What is it about Sundays? Something always goes wrong on a Sunday, leaving the weekend on a sour note.

Last night I was taking my daughter home. It’s a 3 hour round trip and because my wife, who decided to come along, was feeling tired she decided to sit in the back and kip whilst my daughter sat in the front with me.

All was fine until we were about 15 minutes from her house and then my car lights went off. Then back on again. Then off. This happened a few times over the next few minutes until they went off totally and refused to come back on.

Thankfully the remainder of the journey was well-lit so I continued on side-lights to the house. I checked the fuses but they were all fine so I ended up calling out the AA. As it was going to be a while until they arrived, my daughter got out Frustration¹ and so started a game between my wife, my ex-wife and daughter. I’m sure, on Mothers day, my daughter was delighted but it was very surreal.

The AA man came and, at first, seemed perplexed – there wasn’t even any power to the fuses for the lights. However, after looking up my cars details on his laptop he went straight to the problem and the lights came back on. It would appear the relays had come out. They are situated under the glove box. On the passenger side. Where short, swingy feet can dislodge them. I couldn’t be angry with her, particularly as I was just glad the car was fixed but also because there was no real proof it was her.

Never-the-less, a long, weird evening and more proof that Sundays are best avoided!

1. yes, with the pop-o-matic [↩]

Again, not exhaustive, but my current pet peevs. Naturally, I don’t do any of these.

1. Drivers who leave their rear fog lights on. Or have them on when there’s a bit of mist about.
2. Those who drive about with their front fog lights on all the time along with their main headlights in some kind of macho “look how many lights I have” way.
3. People who drive with their window down. On the motorway.
4. Anyone who doesn’t understand the Highway Code when it comes to joining a main carriageway from a slip road. NO, you don’t have right of way – everyone else does NOT get out of your way.
5. Anyone who doesn’t understand the Highway Code when it comes to how people are supposed to join a main carriageway from a slip road. NO, you don’t have to get out of their way, pulling your slow 50 mph hunk of Fiat/Rover/Proton out of the left lane into the way of speedier traffic.
6. If there is a queue on a dual carriageway people have a right to use the right hand lane. Don’t sit in the right hand lane to intentionally block people. Then YOU’RE the only person making an illegal move.
7. Not indicating appropriately at roundabouts.
8. Not indicating appropriately.
9. Not indicating.
10. Back to point 6, but people who decide they are going to force the rule of the road¹ by blocking, slowing down, etc. I find it happen a lot on dual carriageways or when entering roadworks.

1. as they see it [↩]

For a while now I’ve not been happy with the sound my car was making. Not from the engine but what appeared to be the suspension. It was quite subtle, but I’m sure it didn’t sound quite right – the thud as I went over pot-holes and speed humps was louder that it should have been.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I took my wife’s car to the garage because I thought the exhaust was blowing. It wasn’t and I felt I’d just wasted the garage’s time. So I put my car’s suspension problems to the back of my mind.

This morning, on the way to work, the suspension broke. Not in a catastrophic, can’t drive it, way, but certainly in a “oh my god what is THAT noise” way. Bugger.

It’s already been to the garage and been repaired. At quite a cost. If I’d taken it in sooner it would have been a cheaper job.

Moral of this story – swallow your pride and take it in, even if you think you may be wasting the mechanics time.

It’s that time of year again – car insurance renewal. I’ve been with The Post Office for the last couple of years as they’ve given me a competitive quote each time.

For the last year I’ve been paying about £17 a month with a £200 excess. I had a speeding offence but that has now expired. I was therefore expecting the cost to come down this year. So imagine my surprise to receive a renewal of £27 a month with a £250 excess. This was, according to the letter, the best they could get and was with Fortis Insurance.

So I rang them about this to see if they could explain the huge hike in price. They couldn’t. But they could – miraculously – find me a better price and with the same insurer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much better.

I came across an article which listed a number of online car insurance search sites that you should use as these specific ones ensured you covered the entire market. By the end of it I’d found a deal, via Tesco, with M&S. It works out at under £17 a month and is just £100 excess. In fact, so save more money, I’ve decided to pay for it as a lump sum – this works out at about £190. I also get £5 in Clubcard points from Tesco.

The annoying thing is, the insurance, although via Tesco and M&S, is with…. Fortis.

Always useful to know…

The assertion that “…it is a condition of the manufacturer’s warranty that work must be carried out by an authorised dealer” is a commonly misheld belief, and is absolutely and categorically incorrect. For a dealer or manufacturer to state that work must be carried out by an authorised dealer, or that all replacement parts must be manufacturer authorised, is in breach of basic European (and thus UK) statutory law.

I have researched this issue extensively, and my assertions are backed up by the Competition Commission, Trading Standards (Consumer Direct), and the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). Furthermore, I have personally challenged a manufacturer on this issue (Mercedes) and have been successful in forcing them to honour their warranty; they backed-down before I took them to court.

The relevant law is referred to as the the “European Block Exemption” (BER) and is encompassed within the Competition Act 1998. The law applies to all suppliers of cars within Europe, but as luck would have it, I found a link to a motor trade article referring to Nissan, which was the brand of car specifically mentioned in the original thread. In this case, Nissan were required to ‘back down’ over refusal to honour a warranty after the owner had a non-Nissan part fitted:

http://www.motortrader.com/25215/Nissan-backtracks-over-warr…

For further information:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38070.html (Specifically Q4)

Naturally, if you choose dealership maintenance and servicing for peace of mind, then that is your prerogative, but by my calculations, the additional costs of ‘authorised’ dealerships are not good value for money, even when it comes to considering any value that such servicing may have when selling second-hand.

There is a lot of money to be saved by not using a dealership for servicing and maintenance!