http://passionate-about-cars.com How to survive the world of modern motoring Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:40:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 © andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk () andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk() 1440 Just another WordPress weblog andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk No no http://passionate-about-cars.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://passionate-about-cars.com 144 144 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/12/19-high-winds-and-insurance-companies/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/12/19-high-winds-and-insurance-companies/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:54:20 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=171 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/12/19-high-winds-and-insurance-companies/feed/ 0 18:26 In today's show Steve communicates the sad news that insurance companies prefer to use innaccurate methods to determine the severity of a weather event resulting ... In today's show Steve communicates the sad news that insurance companies prefer to use innaccurate methods to determine the severity of a weather event resulting in a claim. Andy: Hello everyone Irsquo;m with Steve Kennard on a very crisp November morning. Morning Steve. Steve: Yeh. Morning, Andrew. Andy: When I first arrived Steve was on the phone - he was having a very long phone call. Do you want to tell us what it was all about? Steve: Um. Yeh. Insurance companies. Almost an hour, talking to an insurance company regarding the storm force winds we had at the beginning of November. We had a little bit of damage done to the garage roofhellip; Andy: Irsquo;m just looking now therersquo;s some broken panes and stuff arenrsquo;t there. Steve: Yeh. The garage roof has got some large glass panes in it - therersquo;s quite a number of them. It is a large roof. In previous lives this was a bus garage. Andy: Ah. OK. Steve: It dates back probably to the early part of the last century - it was Tillings bus garage actually where they had the first electric busses in Brighton - and this was one of the depots. The busses used to pull in here - change over the batteries - these huge sort of 1 or 3 tons - these huge battery packs - change them over on the busses and then theyrsquo;d be back out on the street again. So these were the very early electric vehicles that used to run around Brighton back at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. Andy: And thatrsquo;s a topic for another show - electric vehicles - we must talk about that - but lets back to your roof. Steve: Yeh - OK. Anyway this roof structure. There are dozens - close to hundreds of glass panels in the roof - large roof structure. Itrsquo;s a very tall building, an open building, and Montague Place here is very windy. Andy: Because of the flats. Steve: The block of flats opposite are 16 - 18 floors or something. So we get this vortex - I think wersquo;ve mentioned it before in previous shows - this vortex effect runs up the center of the street. Back in the early part of November - everybody will remember - we had strong winds for about a week. One particular day the wind speeds were extremely strong - I donrsquo;t know what they were because wersquo;ve got no way of recording them. They were strong enough to knock me off my feet, I got out of a car and the wind actually knocked me over - quite strong. Insurance companies say, nowadays, in order for it to be classed as a storm force or a storm event, it has to be a memorable event - and as a pointed out to them anyone who sustained damage - thatrsquo;s memorable. Yoursquo;ll remember if yoursquo;ve had damage caused by the weather - thatrsquo;s a memorable event. Andy: And you got blown off your feet which was memorable as well. Steve: I got blown off my feet, I did. But we also sustained damage in the garage here, we had a couple of the roof panels got lifted up, because theyrsquo;re glass it actually broke. A section of one of the panels fell out. Fortunately itrsquo;s in a corner of the building, nobody underneath it - had there been anyone underneath it, I hate to think what would have happened. Andy: Did it happen during the day or night, Steve? Steve: During the day. We were in here working at the time. We had to have the - again itrsquo;s a large entrance to the garage - every time we were opening the doors it was allowing the wind to come in, the garage was rattling - real strong, storm force winds. I would say they were almost hurricane force - but of course, ask Michael Fish and we donrsquo;t get hurricanes in this country. Anyway we had to open the doors to let cars in and out - as soon as cars were in or out, close the doors back up again - try and reduce the amount of wind that we get into the building. As we opened the doors to let a car in, a gust of wind came in, lifted these roof panels, broke the glass, and we had the damage. I thought another job for the ins... faults,,winter andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:01:11 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=114 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/feed/ 0 17:35 Amongst other things, Steve tells the story of how driving a mini through a ford resulted in a new engine. Andy: It's Friday 29th January, I'm at ... Amongst other things, Steve tells the story of how driving a mini through a ford resulted in a new engine. Andy: It's Friday 29th January, I'm at 1st Class Garage with Steven. Steven's just been playing - not dominos - that game where you have to move things around to make space with cars. Steve: Well, it's almost like musical chairs with the cars, just shunting the cars around so that people can get in and out. And, yes, I mean, it's the same sort of problem wherever you go in the town. I don't know; I don't know what the answer to it is really. Well, I do know the answer is not to fleece the motorists. That's basically all that's happening; it's all about money. I mean, if you go not too far from here there's, like, it's 11-hour meters. And if you go up and down those roads you'll find that most of those are standing empty because, of course, the cost of parking now. So we've got roads around here that has got not a lot of vehicles parked on them because they're now metered. Whereas before the meters, obviously people used to park there, so all the cars that used to park there, where have they gone? You know, they've only moved them to another area. And this is the common practice: when they started zoning this town people used to park on the outskirts of the zones, so they moved the zones out. People park on the outskirts of those zones, so it is a little bit of a knock-on effect. And the parking issues in this town, I mean, I could spend hours talking about it and I don't really want to go down that - because it does make the blood boil. Andy: Have you had any nice, juicy run-ins with traffic wardens recently, Steve? Steve: Just lately, no. I've got to say, in fairness, the guys we've had around here have been very understanding, because obviously we work with cars; we're in the town; parking is a problem. When people drop their cars off, you know, we then have to move vehicles around to accommodate them or we have to find somewhere that we can park them, you know, safely and legally. So yes, parking is a little bit of an issue and we've had run-ins in the past with various wardens - I don't know what their, sort of, their actual job title is now, but... Andy: Traffic enforcement officers, I think, something like that. Steve: Oh, traffic enforcement... Andy: Or parking enforcement officers. Something like that, I think. Steve: Yes. That's a lovely term, isn't it? I mean, just directly outside the garage here we've got double yellow lines. We did ask if we could actually have, like, the white bar that they used to put across sunken pavements. Because this is a sunken pavement, or a crossover as they call it, which means that you - you know, that really other people - or people shouldn't really park there because we need access to it. So we asked if we could have the white bar there because of cars being dropped off; it'll allow customers just to pull their cars up outside there without getting hassled. And one or two of the wardens in the past have really hassled us, you know, they don't appreciate that we have a job to do like they have a job to do. We've got to have a little bit of sense and just - it is, it's common sense really. Andy: But on a bright note it's good news about the understanding wardens that you've encountered recently. We salute understanding wardens, don't we? Well, I do. Steve: Absolutely, I'm all for it. Everybody has a job to do and I'm sure they hate to get abused, but there are ones out there that actually encourage abuse with the way they go about their job. You can understand why people do get wound-up and do, like, howl verbal abuse at them. I'm not condoning it - I can't condone it - but yes, you know, it'll make your blood boil, particularly if you're having a bit of a bad day and their lack of understanding is - it doesn't help matters. It's just fuel to the fire really, isn't it? Andy: Now Steve, last time I spoke to you, which was in December, was faults,,law,and,regulations,,winter andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/01/11-driving-in-winter-conditions/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/01/11-driving-in-winter-conditions/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:01:46 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=98 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/01/11-driving-in-winter-conditions/feed/ 1 17:57 Steve talks about driving in wintery and snow conditions. Andy: Hello everyone, itrsquo;s Passionate About Cars. We woke up this morning to thick snow, well, ... Steve talks about driving in wintery and snow conditions. Andy: Hello everyone, itrsquo;s Passionate About Cars. We woke up this morning to thick snow, well, I mean, for Brighton, itrsquo;s thick snow, three inches and Irsquo;m sitting in the main lobby, the main area where customers come at First Class Garage and Steversquo;s manning the lobby. Are you short of staff this morning Steve? Steve: Yes, Irsquo;m actually playing secretary as well today. The secretaryrsquo;s on two daysrsquo; holiday, shersquo;s back in on Monday, today being Friday. So Irsquo;m sort of manning the front desk as well as everything else. A general dogsbody, thatrsquo;s me. Wersquo;ve had a fair bit of snow overnight. I live just on the outskirts in Woodingdean and as always out there it does tend to get a little bit worse. Wersquo;ve probably had about sort of five or six inches of snow settling on the ground overnight in Woodingdean which has made it difficult to get out. Public transport, you know, buses not running. I came in from Woodingdean this morning and picked four women up on the way in actually this morning, like all walking to work along the Warren Road and it was still snowing quite heavily. It was a bit breezy out there and all the women said that itrsquo;s a bit of a first, they wouldnrsquo;t normally step into a motor with a stranger. So obviously I couldnrsquo;t sort of encourage people to do that but the conditions were such that, you know, itrsquo;s just Irsquo;m coming that way and Irsquo;ve got the benefit of a four wheel drive for the workshop so it just made sense rather than see them struggling on foot to work. Andy: Did you see any good examples of interesting snow driving on the way Steve? Steve: Yes, theyrsquo;re out there. The sort of people that are really not sure when it comes to these sort of conditions should stay at home. They ought never ever to get behind the wheel. If theyrsquo;re not sure about the conditions, stay away from the wheel. One of the big problems you get is yoursquo;ve got four wheel drive vehicles out there that do find it a lot easier to get through these conditions but then yoursquo;ll always come across the person that doesnrsquo;t understand the conditions, will drive at 2, 3, 4mph and constantly get stuck. Because you just need to keep momentum going, you need to just let the engine take it and you see people, theyrsquo;ll get up to 5mph so theyrsquo;re dabbing the brakes. Not really the thing to do. So if yoursquo;re not really sure, obviously the best advice is to stay at home, stay out of the conditions and you donrsquo;t have to drive, again, stay out of the conditions. Itrsquo;s only if you really have to drive then if you donrsquo;t have a lot of alternative but to venture out then obviously you donrsquo;t have much alternative, itrsquo;s as simple as that. Particularly if yoursquo;re living in the outer areas or if you know a neighbour whorsquo;s got a four wheel drive, you can cadge a lift with someone, then thatrsquo;s definitely the way to go. But, yes, therersquo;s more forecast for the weekend and although itrsquo;s nice and blue sky and bright out there at the moment, it is still hovering around freezing. And Irsquo;ve noticed one of the big problems wersquo;ve got, where the snowrsquo;s packing down and because the temperatures are so low, wersquo;ve got a lot of solid ice forming underneath. So, until the gritters get out there, itrsquo;s not a good idea to be on the road in fairness. Wersquo;ve had two of the guys from the workshop that live in the outer areas, havenrsquo;t made it in this morning. Theyrsquo;ve phoned in, canrsquo;t get in but likewise wersquo;ve had customers that again, whose cars are booked in, are not coming in. Not that wersquo;re expecting too many. We have had some come in and wersquo;ll continue to get people coming in with the non-start problems, the bad starting and then after the weekend wersquo;ll... winter andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2008/12/9-politics-and-winter-motoring-tips/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2008/12/9-politics-and-winter-motoring-tips/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:00:53 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=26 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2008/12/9-politics-and-winter-motoring-tips/feed/ 0 17:52 A whirlwind of political commentary from Steve in this show, including motorist persecution, the toll increase at the Dartford Crossing, police doing speed checks on ... A whirlwind of political commentary from Steve in this show, including motorist persecution, the toll increase at the Dartford Crossing, police doing speed checks on Brighton Seafront and how some banks are not passing on the 2% interest rate change. nbsp;Oh, and we discuss driver safety, K-Series Rover head gaskets, Nissan rear door handles, and some tips on preparing your car for winter such as tyres (tread and pressure), lights, screen wash and good old WD40 in your locks. Enjoy! law,and,regulations,,winter andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No