Check out the latest posts
Archive for May, 2008
Pressure is mounting on our PM to make another U-turn, but this time (more appropriately) on the issue of the motorist’s hefty tax burden. Fuel costs are spiralling and since the large majority of the price we pay at the pump is duty, it would seem appropriate that the Government lends the motorist a helping hand. Its new road tax plans are going to hit drivers of older cars very hard where it hurts - in the pocket.
The problem is, a second U-turn would seem to add up to a Prime Minister going ’round in circles. Once that happens, it’s surely time for someone to show him the correct exit.
|
i went to Belgium recently, and noticed that, give or take a few cents, the price of petrol was pretty much the same as the UK. And diesel was the same price, too. Not the same price as in the UK, but the same price as the petrol on sale in Belgium.
Once again, it looks as if British motorists are being taken to the cleaners. Does not the government realise that motorists will embrace cleaner and greener fuels - in ths case, diesel - only if and when they are not asked to pay an unreasonable premium. As modern petrol engines become ever more fuel-efficient, the one-time fuel-consumption advantage of diesel is gradually being eroded, and with the present price differential, diesel-car drivers in many cases will now be out of pocket. What kind of incentive is that?
If we are to be a diesel nation, and collectively and substantially reduce our carbon footprint, the chancellor should see to it that motorists who are prepared in the first instance to pay the premium for diesel power demanded by most manufacturers are not hit with a double-whammy by paying over odds for fuel as well. The minor incentive offered by lower VED rates offers only minimal compensation for our behaving as responsible caretakers of this planet. In continuing to run our petrol cars it is not we who are being irresponsible, but the government.
|
I stopped at a service station on the A14 the other week, where they sell hot food over the counter: sausage rolls and so on. In the window was this Food Hygiene Star Rating poster. Take a close look, and you’ll see they scored a two-star rating which, according to the poster, means the service station is ‘Mainly compliant with food safety legislation’.
From this I infer that it’s only occasionally so filthy in its food preparation that it actually breaks the Law.
I had a chocolate bar and some crisps.
|
|
| Mazda6 handbrake access is awkward - but fair |
|
OK, so we’ve gotten used to car makers designing primarily for left-hand drive (LHD) markets and then making revisions to accommodate the conversion for right-hand drive (RHD) markets. We don’t like it, but it makes commercial sense so we can understand the logic.
However, I must admit I’m getting fed up with having to make do with some design features which seem to have been carried over from the LHD version without a single consideration or modification for RHD versions.
Apart from MINI’s ‘Club door’ which encourages you to spill your kids into the traffic rather than onto the pavement, I recently found myself reaching across two occupied cupholders to grasp the handbrake on the new Mazda6 - not good.
I’ve since discovered that in the case of the Mazda6, this detail has been mirrored from the LHD versions - which makes it even more baffling.
In any case MINI is by no means the only culprit so let me know if you’d like to name and shame a few more.
|
|
|
