I’m about to irritate a great number of drivers – people who, often without training or experience, own and drive the larger Sports Utility or Multi-Purpose Vehicles. Not, I hasten to add, the drivers of series and other competitive landrovers.

Sixty years of driving experience along with a fair share of luck allowed the classic Mini I was driving to avoid, by less than a metre, the head-on collision with a large SUV that blindly swung out from behind a lorry and continued coming on my side of the road until the crash was so narrowly avoided that passenger and self were left shaking uncontrollably.

Inexperienced drivers should not be allowed to drive these high-speed death dealers. I would go further to say that anyone wishing to drive such a vehicle should, unless they have at least five years’ experience of driving normal cars, be forced into taking a driving exam to make sure that they can control these fearsome beasts, many of which can easily exceed 160 km/h.

Personally, I’ve been privileged in as much as I’ve test driven countless SUVs and MPVs for Times of Malta over the years, and while a few have been what I call user-friendly, the majority have presented a real challenge, so much so that most contemporary models need a rear-facing camera to make reversing possible, and very large exterior mirrors to allow small cars, bikes and quad bikes to be seen at all.

Arguably, the most hazardous moments come when these unfriendly lumps come from a side-road into a major road, which may often have narrow pavements. The poor mug in the main road is then suddenly confronted with almost a couple of metres of vehicle coming majestically from the minor road before the driver can see what is approaching along the high road.

Personally, I never enter main roads in these circumstances in either the classic, long-bonneted Fiat x 1/9, or my 1955 Aston with its two-metre-long engine cover.

Five hours of country roads and interesting hamlets were recently negotiated. Many of these roads are between Mġarr and Żurrieq. Santi Hill was the starting point. This hill, largely built on clay, needs a lot of attention before it crumbles into the valley [as does the Wardija road from Burmarrad].

Mtaħleb hill climb was reached via Wied Rini and the narrow original road. Shame on Rabat council for the latter and Dingli have allowed vast stretches of moon-cratered roads causing damaged springs, suspension and tyres.

Ta’ Baldu hamlet is always worthy of a visit, as the sheer tranquillity of the place makes up for the damage done to the car. The old Dingli ‘whites’ were better before they were surfaced 40 years ago and Dingli Cliffs was approached and appreciated because the nice surface takes much of the danger out of using this particular stretch.

Inexperienced drivers should not be allowed to drive these high-speed death dealers

However, the rough, narrow largely concrete lane that takes visitors from the vicinity of Laferla Cross via numerous ill-maintained rural Siġġiewi council roads to link up with the historic and little known Qrendi airstrip is pretty foul and so is the panoramic link between Qrendi Strip and the Ħagar Qim crossroads. It all fades into insignificance when compared with the Qrendi-Siggiewi road, a road magnificently potholed for a great distance.

Various car agencies have been hit for six by the constant inflow of second-hand vehicles, often in a not-particularly-good, mechanical state, which agency mechanics are duty bound to fix even though the long established agents had no say in the vehicle’s importation.

Government owes it to the commercial sector to help place new car salespeople at a par with those who sell imported vehicles.

This should mean charging second-hand imports a considerably larger entry tax. Or only allow classic vehicles, modern and those made prior to 1984, along with vintage cars to be imported.

The central line of bollards outside Żebbiegħ, on the main road, was replaced against my recommendation. After a few weeks, almost all of them have been destroyed. The existing traffic lane is too narrow for very large vehicles to safely negotiate the bend.

• Talking about the Salina/ Naxxar road, one cannot but mention the broken rumble strips and the red and yellow slow markings.

Transport Malta’s CEO should really drive this stretch of road for himself.

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