In-car tool kit: what do you carry?

Thus spake Adrian ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) unto the assembled multitudes:

I have. Twice, in the same car park, within minutes. I helped someone get going with my jump leads, and then another chap who couldn't start walked over and asked if I could help him too. I began to feel like an unpaid AA man. Couldn't get the second car going, and I was by now in a bit of a hurry so I told him (politely) he was on his own, mate.

Thus spake Duncan Wood ( snipped-for-privacy@dmx512.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

I'm not normally in the habit of keeping my next door neighbour in my boot for such eventualities ;-)

Even though I mainly drive old Minis, I don't carry many tools. Jack & wheelbrace, flat and pozi screwdriver will cope with most things that can be fixed by the roadside. Much more than that and it's a recovery.

On the other hand, I find a few spares to be useful, as experience has taught me that having a spare coil and fanbelt can turn recovery into roadside repair - not many recovery firms seem to carry the right ones for Minis now!

So relying only on phones that are in fixed locations is better?

Own up - you're a progressive Amish, aren't you?

For what? Most of us have reliable phones at home and at work, isn't that enough? Personally, I've toyed with the idea of getting one in case of emergencies - out at sea in my kayak, for instance, but can't see any appeal at all beyond that.

Nah, I'm dead modern, me. I've even got a digital watch ... somewhere.

I don't have either anymore. Apart from anything else I rarely want to speak to a house or an office block, I normally want to talk to someone.

Do you think you'd actually get a signal? I can't get one in half of my house, and it's not exactly rural round here!

Thing is, the places where you'd most need one are the very places you can never find a signal - like several of the back lanes between here and the city (Nottingham).

Hmmm, I have vivid memories of driving mile after mile trying to find a working phone box, so, no. Also, how else is my wife going to find me when I wander off in the supermarket? ;-)

Ah, the only crap coverage I've seen round there was T-mobile.

Could explain it as Virgin use the T-mobile network.

Damn, there's another place I struggle for a signal!

You're getting your news providers confused there. Mozzarella is eternalseptember and the cause of many multi-posts.