BMW on Motorway??

[cpvh]

Overheard someone talking to someone that was going to supply her a temporary vehicle. She was very concerned that the car should be at least a 2.0 as she intends to dive on the motorway.

I assume they offered a beemer, because she said

?I don?t know anything about BMW?s I drive a Jaguar. I don?t know if they can be driven on the motorway.?

How the other half lives! I used to take my 1.0 Metros from London to Preston & back on the motorway on a regular basis (leaving Jaguars and BMs eating my lead!)

[TimW]

Ah yes! Push the throttle down as far as it will go and keep it there. Turn the stereo cassette player up loud enough to hear over the noise and leave that there too. About 90 on the flat, slowing to 70 or less if it's up hill. It was a Renault5 for me, when I could get it started. Back and forth on the M3 and M4. TW

[sm_jamieson]

If she is that stupid she shouldn't be driving on any road. Perhaps she was trying to be sarky, etc. I mean, she must have noticed the other carss around her when driving in her Jag.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Most BMWs probably overtook her on the motorway going so fast she couldn't read the badge. And likely plenty white vans too.

Which just means they were vaguely keeping to the speed limit. Given most BMWs and Jags ever made were faster than a 1 litre Metro. But at least the Metro had a speedo which told you you were going fast. ;-)

[Brian Gaff]

No idea about how what you heard really makes any sense. If you could not drive them on a motorway, what would be the point of making them.

I could understand it if they offered her a half track military armoured car as a replacement, last time I looked you could not use them on a motorway. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Actually my neighbour had a Metro and boy could that thing move. The speedo kind of just hit the end and after that it was guesswork. Only problem with it was that it tended to be full of rust even when new.

Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

As I said - a very optimistic speedo. Some makers today do just the same. When making one which is within 1% accuracy should be child's play since they are counting pulses.

[mm0fmf]

Had a dumb 50+ blonde ( but out of a bottle at that age) in a big Mercedes saloon (350 or 450) in front of me at the lights once. All rear fog lights on, plus rear lights plus brake lights. Couldn't see a damn thing. At the next set of lights she was turning right, I was going straight ahead. I hooted the horn and she looked and we wound down our windows.

"You have your fog lights and are dazzling everyone behind you." "No I don't". (I could see the warning light from my car.) "Yes you do, you are dazzling everyone. Turn them off it's not foggy." "No I do not. This is a Mercedes, the lights are just brighter and better than cheap cars like yours."

So I can quite believe the overheard conversation.

[Robin]

I find it hard to see how a simple count of pulses can deliver 1 per cent accuracy. The speedo *mustn't* read low. That's a statutory requirement: "the true speed shall not exceed the indicated speed" in your no-doubt well-thumbed copy of the The Motor Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2001. Wear on tyres alone can produce a difference of 2 per cent in the circumference.

[NY]

I'm surprised it's that much. Is the difference between the external diameter of a new tyre and of a just-legal tyre as much as 2%?

I presume manufacturers design the speedo to over-read by at least 2% so it never under-reads even with just-legal tyres. Mine seems to under read by 5 mph across the whole range from 10 - 70, compared with a GPS speedo app.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes. More probably - I reckon 3%.

mine is bang on 10% with half worn tyres. ± 3% for tyre wear.

[Robin]

depends on wheel/tyre of course but I was reckoning on tread going from

8mm to 2mm on a tyre of around 180mm circumference.

Or of course misreckoning if others get different answers :(

[ARW]

You do not have to be rich to be stupid.

Some years ago a friend of my Mums came to visit in her new car (probably a Micra or similar). It was dark when she left and unable to find the headlight switch she caught a taxi home.

[ARW]

I sometimes set my cruise control to a true 70MPG (GPS calibrated with sat nav and mobile phone) and there are still very few cars overtaking me.

I have also had a couple of phone calls about me undertaking on a 50 MPH dual carriageway on the way to work. I have flown past the other vehicles with my van set at a true 50MPH. This is always where the fixed speed camera is and they slow down to 40 MPH or less.

[NY]

I've lost count of the number of times that I've been following other traffic that is all doing under the speed limit, and yet one of them *still* slams the anchors on dangerously hard when they see a police car that might be looking for speeding drivers. Many drivers seem to think that they must brake even if they are nowhere near exceeding the speed limit.

Probably the same people that slow down as they approach the back end of a lorry that they are about to overtake, crawl past the lorry at maybe 2 mph faster than it and then accelerate away as soon as they have passed its cab. I prefer to spend as little (rather than as much) time alongside a lorry, in case it happens to pull out without looking - especially if it's an LHD lorry.

[Tim Streater]

+1

Or in case it has a tire burst or similar shit.

[charles]

not so down south. Mostly BMWs

[Harry Bloomfield]

Robin has brought this to us :

My does around 50 pulses per revolution of the wheel, there are electronic methods to predict the likely next pulse period and predict when the next pulse will arrive. I have three speed displays available to me - the dial on the dash, which reads a few percent high, digital display which does not interpret the wheel pulses at all, it just displays the value and entirely independently - satnav. The latter two always agree within 1mph at a steady speed.

[Harry Bloomfield]

NY expressed precisely :

Yes, they make sure you can never get done for speeding, unless you actually are speeding.

How they read, depends on how the calculate the speed - adding a safe percentage or simply adding 3, 4 or 5 to the value. Mine uses plus a percentage and the mph difference increases with increased speed. Last time I checked, it was 73mph when doing a genuine 70mph from memory.

[Harry Bloomfield]

ARW laid this down on his screen :

Phone calls from whom?