Spare tyre?

This is the show off's method for stacking tyres.

Norwich Union's Indian Merry Go Round

Poor old Norwich Union. It seems that once again their desire to shift as many jobs to Madras as possible has landed them with trouble.

Now it seems that they've been forced to move back a few jobs to Norwich, because their Indian household claims staff didn't understand "cultural differences". Particular mention has been made of the 'graduate level' staff not knowing what an immersion heater does. Presumably, given the rather drastic steps taken, there was no possibility of them being trained either. I suppose they don't teach basic plumbing and heating on Eastenders.

James Evans, NU's Media Relations Director, was in forthright mood:

"What we do as a company is see what works and see what we could do better. At the end of the day we don't want to annoy customers, who we want it to be a good experience for. If something doesn't work, there's no point persevering with it."

But they're still offshoring another 1,000 jobs to India this year, despite the fact that their own research revealed 51% of their customers were 'appalled' by overseas call centres. Now that's what I call listening to your customers!

If you want to be sure that your home insurance to be handled by someone who isn't confused by the massive cultural differences between home heating systems, then you could do worse than give us a call on 0800 089 0203, where all of our staff are still based in Norfolk, and know all about household insurance matters. Some of them even watch Eastenders.

The Bollards are back....

Bikesure Babes

Just a quick post to let you know that it's worth checking out our latest post on the BikesureBlog, as well as our Flickr, where you can see what happened when the babes from Bikesure went to the British Dealer News Motorcycle Expo.

And laugh at the Bennetts Babes Big Brother racism fiasco...

Paris takes two up the rear...

Ooer Missus... We spend enough time bigging up other peoples funny vids on here, so here's one of our own. Let us know what you think, or better still rate it on YouTube.

Fill her up.

Well, I asked for some men doing stupid things with cars. Oh, well. Here is a teutonic maiden showing us how to fill up the tank of a Bimmer... or not.

Massive Insurance Savings...

The FSA has launched a clampdown on all the firms which make wild claims about how much you could save if you switch to them.

I'm sure you've seen the kind of thing - "Switch to FastDirectSure and you could save up to £150..."

Could being the operative word. In fact the FSA found that in most cases most drivers would not, in fact, save any money at all and that the claims were based on savings that a small percentage of drivers would make. Often the claims seem to be made on the basis of the largest saving that anyone in their entire sample survey made, which whilst not dishonest, is not exactly the whole story, which is why the FSA is clamping down on it.

We don't make claims like that in our ads, although we easily could - I've seen many letters and forum posts where our satisfied customers have saved many hundreds of pounds compared to the renewal quote from their existing employer.

But that ignores the fact that, when it comes to insurance we treat people as individuals, and the quote they receive will take many factors into account. For a lot of people that will mean a substantial saving, for others a smaller saving and for a few people we won't be able to match a quote they've had elsewhere - but we will always try to get you the cheapest quote we can.

So we won't insult you by saying, "Call us now and you could save £xxx."

You might save money with us, you may not.

But it won't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time to find out for sure, just call 08000 83 88 33 or visit www.adrianflux.co.uk.

How not to exit a car park

This is a perfect demonstration of how not to drive if you want to keep your no-claims bonus intact. If you're going to do this, perhaps you should check for CCTV cameras first, as the police will have no trouble tracking you down if you put on a show like this...

And, oh yes, it's a woman! If anyone has a video of a man behaving this badly in a car, please, please, please send it to me.

Return of the Little Mouse

With all the launches of retro styled cars like the MINI and New Beetle over the last few years, you'll probably be feeling left out if you have a hankering for some of the other "peoples' classics".

While it seems unlikely that we'll get a new Morris Minor anytime soon, there is mixed news for fans of the 2CV, which has received a modern update that Citroen apparently like, although nothing concrete has been forthcoming as yet.

For Fiat 500 fans, though the news is excellent, with the new 500 due in 9 months. And unlike the 90's incarnation of the Cinquecento, this one will get all its styling cues from the Italian classic. Mechanically, though, components will be shared with the Fiat Panda and the new Ford Ka. You can find tons of classic Fiat 500 stuff here.

These eminently sensible cost saving measures mean that, unlike the MINI and Beetle, which have re-emerged as luxury hatches with a premium price tag, the Fiat Nuovo 500 will remain a true car for the people - the projected price tag is a mere £5000 - cheap enough to attract a whole new generation of young Topolino fans.

Fiat have put together a fantastic site, where you can play around with the design elements of the car, play cool games and competitions, and even try your hand at designing some sticker graphics - if your artwork is the best they'll stick it on a real car.

Holiday Fun

Well the Christmas festivities are just about behind us for another year, and the new year brings with it the usual slew of dull awards ceremonies.

It also brings the excellent Darwin awards, dedicated to highlighting those individuals who have contributed to the success of evolution by successfully removing themselves from the genepool (i.e. dying) in the most insanely stupid ways possible.

My favourite was one of the runners up, naturally involving a car in a starring role.

August brings us a winner from Brazil, who tried to disassemble a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) by driving back and forth over it with a car. This technique was ineffective, so he escalated to pounding the RPG with a sledgehammer. The second try worked--in a sense. The explosion proved fatal to one man, six cars, and the repair shop wherein the efforts took place.

Meanwhile the folks at Flux HQ are gradually recovering from the lingering effects of the Christmas Parties. Some of the girls (perhaps hoping to become official Flux Babes?) dressed up as Sexy Santas for charity. Naturally Paul "Chase Me!" Adams was first on the scene for the photo, particularly as the bright red costumes almost rivalled his legendary permatan. £450 was raised for the NSPCC.



A happy & prosperous New Year to everyone.