Scribe

I've just done a 460-mile trip to Suffolk. Mostly dual carriageways there and back, and driving at around 65 mph I got an average MPG figure of 35.8 on the way there. After a few days of running around (slow country roads, plus three passengers) it had gone down to 30.5, but by the time I got home again it was back up to 35.4. I wasn't pushing it but I wasn't dawdling, either. I put some Shell Nitro-V in but I don't know if this made any difference. 70 mph motorway cruising seems to give more MPG than pootling around the countryside at 30-50.

That's two features I never even knew about! I've just discovered £3 in my coin tray - which I no longer need to throw in the basket at the Dartford crossing.

If you want a new set of car mats for the winter, hurry to Lidl. This week (till Wednesday) they have sets of four heavy, all-rubber ones for £9.99. Seem very tough, and can be cut to fit round the accelerator pedal (I didn't bother). Cheap car covers too. I bought one a year or two ago for my smart car (it's way too big) and it has lasted fine.

I agree. Why do today's cars have to be so aggressively styled? You see them in the mirror and they seem to be saying, 'Move over, 'cos I'm coming through.' Sometimes I think my Lexus looks really old-fashioned, but other times it has a kind of elegance that you don't see anywhere else. But then I'm biased, too.

I had a 1976 Chrysler Alpine (remember those?) whose front wings rusted through within five years. Had to get them filled and resprayed - and I remember how bad the paint match was.

For me, at least, this peace of mind is so important when running a complex, elderly car. And it made me wonder for a while whether I should actually buy an LS400, because I was worried about what I might be letting myself in for. That was five sail-through-the-MOT years ago, and the car still wafts along as brilliantly as ever. Much as I like the 430, I doubt that I'd ever have as much peace of mind about things going wrong, or at least not being too expensive to fix.

I'm sure the 430 is a much nicer (and roomier) car to be in. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see Phil's (The Acre) before he sold it. Probably just as well, otherwise I might have wanted one. The problem is that nearly all of them have air suspension, whether or not you want it. My trusted indie mechanic isn't fazed by anything, and when asked about repairs to air suspension has always said, 'Oh, it's not that difficult.' But I noticed the other day that when he showed me the GS430 he's just acquired he said, 'And there's no air suspension to go wrong.'

All hotel doors should have it too.

Next time you get a call from India about the accident that you're supposed to have had, they'll be right, for a change.

Ruud's comment about Clarkson deserves three gold stars, not a point. (Maybe I've got one now...)

Like Phil ('The Acre') I've avoided contributing to some discussions on here because of the way some other members express their opinions. He's a very nice guy who's contributed a lot to this forum, and I'm sad that he's left with a negative impression of it.

I often read Honest John's agony column, and am amazed (well, I used to be) by how many owners of 'prestige' cars face huge repair bills after only a few years. DPFs, dual mass flywheels, electronic gearboxes... all that super-sophisticated technology to go wrong, and it costs more to fix than I bought my Lexus for. On Autotrader there's a 53 reg Audi A4 estate Multitronic (photographed on the back of a recovery truck) that needs a new gearbox at 52,000 miles. My Lexus is nearly six years older and has done three times the mileage, and still purrs along beautifully.

I understand that RHD Mercs are built in South Africa. So even if you pay for German design you don't necessarily get German build quality.

It hasn't got a sunroof. Was that usual for US-spec models?

I only do 2-3,000 a year, too, which is probably the battery isn't keeping a good charge? Fortunately everything resets itself, even when the battery has been disconnected for charging and reconnected.

It's an expensive Bosch battery and is only about 18 months old. Perhaps it needs a few long runs. The red alarm light on the dashboard flashes gently even when the car's sitting unlocked in the garage; does key locking disable this?

As I hadn't used the car for at least a fortnight I started it up yesterday evening. The battery had gone pretty flat because it struggled to turn the starter over, but it suddenly fired up - then all the needles on the display (including the rev counter) shot right over to the right and back to the left again. Everything seemed okay except that the VSC warning light stayed on - I've never seen this before. After a 20-minute drive I switched off, waited a few seconds and switched on again. It started up fine and must have reset everything because the VSC warning no longer displayed. Moral: use the car more often!

Sounds good - I can take a gander at your car at the same time!

Any recommendations of where I can get mine re-gassed? I know there was a thread on here a while ago but I think it was about an out-of-season special offer. I should have got it done then...

Yes. Wouldn't take it anywhere else.

... and another pass yesterday, with no work needed and no advisories. That's five years in a row. Amazing. Had a service done, including transmission fluid (some gear changes were getting a bit lumpy), and I'm happy. Just coming up to 152,000 miles, but what does that matter?

Rob, you could try RH Insurance, who I'm with (01277 206912). Don't know if they do agreed value cover but they seem reasonable.

I find it disturbing that hundreds of thousands of people are willing to sign a petition to have him reinstated when they don't know what happened - because we don't, yet, do we? To me, that says everything about his 'constituency' - unthinking, uncritical, mob-mentality. Apologies if this includes people on here who signed the petition - no offence meant - but is there something about physical assault that's not serious any more? I wonder what kind of offence he would have to be accused of for people NOT to rush to his defence? He's clever and when I've seen him on things other than Top Gear he has been funny, but he's basically a bully who hobnobs with Cameron at weekends and thinks he's untouchable. And bullies need to be stood up to - whether or not they're physically violent. Sorry to sound a grump, but I'd feel more positive if I knew that the same 676,000 people were also signing petitions to stop cuts to the local health and social care services I work for. In comparison to those, Clarkson doing wheelies in a Ferrari and burning off thousands of pounds worth of rubber doesn't seem very important, no matter how much money the programme brings to the BBC.

The DS is my all-time favourite car. But I remember being hurt by one when quite small by walking into the overrider on the front bumper - they're sharp and pointy.

I hope the Lexus's modesty will be concealed by a cover of some sort while on the back of the recovery lorry? We don't want to give the wrong impression... Meanwhile, Graham, remember that the instruction 'Contact a dealer' means something different to a lot of hoody-wearers LOL,