Letters of the week, September 8
The issues that got you talking this week.
Ample opportunity
Your correspondent asks how charging provision can meet demand at service stations if electric cars become popular (“Blowing a fuse”, Points, last week). Unlike conventional vehicles, EVs can be “refuelled” at home, at work, at car parks and so on. There isn’t the same requirement to queue for fuel at a limited number of sites.
Mike Ball, Waterlooville, Hampshire
Leading question
The shortage of charging points is not the only problem. Most people in Britain’s old industrial cities live in houses without garages or off-street parking. Many live in flats. How are these people going to recharge electric cars? Will the footpaths be criss-crossed with extension leads?
David Booth, Macclesfield, Cheshire
Minor detail
With the abolition of the tax disc on October 1 (“Death of the disc is music to the ears of car crooks”, last week), how am I to demonstrate that my free-tax, “historic” 1971 Morris Minor is “continuously taxed”?
Patrick Howell, Alcester, Warwickshire
Empty gesture
The day after I read your report on tax discs I received my breakdown cover renewal reminder documents from the RAC. Included in the pack — a new tax disc holder.
Brian Beal, Wardle, Greater Manchester
Taxing problem
An important factor of the new car tax rules is that unused tax is no longer automatically transferred to a new owner. Any remaining tax becomes null and void at the instant of change of ownership. This has significant implications for private sales, because the new owner will not be able to drive it home without retaxing it first.
Paul Hunt, Solihull
Slim pickings
My garage was built in the 1970s and has resolutely stayed the same width ever since (“Wide of the marque”, Points, last week). My choice of vehicles that will fit in it while still allowing me to get in and out has steadily reduced.
Stephen Lloyd, Bratton, Wiltshire
Big demand
The answer to Brian Haynes’s question (“Wide of the marque”) is simple. Car manufacturers are only doing what others are doing — keeping up with the size of their customers.
Ken Adkin, Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
Manners maketh man
Has anybody else noticed that men — mostly, but not always — politely acknowledge the courtesy when other drivers give way or let them out, and that women — mostly, but not always — do not (“Deferential drivers make traffic jams 20% longer”, News, last week)?
Stuart Thompson, Shamley Green, Surrey
A good turn
Riding up on the inside of a car that is signalling to turn left is inadvisable and even dangerous, but that does not make the cyclist responsible for any collision (“Insider dealings”, Points, August 24). It is incumbent on any road user intending to change direction to make sure first that it is safe to do so.
This is the logic to the mirror (for which read “observation generally”), signal, manoeuvre rule. As a driving instructor, I teach my learners this. As a cyclist, I am constantly exasperated by the failure of drivers to check their left mirror before turning left.
David Leak, Manchester
The suspension is killing me
It will be interesting to read your road test of the coming Ford Mustang (News, last week). Sadly the new Mustang may be seriously flawed by suspension that is rock hard, which may limit sales of the car if people have a test drive on anything but a perfect road surface. With the launch a year away, let us hope that Ford actually drives here and experiences our potholes at first hand before it ships cars here.
Roger Tuffin, Hove, East Sussex
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