Safe Speed Forums

I quite agree.
Remember, though, that approx one third of the vehicles on our roads are not correctly registered, so even if you get the reg. of the offending vehicle there's no guarantee that it'll lead anywhere.

The thing I find quite astonishing is just how much manpower, time and effort can be expended in the hunt for people who may have slipped through the financial net.

Phone the police and tell them there's a drug dealer selling crack to schoolkids right now, and in a couple of days someone might turn up. Have a number plate with italic script, or slightly smaller characters, and you're public enemy number one. And if you've got a Golly on the dashboard, it'll be a public execution.

You don't have to be old to be a "grumpy old man"!

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

Not really, because you'll probably find virtually all other makes too. I drive a humble Peugeot 306 that's getting on for 7 years old and I drive in the outside lane of the motorway and have dirty plates sometimes. As others have said, when you get back from driving home and your plate is filthy you don't spend time in the freezing cold / rain washing it off just so it gets equally filthy the next day. It's a fact of life that things get dirty, don't get so het up about it! I see your point, or at least the one about these "offenders" being able to go through cameras undetected but why are you now on an anti-credit, anti-Audi, Jag, Merc rant? So what if people get them on credit and some act all cocky about what they "own"?

If I were you I'd spend more time thinking about your driving, and less time ranting. Picture the scene:

"There's another one, bloomin cheek! Dirty plates and I bet it's bought on credit...rant rant! rant! I bet that one's dirty too!" (Turns to look at rear of parked car)
Child steps into road....

[/b]

yes, you're upset because you can't afford one. Get over it and get on with your life.

I'm not too worried about prestige/high performance cars in the outside lane; they've generally got such advanced chassis/steering/suspension etc that, as long as the driver has got half a brain, they'll just sail past. I've also found that quite a lot of these cars have drivers who can actually drive (especially, for some reason, Mercs).
I'm a lot more worried by the "I only paid £50 for this 20-year-old Cosworth but it'll still have your BMW" mob- the car's on the edge of it's abilities, and the driver's out of his depth on anything other than a car-park.

Well you should! I do, it takes less then a minute and the kettle has not even boiled by the time I'm inside again.

Fair enough I'm not suggesting to people that they should stop every 5 minutes but it's hardly a chore to wipe the muck off the plates with an old rag or something if you have stopped for a slash at the services.

This blasé attidude to number plate visability has I'm sure stemmed from the era of automatic enforcement, and it's very worrying. I'd never dream of knowingly setting off with a number plate that was difficult or impossible to read, and I'd make all practical efforts to maintain that on a long journey.

I probably should, yes. The reason I probably don't? I've never been stopped for it and ticked off, even though I've had BiB behind me numerous times when I've had a dirty plate you can't read. Don't get me wrong, I do clean it and generally don't go round with it totally obscured but what I'm saying is there's no incentive to clean it because you know it probably won't make a difference...so if you're late home and tired you just forget and then it's too late to do it before the next journey.

Not saying I want to be stopped, but if it happened once and I got a ticking off I'm sure I'd keep it clean. Fact is, most traffic policing is by camera and they can't tell me off as I drive past them. So I suppose I agree with the original post, but can see why people do it and don't think it would be a good policy to heavily fine people because it can accumulate on a long journey for example. Also, don't think singling out BMW drivers would help, or any other road users. Original post had good points, but has shot his argument in the foot with his excessive ranting.

Liebchen - usually have bottle of ready-mixed screen wash in car und when you have a lot of kittens - ist always flask of hot water und soap for emergency - so Ja - have been known to wipe over lamps und plates on the loo stops und coffee stops on our longest journeys. But even on shortest journey - in a rural area - can get very very dirty very very quickly....

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Nicht ganz im Lot!
Ich setze mich immer wieder in die Nesseln! Der Mad Doc ist mein Mann! Und ich benutzte seinen PC!

UND OUR SMILEYS? Smile ... und the the world smiles with you.
Smiley guy seen when you read
Fine me for Safe Speed
(& other good causes..)

Greatest love & Greatest Achievements Require Greatest Risk
But if you lose the driving plan - don't lose the COAST lesson.
Me?
Je ne regrette rien!

Our Jags are usually in L1 und move out to purr past und then we return to Lane after completing the overtake.

But Chav in souped up customised chavmobile - usually old Nissan or similar small hatch.. with stereo with the speaker which take up most passenger space on full....


Ist then more to do with attitude of driver und not necessarily his choice of car. Are lot of small German made cars on road - all sensibly driven und all presumably within budget of owner.



But chav in chavmobile ist worse und we agree likes of these gobby overpaid sport stars are not setting best example. Skilled they may be on pitch - they need same pride developing in personal manners und driving cars safely und with toppest skill should be seen as MACHO und work of art!




Ist same with houses... mortgages... und you do not really own until ist paid up in full complete with the interest. Und even if in happy situation such as selves whereby mortgage ist over und done with - if you sell up - you still have to buy another house to live in - und you may not get as good a house as your old one.

Und with price of homes in this country - ist more a case of "home own them than the other way around" - und this does not leave much more available cash to buy car... und most will buy within their budget margins.





People are still paying for Christmas 2003 und we know of one couple going through divorce who still have not paid off loan taken out for wedding of ten years ago..

My wedding took place back in home village - und my Mama und sister und self designed und made my pretty dress (simple elegant style) - und I had two bridesmaids und one cutest little flower girly only - und the family filmed und edited the dreaded video (und did manage to make it not come across as akin to watching paint dry in parts ) und they took und developed the photos as well. Und they all made the goodies for the wedding feast as well - und we had no "baggage" to start our life together because of that.

Never bought car on the "never never" - but would imagine pay back instalment will be higher in early days of the purchase to take into account depreciation und residual value.



Should imagine most of the lease agreement take into account depreciation, operational costs und profit margin to leasing company as well.





Ja... banter und expressing opinion - ist one thing - nicht? But sometimes some manage to twist the most innocent of remark into something it do not mean..

Ist longest jackanory und not for "hierher"



Perhaps you could try some Bicarbonate of soda on tongue to combat the acid

Und lavender oil ist also soothing...too ...

Try putting Epsom Salt in bath water when you have the odd bath instead of shower. The 20 minute soak in these salts ist also relaxing und tyr Yoga ... it teach you to breathe calmly....und calm breathing - it does help control the anger.



Ist good you do not drink. Try camomile tea - it taste like sweaty sock on own but palatable with honey, ginger, apple juice or lemon.

it also help the calm down.



None of us are keen on numpties und we want to see better training to help them not be such numpties...

Und we all want fair play und not pee-cee nonsense too.



Research into the efficiency und effectiveness of these scams ist skewed und not really standardised in collation - und we have no serious before/after data in many cases. Und there ist a regression to mean - which may be simple regression to norm, may be result of traffic seeking alternative route und stats have remained static whilst claims of reduction are made at scam sites... so ist looking like all we do ist shift the accident und create another blackspot area... - so I would say road safety in general ist more imprtant to me... und this also impact on need for cams - but all we see are more fines, more deaths, und more mistakes on part of the pratters und no improvements of anything in terms of KSI reduction, better standards und better facilties for any road user either.

If we improve standards und KSI fall as our improved COAST skill make us hazard aware und constantly adjusting to safest speed at all times - which may even be below lolly - then scam become redundant. Und in any case - professional ist best at spotting und recognising numptiest und tackling problem immediately instead of numpty pinging more cams in 14 days und never really learning anything.




Ist true - but 75% of any poll appear to go way the pollster like to see - whichever flavour...




Liebchen - think you find ist a friendly communuty on here - even when we disagree on things. Und same can be said for over the road too ...

But - there are some where flame wars seem to be viewed as "normal" - but they only attract one type anyway in reality Und these types have no interest in what they are ranting about - just ranting for sake of it!



Wildy

_________________
Nicht ganz im Lot!
Ich setze mich immer wieder in die Nesseln! Der Mad Doc ist mein Mann! Und ich benutzte seinen PC!

UND OUR SMILEYS? Smile ... und the the world smiles with you.
Smiley guy seen when you read
Fine me for Safe Speed
(& other good causes..)

Greatest love & Greatest Achievements Require Greatest Risk
But if you lose the driving plan - don't lose the COAST lesson.
Me?
Je ne regrette rien!

What about all the large trucks I see on the motorway and elsewhere with no number plates AT ALL !!

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

If i have missed the reply then I apoligise. The punishment for failing to maintain number plate ie dirty is £30 fine. i do enforce it for all the reasons given by others along with the LGV drivers who dont put one on at all, but i make sure that the story is possible/ plausible first off. It pisses me off to when i see cars that are clean and the number plate is dirty, no offence to bikers but they tend to do it more with smearing oil over it especially for Gatsos. Hope this answers your question
Stephen

I saw a video where a motorcyclist puts
his foot behind his number plate!

What would be your fine if you had switchable
plates like James Bond??

Its only a £30 fine for dirty number plates,
but you can be fined £80 for swearing?

What a wonderful world, wake me up when
George Orwell has written his next book.

You are right. I used to buy new cars when in lived in Canada – you could get some good deals on Fords and Chevies, and the salesmen liked to haggle. But here, vain people queue up to spend over the odds on German cars with the newest plates - it’s unbelievable!

I spent £450 on a Toyota Corrola 3 years ago. It had 6 month tax on it when I got it. It has cost zilch to service, apart from 2 tyres, an exhaust and I fitted a 2nd hand radiator myself – a 30 minute job. I must have saved at least 5 grand over buying a new car, and even now it’s got a long mot, and I could sell it on for £450 and get my money back! In fact, if people saved like that, after a while, they’d be able to go and buy some new BMWs for the whole family with cash! It’s no joke, LeveL!

What’s more, the new cars all needed ‘proper servicing’, that costs 2 or 3 hundred a pop. I’ve got a backstreet bloke to do my work, and that’s where I buy my jalopies when I have to ‘update’. Bangernomics is the only way to go.

Let the chumps to buys the new Audi’s and what have you– it’ll mean there’ll be lots of decent models going dirt cheap in a few years time.

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I stole this .sig

Absolutely. Have you seen the prices of some really good 4 or 5 year old cars in the auctions these days.
I recently saw a Golf 1.9TDI go far £3,000 on an 01 plate with only 65,000 on the clock. What a lot of car for so little money and 50+ mpg as well and my wife's cheap Mondeo Diesel Ghia (well under half list price at 2 years old) gives 53 mpg overall and is totally reliable.

Those are pretty classy cars, in my books. £3,000 is about 3x my maximum. I'm always on the lookout for old codger's cars - I give them fair value if the mileage is right. In September, I paid 1K for a P reg clio, with a true 30K (!) on the clock, and a full tank of petrol.

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I stole this .sig

The only problem with buying second-hand in the future (it's already something of a problem now, things will only get worse) is that the cost of servicing won't always depreciate as quickly, if at all - with some jobs you can easily end up with 2/3rds of the total cost being taken up by labour, and that's a cost which only ever seems to appreciate with time...

But in general I agree-buying second hand is the way to go, let someone else take the initial big hit of depreciation and pick yourself up a bargain. Even if it costs a bit to maintain, buying wisely should mean you'll still save money compared to buying a comparable new vehicle.

I knowwhatyermean BW.
My Rover 214Si, with 'K-Series Twin Cam engine and 105 bhp, which I bought to prepare for Endurance Rallying (1400 cc formula), only cost £1200 for the standard car on a 'P'. It just cost about £2500 more for preparation, I did almost all of the work myself, and now I have a competitive car that it doesn't matter if I put off the road in a forest or stage. Even if I rolled it a complete new 200 model with a huge mileage and a straight shell could cost as little as £500. I can even use it on the road as it's so driveable and well-handling.
Mind you, on a rally the number plates do get a bit dirty!

That all sounds a bit too fast for my liking. I do hope you don’t go razing around the streets of Earith and St. Ives using all that power. If you need to do that, go to Littleport … they seem to like that sort of thing down there.

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I stole this .sig

I do hope that's tongue in cheek 'werk! 105 bhp is not exactly a lot...but those engines are an ideal match in a smallish car like the 214 - nippy & reasonably good economy.

And as for the 'deutchophobe' (LeveL) AKA "Victor 'LeveLdrew" who hates anything with a bit of class & comfort making good, safe progress - get over it. Your rants were less about the dirty plates and more about the price tags. Many, if not most of these BMW 750 / AUDI A8 / Jag XKr's etc. drivers have more than enough money to finance these cars and keep them running at the 15mpg they are accustomed to. I'm no slow-coach and reside most frequently doing around my alotted speed in the fast lane with trips left to let the beemers, proper scoobies & peugeots sail past at silly speeds.....I don't get too many chavs passing, they're all noise, gutless and run out of steam way down in the rev range!

I can't honestly bring myself to actually criticise someone for having a dirty plate. There is so much counterproductive automatic camera enforcement these days that I really can't blame someone for letting their plates get into that state. This is, of course, assuming that they aren't relying on that dirty plate to get away with other offences eg. hit & runs or generally driving like a tit.

My car gets cleaned on the weekend. The nature of my job leaves me far too tired to do anything about it in the evening, and I rarely have time for breakfast in the mornings so buggered if I'm washing the car then. If it gets dirty it gets dirty, it'll be consistent with the rest of the car. If an officer tells me to clean it then I'll clean it I guess.

I don't know if it's ever gotten dirty enough to be unreadable. I've never bothered to check when cleaning the car. It just gets cleaned. I've never been pulled for it, but that could just be because there aren't enough coppers on the road.