While some may have noticed that there are more bright lights on the road, the average driver has no idea why it seems as if everyone has their high beams on.
The answer is simple, because there is a slow transition in the car manufacturing world to LED lights instead of incandescent lights.
LED lights use electricity to glow when the current runs through them, instead of waiting for a filament to heat up. As a result, not only do the lights not need to heat up, so they are instantly able to light up, which means much brighter light over all.
The brighter side of this fact is that LED lights do not require as much energy from the car engine to work which means that the car gets a break and so does your wallet since less energy means less fuel consumption.
The other reason your bank balance may get a little less hammering, is due to the fact that LED lights have a longer lifespan than their incandescent counterparts with a lifespan that can last well over 11 years if manufactured correctly.
The downside is that LED lights are more expensive to make which is why you will see them on prestige cars for the time being, although they are slowly trickling down into more of the common brands as well.
Thousands of Cumbrian citizens and those from surrounding cities are facing travel difficulties from recent floods after 25 roads are closed and 16 bridges are termed unsafe for travel.
The flood hit the town and nearby villages on Friday forcing some commuters to reroute their travel plans and cutting off frequently used roads and bridges.
Military experts and structural engineers are currently conducting an emergency look at over 1,800 bridges to determine if they are safe. Already 13 primary schools and five secondary schools have been shut in the area as a result of the flooding. As cleanup work continues Cockermouth town centre has been closed off by utility workers and structural engineers.
Duncan Stewart Fairbairn the City Councillor stated that there are not too many roads in the area that do not have a bridge that may have faced damage, which will lead to chaos on the roads. He stated that there are many people such as teachers, policemen, and healthcare that will not have to take detours leading to long journeys that will create a ‘logistical nightmare.’
Due to the collapse of a Northside bridge, means Workington town has already been split in two, and an additional bridge on Calva is expected to collapse as well causing further concern.
MP for Workington, Tony Cunningham sad that in order to get to Seaton travelers most now plan for a 90 minute detour in place of a trip that under better road conditions would only take a few minutes. Cunningham continued to say that he is worried about those that are cut off and need prescriptions, aid, or baby nappies because the medical centre cannot keep up with demands.
Car Insurance – like our taxes is a necessary evil but the taking the time to research providers and source quotes, you could save hundreds of pounds every year.
Nobody should be paying more for their Car Insurance than they need to – the industry is so competitive and the chances are that there’s always someone willing to give you a cheaper quote.
For most people, the annual renewal letter from your existing provider will land on your door mat, telling you to simply pick up the phone to renew your insurance policy. With promises of “saving you even more money” and “giving you the best deal possible”, many people will do just that.
But if you’ve stuck with the same provider for years, the fact is that you’re probably paying out much, much more than you should be. If you only took the time to shop around for the best deal, you could save yourself hundreds of pounds.
In this day and age, the internet is the best tool around to Compare Car Insurance providers. Many insurance companies offer a simple online form where you can get a quote in minutes. Price comparison sites take it one step further and do all the work for you by scouring the industry providers and churning out the best quote for you.
The more and more savvy we all get to searching and fighting for the best quote – the more competitive providers have to be, making it a win, win situation for us all!
Top Tips For Saving On Car Insurance
1. The single biggest way to reduce your premium is to try and hold on to your ‘no claims bonus’ for as long as possible. After a claim you are perceived as a risk and the costs can spiral.
2. Drive a smaller car with a smaller engine as your less likely to be able to reach ridiculous speeds that cause accidents in the first place.
3. Being a woman can also help! Women get offered lower premiums as their accidents are generally less serious – meaning less pay out from the provider.
4. Installing extra security devices on to your vehicle can help, like a car alarm, immobiliser and tracking device.
5. Accept a higher excess penalty if you do have to claim.
6. Some companies offer superb deals when you take out you car, home and contents insurance with them.
This Christmas an innovative company has developed a gadget that will help speeders, er, cautious motorists, avoid a ticket with a gadget called the Novus Piccolo.
The small handheld gadget is barely larger than a set of keys but is able to detect almost all types of fixed cameras including both speed cameras and red light cameras.
The device also warns a motorist about accident black spots and mobile sites to make sure that each trip out on the motorway is the safest possible. It also helps keep motorists on track in badly lit areas where speed limits may not be legible by announcing the proper legal speed limit when a car is approaching a camera site.
In fact, the Novus Piccolo makes it hard to incur a traffic ticket unless you are aiming to get picked up by a speed camera, due to the fact that it countdowns to the speed camera on a large bright LED lit display, gives out timed warnings when approaching cameras, and issues a last minute over speed warning when your vehicle approaches the intersection where a speed camera is fixed.
For those who may be worried about the legalities of using such a device, the Novus Piccolo is a completely legal gadget that has a two year manufacturer’s warranty and automatic updates on a weekly basis so that you never travel unprotected while on the British roadways again.
Motorists are reducing their driving costs in an effort to reduce overall expenditures by using their car less, according to the RAC. The organization reports that many people are now choosing to own just one vehicle per family, or downsizing their personal vehicle.
The cost of motoring for the average Briton fell by about 5% in 2009 according to the RAC, which averages about to be about a £2.30 savings per week for motorists.
The RAC stated that the savings come from an average drop in fuel prices although it is hard to see the fall as fuel prices fluctuated widely throughout the year.
Since last year the RAC estimates that petrol prices fell overall by about ten percent. In particular, diesel fuel fell about 14%.
However, even though the price of petrol fell, the RAC found when it conducted a survey that most car owners still believed that the cost of owning a car had had actually increased, with 45% of those questioned stating they altered their motoring habits to adapt to the increase in costs.
Out of those who responded in this group, 20% said they switched to only using one car in the household, and another 25% stated that they now drove a smaller car.
The report showed that women were twice as likely to have chosen a smaller vehicle in the last year, which can save a motorist up to £750 a year depending on the difference in the downsize
A speed camera from the M11 in Essex has been blamed for a large amount of accidents, but the debate over the camera reaches farther than meets the eye since it also generates about half a million pounds per year.
Since the Essex camera was installed in 2000 causalities on the road have doubled and crashes have increased by about a quarter. While accidents are more common, the device is able to catch about 9,000 speeders per year which is enough to generate £500,000 annually.
Campaigners feel that the government refuses to take the camera down despite the high incident rate due to its earning potential.
The Information Commissioner forced the police to disclose the earnings for the camera from 2003 which shows that about 9,000 motorists a year are caught on tape.
By the year 2007 the number had dropped down to about 3,300 but it is expected that in 2009 the numbers increased again with the count up to May of this year reaching almost 6,500.
Five years before the camera was put in place on the M11 there were 14 casualties and 13 accidents along the stretch of the highway. Five years after its installation the figures increased to 16 accidents and 24 casualties.
The spot where the camera is placed is when the lanes narrow down to two from three and the speed limit decreases from 70mph to a low 50mph which the Highways Agency claims may account for the pattern of accidents in the area.
The cost of owning a vehicle that runs has risen by about 11% or about £250 in the past two years according to new data compiled by Sainsbury’s Finance.
The company estimates that that it now costs about £2,339 per year to run a car including insurance, servicing, tax, MOT, and fuel compared to the 2007 figure of £2,101. It is estimate that the price has increased about 3% in the last year.
Most of the increase cost is because of the rise in car insurance premiums, which has increased 15% since last year and approximately 24% in 2007.
After car insurance, the second largest increase in car ownership was tax, which has increased by about 7.5% over the last year.
Car insurance manager of Sainsbury, Bet Tyte, stated that although some costs of running a car have decreased over the past year when compared with figures from 2007, the cost of motoring still increased overall due to the rise in insurance premiums and road taxes.
Tyte recommended that the best way to find a car that fits into a tight budget is by shopping around and paying close attention to the average price of car servicing and insurance for a particular model before making a final purchase.
Interestingly enough, the data from the finance department at Sainsbury’s suggests that fuel has decreased in cost by about 1%. However, this good news is overcast by the fact that drivers are expected to have to pay up to five pounds per gallon this Christmas.
The auto show Top Gear makes its return this weekend, and can be said to have taken over the world since it now is seen in over 100 countries and has a global audience of about 350 million.
At the same time, Top Gear and its three hosts who push the envelope of what constitutes as an automobile are the most downloaded shows around the world.
Although it may be hard to explain the three middle aged auto journalists have become celebrities across the world as they take the show to cities, including Amsterdam, Cape Town, Sydney, and Hong Kong.
In fact, the three hosts, James May, Richard Hammond, and Jeremy Clarkson are so popular that even teenage girls and schoolboys rush to catch glimpses of the stars and public appearances, which make the three middle-aged hosts more respected than most pop stars that you think would appeal at that age.
At the same time that the show works based on corny outrageous skits that involve everything that can happen with vehicular stunts and a large budget, it also manages to have a small political slant due to the fact that it defies what the New Labour party creates as a nanny state.
In fact, a month hardly passes without Top Gear managing to raise controversy and the need for an Ofcom ruling on its potentially censored jokes. At the heart of most of the hearings are jokes pertaining to speeding, suicide, prostitution, and sexist claims by watchers.
Top Gear has been through many changes as it has aged with the viewing populations, but some of these changes may be what has made it such a pop sensation today.
Among the changes include the fact that it has a news section that takes care of business quickly, that it is filmed in an aircraft hanger with a live audience, and that the line-up is always male and almost always unfair and unreasonable, and never PC.
Nikolai Kesting and Abu-Haris Shafi from BSM declared that they intend to expand the business after completing a £10m buyout of the company from Arques Industries.
The men quickly took control of BSM when they took over just shortly after it was purchased from Arques.
They intend to hire about three thousand new driving instructors to help further extend the Bristol based business across Britain in just a two year period.
The only real problem is finding drivers, as Shafi stated that instructors are self-employed and people are wary in any economy about entering a career as a self-employed business person.
In fact, according to Shafi, since the recession the amount of pupils has not reduced, but instead the lack of instructors causing him to reduce the cost of training courses for those interested in becoming BSM driving instructors.
At the moment the BSM holds about 10% of the UK driving school market and the new owners hope to expand this number across the UK by reopening outlets that were previously closed by the former owners.
The men secured deals with Fiat and Barclays in February for car provisions over the next four years and now only need instructors to see their dream become a reality.
Kesting is formally the general manager of a subsidiary of Arques in Spain and Shafi is the former managing director of Auto Windscreens.
Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com compared more than six million quotes to find that men on average pay about £860 for auto insurance premiums while women only pay about £516 for their insurance premiums.
However, the largest difference in gender premiums appears in teenagers with an 18 year old female only paying about half of what an 18 male pays, which is a whopping £1,080 difference on average.
Teenage males however who drive for a few years are able to drop their average premiums from £2,300 to £1000 once they are age 20.
Head of the motor insurance company Steve Sweeney stated that men have always had to pay higher insurance premiums when compared to men, which are shown in the large differences in the study.
Most insurance companies see women as mature safer motorists; which is why their premiums cost less in general and also decrease quicker as a woman ages than premiums of men.
Sweeney went on to state that males will always find themselves forced to pay more for insurance, especially those who are younger because they considered to be a high insurance risk.
The age of an insured male motorist differs largely by age with a man in his twenties paying about £1,000 a year while a man in his thirties pays around £470.
While some may have noticed that there are more bright lights on the road, the average driver has no idea why it seems as if everyone has their high beams on.
Motorists are reducing their driving costs in an effort to reduce overall expenditures by using their car less, according to the RAC. The organization reports that many people are now choosing to own just one vehicle per family, or downsizing their personal vehicle.
A speed camera from the M11 in Essex has been blamed for a large amount of accidents, but the debate over the camera reaches farther than meets the eye since it also generates about half a million pounds per year.
The cost of owning a vehicle that runs has risen by about 11% or about £250 in the past two years according to new data compiled by 
Nikolai Kesting and Abu-Haris Shafi from BSM declared that they intend to expand the business after completing a £10m buyout of the company from Arques Industries.
Price comparison website