Zel's Fleet Blog - Xantia Activa, BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D, AC Model 70.

[elma]

You like the same vans as me Zel and apparently dislike the same cars. I had a terrible experience driving a new golf from Cardiff to North Wales and back once. Was hard to walk by the end of the trip and a seagull dropkicked the windscreen making a right state of it. My biggest 2 problems with new cars is the lack of space for knees and the way they've made every control lack feedback completely.

[Zelandeth]

Audi A3 is the only car I've ever abandoned in favour of the Megabus.

Dumped a rental car on the wrong side of Edinburgh, paid for a taxi right across town and then the bus out of my own pocket rather than dealing with that Audi any longer! Oh...and paid the restock fee for dropping it at the wrong depot too.

Tomorrow morning have to fold myself back into that blasted Golf again all the way back from Livingston to MK. Blarg...bad enough convention is over, but having to deal with that after as well...blarg.

Fingers crossed I'll survive the experience at least...goodness I'm looking forward to my own cars again!

Someone did ask me though to pick my favourite car between the Saab and Lada over the weekend...Struggled with that. They are so different cars, and I like them both for their own qualities...

[CitroJim]

Someone did ask me though to pick my favourite car between the Saab and Lada over the weekend...Struggled with that. They are so different cars, and I like them both for their own qualities...

Exactly!

Just like my daughters...

And for that matter, my two Xantias...

Have a good trip back today Zel

[myglaren]

My eldest son was here over the weekend in a new Audi A4 which he hates.
A loan car from the dealer.

He has a Seat Leon Cupra that is currently in for a warranty repair to the windscreen wipers. Has been there three months. Latest is they are bringing in someone from the factory in Spain to run new wires for them.

He says the Audi is OK until you have to get in it and drive it.

[demag]

Zel I just noticed your words on the old Mercedes 308D. I drove the pick-up version for some months during a temporary driving job after being made redundant. The gear change certainly took some working out! I think the early Sprinters had the same pattern, don't know about now. I used to start in 2nd when possible, it was easier.[emoji16]

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[Zelandeth]

Yeah, 1st in my 308 was basically only used for hill starts or when fully laden, just wasn't needed otherwise. Seem to recall that 1st used to involve a certain element of the reverse gear lottery as well - though nowhere as near as badly as with the old Bedford YNT coach a mate has...

Have managed to find a vaguely bearable position in the back of the Golf...have sort of wedged myself in diagonally sitting on the side bolster of the seat where there is at least some notion of padding...

Knackered if I need anything out of my left pocket I reckon though...

[Zelandeth]

Thank goodness we're home...only had one near death experience when the automatic crash avoidance system decided that we were going to collide with the slowing traffic in front of us and slammed the actors on 100% and decanted half the stuff on the parcel shelf on my head...also meant that the car behind us had to take evasive action as they were following too close...I point out that I was not driving...

Really hope we can take my car next year!

[CitroJim]

only had one near death experience when the automatic crash avoidance system decided that we were going to collide with the slowing traffic in front of us and slammed the actors on 100% and decanted half the stuff on the parcel shelf on my head...!

That is worrying in the extreme Zel

I'd not be happy to have such a system in any of my vehicles...

Anyway, I have one.. It's called my brain and 6 senses!!

Glad you're home safe and next time insist on the Lada

[daviemck2006]

That could be dangerous, cars doing an emergency stop by itself. What about the 44 tons of truck 20 feet behind you? Even 100 feet behind you!

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[Stickyfinger]

parcel shelf

.........it is not is it


Better call it a launch pad.

[Zelandeth]

It's not the first time I've been in a car that has collision avoidance kit installed that has triggered due to a false positive, and I can definitely state that as a driver it is one of the most unnerving things in the world. Just one more thing about that Golf that I don't trust...the over-enthusiastic stop/start system which regularly triggers at low speeds resulting in you suddenly having no power steering is also on the list. Just glad I don't have to drive the thing!

As you say, the potential results if a car were to end up parked in the back of ours due to the system triggering are bad (especially given how much stuff we had crammed in!), but the scaling up of that if there had been something rather more substantial like a lorry or a bus right behind us - which would have been entirely possible in erratic traffic on the M6 - really doesn't bear thinking about.

It's all based around the adaptive cruise control system, which I reckon is a really clever idea and is something that I think is a good idea in principle - certainly could take a lot of stress out of motorway driving when everyone is hovering at that really annoying 60-ish mph point and "rubber banding" in front of you. ...If it actually worked. Well...it does work functionally speaking - but even at the absolute maximum range that the thing lets you dial in you're still *way* too close to the car in front to my mind...which as far as I'm concerned totally defeats the purpose of it.

[elma]

My friends new Seat has all this stuff. He raves about it but I've not been in it yet. Sounds like a good idea but I have arguments with the auto wipers and lights because they do things at the wrong time. Not sure if I could cope with it doing the same with the brakes.

[CitroJim]

In my honest view, the only aid of this nature worth having is ABS and even then it's debatable; Gabriel manages well enough without.

All these aids to safety seem to do is make the driver feel impervious which in turn lowers their attention to the job in hand and/or makes them drive recklessly believing the car will look after them if it/they gets into trouble as a result...

[Zelandeth]

Agreed! ABS I reckon is a good idea generally, though I'd still rather have the option to turn it off - as there are times that it causes more trouble than it solves, especially on cars where it's...shall we say "slightly overenthusiastic" at times, like on my 107 which is downright terrifying to drive on snowy or slushy roads as there are times where it simply becomes impossible to stop as even the slightest bit of slippage sends the ABS absolutely crazy.

I think on commercial vehicles ABS is a definite godsend - I've not done a massive amount of driving in them compared to a lot of folks, but it was really a surprise to me how easily you can lock up the brakes when you're dealing with the ultra hard compound tyres inflated to well north of 100psi you see on trucks, buses etc on an even slightly damp road. ...Especially on a Volvo B7LA...Most annoying brakes I've ever encountered. Press the pedal, nothing happens. Press it harder, nothing happens. Press it even harder, nothing happens. Stand on it...nothing happens. Stand on it 0.0000001% harder, and you bounce your forehead off the windscreen. I managed to get my head around most of the models in First Aberdeen's fleet, but the B7LA bendy buses were just a dark art as far as stopping smoothly was concerned. Not bad to drive in most other respects, just *hated* the brakes!

Reckon our emergency braking incident from outside the car must have looked downright hilarious as it resulted in me simply getting essentially buried in fluff as two large costume tails, the accompanying head and a roll of spare material descended on me - because we were smart enough to make sure that the stuff that wasn't tied down/wedged in place consisted of stuff that wasn't going to decapitate us in situations of extreme braking. Turns out that was a good idea.

I do kinda wish that I had a photo though, as I kid you not I was truly buried!

[mickeymoon]

My friends new Seat has all this stuff. He raves about it but I've not been in it yet. Sounds like a good idea but I have arguments with the auto wipers and lights because they do things at the wrong time. Not sure if I could cope with it doing the same with the brakes.

All these aids to safety seem to do is make the driver feel impervious which in turn lowers their attention to the job in hand and/or makes them drive recklessly believing the car will look after them if it/they gets into trouble as a result...

I disagree, simply because most folk I know who aren't car nerds don't really know what these systems do, or even that their car has them. My mum, for example has no idea her little Kia has ESP and ABS. She simply drives as she always has.

One of my cars has ESP, both have ABS. I can't say I've ever thought "I'll drive like a knob today" or "I'll brake 20 yards later for this bend" as the ESP and ABS will sort me out.



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