Michael McAleer answers your queries
From Aogán Ó Muircheartaigh:
I bought a 2002 Toyota Corolla diesel recently. Can you help on two points:
The dashboard lighting is very good at night and during the day, but when I turn on the lights in poor visibility (rain or twilight), the dash becomes very difficult to see. Is there anything that can be done?
There is a computer to give details of fuel consumption. On a recent 323-mile trip the read-out gave 67.1 mpg. When I calculated it myself with pencil and paper, having used 24.67 litres, the mpg was 59.79: Not bad, but completely different!
For help with this we had to turn to Toyota's Brendan Stears. On illumination level, he says: "It can be set by switching on side lights and then, using the trip reset button scroll through until a series of 'dashes' appear in the trip display.
"Press and hold the trip reset button until the desired light setting is selected. Release the trip button.
"This setting will now be held until the user wishes to adjust it."
On fuel consumption, Stears says that average consumption is based on the last reset, which may not have been when the car was last filled with fuel.
"The multi display is designed to give an indication of fuel consumption and acts as an incentive to drive economically." In other words, it's probably not pin-point accurate.
In fairness to Toyota, we've never come across a system that was, but at least they are more realistic than the "official" fuel consumption figures published by car firms which we've never managed to attain in any car despite years of motoring.
From Sean McMahon, Co Sligo:
A query regarding bull-bars. I thought that they were illegal. However, I've rarely seen a 4x4 without them. Is it simply that the Garda don't enforce the law, or are they legal?
It's not illegal as yet, though there are plans within the EU to introduce a directive on standards for frontal protection systems (another EU document that we can't wait to read).
Despite its rather lacklustre title, it's likely to ban bull-bars from the front of vehicles put on sale from the date of introduction.
While bull-bars serve a purpose if you're warding off charging rhinos in Zimbabwe or organising a coup in Equatorial Guinea, there are not many wildebeeste roaming through the shopping centres in Sandymount or Montenotte in Cork.
Bearing in mind that the design of a modern car is such that the bonnet and windscreen should provide a cushion if a pedestrian is struck, these bars block off this potential safety feature.
Without the bars, several of the SUVs are already scoring very low on the Euro NCAP ratings for pedestrian safety. With them - and the requisite set of spotlights - attached, these cars can actually be lethal.
From Stan Mason Dublin 6:
I read Bob Montgomery's article on left-v-right with interest (Motors, August 11th).
I always understood that driving on the left had its origin in medieval times when there were no roads as we now know them.
In those days there were only cart tracks, with little space for passing. Besides, there were no left-handed people then, the condition considered to indicate possession with the devil.
As a result, when an unknown person was encountered coming in the opposite direction, whether on foot, horseback or carriage, people kept to the left to keep their right hand available to defend themselves in case of attack.
The Romans may have started the right-side trend but I understand that it was Hitler who standardised the right side in his march across Europe. I would be interested in Bob Montgomery's comments.
Bob writes: "Ah yes! The 'right-handed defence' argument is often raised to explain driving on the left but unfortunetly does not explain why the larger part of Europe chose to drive on the right. And Hitler cannot be blamed as the majority of European countries already used this side of the road before he standardised the rule.
"The simple answer is that this is one of those things which was probably derived from a whole range of differing origins, now lost in the passage of time.
"The US, however, is a different case, as there was very little cross-influence between European and American motoring practices in the early days of driving. But here again horse-carriage practice seems to have been involved as stagecoach drivers sat on the right leaving the left-hand seat for the guard - "riding shotgun" - as it came to be known. Carriage drivers adopted the right-hand seat practice and automobiles followed naturally in due course.
Send your queries to Motors Help Desk, The Irish Times, Fleet Street, Dublin 2 - or e-mail them to motorshelp@irish-times.ie