Each year in the UK it is estimated that 1 million people will learn to drive, or at least buy driving lessons with the intention of doing so. This should be no surprise because in reality there are few things that will change someone’s life so dramatically. We take driving for granted nowadays or at least those who have already passed their driving test, but if you could look back in time and consider what life would be like without the convenience of a motor car, many just would not have anything like the quality of life they have now.
Take your job for example, how many people would be able to have their current position if they could not drive to work. In fact many would not be able to attend the interview. If you take an average office and establish where each member of staff worked, no one should be surprised at the diversity of location people will travel from to gain employment, the days of everyone living in the same village as the factory has just about gone.
This is not a history lesson but a reminder of how important the car has become to us in everyday life and how many have forgotten what it was like without one, prior to passing their driving test. We can talk all day about repairing cars, or driving them or even leasing that new motor. But the truth is, if that initial period of buying driving lessons and then passing the driving test had not occurred, all the information about car will have little impact on you. Recession or no recession, learning to drive is and will remain to be one of the most important decisions anyone will make in their lives.
If you watch any kind of comercial TV in the UK you can’t have missed the intensive advertising campaign from organisations wanting to change peoples lives by training them to be a driving instructor. The message is that you can earn up to £30k a year with fully maintained car working the hours you want to suit your lifestyle.
This is all happening at a time when most people feel their current job is insecure and redundancies seem to be an everyday occurance. Rather than selling the process of becoming a driving instructor the adverts are very much aimed at selling the dream, of a good wage, modern car and flexible working hours, in fact it all seems too easy.
Nothing is mentioned about the prior research to who are the competition in the area, how much will it cost to market the new business and the reality of much they will really earn? With competition bringing driving lessons down to £10 a lesson in certain areas for block bookings, you can’t understand how any driving instructor can make his £30K and still have the flexibility of working their own hours. Anyway driving instructor training looks like it will be very popular and if the amount of drivers increase, then it may be the best decision for some.
If you intend to any major engine work on your car, one of the first things you will need to do is drain the car’s radiator. Not to mention you may want to cleans the cooling system of you car from time to time. Here is a video that describes how to do this relatively simple job, providing the car is cool of course, so saftey is a main issue.
OK to you and me the transmission is the gearbox, either manual or automatic. just like the engine it needs lubrication fluid to keep it right and trouble free. This is an American video but shows you how easy it to check your transmission fluid, expecially on front wheeled drive vehciles, where the gearbox is under the bonnet with the engine.
You can do this job in minutes and to be honest most gearboxes can outlive the car, so dont expect to find much wrong.
Of course the first post was only part 1 so we have now added part 2 and part 3 on how to change your suspension struts on your car. May be important to know how to do all the job as we wudn’t want your car to only have 3 wheels and laid up for some time.
The final part pf fitting struts on this car, watch how it ends
If your car is getting on in mileage then there is going to come a time when the either the shockers, struts or even both need replacing. Many wait until the MOT test before doing any replacements, but you can normally notice that they need replacing when the car becomes very hard over bumps, or it leans to one side or down.
For many cars, this is not a hard job and can be done by most DIY savvy guys, although compressing the unit can take a bit of force and you need to be careful with the brake lines. Here is part one of another DIY video on how to change struts or shocks on your car.
Whenever you tackle bodywork on a car you can be sure you need to deal with a few dents here and there. You could choose just to fill them in, but in many cases you would want to “pull the dent” first and then fill with filler or whatever.
Here is a simple video showing how to pull dents with the right equipment. Just abut anyone can do it quickly and efficiently. Just by spot welding a full pull points you can get the tools behind and pull the dent back to as near the shape it was before the accident.
Its not the best video we have seen, but iut serves a purpose.
OK to you and me the transmission is the gearbox, either manual or automatic. just like the engine it needs lubrication fluid to keep it right and trouble free. This is an American video but shows you how easy it to check your transmission fluid, expecially on front wheeled drive vehciles, where the gearbox is under the bonnet with the engine.
You can do this job in minutes and to be honest most gearboxes can outlive the car, so dont expect to find much wrong.
Well we hinted last month that the figures suggesting car manufacture was down, did not really tell the whole story and this month the same news channels are telling us that new car sales are up 7% compared to the same month lasy year. Of course September is new registration time and when car dealers are going to get the majority of their sales. but all the negative news seems to have been premature just for the sake fo headlines.
The scrappage scheme is at last been demeed a succes and being part responsable not only for the currebt rise in mew car sales, but also the rise in used car sales. In fact it has been said that for the first time in history, used cars have increased in value, just by being parked on the drive. Even specialist sources such as CAP price books are confirming this.
In fact confidence seems to be growing right through the country with mosts news channels suggesting the resssion is ove, but will grow slowly back to normal levels. Then as used car prices go up and new car prices pretty much as cheap as they are ever going to go, it doesn’t take a detective to figure out that new car sales will grow and grow over the next 6 months or so.
Even finance is being made more available for those back loans and contract hire options. Not much private car lease has been around for some time, so maybe moew will return together with business contract hire options for more small businesses.
The figures for July august saw another 27% drop in production of cars compared to the same time last year. The news reports that is still 2% better last month suggesting that the scrappage scheme is working, but many others have their doubts.
After all the high street saw rises is sakes during July and there was a huge increase in Mortgage acceptance, so many believe this sight 2% damage limitation figure is just more people are a bit more confident in the economy.
The figure relating to UK cars being manufactured however does not tell the whole picture as sales could be up much more if it is found that the consumer is choosing to buy cars built outside the UK, for example in Korea. We also have to take into account that there are airfields full of new cars up and down the UK, so at this time figures for manufacturing may have little reference to cars being sold, until the stock pile of cars fall in numbers.
It is also worth noting that 50% of new cars tend to be leased and as the scrappage scheme does include lease cars within its conditions you again have to wonder what impact the scrappage scheme is really having. As no official figures seem to be released with a yes it is working or no it is no, we will keep having to guess.