Reader Letters: Electric cars, brake light dazzle, insurance, swerving and continental headlight converters
Your correspondence
Best footprint forward
The reason why electric car manufacturers do not give the carbon footprint of the power they use (“What’s really watt”, Letters, March 4) is because it depends on the generation source: wind and solar have a very low carbon footprint, coal is very high. The mix used by the National Grid varies, although the data is available. Check out gridcarbon.uk — it’s fun.
Kylie Fowler, Epping, Essex
Cold comfort
The cold weather this month got me thinking: if an electric car is stuck for hours in snow and ice, how would the driver keep warm? The battery would run down in no time, but petrol/diesel cars can run their engines.
John Richards, Oxford
Brake the habit
Why do drivers always blame their car’s stop-start system for brake-light dazzle (“Blinding truth”, Letters, March 4)? Read the handbook and you’ll probably discover an “auto hold” function, usually engaged by pressing the footbrake pedal harder at the stopping point, which allows you to come off the brake pedal all the time that you are stationary.
John Curran, Glasgow
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Mind your Ps and Ds
Moving the drive stalk into “P” not only means not blinding the drivers behind but avoids a possible expensive clutch repair later. Move to “D” and touch the footbrake to drive smoothly away. Easier on my ankle — and my fuel consumption.
Bill Coltham, Mere, Wiltshire
Paying more for less
The cost of my car insurance keeps increasing even as my use of the car is decreasing. I now do less than half the average UK mileage, yet the increase in premium is 15% year on year. Just how much money are insurers making?
Kevin Platt, Walsall
Swerve sense
Anthony Phillips could not be more wrong about swerving (“Wrong move”, Letters, February 11). I have twice managed to avoid injury by swerving to avoid schoolchildren running across the road when application of the brakes would not have worked.
Geoff Snape, Blackburn
Lightbulb moment
At a UK port en route to Europe with headlight converters affixed to my car, I was asked why I had bothered, as headlight bulbs with an “E” prefix to their part number apparently dip downwards and not sideways. This eliminates the need for converters. If true, why are converters still advertised as necessary for driving in Europe?
Chris McCairns, Horsington, Somerset
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