LenT

I wish!!! After all, being paid to have a particular opinion seems to be perfectly respectable these days. They’re called ‘Influencers’ and it seems to be a nice little earner. I believe not being approached is clear evidence that I’m the victim of a Conspiracy! I think it’s because it’s well known that I can’t be bought. 😇 Others might suggest it’s because I’m not worth buying! 😢 You may well say that. I could not possibly comment.

Because according to sales figures culled from the SMMT, the number of electric cars registered in the UK – as of the end of July 2022 - were more than 930,000 plug-in vehicles with nearly 520,000 BEVs and 405,000 PHEVs registered. They state that last year saw the biggest annual increase in the number of registrations, with more than 305,000 electric vehicles registered showing a growth of 74% on 2020. 130,000 additional plug-in vehicles were sold in 2021 vs the number sold in 2020. Personally, I have no need or interest in buying an EV, but sales growth indicates that your claim that 'The entire point of electric cars is to get people off the road.' - whatever it may be based on - is clearly not happening. My own feeling is that the growth of the number of EVs appearing on our roads will be determined by the usual marketing factors: Availability of charging points, especially in new builds; advances in battery technology, relative reduction in car costs as unit production increases and a growing appreciation of a quieter, fume-free form of transport by a younger generation. The most significant limiting factor that I can see is the generation of sufficient electricity! It was, I believe, Tony Blairs' administration that cancelled the construction of new nuclear power stations on the basis that it would take about 15 years for them to come on stream. Or about now, in fact! I have had the opportunity to point out to our local MP that Rolls-Royce has the means to solve this problem. They have designed small-scale nuclear reactors with which to supply a fifth of the UK's total electricity capacity to homes across England and Wales by the end of the decade. More information on the EV market and vehicles can be read here: https://nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/statistics/

An interesting point, Eric. So where do you think that people who are buying electric cars are driving their electric cars? If the point is to get them off the road, then I don’t think it’s been very successful.

Well it was some years ago Steve! But as I recall, the OE tyres - Pirelli, I think - were fitted at a heavily discounted price as compensation. So in effect I got a refund and new Pirellis. The fitter said they’d never encountered this problem before! But then they’d probably never tried to fit these new Avons to an Elan before!

I asked because of my experience with a Lotus Elan many years ago! I went to a large local tyre retailer for a new set and the ‘expert’ recommended new, sporty Avons that were slightly wider than those already fitted. He assured me that they were safe to fit and they had done so on other, similar cars. The handling - already pretty good - was improved even further. I was very impressed….until a few weeks later and I had occasion to look under the car to check the exhaust system I happened to notice that a deep groove had appeared on the inner walls of both rear tyres! Although the wheels had spun freely when the suspension was dropped, once back on the road and loaded, the tyre was rubbing against metal caps that topped both suspension legs. A few more miles and both inner walls would have ruptured! It was a lesson that made me rather more cautious about making changes.

Excuse my ignorance, but have you checked the clearance with the car fully loaded?

That’s a good point you make, Adam. When I was getting new Goodyears for mine - which required different sizes on the two axles - I was about to have it serviced at my local Lexus dealer. Out of curiosity, I asked if they would like to quote for them. Somewhat to my surprise, they matched the discounted price from my regular tyre supplier. In the end, I went with the tyre retailer because I was also have Alloygators fitted. But clearly it’s always worth asking!

That should certainly be the case, John. As would be having a directional / asymmetrical tyre rotating in the wrong direction- which could happen if someone’s followed the usual directions for rotating tyres to equalise wear.

In which case, be aware that this may be an MOT fail. This is a summary of the relevant MOT regulations: Different tyres on the same axle : you must mount tyres of equal diameter on the same axle. Tyres should have the same tread pattern and share the same characteristics..

I note that there are a number of Google reviews for this Dealer too. So you might also consider bringing your dissatisfaction to the attention of a wider audience. Incidentally, as I recall, the Lexus website itself has a comment facility - possibly in the My Lexus section - in which you might ask Lexus about their policy regarding the Dealers’ use of customers’ cars for personal reasons.

It’s generally not considered a good idea to mix different brands of tyre. They will have different performance characteristics and may behave in an unpredictable way. The other relevant recommendation, just to mention it, is that if you’re only replacing two tyres, the newest should go on the rear - which would be the case for you anyway. So it would either be two new Bridgestones - or four new what ever you fancy!

The Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) should be activated and a warning light should come on if the tyre pressure has dropped significantly. Bear in mind that the efficacy of the self-sealing tyre depends very much on the particular system used and the size and position of the damage. There are also specific restrictions placed on the continuing use of the tyre.

Is your friend a Member of any of the motoring organisations? If so, it may be worth enquiring as I would have thought that warranty issues might be a common problem. My AA Membership certainly does include legal representation in the event of a motoring related problem.

Many thanks for that, Maurice. Turns out I already have some of that and ELS is already on! Useful…provided I’m in an area that can use it. Problem is…I’m nowhere near as smart as my phone!

That’s an interesting observation, Daniele. Do you have a moment to expand upon it? Do you have personal experience of this? I use GPS location systems without ever getting involved with GPS coordinates, so, for me, they lack the ease of use and familiarity that three words provide. I would point out that all the emergency services - apart from one - that I came across were actually asking callers to download the W3W App. Are you suggesting they were doing this in order to provide a code that they would then convert into GPS coordinates? I can see that this might happen, but I would have thought it raised the possibility that more errors could be introduced by the conversion. Rather like converting imperial measures into metric. The one exception (there may be others) was a County in Canada who claimed that if their emergency services were called on 911 from a cell phone, then - provided the reception was adequate - they could locate the phone with even greater accuracy. In which case, I wonder why all emergency services are not doing this in the first place, instead of losing precious time by asking callers to download W3W? I have noticed that my newly acquired ‘smart phone’ does have an ‘Emergency’ option that appears when I turn it off? Is this an automatic GPS location call to a permanently manned reception service? I must track down the Manual and check it out! 🙂

Probably the result of one of the Beeb's economy drives, John. 🙂

Sorry to disappoint you, John. But the clue’s in the title: Saving Lives at Sea. I’ve been trying to locate this episode, but to no avail. But as I recall it, (probably imperfectly!), Chummy was strolling some distance offshore rather late in the day, when he strode into a patch of quicksand. The resulting period of thrashing around rapidly trapped his legs. Realising that the tide was inevitably going to return, he called the Coastguard and gave them the W3W reference. An Inshore RIB was despatched to the location, at which point the water was more than waist high, but by deploying long spades they were able to break the suction around each leg and eventually hoist him into the RIB. Humans and animals trapped in mud or quicksand is not an uncommon event on Saving Lives at Sea! The only good news is that the victims rarely drift away, so a precise W3W location is very much a life saver. In researching this event, I came across a few other examples. In May 21, eight people were rescued by Skegness RNLI from rising tides when a W3W location was able to relocate them over a mile away from the original search area. In January, Aberystwyth lifeboat helped rescued two people cut off by the tide at the base of cliffs, who phoned in a W3W location. In April, Wells’ Inshore lifeboat was directed to an individual clinging to a buoy. In July 2020, a stranded kayaker on Loch Ericht in Perthshire used the App to get a lift from a Coastguard helicopter. In January 21, Cora Thomas, while strolling along the Welsh coast at Ogof Llidw, noticed that a group which had moved on after jumping into the rocks, had left someone behind – who proved to be somewhat damaged. Calling the Emergency Services, she was instructed to download the App. She stated that, even though she was a local, she wouldn’t have been able to accurately describe her location. And of course, there are numerous other examples involving climbers, fell walkers, cliff fallers and the like. On the other hand, I also came across articles by techies who thought the App was rubbish and there were far superior systems. I think the main fault – already identified here – is the use of plurals and homophones. Regional accents can also be a problem. Some argue that a numerical system is better – and yet words can always be spelt out. And are easier to remember for most people. It also seems that there are other such Apps that claim to be superior – but I can only select from the one’s I’ve heard of. And if I haven’t heard of them, that may not be my fault!

We enjoy watching a TV series called ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ which details the activities of the RNLI. On a few occasions they have been able to locate and rescue people who have used their phones to supply a W3W location. I particularly recall one chap who was stuck in quicksand and communicating with the Coastguard while the rising tide threatened to engulf him!

Not an App - but my Garmin satnav has a route planning facility- although I’ve never had occasion to use it. I expect other satnavs are the same, but I imagine you want to use a smart phone based system

The article I found was by an outfit called TechCrunch. It’s certainly possible that the quote by Chris Sheldrick was in a Press Release, but that claim can only be invalidated by finding an instance of the Company taking legal action for an alleged negative review prior to the article. I don’t know if they exist, but I haven’t found one. The first BBC item I came across was this one from 2019 citing instances in which this App was saving lives and Emergency Services were actually getting callers to download it in order that they could be rescued! Now it may have its faults - the problem of the homophone has already been identified. But I used to go clay shooting in isolated fields well off country lanes and would have had great difficulty directing emergency services to the location. Like most Apps, I expect its imperfections will be eliminated in ongoing developments. Until then, I’d rather have it available when needed then be without it. Of course, other options may exist, but for me this is the easiest to use. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760

I wondered Maurice if this was the legal action you were referring to? Because it has nothing to do with posting a negative review. It's about an alleged case of copyright infringement resulting from unauthorised copying and distribution of proprietary software. To quote this article: In a statement, What3Words chief executive Chris Sheldrick said: “The specific incident we’ve taken action against stems from an unauthorized version of our software which was offered for distribution. This includes a set of non-trivial, proprietary binary data resources. As stated in our letter, we aren’t requesting that criticism of us or our software is taken offline.” What3Words sent a legal threat to a security researcher for sharing an open-source alternative | TechCrunch

Well I have no idea what’s up with this link! When I first copied it into my post, it worked. Now it reports a 404 error. However, I also have it on another page on my PC - and it works! I don’t know if it conflicts with something in the LOC system. Not had this problem before.…

Undoubtedly true. That was the purpose of the 2013 Scrap Metal Dealers Act which made it much harder - and riskier - to try to move stolen metal through the more transparent - and better paying- outlets. Having your potential market reduced will give the buyer the advantage and probably reduce profitability and increase the risk. But as ever, the key is enforcement. As ‘Operation Goldiron’ demonstrated in April 2021, when resources are precisely directed, remarkable results can be achieved in just a few days.

I tracked down the Direct Line Report and have tried inserting my own copy of the link. https://www.directlinegroup.co.uk/en/news/brand-news/2022/p71-2-million-of-stolen-car-parts---number-plates-and-catalytic-.html As you rightly say, it only serves to highlight the increasing nature of the problem without trying to indicate the deterrent effectiveness of the various active and passive solutions currently available. Simply knowing the percentage relationships between successful and unsuccessful attacks in the presence and absence of the various security measures, might be a guide. But I think you have identified the crux of the problem: It's down to the car manufacturers to take responsibility for the security of the products they sell. Of course, we come back to the problem of authoritatively compiling such data. When I had to work for a living, I was occasionally involved in advertising and launching new automotive-related products. I would always be quite insistent that clients should provide independent and authoritative research to support the inevitable claims that they made. They would often say that they 'had a drawerful of praise from ordinary customers' and were surprised when I told them that 'a shed full ' wouldn't be enough to convince the organisations that controlled the accuracy of Press and TV advertising! In the meantime, if £25 spent on security etching deters even one cat thief, then in my book that's money well spent.

I think you’re right, Paul. Unfortunately, I was getting a 404 when I tried your link - possibly a couple of extraneous dashes? Prevention is very much in the hands of the manufacturers. However, with regard to this statement: The forensic mark will only help the police in prosecution by linking the unit to a suspect and a known crime. I would suggest that’s slightly dismissive. After all, such evidence is at the heart of all successful prosecutions.