Reader Letters: Motorway investment, premium fuels, dash cam crash for cash and Ford GT
Your correspondence
Let’s do the continental
Driving the length of Britain on our dreadfully undermaintained motorway network got me wondering: are we really spending £60bn on the HS2 rail scheme just to reduce journey times? Surely this extraordinary amount of cash would be better spent in upgrading our motorways to the standard set by our neighbours on the Continent.
Iain Jardine, Glasgow
That smarts
I have come to the conclusion that the “smart” in smart motorways stands for Snare Motorists And Rip off Travellers. My nearest one around the M4-M5 Almondsbury interchange does this with ease but does little if anything to improve the flow of traffic. Another waste of money from the Department for Transport?
Glyn Thomas, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire
Premium rate
It should not be surprising that oil firms charge more for premium fuels (“Fuelling indifference”, Letters, September 17). Esso offers 97 octane with “twice the detergent content” of regular; Shell makes much of its V-Power at 98 octane, coming from its work with Formula One; and Tesco offers 99 octane. A cynic might say they all come from the same place. If the manual recommends 98 octane, don’t skimp. But if it says 95, don’t waste your money. Robert Walton-Sharp, south London
Browse NEW or USED cars for sale
You’ve been framed
Watch out for litigious dash cam users. A friend was sandwiched between two cars with dashcams and the car in front kept braking very hard in corners. They were likely hoping for an impact and gathering footage in the hope of making a bogus insurance claim.
“Wombledore”, via thesundaytimes.co.uk
Staying ahead of the neighbours
Jeremy Clarkson, your review of the BMW M760Li xDrive was spot on (“Dreaming to screaming in an instant”, October 1). I took delivery of mine on the Saturday before it was published — the slightly less boy-racer version. It is parked over the fields from your house, so if you fancy seeing the “right” version, just pop round.
David Postings, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Thirsty Fords
Anybody ordering one of the new Ford GTs tested by Guy Martin (“I’d rather have a Transit van”, September 17) should be satisfied with Ford’s estimate of 16mpg. My Ford GT40 in the 1960s did 4mpg.
Martin Henry, Chelmsford
Money saver
Thank you. A concise review of the Ford GT that saved me £450,000.
Peter D Harvey, Walton Highway, Norfolk
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