My wife and I remember well
C it r o ë n s of 45 y e a r s a go, a nd t he
Renaults of the same period, and they
were so comfortable. There was fun
t o b e h a d f r om r ow i n g a GS a lon g
briskly, and even then there was
traffic and bad roads. At those times,
the suspensions and seats relaxed
driver and passengers.
Today we have a current Mercedes-
Benz C-Class. It could be all manner
of vehicles but it marks for us, now in
our seventies, the best compromise
of comfort and handling, relaxation
a nd si z e , a nd f r om t i me t o t i me it h a s
the speed and ability to make mere
youngsters surprised to see a Benz
being piloted ‘quite briskly’ by one or
other of us boring old farts.
Time for smaller wheels, higher-
profile tyres, decent suspension
and good engineering to keep the
rig on the road.
Malcolm Palin
Via email
Square peg, round hole
For the first time in my life, at 74
years of age, I inadvertently put
p e t r ol i n a f r ie nd’s d ie s e l c a r. I w a s
absolutely distraught that I had done
such a foolish thing.
My local garage was sympathetic
and all the mechanics said: “Don’t
w or r y, w e h av e a l l done it. It h app e n s
hundreds of times every day.” I
wonder how many Autocar testers
h av e m a de t he s a me m i s t a k e?
The more I thought about it, I
began to wonder why something
as basic as refuelling a vehicle
shou ld p e r m it t h i s e r r or t o o c c u r.
Surely, all the engineering expertise
in the automotive industry could
de si g n a fo ol-pr o of s y s t e m t o pr e v e nt
accidental misfuelling.
All that is needed is a triangular
fuel pump nozzle for petrol and a
round nozzle for diesel, with the
triangle too big to fit into the diesel
filler nozzle and the diesel too big to
fit into the petrol filler. This is based
on the Shape ‘O’ Ball toy that small
children were given to help them
identify a multitude of shapes.
Or perhaps that is too simple a
solution.
David Kirkwood
Penrith, Cumbria
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