Continental motoring

[sheerwater]

Hi,
Interesting points but I have to make the following points. I have very rarely seen any european car coming off a ferry with beam deflectors on.
Secondly I know european law is changing but we have to put GB stickers on by law. How many cars do not have stickers denoting the counry. Thirdly if we are stopped in europe by their speeding control system i.e. police then it can be an instant fine. They dont follow through fines for european drivers caught on camera. And George... sorry to disagree but DRLs are proved to make driving safer but whether it will if everyone has them is another point. Cheers Nige

Nige,

If you see a green 2.0T on the ferry from Hoek Van Holland to Harwich, and I am sitting there then it will have beam deflectors. But you are right many people don't use them.

All number plats in Nederland now carry the 'NL' badge as default, by law, so there is no need for further badges. As the new UK plates also have the GB badge then the same is true. Interestingly it's ex-pats that cause most problems with this. Dutch plates, with the NL badge, with a large GB sticker on it. And no I don't have this.

As for fines, you can get an instant fine, but at least you don't get done by the camera's (In holland). Yet! I would agree with the police being able to give the instant fines, but when I get a Dutch License I hope to use this to my advantage. :)

Finally the DRL's. It's an old debate, with one major thing being said is amount of blown bulbs. I'm sorry, but how can you spend thousands on a car (tens of tousands for some), hundreds on servicing and then complain about replacing a 4.99 bulb every couple of years? As a biker, and driving in dusky conditions parts of the year I love DRL's. When the sun is setting behind me the only people behind me I can see easily most of the time are those with headlights on. When on the bike I try to make myself as visible as possible. Headlight is on all the time as it's a Canadian import, and when reaching traffic the hazards go on. Then if someone pulls in front of me I can at least say to the smidsy, 'was it my head light, hazards, reflective white / red / silver leathers you did not see'.

Be safe

Stu

Let me make this clear, I have no problems with replacing light bulbs.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K/M55, 90k)

[migrator]

Sorry, Stu, I should have checked your profile first for clues as to location.

[cbyard]

PSSST

keep the old packaging and use it as a template to cut some insulating or similar tape to the right shape next time if you have "ordinary" headlamps. If you've got modern projector types, don't know what you do with those.

:-)


Chris

[sheerwater]

Hi,
Metro products do a beambender for projerctor headlights. dont buy the ordinary ones. The projector headlight model actually bends the beam the right way whereas normal ''triangular'' ones reflect the light back into the light unit. Type metro products into a search engine and you will find the company,,,,they helped a lot and recommended a place to get them. Cost me a tenner. halfords didnt do them and tried to flog useless normal ones. Cheers Nige

[sheerwater]

Hi Stu,
probably wont see you as we are usually on a Seafrance Dover/Calais because we get decent discounts from them !! Cheers Nige

[VolvoFan]

Thanks for all your contributions, folks, many of them way "off-beam" (pardon the pun); but I still haven't got a definitive answer! Maybe I'll contact the legal dept. of one of the motoring organisations. I'll let you know what I find out. Cheers.

I can almost assure you that it is not illegal, certainly not in Germany.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K/M55, 90k)

That sounds like a good idea..... As it's a 98 V40 I just have normal headlights, not the clear ones that you get now.

Stu