Sweaty Palms at MOT time

Its almost that time of year again, the time when all good Car God fearing drivers roll the bones, shake the seaweed and cross various fingers and toes while a man in an overall decides the fate of their beloved for the next twelve months.

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 57 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

How not to buy a second hand car.

There are a lot of do’s and don’ts to follow in life. Don’t run with scissors, don’t slurp your food, do remember your manners and, don’t do that, its unhygienic. Many of these are tried and tested and enable you to avoid the pitfalls and cockups that others have previously fell into before you.

Who wants a new car anyway?

I have been driving my Mini for about 18 months now and I have come to a few conclusions. The first is that BMW make a very good car and the second is that I don’t want a new one. A bit of a contradiction? Maybe, but my reasons are firmly fixed in my personality, let me explain a bit further.

Do you drive a Ford Fiesta? You need to read this.

I’m not into scaremongering but if you drive a Mark 6 Fiesta, you really should read this little blog entry of mine.

A trip to the Nurburgring, and virginity lost

Error code 10 on a Vauxhall Insignia is a hard one to pin down. A quick google doesn’t turn up much and a bit of off tangent clicking can get you into all sorts of dark corners of the internet (bookmarks updated) although I am sure that there are a few of you reading this from the Vauxhall community either yelling at your screens or emailing me the answer.

Beauty in Metal

One of the nice things about owning a car is being able to fiddle with it at the weekend. Even a simple job like an oil change can be stretched out with a few mates, some tea and a lot of nodding. Regular readers will know that up until recently my cars have fallen into the ‘fix it at home with a spanner and a hammer’ school of motor repairs, indeed I have spent many a happy hour on the drive with a few like minded mates offering advice while a stubborn nut refused to come undone due to years of inactivity.