Semi Automatic cars

I'm thinking of changing my car one reason, is due to a £60 increase in my road tax for a 1.4 Toyota Corolla I'm looking at one that is a Semi Automatic? Never driven an automatic car Has anyone got a semi automatic What is the difference between an Automatic and Semi Automatic?

This link will explain it]

I drive a Ford Puma which has a semi automatic gear box. I just put the car into drive and forget about it. I can put it into Manual and there are paddles behind the steering wheel to change gear. Never used this function yet

i have a Semi Automatic never have used the Semi part i just drive in Automatic it also has cruise control never used but i prefer driving Automatic now my boy racing day are over

just add ! Automatic not good in snow tried to drive in Scotland one winter i don't have that problem were i am maybe that's when Semi Automatic my come in useful

Peter you can still get a turn of speed from your car and it could leave a few boy racers standing

Automatics, used to have the old 'kick down' function for rapid acceleration

PeterP i have a Renault Fluence Diesel its like a megane coupe

TTS they still do

So which cars have become £60 dearer in road tax ? is it a budget thing ?

It seems the motorist is being hammered again If they don't want people to own cars why do they make them Over the last few years they have tried all different methods to get rid of cars, From no drive zones to hiking car parking charges more so for diesels.Blanket 20MPH zones the list is endless

Apologies for the misinformation I quoted Just found an old Tax form from a few years ago and that shows my tax was £205 .00.. I've now started the ball rolling now re changing my car.. I'm going to test drive a SKODA SCALA 1.5 semi automatic tomorrow<g>I will probably be more paying for this car, IF I buy it? Than the total amount I've spent on all the other cars added put together I've had in my lifetime..

Funny, our road tax has gone down to £25 but perhaps it is because we are content to have a small economical car instead of a petrol guzzling Japanese 4 X 4 or a German Audi, BMW, Mercedes status symbol!

But our insurance has gone up as a result of the dimwits causing accidents which in our case, two of the dimwits playing bumber cars with us which resulted in one car being written off.

Peter Israel most modern cars have different driving modes. My car has 5 different driving modes Normal Eco Sport Slippery & Trail this is ok for farm tracks but not off road only front wheel drive I use it in normal or eco mode I have used it in slippery mode when it was icy seemed to grip better no wheel spin. Has to driving in snow even manuals can struggle depending on the amount of snow. I once left my car at work not because I could not drive it,it was because the snow was that deep it was over the front spoiler and was acting like a snow plough and I did not want to damage the spoiler

I feel a tale coming on

I once had an Opal Manta, the Mk1 version with round tail lights from the 1970s, and this was in the early 1980s and it had 'normal' profile tyres on it, which gripped in the snow a damn site better than todays low profile tyres, which along with modern cars being lighter now, through the use of plastics in the construction of vehicles, and my Opal Manta was rear wheel drive, and when it snowed I would go out and have some fun in it, sliding around, I would go up to Winter Hill, and I could make that car do anything in snow, but one very snowy night I decided to travel from Westhoughton to Pemberton via Aspull, so off I pops up Church Street and then left on to the A6 and there wasn't a car in sight, the snow was so deep that it covered the pavement and road, so you could not tell where the kerb was, and the journey to the junction with Dicconson Lane was long a path of pure virgin snow, and the front panel on the car below the front bumper, I don't what it is called but that was streamlined in shape, rather than the built in spoiler shape they are now, and as I drove along through the snow, I thought that if the car gets stuck, I will just reverse back along my tyre tracks, and at a point near to where the junction with the Wingates Industrial Estate is now, it wasn't there back then, the road emerged from the houses and it is then exposed to the elements, and the snow had been drifting across the road, and as the snow became deeper I could hear the front panel starting to catch the snow, but because of it's shape it was riding over the snow, so I put me foot down has much as I could, without spinning the back wheels, and the car picked up some speed and in the rear view mirror has well as the tyre tracks, I could also make out that the underside of the car was scraping along the snow, and you have to remember that when there is snow on the ground, street lamps light up everything better, so as I approached Dicconson Lane at probably a silly sort of speed, I noted a police range rover, with flashing blue lights, and they were directing traffic from the Blackrod direction, up Dicconson Lane, they were parked side on to the A6 and they had closed the A6 and the road coming from the motorway roundabouts had been snow ploughed, going into Dicconson Lane, which had left a big bank of snow across the road, to which at I was going to stop and be stuck, so as the line from the Convoy song said "I crashed the gate doing 98" I hit this snow bank, there being no traffic coming towards me, and smashed through it, with snow flying everywhere, and I spun to a stop and these two policemen were shouting at me, and they were covered in this snow I had just scattered everywhere.

One of the policeman walked over and as he was sarcastically brushing
snow off his shoulders, he started having a moan at me, with a logical question, to which I gave him a logical answer "why did you just do that" answer "so I didn't get stuck on the other side of that snow bank" "the road is closed" was the answer I got "well I didn't know" I replied, so I explained where I had come from, to which he said "ooh I had forgot about Church Street, so they must have shut the A6 at the Bolton Road junction not realising traffic could get through on to it at Church Street and there is also a road over to Lostock on the other side of the A6, as this was happening a car drove along the A6 from the Blackrod side and carried on through the gap I had just made in the snow bank, and then spun round and was stopped a few feet away from the police vehicle, pointing at the police vehicle, with the front wheels spinning around with the engine revving, a woman was driving it and both policeman ran over shouting at beckoning her to get her foot off the accelerator.

Whilst this was happening I quietly put the car in gear and drove off up Dicconson Lane, because they hadn't told me to wait there

Posted by: admin (1617)
Apologies for the misinformation I quoted Just found an old Tax form from a few years ago and that shows my tax was £205 .00.. I've now started the ball rolling now re changing my car.. I'm going to test drive a SKODA SCALA 1.5 semi automatic tomorrow<g>I will probably be more paying for this car, IF I buy it? Than the total amount I've spent on all the other cars added put together I've had in my lifetime..

Replied: 13th Mar 2024 at 13:58

How did your test drive go admin, did it persuade you to buy?