Driving On The Continent

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Bailes1992
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Driving On The Continent

Post by Bailes1992 »

Done a few days driving between France and Belgium. Between leaving my house Saturday and getting home last night I done 940miles.
The Girlfriend and I back in August went to France for a weekend then were supposed to stay in Cornwall for a week. Unfortunately our accommodation was a bit rubbish so we ended up coming home. We finally got out money back and decided to go for another trip to France.

On both occasions I've found it an absolute pleasure to drive out there!
The lane discipline out there is superb.
Monday morning we left at 8am and drove from Calais at 'rush hour' to Brugge. Although it was busy I was still driving at 110kph+ which is impressive considering that the majority of the E40 between Calais and Brugge is 2 lanes. Not once did we get stuck in traffic. Everyone does their overtake and moves back to the right. Even if there's a small gap everyone will move back in to allow others to pass. It's great!

I parked at Brugge train station for 12 hours. It cost me 2E. TWO BLOODY EUROS! Can you imagine if that was the UK? "That will be £20 please sir".

The only thing I can't get used to is the French habit of driving at people on roundabouts. Even if there is somebody coming they just dart out onto the roundabouts. I did learn in the end to just put my foot down and and take no prisoners otherwise you will get beeped. :lol:

It was embarrassing to get back to the UK.
The A20 coming out of Dover was full of lorries trying to overtake each other uphill.
The M20 was full of arseholes that think because they are doing 70mph it gives them some right to stay in the outside lane.
The M25 was full of twats sitting in the 3rd lane for no apparent reason.
We got stuck in traffic twice in the M25.
The M4 had similar arseholes to the M25 who think that sitting next to you at exactly the same speed as you is acceptable.
Also on the M4 was a new breed of person who thinks because they have their indicator on they can pull out regardless if you are by them or not.
Then we hit Newport at 4pm which means it took us 45mins to do 15miles.
And when I got to Tesco in Bridgend I couldn't find anywhere to park. :frown:

While I was away I thought I'd give a product a try that I've read some really good reviews about.
It's called BG244 and it's not cheap. KwikFit is about the cheapest place to get it at £19.99 a can.
Image
I'm finding my Mondeo is getting a bit lazy and is no longer as smooth as it's used be. I've had a load of diagnostics done on it and the general consensus is worn injectors.
I put a can in before I left from France and I'm going to stick the second can in when I fill up this morning.
Throttle response is improved MASSIVELY and the engine is quieter. I kept finding myself giving it too much throttle all the time. Even managed to spin my front wheels twice while I was away which I've never done in my Mondeo before. All in all I'm impressed. Was hoping it would 'de-clatter' and smooth my idle a bit but maybe I was asking too much. With a bit of luck it's given my injectors another 20-30k before I have to consider replacement.
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Welly
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Welly »

Those additives do nothing didn't you know? :P

Your're right though, this country's f*cked up with traffic due to lack of investment mostly (where does that road tax go?) the stupid thing is that our primary motorways were constructed with a short-sighted vision; take the M1 for example, it needs to be 4-lanes wide but all the bridges that cross it are too narrow so they'd need rebuilding too (affecting the locals for god knows how long). Basically we're overcrowded and fit to burst, any slight delay on the roads has a massive impact all-round.

I like driving in Spain it is a pleasure and so simple, for some reason going round their roundabouts the 'wrong way' seems to work very well for me.

Sounds like a nice trip you had there anyway, what was your MPG like?
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highlander
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by highlander »

Welly wrote:where does that road tax go?
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) does not equal road tax

Calling it VED means they can spend it on whateverthefuck they want. My bet is that VED funds the DVLA, international food aid to poor countries with nuclear weapons programmes and space travel, as well as minsterial requirements such as duck houses, battlement repairs, clock tower servicing, and streaming hotel porn.

Road maintenance might as well come from the f*cking National Lottery these days.

</rant>
</soapbox>
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Rolebama
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Rolebama »

I still don't get why there has to be any need whatsoever for road tax by any name. Same as VAT and all the other taxes and duties. Let's just lump them altogether as Income Tax and increase it to a genuine rate somewhere around 75%. But, like energy prices and telephone pricing, if it was that clear it wouldn't be so easy to rip us off all the time.
FWIW, when it was called Road Fund Licence it was stated by one of the Ministers of Transport that it was necessary to ensure that people registered new ownership when a vehicle was sold on, and a genuine cost of administering ownership. Then it was said that it was nothing to do with ownership and they were under no obligation to spend it on the roads. I believe this as I have seen the following:
In the last years we have provided direct cash aid to Hamas - 351 M, Pakistan- 2 B, Libya1.45 B, Egypt- 397 M, Mexico- 622M, Russia- 380 M, Haiti- 1.4 B, Jordan- 463 M, Kenya- 816 M, Sudan- 870 M, Nigeria- 456 M, Uganda- 451 M, Congo- 359M, Ethiopia- 981 M, South Afrika- 566 M, Senegal- 698 M, Mozambique- 404 M, Zambia- 331 M, Kazakhstan- 304 M, Iraq- 1.08 B, Tanzania- 554 M. (These are all £ sterling amounts, and I have no idea how true they are, but I do read of millions being given to some of these countries for dams, hydroelectric plants, irrigation etc.) Not forgetting the billions we plough into the EU.
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Welly
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Welly »

Crazy isn't it, George Osborne was on the telly last night explaining about our nations debt (remember that thing? it's still mounting apparently) and it was in the ba-zillions! unless I'm missing something wouldn't it be easy to stop-giving-money-away and look after our issues closer to home :roll:

I reckon a nice hefty tax on Diesel drivers ought to sort us out :P
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highlander
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by highlander »

It's the aid to India and Pakistan than I have issues with. The governments of those two countries have nuclear weapons programmes (to act as an anti-war deterrent for each other!), and India recently got a satellite into orbit around Mars (hell of an achievement, though, and I have no problem with their space programme). Yet there are a large number of people in both countries so far below the povertly line they can't even see it.

If the aid to India and Pakistan was guaranteed to be spent on tackling poverty and education, then it'd be fine - but I reckon a lot of our aid money goes on military purposes.
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Bailes1992
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Bailes1992 »

Last trip we had my car done 73mpg. That included driving at over 140er... KMH for 10mins until a 13 year old Citroen C5 started flashing me out of the way. At which point I tucked my tail between my legs and moved out of her way! :oops:

This time on the way down I struggled to break the 60mpg mark. Infact when I got to Brugge the trip computer was showing just 53mpg. The car also felt a bit soft and was wandering. I put it all down to the wind and forgot about it.
I stocked the car up with wine and beer before coming home so decided to up all the tyre pressures. Last Thursday I popped into KwikFit where I asked them to balance all four wheels and set all my tyres to 35psi. I went to increase the tyre pressures because of the extra weight and I found all my tyres were on just 25psi! :evil:
I put my rears upto 44psi and my fronts upto 36psi.
I filled up earlier and I've managed 64mpg. If my tyre pressures were correct on the way there I think I would have been knocking on the door of 80mpg.
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Bailes1992
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Bailes1992 »

That BG244 seems like sh*t hot stuff!
Second can went in on Wednesday with a fresh tank of fuel.

I was driving through some lanes yesterday where there is a sharp left hander and a steep hill. 1600rpm in 2nd gear as I come round the corner and a gradually put my foot down. The smoke out the back was unbelievable. It was thick and black. I couldn't see out of my back window there was so much soot coming out the back end. I felt bad for the car that was behind me! This carried on right through 2nd gear, 3rd gear and cleared up through 4th.
Give it a few more blasts but it come out squeaky clean. The back of my car is covered in black soot now though.
I suspect what was spewed out the back end was 145,000miles worth of soot and other crap lodged in the exhaust manifold and the turbo.
I'm 100% sure it was idling quieter when I got home too. Will have to see when I take it out later!
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1996 Land Rover Defender 90 County SW 300TDi My Toy
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Captain Jack
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by Captain Jack »

I agree with everything that's been said. I love driving in Yoorop, though Dutch drivers are just awful. Belgians are crazy, Frech are ok. German are courteous but leave me standing on autobahns no matter how fast I am going. The best driving I saw was probably in Denmark. Very polite and stick to the code.
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Re: Driving On The Continent

Post by steve_earwig »

I suspect that's because if they break the speed limit some bird in a comfy jumper jumps out from behind a lamp post and shoots them...

Austrians are crazy too.
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