Author name: duncan.wood

Check your ice scraper is clean and grit free to avoid scratching the screen. If you have time, use your heater to clear the screen instead.    

It was 3 degrees outside this morning. Both my windscreens were covered in a thin layer of ice. Tip for the day – defrost your car with the heater before trying to lower frozen up electric windows, otherwise you risk damaging the electric motors. These are not cheap to replace. For further winter driving advice,

Regular readers will know that I have two 2010 Skoda Octavias. One is a 2.0L petrol turbo vRS estate with 200bhp, a dual-clutch DSG gearbox and is well specced with navigation, leather seats and Xenon lights. I have owned this from new and it has 56,000 miles on it now. The other is a Scout

I was at a Lexus-sponsored rugby day yesterday and had a close look at their new NX 300h Petrol Electric hybrid. This is car is at the expensive end of the smaller SUV market, but I was very impressed with what I saw.  The design is an evolution of the RX450h’s look, but more compact

Lots more on Twitter from me tonight!  Follow me @BristolCarChat    

Ford are making headlines at the moment.  The new S-Max is probably still the benchmark for the keen driver’s seven-seat SUV, and the Fiesta is winning rave reviews.  In fact, some are saying that the Fiesta ST is one of the all-time great hot hatches and will be talked about in future in the same

If you need a trolley jack to make switching to winter tyres much easier, or you’re fed up with paying 50p every time you check your tyre pressures, take a look at these motoring offers from Lidl this week.  Available from 2nd October. http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?id=394  

I’ve just come back from a fantastic motoring weekend in and around Angouleme, France.  The annual Circuit des Remparts – http://www.circuit-des-remparts.com – is an event all motoring enthusiasts should try at least once. There is a Concours d’Elegance on Friday evening, an international rally starting and finishing in Angouleme on the Saturday, and qualifying and racing

Hello all! Well, I have had my Skoda Octavia Scout for two weeks now. It’s a 2010 1.8 TSI (petrol) manual with about 53,000 miles. It has BT phone, navigation, xenon lights, heated front seats and an electric memory driver’s seat. So, here’s the promised update. As with all second hand cars, there are always

Basic advice should the second-hand car you buy have a fault. Your consumer rights are powerful and you need to know them in the event the car is faulty or not as described. Please call me if you need further advice or help!