Tuesday, December 22, 2009

FJ Cruisers

After months of looking for a new car, this is it. Unfortunately it is not available here yet. Anybody any ideas why?

The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a retro-style compact SUV produced by Toyota.


First introduced as a concept car in Chicago at the 2003 Chicago Auto  The FJ Cruiser was originally not intended for production, but due to enormous consumer response about the car following the North American International Auto Show held in Detroit, manufacturing began in early 2006.

 It went on sale in early 2006 as a 2007 model and features styling reminiscent of the original Toyota FJ40 Land Cruisers from the 1960s (particularly the front fascia and wrap around rear windows) and is based on the Land Cruiser Prado platform.


This is a classic of a car and really keeps true to the early days of off roading and yet would look good parked next to an M series in your garage.

Definately going to keep my eye out for this one when it finally hits our shores.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Vehicle Recalls

Life is taking me in all sorts of directions at the moment,I am currently involved with a Land Rover Discovery 3 that has a safety recall, just not this particular one.

Yet this vehicle has the same symptoms and physical evidence of a fault as the recalled vehicles.
"It has been identified that, some vehicles may experience a reduction in braking preformance leading to an increased stopping distance, due to the possiblity of oil entering the brake booster or the brake non-return valve sticking in the closed postion after cold start." That is to say the brakes don't work.

So the dealer says they cannot assist as its not part of the recall, LRSA says if its not on the recall list it is not covered.

On further investigation I have found two other vehicles not on the list that have been repaired via the recall while outside of warranty.

So where do I go from here?

It is a problem, a potentally fatal one and yet I have to bear the cost of what is obviously a vehicle flaw.

As another LRD3 driver pointed out, "why not drive through the showroom window and then argue as to who is responsible now the brakes have failed."

Its the descrepancies in all of this that i find most disturbing. Some are fixed some aren't.

Is it about who shouts the loudest?







Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Cost of it All

Who pays for the damages when some idiot (there's that word again, its almost as if I think everyone is an idiot)
drives into a traffic light.

Then again it doesn't matter what he drives into, the question still remains the same.

Who pays?

I have mentioned previously what a sterling job Joburg roads is doing with repairing the lights at the top of the street.
usually their turn around time is 3 days. Exceptional by our government departments standards.

Now in the last year I have noticed three occasions where the same traffic light has been completely replaced (On one occasion two lights where destroyed)
All those repairs have to come at a considerable cost, so who pays and why? Surely the driver responsible for the action should pay, why not he pays for the damages to the other car.

Does the City sue the insurance companies or the driver for the damages? Somehow I don't think so. So what is the solution?

I don't know, but I think I will have to start my first bit of investigative journalism, instead of just an opinion piece and find some of the answers to this.

Watch this space for more news.