Richmond

Presumably there are loads like N 15 4 NEW; W 15 4 WHY, for example.

Mate of mine had a SMART car with the registration "X 70 NKA" Ex Tonka :-) Is it just me, or are these number plates which require that '4' be read as 'A' or '7' as 'T', and spaces ignored or inserted, a bit pointless? It's lost on me; I'd never have guessed that 'X 70 NKA' meant 'ex Tonka'. Mind you, now I know, I'll be rolling around the car with laughter so much whenever I see one that I'll crash and have to buy 'P R4T'.

I've used Spikes Spiders on 215 tyres on the Galaxy, no probs. They're v. quick to fit once you've put the mounting on (at home), but they are pricey. The sock thing looks neat, but I suspect is not suited to serious snow and may not be accepted by the local cops (see The Roofbox Co website).

I understand that snow tyres usually have a fairly low max speed which means that they're not ideal for a trip from UK to Austria; presumably you could stick chains on the rear as well as the front instead of snow tyres. I'd recommend Spikes Spider chains (The Roofbox Co hire and sell them). They're v. quick to put on once the mounting is in place (you put that on before you leave home), although they cost a lot more than regular chains.

I think that XN85 wants to drive on them, not smoke them. My old man used to change to winter tyres when we lived in NE England in the 70s. I drove the car (Vauxhall Viva - good car of its type) with them on quite a bit, and found them an inprovement on ordinary tyres in snow (surprise, surprise). No idea about wear or whether they're necessary with modern tyres which are presumably loads better than 70s tyres (or should be at about

There are several threads on tyres, worth a read if you're replacing yours. FWIW, I have Michelins which are fine, no problem with adhesion or wear, but pricey.

Guess what? The whole thing, including the black bit, the housing and the glass (IIRC) has to be bought. Costs

I know that as a general proposition rear facing seats tend to be safer in crashes than front facing ones (I believe that RAF passenger planes have rear facing seats - no doubt someone will tell me I'm wrong), but this presumably supposes that they have been designed to be used facing the rear. I'm not sure that you can assume that using the seats in the Galaxy in this way will be safer. I think that I would always want to wear a safety belt in a car whichever way I was facing. By the way, in general I don't care which way people choose to have their seats facing or whether they choose to use safety belts.

Mine is a bit lumpy at tickover and just above, not a misfire or engine vibration, I'm sure. I seem to remember reference being made to this as a characteristic of the engine in other threads.

I don't know if the box on the V6 is the same (broadly speaking) as that on the TDi, but I find mine a bit reluctant to change smoothly, especially when cold. As Ivor says, gently does it.

Any coating (except a rock hard one) on the screen is likely to produce this effect, I would imagine. Yesterday, I bought a bottle of a Mer product designed to do the same thing and it warns that the first pass of the wipers can have that effect; I don't know what it's like as it was raining so I didn't put it on. I did clean the interior glass and treat it with an anti misting liquid (also Mer), and a bloody boring way to spend half an hour it was, too.

Where exactly have you put the chip? No pictures, please.

Why is it hypocritical not to buy your employers' product? You do a good job for them, you get paid, you spend your money as you see fit. Recognizing that your employers' product is not the best on the market is not hypocritical (unless of course you're a salesman telling other people to buy it because it is the best on the market). It might be disloyal I suppose, but I'm not sure that many employers treat their staff well enough to expect loyalty outside the workplace.

Learn to live with them? Make sure that the threads have a bit of grease on, no probs.

But they are happy with their low end torque, Fredt, they love that. This may be a stupid question, but are there similar go faster gizmos for petrol engines? One hears nothing of them on here. Since the petrol engines are electronically controlled, presumably they can be chipped as well (or as badly) as diesels. By the way Fredt, I know petrol (and lpg) engines don't need the extra va va va voom (if any), I'm just curious. Davewill, none of this answers your question. IIRC, those who had chipped their engines reported much better performance, fuel economy, longer willy (I may have made up that last bit) etc etc, while everyone else who posted said that they are a rip off. Someone posted a long and apparently well informed discussion of how the different types work; the cheap ones are crap and the expensive ones (like he has) work. I can't find it, sorry.

Get ready for a stream of strong opinions one way and the other. There are threads on this topic.

shiznit? Good word.

I'm sure that someone has done it, and will no doubt tell you how. A couple of thoughts from someone who knows sod all about this sort of thing. 1. Would it not be good to have the PS2 demountable, for security and to use it elsewhere)? 2. Might there be a safety issue having a hard case mounted on the back of the front seats? The trays are hard, but they are not as solid as a PS2 (which is a remarkably tough bit of kit). It's hard to think where to put it, though, without building armour plate for it and putting it somewhere on the floor. What about one of the rear bins, with a long cable? Pain to change the disc.

That's exactly what I should do, Ivor, but there's acres of the bloody stuff.

A greasy film on the inside (and probably the outside) of windows is absolutely normal, in London if nowhere else. It wipes off black, and is no doubt down to all those parsimonious diesel engines. :D

Are you sure it's not your specs steaming up when your girlfriend is in the car? Do you have an electrically heated front screen? If so, it should demist in a matter of a minute or two. What about aircon? It seems to be the case that if you have it, you need to use it in this sort of weather to avoid misting up; the more people in the car, the worse is the misting up. I have only occasionally used the blower to clear the front screen, which it did pretty effectively , IIRC. My windows are covered in a greasy film too, presumably a result of driving in traffic. If I could be bothered, I'd clean them; it makes a horrid mess if you try to wipe the screen, doesn't it? Presumably our lungs are lined with a similar greasy film :D .

There's a thread on here somewhere with a very good discussion of what software is available and what you need in the way of hardware.

MM, it seems a hell of a lot of effort (and a fair cost) to go to just to have the rear of the car a bit warmer when you get in, or am I misunderstanding the purpose of your work? Or are you doing it for fun? Do you live in Greenland?

Nurse get the screens, send for the doctors this patient needs a life (or putting down). :lol: It's a Peugeot 306i convertible and is a huge amount more fun to drive and infinitely better looking than the Galaxy (not an entirely fair comparison admittedly, and designed by Pininfarina rather than Peugeot). It's also a great deal more expensive to run and the build quality is worse (although not as bad as you might expect). It's not practical for a family of four, either (we had a week's holiday in France en famille with it years ago, but I don't think that we could now). I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but if you think that the Galaxy is a good looking vehicle, you need to get out more. The Galaxy is a bloody boring MPV. OK, it does it's job well, it's comfortable, decent enough performance, but it looks like a badly cut loaf. It has all the character of a Weetabix. It handles poorly. I run it because it's big inside, comfortable, relatively cheap to buy and run, reasonably reliable, reasonably safe. It doesn't exactly set the pulse racing 'though (for those of us who still have a pulse), does it? Which of Fredt's 5 no-nos would you prefer to indulge in?