Car maintenance on driving test

Ditto....crap picture

I got 8/9.

What a crap quiz!!! Couldn't see what they were trying to indicate, and I've never seen a modern car that you top up coolant in a different place to where you check it!

out how much would-be motorists know about how their vehicles work. It is hoped that by ensuring that drivers know enough to maintain their cars, the number of accidents due to mechanical failure can be cut.

This idea must be the biggest joke ever. Didn't someone realise that its September 1st not APRIL 1st

I may be thick but how is "knowing where the battery is" going to test wether a person should be issued with a driving licence? Seems to me that its just a ploy to get more failures and therefore more resit fees. I really feel sorry for any learner (none car owner) trying to pass this, esp if (as other have said) such a silly picture is used.

Regards, Graham L

The quiz and the picture are both pisspoor - go back, click on the feedback button and tell the beeb how crap you think it is !

(I hope it is their doing, and didn't come straight from the Driving Standards Agency)

Looking at

it seems its a (suprise, suprise)European changes to the practical driving test....... From the site it seems that this part of the test will be done at the same time as the practical driving test, ie lift the bonnet and show me, rather than a miniscule picture.

Regards, Graham L

I was discussing this with a friend who is a newly-qualified driving instructor. It's quite genuine.

If practically pointless. Half the population don't know where the bonnet release is (no, I'm not going to amplify that "half") and a good proportion of the other half are equally ignorant. And some cars are now sold with only a small "maintenance" panel for water, oil, windscreen washer. I check mine regularly, but it's been years since I actually had to (washer bottle aside - that's something that could do with a low-level indicator in more cars, imho).

Under the bonnet is far less important than around the outside. For example, knowing what a flat tyre, a blown bulb, a bald tyre, looks like would be far more useful.

Does anyone want to try taking their test in an Audi A2 - or a mid engine sports car ala Lotus Elise where you can see basically bugger all - oh the fun of it :)

Cheers Dan.

What an utterly utterly crappy picture.

Pass. It was certainly a part of the "check control" that BMW fitted in cars with some form of optional on-board computer. It only needs to apply a small voltage for a brief interval and check for continuity. On-board computers seemed to have diverged into a) bugger-all, or b) monstrosities like IDrive. I guess all the peons voted with their wallets for air-con and silver paint instead.

John Laird mumbled:

They often /sort of/ have one in that they're usually designed so that the rear squirt runs out before the front one.

I used to have some old 1960s gadget fitted to my old Mini Cooper that would tell you if one of the brake light bulbs went, so it could even be done with simple technology!

You couldn't fit them to BMWs of course as the drivers would be driven mad by the sound of all those blown indicator bulbs....

Huh? Just how many modern cars - well cars built in the last 20 years have BOTH an expansion tank with a filler AND a radiator cap???

And what about those cars with a) the battery in the boot and b) the washer bottle in the boot....

And what about the Audi A2 - it hasn't got a bonnet as such and I guess you can't see the battery either....

Given the relatively few occasions that I use the rear squirt, this may not help much ;-) [Which reminds me I need to go and top up my bottle with something coloured, as the dipstick seems to not work well at all with pale contents...]

I only got 7 out of 9 and was pretty convinced I'd get them all. I mixed up the washer bottle and the header tank, I assumed the little pipe over the header tank was the washer pipe :-(

I would have guessed C for topping up the coolant if I hadn't read the other posts but only because E and H look unlikely.

Is your average driving instructors car set up like this one these days?

Although the Audi version with an animated fountain that comes on at full brightness when you're driving in the dark is arguably of negative usefullness

...They say that 8 out of 9 is "one carfeul owner"...is this true if they put screenwash in the engine ?!?!?!

Not the sort of careful owner i'd like to buy a car from...although probably have done in the past!

Phil

It can't be that hard to do. My Mercedes Actros has one and it's invaluable.

"Phil Howard" mumbled:

As long as they've put it in carefully.

Right on...that was one of my favourite extras in my Saab 9000! I presume this still comes standard in new Saabs...?

Glen