Is laminated glass worth having on a car?
Your car will already have laminated glass in the windscreen. But now it’s being used increasingly in the side windows. Is this a feature that’s worth looking out for? We…
Category: Mechanical
Find out how your car works – in plain English. We reveal all those tricky technical things that might have baffled you about your car
I bought a used car that needed new brake pads after 6000 miles. Is this usual?
The car you bought was a 2016 Mazda CX-5. You bought it with 14,000 miles on the clock. It’s now done 20,000. The dealer you got the car from said…
I need to buy a car battery charger. What’s the best type to get?
Fast fit company Kwik Fit has revealed that the number of replacement batteries it’s sold during the COVID-19 lockdown has been double what it would expect for the time of…
How do I work out what my car’s real mpg is?
Every car with petrol, diesel or hybrid power covers a certain number of miles per gallon (mpg). When you’re looking at new cars, the manufacturers give an mpg – the…
I’m thinking of choosing an automatic car. Are they really much better than manuals?
In line with much else inside our cars, changing gear by hand is becoming a thing of the past. An increasing number of cars are offered with automatic gearboxes. And…
Someone said their car had gone into limp home mode. What is this?
The modern car is a computer-powered marvel and limp home is a good example of that. Read on to see what it is. What is limp home mode? Every car…
How does Autonomous Emergency Braking work and is it worth it?
Cars are now coming with an increasing amount of standard safety kit. Among these is Autonomous Emergency Braking or AEB. It’s a safety system designed to prevent the front-to-rear shunts…
I’m looking at used cars. Some have ESC and some don’t. What is ESC?
ESC is one of the most important safety features the car industry has developed. The letters stand for Electronic Stability Control. Some car companies call it ESP Electronic Stability Programme,…
How close are we to seeing hydrogen cars on our roads?
Cars powered by hydrogen already are on our roads. But you’ve probably got as much chance of seeing something fairly niche such as a Rolls-Royce Cullinan as seeing a hydrogen…
My car doesn’t have a spacesaver spare wheel. Should I carry one?
Spare wheels, or rather the lack of them, is one of the things that really makes some drivers mad. A recent survey showed the lack of a full-size spare was…