Bolton Advanced Motorists

Newsletter

Chairman's Chatter . . .

This has never happened to me before in all my 50 years of driving on the roads. Never before have I had broken road springs on a car, and that includes company cars doing 45,000 miles a year (one of them had 130,000 miles on the clock and never suffered from such an ailment). So now, after a mere 60,000 miles (mostly on motorways), my car has three broken springs. So what is the cause? Certainly my driving style and car sympathy hasn't changed, so there can be only three possible causes. The first must be poor quality metal used in manufacture - I suppose whilst that is a disappointment, it's not a surprise when cars nowadays are 'manufactured down to a cost'. The second potential cause must be speed humps, and the third must be poor road surface/potholes. I cannot do anything about the first, and I use all my driving skills to mitigate the second and third. So the winners are the garages, any of whom will tell you that broken road springs are a far more regular occurrence than they ever used to be.
 
Re-marking the yellow lines at the bus stop areas on Chorley New Road - essential or a waste of money? Many have been changed - but not all. Starting from Bolton School, by the time you reach the Beehive roundabout around 20 bus stop areas have been worked on, then another 20 up to the Crown Hotel at Horwich. On this one road (are there many others?) teams have burned off the old markings and then re-lined them in virtually the same place. Legislation? Faded lines? No doubt there are reasons for the work, but to my way of thinking it was not necessary. With all of the cut-backs in local government, this money could have been better spent elsewhere - maybe saving someone's job! I would be surprised if there was any change from £400 for each bus stop bay, so the total for this stretch of road alone could perhaps be £16,000. OK, it could be less (or perhaps more), but why do it now when there is such a great need to make savings?

Roy Sammons

Secretary's Scribbles . . .

This month I would like to wish a happy 50th birthday to the MoT test. It was introduced in 1960 by transport minister, Ernest Marples, who decided that all vehicles more than 10 years old should have their brakes, lights and steering checked every year. The age of the vehicle at the time of first test was reduced progressively to three years by 1967 and has remained so ever since.
 
Those of you who were around at the time will appreciate what a difference it has made to the state of vehicles on the road. If the test was scrapped, an article in the Daily Telegraph estimated that the number of unroadworthy cars would rise by 800 per cent, leading to over 12,000 extra serious injuries and over 1900 deaths each year. There would be even fewer unroadworthy cars if many people didn't think that passing the test meant that their car would be safe for the next year and conclude that it didn't need to be serviced.
 
Last year 25,252,384 Class 4 vehicles (that's mostly cars and motorcycles) passed - while some 10.1 million (about 35%) failed. Testing stations also have to pass a test: 104 authorised examiners and 159 testers were failed last year.
 
I'll end with some statistics. Those Group members, who attend the AGM, will know that I like to rattle off a few - so here goes. The reasons for failing the test were:
 
Lighting and signalling 18.9%
Brakes 17.1%
Suspension 12.2%
Emissions and fuel 8.7%
Body 8.6%
Tyres 8.1%
Steering 2.7%
Structure 2.3%
Seat Belts 1.8%
Road wheels 0.3%
Other 0.9%
 

 
It seems to me that there are some savings to be made if drivers just check their lights and signals before taking their car in for Test.
 
No doubt such a report will result in improvements in the short term but a full advanced driving course is likely to be of more lasting benefit. Afterwards, it is difficult to keep up standards without constant reminders and I would encourage you to become a Group observer as the best way of maintaining your skills.

Gary Whittle
  

 
 
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