MECA Car Services South-West

Free Winter Vehicle Health Check

2012-02-17T18:09:00.000Z

Is your car coping during the winter & early Spring months?

During the Winter months, and as we head into the Spring, it is the time of year when we encourage customers to book their vehicle in with us for a free Winter health check. During this check, which takes around 30-40 minutes to complete, we will inspect your vehicle, including:

Battery condition and charge rate
Antifreeze & engine oil
Wipers & screenwash levels
Lights
Heater fan operation
Tyres & exhaust condition
Brake fluid & Power steering oil
Visual brake inspection

You are very welcome to either leave your vehicle with us for this inspection or wait in our reception area where Jennifer or one of her team we will be more than happy to make you cup or tea or coffee while you wait.

To book one of our limited spaces for our popular free vehicle health checks please call Jennifer or Chris on 01392 447901, remembering to quote "Winter-Web" at the time of your booking for the free offer.

Alternatively, for your added convenience please click here to book online

Express and Echo feature: "Garage owner proud of her mechanics"

2011-09-15T09:50:00.000+01:00

I recently nominated my mechanics for the express and Echo newspaper's Team of the Week business feature. Here's an extract from the article:

Garage owner proud of her mechanics

"...Although I provide my staff with numerous diagnostic tools, there isn't anything more satisfying than watching them work through a complicated problem together, where their collaboration and effective disagreements encourage successful problem solving. I admire their tenacity in overcoming challenges, using their combined 150-plus years' experience and knowledge......."

Read the full article here

Free Summer vehicle health check

2011-08-12T10:04:00.000+01:00

It is during these Summer months when we encourage customers to book their vehicle in with us for a free Summertime health check.

During this check, which takes around 30-40 minutes to complete, we will inspect your vehicle, including:

Battery level
Air conditioning operation
Coolant & screenwash levels
Cooling system and fan operation
Tyres & exhaust condition
Engine oil & brake fluid
Lights & wipers
Visual brake & suspension inspection

For more information or to book one of our limited spaces for this popular vehicle inspection, please either visit our website or use your mobile App to book online, quoting "Summertime-Web" for the free offer.

Just launched - Our "My MECA" Android App!

2011-08-05T13:04:00.000+01:00

Following the huge success of releasing our iPhone App we're thrilled to announce the launch of our "My MECA" Android App, available to download via the Android Market.

If you have a phone that runs Android, or an iPhone, or possibly even a Blackberry, then you will be familiar with the concept of Apps. Although the term, derived from the word Application, comes from software running on a desktop or laptop computer, Apple coined the shortened version some years ago to more readily apply to their groundbreaking mobile phone - the Apple iPhone.

Apple created the App Store to enable iPhone users to download Apps direct to their phone and when Google released their mobile operating system - Android - some time later, they also introduced an App Store known as Android Market.

With one in three adults in the UK now using a smartphone, many geek pundits are predicting that Apps are the future and that in just a short time more mobile phones will be used to access the internet than any other device; so Apps are certainly going to grow in importance.

At MECA we like to think we're ahead of the game so having an App that most of our customers can use to get in touch,or book their car in for work seemed an obvious thing to do. No longer do you have to wait to get home to look us up!

If you fancy an iPhone or Android App for your business, from just £1,500 (+ VAT) our friends at Rokk Media have to be offering the lowest prices in the country! We really can't recommend Rokk enough for being easy to work with and having a huge amount of talent!http://www.rokkmedia.co.uk/mobile

Our new website goes live!

2011-06-06T13:57:00.000+01:00

We're very proud to announce the launch this week of our new look website, complete with caricatures and (subtle) animation!

My special thanks goes to Tom www.tomfairfax.co.uk who came up with the design idea and has the patience of a saint!

Take a look and see what you think! www.mecacarservices.co.uk

Our new iPhone App - the first of its kind in the UK!

2011-04-19T18:25:00.001+01:00

There's a great little story in the business section of the Express and Echo today about our new iPhone App >> Click here to read the article.

We are the first garage in the UK to have an iPhone App which enables customers to look up directions to our garage, book on line and much more without the need to go through our website.

Born and brought up in Devon, Jennifer says: “People's lives are so busy and often you get home and have forgotten to do a multitude of tasks such as booking your car into the garage. The App will allow people to book their car in using a quick and easy form. Although we already have a booking facility on our website, our new App cuts out even more time by being instant and makes contacting us or booking online even easier for people. It has direct access to our online booking system and contact details - you can just touch the phone number and it rings us."

It also tells customers about the business, gives directions, and has links to other news feeds including the business's Twitter updates and Jennifer's blog which generally focuses on the motor industry from a woman's perspective.

The App was developed by another of the South West region’s business owners, Adam Stone, from Rokk Media in Exeter, who also developed the very popular Exeter Chiefs iPhone App.

"My MECA" App

http://www.mecacarservices.co.uk/

http://www.rokkmedia.co.uk/

Our NEW Website

2011-03-17T21:51:00.005Z

As well as our wonderful new iPhone App we're also really excited here at MECA Services about our equally wonderful new website!

Beautifully designed and developed by the fantastic Tom Fairfax (www.tomfairfax.co.uk), the site really shows off our fun side here at MECA Services. Of course it also lists our many high quality garage services :-)

Look out for the new site at www.mecacarservices.co.uk - coming to a browser near you soon!

AND a NEW iPhone App for MECA

2011-03-01T21:39:00.009Z

Coming soon - our very own MECA Services iPhone App! Developed by the lovely people at Rokk Media (www.rokkmedia.co.uk), our iPhone App will have loads of features including a 'Book Your Car In' feature!

What is an App?

If you have an iPhone, or a phone that runs Android - or possibly even a Blackberry, then you will be familiar with the concept of Apps. Although the term, derived from the word Application, comes from software running on a desktop or laptop computer, Apple coined the shortened version some years ago to more readily apply to their groundbreaking mobile phone - the Apple iPhone.

Apple created the App Store to enable iPhone users to download Apps direct to their phone and when Google released their mobile operating system - Android some time later, they also introduced an Android App Store.

Many geek pundits are predicting that apps are the future and that in just a few years more mobile phones will be used to access the internet than any other device, so Apps are certainly going to grow in importance. At MECA we like to think we are ahead of the game and having an app that our customers can use to get in touch, or book their car in for work seemed an obvious thing to do. No longer do you have to wait to get home to look us up!

We'll let you know as soon as it's available for download so watch this space!

If you fancy an iPhone App for your business, from just £1,500 (+ VAT) our friends at Rokk Media have to be offering the lowest prices in the country! We really can't recommend Rokk enough for being easy to work with and a great bunch of talent!

Climbing Kilimanjaro - The diary extracts (part 1)!

2011-02-27T13:29:00.035Z

It’s been two weeks since I returned from my Kilimanjaro climb and it’s taken me that long to recover. To be honest I still haven’t. For starters, look how ill I was!

To those looking in it was only 10 days and my friends and family probably don’t understand why I’m acting all peculiar and haven’t been in touch yet.

But to me (and I suspect my fellow team members) it feels as if it’s been more like 10 months. I have this odd feeling of claustrophobia when indoors; I’m still existing on African time, waking up at stupid o’clock and ready for my bed by 7pm; and being separated from my team mates is……….pants!

When I initially signed up to climb Kili a year ago, it was something I had always wanted to do – a ‘bucket list’ item that I could cross off whilst also raise some badly needed money for Sparks – a children’s medical research charity responsible for funding the medical technology and knowledge that saved my mechanic Paul’s premature baby’s life. But no amount of research and training could have prepared me for the incredible journey and challenges I actually faced, and I’m struggling to put into words how I feel.

Throughout the expedition, the technology allowed me to post periodic brief updates on both my Blog and on Twitter on how we were getting on (see previous posts). But to try to describe the whole experience, not to mention the highs and lows and the laughter and tears, I have decided to share with you some extracts from my personal diary.

Although we have returned, we are still actively fund raising until mid-March. I have almost reached my target, so as you read my diary, please also consider donating just a couple of pounds to a worthy cause and help me achieve the £4,000 needed. Thank you so much.

Thursday 3rd February

8.20am Our gas boiler broke down last night so I had to strip wash this morning. Good practice I guess but not the best of starts. I’m starting to panic now. I haven’t slept properly for the last 3 nights, I don’t feel ready, and am worried I’m not fit enough. I wish I’d done more training.

11.10am Picked up Sarah and Nicole and then met the remaining South-West teamsters at my garage at 11.00am. My partner Paul then drove us by minibus to Heathrow. I’m dreading saying goodbye to him.

4.30pm Met Rupinda, Fiona and our trek leader (and doctor) Kirsty. We are complete! Gobsmacked my bag checked in at only 15.2Kg - that wouldn;t happen on holiday! David and I set off the metal detectors going through airport security. It’s easy to explain my bionic feet to UK officials, but I wonder what it’ll be like in Africa? I then waited for Sarah who got selected for a full body scan. Only someone like Sarah could be thrilled at this prospect! Seen some lovely shoes in one of the airport boutique shops. Tempted. Waiting to board.

3.15am (African time) Grrr can’t sleep!! Just watched The Social Network. Loved it, despite the crap oversized headphones. It seems like everyone can manage to sleep on a plane except me! Think I’ll give Wallstreet 2 a go.

Friday 4th February

7am Dave and Sarah have just encountered the most miserable jobs-worth of a so-called official at visa control. He’s quite clearly on the take. Dave was having none of it though. Welcome to Nairobi!

1.20pm Having the most amazing bus journey across Kenya and Tanzania. The border was great fun – Pete (our driver) beckoned us all off the bus on the Kenyan side to complete departure visas, then back on the bus, a 200 yard drive to the next building, then back off the bus to complete the Tanzanian entry visas, then back on the bus. The Tanzanian official told me how much he loved my passport - it’s the new style British one. He was very friendly and had a lovely smile. So much better than that idiot Dave & Sarah encountered at the airport - and I bet his day goes quicker too because of it! I feel great! The veggie ‘ham’ sandwiches were a bit of a let down though!

4.00pm Arrived early at our hotel in Arusha – a different one to the one we were supposed to be in apparently. Nice all the same. The bedroom’s amazing! Sharing with Tracey – we opened the door, giggled at such luxury, then took a photo of it: Two double beds and the size of my kitchen, lounge and dining room combined! Shower (an incredibly long one if I get my way!), dinner, then sleep me thinks..........hopes!

To be continued...

www.justgiving.com/jennifer-riach

It's not too late! I'm only 8% away from reaching my fund raising target - just a couple of £s from each person reading this will help me achieve it.

Kili: Returning home - Saturday

2011-02-12T11:52:00.001Z

Travelled from Arusha,Tanzania to Nairobi for out final overnight flight home. We had dinner together at the airport and, in turn, shared our highs, lows and funny moments. A perfect way to end our journey.

Arriving at Heathrow at 5.30am we were welcomed at arrivals by some of David's family, my partner Paul, and Tracey's husband and daughter. Paul had also brought a bottle of champagne which we immediately sunk before boarding the minibus for our final journey back to Exeter.

Team Kili are home! Sleep and reflection now :)

Kili: Our final descent - Thursday/Friday

2011-02-11T11:25:00.002Z

We began our descent of Kilo back to Kibo Camp using a technique called "bombing" - it's like skiing down the scree just using your walking boots, digging your heels in as brakes. Great fun & only took 1.5 hrs to reach camp....and I now how leg muscles made of steel!

Packed up our bags at Kibo & then headed for Horombo Camp on the Marangu Route overnight, some 16 hours after commencing our summit climb!

The next morning we exchanged songs with our local trek porters, and presented them with gifts of money and unwanted clothing. We then trekked through the jungle to the finish at Kili's National Park border control where we received a certificate & got our passports stamped.

Now at the Impala Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania (enjoying fresh running water & a real bed!) then it's an overnight flight back to the UK arriving Sat (tomorrow) at Heathrow at 6am.

Kili Summit Day - Wednesday

2011-02-09T06:48:00.004Z

Suffered all day with altitude sickness. Skipped lunch & only forced a little soup down for dinner.

Our trek leader's a doctor so I've been in good hands. As we ascended Kili through the night on Tuesday I ended up having steroids, a multitude of drugs, and an anti-sickness jab (in my rear end!!). In the end I threw it all up and ended up totally dehydrated without any energy. I heard one team member describing me as lifeless, like a ghost walking behind the trek leader. I was also suffering from sleep deprivation and mountain sickness and I nearly fell a couple of times as I fell asleep whilst walking, and was only saved by my fellow team mates.

All the team have suffered both physically and mentally. It was sheer drive and determination that got us up there. I have never experienced anything so challenging in all my life. I may look as ill as I felt in this photo. But guess what? I did it. We did it. :)

Day 4 Kili Ascent - Tuesday

2011-02-09T06:40:00.002Z

Heading for Base Camp "Kibo". Then a few hours rest before our summit climb during the night. That's 7 hours climbing, but 16 hours in total climbing & descending again before we reach our final camp.
I feel really sick and the headaches are constant. The water tastes vile and I've lost my appetite. Looks like it's my turn to feel what altitude sickness is like. Fingers crossed and God willing I make it.

Day 3 Kili Ascent - Monday

2011-02-07T12:06:00.003Z

Day 3 climbing to Mawenzi Tarn Camp at 4,280m altitude, then a practice high altitude climb up to the Mawenzi summit - and then back down again through the scree in an hour! :-/
Some team members have started to feel the affects of altitude sickness. In fact at present I appear to be the only one who isn't suffering at all although the lack of sleep at night is starting to get me down. I'm exhausted and I'm worried it will hit me all at once at some point.

Day 2 Kili Ascent - Sunday

2011-02-06T11:12:00.001Z

>
> Climbing to 3,750m altitude to Kikelwa Camp & all teamsters are doing really well! The weather's fabulous and the food's wonderful. The only downside? Hmmm, the Ladies powder room could do with a spruce up! ;)

Day 1 Kili Ascent - Saturday

2011-02-06T11:08:00.004Z

Team Kili

Setting off Day 1 Kili ascent from Naremaru Gate at 1,950m along the Northern Rongai Route to our first camp, Simba Camp at 2,650m altitude.

Outward bound to Kili...via a civilised hot beverage and a rather nice hotel :)

2011-02-04T19:04:00.001Z

Well well, I am finally able to Blog about my climbing Mt Kilimanajro challenge...live as it happens! This is of course subject to the technology working and my laptop and iPhone batteries and chargers behaving themselves!

Alas I don't appear to be able to post photos to my Blog so you'll have to also keep an eye on my Twitter profile (to the right of this Blog) to have a look at some I post there (and just in case I end up only able to text).

So us South-West Kili Teamsters all met up yesterday at the garage and set off at 11.15am to a wonderful send-off by everyone's friends and family . Lots of tears and hankies were passed! I saved my tears for Heathrow as my partner Paul drove us up there the minibus, despite his bad back < Thanks babe > It was like going on a school outing for the day.

After a leisurely beverage at Heathrow check-in, we finally met up with our other team members and, aside from David (Bluegrass Computer Services) and I setting off the metal detectors and Sarah (Sarah West Recuitment) suddenly being swiftly taken off for a body scan, the rest of our time at Heathrow was uneventful! ;)

We landed in Nairobi at 6am local time (3am UK time) and after having to deal with an extremely rude and corrupt little visa official, we met up with Pete our minibus driver in Africa, who drove us across Kenya and over the Tanzanian border.

It was at this point that we all saw Kili in the distance. She's awesome. And much taller than we thought! Her summit was covered in snow too.

We then checked into our hotel, having been upgraded to a hotel with bedrooms larger then my lounge, dining room and kitchen all in together!

It's reality time now - Kili Ascent Day 1 tomorrow. Night all!

Jennifer is currently out of the office......Climbing Kilimanjaro!

2011-02-02T19:35:00.000Z

I've not been updating my Blog recently....I've been busy! How so? Well, just in case you haven't guessed it from my the title, I am about to embark on the biggest challenge of my life, climbing Kilimanjaro in aid of SPARKS (Childrens Medical Research) Charity.

I've previously written about my reasons for deciding to complete this challenge (which you can read here: Kili Blog and here Kili Support Page ). So, having just finished packing (you don't want to know!), I am now taking time to reflect on recent weeks and the fantastic support I have received from my friends, family, my team at MECA, local sport and business sponsors, and of course my lovely customers and suppliers - all who have been brilliant!

My main sponsors are these lovely people, who I will also be thanking in my own unique way through little personal messages I've had printed on my clothing (thanks you Quick Print)....there'll be a different one each day of my climb. You'll have to keep checking in on my Blog or get the local Express and Echo paper to see the story unfold :0)

This is the penaltimate day before we set off. I meet my fellow South West Team members at my garage at 11.00am tomorrow morning, then head to Heathrow in our Team Kili minibus to join the rest of our team, before flying out to Nairobi that evening. I am thinking about each team member right now, the individual and joint support they have given me, how they must feeling right now, and the experience we are about to share together. I love these guys. You can read more about them all here Express and Echo article .

Technology willing, I plan to update my Blog as much as possible throughout the actual 6-day climb. There are several routes by which to climb Kilil, namely Marangu, Rongai, Lemosho, Shira, Umbwe and Machame. Our ascent will follow the Rongai route, lasting 4.5 days. The last element of this climb is at night, in the snow with just headlamps, in around -15C conditions. Hopefully though, we'll reach Kili's summit in time for sunrise. For the decent we follow the Marangu route which allows us the chance to see a different part of Kilimanjaro, albeit at an incredible 1.5 day pace. I have been reliably informed the locals wait at the bottom with cases of beer to sell.......let me assure you that this image will be in my head and the only thing keeping me going as we descend! ;)Now, back to reality of today and to my wonderful partner, Paul, who has been so supportive whilst I've trained and prepared for this challenge - and reached stress levels I didn't think were possible to reach! My love and time until we leave is now totally devoted to him.

Oh....apart from the boiler to fix that broke down today, else it's a cold shower for me in the morning! :)

"Ford Capri set to return" - This is a joke, right? Well it's not funny! :(

2010-11-24T11:08:00.000Z

This is a Ford Capri:

We look after a few classic Capris at my garage. I adore them and I used to own one in the late eighties - a bright red 2.0 Ltr Capri Laser. She was very beau....my perfect Autobot!

I can't actually think of anyone who doesn't like the Ford Capri. Whether as a previous or current owner, or just from a point of nostalgia, she was indeed a car admired by many.

So when I read this week that Ford were bringing back the Capri I can not begin to tell you how excited I got. My credit card was immediately poised, prepared to part with whatever deposit they demanded of me! < um, I would have told beforehand Paul....honest love :-/ >

So online I went, clicking on the necessary links in order to obtain more details and take a peek at the new design. My heart suddenly sank and my big smiley face suddenly turned to an incredibly sad childlike pout. "What the hell" I thought, staring at my computer screen, convinced I'd chosen the wrong photo.

Okay, so they now call it a Ford Focus Coupé. But they also promote it as the new Capri. Well, I have but one message for Ford - and anyone else for that matter choosing promoting it in this way:

PLEASE!!! STOP ASSOCIATING THIS WITH A CAPRI. IT DOESN'T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE A CAPRI. LEGEND IS NOT FINALLY SET TO RETURN. THE FORD CAPRI IS NOT BACK. IT IS NOT A CAPRI.

GOT IT?

I'm 42 and I don't have kids! So why on earth am I climbing a mountain for a children's charity?!

2010-11-16T19:14:00.036Z

This is Thomas Dye, my mechanic's gorgeous little baby boy.

Imagine receiving a phone call from the consultant telling you to come into the hospital to say your goodbyes because your baby was unlikely to make it through the night? And then again a few days later? And then again?

This is Thomas a year ago fighting for his life.

Born 3-months premature, having nearly died several times, he did in fact die once - and then his little life was resussitated. And each time Paul got the dreaded phone call at the garage we all lived through it.

I call him little Tom Thumb. I was lucky enough to have been allowed to visit him when he was so very ill.

He is why I am climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. He is why I'm supporting the SPARKS childrens medical research charity. And he is who keeps me going during my training programme.

Little Thomas is the one who will give me the strength to overcome the altitude sickness, the loose screed, and the final ascent through the night in the snow to Kilimanajro's summit.

PLEASE PLEASE support me:

‎Social Media for Dummies!

2010-11-02T19:31:00.063Z

My guest blog on using social media for business written for local website design firm

As far as anything IT related goes, I am indeed a dummy; a complete technophobe actually! I am totally self-taught, I type with two fingers, I couldn’t tell you what the Function keys on my computer keyboard are for, and I don’t understand what all the fuss about iPhones is!

However, exactly a year ago I attended Exeter’s Business South West exhibition and found myself rather oddly drawn to a presentation being given by local businessman David Thomas, owner of Bluegrass Computer Services, on an introduction to social media for business.

Already being a huge Facebook fan I was nonetheless quite sceptical about using such applications for business. My first concern was in how much time I already spent on Facebook. My partner Paul will tell you I’d spend more time communicating on it than I ever did with him. And, rather sadly, it was….is…sometimes the only way that my friends and family can find out what I’d been up to! Facebook often entered my working life too, periodically logging on to check out my friends latest profile updates – usually on what they’ve just had for lunch and other such mind numbing information. So I couldn’t possibly see how I would find time to create and use social media for business without also creating a reason for divorce and bankruptcy! .....[Read more]

Make hay while the sun shines - at your peril!

2010-10-19T22:30:00.001+01:00

I must start by congratulating Yeo Valley on their rather clever telly ad. Not seen it? Not heard about it? Where have you been?!

It’s scheduled at the start of the first advert break during our Saturday night X Factor fix, and whether you admit to watching X Factor or not, viewer statistics indicate that it’s one of the most popular telly programmes of the week. Hmmm, sounds expensive! Yeo’s ad is quirky to say the least. Like it or loathe it, within seconds of its first broadcast it reached the top Twitter topic being talked about….or Twitter Trend as it’s known to us Twits. And on Youtube Yeo’s advert has had almost 178,000 views.

See for yourself - here’s the link: Yeo Valley advert

Now I mention this because? Well apart from being an avid supporter of local businesses, on watching it I couldn’t help but wish that our South West farmers really did look like they do in the ad ;-) Ta da! This brings me nicely to the subject matter in hand - farmers. Or to be more precise, their tractors, combine harvesters, and other colossal agricultural machinery!

Now don’t get me wrong, whether donning a six pack or otherwise, I think our farmers do a fantastic job; the clever ones having had to diversify quite considerably in recent years in order to survive. They are grafters and work incredibly long, unsociable hours.

But guys, if you’re reading this, my point, if you please -

Why oh why do you have to drive your tractors, combines, etc. at such incredible speeds down our country lanes, where unsuspecting drivers like my good self meet you head on around a bend and have to then suddenly slam on the brakes for fear of meeting the Grim Reaper before our time?

And some of this machinery is huge, taking up a considerable amount of road space, not just on their own side but on half of the opposite side too. Admittedly I am no expert, but I do know there are laws on wide and long loads, and I am just discovering that these laws exist for a very good reason!

During certain times of the year - hay making season for example - there are a lot of these agricultural Autobots hitting our country lanes. So whilst driving my usual route to and from work I can only deduce from the amount of near death experiences I have recently encountered - somewhat decreased by my sudden acquired skill in also avoiding the constant mud slinging these beasts chuck onto the road at will - that our hard working farmers are in the process of frantically transporting the last cut of the year.

I am rather amazed there aren’t more accidents as a result of a collision with a 10ft wide combine doing 60mph along some of Devon’s finest country lanes. Okay, so I maybe exaggerating slightly, but you get my point.

What I do know is that if I ever find myself in the unfortunate situation of having collided with one of these mechanical beasts - and the farmer even notices and stops! - I just hope that when he climbs out of his cab and heads towards me he’s as gorgeous as those chaps in the Yeo ad, as this may be the only thing that saves him from my fury! ;-)

Driving slows down in Devon. Speed kills. So kill your speed!

Is ending better than mending?

2010-08-29T14:40:00.001+01:00

Environmentalists today are campaigning for "reuse, reduce and recycle" in a bid to save the world, but as a nation we may have just adopted ‘replace’ as our mantra. Whether it is big stuff like household goods, cars, laptops or smaller items like disposable nappies, we are constantly replacing things in our life with little regard for our environmental woes or financial situation.

The reasons for our becoming a throwaway society are manifold (as in ‘many’ and not of the exhaust type!). In a quest for better living standards, we wish to own the latest equipment and gadgets. Once new items are acquired, short-term euphoria is experienced until a new model in the market makes our possessions redundant and outmoded. There is then a scramble to dispose of these unwanted things to second-hand shops and scrimp, save or borrow to buy the latest ‘toys’. I have lost count of the people I know who own the latest iPhone, iPad and PS9 (or whatever version they’re up to now!).

The markets are also flooded with cheap, ‘for single use only’ commodities that are more in demand than high priced quality items. Mind boggling (for me any way!) mobile ‘phone accessories that change the look of your handset in the blink of an eye, shoes that quickly come apart at seams, cheap t-shirts that lose colour and shape after a single wash, and wrist watches that stop telling time before three months are over and yet there is a rush to buy more and more until our houses, cupboards and garages seem to be overflowing with goods that are more in quantity and less in value.

It would have been a different matter if convenience and better living standards were the only reason behind the burgeoning use of disposable items. With changing times, our values and norms have also shifted shape. There is intense competition and rivalry among the more affluent for becoming society's trend setters. The trickledown effect of this tendency has played havoc on the middle-class strata.

People are working long arduous hours to earn more and more money so that they can keep up with Jones’ and Smiths, or else lose face. This money is being spent to replace personal use items, electronic gadgets, household stuff and, of course, cars at an alarming rate. It no longer matters if they are perfectly functional, what matters is that there is a new model of car available on the market, with a lot more gadgets to offer.

A quick word about such gadgets though…the more toys your car comes with, the more things can go wrong. The last time I bought a washing machine the sales guy tried to steer me towards one that had so many additional features it made me dizzy. But I didn’t want my washing machine to do the cooking, ironing and hoovering, I just wanted it to wash my clothes! So I firmly stood my ground and bought one at half the cost my commissioned salesman had intended me to.

The urge to consume is so powerful that we actually judge other people based on how much they consume. Think about it: many value someone more who purchases a new expensive car every three years than someone who keeps the same sturdy car for ten years or more. We are judged by what we buy, how much we consume, and not by how adept we are using what we have.

Many of these products aren't simply disposable because their nature requires them to be though, they are disposable because they are designed to be so you can only use them for a short term before you purchase them again.

The current abundance of choice coupled with the ease with which things are discarded as soon as they lose their newness has given rise to intense consumerism in our society with simplicity and gratification being its first victims. Never mind the length of time it takes me to go shopping now, browsing at the different choices of the same product readily available! I have even been known to enter the supermarket in daylight hours and not venture out again until dark! It is indeed a sad reflection of our times as a society that lives in throes of consumerism is not able to sustain its values and traditions for long.

So is ending better than mending?

Well, from my industry's perspective it can be. It is often cheaper for the customer to replace parts rather than repair them. For example, replacing electronic wing mirrors, light units and some exhaust sections will usually cost half as much as it would do repairing them. But within our own environmental policy, we also try to use second-hand parts, mostly for customers with older cars who can’t necessarily afford the new replacement engine or gearbox that’s just given up on them. Breaker yards are so much more professional these days than the intimidating dirty and untidy backyard they used to be. And it is often easier to use the many national parts supply networks available on t’internet rather than take fruitless trips trudging around a local breaker yard. All their parts come with some sort of warranty and, with a little conversation about age, mileage and history of the vehicle that the sourced part has come from, ta-da! you suddenly have your perfectly good replacement part at often over half the cost of a new one.

However, there is nothing I take more pride in than watching my boys in the workshop going back to basics. By this I mean watching them diagnose a really complicated running fault, where our latest diagnostic equipment may say one thing, but their instincts and experience say another. I consider myself very fortunate to have the team I work with at MECA. Whether replace or repair, they are always right.

Another motorcyclist dies in crash - A sharp reminder that none of us are perfect drivers!

2010-08-01T18:31:00.002+01:00

My partner Paul and I own a number of vehicles between us. There's the Honda CR-V, Land Rover 90, BMW 1-series, Alfa 156, and the Honda CBR 600 and Yamaha Vmax bikes, to name but a few.

As owners of both 4-wheels and 2-wheels, like most, we regard ourselves as careful, considerate drivers, well aware of the risks from both our own actions and those of others on the road. In fact, I will go as far as to say that we have a good understanding of how to behave on the road, particularly when, for example, there is a motorbike behind us & they need the confidence of our moving the car slightly left to know that we've seen them before they overtake us; or when we're coming up to a T-junction and know to stop earlier than the white line invites us to in acknowldegement that the lorry turning into our road needs a wider turning circle than the white line would have allowed; or that heavy loaded vehicles need a greater stopping distance, so pulling in front of them at a motorway exit just so we can get ahead isn't such a good idea.

But if we're both so good at driving then how come Paul and I also critise each other's driving skills and ability, whether it's that the other one drives too fast, brakes too late, or doesn't always look where they're going?

We have both been involved in road accidents. Paul's involved someone pulling out in front of him, then immediately braking. He was on a motorbike and the other driver just hadn't seen him. Paul broke both of his collar bones. My accident involved a head on collision in an East Budleigh country lane where the other driver couldn't be bothered to wait at the wider point of the lane, instead deciding that his car was narrower than it was. I slowed down when I realised what was happening, but he just kept on coming at me! Although the cars came off worse than either driver, I lost my nerve. It took me 4 weeks before I could even leave the house to walk into the village to post a letter, and I nearly didn't drive again.

We have also experienced many near misses, including by those who change lanes without first looking; HGVs coming round a blind bend at speed from the opposite direction using up both sides of the road; drivers overtaking on the brow of a hill not seeing the oncoming traffic ahead; those pulling out of a junction apparently having "not seen us"; and those who think that their side of the road just isn't enough for them.

So when I saw the shocking front page story in the local Express and Echo newspaper on Saturday, it was a sharp reminder that none of us are perfect drivers and we all need to stop taking our driving for granted, thinking that it won't happen to us. Actually, it can happen to us. When we get behind the wheel, none of us are perfect.

Express and Echo Saturday 31st July 2010:

Motorcyclist dies in crash with 4x4 just outside Exeter

A motorcyclist died in a collision with a car just outside Exeter.

Witnesses rushed to help the rider, believed to be in his fifties, who was travelling on a Harley Davidson when he was in collision with a Honda 4x4 on the B3212 at Longdown.

The crash happened at around 11.20am yesterday, close to Culver Lodge. The owner of the property, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Echo he rang for an ambulance after a horrified driver travelling on the road knocked on his door for help.

The resident, in his thirties, took a blanket from his home and placed it over the motorcyclist.

"I didn't know anything until someone came to the door and asked for help, so I rang the ambulance," he said. "It was a motorcyclist. It happened right outside our house. "I went out and took a blanket for the poor guy. I put the blanket on him." He added: "It does seem like an accident blackspot."

Police and the Devon Air Ambulance attended the incident. The road was closed for several hours and diversions were put in place while accident investigators examined the scene. The driver of the Honda is not thought to have suffered any serious injuries in the crash.

Charles Eden, owner of nearby conference venue Culver House, said he believed the motorcyclist had been on a bend in the road when he was in collision with the car.

"The motorcyclist was going one way and the car was going in the other direction, but I'm not certain if it was a head-on collision or not," he said. "There was another accident in the same spot just before Christmas. We were returning from Exeter when we saw the road was closed. We had to abandon our car and walk the rest of the way, escorted by the police."

The motorcyclist was heading towards Dunsford while the Honda was travelling on the road to Exeter.

Parish councillor Vicky Kernick, who lives in Vicarage Lane, Longdown, described the incident as "very sad".

A Devon & Cornwall Police spokesman said: "Police dealt with a fatal collision on the B3212 at Longdown, near Exeter. Police were called to the scene of a collision between a car and motorcycle at around 11.20am.

"Paramedics and the Devon Air Ambulance were at the scene treating the motorcycle rider. The driver of the car, a Honda, is thought to be unharmed."
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/
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MECA Services proudly supports the work of the Devon Air Ambulance Trust as it's chosen charity of the year. For further information please visit www.daat.org/

2010-07-27T19:26:00.006+01:00

In support of

"LADIES DAY" RETURNS!!

"Vehicle Awareness Day for Ladies
& New Drivers"

Friday 30th July 2010

Back by popular demand, I am once again closing my garage doors to normal business in order to offer my free vehicle awareness day, aimed at ladies and new drivers who want to have their car checked over and learn a little about their own vehicle, such as how to change the spare wheel, check tyre pressures and oil levels.

Our many female customers use MECA Services because they feel comfortable with the service and help they receive. I run my "Ladies Day" to ensure that our lady's and new/young drivers’ personal safety is not compromised.

Car checks take about 30-40 minutes each to complete and include condition of tyres, tyre pressures, lights, windscreen, washers and wipers, as well as oil and coolant levels.

During this free open day my boys and I will offer advice and demonstrations on the fundamentals of safety, including how to look after your car, what to carry in the boot and other basic things like how to check tyre pressures and change a tyre.

£1 a strip!

No seriously, a prize draw will take place at the end of the day with participants entering to win prizes such as a massage & manicure courtesy of Purity Skincare, a selection of wine, jewellery, and a 4x4 experience courtesy of West Country Land Rover Experience, near Honiton. Tel: Jennifer on 01392 447901 for your "£1 a strip" draw tickets!

Everyone at the event will also receive a free gift bag!

Free refreshments will be provided throughout the day courtesy of local businesses Percolapps Coffee Shop & Fresha cafe

In association with

Work experience placement a success (despite my cluckiness)!

2010-07-13T16:13:00.000+01:00

I’ve always wanted to start taking on apprentices, however, there are so many things to consider beforehand, such as insurance, health & safety, training, time, etc. etc. It’s a minefield out there especially when employing young ’uns!

I get calls and CVs sent to me all the time. Sadly, many of these are from trainee mechanics who have already started their apprenticeships and have lost their work placement due to the financial downturn, garage closure, and such like.

Sometimes I feel a bit like when I’m at the RSPCA rescue centre and want to take home every animal in the place! I want to respond to all those who have made an effort in contacting me and say “of course you can work here and finish off your apprenticeship!”

Alas I am not quite ready for an apprentice yet, although I hope to be in the near future. I have, however, completed the first stage in planning for this and have recently gained both Devon and Somerset County Council endorsement as an approved centre for their school’s work experience placements. We recently took on our first lad, Ashley, from St Peters School in Exeter.

Ashley’s first day started off with a full induction of the garage including safety talks, staff introductions, and, most importantly, whether the drinks station is located and who takes what in their coffee! No seriously, in our industry health & safety is of utmost importance and the poor lad had to endure a thorough safety briefing by both myself and one of my mechanics.

I asked Ashley what paperwork he had brought with him and was promptly handed a dog-eared bit of paper regarding employer risk and liability. I was a it surprised that there wasn’t some sort of report for us to complete, and Ashley just had that “Look, never mind the paperwork, just hand me a spanner will you!” expression on his face when I mentioned this, so being a newbie to this myself I agreed to follow it up later with the school. I’ll come back to this in a mo.

I assigned Ashley to Mr Miller (or “old bloke” as we affectionately call him) for his day-to-day supervision, who is one of my mechanics who teaches young drivers during our vehicle health check day events. He’s really good with them; patient, attentive and thorough. Perhaps Mr Miller’s alternative vocation in life….well certainly through more recent years as he heads towards retirement…..should’ve been in teaching mechanics. Tough luck though as he’s mine, so hands off all you engineering colleges out there!

Whilst Ashley was with us we found a range of work for him to assist with, including standard servicing, brake replacement, and suspension repairs. I’d also arranged for him to visit and observe our other partner sites, including our MOT station and tyre centre.

In addition, I sprung a surprise visit on him to the Exeter fm radio station, who we sponsor. Ashley sat in the studio with their breakfast presenter, Nino Firetto, completely petrified in case he was suddenly put on air! As we left, I did catch him pointing and laughing (also known by teenagers as taking the pis...) at a newspaper clipping of Nino back in his Music Box and Splash! "mullet" days. Err...any way, thanks for looking after him Ni.

Ashley had the opportunity to work with all of our mechanics in order to experience different working methods and approaches to work tasks. We also discovered that he has a favourite tool. Once he got hold of our airgun (used for undoing wheel nuts etc.) there was no stopping him. I almost expected to pop my head out of my office (known by some as “Tweetdeck”) and see Ashley holding said airgun, doing a scene from 'Sleeping with the Enemy' - you know the one where the good guy’s out there watering his garden and starts dancing and singing the 'Jet Song' using the garden hose as a prop (mimicking West Side Story)!

Ashley’s last couple of days with us were a little busier than we’d planned. “Why’s that Jenn?” I here you ask. Well I’ll tell you. He suddenly produced this workbook that he was supposed to complete from day one, covering all the work he did, his thoughts, the elements of work he liked and disliked, how he thought he did, etc. etc. Arggghhhh……teenagers!! You’ve just gotta love ‘em though, after all, we were one once ourselves.

Anyway, out came the job cards from the previous fortnight and there Ashley sat with each of the mechanics he worked with, considering and assessing the work that they’d done together. My partner, Paul, then helped him complete the self assessment elements of his workbook, whilst I put together a folder of all and everything to do with my garage as there was a hint that he might have to complete an essay at some future point. Yes, I had become all maternal, clucking away as if my own son had just come home from school and I was helping him get his homework done!

Having taken the time to do some reflecting of my own, it was great to see my team embrace new, young enthusiasm as they have done with Ashley. Work experience placements and apprenticeships are extremely important and they should not be treated lightly by employers. They should be well planned, varied and interesting. They should be educational, positive and the employer should be fully committed to the placement being a success. Otherwise, it is industries such as ours who lose out as a whole.

On Ashley’s last day, when it was time for him to leave, he went round shaking hands with everyone and thanking them. I overheard him refer to Mr Miller as “old bloke”. Mr Dye, who Ashley particularly seemed to gel with, got a hug. I suddenly got all maternal again, and almost tearful too. We were sad to see him go. Ashley was a pleasure to have as part of ‘Team MECA’; he learnt quickly, listened carefully when he needed to, asked loads of questions, and he seemed genuinely interested in becoming a mechanic. His passing comment as he was leaving about coming back to see us and wanting to work at MECA lead me to conclude that it was a positive experience for all of us.

Air conditioning not working? It might not be broken!

2010-06-28T09:45:00.003+01:00

Hooray, we now have warmer weather….finally! Let’s hope it lasts the summer this year.

So, you finally get the rare chance in this country to use the air conditioning in your car, but instead of feeling a lovely cool breeze on your face catastrophe strikes & warm air shoots through the vents! Sound familiar?

At this time of year my garage receives around 10 calls a week from concerned customers wanting help with their aircon problems. Most, including me before I got into this industry, don’t understand how their aircon system operates and assume it is broken and going to cost a fortune to get repaired. Not true! For a good majority of our customers, the system simply requires re-gassing.

So let me try to explain in Jennifer speak how the air conditioning (aircon) system works and what could be happening to your car.

Like your body, the aircon compressor is the heart of the aircon system, and Freon gas is the blood. The compressor pumps Freon throughout the aircon system, either the older type R12 (which costs as much as gold it seems these days!), or the new environmentally-friendly R134A Freon. Any way, my point is it’s Freon!

This Freon is a gas and liquid combination that is compressed and circulated throughout the air conditioning system. The compressed Freon is pushed through the system under pressure and is passed through different sized metal and rubber hoses and a special valve called an expansion valve that cause the gas to expand and contract.

This expansion and contraction makes the Freon gas very cold. The cold gas makes its way via metal lines into the dash area of your vehicle to the evaporator core.

The evaporator core is like a small radiator, except it has cold Freon circulating inside and not hot antifreeze. A small fan (the aircon blower fan which you control from the control panel on the dash) sits in front of the evaporator core and blows air across this cold evaporator and then through the vents inside your vehicle.

The objective of the air conditioning system is to remove the heat from inside vehicle. This heat is removed by the Freon with the help of the aircon condenser located at the front of the car (usually in front of the radiator). The Freon coming back from the evaporator carries the heat from the cab to the condenser via rubber and metal hoses. Just like your radiator, the condenser is lightweight aluminium with many internal winding coils.

The Freon travels through these coils, and in between these coils are small slits or fins that the Freon is forced through. The condenser will have an electric cooling fan mounted in front or behind it to push or pull air through these fins to remove the heat from the Freon. Some vehicles still use the old fashioned fan blade driven by the engine to pull air across the radiator and the condenser.

Okay, so maybe this isn’t quite the Jennifer speak I’d intended, but believe me, this is just an overview on how the air conditioning system works, and it is very general.

A few causes of low cooling efficiency or no cooling at all at idle (stationary/low speed) are:

• Lack of air flow across the condenser. We ensure the electric cooling fan motor near the condenser is coming on, or in models that are equipped with a fan blade we make sure this fan is turning and is turning very fast.

• Low Freon levels. Freon level and pressure are checked - by law, this must be carried out by a qualified air conditioning mechanic, like ours ;-). This is one of the most common reasons why your aircon isn’t working. The system needs re-gassing every one or two years.

• Overheating. If the engine is running hot or overheating, it can have a noticeable negative affect on the aircon system. Some cars have two electric cooling fans, one for the aircon condenser and the other for the radiator. Usually at idle on a hot day with the aircon on both fans will be on. We check to ensure they are both working properly.

When your car is travelling at higher motorway speeds, the compressor is pumping the Freon throughout the system much faster and harder than at idle. There is therefore a dramatic increase in air flow across the condenser due to higher mph winds, and the engine is usually operating at a cooler, more efficient temperature as well, thus allowing the air conditioning system to operate efficiently.

So an air conditioning system that is somewhat low on Freon can still feel comfortable at motorway speeds due to the added air flow across the condenser which can overcome the ill effects of slightly low Freon. Periodic air conditioning performance checks and a service are the best way to keep the system in great shape.

The last point I wanted to make (and I loved this tip when I found out about it myself!) is this. Use your aircon system in the winter months too! It clears the ice from your windscreen a lot faster!

A typical aircon service will cost around £25-30 + VAT. It includes a anti-bacterial treatment and pollen filter.

A typical aircon re-gas costs £50 + VAT. You can also ask for a regas with a special UV dye if you suspect you have a leak which makes the leak much easier to detect. This usually costs around £10 more but saves a lot of labour tome (and cost!) in the long term. A decent respectable garage such as ourselves ;-) will offer a free re-gas should any faults then be identified with the system.

Of course a cheaper option is to

wind your window down!

By law, only certified garages with trained, qualified mechanics can offer an aircon re-gas service though, and there aren’t many of us around in the Exeter area. So don’t get taken in by those cowboys (or girls!) out there offering cheaper “cash jobs”, which then aren’t under warranty and they won’t be able to repair any identified problems if the aircon re-gas doesn’t solve the problem.

Anyway, whether your air conditioning system is working or not….enjoy the summer and this lovely fine weather we’re having!

Kilimanjaro Trek: Team Training Day 1

2010-06-03T10:59:00.008+01:00

So here we all are then: The South-West’s “Team Kili” < well, all except for Tracey who’s holidaying abroad…nice! >

Last weekend we headed to Dartmoor for our first team training walk in preparation for our February 2011 Kilimanjaro Summit climb to support Sparks, the childrens medical research charity. The weather was forecast to be pants so we had agreed a strategic 6-mile (ish) walk, depending on how wet and miserable we all got whilst out in the notorious elements of the moors.

I had invited my friend Hannah to join us, so having picked her up we drove out to meet the others at the Two Bridges. On the way, Hannah worked out that her rucksack's water container + sucky pipe thing only works if it positioned the right way up ;-)

Me & Hannah Paul

Whilst we waited for everyone to arrive at our meeting point, I learnt that the lovely Nicole (Sparks) had been baking and the little minx had put together an assortment of homemade biscuits and cake < I’ll refer back to these and my reference to her being a minx later > Everyone then started to either stretch their legs or carry out some other form of sensible warm up exercise….whilst I deliberated whether to pop inside the Two Bridges Hotel for a couple of poached eggs on toast and large pot of coffee!

Nicole
The last to arrive were Caroline and her chap Matt. I mention this because I believe that both Matt and Nicole were part of a big conspiracy! This was our first team walk and as such some of us were expecting a gentle build up of walks over the course of time. Matt obviously had other ideas for us. With his Royal Marine background and in-depth knowledge of the moors, as voted-in Team Leader for the day he duly announced the start of our 9….yes, 9-mile circular walk, eventually ending up back where we started. I shot Nicole a look that said “Hey, YOU said it would be 6….that’s six…..the number that comes after 5 and before 7…..miles!!”; to which she just smiled back innocently, offering one of her delicious homemade biscuits which smelt divine and tasted heavenly.

Me & Nicole

Matt was brilliant! We took the Wistman’s Wood and West Dart circular route, climbing tors, tackling fierce barbed-wire fences < thanks for the lift over these Paul xx >, trekking through treacherous bogs, experiencing Dartmoor’s finest farmers < and dead livestock! >, and crossing the equivalent of white water rivers. Ok ok, so it was actually the West Dart stepping stones, but when you’re only 5’4” each stone feels like it’s a mile apart! My thanks at this point goes to Dave, Darren et al for the sudden flash photography just at the point where poor Hilary and I were half way across and deciding whether it would be far quicker and easier to swim across!

West Dart

We re-grouped periodically throughout the day, where Matt briefed us on our location, how far we’d walked and how far we still had to go.

I think it was at the point when Matt announced that we were on our final easy stretch that Paul first started smelling the beer and everyone looked both happy and relieved. What we hadn’t counted on was Matt’s idea of an "easy stretch" which was all uphill and included another sneaky Bog to tackle, where at one point I stood on a tuft of grass looking back to see poor Hannah almost up to her waist in boggy water, shouting “Quuiiiick, run Jenn, I’m sinking!” Everyone was eerily quiet during this final "easy stretch" as we all considered dry feet and whether we’d ever taste beer again. I had actually started to stub my toes on the gravel track because I seriously couldn’t lift my legs to walk any more!

Matt (centre!) & some of Team Kili

The weather had turned out to be perfect for walking; it was dry, warm and cloudy. Of course this is also one of mother nature’s sneaky deceptions - which we all discovered when we eventually sat down at the end of our walk, having driven to this fabulous little pub (which sold Otter, yey!) and we all started laughing at each other’s sun…..err, I mean wind-burnt faces < Darren, you won that competition by the way! >

Matt and Caroline sat at one end of the large wooden table with a map and some little measuring tool < his finger! >. We all placed bets on the amount of mileage we’d just walked. I think most guessed 9 or 10 miles. I said 11 miles as I rubbed my sore toes and wished I’d brought my Reefs with me to change into.

Matt announced that it was 12 miles. Nicole got out her homemade biscuits and smiled innocently....the little minx!

Team Kili singing happy birthday to Hannah's hubby!

If you would like to sponsor me in aid of Sparks charity please visit my Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/jennifer-riach . All donations are welcome, no matter how small. Thank you so much. Jenn

So who are the better drivers: men v women? Driving challenge update

2010-05-24T08:30:00.011+01:00

Well you may remember I wrote a Blog not that long ago on who was the better driver between men and women. No? Well, let me remind you with this link: http://bit.ly/cElAse

I was then challenged by Nino Firetto (from Exeter fm) to a driving challenge to prove it once and for all. Remember that? No? Well where have you been?! Here, the links to this too: http://bit.ly/cCaYUv & http://bit.ly/9NAD7s & http://bit.ly/czAJqL

Alas Nino is now unable to commit to the challenge….me thinks he is just too scared of losing to a girl!…..so, whilst one could arguably accept his defeat graciously, fortunately I still feel that this event is too good an opportunity to put the male v female driver argument to bed once and for all. And so this local charity fundraising event is to continue, even bigger and better than before!

So who will be the brave man to take me on in a driving challenge? Someone who.…well, lets face it…..will have to face public humiliation when I prove once and for all that women ARE the better driver!

Rather surprisingly, there are a couple of well known celebrities with links to Devon who are up for the challenge instead. I am very honoured and flattered. So we’re just in the process of organising their availability, confirmation of venue, etc. etc. and then, ladies and gentlemen, all will be revealed.

I’m sooooo excited! Watch this space :)

Car repair scams exposed!

2010-05-11T09:07:00.004+01:00

First let me start off by saying that not all mechanics or car repair garages are crooks who are out to get you. Mechanics and garage owners for the most part are just trying to make a living just like you. Granted, I will be the first to agree that some mechanics-come-garage-owners are poor business people, and some of the mistakes they have made are due to this fact.

Most mechanics just like to work on cars, running an honest and profitable garage is usually not on their priority list. I have a lot of respect for competent, honest, highly skilled mechanics and I am extremely fortunate to have a whole team of them. Working on modern vehicles demands unprecedented talent and training, and I’m of the opinion that an advanced computer science degree wouldn’t hurt either! I mean, have you looked under the bonnet of a car lately? A career at NASA could be a stepping stone to diagnosing some issues that we often come across!

Alas, there are a few cowboys still out there who perpetuate stereotypes. They know all the old mechanic scams and routinely sell premature or unnecessary parts and services. It is bad enough they bleed you for extra money wherever they can, but these peeps are also messing with your car. Whether that is by design or incompetence, you could face more repairs, a breakdown or even, heaven forbid, an accident.

Running a garage business is like most other businesses - it is hard work! We have heaps of regulation and laws to conform to, lots of expenses in keeping our equipment and our staff updated, and high insurance and related overhead costs.

As you read the examples I am about to give, please keep this in mind.

Emergency oil leak
You're loading your groceries into your car when a Good Samaritan walks up and says, "Hey, take a look at this!" as he points to an oily spot under your engine. Being a guy who knows a little about cars he tells you he spots an oil leak and you're lucky to have found it before you suffered engine damage. He then recommends a very trustworthy garage that he's been using for years, close by. You thank the good man, take it to his recommended garage, and the oil leak is repaired before real engine trouble arises. Sounds great, except the Good Samaritan squirted oil onto your engine, and the nice garage owner is his cohort in deception. In other words, you got scammed!

Special offers
Don't be fooled by some "Service & MOT" special offers! Now I am not saying there are not good deals to be had out there, indeed we occasionally have seasonal special offers ourselves. However, please be cautious, as you do not always get what it says on the tin! I wouldn't take my pet cat to a doctor to get her checked over, I'd take it to a vet, a specialist in animals. There is good reason why some traditional sayings are passed on through generations - because they are true. In this case, you get what you pay for and often, for example, the service turns out to be just an oil & filter change, a long scary list of costly repairs apparently needing to be done….and nothing more!

Premature shock/strut replacement
Sooner or later, you’ll need to replace your car’s shock absorbers or struts. The mechanic scam here is when “sooner” is pushed too hard. So my advice here is: do a little pushing of your own! The old bounce test on your bumper in many cases is still in my opinion a reliable way to tell if your shocks or struts are really bad, but also pay close attention while driving.

If the car is like a bobble-head doll after hitting bumps, or it pitches and rolls in slow corners, or it is noticeably unable to quietly absorb all but the slightest imperfections, then it’s probably time.

Worn shocks are one thing and can be an advisory item for the future. Leaking shocks are quite another however, and will be a reason to fail an MOT test.

Engine treatments
This mechanic scam often comes up at oil change places, but it’s also at some garages and they’re on store shelves too. The pitch is that by adding just a little of the product to the oil, the engine will run like new. Between my own experience and the expertise of my boys as well as from other mechanics I know, results are mixed.

Personally, I am not a lover of engine treatments. They may not necessarily harm your engine, but the benefits, if any, seem minimal and temporary at best. For example, if the idea is to quieten noisy lifters or a big end (if you’ll pardon the expression), you may have bigger issues not to be ignored.

Fuel treatments on the other hand are a wonderful invention. They have obvious and immediate effects on your engine’s fuel economy and performance. Fuel is generic after all, whereas engines require specific grades of oil where additives may change the manufacturer’s specification of oil.

Timing belt (cambelt) replacement intervals
A broken timing belt could cost you a recovery bill, a good walk to a pay phone for help, and possible internal engine damage that can cost you big time and take days to repair. Despite what people think, the timing belt is not always visible and should be replaced as a minimum by the mileage of or age of the car, whichever comes sooner, and not what the belt looks like.

Don’t get talked into having the timing belt changed just because of an assumed ignorance or from scare mongering because of the horror stories you hear about ruined engines and huge repair bills. Check your car’s handbook and use this as a guide. If it states to replace the timing belt at 72,000 miles or 6 years, for example, then don't wait any longer! If you bought the car second-hand and do not have the service record showing timing belt replacement, my advise would be to have it replaced, at least at the mileage the manufacture recommends and not to take a chance on assumed replacement by the previous owner. And please - get a quote first. Some timing belt changes take around 2½ hours to do. Others can take 8 or 9 hours. All should include changing the belt and tensioner and good practice is to change the (visible) alternator belt at the same time.

Premature brake pads/discs replacement
The mechanic’s not lying: You do need fully functional brakes, and the discs and pads are often found to be worn and not at their peak thickness levels. But think about it. Technically, “peak thickness” only exists upon installation; everything after that is compromised. So, don’t ignore your brake system by any means, but also be aware of what does and doesn’t happen when you use them.

If there’s truly a legitimate issue, address it. If not, don’t get taken by this mechanic scam and spend money prematurely. Ask by how much they are worn as an approximate percentage and roughly how much mileage you have left in them. Often, a simple brake service will suffice which will clean off any corrosion and lubricate the moving parts to give you many more months of effective braking.

Servicing new cars still in warranty
Did you know that in October 2003, changes in European legislation meant that it is possible to have your car serviced at an independent garage without invalidating your manufacturer's warranty? This legislation is referred in the trade as Block Exemption Regulations and gives you the freedom to choose who should look after you car. The Office of Fair Trading reports that the average service costs £199 at a typical main dealer, whereas an independent garage average is £116 without any apparent difference in quality. Our own services start at even less than that at around £95!

Most garages that I know of do not possess a crystal ball to see into your car's future, so please do not hold us accountable for making precise time estimates for how long things will last if you neglect them. I get asked most days "If I don't replace the timing belt today how many miles do you think I can get out of it?" In 1987 the manufacturer of the Challenger space shuttle’s fuel rocket o-rings were probably asked the same question!

So my message is this. Stay alert and be aware of these mechanic scams some may try to run past you. But let the garage do their job. My primary goal as a garage owner is to keep your car running safely and to help you understand the repairs required and why. We will not carry out unnecessary work and regularly send customers away telling them, for example, that they’ve got six months left on their brake discs, or you’ll hear me say “We like wheel bearings to be a lot noisier than that before we’ll change them!”

One of the first actions I took when I started running MECA Services was to join the Good Garage Scheme which, among others things, gives you the customer the opportunity to give independent feedback on us the garage for a change. We are also a member of The Best of Exeter which promotes the best businesses in the local area using recommendations - word of mouth.

It is a start. All feedback is independently collated and published by the two organisations on their respective websites so that potential customers can view the testimonials given when considering whether to trust us with their car. Hopefully my customers do not drive off feeling as if they’ve been ripped off or scammed, and they will tell their friends about the wonderful service they have received from Exeter’s only lady owned, award winning garage!

The Best of Exeter http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/exeter
Good Garage Scheme http://www.goodgaragescheme.co.uk/

"OMG, I TOUCHED HIM! HE'S SO SLIMY!! IT WAS HORRIFYYYYING!!!"

2010-04-29T11:36:00.001+01:00

While eerily similar to a phone call I made to my mother whilst on my honeymoon < joke! >, the title of this Blog was actually the scream I heard from my sister, Andrea, when we were little ankle biters.

So let's rewind a bit. Once upon a time....

We had two fish, namely Gilbert & Sullivan, but specifically: Gilbert & Sullivan the Blue Betta Fish. Gilbert was Andrea’s and Sullivan was mine.

Both my sister and I had spent a good few months relentlessly on my mother’s case for a pet. Mum talked it over with friends and finally decided we were responsible enough. Thinking back I rather suspect she was up for anything that might make us stop talking for ten minutes.

Anyway, we all headed off into town one day to the local pet store and this is where we found Gilbert & Sullivan, both struggling to survive in a small container four sizes too small for them.

Now let's flash-forward back to the screaming.

Andrea had been taking good care of Gilbert (& Sullivan) for a couple of weeks, until -- "OH MY GOD! I TOUCHED HIM!! HE'S SO SLIMY!!! IT WAS HORRIFYYYYING!!!! OHHHH MYYY GOD!!!!!" She came running into the kitchen (where I was busy helping mum lay the table for dinner), having a complete little kid style nuclear meltdown, tears flowing in bucket loads.

"What happened?!" mum asked rather concerningly.

"I put my finger in the hole on the top of the tank where we feed them, and I touched Gilbert -- OOOH MYYYY GOD!!!!! HE BIT ME!!! AND I TOUCHED HIM!!! OHHHH GOD!!!!"

"He didn't bite you." Mum said calmly, with a quiet chuckle.

"YES, HE DID!!!!!!" Andrea insisted.

Then I piped up with "Are you bleeding?" < :-) >

"WELL -- NO... OH GOD!!!! WASH MY FINGER!!!!! WASH IT!!!!"

"Calm down!” mum said. “You're fine. Maybe he was just trying to give you a kiss?"

"NOOOO!!! HE HATES ME!!! I NEVER WANT TO SEE HIM AGAIN!!!!" she screamed.

At this point I came up with a plan to stop her whining and screaming. So I walked my reluctant sister back to Gilbert & Sullivan’s little tank, having agreed to make her feel better by putting my own finger in there.

So I poked my finger down the hole into the water. "See, he's not doing anyth--" CHOMP. Holy crap! The little blue bastard had bitten me!

I immediately pulled my finger out and that's when Gilbert came up and out of the hole still attached to the end of my finger! I shook my hand violently and he flew off and landed on top of the tank with a small wet thud.

After a brief moment of stunned silence...

"OOHHHH MY GOD!!!!! GILBERT’s DEAD!!!!!! JENN KILLED GILBERT!!!!!" my dear sister screamed.

"HE'S NOT DEAD!" I yelled, as mum quickly whisked Andrea out of the room and I carefully scooped her little finger-biter back in the water.

A few minutes later I went in to our bedroom to see my sister and found her lying sadly on her bed. "You okay?" I asked. “…how's your finger?"

"It tingles."

"He probably just thought you were a big pellet of food."

"No, he hates me! I never want to see him again!!"

"So shall I ask mum to get rid of him?"

"Nooo, I love him."

"Okay. Then why don't we both go back into the lounge and give them a little food so you and Gilbert can be friends again?" - which is exactly what she did.

And I'm pleased to report Andrea and Gilbert worked out their differences and became good buddies once again.

The end.

May you always have someone in your life to listen when you need them to, and to make you laugh when they know you need to.

My sexy Sat Nav and I - a love affair!

2010-04-21T08:41:00.000+01:00

A Devonshire man charged with the murder of his teenage fiancée claimed he was only following the instructions of his satellite navigation system!

Daniel Ford, 25, from Crediton told a jury at Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday he was not responsible for killing 19-year-old Jessica Jimny and thought he was being given directions to his mother's new home in Plymouth.

According to Ford, the couple got into their car in their garage and he entered the address into the satellite navigation system as usual. However, instead of being given directions, Ford claims the machine instructed him to murder Jessica in cold blood.

Ford told the court: "I thought something was a bit wrong when instead of being told to turn left onto the A374 the sat nav told me “after 200 yards kill your fiancée”.

"But I just thought the machine must know better than me so I just did what it said. It was only after I had hosed the garage down, chopped up her body, wrapped it in a carpet, put it in the boot, had a shower, went to the pub for a few hours and came home and watched Deal or No Deal that I realised what I had done.”

Prosecutor Don Capri said: "This is a clear example of someone trying to avoid responsibility for their actions by blaming it on malfunctioning technology.”

Satellite navigation, or sat nav as many of us call it, is wonderful. I love it!

There I am, chugging along in my Jennmobile, watching the primroses and snowdrops of early spring, and occasionally the road ahead, when a sultry, sexy voice emerges from my dashboard and invites me to turn left in 100 yards at the roundabout. Ooh, it makes me shudder with pleasure to think of his gorgeous voice.

“Dave-Dave”, as my partner Paul calls my sat nav, sounds very sexy. I've stopped going out driving with Paul because my sat nav is far sexier and absolutely never gets the route wrong and then blames me. And I can shout at Dave-Dave as much as I like and he never answers me back.

Having picked up more than one newspaper over the weekend I noticed they all contain a similar story about how satellite navigation systems have made thickos of us. No longer, so the reports go, can we read a map, and as a result we lose crucial information about the places we are in. An example; a sat nav would not tell you that you were passing Stonehenge like a map would….although you would hope as someone drove along the A303 they'd recognise it!

The reason I'm mentioning this is that it just so happens that I heard a very funny sat nav tale the other day. I won’t name names but someone I know was travelling from the Buckinghamshire area to the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. He (yes, he!) punched the details into the sat nav and off he went. Unfortunately he didn’t put the route in properly and had instead reprogrammed a previous destination that was in the depths of Surrey.

So what did he do? He listened to the sat nav, took every turning it told him to take and was completely oblivious to the fact that he was heading into Surrey, in completely the wrong direction. It was only when he telephoned the person he was meeting and said "I'm here, where are you" and they said "I'm here too, where are you?" that he discovered he was hundreds of miles away.

When I was told this story I cannot deny that I laughed so hard I nearly pee'd my pants. How someone could be directed, as I presume he was, along the M25 and then onto the M3 where there are signs for Bournemouth, Brighton, etc. and not realise they were a long way from Kent was beyond my comprehension.

It’s ironic though that as we include more technologies into our vehicles we probably see accident rates go up, instead of going down.

One can argue that with airbags, GPS navigation, and other technologies such as cell-phones, entertainment devices, etc. that drivers have emboldened themselves with a sense of invulnerability, over actually using these technologies to enhance their safety. The problem with sat navs is that the road conditions change quicker than their information database.

Sat navs are often used by long distance lorry drivers as many of them come from abroad and don’t even speak the local language. They are not to know that the road which the sat nav advises them to take has now become a one-way or blocked off at one end. The biggest problem is that sat navs don't show low lying bridges. Knowing that they can't turn around, many lorry drivers will attempt to get under the bridge anyway but then get stuck. Paul and I have been driving across Dartmoor’s beautiful country lanes and come across a lorry completely stuck and unable to turn around, with cars in front of us tooting their horns as if the poor lorry driver could suddenly do anything about it.

Some drivers could definitely benefit from brushing up on their geography skills, with a Polish lorry driver reported to have found his way to the Gibraltar Point nature reserve in the UK, 2,500km from Gibraltar on the southern tip of Spain where he was supposed to deliver a load of cars. I’m guessing the new owners of the cars had to wait a little longer.

So certain drivers probably shouldn’t be allowed to have satellite navigation systems in their cars. For instance (thank you Google), a couple of months ago a middle aged driver, obeying his sat nav’s command “Turn right now!”, jerked the wheel over and crashed into a roadside toilet hut 30 yards before the crossing he was supposed to take. A couple of weeks prior to that a pensioner also followed their sat nav and ignored a “closed for construction” sign on a highway. They ploughed into a pile of sand at relatively high speed.

I know, I know. All I can think about is what great practical jokes you could play on people with such total willingness to do whatever a machine tells them…..but I suppose that would be wrong.

So it seems that in spite of all the incredible new technology we have access to, the good old map will always have a place in the world. The newspaper reports today appear to be spot on. However sexy and compliant he may be, Dave-Dave makes us stupid…...although it's possible that some of us may already be stupid any way.

David Cameron visits Exeter’s award winning lady garage owner….oooh that’s me!

2010-03-28T22:53:00.009+01:00

Okay, so I receive this phone call on Tuesday. “Hi Jennifer, David Cameron’s coming down to the South-West this week and he’s like to visit your garage, is that okay?”

So I said “Oh, right, err, what day, I need to check my diary?”

Anyway, having managed to find a free slot and after several subsequent calls from his office, we made the necessary arrangements for his scheduled visit to be conducted Thursday morning. Then, just as I was about to hit the ‘send text’ button on my phone to offer up this exclusive piece of news to my media buddy, Nino Firetto (Exeter fm/Express & Echo columnist), David Cameron’s friendly Staff Officer, Sasha ended her final call that day with “Oh and obviously for security reasons this is an embargoed visit so please don’t tell anyone.”

“Oh crap!” I thought, quickly sliding my finger off my phone, but actually responding with “Oh yes Sasha, of course I understand.”

The following day I receive visits from David’s office. First photographs are taken of my offices and workshops, all entrances, exits, access roads, and other orifices that I shan’t go into. Then the lovely Sasha arrives with a colleague and they do another site recce, talk me through the visit protocol, explain about the likely amount of media coverage the visit will attract (because of the Budget it seems, not because of my lil ol’ award winning garage) and, just at the point when I’m at her mercy like a scared rabbit at the end of a double-barrelled shotgun, she slips into the conversation “Oh, I don’t know if you can help me but I’ve got this weird light that’s appeared on my dashboard?”

Now you need to imagine what’s happening in my garage at this point. First, despite the advice given by Sasha to “carry on as normal and don’t make a special effort”, there was no way a potential prime minister and half the nation’s press were setting foot anywhere near my garage without a quick shipshape clean up that I’d suddenly sprung on them - in addition to the full diary of cars they had to repair. After all, my mother had brought me properly where I’d inherited her “what will the neighbours think” attitude in ensuring that any visitor to my humble abode will be welcomed by ‘meadow spring’ and experience visible vacuum marks in the carpet! So without having given too much away to my boys - well apart from the “Quick, David Cameron’s visiting the garage tomorrow, get bloody cleaning….oh and keep it to yourselves!” - I then added even more pressure on the situation by asking one of ‘the Pauls’ to carry out a diagnostic test and any necessary repairs on Mr Cameron’s Staff Officer’s car!

That evening I had decided to work late (can’t think why!) and, having received the odd nudge and wink email from my media mates who had by this time received their embargoed press release on the next day’s events, I was by this point desperately trying to get hold of my friend and mentor Marc Astley, editor of the Express & Echo, in a last ditch attempt to gain some professional advice on how to handle the media frenzy that was about to descend on me. Thinking back, my last text message threatening to sing “I’m Henry the Eighth I am, I am” to him morning, noon and night was probably what swung his eventual return call to me, offering the best advice he could give his little petrified mentee: “Just be you Jenn, be yourself”.

So the next morning I got up extra early, wondering whether I should just wear jeans, a little black number, or something a little more seasonal like an Easter Bunny outfit! Thank goodness my third mug of coffee then kicked in, giving me the sense not to choose the latter, instead opting for smart jeans, designer jumper and a fluffy, also designer :-) cardy. I then set Sky+ to record both lunchtime and evening news so that I could settle down that evening with my partner Paul and watch….well, err….me!

David Cameron’s arrival was scheduled for 10.30am that morning. I’d opened up at 7.30am with Chris, my down-to-earth “I don’t care if it’s the Queen visiting, I’ve still got a full diary’s worth of work to sort out!” workshop manager, and I’d done my usual meeting and greeting of the days customers giving a lift to those that needed one. By 9.00am David’s office staff had arrived as well as a mass of TV crews and press photographers. By this time my fellow business neighbours knew what was happening and had all pulled together to ensure there was sufficient parking spaces available, their stools perched outside their business units, coffee flasks filled, and their camera batteries charged!

At 9.50am I overheard Sasha on the phone acknowledging that David “had landed” and was on his way. She explained to me that he was early and not all the media had arrived. “Really? She was kidding right?” I thought as I stared at the 20 or so media peeps posed and ready outside my garage. I suggested that his driver take him to a neighbouring coffee shop, Fresha Café, just around the corner, and in return for my quick thinking I demanded that she gave my mate at Exeter fm the exclusive advance announcement of David Cameron’s visit. Having heard about my rendition of “I’m Henry the Eighth” she gave way to my demand, so I quickly grabbed my mobile phone and…….Nino didn’t answer. I dialled again. Voicemail. I dialled the Exeter fm studio number. Voicemail. I looked at the clock – it was 10.00am and the news had just come on. Then my phone rang and it was Nino returning my call having just finished his show. I’m not quite sure to this day how he managed it - to decipher the rushed, garbled blurb that spilled out of my mouth and turn it into an intelligent news bulletin, but he did.

Steve Pearson, owner of Percolapps Coffee Barista, then arrived with his coffee van (by a previous top secret arrangement), thus negating my need to provide refreshments to anyone who needed them. Actually, I think he made a small killing from it! Hannah Foster, Exeter’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate also arrived and explained that we were to walk to the opposite side of the courtyard and wait at the top of the access road in order to meet David Cameron’s car. She would then introduce me to him and we would chat together, walking back towards my garage….and into the mouths of the hoards of hungry press and TV crews that awaited us. “Hah, no problem!” I thought…..not!

So, what happened? Well, David got out of his car and the first thing I thought was “Blimey, he’s tall!”. Okay, admittedly I’m 5’4” so most folk tower above me, but seriously, he is tall. Then I shook hands with him and congratulated him on the news of his expectant baby. As we walked and talked, I stopped periodically to introduce him to some of my neighbourhood not-so-camera-shy business owners.

David Cameron’s visit was supposed to last about half an hour. I welcomed him to Exeter’s only award winning lady owned garage, introduced him to each of my team, who he then chatted to and joked with for some time. Whilst touring my workshops (along with the media frenzy that shadowed us wherever we went) I also talked to him, predominantly about the issues surrounding small businesses, the impact the recession has had on us, and how support from the community - from other small businesses as well as from the local media such as the Express & Echo & Exeter fm - have been paramount to our survival through hard times. Up in the privacy of my office we talked about other matters such as when I was a civil servant, the small business support needed in order to be able to offer apprenticeships, the community events I run for charity - this year being for the Devon Air Amubulance Trust, and my forthcoming climb of Kilimanjaro for Sparks charity, the latter of which he took a particularly personal interest in.

Dave…..sorry, David Cameron to you, stayed with us for around 1 ½ hours and, despite my beliefs and disbeliefs in his party’s policies, or whether I will vote for him or not in the forthcoming general election, I will always remember that this prime ministerial hopeful at least took the time to come and visit us, he showed genuine interest in supporting small businesses, he stayed with us well over schedule, and most of all……he popped a couple of quid in my charity tins!

David Cameron visited MECA Services South-West on Thursday 25th March 2010 and his visit was covered by (among others) Exeter’s Express and Echo, the Western Morning News, Sunday Telegraph, Exeter 107.3 fm, Heart fm, and the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 news channels.

David Cameron visits Jennifer Riach of MECA Services - one of Exeter's best small businesses - thebestof Exeter blog

2010-03-25T14:51:00.001Z

David Cameron visits Jennifer Riach of MECA Services - one of Exeter's best small businesses - thebestof Exeter blog

Clunk-Click every trip (Warning: 9pm reader-watershed applies)!

2010-03-14T17:56:00.004Z

Have you ever noticed how often the words “unrestrained passenger” turn up on TV in those hospital soaps like Casualty or Holby City - just before something really messy rolls in the door?

Slowly passing by a road traffic accident (or ‘RTA’ as it more commonly referred), the way I tell the difference between those who were wearing their seatbelts and those who were not is that the ones who were wearing them are standing around saying “This really sucks!” whereas the ones who weren’t are kinda just, well, lying there.

This is not to say that all unrestrained traffic accidents are fatals, nor that seat-belted peeps are invulnerable. My father didn’t believe in wearing a seatbelt, having lost a good friend in an RTA where the seatbelt failed to release leaving him trapped in his car. Trying to explain to my dad that his friend would’ve most likely died in any case from the injuries he sustained was pointless. Ironically, at only 51 years young, my poor dad also died in an RTA, though I doubt his insistence on not wearing a seatbelt wouldn't have made much difference to the outcome of his head-on collision with an articulated lorry. But, if you’re playing the odds….

Last year, Sir Alex Furguson’s 10-year old grandson Charlie was seriously injured in a car crash. Surgeons reported that Charlie had an initial 5-hour operation to reduce brain swelling having sustained serious head injuries. Then the boy had to undergo further surgery to repair his spine after shattering a neck vertebra. Little Charlie's mother and younger sister sustained more minor injuries than this. Bet you’ll never guess which two were wearing their seatbelts?

So, having considered both personal and family experiences, as well as dabbling in my usual not so scientific Google research, let me try to explain what physically happens to us when involved in a collision. Be warned though, some of this will be gruesome, and I make no apology for this.

Did you know that on impact you have three or four sub-collisions all taking place in sequence? First, the vehicle hits some object. The vehicle abruptly slows, but unrestrained passengers (and other objects) inside it continue at the same speed, in the same direction. Then the unrestrained body hits the interior of the vehicle, and starts to slow. That’s the second collision. And that body’s internal organs are still moving at speed until they hit the inside of the chest (or get cheese-sliced by their supporting ligaments). The fourth collision is when your mate who’s riding in the back seat lands on your head, and because they aren’t wearing their seatbelt either they keep moving at the same speed in the same direction.

In a nutshell, in a crash at 30mph, if unrestrained you will be thrown forward with a force of between 30-60 times your own bodyweight. Where most vehicles these days have split folding rear seats, items carried in the boot of your car now have more chance of travelling forward upon impact. This is why my partner Paul - who carries more equipment in his boot than I have in my office - always ensures he buckles up the rear seatbelts in his car regardless of whether he has passengers or not.

Newtonian physics: Learn it, live it, love it! As a side issue, upon tracing my family history some years ago I discovered that Sir Isaac Newton was actually some great, great, great, great, second cousin removed of mine…or something like that. So I know what I’m talking about - family blood lines an’ all that!

Now, for those of you who aren't that squeamish and are thus still reading this, there are two major routes that unrestrained persons take in a front-ended RTA. Up-and-over or down-and-under (‘submarining’). With up-and-over, the upper body launches forward and up. The head strikes the windscreen. Your injuries here include concussion, scalp laceration, and various brain bleeds. You can also suspect fractured cervical vertebrae - and if you have a fracture with compromise to the spinal cord at C-4 or higher, you’ve lost the nerves that control chest expansion and the diaphragm.

Go a little further through the windscreen, and it isn’t unexpected to leave some or all of your face behind stuck in the broken glass. You’d be surprised by how easily faces come off the facial bones! You can also expect fractured wrists, arms, and shoulders, from folks trying to brace themselves.

A little further through the windscreen, all the way out of the vehicle, and in addition to whatever damage you took on the way through, you get the damage from hitting the ground, trees, and metal poles at however-many-miles-an-hour.

Sure, like my late father’s philosophy, you hear people talking about wanting to be “thrown clear” in the event of an accident. However, if you want to simulate being thrown clear, just go to the fifth floor of a building and jump out the window!

Being thrown clear apparently happens more often than you’d think. Unrestrained driver: side impact. Vehicle spins. Driver goes out the window. One of my customers in our local police force recently recalled one incident to me where the driver was half-way out his window when the vehicle rolled over on top of him. That was the second-most grotesque scene they said they’d ever been to. And no, I didn’t ask what the first one was.

My police friend also said “Any time you see an accident and the windows aren’t rolled all the way up and unbroken, look 200ft in all directions for the other patients. It’s quite unpleasant finding them three days later when someone wonders why all those birds are over there, or when someone at the hospital wakes up enough to ask where Joe is."

With ‘submarining’ injuries however, the driver or passenger goes forward and down, and under the dashboard. Here’s where you’re going to find fractured femurs, broken knees, and compression fractures to the lower spine. Now I know you’re all asking “Is it possible for a human femur to be pushed through the floor of the pelvis?” Well, the answer according to my good friend Google is “Yes.” As the legs collapse accordion-style, the patient’s chest hits the dashboard. This can give you rib fractures, a fractured sternum, cardiac bruising, or that ruptured aorta that many will know only too well.

On the plus side, there usually isn’t any brain damage (unless you got clonked on the knob by that bowling ball you’re carrying in the back, and seatbelts won’t help with that). On the other hand, femur fractures can be, and frequently are, fatal.

I think I’ll leave Traumatic Asphyxia, Hemo/Pneumothorax, and Flail Chest for another time…..let’s just say that they’re associated with having your chest hit the dashboard or steering wheel, and they’re really pants!

Seatbelts stop you from going up-and-over or down-and-under, or out the window. Sure, seatbelts can hurt you too, but hey, you’re in the presence of large amounts of free-floating energy, you decide.

With the UK’s seat belt law having been introduced in 1983 (and amended to include all passengers in 1991 and child seats in 2006), the police can stop and issue a fixed penalty fine to drivers and/or passenger solely for not wearing their seat belt.

The current fine is £60 (up to £500 + costs if it goes to court).

The penalty can be death.

Countdown to Spring.....and snakes!

2010-03-07T22:53:00.008Z

This week my partner Paul became a granddad…or ‘Pops’ as he prefers. His daughter has had a little baby boy called Riley and mother and baby are doing fine, albeit in Western Australia….very frustrating for Paul and I. Not to be left out though, apparently I too have a new title - ‘Nana Jenn!’ (I defy even my closest friends to mention this too often!).

With Spring in the air and Paul becoming a grandfather, this then got me thinking about parenthood, becoming grandparents and….motorhomes, or coffin-dodgers as Paul fondly calls them when referring to his parent’s treasured holiday home on wheels. (Listen fellas, this is an insight into a woman’s mind at work, so next time you’re wondering “How on earth did you arrive at that from the conversation we were just having”, now you know!).

Like most businesses, we too have seasonal trends in the motor repair business. And it is at this time of year that I will start to see a sharp increase in the following:

Motorhomes - T’is the season to be……..holidaying. Yes, the sunshine brings out the holiday mood in us whether it’s a weekend down in Cornwall or a week away at Easter, those campervan and motorhome doors will be unlocked, the bedding aired, and the engines…err, not turned over. Now to be fair, most of our motorhome-owning customers are very good at getting them serviced quite regularly. But this always seems to happen at the same time, in the Spring, thus everyone wants them maintained at the same time. And the most common problem already happening this year seems to be dead batteries where, despite having turned the fridge off, it is still drawing off power from the main battery. Now there are not many garages these days like mine who can accommodate large vans for servicing and MOT work, so it’s the only time of year that I see my diary change from normal “MOT” slots to “MOT Motorhome!” slots; the exclamation mark (& usually additional yellow highlighter) indicating that it could be a long job…

Air conditioning - For some reason very few drivers realise that your air conditioning system can be just as effective during Winter months as the Summer, not least in demisting your windscreen at warp speed. So as the weather starts to get warmer many peeps decide to turn on their aircon for the first time in many months only to find out it isn’t working properly. This is often just down to the system needing to be re-gassed and, being one of only a few garages that offer this service….well legally any way…we will once again start to see aircon re-gas bookings appear in our diary more frequently than at any other time of the year.

Door windows - As with the air conditioning, many of us have not used our car door windows during the Winter months and normally what happens is this. The phone starts ringing with the same sorry tale, “I can’t close my window, the glass seems to have got stuck! Any chance I can come around for one of your guys to have a look at it…now?” And “now” often means either lunchtime or after work, between 4.30pm - 5.00pm, as these are the times when the window opening then closing attempts first start (as opposed to first thing in the morning when it’s cold). So as I’m a big softie when it comes to a customer in trouble, instead of saying “Look I’m really sorry but my boys are at lunch” or “…my boys are just about to go home”, what I actually say is “Yes, of course we can help, come right round, my boys will take a look and at the very least make sure the window glass is temporarily put back up until we can book it in properly”. And so it is this time of year when "my boys" throw their sandwich boxes in the air and give up on ever seeing their families again…..at least for a few weeks.

Now, back to the thinking (keeping up guys?). Having mulled over the forthcoming seasonal trends, this then got me thinking about what happened last year. Probably as a result of the recession we started to see more caravans on the road, many driven by those new to the towing experience. Each summer, and most Fridays, we’d hear on the local radio (a quick plug here for Exeter fm me thinks) “road closed….traffic queues….accident….. caravan overturned”. The boys always shout out “Yey, there’s another one!” and Chris (my workshop manager), who lives in the Dawlish area, starts threatening to chop a large tree down to block the main road, in an attempt to stop the holiday makers from ascending on his territory.

The scourge of the unlucky or, usually careless caravaners, 'snaking', occurs - when a caravan under two begins swinging from side to side, potentially resulting in a caravan swinging right around and hitting the side of the towing vehicle, causing car and caravan to spin and overturn.

Whilst even the most experienced caravaner can not avoid every type of snake induced accident, it is the careless caravaner who particularly irritates the hell out of my partner Paul. Having owned a few caravans in his time for his off-roading competition trips, he has on this occasion become my own personal search engine in my quest to save some of Devon’s roads on a Friday by listing the most basic, fundamental safety points that every caravan newbie should know:

1. A fully laden caravan should ideally not exceed 85% of the weight of the car. I knew that! And the optimum nose weight on the tow ball is around 7% of its laden weight. Okay, I didn’t know that one.

2. The tow bar is specific to your vehicle and it is professionally fitted.

3. Towing stability is dependent on how the caravan is loaded. Like learning to ride a bike, fitting a stabiliser will also help it seems - although it is no substitute for not loading your van correctly, so remember Paul’s rule: Heavy items over and in front of the caravan axle, not towards the rear or high up in lockers.

4. Check your tyres - all of them! Car tyre pressures may need to be inflated more for towing. And as caravan tyre tread rarely wears out (due to lower mileage), look out for signs of cracking and flat spots due to standing in one position.

5. It sounds obvious, but remember you’ll take longer to stop with a caravan in tow.

6. Speed restrictions are different with a caravan. In 70mph limits caravans are restricted to 60mph, and to 50mph in 60mph limits. Watch out for crosswinds and go slower downhill as this is when ‘snaking’ is most likely to occur, as is being overtaken by a large lorry for example. If the caravan begins to snake, Paul doesn’t accelerate or brake. I’ve watched him lift off the accelerator to allow engine braking, and he also loosens his grip on the steering wheel slightly until the snaking is brought under control. Then he gently accelerates back up to speed.

7. Finally, as with most vehicles, caravans should be serviced every year regardless of how few miles have been travelled. I definitely knew that one!

And so I end this rather long tale with an admission to you all that the last time I towed a caravan I was actually involved in an accident.

There I was minding my own business, leisurely setting off for the weekend when I turned into the bend on our extremely icy main road. Realising only too late a collision was imminent, I slammed on the brakes which obviously proved futile and all I could do was hang on for dear life as our trusty caravan slid out of control on the ice rink we call a street.

Suh-Mashhh!! Twisted metal and plastic flew up in the air. I just sat dumbfounded and began to shake.

“Bloody hell!” I yelled, having got out to survey the scene and prying out pieces wedged underneath my CR-V’s front end. Luckily, upon inspection my caravan hadn't incurred any damage. But I sure as heck had demolished the black late model that happened to be sitting in the middle of the street.

Who the hell puts a STEREO in the middle of the bloomin’ street??? Oh yeah, my idiot neighbours do…..two days after bin collection day! I was so annoyed that I threw what was left of it up on the pavement.

Good thing I didn’t have to tell the insurance company though. Can you imagine the conversation:

"Okay madam, what was the make and model of the one you hit?" They would ask.

"Ummm. A black Sony. Don't know the year, but it must have been an older make as it still had a tape deck."

"Did you say SONY?"

"Uh huh. Large model, a quad with quite the sound system, at least in its day."

"Errr madam, I don't believe Sony make vehicles."

"Oh I know that. I hit a home stereo unit in the middle of our street. Smashed it to bits too. It is now an Ex-Stereo…."

All Paul could say when I amused him with my incident was "Sony eh? Maybe the speakers were still good!"

Not any more babes. Not any more.

So who are the better drivers: men or women? Nino's drag race challenge!

2010-03-04T18:59:00.005Z

You'll see from my January Blog that I wrote about the differences between male and female drivers, mostly covering safety and statistical information, and concluding that women are better and safer behind the wheel. You will also see that I did actually personally admit to the men I know in my life not only being being more confident a driver than I, but also parking and reversing better.

This is alas not good enough for one such friend, who has it seems got a little bee in his Easter bonnet! The Exeter fm Breakfast Show host, Nino Firetto - who's show I sponsor and who some of you will know is also a mate of mine - has decided that winding up the Express and Echo Editor, Marc Astley, is no longer enough for his day-to-day amusement; so he has now started on me!

First of all it started with a gentle "Plant seed in Jenn's head" approach with a "Hey Jenn, I wonder what would happen if we got two drivers in the same cars, doing the same route, at the same time of day, with the same amount of fuel, to see how fuel efficient they could be?"

"Hmmm, an interesting topic for a future Blog" I thought....until he said "You and I could do it". Then the alarm bells starting ringing. I remained quiet to see where this was going and what trap he was leading me into.

"I challenge you..." he finally exclaimed excitedly "...to a drag race of sorts". "Let's see who's the better driver, men or women - you and me in a race?"

"Ah, now we're getting to the bottom of it" I thought. It's that Venus-Mars mixed in with a bit of tetosterone thing that men suffer from. Correction, it's us girls that suffer! It's that "Let's have an arm wrestle to settle this" approach. And of course I bit!

"Right, you're on!!" I roared, before I realised what I was agreeing to. You see, anyone who knows Nino will know that effect he has on people....you just can't say no to the guy! It's almost impossible! And it's those cat from Shrek eyes he's got that does it!

Well okay Ni, here it is in writing - you are on my friend! Name your place and time.................loser!

Of course, anyone who knows me will also know to place their hard earned cash on me. My partner Paul will. I am very competitive. I do not do failure and I despise losing at anything.

See you all at the starting line.

Jenn (aka Monica from Friends)
http://www.exeter.fm/
http://www.ninoradio.blogspot.com/

When vanity meets safety....it's a girl thing!

2010-03-01T08:50:00.003Z

We've all been there; stranded at the side of an unfamiliar road, hoping against hope that a passing motorist will render emergency assistance or provide transportation to the nearest service station. Sometimes the problem is a serious mechanical failure, but all too often the situation could have been resolved with a £3 bottle of motor oil or a 50p bottle of water. If only we had planned ahead, we would have had that one inexpensive item that would have spared us hours of inconvenience.

Although women are more concerned about breaking down or driving in poor weather conditions, I have often wondered whether we are as prepared for our journey as our male counterparts.

A mobile phone, the number of a breakdown company (& the breakdown cover to go with it of course!), warm blanket, first aid kit, torch, a bottle of water and motor oil, and a warning triangle are just a few essentials that all drivers should, in my opinion, be carrying in their car, especially in the event of an accident, breakdown, or when driving in adverse conditions such as on icy or flooded roads. Of course the latsest copy of Heat magazine could also be added to my list to keep one amused whilst you wait to be rescued. Oh come on guys, you know you read it too!

The findings in various UK studies completed over the past five or six years on driving behaviour shout out at me that, although women generally feel more concerned and vulnerable about driving in bad weather conditions, we are less likely to carry emergency safety items in our cars. Male drivers on the other hand will not only do so, but will often include additional items such as small tools, a jack or foot pump, a tow rope, and a high-vis jacket - although I suspect that the latter item probably comes as a result of their job.

Having recently asked many of my female customers and girlfriends what items of safety they always keep in their car, the three most popular items were a mobile phone, ice scraper/de-icer, and, most interestingly and rather surprisingly, sunglasses! Now whilst I do myself like to keep my Raybans very close to hand, I have not disallowed them as indeed they do have a purpose to serve aside from my own vanity. They actually could minimise the risk of our becoming temporarily sun-blind through the car windscreen, particularly during the spring and autumn months when the sun is low.

From the discussions I had with my fellow womankind, other safety concerns raised included ensuring they had their favourite high gloss lippy and perfume atomiser close by, parking in well-lit car parks or streets, and keeping their keys in their hand when walking to and from their car. Personally speaking, I am not that keen on applying whale blubber to my face (sorry girls, but fact!), but I do carry either my car keys (or a biro) firmly in my hand if I am out alone when it’s dark, not least to jab in the eye of any potential attacker that might be foolish enough to cross my path.

Rather more interestingly, out of the 40 or so people I spoke to, not one mentioned carrying a first aid kit. On realising this, I quickly rang round a few of my male friends until I was about to dial number eight on the list when the penny dropped; they’d all included a first aid kit within their “Quick, I’m doing some research for my blog - name 5 safety items you’d carry in your car?” list.

So from my admittedly less than scientific research I have concluded that, whilst men appear to be quite safety conscious, us girls are more concerned with minimising the fear and vulnerability that many of us may feel on the roads - okay, admittedly with the insistence of looking fabulous whilst being utterly terrified!

And in order to protect not just ourselves but the whole family we need to better plan our journeys to prevent a breakdown and/or accident which exposes us to other risks that we also need to better prepare for. With our unpredictable weather and with women still predominantly carrying children as passengers, us girls could really do with improving our safety by ensuring that practical items are kept in our car as a matter of course - right next to the killer heels and emergency makeup bag!

Jennifer Riach is fundraising for SPARKS - JustGiving

2010-02-26T16:39:00.001Z

Jennifer Riach is fundraising for SPARKS - JustGiving

Posted using ShareThis

My oh my how gyms have changed!

2010-02-22T14:03:00.000Z

Having rejoined a local gym recently, I thought I’d break from the norm and write a non-automotive, lifestyle blog for a change.

Now first of all I need to be honest. I’ve always found the gym a slightly awful place which has the unmatched ability to potentially cause me either a great deal of pain if I actually display some physical exertion, or a considerable amount of shame and general self-loathing if I get on any elliptical and zone out for a completely useless 30 minutes. Basically a lose:lose situation in my mind. Yes I know, it's healthy, endorphins, blah blah blah.

So this has usually always been my starting point upon entering this so-called fitness haven. But, having been out of it for a while, my first visit back has now reminded me of all the other things I seriously don’t like about the gym; in no particular order:

Men on ellipticals: Given my innate laziness (which actually goes flawlessly with a heavy dose of vanity), I have a particular love for the elliptical, especially the one's with TV's on them so I can multi-task physical fitness with mindless television. What I don't like is finding that there are none available and I will have to actually run because all of the machines are filled with men! Sorry guys, but I always thought it was an unspoken rule that the ellipticals are reserved solely for women. Apparently not any longer it seems, and as I'm looking at all these men I'm thinking "Find a bike! Run in the cold! Go crush some weights. But get off my bloomin’ cardio machine!"

People walking on treadmills: In my opinion treadmills can only be used for two credible reasons: running above a 5-6 speed, and walking a very steep incline at rapid pace. Any other activity should be strictly prohibited from treadmill usage. There is nothing more annoying than seeing no empty machines and someone leisurely strolling on the treadmill. I want to shout out "Go outside and do that and get some fresh air whilst you're at it!"

Germaphobes v the very sweaty: I am all for keeping the gym as sanitary as possible, but the people who spend six years wiping down a single weight machine, use it for 30 seconds and then spend another few minutes re-sanitising it are seriously deluded. Now I understand if there is sweat dripping off the tricep machine for example, but hey, it is a gym after all! There are germs and lots of sweaty people in these places...and these germaphobes are holding up the natural line of weight machine progression by spraying (what I'm sure is only dirty tap water any way) on every station and giving it the complete rub down. Of course, on the flip side of my coin, I wish the "serious sweater" would realise that while I can take the fact that their grimy hands were all over the same machine that I'm about to use, I'm really not into touching weights lubed up with their sweat and I feel my head screaming at them "For pity’s sake, bring a towel will ya!"

And so to my final honorary mentions:
1. People being too comfortable with nudity in the changing room;
2. People chatting relentlessly and very loudly in the sauna;
3. Rather obese people with revealing, tight fitting workout gear 3 sizes too small for them;
4. Men in head-to-toe under-armour (it is a gym after all and not American football);
5. People talking on mobile phones while on a machine.

Hmmmm, I wonder if these are the same peeps who park across two parking spaces, hug the middle lane doing 65mph, use their mobile phone whilst driving (without hands-free), and do a week’s worth of shopping at the local petrol station whilst leaving their car at the fuel pump?

I think I'll stick to swimming.....

Total recall....enough already!

2010-02-15T09:55:00.000Z

So Toyota now admit that their infamous accelerator pedal fault may be more widespread than they first thought, with seven of their UK range now under recall including their relatively new Aygo (automatic) and iQ models. The recall is reportedly going to cost them over £1.2 billion and it has no doubt made a significant dent in their share price too.

Interestingly, a manufacturer’s decision to recall a vehicle is made under a “voluntary” code of conduct where they must first have found “substantial evidence” of a particular defect and then consulted with VOSA, the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency set up to improve the roadworthiness of cars. Once all are in agreement the recall is sanctioned and issued under the category of either “safety” or “non-safety”.

In 2009 there were over 665,000 cars recalled in the UK, with the average usually being around 1m. Wow, that’s a lot of cars! But to put this into context, there were over 942,000 total recalls in the UK made up of both cars and other components, such as fridges and freezers. And more importantly, particularly for the second-hand car buyer, safety recalls are not recorded on the vehicle V5 registration document so the reliance is on the main dealership entering the details in the service book and this being passed on when a vehicle is sold.

But whilst everyone else is heavily debating Toyota’s failings over their own perfections, or else they’re wondering whether their treasured RAV4 is going to be next on the hit list, I thought it might be more helpful to talk about what you should actually do if your accelerator pedal gets stuck.

Well the first thing to remember is that it doesn’t mean your brakes don’t work…okay that is unless you’re unlucky enough to own a Prius! The perception is to the contrary of course, brought on by sheer panic. But by pressing the brake firmly and then the clutch to take your car out of gear (or to go into neutral in an automatic), this will disengage the drive. And as you can still steer too, it’s then just a matter of finding somewhere safe to pull over, stop and turn the ignition off. So a stuck accelerator pedal isn’t necessarily the disaster is sounds - easier said than done in an emergency situation I know - but at least you’ll know what to do if and when it happens, as well as of course remaining as calm as possible.

I actually take my hat off to Toyota, where they have had the balls to put driver safety above profit and reputation. Until now, their reputation has been one of solidness and reliability; and it will be again.

Renault (among others I could mention) with their bonnet catch fiasco do not deserve such a grand gesture from me in this cold weather when I prefer my woolly hat to remain firmly on my head.

Some of my customers started contacting me with concerns over their Renault Clio II over two years now. The problem being when you’re happily driving along minding your business and then suddenly your bonnet flies open, shattering your windscreen and thus obscuring your vision. Not funny when you’re doing 70mph on the motorway! After Toyota’s brave move, the pressure is now growing for Renault to follow suit, although to date both Renault and VOSA have denied that there is a significant fault, blaming the bonnet catch fault (where it remains open if pulled hard) on “driver error”. Nice!

Renault has, however, written to owners asking them to take their Clio into the dealership to have the catch examined. Now call me stupid, but isn’t that a recall?

Potholes – the new speed bumps!

2010-02-05T18:53:00.001Z

Now that the snow and ice have gone from many of the roads in the UK, they have left another hazard for motorists – potholes. With temperatures hovering around freezing for much of the past few weeks, the conditions have been just right to allow many potholes to form.

Potholes pose a danger to all road users, caused when water gets into cracks in the road surface and then freezes and expands, eventually creating void spaces under the road surface, which shatter the tarmac and cause it to collapse. The sudden jolt you get from driving or riding over one could be a distraction at just the wrong moment, or it could even mean you lose control of your vehicle.

Yes I’ve been “Googling” again! In early 2009, a report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance (the body which represents asphalt producers and contractors), said there was already a 13-year backlog of pothole repairs across the UK. 13 years! And with the recent cold weather it is likely this backlog has now increased.

According to Devon County Council, Devon has 8,000 miles of road which is the highest of any authority in the country. The council says over 40,000 potholes have been filled since last April - more than double the usual amount. And the problem has been made worse by the recent severe weather where “26 gangs, each with two to three members, have been filling in around 1,000 potholes a week”.

But let’s face it, I don’t think it is all down to the poor condition of our roads that results in the costly suspension and tyre problems that I see on a regular basis. A lack of driver concentration or understanding can be, on occasion, equally to blame. So let me explain.

On the way to drop off a customer to their workplace the other day my passenger chortled and pointed ahead at the T-junction at a white car on the other side of the road: “Look, he’s in a pothole!” Sure enough, the blue car had one back wheel embedded in the offending hole, his whole car at an angle as a result. We watched as the driver very carefully accelerated and climbed out before proceeding, completely unaffected but giving us a smile as he passed. Smart guy! He obviously does what I do and approaches every puddle in the road as a potential lake and goes through them slowly and carefully. After all, who knows what craters lurk beneath! So, he slowly goes into them, and he can slowly emerge.

Alas others are not so smart. I drove past a car last week which, five minutes earlier, had screamed past me, dodging potholes into oncoming traffic, and terrifying everyone else on the road. However, I could not resist feeling slightly gratified - actually I even gave a cheeky grin and a cheery wave - as I passed him further down the road where he was mournfully surveying a tyre as flat as a pancake from being whacked on the sharp edges of a pothole.

Potholes have been a recurring problem over the last few years, but they are much worse this year because of the amount of rain we’ve had. Car tyres and suspension repairs can be expensive, so people swerve like lunatics, protecting their vehicles before they protect their (and our) lives. I fear it is quite literally real-life dodgems out there.

This year we can add the joys of power cuts to the driving experience. Imagine if you will a combination of potholes and no traffic lights working!

In my opinion the fools who slam across the roads at all angles avoiding potholes are the same fools who hold their breath and foot-flat through blank traffic lights (unlike my customer who inches to the edge of the T-junction). Frankly, I just want to stay alive, but it sometimes feels as if the road forces are conspiring against me.

I feel I have to add another ‘how to survive’ traffic example I experienced recently to explain myself : I happily drove towards a green light and was going through (fortunately slowly because of the potholes) when a fancy car swooped past me, narrowly missing my front bumper. He slowed down and stuck his head out the window and yelled at me:. “You %^!! cow! Where did you buy your licence!” Then he revved his engine and stormed off. I was stunned: “What had I done wrong?”

It was only when I then saw more cars were hurtling towards me that I decided I’d better reverse out of the junction and get out of their way. It was then that I noticed that while my side was showing ‘green for go’, their side was totally blank. All the cars coming towards me at speed were assuming the lights were not working and doing the usual foot-flat through the lights. I had, rather naively, driven right into the storm.

So to summarise I have written a list, which goes as follows:

1. Watch the potholes and be vigilant for those dodging them;
2. Go through non-working traffic lights very, very carefully;
3. Approach working traffic lights with extreme caution, because you never know when it’s just an illusion!

But what to do? Well I'm very glad you asked. I have developed a strategy which should sit well with some council authorities. It’s the introduction of a scheme whereby potholes will not be filled in with new tarmac, instead just left as they are. This new scheme will aim to cut down on speeding, particularly in villages, which will warrant drivers to be more cautious in order not to crash and damage their cars, scare other unsuspecting drivers with their dodgem antics, or swerve into any crossing pedestrians at dark on the unlit roads. The scheme will be suitably named "doing nothing".

So who are the better drivers: men or women?

2010-01-28T09:50:00.000Z

In the famous song "I Can Do Anything Better Than You" (from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun)" gunslingers Annie Oakley and Frank Butler lyrically debated who could shoot more accurately: she or he?

This same argument has been waged many times about many topics over the years, but no gender-related discussion has been more heated than the one that rages behind the wheel. So who are better drivers: men or women?

From my albeit half hour internet research, it seems that the auto insurance industry experts would agree with the theory that men, especially young men, tend to drive more aggressively than women and display their aggression in a direct manner, rather than indirectly. It would also appear that male drivers are more likely than women to break the law, and the male of the species tends to be more of a risk-taker.

But guys, when it rains it pours. The most recent Home Office figures (June 2009) show that over the past five years male drivers have accounted for 94% of all car accidents involving death or injury in the UK; 97% of all dangerous driving convictions; 89% of all drink and drug driving convictions; 83% of all speeding convictions; and 85% of all careless driving convictions. This is despite the fact that the male-to-female ratio of drivers is reported to be a 55:45 split where, according to these government statistics, men drive further than women, averaging around 8,000 miles a year compared with 6,300 for women.

So, given all of that you would think that women would be a better risk for the insurers than men, yet women over the age of 30 are reported to still be charged more for car insurance then men. Well, it seems that us girls are getting more aggressive behind the wheel! The gap between the behaviour of male and female drivers is narrowing, and for a variety of reasons.

The ladette culture which encourages aggressive behaviour is partly behind the trend, perhaps along with more stressful and successful female careers. Some women do drive in a similar way to men and that's often because they have the same jobs, are faced with the same pressure and are driving the same powerful cars. They also have the family pressures that many women still have and although that shouldn't be reflected in people's driving behaviour, it often is. People take their stress and inhibitions with them behind the wheel. I know I do.

Aside from the statistical argument, we often see survey after survey conducted about the female versus male driver, usually faring favourably towards the latter. In my view these surveys are merely publicity stunts in order to get the company that backed the survey mentioned in the media.

I remember a rather amusing one I read a couple of years ago which, from memory, referred to us girls as “dashboard dunces” because many of the women surveyed were unable to identify common warning lights. But as I recall the blokes didn't fare too well either. Personally, I think that the + 70% of women (or whatever the figure was) who were able to identify the oil pressure gauge was damned good!

The thing is, I could go out in the street right now and do a survey where I could show a bunch of men pictures of different washing machines and ask them what the symbols meant. No doubt you get where this is leading.....

So are women better drivers than men? It's hard to say, although it appears that they do seem to be statistically safer. My own personal experience is that all the men I know in my life are better at reversing and parking than I am and they are definitely more confident than me. And women do seem to have just as many accidents as men. However, women tend to have minor bumps in comparison, where men on the other hand tend to do the job properly when they crash!

On this occasion, even though it's a blow to the male ego and I'm never going to hear the end of it from my boys, I'll have to give this round to women. Sorry fellas!

Car accessories heading for the evolutionary scrap heap

2010-01-22T13:48:00.000Z

Extinction. It’s a harsh, emotive word but the process it describes is, in my view, a necessary one.

In the animal kingdom natural selection dictates that those that are either passengers, evolutionary dead ends, or furry little good-for-nothings usually die off if they can’t compete against those creatures that are better adapted.

And so it is in this automotive world in which I now find myself. The weak car models, feeble features, and shabby accessories eventually get stuck in the mud and won’t be heard of again....until some scientist with a pickaxe unearths their fossilised remains and gives them a long Latin name such as "window winduperus"!

With animals, the threat of extinction isn’t always their fault - sometimes their habitat disappears, they die off from pollutants, or else, as is the case with our friend the red squirrel, they have to slug it out with introduced species that have an unfair leg-up.

With cars, generally, the feature that falls by the wayside does so because something better has come along. Features and accessories like chokes, cigarette lighters, lap-only seatbelts, manual window winders and cassette players are all but extinct, while car keys, spare tyres, street maps and even CD players are on the endangered list. With the introduction of Bluetooth and Smartphones even in-car phone kits (which often leave holes in the dash) are on their way out.

Of course there are those annoying little technological enhancements which, despite most being relatively new, in my opinion should already be on my evolutionary scrap heap. These include (in no particular order): seat belt warning chimes, rain sensor wipers (they always go wrong!); nitrogen filled tyres (don't get me started on their environmental impact...); and mirrors on sun visors - particularly those without covers - which let's face it are only ever used for women applying make-up, guys shaving or reapplying their hair gel, teeth pickers, and nose explorers!

On writing this blog, I decided to ask my mechanics what features they'd like to see meet their maker.....I think it's going to be a long day.

A murky green scrappage scheme!

2010-01-18T11:43:00.000Z

Trade in your old banger and you get £2,000 in cash. This, now extended, scheme has no doubt boosted UK car sales over the past 8 months it has been in place, though it appears to have done little to help UK car manufacturers. I can’t see too many rusty old Escorts being towed into Bentley, Land Rover or Aston Martin dealerships.

The move has also been promoted as an environmental initiative, just as it is in America where a scrappage scheme (or 'cash for clunkers' as it is now more commonly known) was, albeit slowly, steered through Congress. The car industry regularly pretends that trading in your old car for a new one is the automotive equivalent of planting a field of daisies.

Now I’m sorry, but the idea of scrapping a perfectly good used car is just plain wasteful, and many of my customers just simply can't afford a new car even with the £2,000 cash incentive. I’ve never bought this bogus argument that it’s greener to regularly buy a new car than it is to hang on to a cherished old timer. Nothing is more environmentally irresponsible than our throwaway culture. If you still like your old car, and it provides noble service, than keep it – no matter what bribes the government may be offering.

Besides, when it comes to research on the ‘whole-life’ energy costs of cars, I would go as far as saying the motor industry is, to paraphrase Churchill, pedalling a lie wrapped in a falsehood inside a fib.

The industry usually claims that the total amount of energy a car consumes throughout its life (and energy consumption is closely linked to CO2 emissions) works out at something like 80% in use (burning fuel) and 20% in manufacturing. So, the industry claims, buying a new car (as long as it’s more fuel economical) helps the planet.

Okay, so my figures are very average, based on a quick 10 minute stats research exercise on Google, but in my opinion where it's 80:20 or 70:30 or whatever, these figures are...skewed. The manufacturing numbers seem to be largely restricted to the energy consumed...at their own factories...during manufacturing and assembly. So they don't include energy used by, for example, their numerous suppliers, total shipping costs (in freighters using carbon-dense marine diesel by the way!) or road freight for all the myriad parts that constitute a modern car. They also do not appear to include the energy consumed by their own workforce commuting to their factories and offices, or the energy used to mine and then transport the raw materials. I'm sure I could think of more, but I trust you get my point.

Add all this up and the environmental picture is a lot hazier. By all means, buy your new car – complete with £2,000 cashback – and enjoy it. There are some great bargains out there, and even one of my mechanics has taken advantage of the scheme. There’s never been a better time to buy. But just don’t pretend you’re doing the Earth any favours!

Job for the girls!

2010-01-15T09:39:00.000Z

I am not surprised that few females seem to have the motor industry at the top of their dream career list when they leave school. Many see either 'garage mechanic' or 'car sales' jobs as being 'just for the boys' and few job ads in the motor industry seem to be written with girls in mind.

But I think women might be missing a trick here because a job in a good independent garage or franchised car dealership can offer excellent prospects for females who are willing to work hard, learn new skills and stand up and be counted in what is often a male-oriented workplace to begin with.

In a nutshell there is no real reason why a job in the motor industry shouldn't be as popular with women as one in fashion or beauty for example, especially now that the motor industry is becoming serious about providing a female friendly working environment - and there is extra funding for training to help more women climb the career ladder.

My experience is that the recession has encouraged a growing number of leading good garages commit to making their businesses more female friendly in future and those that are planning to recruit in 2010 recognise that female staff could help them do a better job for women customers.

So my message to women who are looking for a job in 2010 is a simple one. Don't ignore motor industry job vacancies simply because you think that men rule the roost here. Times are changing fast and there will be interesting job vacancies and training opportunities that are equally available for women in this industry just as soon as the UK economy starts to recover.