1 hour ago, chrisroberson99 said:

I feel I drive much better in the Focus and ultimately I have driven it a lot more!

There is a lot to think about while learning and taking the test. Having to cope with a car that you are less familiar with is a burden you could well do without. Each car responds differently to the driver, and you want to be able to concentrate on demonstrating the important aspects of observation and control, without having to think about the mechanical details of clutch control, etc.

I found the instructor's car harder to drive than the car in which I had most of my parent supervised driving experience. That is a disadvantage of parent supervised driving in your (or their) car. The advantage is you can clock up a lot more hours of experience.

I took the test in my own car, and it paid off. I am not sure I would have passed in the instructor's car.

PS: My car was a Hillman Imp. In retrospect I am amazed it got through the test without breaking down. Hopefully that problem is Much less likely to arise in a Focus!

 

 

 

I took my test in the instructors car... It was a catch 22, I knew my car more than the instructors car... but I had had all the learning done in the instructors car... plus it was more modern than mine... so whilst I had done bits and bobs with parents in my car, the instructors car was the classroom and I felt that tests and lessons etc were best left to the class room, then when I get in my car I'll be able to put it into practice... but each to their own...

I'd rather rack up the mileage and leave the nervous sweaty stain in the instructors car than my own....

Plus if you fail your car will forever have that stink of failure soaked into it  

 

1 hour ago, Ianb said:

had all the learning done in the instructors car

That has jogged my memory:

I persuaded the instructor to let me take the last few lessons in my own car. They can be a bit nervous about this, without the dual controls, and may not even be able to do it now with insurance & other regulations. That way there was no problem of a sudden jump to the test in a different car to all the lessons.

If you can not do this, then either follow Ian's advice, or make sure you get some pretty formal practice of all the test stages, in your own car.

2 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

That has jogged my memory:

I persuaded the instructor to let me take the last few lessons in my own car. They can be a bit nervous about this, without the dual controls, and may not even be able to do it now with insurance & other regulations. That way there was no problem of a sudden jump to the test in a different car to all the lessons.

If you can not do this, then either follow Ian's advice, or make sure you get some pretty formal practice of all the test stages, in your own car.

They still can - my instructor did a lesson in the 405 as I wanted to make sure I could do all the maneuvers to test standard in that car. 

That's great Jamie, I wondered whether it was possible to have lessons in my own car regarding insurance etc. Hopefully my instructor will think it's OK, at the end of the day he's the expert!

Things I like - a neighbor yelling from his window at the !Removed! parked down on the street to turn off the loud music blasting out of his chavbox car. Hero did the whole block a favour.

Edit: Stoney if you happen to read this, what are the laws around playing loud music from a car?

 

Police Reform Act 2002.

This allows the seizure of a vehicle "causing alarm, distress or annoyance" to the public.

Sent from my SM-G930F

I do like the weather forecast for this afternoon and evening, proved to be largely correct, so far two of my butts have been refilled 

The tomato harvest has commenced, not quite in earnest yet: but it has started  I picked a grand total of 8 cherry tomatoes before the rain came. Meanwhile, the courgettes are beginning to take over my fridge, having conquered the the top shelf, they are encroaching on the blueberries and peas on the second shelf. 

 

 

 

I do like people messaging me on call of duty with 'ur crap m8'...as if I didn't know!   Some people rise through the ranks by being good at the game, I rise through the ranks by playing it very poorly but over a long time.  

I do also like that's it's just started raining this evening, the ideal time for rain when I don't have anything to do outside!  

17 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Some people rise through the ranks by being good at the game, I rise through the ranks by playing it very poorly but over a long time.  

Or in the case, of a game I'm casually playing in a very plodding fashion on my phone.  Some people rise through the ranks by making daily expensive in-app purchases (at least £80+ a day), some levels don't seem to be accessible unless you pay for the extras, frequently

I do like that my butts have captured around 800L of rain, yesterday and overnight: that'll keep my irrigating going for a few days 

I also like how fast Parcelforce is from Cumbria, it was supposed to be on the 48 hour service.  The seller only posted last night: it's just been delivered  Usually the 48 hour service takes 3 days and 5 days if weekends are involved!!

 

I absolutely adore the new Focus RS I saw this morning. It was the colour. Best I can describe is a darker version of Stealth and possibly metallic.

It looked bonkers fantastic and by far the best colour for that car.

Got my new v5c today! 

 

No car yet.....but i own it now at least lol

3 hours ago, laumk7 said:

Got my new v5c today! 

 

No car yet.....but i own it now at least lol

V5C only states the "registered keeper"  

Spending three consecutive days with my dad for the first time in about 19 years.

I've saw him and spoke for few hours every six months or so across the years when id travel the 3hr journey home since I left 15yrs ago; but was really fantastic to have him visiting for three days and working on my house together.

he was always busy when i was growing up and never had the time for me really, also had a large problem with alcohol.

But now hes retired and has been reformed 10 years.

ive now got my own kids and life and understand the full story of how stressful things can get and I rarely drink myself, having spent the few days in his company now and sharing some laughs aswell as views of opinion 

i feel like screaming it "The mans an absolute legend"

I'm 31 and I've just realised that 😅

I suppose it's never too late to discover someone despite having lived with them for first 15yrs of your life.

This experience has really thought me alot about parenting and whats really important.

my eldest daughter is 9 and I explained a bit about grandad coming down and that I was excited to be spending time etc. as grandad was always working when I was her age.

While he was here she came in to me with a tennis ball and two rackets, 

asked me if I wanted to play a game with my dad as I was saying before that he never had time to play when I was younger 😂

was a crazy sort of emotional experience that, caught me unaware didn't see it coming.

just felt the need to share as I've told the wife already and feel like sharing the happy experience 👍

I'm not sure if this is a like, well it is in general terms, sort of, I'll explain.  So basically handed a verbal and written notice in & I thought the boss was going to be a complete backside about it but no.  He comes out to me today when I come back from dinner and has a chat with me which leads onto him saying about what is happening when we get the new parlour in(I'm really excited about the new parlour, it's a all bells and whistles 72 point external rotary, it's huge) and he says he'll be looking for someone more senior with all the experience etc LIKE I HAVE! Now unless i've got the wrong end of the stick, is he hinting at me being promoted?  Also he said he'd rather somebody else went rather than me.  SO I said look, If you put me in the parlour for literally every milking for a month I will do it on your terms AND bring the mastitis down & if I don't achieve that, I'll apologise for wasting your time & leave.  SO he's going to speak to the farm manager about me being in the parlour more(this was after me moaning months ago about being in the parlour all the time lol).  But I know I can get the targets/results he is after and I'm always up for a challenge so lets see what happens.  Also @Lenny I'm can sort of see where your coming from, as I never had the son & dad doing things togehter, my real dad left when I was 2 and my step dad went blind when I was about 9/10 but I've been in contact with my biological dad for just over a year now & it's in a way like he never went but it's still awkward being(for want of a better term) intimate with him.  Burt it's still great talking to him & seeing him etc

Further to my post in the "don't like thread", I do like going out and trying the GTX one last time in pure desparation, only for it to start first time like nothing ever happened...  No idea what was wrong with it, or if it will go wrong again, but for now it has returned to normal which I am incredibly relieved about.

4 minutes ago, jmurray01 said:

Further to my post in the "don't like thread", I do like going out and trying the GTX one last time in pure desparation, only for it to start first time like nothing ever happened...  No idea what was wrong with it, or if it will go wrong again, but for now it has returned to normal which I am incredibly relieved about.

Glad to hear mate, to be fair, what you described has happened to my much younger Focus on a few occasions, some things in life are just random and don't have any apparent explanation :)

Just now, Incontro said:

Glad to hear mate, to be fair, what you described has happened to my much younger Focus on a few occasions, some things in life are just random and don't have any apparent explanation :)

That's very true.  The MK4 Fiesta did it to us once, just cranked and cranked but would not start.  After repeatedly trying for around ten minutes (crank for ten seconds, rest for thirty etc...) it just started and ran perfectly.  Never did it again in the six years we owned the car.  I put that down to an electrical issue as it was a cold and wet morning, but everything in the XUD9 is mechanical except for the glow plugs, unless they were the issue.  In fact, that's a good possibility.

Never mind, as long as it starts tomorrow morning and doesn't conk out during my driving test, I can deal with more issues at a later date!

Stop solenoid is electrical on the xud... :wink:. Either that or immobiliser fault.

Heading out for a final drive in my Focus...

Pick up the Mondeo and head straight down to Birmingham to pick up my sister, niece & nephew...now...I'm sure I've forgotten to tell them something...:D

12 minutes ago, SeanW said:

Heading out for a final drive in my Focus...

Pick up the Mondeo and head straight down to Birmingham to pick up my sister, niece & nephew...now...I'm sure I've forgotten to tell them something...:D

are you getting the new mondeo or the older shape. also what engine. I see they have a 2l ecoboost titanium

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Stop solenoid is electrical on the xud... :wink:. Either that or immobiliser fault.

I thought the immobiliser, as that would coincide with disconnecting the battery - however on those it just cuts power to the starter motor, so if it cranks then the immobiliser is not the issue - at least that was my understanding.

Could have been the stop solenoid right enough, is that around the area of the throttle linkage/diesel pump?  I ask as I used part of that as a ground for the jump leads, so perhaps something happened there.

Yeah the stop solenoid is on the fuel pump, immobiliser is also on the pump though, it doesn't stop the starter on 106s or 306s of the same age so would assume the 405 is the same. 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Yeah the stop solenoid is on the fuel pump, immobiliser is also on the pump though, it doesn't stop the starter on 106s or 306s of the same age so would assume the 405 is the same. 

I thought it did as the immobiliser activated once when I locked it with the FOB and then unlocked via the door lock.  In that instance when I tried to start it the motor didn't engage at all, all that happened was the battery light went out on the dash (all others remained on).  I locked and unlocked it with the FOB to deactivate it and it then cranked and started.

Maybe it does both though, or the solenoid had an issue. 

Either way, I don't care as long as it doesn't do it again!