In other news…
Cubist calamity – Brake mistake triggers Picasso recall
Citroen have recalled over 20,000 Picasso C3 cars after it emerged that the brakes could be controlled by the front passenger.
The issue came to light after one fleet driver – travelling at 70mph on a motorway – suddenly came screeching to a standstill when a completely oblivious passenger unknowingly engaged the brakes by stepping on a cable.
A statement from Citroen explained that because the model is produced in France, the brakes are initially installed on the left before being switched over to the right for British motorists.
Town & Country Cleaners, who own the vehicle which revealed the problem, say the defect was present in two more C3s within their fleet.
Mark Brown, who tested the cars, said the brakes could be pressed with relative ease due to being obscured by a simple piece of felt.
“It’s potentially very dangerous indeed because the passenger wouldn’t know he’s the one activating the brake,” Mr Brown told the BBC. “The driver wouldn’t know what’s going on and the people behind wouldn’t know what’s going on.”
C3 owners can banish the issue by obtaining a modification free of charge from any Citroen dealer right now.
Bad bee-haviour – 10,000 bees attack parked car
Following last week’s bizarre instance where honeybees choose a 106 to store their honey comb [full story here], a mechanic arrived at his garage in Manchester to find a G-reg Vauxhall Carlton covered in bees.
A swarm of around 10,000 of the stingers had gathered on the door of the G-reg Vauxhall Carlton as it sat waiting for a service in Horwich Motor Engineers in Eccles.
Luckily, Howard Horwich, who owns the garage, called in his pal and local apiarist Cyril Caldecott, who was due to pick up some beehive foundation from his warehouse.
Mr Horwich told the Manchester Evening News: “Cyril is a regular customer of my father, Maurice, who keeps bees and runs the equipment firm.
“I said to him that his equipment was ready for collection – and that there was the added bonus of a swarm for him to collect. He jumped at the chance because bee numbers have gone down in recent years.”
The owner of the Vauxhall Carlton was in America at the time and remains none the wiser.
1 in 3 cars aged 3-10 years will fail within a year
A third of cars aged between 3-10 years old will break down in the next 12 months, according to Warranty Direct.
The cost of getting the vehicle back on the road is around £335 on average with mechanical failure being the most common culprit said Duncan McClure Fisher, MD of Warranty Direct.
“It’s part and parcel of car ownership that, at some stage, something will go wrong,” he told The Telegraph.
“Even on the most reliable of cars, things still break sometimes.
“The worst part is the unknown – failure could happen at any time and, unfortunately, as we’re all driving ever more complex vehicles, the cost of repair is reflected.”
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