'A soft target': Last week's letter from Maurice O'Keeffe of Rahoon, Galway, suggesting that the Department of the Environment pulled a neat trick on motor taxation rates during the euro changeover created quite a response.
The department, it will be recalled, insisted that nobody would be paying more but Mr O'Keeffe's experience for a six-month tax disc was €241, instead of €239.98, the euro equivalent of his old £189 liability.
Some of our correspondents weren't prepared to accept that the department could be blameless.
Sheila Walsh, also from Galway, says it's one more example of smart tactics: "We are all paying more since the euro conversion and that has been confirmed officially. Motorists anyway, are a soft target."
Department press officer Ronnie Devlin has sent us a copy of a letter sent to Mr O'Keeffe. It's all a bit complicated but basically there was a rounding-down for tax discs commencing on January 1st, 2002 but paid for in December 2001.
Ciaran Nugent seems to have the issue firmly in perspective: "When I renewed my motor tax last November, I could only pay in Irish pounds. The euro was not yet legal tender."
The Department of the Environment had issued notices about euro prices with each renewal given to motorists, private and commercial. On the notice, it gave two prices, one in euro and one in Irish pounds.
"If we take a sample figure of £100 for one year's motor tax, we find euro conversion makes it €126.97. The department rounded this down to the nearest euro which made it €126. You had to pay in pounds last November or December, so this rate was converted to pounds from the euro figure of €126 becoming £99.23. This was then rounded to the nearest pound figure of £99."
Mr Nugent points to two instances of rounding down, meaning that anyone renewing motor tax in November or December, got a discount. "There was a common misunderstanding about this procedure but as there was a conversion to the euro taking place, several people thought they were being ripped off. If Mr O'Keeffe had worked out the maths for himself, he could not only have gotten his discount, but would have saved the price of a couple of postage stamps."
Guilty third parties
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A woman called Rita in Dublin has e-mailed us to echo the problems of many of us innocent motorists who have our cars damaged by guilty third parties. She doesn't want her full name published because she is taking legal action.
She asks: "When are we ever going to get a fair deal from insurance companies? After 31 years of accident-free driving, my car was hit from the side by a third party. He was totally at fault and has admitted liability. My car is a financial write-off. It had been looked after well, serviced regularly, there were new tyres and it had a low mileage. It had passed the NCT test on a Saturday and three days later, on the Tuesday, it was gone.
"The insurance company believes that it's being generous in offering me €300 above the book value of the car. Yet for that sum, I cannot buy a replacement car of similar make, a 1997 Renault Laguna 1.8 Sport with 41,000 mileage and in such good condition.
"I am very angry that I am being penalised for something that is not my fault."
Rita has our sympathy. Perhaps someone out there in the motor trade can make her an offer. We would be delighted to pass it on.
It's in the Rules
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Mary R O'Donnell, another Galway city correspondent, thinks she can help Mike Silver who has been looking for line drawings illustrating road signs of the 1950s and 1960s. We featured his e-mail note last week.
She has three versions of Rules of the Road but cannot source the line drawings. They were printed in 1957 at a price of two old pennies, in 1967 and in 1995. Browne and Nolan of Richview Press in Clonskeagh, Dublin printed the 1957 version.
Take your seats
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David Murphy from Limerick was much taken with the tribute to the late Ted Bonner. He remembers meeting Ted when he was driving the Renault 16. "I owned one, too, and we both agreed that it was a superbly comfortable car. Nothing else came near. The seats in the front were great plump armchairs. I am wondering why modern 21st century cars aren't nearly as comfortable."
Back specialists wouldn't necessarily agree that it's good to have excessive comfort. The 16 came out at a time when French manufacturers gave it absolute priority, whereas German manufacturers believed that a better and healthier way was having seats that were firm and supportive.
Retro chic
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Edward Rafferty who e-mails us from Wexford Town has just returned after two years in the US. One of the few cars that impressed him there was the retro-styled PT Cruiser made by DaimlerChrysler. He thinks it sold there for around $22,000.
He was thinking of importing one but left-hand-drive put him off. "Do you think they will be made available in Ireland in the future?"
Mr Rafferty is a little out of touch. The good news is that they are here and have been for nearly a year.
The 2.0 litre petrol model sells at €32,315 ex-works and with automatic transmission the ex-works price is €34,040. It's not new to the market now but we saw one parked in a Dublin street and it was still getting plenty of attention.