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The Government has revealed that drink drive deaths dropped by 5% last year from 400 in 2008 to 380 in 2009. Has the message finally started to get through? Or could it be that last year we were in the grip of a recession and people couldn’t afford the booze or if they did they didn’t go out they simply stayed in and drank indoors? Hopefully it’s because people understand the need to not drink and drive. Serious injured casualties, resulting from drink driving, fell also from 1,620 to Read more »

As if by magic, after writing the earlier gadget of the week article, I immediately read about the car manufacturers up in arms because the EU has just added another item of safety technology to their growing list of compulsory fitments, you guessed it Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS). They feel it is unnecessary and adds around £250 to the cost of the car (methinks they should pop down to Maplins). Whilst the manufacturers argue the toss over whether this addition will actually save Read more »

The Graham Hill gadget of the week is a tyre pressure warning system. I’ve reported on many occasions the importance of running tyres at the correct pressure. Not only is it a legal requirement punishable by points and a fine, tyres wear quicker, grip is reduced and fuel consumption can increase by up to 10%. We all know that we should check our tyres daily and at worst fortnightly (as suggested by tyre Read more »

The warranty arguments are starting to build – exactly as I predicted. Warranty Direct, one of the largest providers of aftermarket warranty insurance, first of all complained that Kia and Hyundai’s new extended warranty adverts did not make it clear that the warranty had a 100,000 mile ceiling, the same as the widely promoted Vauxhall ‘Lifetime’ warranty. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) agreed Read more »

The reputation of motorway services has never been too good, that was until M&S and Waitrose were introduced and food quality was seen to improve. But leading the way was Westmorland who actually won awards for its Tebay site in Cumbria. It was the first service station to source its produce locally for its shops and café (70%) and its green picnic area. The services even won awards from Egon Ronay. It has now Read more »

As local authorities look at ways to raise money, in order to fill the deepening hole in their finances, it’s the motorists who are about to get another kicking. After this coalition government said they wouldn’t use motorists as a cash cow, as had been seen previously, when things have been tight for local authorities. In the Surrey towns of Epsom and Ewell disabled blue badge holders are now being charged for their Read more »

Drug driving, which is considered as dangerous as drink driving and punishable by exactly the same penalties, is being targeted by the police as an area where more accurate technology is needed. As a result a new ‘drugalyser’ has been developed and will be in all police stations from 2012. The analyser will test drivers’ saliva and make it easier for police to prosecute drivers who drive whilst high on illegal substances Read more »

This week our gadget of the week should be called dopy gadget of the week or more money than sense gadget of the week. It’s in fact a polish for your car, priced at, wait for it, £275 for a 270ml pot or a pound a millilitre! The polish is Raceglaze’s Signature Black Label Wax which contains a high content of carnauba, apparently one of the most prized car care products – bit of an understatement that one! But the best is Read more »

Which car had the biggest recall of the year? Toyota? Did you say Toyota? Then you are wrong! Amazingly, thanks to the press and other media you would easily believe that a Toyota car had the biggest recall in the UK following the problems they had with stuck accelerators. But it turns out that it was another Japanese car, a Honda Jazz which had 171,372 cars recalled as a result of a leak that could cause a fire in Read more »

Just as all our attention is being given to the new electric car initiative, now backed by the Coalition Government it seems that biofuels may be back on the agenda. For those that are unsure biofuels are a mixture of petrol and sustainable ethanol. The standard was known as E85 which means the mixture is 85% ethanol and 15% petrol. When it was being introduced it was at a time when we had massive grain mountains Read more »