Q: What should every style conscious car be wearing this winter when it snows?

A: Cuddly snow socks of course.

This female friendly motoring product is ideal for women and well worth a plug with snow already on the ground in many regions and heading for us in Sussex soon – although you wouldn’t believe it this morning with such brilliant sunshine in Steyning…

Clever Vauxhall has seen snow coming and introduced a product called Snow Socks at selected dealers; they’re easy to fit, generally cheaper than traditional snow chains and used in many countries where chains or snow tyres aren’t a daily necessity in the winter but where sudden snow can instantly strangle an economy – as happened to ours last year.

The technology was developed after scientists working with the Norwegian Ski team found a material to reduce friction and which works well here.

Best described as textile ‘socks’ you slip them over the driving wheels/tyres; there’s only one possible way for FOXY Lady drivers to fit them, they are reusable and they take up minimal space in the car.

If you’re in Sussex, get yours from female friendly Vauxhall dealer Steeles of Worthing.

I read that most people are impressed by the difference they make to general traction, cornering, and braking.Find out more at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYjIDvSdzHQ&feature=player_embedded

And finally they can even be washed in the washing machine!

Must be for foxy lady drivers I’d say.

FOXY Steph

PS They cost £50 to £65 per pair depending on tyre size; terms apply of course.

Can today’s cars be cherished and remain reliable for much longer than seven years?

Remember the film ‘The Seven Year Itch’ with Marilyn Monroe when the faithful husband is tempted to wander? No I’m not that old really but I have seen the film and it seems to apply in other contexts too!

For example, put into a driving context I wondered if cars can reasonably be expected to limp along for a lifetime of low mileage and short local journeys (rather than 7 years)? Think about the engine wear and tear plus annual garage bills as the vehicles age…

If you haven’t got my gist yet, my apologies – I’m talking about the difference between Kia’s 7 year new car warranty versus Vauxhall’s new lifetime warranty offer.  Both are for a total mileage of 100,000 miles so you might say, what’s the difference?

Well the difference is to do with your annual mileage and whether a car can last long enough to benefit from a lifetime warranty.   But either way, before we look a bit deeper at these offers, these two manufacturers deserve a genuine pat on the back for offering a lot more than most other car manufacturers, so well done both.

And what will Ford follow in with I wonder?

I’m not sure if the Kia 7 year warranty is transferable to a second owner but the Vauxhall offer isn’t, so if you drive c5k miles a year and have your car serviced annually (by a VAT registered garage, not necessarily a dealership I believe) then a Vauxhall is a great buy that could last up to 20 years, assuming you do or want to drive the same car that long .

But I imagine that this offer, linked to car models that women like, like the Picanto or Corsa, will appeal to foxy lady drivers who like great value for money supported by female friendly service levels.

And our advice to Club members will be to factor in the cost of the annual servicing that Vauxhall and Kia will require you to have, to maintain that warranty.

FOXY Steph

Find out about female friendly garages near you.

Find out about a membership association for women drivers; invaluable friendly advice, information, support and offers when motoring gets stressful and ultra expensive.

If you want to know about motoring etiquette then Debretts and car manufacturer Vauxhall have combined to write the ultimate 47 page book called ‘Thoroughly Modern Motoring Manners’.

When it comes to women drivers we are to get out of our cars in a ‘ladylike’ fashion <yawn>. To be specific we are told to

Smooth down your skirt.

Keeping your knees together, swivel your body and swing your legs outwards.

Place one foot down, keeping your knees together.

Dip your head and shoulders forward and slide and glide out of the car…

Apparently a true gentleman knows that jokes about women drivers are cliched and is never a back seat driver.

I wonder who the book is for? Men or todays modern motoring Millies?

I fear that if it’s for female motorists, some may find this a tad patronising, especially if their sense of humour is wearing a bit thin at the time!

FOXY Steph

Find out about the female friendly FOXY Promise to never overcharge, patronise or sell women drivers services they neither need nor want.

In a survey of more than 1,000 motorists carried out by the RAC Foundation, 87 per cent of drivers, many of them women, said that they had been a road rage victim at least once, while 20 per cent claimed to have experienced it more than ten times. Even more alarming, 71 per cent had indulged in road rage themselves and most felt justified in either perpetrating or responding aggressively to road rage.

One of the main fears for women drivers on their own or with small children, is of being approached by a stranger in a deserted car park, late at night or having broken down by the side of the road and another car pulls up next to you. These situations are few and far between, but mega-stressful all the same and we know they happen to others.

Which is why female friendly Vauxhall car dealership Evans Halshaw’s safety awareness course for women drivers (Watling Street, Milton Keynes) gets the FOXY thumbs up for including practical instruction on personal awareness and self-protection, basic car maintenance and advice about reducing motoring risks and so-called ‘road rage’.

To get the message across, volunteers will be invited to take part in role-play to learn how to beat the bullies behind the wheel and how to use everyday objects for practical self-protection and to make a quick getaway from any would-be attacker.

Well done Evans Halshaw.

Anybody interested in attending the free Women in the Driving Seat event on Thursday, October 15 (men and women are welcome by the way and no one will be pressured to buy anything) can phone Lynne Raymond on 0845 604 0492 for information and to reserve places.

FOXY Steph

If we can privatise banks why not Vauxhall Motors?

If we can subsidise new car sales, why not a British brand?

If we want to help the British economy out of recession, why not shore up British jobs?

If we want to help the car industry through these tough times why not encourage/incentivise motorists & fleet buyers to buy a new British car ahead of other makes that will benefit foreign owners?

I’d like to know why we can’t do this – surely this option has been on the table this time around?

After all, the only genuinely British car manufacturer is Morgan today and it doesn’t have the production capability or product range to cater for the volume needed whereas Vauxhall does and there are 5000 jobs at risk.

I think the time is right to back Britain NOW and shore up what could be a lucrative car manufacturer; rather than letting it leak overseas and leave us with a mainly service based economy for the future.

But now that the German government has chosen  Canadian Magna to take over Opel and Vauxhall (where were we I wonder…) we can expect to have ringside seats whilst they asset strip on our doorstep.

Ring any bells?

Go on Mandy – do something really important with a view to the future… stand up for British best interests here and allow British motorists to help the economy by buying a new British car in future.

Other countries seem to care more about this than GB does viz France, Germany and Italy.

Maybe it’s not too late to make a real difference to the British motor industry.  Vauxhall cars aren’t exciting but they are popular and they have the range and know how.

Call in some clever marketing brains to see how easy it would be to encourage the wannabe patriotics to actively support their country by buying British…

We want to feel proud to be British and to remember what that means in terms of hard work and ethics. Someone please give us hope for the future, not despair and give us our pride back.

FOXY Steph

“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”  Edmund Burke