Things all advanced drivers should carry in the car

[Jez]

17 year old BW 525i SE,180,000 miles,

If it has never failed to start, you've got a rare one there.

[Nigel]

It has always started.

I have had a car fail to start on two occasions in the last 10 years, the first was a company owned renault laguna estate, that had dropped a cell on the battery, and was still under warranty at the time.

The second was my first BMW 5 series car, the head had cracked, and it let water into the system, I noticed coming home it wasn't working as it should, and when I went to start it in the mroning, to have a look as to why it wasn't its normal self, it refused to start.

I also have a 1999 Vectra estate, with 140,000 miles on the clock, and that has always started as well.

If a modern car suddenly refuses to start, then its a major faliure, normally something electronic, otherwise its down to bad maintenance, something has been going wrong for a while, and you haven't checked it out.

[Jez]

Depends what you mean by major failure. I've had 2 no starts in a year, after several years with no problem. One was a faulty rotor arm which had gouged a chunk out of the plastic dizzy cap - I change them each year as a regular service item, and keep the old one, so I just swapped it. Second was a loose wire in the distributor that expanded under heat and would not start when warm. Neither could be put down to bad maintenance, but were probably exacerbated by very bumpy farm roads.

There's another element as well. I spent most of my driving life in a place where if you break down you have to walk for several days before finding help. So you get used to being a bit more self-reliant and carry things with you. Although in this country help is just a phone call away, old habits die hard.

[Solo]

warning triangle
disposable camera
Top Host
Fan Belt

Which "top host" are we talking about? Terry Wogan, Nigela Lawson????