Driving issue two 2015

ISSUE TWO 2015

Charley Boorman talks bikes, roads and travel

LONGING FOR THE ROAD

driving

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HAT DO YOU know about DIAmond? For those who may not know, DIAmond was set up in 1992 and especially designed for ADIs so they would be able to offer additional training to their pupils once they had passed their driving tests. In fact, it pre-dates the

Pass Plus scheme. The DIAmond programme aimed to provide newly qualified drivers with the opportunity to drive in all road, traffic and weather conditions, during the day and also at night. The programme would end with an independent assessment, known as the DIAmond Advanced test.

Until then, the only advanced tests available were based on Roadcraft, often referred to as the ‘police system of driving’ with the examiners either being serving or former serving police officers. DIAmond is based on the more familiar (to ADIs) publication Driving the Essential Skills and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) Cardington system of marking and is seen as a natural development of the skills taught while learning to drive. Although the principles of advanced driving are similar, e.g. arriving at the hazard in the correct position, speed and gear there are subtle differences in the way in which tests are marked and conducted.

DIAmond offers two levels of tests, the standard and special tests. The standard test lasts for 60 minutes and is often used as a mock test for potential driving instructors and it covers similar content to the ADI test of driving ability (part 2). The special test is based on the Cardington Special Test and lasts for 90 minutes.

The additional time in both tests allows access to a greater variety of road and traffic conditions and will include national speed roads and motorways wherever possible. The special test also includes a commentary element which is useful for driving instructor trainers.

DIAmond conducts tests in all sorts of vehicle categories, including motorcycles, cars, trailers minibuses, PCV and LGV in the UK and Middle East. It has a network of regional examiners who are monitored by supervising examiners. Supervising examiners (SEs)

Wwill be conducting periodic quality assurance checks (similar to a Standards Check) and provide support for the advanced examiners. The SEs liaise with the chief examiner on all matters relating to promoting local events, quality assurance, gaining fleet contracts and running local update workshops.

The responsibility of the chief examiner is to oversee the running of the organisation to ensure tests are conducted fairly and consistently assessed to the same standard. This means that all test routes must be logged with head office for inspection by the DVSA as part of the accreditation agreement. All routes need to be suitably challenging for an advanced test with an equal amount of left and right turns; a variety of speed limits including national speed limits on single and dual carriageways; a balance of urban and rural roads (where possible), suitable manoeuvring areas and challenging junctions including crossroads and roundabouts.

All driving test report forms are checked and analysed by the administration team. Examiners must explain and justify each fault marked during a test; this will include what happened, where it happened and the effect on other road users or if a road traffic law was broken (eg. failing to stop at a stop line).

During their training, examiners are trained how to plan a test route, record and explain driving faults, conduct an advanced test using standard wording, observe candidates, grade driving faults (from no fault being recorded to a dangerous fault) and give positive and negative feedback at the end of the test.

Many examiners have used the DIAmond test as part of a fleet training programme for company drivers and ORDIT establishments as part of the instructor training. We have worked with NHS in West Yorkshire, Wiseman Diaries and Walkers Crisps (LGVs), The Army (driver development) and Kent Fire Brigade (as part of the fleet qualification).

To qualify for training: potential examiners need to hold or working towards suitable qualifications; have passed the DIAmond special test within the last three years; and are actively working on all aspects of CPD.

Steve has over 20 years’ experience of driver and instructor-training and public speaking he started his teaching career training novice motorcyclists, albeit voluntarily, in a school playground on Saturday mornings, in Bromley, Kent.

ABOUT THE WRITER

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ISSUE TWO 2015 | driving

EDITORSimon Miller

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DESIGNERMatt Russell

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ADVERTISINGAmy Turner

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DIAMOND CHIEF EXAMINERSteve Garrod

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STEVE GARROD REFRESHES THE READERS ON WHAT DIAMOND REPRESENTS IN HIS NEW COLUMN

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COVER STORY

REVIEWS

Just as air bags have come to be the norm in cars, the Internet of Things could become just as standard

Why are a growing number of American teens holding back on getting their driving licences?

Simon Miller talks travel, roads and bikes with presenter, actor, biker, travel writer and guide Charley Boorman

The latest versions of the Ford B-Max and the Dacia Sandero are tested alongside the Toyota Rav

TECHNOLOGY OVER THE POND

LONGING FOR THE ROAD

CONTENTS


05

12P 20P

07P

14P

Longing for the roadSIMON MILLER TALKS TRAVEL, ROADS AND BIKES WITH CHARLEY BOORMAN

I get that from dad, that wanderlust, that

wanting to travel all the time

HARLEY BOORMAN IS a TV presenter, travel writer , guide and actor who is perhaps best known for jumping on a motorbike and riding over

continents with Ewan McGregor. Not only has he had a successful career on the bike, he is also president of Dyslexia Action, a UNICEF ambassador and, having had testicular cancer, a major supporter of Movember.

Driving Instructor grabbed some time out of his busy schedule to ask him about his biking experiences and what was it like to make a career out of his love of two-wheels.

C

Why did you get into motorbiking? Driving is a necessity I suppose and what is always nice about bikers is that they are so friendly. I suppose that is why people are into horse riding or climbing or canoeing or whatever. There always seems to be a nice community of people. I have always said you have to take your driving licence but you always choose to have your bike licence.

How did growing up shape your life? My father’s a film director, John Boorman who has directed films like Deliverance, Excaliber, Point Blank, Hope and Glory and so on. Although we were based in Wicklow, Ireland, as children we travelled all around the world with my father — South Pacific to America to Los Angeles to South Carolina to Brazil — so the adventurous side of me is probably because of my father. He always chose difficult movies to make and always challenging locations. So I get that from dad, that wanderlust, that wanting to travel all the time.

You have dyslexia, what challenges did/does that bring?I always loved plays and my dad recognised that. Being on stage certainly gave me a voice whereas in class it just didn’t. I went to a lot of schools because of the travel and didn’t go to a proper school till I was about 13 but I think, looking back, it was difficult to explain to teachers what dyslexia meant. I do think it is a gift you are given. It makes you think differently to everyone else, it makes you become entrepreneurial because you have to delegate to get what you want because you can’t often do the basics yourself. Before chip and pin you had to write checks and going to a restaurant or a supermarket and you have to write it out to Sainsbury’s or whomever, it was difficult to spell those names so you had to be brave enough to go and say to someone “how do you spell that?” or “Can you fill that cheque in for me?”.

When you are a child in school, there is a circle of people and all the pegs go in happily but being dyslexic, you kind of bounce around the edges because you don’t conform so it makes you see thinks differently — I think I see things much more visually, so I get things visually much quicker than most people.

FEATURE 07


Driving Instructor32

The idea is to show people that Africa is an amazing place

driving

How did the trip turn into a TV series?We just didn’t have the money to do it and then someone mentioned that it would make a good book. So we asked around and we got a book deal quite easily because they liked the idea of two friends going off around the world without a clue about what was going to happen.

Because we had this book deal, we didn’t know how to do this so we thought we would

keep video diaries, film each other and get the atmosphere of the whole thing and get some guy in to help us construct the book then we would write the book.

But then we thought if we were going to do all that, why don’t we get a third person to come along and they can film it better, properly, and we could have a diary of what we have done? Then we thought well if we are going to do that, we could make a TV show then we met [Long Way Round, Long Way Down and By Any Means director/producer] Russ Malkin and he seemed to think that was a good idea then it went on from there really.

How do you cope with such a distance with each other?There are always some tensions. You are together in each other’s pockets for four and a half months so there are days when you wake up in the tent and you are not feeling it. Tired or annoyed, or had a bad nights sleep or the rain got into your tent and not anyone else’s. So there are moments but that didn’t happen that often and both of us kind of dovetailed each other so if someone was low, the other was usually up or, at critical times, someone was in a good mood so they would bring the other person up or you would recognise to leave that person alone — like you would in a marriage really. The great thing about the motorbikes is that you are both riding on your own vehicle, you are riding in your own space — it would be much, much harder being stuck in a car with someone else.

For the guys in the support vehicles it must have been incredibly hard for them because we didn’t really hook up with them much. We hooked up with them every three or four days and then we would give them our tapes and then, sometimes if we did a Unicef project we would hook up together because we needed more cameras.

How did you cope with the remoteness and being away from families? Nowadays, you can use telephones but back then it was expensive. There were times when you realised how remote you actually were. For instance, in Mongolia we had terrible problems getting through with the weather and bikes broke and we thought let’s get out back to Russia onto the tarmac. At that time we were ringing the support crew to check in as they were a good half-day behind us and as we spoke, Russ crashed his car. Luckily, they weren’t hurt but we realised that it was three days driving to the nearest hospital, which you probably wouldn’t want to be in anyway. There are no air ambulance, planes, nothing, no one spoke English and it is at that point that you realise that if you break your femur and have an internal bleed, you are dead because there is nothing there. So it is that remote.

Then again, you can be in the middle of absolutely in the middle of nowhere, riding along, days from any towns — GPS was very basic — and suddenly your phone would start pinging with text messages.

How did you get into driving? When you are living somewhere like Wicklow, in the countryside, from a very young age you begin driving in the fields, driving the tractors and trailers. We had a long driveway and we used to drive mum and dad’s cars up and down the driveway all the time. My father bought a Rolls Royce once, a Silver Shadow 2 and we weren’t allowed to get into it unless we took our shoes off. At around ten, I had driven to the end of the driveway in this Silver Shadow 2. You had to back up to turn around and somehow we [him and his sister Daisy] ended up in the ditch and spent an hour walking back home arguing whose fault it was we ended up in the ditch. Eventually we ‘fessed up to dad and he took it on the chin, went down and had a look, got the local tractor from the farmer next door to pull it out.

But that wasn’t the first time. When I was younger, tiny, my mum had a London taxi she used to drive round Wicklow Mountains. One Sunday afternoon, my parents had mates round and there was afternoon tea with my mum and my sisters and Dad was looking out of the windows and just saw the taxi appear very quietly, just rolling slowly and saw me standing on the seat driving the taxi down this hill into a bush. So that was the beginning of my illustrious career.

What about motorbikes?Dad was not into motorbikes but there was a guy in my hometown who had a motorbike and I kept hearing this two-stroke engine and I asked him to give me a go. He had a Mako 400 which was the bee’s knees at the time but I was too small to reach the gear change so he put it in gear and I rode it round the field until I fell off. That was that I was hooked for life.

How did you meet Ewan McGregor? After I made all those films with dad, I began making films on my own and my career didn’t go how I wanted it to go because I often chose movies for their location rather than script — again the wanderlust — so my career was heading downhill and there was a period of about ten years where I did painting and decorating. In those ten years, I kept getting the odd movie just to try and keep the dream alive and in one of those movies The Serpent’s Kiss, I met Ewan.

We connected as we had both had had our first child and we were having a great time on the west coast of Ireland in Mayo and we both loved motorbikes so we kind of stayed friends and then we ran motorbike race teams together, we did track days together, we did all sorts of stuff — totally bike-centred. Actually most of my friends, it is all centred around bikes.

How did Long Way Round come about?As a lot of bikers do, we looked at doing a long weekend, or when looking at France, for let’s say for a track day, we thought why not do a couple of days there and back.

Ewan and I thought it would be nice to have a long trip and originally thought we’d go to Spain, meet our families, have a holiday then ride back. Then, as Ewan’s wife was bought up in China, we thought maybe we’d go to China and meet the families there. Then one day Ewan said: “I’ve got this idea. Why don’t we do the Road of Bones then the Bering Straits are there and we could just hop over and then carry onto New York?”

That’s how it kind of went but it was a good two to three years of talking about it. We went to the Geographical Society and their planning office — there’s a lot of information there about past trips and, in there, they had a huge blown-up photo of what I thought was Mars and we said: “Where’s that”. Well, it was Mongolia. We looked at the map and thought: “Ah, Mongolia’s there, lets do that.”

FEATURE 09


Why did you set up African Adventures?The idea is to show people that Africa is an amazing place. Great food, friendly, amazing safaris — where else can you be on a back road on your bike and you have to stop because 40 elephants are crossing the road? There is nowhere else left in the world that you can really come across those types of wild animals so closely.

You represent Garmin, but are you really a fan of technology?The great thing about the Garmin is that you can sit down, plan your adventure, put your destination in and it will give you a route — an idea of what you want. In the old days you would be driving along, then you would have to stop get the map out, figure out where you are etc. It gives you a freedom so you can enjoy your road. You can zoom in and create some incredible routes. However, always bring a map along as well and make sure you know where you are on the map because you cannot just follow GPS blindly.

With the motorcycle tours in Africa every year and the one in Australia and one in Mexico, we give everyone a Garmin and the route so guests can go off on their own. In the old days, if they were in a group that is riding too slowly for them or too fast, or stuck in

each other’s dust that was that. This gives you complete freedom, As long as you stay in front of the bag carriers and the medic. How were the different road conditions and cultures? People moan here about road conditions. In Russia it was mental. Pot holes to me are bigger than swimming pools. Conditions are so bad that no one uses the road anymore and there are 20 tracks offroad with abandoned trucks parked up to the side. That’s my idea of a bad road.

Every time you cross a border, everything changes. You’ve got used to the road conditions and the layout of one country, and in particular architecture, and it literally changes once you cross that border. How people dress, and signpost and how they are administered,

lines on the road, the type of tarmac, the colour of tarmac. How some countries have lots of tree-lined roads and others have none. But it doesn’t take long to adapt, about half a day’s riding.

Anything stood out while on the road?In Russia, when we were heading towards the Road of Bones on those big gravel roads with big trucks, you would see trucks just go straight on instead of turning right and head into ditches. There was one bloke who was clearly drunk and we asked if he was drunk when he went of the road and he said: “Da, Normal” and was quite happy to sleep it off and someone else would come and drag him out.

When on these dust roads you get this white powder so when passing a truck you have to

I don’t think myself and Ewan ever thought

we were going to be adventurers

driving

driving | ISSUE TWO 2015

tourists going around and, as I was going past them, I look up and all I could see were these flashing lights.

Where was your favourite place or mode of travel?All of it. There are moments of travel when you think “wow”. Walking along with an elephant. When you are on a horse, he may steal a mouthful of grass or something like that. If you’ve got an elephant he will take the whole tree as you are walking along. India was great — the trains, the Chuk-Chuks and the Royal Enfields.

You competed in the Paris-Dakar, which your team finished. Why?I love dirt bike and enduro racing and Dakar is the ultimate race. It was a challenge. It is so not popular in this country, it is extraordinary. You go to France or Italy, these guys are heroes. I remember walking down with Hubert Auriol who won it on bikes and cars, a legend. People flocked to him.

The race is grueling and difficult, You have to do your navigation in your road book. You have to keep following instructions in that book; there is no sat nav.

How did you start doing your An Evening with Charley shows? I started dong little talks for BMW dealerships after Long Way Round because people wanted to hear more and then I hooked up with [manager] Billy Ward and he said we could make a bit of a show about this. It was very successful. We have done national tours and when going to somewhere like the TT, or Australia, we do these speaking tours.

Where haven’t you been?I haven’t really been to Central and Southern America so really want to go there. Love to travel a bit more in China. Haven’t really done New Zealand. So any places.

What’s your favourite bike?I would like a bike for every feeling, which I’ve very nearly got. I’ve got a couple of sports bikes, got a couple of customs, got an old Triumph. I have my everyday bike BMW’s GS adventurer, which is amazing. A retro-custom bike. A dirt bike. The thing is that there is a lot of elitism that goes on in motorbiking. Either you have a sports rider or a Harley rider or a dirt bike rider and you stick to those. The BMW GS is quite a good bike to have if you only need one bike. It can do twisty lanes, go off-road, sit on the autobahn.

Did you think you would become an adventurer?I don’t think myself and Ewan ever thought we were going to be adventurers, I think we thought this would be a really good ride and people said this will change your lives. I said no it won’t and that we were just going off for a ride but it really has changed my life. Not only did I do the Long Way Round, it allowed me to do the Dakar, the Long Way Down through Africa, By Any Means, Masterchef.

To go to races and be invited in to meet the teams, fulfilling fantasies I have had all my life. Lots of opportunities but a lot of hard work.

I remember doing some training with the ex-SAS guys, hostile environment training, who said if you survive the planning, the journey’s easy and it’s true. The more planning you make, the better it is. It doesn’t mean you have to plan every day of your route but it does mean all your visas, passports and carnets — everything is super organised.

What has been the best advice you have had? An adventure can be driving to the Nurburgring or the Lake District, the key thing is to get some friends along, make a date and stick to it. That’s the hardest thing — to get people to stick to the date. Once you are out there, it is easy.

get so close to it so that the dust is only just coming up from the wheels so you can see. So, you are almost directly behind this big juggernaut and then have to come out to have a look and there’s usually a mound of gravel in the middle where the trucks have piled it up so you have to get over that then look to see if there was another truck coming and then you would get a complete whiteout as the other truck passed.

What’s the most notable thing about UK roads in comparison?The one thing I have noticed is that we have far too many sign posts in this country. It is mind-boggling. I am amazed that more people aren’t hit by cars as they spend most of their time looking at where they are.

You could strip that right back in towns around here like in Oxford Street at that big crossing. I bet you the speed level goes right down and the traffic accidents go down. The idea is that as you drive along, if there’s no signposts, you actually naturally slow down because the definition between road and pavement is blurred.

You have done the Nurburgring, what did you think of it?I love it. It is one of my favorite tracks but you have to be careful because even if you think you know it, you don’t. It is very undulating and you can be going along, convinced there is a right hander and you start to crank over to the right but it goes left.

Another thing to remember is that it is an open circuit. I’ve done it where I’m in the carousel and there was a busload of Japanese

We have far too many sign posts in this country. It is mind-boggling

FEATURE 11



driving

OR MORE THAN a century now, the automobile has been an isolated machine of metal and motor, its single most important purpose being the transportation

of passengers from one place to another. However, the automotive industry has slowly begun to change and the last decade has seen the fastest acceleration of this since Henry Ford’s famous assembly line invention back in 1913.

Where once it was steel, we now have carbon fibre and computer technology is pervading traditional automotive industry technologies to support regulatory requirements for safety, emissions control, and fuel efficiency, as well as comfort and convenience, and communications and entertainment. Technology is providing manufacturers with unique selling points to

set themselves apart in increasingly crowded market places.

The advent of a perpetually connected society has naturally expanded the immersive digital experience into the automotive space. Consumers want to play music from their smart phones through their car speakers, make hands-free phone calls with information displayed on their console, start their engines and warm up or cool down the cabin while still in line at the local shop — and that’s only the start of it.

In effect, car owners now want their vehicles to become a personal node on a network of rolling, connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating a paradigm that enables possibilities that may even now be considered as straight out of the pages of science fiction.

The IoT is composed of connected industrial devices, home appliances, building and city control systems, vehicles, and even wearables and implantable devices that connect people and animals to the internet. What differentiates IoT devices from general purpose computers is the ability to operate and intercommunicate without requiring human-to-computer interaction. Think about washing machines that can order detergent when they detect you’re running low, vehicle assembly robots that detect sporadic component malfunctions and request maintenance before they fail, or vehicles that communicate with each other to

Where once it was steel, we now have

carbon fibre

You wouldn’t buy a car without an airbag… CHRISTOPHER POULIN EXAMINES HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS IS COMING TO CARS

F

FEATURE 13


only wireless networks that expose a vehicle to attack; it’s also been proven possible to infect a vehicle by inserting a CD or USB drive containing malware, which can modify firmware on the car’s electronic ‘brain’.

The IoT is here to stay and so is the connected car. Much as we expect anti-lock brakes, airbags and seat belts as standard features rather than retrofitted options, today’s consumers will demand digital security that is delivered unobtrusively within their vehicles.

This realisation will drive new revenues for forward-looking partners and manufacturers, as well as decrease costs and improve the overall in-car experience for drivers and passengers. Those that can deliver the safety and convenience features consumers desire can look forward to a very bright future in the IoT enabled, connected car space — as can their customers.

Christopher Poulin, Research Strategist, X-Force, IoT / Connected Car Security, IBM Security Systems

Secure production environments and trusted supply chains are crucial

prevent rear-end collisions. The United Nations, along with a number of

global analyst firms are predicting some 200 billion connected ‘Xs’ by 2020 and by 2025 the global IoT industry could be worth as much as £4 trillion. The fact of the matter is that the IoT represents big news and even bigger opportunities and the automotive industry is poised as one of the first to benefit.

Some possibilities are amusements, such as a music streaming service suggesting tracks to accompany a picturesque roadway and based on the car’s geolocation; while other uses for the IoT are genuinely ground-breaking, offering enhanced efficiency and safety. For example, automobile service centres are tracking sensor data to predict when routine or remedial maintenance is needed for components such as brakes and automatically schedule the vehicle for an appointment; insurers are already capturing driving behaviours and tracking journeys to calculate more accurate policies; and car and road sensors could combine to govern and regulate the flows of traffic in city centres or alert drivers to dangerous conditions ahead during periods of inclement weather.

But this functionality comes with risks and potentially serious consequences. Researchers have already proven that modern, computerised vehicles can be hijacked with just a laptop computer and off-the-shelf software. The consequences range from the innocuous, displaying false telemetry on the dashboard, to the truly disturbing — wresting the steering away from the driver and even applying the brakes or switching off the engine remotely when the vehicle is at high speed on a crowded motorway.

As with all online and connected devices that create data, carmakers need to consider how to prevent the serious types of hacks and cyber-attack mentioned above, as well as threats to private information created by all the sensors of a connected vehicle. Just like you wouldn’t buy a car without an airbag, consumers are demanding protection for their data. The IoT and connectivity space is forcing carmakers to look at driver safety from a wholly new point of view: data privacy.

According to Ernst & Young’s February 2015 report Discovering the Digital Future, more than 100 million cars are expected to have some form of connectivity by 2025, so the writing is on the wall for connected car security, safety, and privacy: act now or beware the consequences.

Because many of the technologies involved in connecting vehicles are relatively new — especially for the automotive industry — and the technologies themselves are still evolving, there are associated security risks for consumers and manufacturers. The challenge for the automotive industry is therefore

Other uses of the IoT are genuinely

ground-breaking

multifaceted: the component technologies are complex, the vehicles are highly complex, the in-service lifetime is long, the underlying supply chains are multipart, and the vehicle operating environment itself is laden with threats.

Automobile manufacturers, dealers and repair personnel must adapt to new technological concepts and production methods, not just to ensure the safety, efficiency and comfort of automobile drivers and passengers, but also to ensure their privacy and data security. Each software and hardware component and system should be designed with security as a first-order requirement. As the vehicle is assembled into a system of systems, integration introduces additional threats by expanding the points of exploitation. Secure production environments and trusted supply chains are crucial building blocks to achieving a truly secure and connected vehicle.

Driver safety will always be a core priority for carmakers, the only difference being it must now include protection against all sorts of digital and online incursions too, and it’s not

drivingdriving


FORD B MAX OUR ADI TOOK A LIKING TO THE LATEST VERSION OF FORD’S MPV IF NOT THE COLOUR

1.3 LT VCDi A 6 5 99 L£12,585 74.3Aveo

Alfa Romeo Chic Italian an acquired taste – reliability woes a thing of the past (hopefully)alfaromeo.co.uk

Audi Premium comes at a premium, but A1 is a classy little effort.audi.co.uk

BMW BMW a strong brand, but 1 Series packaging makes it a tough sellbmw.co.uk

Chevrolet Budget brand reminds you that you get what you pay forchevrolet.co.uk

TwinAir Sprint A 9 3 98 L£14,150 67.3Mito

1.2 TFSI SE C 9 5 118 L£14,410 55.4A1

1.4 TFSI SE D 16 5 123 F£19,825 53.3A3

116d ED A 15 5 99 F£21,095 74.31 Series

Maxing the segment

The Zetec is one of four models

currently available

HIS ISSUE I reviewed the Ford B-Max 1.6 diesel Zetec. First impressions were a mixed bag as I was faced, on the one hand, with a popular and reliable small

family car, but on the other, it was sporting some questionable metallic brown paint, which

isn’t to my taste, and I can’t see it being overly popular with potential buyers.

The Zetec is one of four models currently available, all offering different levels of gadgets and gizmos and trim. The Zetec starts at £14,895 and has quite a few of the mod cons that we have now come to rely on, and perhaps

T

15REVIEW


Internal visibility

Passenger comfort

Economy

Value

5

5

£16,795

B

1.6 litre diesel

70.6mpg

1.0i VTR+ A 4 5 99 L£9,795 65.7C1

Citroen New DS-branded cars are really worth a lookcitroen.co.uk

Fiat Style over substance masks occasional genuine highlightfiat.co.uk

DStyle e-HDi A 15 3 98 L£15,280 76.3DS3

Easy 0.9 TwinAir A 8 5 99 L£10,750 67.3Panda

1.2 S C 6 3 113 L£11,360 58.9500

Dacia Unashamedly budget branddacia.co.uk

Laureate 1.5 dCi D 11 5 130 L£12,995 56.5Duster

Laureate 1.2 16v E 11 2 137 L£7,995 47.9Sandero

Score

Stats

to expect, with today’s modern car. Features such as 15” alloy wheels, halogen projector headlights with LED daytime running lights, front fog lights, ‘quickclear’ heated windscreen (brilliant on frosty mornings), chrome finish on upper door line, body colour electrically operated door mirrors with integrated side indicators, body coloured door handles, and Ford’s capless refuelling system, meaning drivers filling up their cars don’t need to struggle with opening the cap or even driving off with it still on the roof.

The B-Max comes with rear sliding doors which is a handy feature for people with children as it saves that worry about little people opening the doors onto other cars in car parks. Sideways on, when both the rear door and the front doors are open, I would liken the look to those patio doors that open all the way up where there are no supporting pillars. Looks weird at first but it is a really practical solution to a car that will be a predominantly a family car, making access to and from the car very easy.

We are seeing the older driver market growing larger now, with older drivers continuing to drive for even longer and later in life than ever before, and drivers have more choice when it comes to cars than ever before. Older drivers can favour the small MPV and crossover market due to the increased height of the car, meaning they can get in and out of the car with greater ease and not having to bend right down, aggravating any ailments they may have. The B-Max also caters for this market as it too has an increased ride height over a conventional car, so it would be a popular choice for older drivers, or for anyone who has issues with limited mobility.

As for the ADI market, the B-Max would be a great choice as it is right in the middle of the popular Fiesta and Focus market, and it sits higher up on the road than those two, meaning it would suit the drivers with diverse needs market well. Word of warning though, I would browse the colour chart to avoid the brown.

The B-Max comes with rear sliding doors

We are now seeing the older driver market

growing larger

driving


Honda Practical family cars, slightly staid image for driving instructors honda.co.uk

Hyundai Up-and-coming manufacturer offers some attractive modelshyundai.co.uk

1.2 S-T D 13 5 123 L£12,690 53.3Jazz

1.6 i-DTec SE A 15 5 94 F£19,575 78.5Civic

1.0 Blue A 9 5 99 L£9,345 67.3i10

Zetec 1.0 B 11 5 109 F£17,795 58.9Focus

Zetec 1.0 Eco A 11 5 99 L£14,345 65.7Fiesta

Ford People wonder why Fords are so popular. It’s because they’re (mostly) so goodford.co.uk

Easy 1.3 Multijet A 13 5 90 L£14,000 80.7Punto

DACIA SANDERO GOOD NEWS! WE SENT THE DIA CHAIRMAN OUT IN THE LATEST VERSION OF THE ROMANIAN BUDGET CAR

HE DACIA SANDERO may not be the first choice for most people thinking about a new car, however, I was pleasantly surprised with my first experience

of driving a Dacia.We put the Dacia Sandero through its paces

by taking it for a family weekend away to the coast, which meant that we got to test the

Sandero in all of the situations that most family cars will be put through.

On the outside, the Sandero is generally underwhelming in terms of both styling and body design, and, in a way, harks back to the old-fashioned car designs of UK and European manufacturers of the 1990s — indeed the DNA of Sandero partner Renault is quite clear in the styling with the shadow of the Clio peeping

through the design. However, that said, even though it is basic

and quite plain on the outside, it is not offensive on the eyes and, indeed, the Clio was an attractive car at the time.

Inside the car is also basic and functional —with lots of plastic controls — but again these controls are clear and easy to use, so although low tech, it is an easy car to get to grips with

Cheap, cheerful but worth it?

T

17REVIEW


1.1 CRDi Blue A 5 5 84 L£11,795 88.3i20

1.4 Active E 7 5 139 F£15,705 47.1i30

1.3 TS C 9 5 115 L£10,995 56.52

Mazda Reliable cars for the brand unconscious: highly underratedmazda.co.uk

1 1.6 CRDi A 12 5 97 F£16,295 76.3Ceed

2 1.0 A 5 5 99 L£9,845 67.3Picanto

1 1.1 CRDi A 3 5 85 L£11,895 88.3Rio

Kia Korean car maker might even be a little bit coolkia.co.uk

1.6D Tamura C 18 5 115 F£17,495 65.73

quickly. It has the tech that most drivers need today, with in-built sat nav, bluetooth, etc and they were all easy to use and self explanatory.

I found the interior quite spacious in general — although the leg room to the steering wheel was quite limited and was quite compact on my legs. On the other hand, the boot had reasonable load space and easily accommodated three wheelie cases and some hand lugguage and was more than sufficient for our family needs.

The visibility was good overall and the interior headroom was also comfortable and the car can easily accommodate five people in comfort. The interior cloth is basic but adequate and hard wearing enough to cope with a lot of use.

The Sandero seems like a good, reasonably priced choice of car; it was responsive to accelerate, braking was smooth and stable and cornering was fine — although at slightly higher speeds this became more of an issue. The model that we tested cost around £9,200, which for a vehicle with most of the model technology needed, already being included, and more than adequate performance, seems good value for money to me, although that is if you can get over the 1990s styling in the first place.

Internal visibility

Passenger comfort

Economy

Value

5

4

£9,290

C

898cc petrol

56.5mpg

Score

Stats

Inside, the car is also basic and functional

drivingdriving


One D 13 3 127 L£13,460 52.3Hatch

Mini New Mini due later this year. Will look the same as the current onemini.co.uk

Nissan Micra not the default choice it once was, facelift promisingnissan.co.uk

Peugeot Has lost its way in recent years, but 208’s got charmpeugeot.co.uk

1.2 DIG-S Visia A 8 5 99 L£11,480 65.7Micra

Allure 1.0 A 3 5 99 L£10,145 65.7107

B180 CDI SE B 15 5 108 F£22,430 64.2B-Class

Mercedes Expensive, but you gets what you pays formercedes-benz.co.uk

A180 SE D 18 5 128 L£20,370 51.4A-Class

ON THE ROADTOYOTA RAV

HE TOYOTA RAV 4 is one of the wide selection of SUVs currently on the market and has been around for a number of years, and during this time, it

has seen various facelifts and updates to the current model today, which is a lot bigger than its predecessors.

The model I drove was the Invincible 2.2 petrol 6-speed automatic, sporting white pearlescent paint and lots of toys, all for a £29,500 price tag. Not in everyone’s price range perhaps, but if you like the new Rav 4, then there are other models that come with a more wallet-friendly price tag.

Our model came with lots of gadgets and gizmos including Toyota Touch 2 with Go which includes sat nav, voice control, advanced connectivity and enhanced traffic information. In addition to this, the Invincible has dusk-sensing headlights, rain sensing wipers, Smart Entry and Start, top-hinged Power Tailgate (which is first for the Rav 4 as older models are all side-hinged), DAB radio, heated front seats, leather upholstery, auto-dimming rear view mirror, front and rear parking sensors and reversing camera, cruise control, tv screens for back seat passengers plus a few more things, but you get the picture. The Invincible model is very highly

Score

OUR ADI TOOK OUT THE LATEST VERSION OF TOYOTA’S SUV. DID SHE FIND ANYTHING TO RAVE ABOUT?

TCould it be used as a training car? I would say yes as it is good to have options for people wanting tuition whether pre or post-test in larger cars. I agree, it is not your typical driving school car, but why not have something a little different to the rest of the crowd? There are a fair few Audi Q3’s being used nowadays and so this proves that there is a demand for larger cars and ADIs have a choice of something a little different. Why not use it as your unique selling point?

equipped with most of the mod-cons a driver could think of, want or need.

I drove the car to Leicester and back for our Spring Professional Development Day and I found the car a pleasure to drive with everything being effortless and easy. The Rav 4 feels really solid and also looks the part on the inside and out. The leather seats are not what I would describe as cosseting. They are quite firm and the leather is very slippery so roundabouts and bends can find you out of your seating position a little — I would just like to add to that that I did drive to the appropriate speed limits at all times before eyebrows are raised.

The Rav 4 comes with good legroom front and rear, lots of places to put items in your pockets and cup holders, which were great for the purposes of our journey.

In terms of fuel economy, the Rav 4 averaged 34mpg, which isn’t great considering its sister, the 2.0 diesel manual averages over 50mpg on a good motorway run. So if you are looking for good mpg then the diesel manual is clearly the way to go.

Overall a great car that is actually a 4x4 and not a wannabe crossover, so it should be pretty good off-road. We would have loved to have put it through its paces in this way but perhaps on another model in the future we can do this.

DipDI, DSA ADI (Car)Olivia

Baldock-Ward


19REVIEW

controls, steering column adjustable for rake and reach, front fog lights, follow me home headlights and space saver spare wheel (for use as an emergency tyre but not suitable for test) but you can upgrade to a full size spare wheel for minimal cost.

Upgrade to the mid-range Business Edition and you won’t be disappointed by the specification. In addition to the Active specification, it includes dual-zone electronic climate control, 6.1” Toyota Touch 2 with Go (Navigation) colour multimedia touch screen, digital radio, bluetooth, cruise control, steering wheel mounted audio and bluetooth controls, rain sensitive wipers, rear parking camera and leather-like door trims and instrument panel. When teaching, although the speedo is not

Expression+ TCe B 10 5 105 L£12,995 62.7Clio

Seat Struggles to assert itself within the VW group. Sporty imageseat.co.uk

Renault Formerly stylish French car maker showing promise once againrenault.co.uk

Dynamique 1.2 C 9 3 119 L£10,550 55.4Twingo

Expression+ dCi B 16 5 90 F£19,145 80.7Megane

Ecomotive 1.0 A 1 5 95 L£9,625 68.9Mii

S 1.2 TDI A 7 5 92 L£13,935 80.7Ibiza

Active 1.0 VTi A 6 5 99 L£12,495 65.7208

Active e-HDi B 16 5 108 F£18,865 68.9308

General manager, CA Cars

HE FOURTH GENERATION RAV4 hit UK roads in March 2014 with the Business Edition joining the line-up this spring and enters the competitive and

rapidly expanding mid-size SUV-crossover segment as Toyotas’ offering.

It is athletic on the outside and sophisticated on the inside offering quality and practicality with a large cabin and roof-hinged boot. The interior plastics look and feel impressive and are of a solid construction. There a variety of set-ups with both two and four-wheel drive, with either petrol, diesel engines or automatic versions. The large range of the drivers’ adjustable seat gives a varied seating position with good all-round visibility for a larger car. It drives and grips the road well with reduced body roll and Toyota boasts that it has the smallest turning circle of its class at 10.6 meters.

There are four model specification levels. The base-specification Active includes air conditioning, body coloured electrically adjustable heated door mirrors, height adjustable driver seat, electric front and rear windows, CD player, bluetooth, chrome-effect 17” alloy wheels, steering wheel mounted audio

ClaraGibson

T Score

visible from the passenger side, the satellite navigation which is standard on the Business Edition gives you an additional speed reading.

There are one petrol and two diesel engine. The 2.0D4D 124hp six-speed two wheel/ front-drive diesel engine has a good combined fuel consumption of 57.6 mpg and emits 127g/km of CO2 and a towing capacity with brakes of 1600 kg.

For more advice call to speak to one of the CA Cars team members.

ORE AND MORE young Americans are holding off getting their driving licences. But why are they not going on the road and what does this mean for

safety on US highways? Nineteen-year-old Laura Saldivar says she

feared for her life while taking a five-minute trip to get ice cream with her 20-year-old friend.

Saldivar, an intern at the National Safety Council (NSC) in Illinois, says her friend obtained her driver’s licence at age 19 and got her first car at 20. The trip to get ice cream was one of the first times Saldivar’s friend was able to drive without supervision.

“She didn’t keep a consistent speed and didn’t know how to make lane changes, so I had to play a coaching role,” Saldivar

M

driving

Gradually drivingCHARLIE TREPANY TAKES A LOOK AT THE INCREASING AMOUNT OF YOUNG AMERICANS THAT ARE HOLDING OFF GETTING THEIR DRIVING LICENCES


comments. “She didn’t remember just basic skills like having to slow down, having to look ahead when you’re heading down the road.”

When they arrived at their destination, Saldivar even had to remind her friend to lock the car.

Saldivar’s friend is among the many young adults nationwide who have put off getting a driver’s licence until adulthood. The delay makes an increasing number of older but inexperienced drivers who take the road with less training and without the limitations US states often place on the novice teen driver.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) and the National Safety Council said teens that procrastinate on learning how to drive, miss out on valuable experience that could mean the difference between life and death.

Kathy Clausen, president of Adam’s School of Driving in Chicago, says 80 percent of the school’s students in 2008 were 15-to-17-year-olds, the traditional age people learn to drive. Now that age group makes 65 percent of the students.

“We have many more adults than we used to have,” Clausen notes. “Everything shifts, and you just have to shift with it.”

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said in 2012 that teens give multiple reasons for delaying licensure. The reasons include not having a car (44 percent), the ability to get around without driving (39 percent), the cost of gas (36 percent), the cost overall (36 percent), and a general lack of interest (35 percent).

Insurance is a major factor in the cost overall, whether it’s the teens or the parents who pay for it. Adding a teen driver onto an insurance plan can more than double the

cost of coverage in some states, reports the website Insurance Quotes. The website said the premium increase in auto insurance per teen driver can vary from as little as 18 percent to as much as 116 percent depending on the state.

Teenagers are dissuaded not only by the high costs of insurance and vehicles but also by the lure of social media, says Clausen.

“Kids are online now,” she comments. “They’re Facebooking, Skyping. They’re not needing to be together physically as they did years and years ago.”

Sanika Vaidya, a 17-year-old from Cincinnati, says her schoolwork took precedence over her driver’s education. In Ohio, minors must have a temporary permit for six months before testing for a licence.

Too busy to do this, Vaidya relies on her licenced friends and her parents to get around.

“I’ve never really felt disadvantaged because there’s always been people willing to drive me places,” Vaidya says.

Another factor is the growth of helicopter parents. So-called because they tend to hover around their children, these parents act as

Teens that procrastinate on learning how to drive, miss out on

valuable experience

chauffeurs to their broods. For 18-year-old Taylor Goldstein from

California’s Bay Area, the cost of a car was not worth getting a licence as her parents drive her, and she carries her Kaiser medical card and high school student I.D. for identification.

“Because my mother has been working in the office and home for years, she’s always been around to give me that transportation, and if she wasn’t around as often as she was, I would have gotten my licence at 16,” Goldstein says. “Because I had her throughout all these years, I waited to get my licence.”

Cynthia Goldstein, Taylor’s mother says she doesn’t mind driving Taylor in most circumstances.

“I was usually available to take her places when I was working out of our home,” Cynthia Goldstein comments. “Now that I work from an office, she does find other sources of transportation, but it is limited. However, I have encouraged her to get her licence so that she can be more independent.”

The Center for Generational Kinetics tracks global generational trends from its Austin, Texas, headquarters and has found that some

FEATURE 21


driving

Teens who wait until age 18 to drive can bypass graduated

driver licensing laws

parents make it possible for teens to avoid driving. Jason Dorsey, the center’s chief strategy officer, said helicopter parents often drive their teens everywhere. Combine those parents with public transit, and teens no longer view driving as a necessity, he added.

Furthermore, the recession and the rise of unemployment among teens have made driving unaffordable for them.

“Many people feel like they wouldn’t be able to afford a car or that they won’t have a car available to them once they get their licence,” Taylor Goldstein comments. “So many students put off getting their licence because of that inability to have a mode of transportation.”

However, Dorsey notes this trend represents a deeper shift in the American psyche.

“If you look at the driver’s licence as a coming-of-age moment, you get a deeper psychological answer,” Dorsey says. “Freedom for today’s teens isn’t necessarily the fact that they need to go somewhere. Because of technology, teenagers are able to stay way more in touch with people without having to drive. Instead, teenagers are able to escape into their own room where they don’t have to be physically present to get that same social experience.”

Dorsey adds that the coming-of-age moment for the millennial generation is moving away from home and going to college rather than getting a driver’s licence.

Goldstein, who plans on getting a licence in the near future for college, says she regrets not learning to drive sooner.

“My parents always told me that when they turned 16, they all got their licence, and they would all have their cars,” she says. “They would have that as their coming-of-age moment, and I feel that, nowadays, to rely on other people is a big inconvenience. I should have gotten it earlier, but at least I have had other means of transportation.”

Dorsey warns that the daunting issue is what the lack of driving motivation could mean for family development, since most Americans buy cars to drive families. Dorsey wonders whether the delay on licences and car-buying will extend even further.

“Will people on the whole, when they get to ages like 25 or older, choose not to have a vehicle?” Dorsey asks. “And the big question is; Once people get to an age when they are married and have kids, will they choose not to? So that becomes a bigger question as people who get married and have kids adapt to their transportation.”

AAA Chicago’s director of public affairs Beth Mosher says the real danger is that teens who wait until age 18 to drive can bypass graduated driver licensing laws. Laws, which vary by state, set requirements on the minimum hours of classroom and behind-the-wheel

driving lessons needed before testing for a driver’s licence.

Graduated driver licensing laws apply only to minors, and 18-year-olds can test for licences without practice — as in the case of Saldivar’s friend.

Saldivar believes her friend’s careless driving techniques were the result of putting off getting a driver’s licence.

“Having driver’s education when you’re 15, and then waiting until you’re 20, a whole five years later, means you don’t actually get to put that class to use,” Saldivar says. “It’s scary.”

Kathy Bernstein, senior manager of teen driving initiatives with the National Safety Council in Illinois, argues that adolescent entry-level drivers tend to be more experienced than adult entry-level drivers, since graduated driver licensing laws ensure that teens get experience behind the wheel.

“We want teens to be licenced when they are able to be licenced,” Bernstein says. “The system was designed to maximise driver’s experience while minimising the risk. So when teens are getting licenced earlier, there are still things they need to be mindful of. They can’t drive at night. They can’t carry more than one passenger. When they go through graduated

driver licensing laws, they are protected longer. Anybody who avoids getting that experience is at an increased crash rate.”

Research conducted by the organisation Impact Teen Drivers found 18-year-old drivers who avoid graduated driver licensing laws in California are at least 27 percent more likely to crash than 18-year-olds licenced through graduated driver licensing laws.

“Practice makes you a safe driver,” Bernstein said. “That would be my advice for parents. Take this opportunity as an advantage of the systems that are in place to help you keep your teen safer. That first year when they’re driving by themselves is the most dangerous time of their life. Take advantage of your time with them now to prepare them.”

After her dangerous trip for ice cream, Saldivar chronicled her life-threatening experience on the National Safety Council’s blog, Teen Safe Driving, to educate parents and teens on the dangers of avoiding graduated driver licensing laws.

She concludes: “I’m sure if my friend had more hands-on experience and went through GDL, she wouldn’t have made me so scared to sit in the passenger’s seat.”

Graduated driver licensing laws apply

only to minors


Browse this month’s special offers on lease cars at www.hcdis.co.uk/specialoffers or call us on 01162 983 593

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Documents

Driving issue two 2015