Visit to Axminster Power Tools Show last weekend

[Andy Dingley]

Do B&Q sell chisel planes then ?

[Andy Dingley]

I don't. Bronze is a problem for corrosion and dark stains on wood, if you have a damp climate and workshop. Also there are a large nunber of good options for a #4 for much less money (Veritas, old Stanley - my "users" are all Sweethearts).

I'll buy a Lie-Nielsen if it's the only option available (a #140 perhaps), but I wouldn't go overboard on something where there are other makers around. They are good though.

The #112 is an excellent plane. I usually use a L-N here because my original Stanley one is a real dog. The handle arrangeent makes it much more useful than a #12.

[Doctor Drivel]

You did.

** sip senility **

[Doctor Drivel]

I have one. Work well.

I have had one for more than donkey's years.

Better is : BES No: 11629 I have one. V Good for toy pipes.

[Doctor Drivel]

Bertie, you know you have to behave.

[Andy Hall]

Agreed, which is why I have the steel ones. However, I don't have a damp workshop either.... I do have one of the little low angle block planes, though, and haven't had any trouble with that in terms of corrosion or staining.

Mmm. THe 140 does seem a bit interesting in terms of function.

Didn't see that one. Do you think that it would be a better option than the 85 that I mentioned earlier?

[Andy Dingley]

Probably. I've never really seen the point to an #85 or #87, particularly the #85. I use mine for finishing great big tabletops, so the bigger the better.

I think Veritas have recently started offering one too.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yet another example of your inability to comprehend simple English. Ask your nurse to explain it to you with your cocoa.

[Doctor Drivel]

You did.

** snip senile drivel **

[Andy Hall]

I understand that Milton Keynes Theatre is doing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves this year......

Apparently they don't have anyone to play Dopey as yet, so perhaps you could consider applying.

[Doctor Drivel]

Matt, is that your local?

Is this Wokingham wit? Please give advanced warning.

[Kaiser]

I can only speak from experience, but a few years ago I had a VW Passat Turbo diesel. It was the worst car I have ever owned as far as reliability goes. A friend of ours is a dedicated Skoda man to my knowledge he has never had any problems with the last 2 Octavias he's owned and I wouldn't say he's the type that would be easily satisfied.

Never owned a BMW, but from my past experience with German cars, I don't think they are what they're cracked up to be. I will stick with Honda, the previous one was 2 years old when I sold it, and the one I have now will be

2 years old in March 2006, neither have ever had even the slightest problem.

[John Rumm]

Therea re two ways of looking at it I suppose. The first must come down to expectation management. If you buy a skoda - a car the in recent history had a butt of jokes type reputation, it is quite easy for it to far exceed your expectations and hence give you a very good "feel good" factor about it simply by being a "good enough" modern car.

If you buy a top of the range prestige car and you fully expect it to be first class in every respect, the you are likely to be far less tolerent of any (even minor) faults or annoyances. This will be reflected in the opinion you give about it.

There is also a technical aspect with regards reliability. Many groups of cars are based on the same chasis platform even when they apparently come from unrelated badges. This is partly down to group ownership of marques, but also joint development ventures between manufacurers.

VAG make basically the same model of car under several badges. So the Skoda of today has little or no mechanical heritage that was brought in from the original marque and is basically a VW/Audi. However in cases like this there will often be certain features of a chassis platform that are only available for a subset of the badges. Where these features are have a particular affinity with good or poor reliability they will skew the results for the brand.

There was a good example of this a few years back where the Seat version of the Ford Galaxy and VW Sharron had notably better reliability than the others, even though the cars were nominally identical and came from the same factory. Closer investigation however revealed that Seat did not market a VR6 engined version, but Ford and VW did. It was this model that dragged down the average reliability results for the model but obviously not for Seat.

[John Cartmell]

Very true. I'd dismiss anecdotal evidence but would like to see a proper survey that would expand the evidence from one place of employment where for a period of about 2 years every new car owner has had their car off the road for engine problems for up to a week - with one exception. The Skoda owner.

So does such a survey exist? Not cost of repairs or dissatisfaction - but a simple "has the car had to go back to the garage for non-accident repair within the first three years?".

[Doctor Drivel]

The Czechs screw them together better.

[Holly, in France]

re Arbortech AS160, rest snipped

Thanks Andy and also Grunff for your comments. Renting isn't likely to be a possibility for us around here. I have found and contacted the French distributor so we'll see what they say. It's not something we would buy without seeing it in action first. If the concept is good and the tool becomes popular I guess other manufacturers might soon come up with something similar.

-- Holly, in France Holiday Home in Dordogne

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The annual Which survey gives such details - if you read the whole thing rather than just the generally published headlines. The part of it which is of real interest (to me) is whether you'd recommend your car to a friend. And this seems very independant of actual reliability. After all, it's possible to have a supremely reliable car that you just hate driving...

But I'd be most surprised if *nothing* went wrong on any car in 3 years and say 35,000 miles. Of course, many slight faults will be left until the next service. And what may be a slight 'fault' to some ignored by others.

There's a real problem with surveys. Getting a good cross section of car users.

[Andy Hall]

Aren't there tool rental places in France, or is it just your area? I would have thought that Bordeaux was large enough to have this?

To put a scale on it, though, I'd consider buying one if I were doing a complete house renovation including all chasing etc and exterior work. Probably not for less.

[Holly, in France]

We had a Toyota Carina and then an Avensis, both company cars, both lasted 3 years, did more miles than that and AFAIR not a single thing went wrong with either of them.

-- Holly, in France Holiday Home in Dordogne

[Doctor Drivel]

You can always sell these things on afterwards and recoup much of the cost.