There is no doubt that potholes are a major factor in causing wheel, axle and suspension failure.  A year or two ago, our holiday plans were changed when our Saab was fully loaded up and we were travelling happily toward our first destination.  We were travelling along a sealed road, and I hadn’t noticed a nasty hole in the deterioration of the left-side edge of the tarmac.  The next thing we all knew was that the front left wheel on the Saab dropped in and out of this hole with an almighty thump, followed by the left rear wheel.  The left front tyre went flat, and we pulled over to change the tyre.  What we found was that the tyre had been sliced on impact and that the rim had been severely damaged and would need specialist repair.  This repair on the Saab’s rim wasn’t cheap, though the tyre was replaced at no cost.  Hmmm…not the best way to start the holiday.

Funding for road repairs doesn’t always keep up with the growing number of potholes in need of repair.  In the UK, some clever surveyors have taken this a step further and have managed to work out the cars on UK roads that can handle the potholes better.  Apparently, Honda cars seem to be the most apt at taking a beating.  Hondas seem to be the most resilient marque against pothole damage.  This resilience saves drivers lots of money in repairs each year according to new research carried out by potholes.co.uk.  Second to Honda is Toyota.  And third comes Hyundai at being the most pothole proof manufacturer.  Less than two percent of Hyundai cars suffer axle and suspension damage.

Looking at the flipside of the coin; Chrysler, Mercedes Benz and Land Rover models are the most likely to be damaged by the UK’s potholey roads.  Results show that more than ten percent suffer damage each year.

It’s worth a read so we have re-produced it below. As far as we can discover it was not a skit run on the ABC, and it is not ascribed to either of these humorists, but it’s funny, nevertheless:

Scene: A car yard. BRYAN is perusing the stock. He is approached by JOHN] John:     Morning! Looking for a new car?

Bryan:     Nope. New Prime Minister, actually.

John:     You’re the third one this morning. Anything in mind?

Bryan:     You know…… nothing fancy, reliable, economical family model. Something to get the country from A to B.

John:     You mean like a Howard?

Bryan:     Yeah…a little Johnny. Nothing flash, does the job. Low maintenance, economical, sensible. Runs for years, no troubles.

John:     So…. you used to have one?

Bryan:     Yeah. About 10 years. Great little model – don’t know why I got rid of him — biggest mistake I’ve ever made.

John:     What happened?

Bryan:     Traded him in for a Kevin 07

John:     Big mistake.

Bryan:     Lot of people bought it. Good political mileage.

John:     How was the Kevin 07?

Bryan:     Came with a $900 factory rebate – that was good.

John:     Anything else?

Bryan:     Not much. Sounded nice but nothing under the bonnet. It was a lemon.

John:     Didn’t stick around for long did it?

Bryan:     Nah – had a factory recall. Shipped overseas and was never seen again.

John:     What was the problem?

Bryan:     Lots. But the final straw was the navigation system. Plug it in and it automatically loses its own way.

John:     Whatcha got now?

Bryan:     It’s a Gillard-Brown.

John:     The hybrid?

Bryan:     Yeah. The Eco-drive system – not a good idea. An engine that can’t deliver hooked up to a transmission stuck in permanent reverse.

John:     Green paintwork with a red interior. And steering that always lurches to the left for no apparent reason – that’s the one?

Bryan:     The Fustercluck model.

John:     The only one they made, Bryan. Not the vehicle of choice for the road to recovery – but did they finish up fixing the navigation system?

Bryan:     Made it worse. Turn it on and it does a press release, heads off in all directions and goes nowhere.John:     So that’s why you’re here?

Bryan:     That’s right. I’m stuck with a car that’s wasteful, expensive, ineffective and past its use by date. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the “Cash for  Clunkers” scheme?

John:     Join the queue brother.

Private Fleet discussed the pros and cons at length here and our readers responded here. It was clearly not a popular decision as many motorists would be forced to pay for premium fuel and virtually every NSW motorist would, arguably, face higher fuel bills as the slightly lower ethanol pump price did not compensate for the poorer fuel economy.

Clearly someone was listening as the O’Farrell government announced on 20th January that the cabinet has agreed to dump the ban on 91 unleaded!

So NSW motorists will be pleased, as will interstate drivers who would be faced with having to put 10 percent ethanol fuel or 95 octane premium brew in their tanks when they venture into NSW.

Do you think it’s a great example of the government listening to the people, or do you think they should have gone ahead anyway?

Have you say below.

There were some remarkable claims made at the launch of this car:- 

• It would be totally emission free at the exhaust

• It could be re-charged at home in 4 hours, or at a garage in minutes

• It could have a range of several hundred kilometers before it needs a re-charge

• It would be frozen air that could be directly used as an airconditioner etc.etc.

• A fully optioned car could be put on the road for less than $10,000!

It sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it. So why haven’t we heard more?

Well, that’s a bit of a puzzle as Tata Motors, whilst being the largest vehicle manufacturer in India (and they also own Jaguar and Land Rover) have gone strangely quiet. Tata did admit to having some heat exchange problems with the technology a couple of years ago. In 2009 the University Of Berkely in California published a report that said “Even under highly optimistic assumptions the compressed-air car is significantly less efficient than a battery electric vehicle and produces more greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional gas powered car with a coal intensive power mix.

On the other hand Luxembourg-based MDI, the developer of the concept, is much more confident.

Their latest design (shown  below with and without clothes) was exhibited at the Paris Motor show last year.

Financial support for this venture has been provided to MDI by Tata, and MDI is certainly upbeat about putting an air-compressed powered car on the roads in the near future.

So will it happen?

We shall see.

This picture is of a brand spanking new Lamborghini that was planned to be the star exhibit at a car show in Portland, Oregon, USA yesterday.

The show safety regulations forbid a car to be shown with a fuel in the petrol tank. So you’d syphon it out, wouldn’t you? Or a better option would be to drive it for 50kms or so, you’d think. Mmmm, not the goons who delivered this car. They decided to start it up and rev it to the limiter in neutral until it ran out of fuel. Then they got fed up doing that so they wedged a piece of wood under the accelerator and walked away for a while. Quite naturally the engine overheated, caught fire and was ruined. Nice day’s work, what???

1     It’s safer. Sure, cars have all the safety features that the engineers can think of, but sheer physics will win the day. If you lose control in spite of the ABS, ESP and all the rest of it, and smack into something solid, all that energy will be transferred to your car’s body and to your body. Carnage. This is why speed limits exist, why powerful cars are speed limited and why the cops get so snippy about leadfooted drivers.

2      You use less fuel. Again, it’s a matter of physics. The faster you go, the more energy is needed to get your car to that speed and to keep you there. And this energy comes from petrol or diesel, even in a hybrid vehicle such as the Toyota Prius. Slow down and you save money.

3      You put less stress on your car’s mechanics. Physics again – at higher speeds, more force is needed to alter the vehicle’s velocity – and the velocity changes when you change direction as well as when you slow down or speed up. Change the velocity aggressively or assertively, and this does increase the wear and tear on the tyres, the brake pads, the steering mechanism, etc.

4      When you’re in an unfamiliar place, you can find your way a bit more easily. It’s easy to miss landmarks and road signs – and that includes signs such as speed limits and arrows – when you’re going at a fair clip. How many times have you been barrelling along looking for a particular road only to miss your turning because by the time you had read the signpost and recognised the street name, you’d overshot?

5      To quote an old proverb, galloping horsemen see no flowers. If you are always in a hurry, you often miss some of the beautiful and interesting things around you. The truth of this old saw is often proved by people driving around Perth during June–November: take it slowly and you can appreciate the famous wildflowers; rush and they’re just a blur. And this doesn’t just apply to rural driving in the lusher parts of Western Australia – it also applies in downtown Sydney. If you take it at a more leisurely pace, you get a chance to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise – a small boutique or café, a quirky mural or an attractive/interesting looking person.

Sure, there are times when we have to make the most of the speed that our cars have on offer. And there are times when it’s fun to go faster (but within the speed limits!). But at times, it doesn’t hurt to slow down and enjoy the drive, as well as driving more safely and frugally.

To get your prize just look at the ten cars below and identify them for us. If you get eight of more correct, and you’re one of the first 25 winners, a bottle of Nu Finish will be on its way to you. But these cars won’t be familiar to you, as they are all due to be launched in 2012. However, we’ve given you a clue for each one to make your task a little easier.

Submit your answer by putting your answers in ‘Leave a reply’ at the end of the quiz

Question one:

Clue:  Greenie name for an electric car.

Question Two:

Clue: From Asia- 3 door, but not how you would expect.

Question Three:

Clue:  New brand, old name connected with Holden.

Question Four:

Clue: This brand was last sold in Oz in 1997 as a luxury version of Nissan

Question Five:

Clue:  Jointly developed by this manufacturer and Toyota

Question 6:

Clue:  German performance car, but not an Audi or BMW

Question Seven:

Clue:  A major new car release from Holden should not be a shock.

Question Eight:

Clue:  This compact soft road completes the trifecta for this manufacturer.

Question Nine:

Clue: Oz brand, Thai built ute, single and dual cab.

Question Ten:

Clue:  Chinese tradie to compete with Great Wall.

So, if you think you can correctly identify at least eight of these, put your answers in ‘ Leave a reply’  below and we’ll contact you if you’re a winner. OK, if you’re still puzzled, why don’t you Google ‘cars of 2012′ and you should be fine!

Good Luck!

WOW! We knew you’d have to be quick, but we didn’t expect you to be that quick!

We’ve had 25 winning entries already, so, sorry, the Nu Finish polishes have been polished off!

But if you’d like to know how you would have faired the answers are listed here.

 
Horses are one such rural hazard and they are legitimate road users, so if you see a horse and rider on the tarmac ahead of you, you can’t get indignant and wonder why they aren’t off the road. As is the case for bicycles, you have to share the road with horses.

 
However, horses aren’t bicycles and it’s not just a case of overtaking them when you get close and making sure that you give them enough space to fall over safely. Bikes do not have brains; horses do. And a horse’s brain isn’t a human’s brain, so a horse on the road might not react the way a human would. You don’t want a horse coming through your windscreen. It won’t just be the horse and the rider that gets badly injured or killed: as a horse is very heavy (half a tonne for something the size of the average racehorse or stock horse), it could kill or injure you and the front passenger as well.

 
To drive safely near horses, it’s important to understand how a horse thinks. A horse is a herbivore whose main form of defence is to run like heck. This is often very dangerous for a rider, because of the risk of falling at high speed, as well as the risk of the horse colliding with something because it’s so focused on the scary thing behind it. Things that prey on horses in the wild make growly roaring noises and often take horses by surprise. It takes a fair bit of training to help a horse realise that that roaring thing isn’t actually a jaguar or a lion that can eat them – it’s just a V8 Jaguar or a Holden with a lion on the front. Most horses that are ridden out on the road have had this training, but drivers still have to do their bit, because the basic instincts are still there in that horsy brain.

 
The first thing you can do is to ease off the accelerator. This isn’t just so you can slow down enough to react in time if the horse suddenly swerves or something unpredictable happens. This stops your engine making that roaring noise that sounds like a predator. Don’t reapply the accelerator until you’re well past the horse.

 
Secondly, and most importantly, DON’T HONK YOUR HORN! This will hurry the horse up, all right, but in a way that could potentially kill. You want to avoid spooking the horses at all costs.

 
Horses can be startled by all sorts of things and they have different temperaments. If a horse is giving the rider trouble, it’s best if you can slow down to a crawl as you go past or even stop. The hand signal for “I am having trouble controlling my horse – please slow down” that can and should be given by the rider is the right arm held out (like the right-turning signal from a cyclist) and waved up and down. Of course, if the horse is being particularly difficult, the rider may need both hands on the reins. Use your eyes: if the horse is walking slowly with its head down and its ears pricked forwards or tilted to the side, it’s relaxed. If it has its head high and its ears back, it is agitated.

 
Share the road with horses – drive past slowly and considerately, and enjoy it as part of the sights to be seen in the countryside.

News from Europe overnight tells us that a District Court in Sweden has received papers from Saab filing for bankruptcy. If you remember Saab was first in trouble when its owner, General Motors wanted to close it down following the GFC. But protests were aired and a saviour found in the form of (then named) Spyker for $400 million last year. But then they ran into trouble and wanted to sell the company to the Chinese. But General Motors put their foot down and refused to sanction the deal on the grounds of giving away their intellectual property. So there it stood until yeaterday, where it now appears certain that Saab are gone.

But what does that mean for Saab owners in Australia?

In the short term it may mean very little, if you want to keep your car that is, as spare parts will still be available from main dealers. But if you want to sell it, you may have more difficulty (though the prospect of its demise has probably already been accounted for in its trade in price).

But hey- and here we’re calling on the brave speculators out there, is it worth buying a new or near new one now?

Think Edsel, or MG or a dozen or so good car makers that went down the drain. Their cars are now sought after by collectors for their rarity value. And you can’t get much rarer than a modern day Saab.

We contacted the Saab importer, (or ex-importer) who told us that the last few new Saabs were available for sale, but stock is running out.

So are you brave enough? Saab has guaranteed availability of parts and you will certainly have ‘exclusivity’, and maybe even the chance to make some money by selling a rarity sometime in the future. We think it’s a very good car and worth considering as a new vehicle purchase in its own right. But will it become a collectors’ item sometime in the future? If it does, then we’ll all be clicking our fingers and saying “If only”….