I think you mean 8MB SRAM, and you can't transcribe either ;)

But you can level the same criticism at cruise control, automatic braking systems and lane assist devices. People don't pay attention when they're solely controlling the car.

The figures are interesting, but I'm not sure your logic is sound. People tend to change their outlook as they get older, so waiting a few years might mean the result wouldn't change at all.

Although that was a slightly rigged result, in as much as it was a choice of AV or FPTP. Nobody really wanted AV, include the Liberal Democrats who were the ones pushing for a vote on introducing PR.

You can have democracy without having good democracy.

This isn't something I can imagine doing anywhere near as badly in a manual. You panic, you stomp brake and clutch. Miss the brake and go for the accelerator, and you rev like crap but don't accelerate. You miss the clutch, you stall it. Seems like quite a challenge to miss the clutch and hit the foot rest, whilst simultaneously missing the brake and hitting the accelerator.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfil...

Sure that wasn't the kernel that fixed a miscalculated load average? There were some niggles around that for sure, but there's hardly a consistent pattern of Redhat introducing bad kernel updates.

The nicest setup allows 801 (and by that I mean *legally* allows), but notifies you that you've got seven days grace, after which you'll only be able to run 800. If you want to maintain access to these extra licenses, click here / phone this number and have a chat with the vendor.

I'm not clear that's the case. Find me a good turbo petrol match for a BMW 320d, and on the whole I think you'll be slower or less efficient, even with turbos and direct injection.

BMW 320d 72.4mpg 163bhp/400Nm 7.8s 0-62mph
BMW 320i 51.4mpg 184bhp/270Nm 7.3s 0-62mph

The gap's definitely closed between the two since diesel tech has come over to petrol.

I agree it was far more common with firewire, although monitors would be another one that often did include a hub. They went and stuck card readers in them, along with extra USB ports. Some even let you control brightness/contrast and other settings via USB.

Chaining also made sense with firewire, as devices were not all slaved to the host like with USB.

That's tosh. This isn't about executing people, it's about balancing risk, and we do it all the time. When you set safety standards for equipment, you do so accepting a level of risk, not pretending you've made the activity safe and this is no different. In the UK, buses pull off before people have sat down, and indeed traditional London buses allowed you to board and alight at your own risk from the platform at the rear.

You encourage people to make better decisions, but you can't always encourage them to make the perfect decision.

I look forward to the day I can bemoan the boringness of driving a GT-R around a track.

Either Ford have screwed up, or you got a bad example. Small engined VWs (1.2/1.4 TSI) I've driven have exhibited none of this, with plenty of torque available from ~1400rpm, with no effort required to spool the turbo. Compared to a 2.0TDI, you get far less noticeable boost.

Comment from someone here who owns one suggests they're not all bad.

I drive a 1.4 TSI, so not quite as small, but not worlds apart from the 1.0 Ecoboost. As long as you've got 1400rpm it's fine, more than 2000 and the rest of the power arrives. But that's not wildy different to my last naturally aspirated Toyota, and all in there's lots more low down torque, so you can accelerate uphill at 40 in sixth.

I'm not convinced this is that big a deal for most people. UK average mileage was 7900 miles in 2014. Even if you say the engine goes pop at 120k miles, that's still 15 average years of driving. Let's be honest, somebody buying the 1.0L Mondeo is probably going to drive fewer miles than average, so I don't see that being a bother for anyone, even if it does suffer reduced engine longevity. Any slight bump in an old car turns it into an insurance write off anyway. Average age of a car in the UK is 8 years.

If I had a choice between a modern 1.0L Focus, and a 1.6L Focus of roughly a decade ago, you see what difference you're talking about. Better performance (25% more power, 33% more peak torque), far better MPG, lighter. General torque curve means much more lower down power, so you have to work the gearbox less.
Hell, look at the current 1.6 Duratec engine, and convince someone to get that over the 1.0L.

If these engines were going pop at 50k I'd think you had a point, but they're not.

Fully synthetic is recommended by VW, with a 10k change interval. If you service it on their approved long life schedule it can go a fair way longer than that (~20k). Three months may be standard practice, but it's distinctly odd this side of the pond.