So you will now be left with a choice of Pastel Sicilia Orange (which looks quite good), Epic Blue, Dew Green, Bossanova White, Pasodoble Red or Metallic Crossover Black.  I was going to make a comment about how they should stop making crossovers rather stop making grey cars - especially as they've named one of their colours after them...

...but FIAT only make the one - the 500X - and that started out as an MPV.

I do think that there are far too many grey cars on the UK roads though.

There should be a lot less.

Then my grey car would stand out a bit more.

Antisocial Media

Elon Musk (Twitter) has agreed to meet Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) in a cage fighting ring.  Here's the BBC News take on it.  Basically, they think Zuckerberg has MMA experience and Musk is not serious.

But is Musk serious about anything?

I know that he must be a fan of the brilliant Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs - here's a clue:

Supposedly (and I tend to believe it) he got the idea for the Tesla Ludicrous mode and the Model S Plaid from those.

But that's yesterday's story.

So here today is a Lexus in Plaid Mode:

It is also purportedly approaching 290kph in an 80kph zone.

Drive.au.com have the story here.  This was on Instagram so one nil to Zuckerberg.

It looks like it was faked by a content creator called North Borders who says on his Insta page, "I don't have much to write here mainly because I can't be f----ed writing some heartfelt message about myself, I got other s--- to do"

Sounds like a charming young man.

Although that quote comes via Drive - I can't be f---ed checking it out for myself.

Get Me to the Church On Time

Bet this guy's Wedding Day was memorable.

He got himself arrested driving his M4 on The M4.

At 121mph.

With a dodgy tyre.

Here's the BBC News story which includes Wiltshire Police's Tweet on the subject.

And here is the car in Police custody:

What the story doesn't answer though...

...is was he driving towards, or away from, the church?

Testing Times

Argentinian driving tests seem to involve driving around a circuit that looks a bit like the Legoland Driving School (sponsored by Fiat) - my children particularly enjoyed that attraction in Legoland Windsor.

Here's an Argentinian lady having a go at it - as reported by BBC News:

The annoying thing is that they don't say whether or not she passed.