At the first set of traffic lights coming into Dunstable, a shiny black, new looking, Range Rover Vogue shot down the turning right lane past the traffic queuing to go straight on and then forced its way back in on the junction.

It was obviously in a busting hurry on the next set of lights as well, as the fire engine approaching from the right with lights and sirens on had no impact on his attempts to get over the junction ahead of it. The problem was, traffic was heavy and he didn’t have room to finish what he started, so the fire engine did ultimately have a bigger impact on his journey time.

I didn’t see the actual impact myself as I was behind a large truck, but could see that he must have been pushed sideways quite a bit as I watched him manoeuvre out from in front of the fire engine while it was sat in the middle of the junction with lights and sirens going. They had to leave someone behind to deal with this idiot while the rest of them continued to the emergency they had been called to.

The truck driver in front of me stopped at the fire station (50 yards from the junction) to be a witness to what happened.

I don’t know what it is about drivers these days. There seems to be a much higher proportion that treat lane markings and red lights as an inconvenience to be ignored and don’t have any respect for other drivers or users on the road.

I rang up this afternoon for an update, expecting to hear a catalogue of things that were wrong, only to be pleasantly surprised to be told that my car was on its way back. It turns out that there was a small build up of rust on the back of the rear brake disc that was rubbing on the brake disc.

It must be the only time I’ve had work done on a car for nothing.

I rang the garage, but they were fully booked until today. Very few of the people at my work actually live in or travel through Dunstable any more, so I was starting to despair of finding a lift. I did manage to find a lift which I was very grateful for and it didn’t inconvenience them as they travel past the end of my road.

I took the car in to the garage first thing this morning and when they looked at the disc, they found that it wasn’t the calliper but was the parking brake that was the problem. It had become jammed on and they were unable to get the part until 3:30 this afternoon. On a normal day this wouldn’t have been a problem, however today I was due to finish at 1:30 as I have to use my holiday up by the end of the year and we finish on Friday. So I worked this afternoon and collected my car at the end of the day. Another expensive repair for my car, it has been an expensive year this year.

I’ll start later tomorrow and finish early, so I won’t lose my holiday.

Last Thursday while driving home from work, a warning light came on. It was the emissions warning light. So Friday, I arranged for the car to go into the dealer yesterday when I went back to work. The check strap on the driver’s door was very noisy so I asked them to replace it while they had the car.

Wednesday this week, when I went to go out in the evening, the headlight switch failed. It didn’t turn smoothly, and the lights wouldn’t come on. If I hit the switch, I could get dashboard lights, but no exterior lights. On Thursday morning it was the same story, so I had to wait until it was light enough to drive safely before I could go to work. I ran the dealer yesterday and got the switch added to the work needed.

It turned out that it was a temperature sensor that had failed causing the warning light. Unfortunately, they were unable to get it yesterday, so I didn’t get the car back until today. At least it’s all working again.

Last Sunday evening, my neighbour knocked to let me know that I had a flat tyre. I went out to change it quickly before the light went, but I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as that. Although I could undo the wheel bolts, the alloy had stuck to the hub. I didn’t have anthing suitable for hitting it with, so I called out the AA. They estimated that they would be with me within 2 hours and actually arrived after about 35 minutes. It only took him a minute or so to tap off the alloy with a hide hammer (I must get one for the car). He fitted the spare while he was here and that was it.

Talking at work on Monday, I had a few recommendations for where to get tyres at a good price and so Monday night I started ringing around. I wanted to get the same make, UniRoyal Rallye 540, that I had previously had on the car. They had proved very good in the wet and had lasted fairly well, over 2 years. The front were getting low anyway and were nearing replacement, the back tyres almost look new.

Anyway, after ringing around and getting quotes from about £70 to £105 for the same tyre, I came across the website of BestBuyTyres. The tyres were the cheapest by a few pounds and you select which of their independant fitting depots you have the tyres fitted at. I selected the location in town to have them fitted this afternoon. Shortly after buying the tyres online, I had an email confirming the details and the fitting for this afternoon.

I drove down at about quarter to two this afternoon to find that the depot shuts at 12:30 on Saturdays. I double-checked the website which shows 17:30 closing on Saturday and then found that you can only ring BestBuyTyres Monday to Friday. I have emailed them asking them to ring me on Monday and hopefully we can sort this out. Probably be next
weekend now.

Jo took her car in today for the oxygen sensor to be replaced. This is the follow up to the last visit, a couple of weeks ago. OK, so Steven Eagell Toyota didn’t manage to resolve it before the end of the summer holidays, but they did provide a courtesy car.

On the way home this evening, the engine management light came back on. Wow, that £300 resolution lasted a long time.

I rang the dealer to let them know that the light had come back on. Jo can take it back in tomorrow for them to reset the sensor and check that one of the other sensors hasn’t failed. Evidently once a sensor has failed, it puts additional strain on the remaining sensors which could cause them to fail.

Now, I know I’m not a car mechanic, but a sensor is just a measuring device and it either returns a signal or it doesn’t. If it were some kind of filter that had failed, I could understand the sensors behind it becoming overloaded, but with a sensor, the others will measure what is there regardless of if the first is working or not. If however, contrary to what Jo was told, there is a detrimental effect from driving the car while the sensor has failed, then its a whole different matter.

Jo is fuming. It’s not just the cost, but the inconvenience of having to take it back and wondering what will have ‘failed’ this time.

Jo’s Toyota Avensis had an engine management warning light come on, so she contacted Steven Eagell Toyota in Luton to get them to check it out and resolve it. Although the next service wasn’t due until October, she asked them to do the service now, as being school holidays it is easier to have them collect the car and return it when finished. Otherwise, it would mean me taking it to work and having the fun with the Milton Keynes branch of Steven Eagell Toyota that I have previously had with MOTs and garages , Car Window 2 and Car Window 3. She also asked them to get a replacement drivers side sunvisor as the plastic hinge/mounting bracket had broken.

So, anyway they evidently collected it this morning without any issues and called her this afternoon to say that all the work was done and to get her to pay for it. When she asked what the story with the engine management light was, she was told that it was the oxygen sensor. After the car had been returned, she was looking at the paperwork and noticed that she hadn’t been charged for the oxygen sensor. This was the first she knew that the fault hadn’t been repaired. She rang the garage and spoke to the deputy service manager who explained that the car is safe to drive and that they will get the part in, but it will be the other side of the Bank holiday. Jo has impressed upon them the need to get this resolved before the end of the school holidays. They did confirm that the sunvisor was broken, and I thought it was supposed to separate into two parts and fall off the car , that is also on order. They seem to have grasped the concept of investigate fault, but the final part of communicate the findings to customer is lacking.

Jo did agree tonight that when it comes time to replace the Avensis, it is unlikely to be another Toyota; not because the car is bad, she loves the car, but because the dealer network is appalling.

We are going on holiday to Centre Parcs again this year, but this year we are planning to take the kids bikes with us. I looked at the options available and settled on a roof mounted solution. This meant I needed to get some roof bars and then bike carriers to attach to it. I got Thule roof bars which attach to the existing mount points on the roof of my car, then I got Thule bike carriers which attach to them.

We wanted to test this out before we go away, but as the weather has been so bad for weeks, we hadn’t had the opportunity to do this. Anyway, Saturday was good, so we fitted the roof bars and carriers and then fitted the bikes. They were really secure and apart from a bit of wind noise, I wasn’t aware it was there. The kids got to ride their bikes in a new location and I got to put my mind at rest with roof mounting the bikes.

I don’t have a particularly long drive to work, about 30 minutes, but in the last few weeks, the sheer stupidity and lack of respect by some drivers for other road users has amazed me.

This morning was a prime example: leaving town, I travel through a cutting with a 40mph speed limit and I had a little white Renault van impatiently sat behind me, obviously annoyed because I was driving at the speed limit. After the speed limit is lifted, there is a roundabout which you take the right lane to go straight over on the A5 or the left lane to turn off on the Leighton Buzzard bypass. I take right lane as I follow the A5 for most of my route to work and wasn’t surprised to see the Renualt come up the inside of me, however when I stopped to allow the traffic on the roundabout, which has priority, to continue round, I didn’t expect the Renault to carry on onto the roundabout forcing the traffic to stop. Once they had stopped, he then pushed through the gap he had caused and continued on up the A5. Once the traffic had cleared, I continued on the A5 only 2 cars behind him all the way to Hockliffe, where he left it very late going through the lights as they went red as he turned off to Woburn.

I sat at the lights in Hockliffe at the front of the queue today, but quite often I am further back, where on most days I witness another dangerous annoyance. When approaching the lights from the south, the road is a single lane splitting to two for maybe 20 yards. When traffic is queuing in the right hand lane to go straight over (or right) the queue will stretch back beyond the split of the lanes. Almost every day everything from cars to vans and minibuses will mount the pavement and drive half on the road, half on the pavement down the inside of the queue just so that they can wait at the red light a few yards further ahead.

Overtaking is another area that seems worse than it used to be. When I learnt to drive I was taught that you only overtook when you could do so safely without danger to other road users. Last night while driving home, an oncoming motorist, couldn’t wait until I was past; the road behind me was clear. He just indicated and pulled out and then proceeded to force me to take avoiding action. All he had to do was wait another 10 seconds and it would have avoided the issue.

Drivers just seem so much more impatient and don’t look ahead the see oncoming dangers and obstructions. Drivers seem so intent on there own goals that they lose awareness of the needs and rights of other road users. Others like the Parcelforce driver a couple of weeks ago who in a traffic queue, deliberately moved over into the cycle lane to block the way for the cyclist who was riding up, are just agressive.

Is it just me or do you have similar stories?

This is a protest against the rapidly increasing cost of motoring in the UK and invasion of privacy.

I am against the introduction of additional forms of tax and the bureaucracy needed to gather it. I does seem unfair to introduce charging for roads which we already pay for. A litre of petrol costs about 85 pence, 48 pence of this is fuel tax and 12 pence Value Added Tax (VAT). Add to this the annual Vehicle Excise Duty ‘tax disc’ at £175 for cars over 1600cc and we are paying quite a bit to run a car these days.

Some of the proposed road pricing schemes are talking of compulsory GPS fitted to cars. This is just wrong. We in the UK are probably one of the most monitored societies in the world, with about 1 CCTV camera per 14 people. Combined with data gathered from use of mobile phones and loyalty cards, we are rapidly bringing George Orwell’s vision of 1984 to life. The privacy issues aside, who will have to fund this compulsory technology, the motorist I expect.

I do agree that the car does causes massive damage to the environment and agree that something needs to be done. Much as I am against ‘stealth’ taxes, I believe if the cost of motoring needs to be increased to force cars off the road then it is best to add the tax to fuel, this way additional complex schemes the identify and collect the funds don’t have to be created. It’s simple if you used fuel, you pay the cost.

The problem with forcing the car off the road is that the public transport system isn’t up to being its replacement. This will lead to people having to reassess where they work and spend their leisure time, which could have long term impact on many industries in the UK. If a company really wants to retain it’s staff it will end up paying the charges, which will force to costs of goods up and so impact inflation. If they don’t pay the charges then they will loose experienced staff and so impact their effectiveness.

I have just read on the BBC website that Tony Blair will be sending an email in the next few days to the people who have signed the petition, so I shall wait to see what it says.

I do know that this is a complicated issue that will take some time to resolve. What do you think?