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Are gadgets a waste of time and money? If recent reports are anything to go by it’s a resounding yes. Some recent additions such as brake assist and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) are there as vital safety aids but few drivers know Read more »

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Sometimes I feel that technology has gone too far with some safety and comfort features taking over your driving and control of the car. This was illustrated recently when Mercedes had to recall 18,000 Mercedes M Class because the cruise control wouldn’t disengage when you tapped the brake pedal, as it’s meant to. If you’ve driven a car with cruise Read more »

If you are a regular reader of my articles and newsletter you will know how I bang on about the benefits of the Electronic Safety Control (ESC or also called ESP). Car testers EuroNCAP say that all cars should be fitted with ESC now without waiting till they are legally obliged to do so. Only 60% of new cars are fitted with ESC compared to 99% in Sweden, 80% in Germany and 72% in Spain. If ESC isn’t fitted as standard on Read more »

If you’re looking for a safe car then look no further than the new 5 Series BMW which has just received the highest score ever by EuroNCAP for all round safety making it the safest car in the world. Helped by the very high score achieved when assessed  for safety protection provided to driver, passengers and pedestrians, new active safety equipment became the clincher. Active safety equipment is that which Read more »

If you are a regular reader of my newsletter you will know that I go banging on about Electronic  Stability Control (ESC) also known as Electronic Stability Program (ESP). It saves lives and should be fitted as standard on all new cars already and yet only half of cars that are going to be used for business were sold last year with it fitted. By 2011 all new cars must be fitted with ESC and by 2014 every car must have Read more »

Who are EuroNCAP? Do you know? Well it turns out that far too few people do so they are on a mission to become more visible. They are a group formed in 1997 by the Transport Research Laboratory and they are the organisation that crash tests every new car to award it safety stars from the driver’s perspective, passenger perspective and pedestrian perspective. Over the years many companies have insisted upon Read more »

One of the huge benefits to buying or leasing a new car is that you will be driving a car with all the latest safety equipment fitted. Even the most modest cars have more equipment than they had fitted even just 3 years ago. The most significant for me is the wider fitting of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) also known as ESP. This system has been proven to save more lives than ABS but isn’t mandatory until Read more »

It wasn’t long ago when I advised drivers to check the settings of their head restraints in order to prevent one of the most common driving injuries, whiplash. Well it now turns out that EuroNCAP, the body that checks the safety of every new car, now has a new test that it carries out on seats to check their ability to prevent whiplash. It showed that 8 new cars launched in 2008 failed the new test including some surprises, Ford Kuga, Citroen C5 and Peugeot 308CC. These cars were given a ‘red rating’ which meant Read more »

As regular readers will know I am a great supporter of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and would like to see it fitted to all new cars as it is so much more important than ABS which is now fitted as standard on all cars sold in the UK. The European Commission proposed that by 2012 all new cars should have ESC fitted as standard. However the results of a recent EU wide survey showed Read more »