Guides
Guides: what to settle before buying a car
Long-form answers to the questions that get three sentences on a landing page — from importing through the viewing to the handover when you sell.
Everyday
Getting a car ready for winter: the autumn checklist
Winter does not create a car's weaknesses; it just reveals them all at once — on the first frosty morning, the first salted road, the first queue in falling snow. In autumn nearly all of it can be dealt with for little effort, provided you start with whatever needs an appointment.
7 min read
Everyday
Stone chips and scratches: repair before it costs more
A stone chip and a scratch are the cheapest damage a car can have — as long as they stay small. Both grow, and winter speeds it up: frost cracks the glass, salt creeps under the paint.
6 min read
Everyday
The first week with a car you have just bought
The handover is the moment everyone prepares for. Nobody prepares for the week afterwards — yet that week decides whether an unknown car becomes a known one, or stays a car you only know from driving it.
9 min read
Everyday
Summer and winter tyres: changing, storing, replacing
The tyre is the only component that connects the car to the road, and the only one that passes through the owner's hands twice a year. Together, that makes it the part where most can go wrong.
10 min read
Everyday
What a service includes — and how to read the quote
Two workshops quote two numbers for the same car, and the lower one is not automatically the cheaper one. Usually it is the shorter list. The difference is in the line items, and line items can be read.
10 min read
Everyday
Dealer, chain or independent: choosing a workshop
The question is usually asked as a question about price and is really one about the job. For some work there is exactly one right address, for most there are three — and for a few the most expensive one is the cheapest.
9 min read
Everyday
What to keep in the car — and what the law where you drive requires
There is no European list of mandatory equipment. There are twenty national lists that overlap without matching — and alongside them a second list that nobody prescribes and that helps more when something happens.
8 min read
Everyday
Before a long journey, and before a long stand
A car is built for regular, moderate use. Two thousand kilometres in one run and six months standing still are both exceptional states — and both fail in ways everyday driving never produces.
10 min read