No, but seriously

I don't know if you've ever used those ArmorAll glass wipes in your car, but if so you'll know that within days of cracking the seal on the tub, they're all dried out and basically useless. I recently bought a "to go" pack of these wipes which have a different packaging, and come with the following emblazoned on the front of the packet - "Guaranteed Wipes Stay Moist". Well - we're going to test that guarantee because the wipes were almost dry when they came out of the packet new, and since then - over the last three weeks - have dried out completely despite being sealed in their packet. I've sent an enquiry to ArmorAll's customer service - we'll see if that results in anything.

With winter coming up, a lot of people will be getting ready to swap to snow tyres. This is a great time to do a critical safety check on your car. Find the DOT age code on your tyres and check how old they are. The DOT code is a 3- or 4-digit code stamped right at the end of the series of letters and numbers after 'DOT' on the tyre sidewall.
If it's a three-digit code, for example 345, then it means the tyre was manufactured in the 34th week of 1995. If it's a four-digit code, for example 1204, then it means the tyre was manufactured in the 12th week of 2004.
You should never be using, buying or riding around on tyres that are more than 6 years old no matter what condition they appear to be in. If you have tyres with a three digit date code, get rid of them - they're too old. If you have tyres with a four digit date code, then check my DOT tyre age calculator to find out the maximum age your date code should be for them to still be considered roadworthy.
It doesn't matter if the tyre looks new and has full tread depth - if it's more than 6 years old, it simply isn't safe to use any more. Bear this in mind when you go to buy your next set of tyres - ask to see the date code before they're fitted to your car. It's not uncommon for dealers to have old stock sitting around that even they don't know is more than 6 years out of date.

This part could easily have been the first or the last entry in this series of driving mantra. I chose to put it at the end because it encompasses everything I've talked about over the last few weeks and it's a simple technique that you should learn and use to the point where it becomes habit. If you've ridden a motorcycle for any length of time, you will be practicing S.I.P.D.E without even knowing it. You have to - it's the only way to stay safe on a motorbike. But for car drivers this is often a difficult concept to grasp, coccooned inside their mobile entertainment complexes. If you've ever seen a police driver training video where you can hear one of the officers constantly narrating what is going on, that's S.I.P.D.E. It would sound a little like this:
"Approaching a road on the left - no traffic. Bus stop to the right - old lady there - could be deaf or blind - might walk into traffic. Car in front slowing down. Car behind getting a bit too close. Bicycle on the pavement - has he seen us. Old lady has sat down - probably OK. Car now approaching junction in front of us - driver looking the other way. Bus coming towards us having to go wide to get around cyclist." etc etc etc. It's a constant, real-time observation of everything going on around the police car. So what is S.I.P.D.E? Search, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute.
Search for problems before they happen. Is that person approaching from the side road a little too fast? Have they seen you? Identify the hazards around you. Someone texting on their cellphone? Someone distracted by kids in the back seat? Predict - try to predict what the traffic around you is going to do. Can you see a lane closed ahead? Chances are the cars in front of you are going to try to merge and if they do, will they be paying attention? Decide what to do - can you slow down and make room? Can you avoid the problem by changing lanes? Execute your decision - just do it. If this all sounds complicated and exhausting then you're right - it is. Driving a car should never be considered a luxury, or a right, or something that is easy. It's a complex interaction between you, the 2 ton weapon you're driving, the road and the other road users. If you can get into the habit of this sort of prediction-avoidance loop, you will be able to drive far more smoothly than you would simply by reacting to events only when they happen. And when you drive smoothly, as I said in Part 1 - the river flows a lot more easily.

That concludes my mini series on driving mantra. Hopefully you got something useful out of it and hopefully it will give you pause for thought next time you step behind the wheel.

Too many people, especially here in America, think cruise control is the be-all and end-all of long distance driving. They'll set the cruise control at some given speed and then stay there irrespective of anything that might be going on around them. A classic example is an overtaking truck. I saw this recently and it prompted me to include it in this mini series. We were all coming up behind a slower car in the inside lane. The truck about half a mile in front of me pulled out to overtake just as we reached a slight gradient. It was a laden tanker so he started running out of steam pretty quickly but was very nearly past the slower car - probably less than 2m to go. The driver of the car just sat there though. He didn't speed up to get past and let the truck pull back in, nor did he click the cruise control down a notch to allow the truck to get in front and pull in. No - for 3 miles he sat staring at the truck's indicator. By the time the truck did pull in, there was a line of traffic about half a mile long behind us - all because captain cruise control didn't think to help the situation out. So who was at fault here? The truck driver for attempting to overtake on a gradient in the first place or the car driver for being obstinate and not allowing the truck back in? I'd go with the car driver here. The truck had completed 95% of the overtaking and the car driver simply would not take account of the changed situation. Instead he stuck to his guns and glued up the freeway for 3 miles. So if you find yourself in this situation, take notice of what's going on around you and don't zone out. Adjust your cruise control. Remember the flowing river.

When you're travelling at 120km/h on the motorway, and everyone else is doing the same speed, it all looks relatively calm. Your speed relative to everyone else is within 5 to 10km/h of them. Everything seems relatively peaceful. In reality you're still doing 120km/h and that will be brought home in a big way when something goes wrong. When traffic is flowing smoothly, there's not a lot of energy being transferred because there's not much change of speed or direction. But when you start to brake or swerve, things start to go downhill very quickly indeed. Complex forces come into play that will easily overwhelm all but the most experienced driver in a fraction of a second. So you need to consider a safety bubble around your car. A virtual airspace where you don't want anyone else to be. If someone else gets into your safety bubble, adjust your speed or road position to resolve the situation. The safety bubble gives you a known area around your vehicle within which you can maneuver. It absorbs some of the variations in speed brought on by variable traffic, and gives you an "out" on at least one side for if things in front go pear-shaped. Think of it like an undercover operative thinks when they enter unfamiliar territory. Be suspicious of the vehicles around you and know the exit routes in case you need them.

If you really want to stand a chance of driving smoothly, you need to look way further ahead than the car in front. Some people will suggest looking at the vanishing point but I find that takes too much of the near-field away from me. Instead I recommend you watch the car in front of the car in front. That gives you an early warning of what is coming up. If that vehicle suddenly brakes, then it's a good bet the vehicle in front of you will do the same. If you've anticipated this by already slowing down, then you've bought yourself more time and road space to do something about it when the next car in line does the same. The same goes for swerving or emergency moves. Can you see the lane is closed up ahead some way? Then change lanes now. Don't wait for everyone in front to do it - just because they can't see any further ahead than the tip of their own steering wheel doesn't mean you should follow suit.
In a related note, get used to the relative size of pedestrians as you're driving. This sounds a little odd at first but think of this: is that person in the road in front of you an adult who is 100m away or a child who is 30m away? Making the wrong choice could be disastrous and anedotal evidence suggests that this could be a contributing factor to the number of children hit by cars. People are so used to thinking in terms of adult size, that their interpretation of a child standing in the road is actually that it's an adult standing much further away. That mistake fools them into believing they have more space for avoidance than they actually do, often with tragic consequences.
Finally, don't get distracted. Your cellphone isn't that important. Neither is the in-seat DVD, the navigation system or the climate control. You are at the wheel of a 2-ton weapon and when you get distracted you become dangerous. Keep your mind on the job at hand - driving - and if you must take a cellphone call, find somewhere to pull over and do it. Your time and convenience is not worth more than the safety of roads users other than yourself. However simple and safe car manufacturers make it seem, driving is a complex task with life-threatening consquences when you get it wrong. Treat it as such.

Remember in part 2 I said that your tail lights are your only real form of communication with those behind you? Throw us a bone. If you're going to turn off, use your indicators first. Give those drivers behind you some clue what you're going to do. As you approach the turning, begin to slow down. The drivers behind you (if they're attentive) will begin to slow down too. If you can, gauge your speed so you can turn without coming to a complete stop. It's the analogy from part 1 again - water flowing in a river. If you brake first, then indicate only once you've come to a complete stop, you gave nobody behind you any clue what your intentions were, so now everyone is forced to bunch up and stop behind you instead of being given the option to go around you or slow down and give you room to get out of the way. You're the blockage in the river, creating turbulence.