At Full Chat

Why was I heading north? Hyundai staged the launch for its new Sonata in middle England. You'd have thought the region would have been grateful for the money the firm puts into the local economy, but there wasn't much evidence of that. Never have I felt so many roadside cameras spying on me. And before anyone comes up with the old clich΃© that if you're not doing anything wrong there's nothing to fear, may I remind them that when you're driving on roads you haven't seen before where limit signs are conspicuous by their absence, committing minor speed-related infringements is almost inevitable.

Fearing it's the sort of place where an unsuspecting driver could collect 12 points in a day, I and my wallet got out as soon as possible. Had I stayed longer I would have gone shopping, bought a meal, perhaps even checked into a hotel for the night. The final straw was seeing a cop car parked up at the bottom of a hill early on the Sunday morning, ready to nab somebody like me doing an insignificant mile or two over the limit. A few minutes later I saw a police van with its sights set on law-breaking motorists. The vehicle was plastered with nonsense about making Staffordshire safer, but it was parked dangerously - close to a bend on double yellow lines!

When will the police start understanding that such hypocrisy undoes the much needed goodwill between law enforcers and the public? A sticker on the van stated that Staffordshire Police controls this scheme. Only when the force issues a ticket to itself and the individual responsible for parking there pays up will this absurd situation resolve itself. Perhaps Staffordshire could also explain why it has enough cameras to drive motorists such as myself out of the county, an area which needs all the business it can get.

Incidentally, the Sonata didn't disappoint. It badly needs a diesel, but it looks as good as its Japanese rivals and is built just as well, if not better, than most of them.