Shedchief

Crikey! I've only owned a Fusion for a couple of days and now you've got me worried!

Actually, I'm not worried - or should I say that I'm no more worried than I'd be if I was driving any other car. You see, I'm well aware that other makes suffer from this problem too, and although "two wrongs don't make a right" I think this is a source of reassurance to me.

For instance, some years ago my VW camper needed two new front springs at a routine service in a non-franchised garage. They'd both snapped clean in half but miraculously hadn't affected the handling or (mercifully) caused punctures. I had noticed nothing untoward. The mechanics said it was metal fatigue and was "just one of those things" and that they had to replace springs more often than you would think possible. (It wasn't a cheap fix either. )

Call me Lucky if you will, but I also suffered a broken OSF spring on a Peugeot 306 too.

I hope that Storm and the others here get satisfaction from the garage, but I must say that I'm with Russ when he says that springs just break sometimes and this is not necessarily a manufacturing defect. I agree that quite a few Ford owners have reported this problem, but then so have owners of other makes.

There's a good discussion here (on Honest John's Technical forum) and I see one or two of our members have contributed to it.

I shall keep an eye on things, that's for sure, and thanks for this interesting discussion.

My longest drive was an occasional 502 miles trip from Pompey to "somewhere in Scotland" when I was serving in the Royal Navy.

As a biker, I did the Lands End to John o' Groats (and back) challenge.  We went two-up on a 500cc super-scooter, endeavouring NOT to use M-ways at all if we could help it.  I depended on Geraldine (my trusty Garmin GPS) and we traveled 2088 miles overall and were on the road for a total of 39.5 hours (I kept a log). We took our time and limited the daily legs to no more than about 300 miles at a time so we could enjoy the scenery and the lovely Scottish roads (more or less traffic free!).

It rained every day.  

I think that using your front fogs is only sensible if it helps the driver to see better in certain conditions.

Rear fogs, obviously, are there to guard your bum from those idiots who drive too quickly in the poor conditions for them to stop in time if you have to slow/stop for any reason. People who turn them on and then forget about them when conditions improve can and cause untold harm by constantly blinding those behind them. Potentially nasty, if only because their brightness can conceal brake lights from said blinded drivers! I wish drivers would THINK, dammit!

In contrast (bad pun, sorry ), using normal dipped headlights in daylight is as much to draw your attention to other road users as it is to help you to see. Whether or not this is proved scientifically to help is immaterial now and not worth arguing about, surely. The fact is that if most drivers do this, then those who do not switch on will disappear in the gloom and simply won't be seen so readily. All or nothing, it seems to me!

As a biker, I am pleased that nearly all bikes now have to have their lights on permanently, removing rider preference from the equation. It doesn't matter whether or not we agree to this. The fact is that anybody who can claim to see the one 'lights off' bike in a line of well-lit traffic without really looking for him - and sadly most car drivers do not really look for bikers - is fibbing!

And yes, I agree with those who say that driving with low-level front fogs on when conditions don't demand it is irritating, unnecessarily blinding and soooooo uncool!

Hurrumph!

Some mouth-watering cars here.  Thanks for sharing!

Personally, I'd love to get my hands on a nice, restored Citroen DS.  <Shock!  Horror!>

I like those scented wooden 'fruits', my favourite being the pine pong.