Wednesday, 28. April 2010
Road safety charity Brake carried out a poll to see how much support existed for the dropping of the drink drive alcohol limit from 80mg per 100 ml to 50, in line with most of Europe. Their findings showed a 70% support which has prompted the Government to take action and consider dropping the level which would criminalise the Sunday pint in a country pub according to an article in Auto Express. But they Read more »
Wednesday, 28. April 2010
Motor Codes, the body responsible for producing a National code of practice for servicing and repairs, have called for a single computer database containing every vehicle’s service record to be created to prevent crooks faking car service histories in order to inflate the car’s value. The call was made after it was found that it was possible to guy fake service books and ink stamps online on eBay. Auto Express Read more »
Tuesday, 27. April 2010
Are you a big Ferrari fan? If so I’ve found the perfect holiday for you. It’s Abu Dhabi. They have built a theme park dedicated completely to Ferrari. They have a rollercoaster modelled on the F430 with the cars literally cornering on rails at speeds of up to 125 miles per hour. It will be called Ferrari World and is completely under cover in an area equivalent to 4 times London’s Wembley Arena. It will open in the autumn Read more »
Monday, 26. April 2010
I raised the issue of digital radios many weeks ago but a few commentators are now starting to pick up on the fact that there has been a change in legislation which will follow the introduction and adoption of The Digital Economy Bill. Amongst other directives it rules that radios will be digital from 2015. Now correct me if I’m wrong but that’s only 5 years away. So knowing that this was going to be the case Read more »
Monday, 26. April 2010
We expect to see some changes in ownership of car manufacturers as we come out of recession, the latest of which is the increased ownership of Chrysler by Fiat. The deal will include Jeep and Dodge. Fiat took a 20% stake in ailing Chrysler last summer and have announced an increase in their stake to 35% if targets are met over the next 2 years. Chrysler registrations were down by 42.8% last year over 2008. Future Read more »
Sunday, 25. April 2010
I revealed last week that the Hyundai i30 was voted the Auto Express Driver Power car of the year as voted by 23,000 drivers polled. This week I reveal the rest of the top 10. The cars were scored for 10 major features including reliability, build quality, running costs, performance, comfort, ride quality etc. The top ten were as follows: Read more »
Saturday, 24. April 2010
Not only do the Americans have cheap lease rates they have some great incentives offered to buyers in order for them to choose their car over others. The latest gimmick is being offered by Hyundai. They are offering every buyer of their new V8 Equus luxury limo their service book loaded onto an Apple iPad. Customers can even use the iPad to book services or receive information updates. I didn’t get one of these Read more »
Friday, 23. April 2010
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 »
Thursday, 22. April 2010
Sales of new cars surged by 19% last month over sales for March last year according to latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It sounds like a large increase but the sales last year were abysmal but hey we’ll take any glint of light that indicates things are moving in the right direction. Having said that, the sales in March were the highest monthly sales for 2 years, so it’s Read more »
Wednesday, 21. April 2010
There is pressure mounting to introduce a total ban on mobile phones whilst driving. Latest research shows that even drivers using a hands free phone took 20% longer to hit the brakes in an emergency when on the phone. Following distances increased by 30% as drivers failed to keep up with traffic in front and memory performance fell by 11%. The study was carried out by the University of Utah. Road charity, BRAKE Read more »