UP! at the top of the charts.

The Volkswagen UP! (their exclamation mark, not ours..), the Seat Mii, and Skoda Citigo have garnered another trophy by winning the inaugural....

....MoneySupermarket Car of the Year Competition

This is a new annual competition where some of the most highly-qualified and knowledgeable motoring experts on the Web are asked to vote for what they believe to have been the 10 best cars of the past 12 months and UKMotorTalk was delighted to be chosen by MoneySupermarket to be one of the websites selected to help judge the competition.

Each judge’s nominations were awarded a score between 1 and 10, with their top vehicle being given 10 points and their 10^th nomination being awarded a single point. MoneySupermarket then collated all of the results and came up with a definitive top 10 which best represented the opinions of the overall motoring community.

The UP!, Mii and Citigo were a universally popular choice thanks to their stylish design and fuel-efficient nature, but they only just narrowly pipped the impressive BMW 320d to overall honours by a meagre two points.

The Range Rover Evoque was a strong third, proving to be another popular choice with judges thanks to its trendsetting styling which is something of a radical departure for Land Rover. And, in the interests of transparency, it was also the top choice of the team here at UKMotorTalk.

Perhaps the Range Rover’s failure to obtain overall top spot owes more than a little to the rising price of fuel at the pumps, which has resulted in fuel efficiency proving to be an increasingly important area of differentiation and one on which many of the judges appeared to place a greater emphasis.

Overall though, German manufacturers dominated the competition, picking up more than double the amount of points of the Japanese car brands who were a distant second.

British brands ranked a respectable third, owing largely to the popularity of the Range Rover Evoque and the radical new Vauxhall Ampera which came in 6^th. Vauxhall was the most popular British manufacturer in terms of points accumulated in 8^th place with 4 separate Vauxhall vehicles having been nominated for inclusion by judges.

MoneySupermarket have produced the following infographic highlighting the overall top ten in what it hopes will turn out to be an annual competition:

Image source: MoneySupermarket Car Insurance

So, congratulations to Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda on this strong showing for their new baby - It’ll be interesting to see whether the trend next year continues to reflect the ever-increasing popularity of frugal little cars such as the UP!

UKMT

Mirror, mirror on the door..

A quick tip for anyone experiencing 'Wobbly Mirror Syndrome" - double-sided carpet tape.

Yes, this miracle adhesive came to my rescue this week when the drivers' side door mirror glass decided to do its best to impersonate a jelly at any speed above walking pace.

Being something of a glass half-empty (if not indeed fully-drained) sort of chap,my first thoughts upon discovering my visual aid's new party trick involved the thought that lots of my pounds were going to have to be handed over to my friendly local Skoda dealer for a new mirror.

I based this prognosis on a number of factors -

1) Nothing cheap & easily fixable ever happens to me.

2) We're dealing with a complex VW Group part which is electrically manipulated, heated & incorporates an indicator-repeater assembly - ie, EXPENSIVE.

3) Sod's Law WILL apply.

So, after a drive up the A3 which involved a lot more over-the-shoulder checks (probably a good thing) than usual and the application at journey's end of a generous amount of gaffer tape I set about trying to minimise what seemed to be an inevitable outlay which would probably involve writing a cheque to 'Skoda GB Ltd' or, at least, one of their approved agents.

A quick phone around only deepened my gloom as it revealed that a complete replacement mirror assembly would set me back at least £80 & well over a hundred if painted.

Not ideal..

So, with worst-case scenario in place (well, it's best to know what to expect) I headed over to the ever-friendly & unceasingly-helpful forums at www.Briskoda.net

A quick search through the forums turned up the magic phrase "wobbly wing-mirror"

Bingo..

And, as I scrolled down and read through the post I felt my rounded shoulders become straightened once more, my bowed head regained something of an upward tilt and my wallet started to breathe a sigh of relief as I discovered that my worst fears were unfounded - VW Group were not after all going to be relieving me (or at least MINT/RBS Financial Services, initially) of a hefty wad of cash because all was going to be ok.

All I needed was a roll of carpet tape.

Heavy-duty, double-sided carpet tape.

Yes, according to the author of the post on the Skoda-owners' message boards it seems that oscillating door glass is quite a common problem amongst owners of cars made by VW or their subsidiaries (although one would hope that those lucky & incredibly well-heeled enough to have shelled out for a Veyron might be spared this inconvenience).

The problem arises due to the fact that the sticky pad used to mount the actual reflective glass onto the electrically-adjustable mechanism isn't, er, sticky enough.

After a couple of years the glass bit loses its grip - first becoming wobbly before falling off, leaving you with just a large expanse of white (formerly) sticky pad in your rear view and a bill for £14 plus to replace the bit of glass which is now in a thousand pieces in the outside lane a couple of hundred metres behind you..

However, with just the application of a few strips of the aforementioned carpet tape - available in most big DIY stores, carpet suppliers (natch) and Amazon (where mine came from) - you can restore your rearward view of the world in just a couple of minutes & proceed on your way, safe in the knowledge that you're less likely to pull into the path of a Hungarian-registered artic.

I have to admit to a bit of trepidation as I gently levered the mirror out of the housing the morning the postman brought the (very) sticky tape.

As I gingerly pulled and manouvered the glass & plastic backing plate off its motorised mounting I fully-expected to hear a loud and costly crack as the mirror shattered into a billion pieces - but no, as advised by my new best friend on the forum, it came off with the minimum of fuss and after carefully removing the two spade connectors which supply power to heat the glass I finally had in my hands the business end of a Skoda Octavia II door mirror.

Upon inspection on the dining table it became very evident why the thing had been flapping around so much as only a 2mm wide strip of mirror was still attached to the upper edge of the (no longer very) sticky pad.

"Probably a good thing I had the gaffer tape with me a couple of days ago" I nodded to myself in what I like to think of as a sage-like manner..

Anyway, sage or no (no, actually) I gave all the surfaces a good clean and reattached the glass using the mightily-sticky double-sided tape.

Upon applying this stuff, any lingering doubts I'd been harbouring about its ability to hold onto a piece of glass whilst being buffeted at motorway speeds were soon allayed as it grabbed onto the mirror like a limpet & I'm pretty confident it's not going to come off again in a hurry.

A quick reversal of the removal procedure & voila, one rock-solid rearward-facing police car/juggernaut/speeding Audi spotting device.

So far, 4 days after surgery the patient is seemingly fully-recovered and all vital signs are good.

Well, it hasn't started flapping around or fallen off..

And the moral of this informative if not exactly awe-inspiring tale of DIY automotive-fixery..?

Well, it's probably this - don't always assume it'll cost you an arm & a leg.

Whilst it's often a reasonable assumption in today's disposable culture that things will wear out and require expensive replacement there is still scope for fixing it yourself so long as you do your homework.

In my case, a bit of digging in the right place turned up an invaluable piece of information from a fellow temporarily-visually-impared Skodarist & also served to remind me what a helpful & friendly place a web forum can be, especially when you need help & advice.

So, if you find that your rearwards view of the world isn't quite as steady as you remember, it might just be worth your while getting hold of some miracle-cure carpet tape soonish before you end up decorating the dual carriageway with expensive silvered-glass..

Dave Wakefield

What now for Robert Kubica?

As we've previously reported, Lotus-Renault's likeable number one driver Robert Kubica is currently recovering in an Italian hospital following an horrific rallying accident yesterday when his Skoda Fabia left the road en route to a stage of the Ronde di Andora event.

Graham has already extended our best wishes to Robert & his family on behalf of us all at UKMT and I know that these sentiments are heartfelt as we all have a lot of time for the quietly-spoken Pole.

Whilst the reports following the extensive operation to stabilise Robert's condition are encouraging, and these are of course very early days, we do wonder whether he will ever again be fit for duty in the demanding world of Formula One, given the nature & extent of the injuries he sustained in his Super 2000 Fabia.

The top tier of open-wheeled motorsport is notoriously demanding on body & mind with even the comparatively-limited power and grip levels permitted under the current FIA regulations failing to slow the current crop of F1 cars by any huge margin. This may well prove to be problematic for Robert if he has been unfortunate enough to suffer a permanent impairment to his mobility levels, not to mention the requirement for drivers to be able to exit the cockpit of a stricken car within an FIA-mandated time in order to qualify for their Super Licence.

On the positive side though, F1 cars today do make life for their pilots somewhat less physically-demanding than those of even a few years ago with, for example, the standard fitment of paddle-operated gearshift & clutch as well as powered steering helping to alleviate some of the more arduous tasks drivers of yore had to contend with.

Add to this the example set by other drivers who have suffered terrible injuries in the past yet have been able to return to motor racing in the (helpfully modified) cockpit of a racing car & the outlook might not look quite so bleak..

Former F1 driver & Thoroughly Decent Chap (in our humble opinion) Alex Zanardi was amost killed whilst driving in CART in 2001 and lost both his lower legs following a huge accident at the Lausitzring in the September of that year.

Yet, whilst unable to resume his career in open-wheeled racing, following a long & painful period of rehabilitation Alex was able to return with no little success in Touring Cars before retiring from the sport in 2009.

Fellow Italian Sandro Nannini was another promising Formula One prospect whose career in the category was sadly ended following a helicopter crash which left him with a severed right arm in 1990. Encouragingly for Kubica who has also suffered partial severment of his right hand, surgery was successful enough to give Nannini back use of the arm and he went on to compete in both Touring Cars and the FIA GT Series as well as having an outing in the short-lived Grand Prix Masters as recently as 2007.

So, maybe some encouragement there for Robert and his team but of course the prime concern is that he makes as full and thorough a recovery from his devastating injuries as possible before even contemplating a return to any form of motorsport.

We shall of course be following his road to recovery with interest and will keep you posted with any further developments & thoughts that reach us here, especially in the short term regarding Robert's replacement for some, if not all of the 2011 F1 season - the name Senna on the side of a Lotus again..?

hmm..

Anyway, in the meantime, here's to a speedy recovery and many more years of doing what he does best for one of the sport's nicer characters, Robert Kubica.

Dave Wakefield

F1 - Robert Kubica out for the season after massive rally crash

Robert Kubica underwent a seven-hour operation at the Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure this afternoon.

The Lotus Renault GP driver had been diagnosed with multiple fractures to his right arm and leg following a high-speed accident at the Ronda de Andora rally this morning. He also suffered severe cuts to his forearm, which could have an impact on his right hand mobility. Doctors are reasonably satisfied with the way the operation went.

Tonight, Robert's condition remains stable but serious. He has been placed into an induced coma and could be woken up in the morning.

Professor Mario Igor Rossello, Director for the Regional Centre of Hand Surgery at San Paolo Hospital in Savona: "It has been a very important and difficult operation. Robert Kubica's right forearm was cut in two places, with significant lesions to the bones and the tendons. We did our best to rebuild the functions of the forearm. It took seven doctors, split into two teams and a total of seven hours to complete the operation. One team was the emergency task force from the hospital of San Paolo (Savona) that is normally appointed to treat this sort of injury, while the other team came from the orthopaedic department of the Santa Corona Hospital (Pietra Ligure). At the end of the operation, Robert's hand was well vascularised and warm, which is encouraging. Following the surgery, Robert Kubica will remain under permanent monitoring overnight because his condition remains serious."

Graham Benge