Category Archives: Motoring News

RHA calls for fuel price cut

April 27, 2012   Ian

The Road Haulage Association has called for fuel price cuts as the only way to get the country out of recession. It says that price cuts at the start of the year would almost certainly have enabled the UK to avoid slipping back into recession.

Following the news that the UK economy has shrunk, RHA Chief Executive Geoff Dunning commented, “If Government would heed our advice and address the issue of fuel duty once and for all, this is a situation that could almost certainly have been avoided.

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Emergency braking systems to lower insurance premiums

April 27, 2012   Ian

Speaking at an international conference, Thatcham Research, the insurance companies’ technology centre, said that insurance premiums could be lowered for cars fitted with systems that automatically brake the car at speeds up to 18 mph. Such systems, currently available on some Fords, Volvos and Range Rovers amongst others, appear to cut insurance claims by up to 25%. The idea is that if the car detects an obstacle (e.g. a wall, another car or even a pedestrian) and calculates that the driver has not braked in time, the car will automatically perform an emergency stop.They have been available for a little over a year now, so this is the first time that insurance companies have been able to tell if they make a difference. The evidence quoted at the UK conference echoes a US government study that came to almost exactly the same conclusion.
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Insurers plead with government to stop fake whiplash claims

April 26, 2012   Ian

The Association of British Insurers has urged the Government to stop ‘victims’ from claiming easy money by claiming they have whiplash– because claims are pushing up the average premium by a massive 20%. Despite a fall in the number of car crashes, whiplash claims have risen by a third in the last three years. Every year 570,000 people claim for whiplash injuries. Last year these claims cost insurers over £2 billion, adding an extra £90 a year to the average annual motor premium of £440.
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Win a Porsche track car

April 23, 2012   Sean

UK motor charity SKIDZ  is raffling off a track-prepared Porsche 968 to raise money so that the next generation of young mechanics can be trained. Up to.500 tickets are being sold, for £25 – and the winner will even get a Porsche experience at Silverstone chucked in, too. The car is a 1994 Porsche 968 – given that young mechanics may not have been born in 1994, we better explain what that is. It was the very last of the four-cylinder Porsche range that evolved through the 924 and 944 into the 968.
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Toyota invents mood-reading car

April 20, 2012   Sean

Toyota has created a piece of technology that can read drivers’ moods and adjust the car accordingly. The tech is a safety feature that senses the fettle a driver is in, based on facial recognition technology reading no less than 238 separate points. It then evaluates how he or she will react to a hazard and, if necessary, send out warnings.
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