I have always needed glasses for driving, but until last year had never purchased a pair of prescription sunglasses. This meant that driving in bright conditions sometimes resulted in hours of squinting against the glare. Last summer, I finally decided to do something about this and buy a pair of prescription sunglasses.

The results were amazing. Driving with sunglasses on is so much more relaxing and comfortable than managing without. I chose a pair of sunglasses with a light-grey tint to the lenses. The results are perfect:

• A grey tint keeps colours looking natural and accurate
• Having only a light tint means that I can still see well in shadows, short tunnels and when the sun goes behind a cloud
• I chose a fairly wide, wraparound design of frame – so I don’t get any glare from the sides and have a wide field of vision without turning my head.

I can’t recommend it highly enough – even on the brightest of days, my sunglasses remove all of the glare and just leave me with a clear, neutral view of the road ahead – without distorting colours or being too dark.

My prescription sunglasses for driving are without a doubt one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Most drivers have experienced that ‘heavy eyelid’ feeling at some point.

Drowsiness is an unmistakeable warning sign that you are tired and should pull over for a break and a cup of coffee.

Unfortunately, all too many people ignore the signs and driver tiredness is thought to be a factor in as many as 20% of accidents on major roads  and responsible for around 300 deaths every year*.

Ignore the signs of tiredness and you risk falling asleep at the wheel and killing someone in an accident – especially as tiredness is usually more of a problem on fast, monotonous roads like motorways.

The good news is that tiredness comes with plenty of warning signs – so you should be able to stop before you become dangerous to other people and yourself. Here’s a few tips for preventing tiredness and dealing with it when it happens:

• Make sure you have a supply of fresh air in your car – either through the vents or through a small opening in a window or sunroof
• Keep it cool in your car, not warm and stuffy
• Plan 15 minute breaks into your journey every 2 hours or so
• If you do feel tired, stop, have a coffee and then close your eyes for 15 minutes while the caffeine kicks in (don’t sleep for more than 15 minutes as you will then begin to enter deep sleep)
• If you will be starting very early in the morning, try to get a good rest the night before and avoid driving during the small hours if you can – your body naturally wants to sleep at this time
• Between 2pm and 5pm in the afternoon is also a high risk time – people often have a natural energy dip during this time, so beware of your own condition and watch out for other drivers behaving erratically

Finally, don’t stop on the hard shoulder of a motorway. It’s not allowed except for emergencies and is extremely dangerous. Pull off at the next junction or services if you need a break.

*Government figures (Think!)

Following on from my recent post on the elusive profitability of electric cars, the UK car leasing and rental industry has also indicated that it will be extremely reluctant to buy significant numbers of electric vehicles until there is more certainty about future residual values.

The industry is already suffering as a result of falling secondhand car values and is unhappy about the current uncertainty over the future value of such vehicles, especially as the expensive battery technology they use is still evolving.

Highlighting these concerns in an article in Fleet News, BVRLA Director-General John Lewis said “What happens if a new battery technology emerges and makes all previous models of electric car almost worthless overnight?”

The fleet industry’s concerns over battery technology and costs could yet prove to be well justified, too. Battery lifespans and replacement costs are not yet widely understood and battery technologies are still changing and being improved – meaning that today’s electric and hybrid vehicles could look like dinosaurs in just 2-3 year’s time.

Quotes from Fleet News

Note: On the other hand, perhaps concerns over battery life and replacement costs are exaggerated and unecessary. This article in the New York Times (well over 1 million hybrids cars have been sold in the US) discusses how these same concerns have proved to be groundless in the majority of cases, with battery packs lasting well and benfiting from long warranty periods.

The UK’s Nice Car Company has just gone into administration. Nice, which stands for No Internal Combusion Engine was a distributor for the electric version of the Aixam (a really small basic car, if you haven’t seen one) known as the Mega City.

Nice also had plans for more electric vehicles but have stumbled up against a time-honoured problem with EVs, as they are known – their limitations.

According to The Times, electric vehicle sales have plummted this year – dropping from 374 in the first 10 months of 2007 to just 156 in the first ten months of 2008.

My opinion is that the reason for this is that electric vehicles aren’t suitable for most one-vehicle households. After all, owning an EV costs you a similar amount to owning an engine-powered vehicle. However, your EV comes with one critical limitation – ‘refuelling’ – or charging – requirements.

Even if your EV can do motorway speeds and has a range of 100 miles or more, you can’t generally refuel it while travelling. That means, that to be safe, you can only use it for short trips that get you back to your charging base each night. Otherwise, you run a high risk of being stranded somewhere without charge or motive power.

In other words, it can’t satisfy all of the average car user’s requirements – only a subset of them, that of short-range use, typically urban.

This restriction is exactly why I think the concept of the Chevrolet Volt might work well. It’s an all-electric vehicle with an on-board petrol engine that can be used to charge the batteries, as and when needed (in addition to mains-powered charging when possible).

To me, that’s all the difference in the world. A proper car must be able to go as far as I need it to and only require readily available, universal fuel – petrol or diesel.

With the cost of motoring seemingly on a never-ending journey upwards – 19% up from 2007, according to a new RAC survey – it’s more important than ever to know how to present your car well when you are selling it. Secondhand car values are falling and the cars realising the best prices are those that have good specs and are presented well.

With that in mind, the Avis valet team recently shared some of their trade secrets for removing awkward stains and marks from vehicles. It’s safe to assume that valeters for a large car rental company will have seen every type of cleaning problem under then sun, so what did they advise?

• Mayonnaise – as well as being great on chips, mayonnaise is apparently also good at removing tar from paintwork or tyres
• Similarly, try cooking oil for brake dust, bird droppings and stubborn squashed flies
• On the inside, baking soda works well on all sorts of marks – just leave it for 20 minutes – and ice cubes are essential when it comes to removing chewing gum.

To learn more about these and other tips, check out the full article over at Fleet News.

For anyone out there who hasn’t noticed the new ‘58′ reg cars are now out and about on the roads, and have been since the start of September.

The new system introduced in 1999 means that new cars are now registered twice a year – March and September, as opposed to once a year in May like they used to be.

For further information about Registration plates see the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) website here:

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/numberplateinfo.aspx