Your fleet running reports

[John]

love these. Does it have winter tyres on it John?

Yes, factory fitted.

[16vCento]

Bridgestone Weather Control Evos appear to be fine in snow as tested today, had about a 5 inch covering up here, went up and down the muck track fine, stopped on the hill and set off to test the initial traction and it was fine.

Drove up our very steep initial climb on the drive fine without losing traction too.

Hopefully we get some proper snow to test them properly at some point.

[McSwede]

I can confirm that 330e (with all systems off) does great skids in EV mode in the ice and snow.

[Explosive Newt]

Drove into Leeds to see my folks into a shedload of snow. Now much more actively considering an all season tyre: lots of skidding in the inch or so covering the road to theirs. Also, whenever my speed dropped below 5 in stop start traffic, the parking sensors seemed to think I was about to drive into something, presumably the sensor being covered in snow.

[DeskJockey]

Drove into Leeds to see my folks into a shedload of snow. Now much more actively considering an all season tyre: lots of skidding in the inch or so covering the road to theirs. Also, whenever my speed dropped below 5 in stop start traffic, the parking sensors seemed to think I was about to drive into something, presumably the sensor being covered in snow.

Are they always active? Mine only turn on when I press the button or engage reverse.

[V8Granite]

Mine are always active when going less than 5mph, people set them off walking between cars in traffic and when I go greenlaning I need to switch them off as grass gets them going.
The rears are only on in reverse though.

Dave!

[Explosive Newt]

Mine are always active when going less than 5mph, people set them off walking between cars in traffic and when I go greenlaning I need to switch them off as grass gets them going.
The rears are only on in reverse though.

Dave!

That's funny. A bit frustrating as they kept pinging on! There must be an option to stop them coming on somewhere, I'll have a hunt through the menus tomorrow.

[KevH18]

Galaxy now on winter tyres. Here ends the update.

Focus not yet on winter tyres. But I do now have four matching facelift MK3 16" alloys to put said tyres on.

I hope I'm not outdoing you're tedious report

I now have winter tyres on the Focus. Had them mounted on new to me MK3.5 alloys on Thursday and fitted them to the car today after being away for a couple of days. Now breezing over potholes with hardly a noise or bump.

[Carlos]

My daughter is 17 in May and has been looking at cars for months. It's been a difficult conversation as what I think is a healthy budget for a first car doesn't get her into a small SUV she wants and that's before she considers the insurance which I'd like to see at a grandish !

We've done a shit load of insurance quotes and she recognised that she's probably going to end up with a small hatch so we went to a couple of car supermarkets to make a list of small hatchbacks she likes.

Looks like she's a chip off the old block and WE are having a MiTo Twinair

[Matty]

Looks like she's a chip off the old block and WE are having a MiTo Twinair

Alfa as a first car? Now that's a proper start to motoring

[Sundayjumper]

Looks like she's a chip off the old block and WE are having a MiTo Twinair

Alfa as a first car? Now that's a proper start to motoring

I thought the Mito was quite reliable ? I'm not sure it counts as a real Alfa.

[integrale_evo]

Yay, MiTo gang

[Sundayjumper]

Mine are always active when going less than 5mph, people set them off walking between cars in traffic and when I go greenlaning I need to switch them off as grass gets them going.
The rears are only on in reverse though.

Dave!

Mine get turned on just like Dave!'s.

[JonMad]

Turns out the Brands Hatch rallycross circuit is a lot of fun and very slippery when it's just above freezing out. This is steeper than it looks and there's another bit with a blind crest/drop depending on which way round it you're going. Lots of left foot brake -> rotate moments. ~The tests in the paddock area were also fun - long and flowing, with just a few excuses to use the handbrake. I have some video taken on my phone but it's so bouncy it would make your eyes bleed.



18th out of 70ish overall and 2nd in class means another trophy for the cabinet, yay!

[Jobbo]

Mine are always active when going less than 5mph, people set them off walking between cars in traffic and when I go greenlaning I need to switch them off as grass gets them going.
The rears are only on in reverse though.

Dave!

Mine get turned on just like Dave!'s.

I think automatically coming on when you're moving forward below ~5mph is a good thing. When parking I often manually turn my front sensors on in the Audi because I was used to the Merc ones being on. Finally got used to the fact that the Audi ones beep from the moment the radar picks something up, not just when you get quite close as in the Merc. Different manufacturers doing things different ways has got to be a big reason why people stick to a brand.

Audi update: I paid for a month's subscription to Audi Connect just to see how good the traffic on the built-in sat nav is. £11.50 for the month or £115 for the year. I'd already got a spare free 3 SIM with 250MB of free data per month which does the data part.
And... unsurprisingly it's not as good as Google Maps via Carplay. The sat nav picks up both the basic TMC info and the live traffic data, so you get both coloured edges to the roads and icons for traffic jams meaning the display is a bit confused. The centre screen has a pretty decent hi-res image using Carplay so I was surprised how crap the Audi built-in nav looks; the same thing looks better on the screen in the binnacle display.
So my review is: it works, but it's absolutely not the preferred method of getting a visual representation of live traffic data on the car's screen. I won't be renewing after my month; there's no point. The £2k or so option of the Tech Pack when the car was new (3 years ago) basically offers nothing over the standard MMI except a larger screen. Amazing how quickly car tech becomes out of date... yes, I know the model itself was launched in 2012. Wonder how badly the new touchscreen-only systems will age? Maybe pretty gracefully provided they support Carplay.

[scotta]

Mine are always active when going less than 5mph, people set them off walking between cars in traffic and when I go greenlaning I need to switch them off as grass gets them going.
The rears are only on in reverse though.

Dave!

Mine get turned on just like Dave!'s.

I think automatically coming on when you're moving forward below ~5mph is a good thing. When parking I often manually turn my front sensors on in the Audi because I was used to the Merc ones being on. Finally got used to the fact that the Audi ones beep from the moment the radar picks something up, not just when you get quite close as in the Merc. Different manufacturers doing things different ways has got to be a big reason why people stick to a brand.

Audi update: I paid for a month's subscription to Audi Connect just to see how good the traffic on the built-in sat nav is. £11.50 for the month or £115 for the year. I'd already got a spare free 3 SIM with 250MB of free data per month which does the data part.
And... unsurprisingly it's not as good as Google Maps via Carplay. The sat nav picks up both the basic TMC info and the live traffic data, so you get both coloured edges to the roads and icons for traffic jams meaning the display is a bit confused. The centre screen has a pretty decent hi-res image using Carplay so I was surprised how crap the Audi built-in nav looks; the same thing looks better on the screen in the binnacle display.
So my review is: it works, but it's absolutely not the preferred method of getting a visual representation of live traffic data on the car's screen. I won't be renewing after my month; there's no point. The £2k or so option of the Tech Pack when the car was new (3 years ago) basically offers nothing over the standard MMI except a larger screen. Amazing how quickly car tech becomes out of date... yes, I know the model itself was launched in 2012. Wonder how badly the new touchscreen-only systems will age? Maybe pretty gracefully provided they support Carplay.

Carplay IMO is absolutely the way to go. Gordon Murray said exactly the same on his development of the T50. It does not and will not have native sat nav. It will have Carplay and Android auto.

[scotta]

Lotus now SORN for the winter.

I usually use this to do jobs on the Lotus however after buying the new one then spending FUCKING SHITLOADS on it this year it needs nothing major done.

Ive got ACF-50 to do the suspension wishbones so wheels off and clean the wishbones then coat with ACF
I did have thoughts of doing a ceramic coating on it so ill pull it out at some point and give it a wash then prep it for a ceramic.
The air intakes are prone to stone chipping so ill do those with POR-15 over the winter.
The exhaust heatshield is rattling so that needs a washer fitted or replaced. They are only £50 so i might just replace it rather than fucking about.
Theres an annoying rattle from the cabin that i need to try and sort.
I had thought about changing the radio for a DAB unit but after spending £££££ on the gearbox that idea was parked. I might revisit that.

[McSwede]

1990 Mk1 MX5 has being boringly reliable until today but it appears that the alternator is dying. Bloody typical as I'm away from Wed-Sat and I bet I can't get one tomorrow.

That'll be some freezing cold knuckle smashing fun to change. I'll bet some of those 31yr old nuts and bolts will come undone like they were only put on yesterday with lashings of copper slip

[Matty]

Lotus now SORN for the winter.

Winter drives on cold, sunny days are the best though! Roof down, beany hat on, heaters on full? Well worth a few extra tax months.

[ZedLeg]

On the North Sea coast it’s more like howling gales, freezing rain and crash when you hit some frozen mud