Lights, action; Gillian takes helm at Opel; Telsa’s Supercharger opens; buyback deal
I KNOW it is spring and the evenings are longer and all that, but you still need headlights for the dusk and dim times.
And from what I can see, there are an awful lot of cars with only some of their lights working.
So many drive with one just the one beam – on full mostly – it is unreal.
But I’ve come across a few with no rear lights whatsoever.
I tried signalling one of them, but I got a rather rude hand gesture for my troubles. Imagine, not a screed of a rear light.
My attention has been drawn to the poor level of light maintenance generally by several readers who say that in their part of the world every third or fourth car has afault.
I’m not altogether sure that is the case overall but it is certainly an issue.
We should always check our lights, front and back, on a regular basis.
Just because the days are longer is not an excuse. We have to be able to see and be seen all the time. Visibility during the day can be poor too.
Congratulations to Gillian Whittal (top right) who has been appointed Opel Ireland general manager.
The former head of marketing and PR at the company has just taken up her new position.
As general manager, she is one of only a few women to hold such a senior managerial position in the Irish motoring industry.
Ms Whittal will report directly to Stephen Norman, group managing director of Vauxhall Motors and Opel Ireland, who is based at Vauxhall head office in Griffin House, Luton.
Gillian joined Opel Ireland in 2008 as head of marketing & PR.
She had previously worked with AIB, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Danone.
She says she is delighted to take on the role of managing
Tesla have just opened a new Supercharger in Ireland at Applegreen Castlebellingham off the busy M1.
There are 16 Supercharger bays (eight each on north and southbound sites).
In the 10 minutes it takes to get a coffee or snack, your Tesla will be boosted by half a full charge, they say.
So VW in Germany is promising to buy back diesel cars sold this year if they are banned by local councils within the next three years.
The catch is you have to buy a car that isn’t banned. A lot of hot air I think.
The Volkswagen Group here says: “We are not aware of any proposal to ban diesel vehicles in Ireland in the foreseeable future, merely speculation that there might be such a ban from 2030.
“Accordingly, there is no correlation between this measure in Germany and the Irish market.”