As some of you might know I don’t drive however Roy does and we use the car for family outings. With this in mind, it is important that his car will get him safely to work and back again, and ferry us around in the same safe manner too. We are very keen on car safety, which is why when the Kwik Fit Tyre Challenge came up we thought we’d have a look.
Kwik Fit have a tyre challenge on their website and I have to say, it’s been something of an eye-opener. Roy has taken it and got 9/10 and a friend 6/10. With the rules and regulations around driving changing and updating as time goes on, it is important to keep on top of all aspects of safety when it comes to travelling at any time of the year, not just during winter. Winter travelling does, of course, offer a number of additional challenges though when you consider the often shockingly bad UK weather.
Have a go at the Tyre Challenge and let me know how you did, I’m interested! I’d love to know how we, as a country, rate in terms of tyre awareness. If we could raise this, perhaps there would be fewer accidents reported, less damage and most importantly fewer people hurt in accidents.
Regular Tyre Checks, Servicing and MOT
Did you know that if your car isn’t MOT’d that a police car driving by can access that info and pull you over?It’s no accident that the police just happen to stop drivers with no insurance and what not! This happened to Roy years ago. He’d had his MOT done and passed a few days previously but the garage issuing hadn’t put the relevant info into the VOSA database (we should have gone to our local Kwik Fit) so we were showing as driving illegally! Thankfully we had all the docs still on the side and he was pulled over outside our home so we could confirm that all was legit!
I think police being able to check MOT’s on the go like that is fantastic because it is a powerful deterrent to anyone who feels they can get away with not having their car checked for roadworthy-ness! Now, MOTs are all well and good but twelve months is a long time. What about between MOT book-ins? We have our car checked periodically and ensure that we keep on top of maintenance not just because it avoids hefty bills come MOT time but because it is the safe and sensible thing to do! Waiting for the car to stop working and then sorting out the problem is not really the best way forward when it comes to safe motoring. I have a lot of opinions about how people should drive and maintain their cars considering the fact that I am a passenger seat driver only!
Seriously though, be super safe when travelling this winter and make sure your tyres are working for you as well as they should be!