30th November 2007
- The UK needs more scrap yards
This is the sort of news that
is going to please many people as there is nothing like having a nice new
scrap yard sitting at the end of the garden!
This exciting news comes from
a report written by researchers at the Oxford Brookes University, which is
highlighting their concerns over what happens to our cars when we have
finished with them.
The problem is that the
population is growing, and with this growth there is also a demand for more
vehicles and with this demand there will those cars that have had their day
and need to be disposed of. The report estimates that there will more cars
produced in the next 25 years than there has been in the entire lifespan of
the industry, which is why there is a call for more scrap yard facilities.
There will be around 3.65
billion tons of scrap produced worldwide from now until the year 2030,
that’s enough to totally fill the new Wembley stadium over a thousand times,
so it is clear what this amount of scrap would look like and how difficult
it is going to be. Even though around 75% of current car parts can be
recycled, there are also calls to increase this to 95%, but that is going to
be pushing it a bit.
This is a serious problem
which somehow is going to need to be addressed.
Source [Autocar]
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29th November 2007
- BMW to launch new Bubble car!
The Bubble car was a common
site in the 1960’s its strange quirky shape quickly made it become a very
popular collectors car and today their are clubs and societies who still use
their cars on the road today, so why would a company like BMW decide to
revisit their past?
Well it is simple really,
their are two factors involved here, one is the demand for small eco
friendly cars, this new Bubble car will directly compete with the likes of
the Mercedes baby car the Smart Four Two, and secondly the addition of a car
like this will help BMW’s average emissions total to drop considerably which
would be helpful for a car maker who also produce some very high performance
cars such as the seven series and their SUV models.
Of course BMW do have
experience in revamping old classic models, we only have to look at what
they have done for the Mini! So we can expect to see a sort of car that is a
cross between the Mini and the Smart car, there is no doubt that there is a
market for a car of this size, but will BMW be able to pull it off? If
anyone can they can do it with style!
Source [Auto Express]
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28th November 2007
- Collector’s cars of the future!
Anyone looking at the classic
auction sites would notice that there are some classics from the sixties
that are very collectable and getting some really nice prices now.
But one of the surprising cars
that may be the collector’s car of the future is Jaguars, and in particular
the Jaguar XK and XKR, these cars could be great future investments
according to the classic car auction at British Car Auctions.
This actually makes sound
sense because if you look at the sixties icon the E-Type Jaguar these cars
are now very sought after and cars that are even in fairly bad condition are
fetching some staggering prices, as enthusiasts can buy these cars and
restore them, this will increase the desirability of the car and clearly
increase its value.
This investment potential is
not only for the XK and XKR though, it would appear that all Jaguars are
likely to have some sort of collectable value in the future, as we only need
to look at the series I and II XJ6, these are fetching great prices too,
some are even more or less exactly as they were when they were built, which
makes them quite desirable.
But remember the XJ6 was a
good car, but there were some problems with them and any restoration project
is going to take lots of time and of course cash!
Source [Auto Express]
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27th November 2007
- Land Rover to produce 60th anniversary Defender
Despite the company being in a
sort of limbo at the moment they are still preparing to celebrate their 60th
anniversary and to get this off in style they launched the special Land
Rover Defender SVX 60th anniversary model at the spectacular
British Red Cross Ball in London, and had the Royal seal of approval with
Zara Phillips being pictured with the car.
This first model was auctioned
at the ball with the proceeds going to the Red Cross, the association
between Land Rover and the Red Cross goes back to 1954 when the company
supplied the car to the charity for use in Dubai.
The new model comes in
metallic black, with satin finish black decals, and will come in the 90 soft
top and 9 station wagon models. All models will sport special five spoke
alloy wheels; strengthened front undershield and fantastic clear LED rear
lights.
In total there will only be
200 of these special vehicles produced 140 of the two seater Defender 90
soft top and 60 of the 90 station wagons the production of these vehicles
will go into production in the spring of 2008 with the first deliveries will
be made in the summer.
Unfortunately there were no
price announcements.
Source [Auto Moto Portal]
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26th November 2007
- The sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to be announced in 2008!
The saga goes on and on, for
the last remaining UK brands, Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford say that they will
be announcing the winning bid with the next two months which means the fate
of the two companies will not be known until early 2008.
However there is some good
news for the industry, which is the two companies will be sold as one
package, but what happens afterwards is naturally going to be down to the
new owners. In respect of the new owners it is believed that the three
“Finalists” will be TATA, Mahindra & Mahindra and One Equity Partners.
The union that represents the
workers of Jaguar and Land Rover, the British Transport Workers union,
Unite, have been meeting with all three of the prospective new owners, and
have stated that in their opinion and by going on what these companies have
said, they would recommend the Indian steel firm, TATA! Not that it will
have much to do with the final outcome though.
It will be interesting to see
exactly what the three bidders have in store the two companies, because
despite what they say, it has to depend on how the companies approach the
market and how they handle the workers at the plants, Jaguar and Land Rover
are not out of the woods yet!
Source [Autocar]
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23rd November 2007
- Plans for high tax increases
The government are planning a
radical new plan on the way that car tax is calculated. This could see the
cars that have the highest emissions being hit with a massive £1500 car tax
bill. The theory (If you can call it that) behind this is that there needs
to be a effort put forward that will see a huge reduction in the amount of
emissions being released by cars.
There will be a range of bands
that cars will fall into, with band A being the top slot and the highest
cost, however this will drop as the cars move down into the different types
of band, exactly how this is going to work is not yet known, but clearly the
larger engines and higher emissions will be hardest hit. This will no doubt
target people with families and is therefore another cost that they will
have to fork out in order to simply go about their daily business.
There is talk of a £300
difference between each band, but will this actually work? All it will do is
hit the average driver hard, while those who can afford to buy the latest
eco type cars will be able to pay less.
There has to be another way,
and if it is all down to how much fuel a car uses, then surely putting it
onto fuel has to be the answer, that way the more fuel used the more tax the
driver will pay!
Source [Auto Express]
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22nd November 2007
- Road building overspend
If we ever wonder why all of
those bad roads never get fixed it could have something to do with the fact
that the road building budget is way over spent. In a report by the
Committee of public Accounts it was found that in the year that ended in
September 2006 there were only 36 road schemes that were completed by the
Highways Agency, but at a cost, in fact the overall spending on these road
building schemes actually went over budget by forty per cent.
The conclusion of the Highways
Agency is that these large road building schemes should be part of national
road building plan, which would free up money for the regional road building
schemes to go ahead, because at the moment these are being pushed back for a
long time, sometimes even years.
There is also a need for a
review of spending, this especially applies to the contractors that are
doing the work, and these are often overpriced and nearly always run over
the allotted time period too. There is a need for there to be a more
competitive edge to the road building schemes which would see the jobs being
completed on time and on budget, which is just like everyone else, has to do
in the real world.
Source [Auto Express]
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21st November 2007
- Fiat 500 wins prestigious award
The Fiat 500 has won the
European Car of the Year for 2008, this is quite an achievement considering
the quality of the competition this year, the Mazda 2 came second and third
place went to the wonderful Ford Mondeo.
Ever since this car was first
announced the orders have been flowing in, in fact well over 100,000 orders
came in from France and Italy.
The car itself although
vaguely resembling the classic Fiat 500 which is now an icon in Italy, is
far removed from this new version, there are so many customer options with
three engine choices, twelve colours, fifteen choices of interior finishes,
nine types of alloy wheels and up to nineteen different choices of exterior
sticker finishes. With all of those choices it will mean that there are
around 500,000 different variations of the car, meaning that almost everyone
in the country will be different in some or another, which is a great
feature.
Since the European Car of the
Year awards were first started way back in 1964, Fiat have taken the title
some twelve times first wining in 1967 with the Fiat 124, but Fiat are
nothing like that car maker now, they have flair and style, this is
reflected in the new Fiat 500.
Source [Auto Trader News]
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20th November 2007
- Birmingham to get car share lane
Car sharing has been around
for some time now, with some lanes being open to cars that have passengers,
but the lane on the on the A47 between Spitfire Island and Heartlands Spine
Road will be the first in Birmingham. The car sharing lane will only operate
during the rush hour where any car with a passenger can take advantage of
the free flowing lane.
Naturally the lane is going to
policed by a series of cameras ready snap anyone who either intentionally or
accidentally strays into the lane, in which there will be a nice new £60
fine heading in their direction. The lane that will be marked up and of
course sign posted is to operate between the hours of 0700 to 1000 Monday to
Friday.
But is this really going to
have a significant effect on the city’s traffic problem? Or will it cause
even more congestion simply because they have effectively closed a lane
down, reducing the road size in this manner is not going to force people to
take a passenger all they are going to do is find an alternate route and so
take the problem to another part of the city, which sort of defeats the
object!
Source [BBC News]
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19th November 2007
- ANPR keeping the uninsured off the roads
The Automatic Number Plate
Recognition (ANPR) system which is fitted to some police cars, has been very
successful in stopping uninsured drivers from using the roads, in fact the
figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) state that
their were 100,000 vehicles seized at roadside checks this year alone, which
is an increase of twenty two per cent, on the previous year which was
78,000.
Of those cars that were seized
around fifty per cent were destroyed and therefore permanently removed from
the roads, and thus making the roads maybe not safer but definitely better
because if one of those cars were in fact involved in an accident there
would be no chance for the other party to claim against them which could
mean financial hardship etc.
These figures are expected to
rise as the APNR system is brought out into new areas and being used on more
cars that are patrolling the roads. Eventually if this system becomes the
standard equipment fitted to all police vehicles then this problem will be
more or less totally eradicated and there making the roads, not only safer
for other drivers, but will also get quite few illegal drivers off of the
roads too. It is believed that drivers who have no insurance are also guilty
of other crimes such as no driving licence, no MOT and even involved in
other criminal activities, so it is a serious matter.
Source [Legal-Medical]
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16th November 2007
- Putting the wrong fuel in your car
Pulling into a service station
to fuel up your car has never been so complicated, gone are the days when
their was just a choice of two or three pumps, now days there is are several
options for the motorist and this is causing confusion for some unlucky
drivers who pull up at the pump and accidentally pick up the wrong nozzle
and fill up with the wrong fuel.
Obviously some fuels are more
harmful to cars than others, the worst being diesel, putting diesel into a
unleaded tank and visa versa is probably the worst scenario, as this can
cause some serious damage to the injector system, but whatever the fuel
type, filling up with the wrong type almost certainly means that the car
will stop and the consequences can be expensive and dangerous.
According to the AA 150,000
drivers made this mistake in the past year, this is almost double than the
year before and it mainly affects driver putting petrol into diesel cars.
This increase in wrong
fuelling is said to be down the fact that there are more diesel cars being
bought and subsequently the driver actually forgets that they are driving a
diesel car because they are so quiet these days.
There should by now be a way
that prevents this from happening, the simplest way would be to have colour
coded nozzles and filler caps, or by size or shape, this would prevent this
from happening completely.
Source [BBC News]
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15th November 2007
- London to get pedestrian zones
It would seem that the Mayor
of London, Ken Livingstone has most definitely begun his war on the car and
the drivers who use them, not only have we seen the congestion charge, and
the Olympic VIP lanes, but now it would seem that there are to be whole
streets made completely car free in an attempt to create a more continental
style to the city.
This is no going to be some
temporary measure either; the road will be completely pedestrianised with
the road totally disappearing underneath a sea of pavement and concrete. Of
course this will look great, shoppers will be able to wonder around without
the fear of stepping out in front of a car, but what about the traffic?
Under the proposals there will
be a “Beach” in place along the Victoria Embankment every August, similar to
the one created in Paris every year, there are also plans for Portland
Place, Parliament Square this will follow the lead of the scheme at
Trafalgar Square.
Traffic is going to be
diverted into many different directions in an attempt to avoid these areas;
this will mean that roads that have never seen a huge amount of traffic,
because they are unsuitable will now be flooded with cars.
The concept is good, but is
London a suitable place for this type of project? Are the roads that will
have to be used suitable for an increase in traffic? It is doubtful and the
only sure thing is that driving though London is going to get harder and
more expensive.
Source [Times]
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14th November 2007
- Drivers face Olympic headache
The summer of 2008 will prove
to be a serious headache for drivers in around the London area during the
Olympics, not only will there be an increase in traffic due visitors to the
many venues which is only to be expected but as mentioned in a previous
post, there are going to be special VIP driving lanes. These will be similar
to the bus lanes and will follow the same rules, i.e. if you drive in the
red zone you will be caught by the cameras and fined. The price for driving
in the bus lane is currently a massive £150, so you would have thought that
by entering a VIP lane then this would be comparable, but no! Enter the VIP
lane on purpose or by accident and there will be a bank breaking fine of
£5000 heading your way and you don’t want to do that too many times a week!
The lanes are designated for
the athletes, government officials, sponsors, media and anyone else who has
a friend in a high place.
As if the road system is not
congested enough, by losing a lane how is that going to affect the traffic?
This brings back the old communist style of road management that existed in
Russia before the collapse of the USSR. The burning question has to be, what
happens when the games are finished? Will these VIP lanes remain? It would
mean that all those VIP’s it would not have to mix with us riff raff.
Source [Times]
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13th November 2007
- Highwaymen cause chaos for GATSO
The are probably as many fans
for the fixed speed cameras as there are people who hate them, but its the
people who hate them who are getting into the public eye, for reasons that
go beyond the average complaint.
Direct action has become a way
of protesters of any persuasion to get their cause into the media and then
in front of as many people as possible, but can this go too far?
Take the balaclava wearing
band of protesters lead by Captain Gatso, they go around the country
destroying speed cameras by fire, industrial tools, bombs and almost
anything they can get their hands on. The results are pretty spectacular
with images and video being seen all around the media.
But what is it all about? They
believe that fixed speed cameras have nothing to do with cutting accidents,
but rather work as an income stream for councils who are running short of
cash. But despite many police forces putting in their resources to stop the
Motorists Against Detection (MAD) from their reign of terror, the group say
that they have hundreds of members who are willing to pay fines and even
spend time in prison.
Is this the right way of going
about this? Well it dangerous for them, the emergency services and other
drivers, so maybe not. But they have vowed to increase their operations on a
nationwide scale, which means we have certainly not heard the last of this
story.
Source [Guardian]
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12th November 2007
- Can’t find your car at Heathrow?
How often do people who have
just returned from their holiday have trouble finding their car in the maze
of car parking space at UK airports? Well the is quite often but this may
not be the case for much longer as holidaymakers tired from their travels
can now find their car easily and more importantly quickly with the help
some very clever technology.
The electronics people at
Siemens have come up with a great idea that will guide the travellers
directly to the parked cars. The system uses a computer that is controlled
from a central system which uses small screens to indicate where the cars
is, but not only that will also help drivers find a parking space in the
first place by using the 32 inch screens to point the driver to the nearest
available parking space.
The driver will then get a
print out which helps them when they return by displaying the location of
their car on one of the six foot high units which works in conjunction with
the 35 infrared cameras that are located around the car park.
This system is due to go
online at Terminal Five, Heathrow in March.
Source [Contactor UK]
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9th November 2007 -
How to avoid the congestion charge
At the moment the congestion
charge for driving into London stands at £8 per day, but this is due to rise
to £25 per day for cars that are deemed to have high emissions next year.
But for some owners of expensive high performance cars have found a simple
way of getting away with not paying the congestion charge at all, yes that’s
right owners of Maserati’s, Roll Royce and Aston Martins are not paying any
congestion charge at all and they are legally getting away with it.
So, how on earth can this be
happening? Is there one rule for the rich and one rule for everyone else? No
is the answer, but being rich means that you are able to get the best advice
that money can buy and there is a loophole which allows this to go on.
So being the solid citizen
that I am, I feel obliged to inform everyone else. All that a driver needs
to do is register your car as a taxi; this will involve a one off fee of
just £82 and then an annual fee of just £27 per year! Being a registered
taxi then allows that car to travel in and out of the congestion zone
without paying the charge, and according to the Private Hire Vehicles
(London) Act 1998 a taxi does have to conform to any particular size, seats
or doors.
So there you have, Christmas
has come early!
Source [Autocar]
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8th November 2007 -
Petrol may stay at £1 per litre
The price of petrol rose above
the dizzy heights of £1 per litre yesterday, this is the highest that petrol
has been, the previous high was when it hit 98.5p last year, which caused
panic buying, but in this case there does not appear to have been much
protest so far.
Its all down to the cost of a
barrel of crude oil which is around the £45 per barrel, it is estimated that
should the price of oil stay above the £38 per barrel level then it is very
unlikely that the £1 per litre at the forecourt will go away, this means
that the driving public will need to get used to paying more for the
travelling costs.
Of course just because the
average price for a litre of petrol is around a £1, it does not necessarily
mean that that is what people are actually paying, as there are some places
where the price is as high as £1.10 and in contrast there are also some
places where lucky drivers are still experiencing the below a £1 per litre
price.
As a whole UK drivers are
estimated to be paying an extra £10 million per day extra on what they were
paying at the same time last year when the average price was a mere 86.1p
per litre. Yet drivers really have no choice, it they want to use the car
then they have to pay the price.
Source [Metro]
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7th November 2007 -
Ferrari to open theme park
In 2009 there will be a new
Grand Prix circuit added to the championship calendar, the Abu Dhabi F1
Grand Prix will be the first race in the region and will be surrounded by a
spectacular complex, for the circuit is going to be part of the first ever
Ferrari Theme park!
The work has already begun
with a time capsule being laid by the president of Ferrari Luca di
Montezemolo and the Chairman of the builders and partners in the park ALDAR,
Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh. The time capsule will be revealed again in the year
2047 which is Ferraris 100th Anniversary.
The park itself will cover
250,000 square metres of which 80,000 square metres will completely covered.
The site of Yas Island has been chosen and when completed the site will
offer amusement for the whole family, featuring multi-format high tech
theatres, a variety of sophisticated driving schools (for both children and
adults), Ferrari automotive displays and participatory learning centres as
well as food and entertainment. Among the 24 attractions, the Park will
offer a mix of high-octane and family rides with roller coasters jetting
into the sky and dipping through the covered areas. At the heart of the park
will be an advanced and sophisticated circuit offering driving courses,
which will be the home of the first Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix in 2009.
Source [ZER]
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6th November 2007 -
Call not to put the clocks back
There has been many reasons as
to why the clocks to summer time and then back to winter time, the original
reasons were to give farmers more light in the mornings, but as farming has
become a virtually 24/7 industry this no longer applies.
But according to the Royal
Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) believes that when we put
the clocks back in the winter is a major cause for in the increase of
accidents. The winter time change makes the mornings lighter, but at the
same time the evenings become darker and it is this which is causing
concern.
In fact it would appear that
the winter change according to RoSPA could be responsible for almost 450
serious injuries and deaths, than if the clocks stayed on the summer time
setting.
The main problem is the lack
of visibility and coupled with the poor driving conditions associated with
this time of year puts many people including children at risk especially
during the evening rush hour period.
Driving conditions and poor
light are also to blame for the fall in tourism, shopping and leisure
activities which also can have an affect on people’s lives.
As this has been going around
for years surely it about time that there was some sort of study into this
matter and get it sorted out once and for all.
Source [Autocar]
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5th November 2007 -
Driving fines show big increase
It seems that there has been a
huge increase in the amount of on the spot fines being handed out to
motorists, whether this increase is due to an increase in bad driving habits
or if it is just down to the amount of police, technology and other means
targeting drivers is not known yet.
On the spot fines for drivers
who use their mobile phone while driving has increased dramatically to
126,800 in England and Wales, this is seventy one per cent up on the 53,000
that caught in the previous year.
The offence of using a mobile
phone while driving has been around for almost four years now and yet this
single offence actually makes up thirty five per cent of all of the careless
driving offences, with almost 130,000 cases being dealt with by the police,
however there was almost nearly 3,000 offences of this nature that were with
in the court system or just a written warning.
Yet in total amount of
motoring offences that the police dealt with was around thirteen million,
which is actually down by three per cent on the previous year. The goes for
those drivers caught on camera, this stands at around two million which is
again down by two per cent.
However there were 607,000
breath tests which are up five per cent and those found positive were also
up by one per cent at 104,000.
Source [Auto Trader News]
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2nd November 2007 -
Jensen makes a comeback
That classic car of the 1970’s
the Jensen Interceptor is about to make a comeback, though these will not be
new cars, they will be cars that are from the pre 1972 era, that have been
completely rebuilt.
This is the brainchild of
specialist Jensen dealer Cropredy Bridge and the new company will be called
V Eight Ltd. They have bought fifty pre 1972 models from various sources
with the intention of completely stripping them bare and then rebuilding
them from scratch.
The new cars will have a
complete rust proofing before all of the modern technology is added making
the car new all but for the body shell. The new additions will include the
new GM 6.0 litre engine which produces 414 bhp, a fantastic five speed auto
gearbox, improved braking system and fitted with 17 inch wheel with low
profile tyres.
The all new Jensen Interceptor
or rather V Eight, is going to be launched at the Classic Car Show which is
taking place at the NEC in Birmingham starting next week.
The car is expected to have a
£75,000 price tag, but because they are pre 1972 these cars will be exempt
from any road tax, which is nice!
Source [Autocar]
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1st November 2007 -
New police chief caught speeding
The new police chief of South
Yorkshire police is believed to be planning a radical clampdown on drivers
who tailgate and those that drive under the influence of drugs, he also
likes the idea of having variable speeds on the motorways which could see
the maximum speed increased to 80 mph. Which would appear to suit his
driving as he has been caught speeding twice.
Meredydd Hughes, who takes
over the police force on Tuesday, was caught by a fixed camera on the A61 in
Sheffield at around 6.00 am while driving to work. A few months later while
on a family visit to Wales he was caught speeding again by a police mobile
unit. Yet to his credit he has held his hands up to the offences and
mentioned that he believes that all speed cameras should be both mobile and
completely hidden from any maps and signs.
He has point there, fixed
speed cameras are out there for all to see, and drivers who regularly use
these roads know exactly where they are and speed in between the cameras and
brake hard as they approach a fixed camera site, this is dangerous to other
drivers and it is this driving practice that the mobile units should be
looking into.
Source [Times Online]
