Car body art is growing in popularity in the UK.
 
The younger generation of drivers tend to be those most likely to modify their cars and get fancy paint jobs such as those that change colour when you look at it from different angles.

Youngsters wanting to fit the modern vinyl graphics to their cars can now even make the modifications themselves with the help of websites such as Auto Body Art™  and Decal Creations which offers installation guidance and answers to some of the questions you may have.

Generally, the graphics are simple to install, easy to remove and do not damage the paintwork on removal.

There are some really exciting designs out there from top British designers which will really catch the eye.

It is important to remember however that in order to ensure that you do not invalidate your insurance cover, make sure you inform your insurance company what you have done. Don’t try and second guess them – some insurers may decide it affects your policy and add something to your premium, others may not! It will depend on what you have done.

You have just spent a lot of time and effort to get your car looking “top of the shop” and “red hot” - don’t take the risk of invalidating your insurance and cover by failing to notify your insurer what you have done and risk convictions if stopped by the police.

In a previous article I touched on the concept of “Pay-as-You-Go” Car Insurance.

Well, drivers in one part of America, Louisiana to be precise, can now actually reap the benefits!

US Insurance Company, Progressive have launched their unique “Pay-as-You-Go” style car insurance policy.

The program works using a “MyRate” device which is small enough to fit in a person’s hand and can be fitted to a car in seconds. You simply plug it in and away you go!

The device does the rest for you, and could hopefully help bring what feels like, excessive car insurance premiums down to more reasonable levels.

There are of course, conditions attached in order to achieve significant savings (or indeed any saving at all!)

The kind of drivers that could realise benefit are:-

• People driving low mileage annually
• Households with more vehicles than drivers
• Drivers who drive economically and not much during peak times
• People who Car Share on regular/frequent journeys
• People who only use their cars occasionally

The device will monitor individuals’ driving habits, frequency, the time of day the vehicle is used and will also report heavy braking and acceleration.

The better the driving habits reported, the lower the premium.
  
I must reserve judgement at this stage whether it is a good or bad idea but can’t wait it to be launched in the UK and see more information about what driving habits will lower the premium, and by how much!

Luke McCormick, 25 years old and with a promising professional footballing career ahead of him as a goalkeeper with Plymouth Argyle was jailed for seven years and four months on 06 October for killing two young boys in a car accident shortly before 5.45am on June 7.

Arron & Ben Peak were on their way to Silverstone racetrack for a day out with their father, Phil, and three friends when Luke McCormick ploughed into their car in his Range Rover.

Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper McCormick, was found to be more than twice over the drink drive limit at the time of the accident and admitted both, causing death by dangerous driving, and driving with excess alcohol in his bloodstream when appearing in the Crown Court at Stoke-on-Trent.

The court heard that McCormick kept his head bowed and covered his face and told  eyewitnesses at the scene: “I am so sorry, I’m sorry. I just fell asleep. I fell asleep, I’m sorry.”

McCormick was also disqualified from driving for four years for the conviction of causing death by dangerous driving and received a two year driving ban for the drink driving offence.

His contract with Argyle was cancelled by “mutual consent” a month after the crash.

The court heard that McCormick sobbed “uncontrollably” at the police station after his arrest and has become introverted and suffered from nightmares and flashbacks of the crash.

The verdict will finish his professional footballing career in the upper echelons of our most popular sport but that is little recompense for Arron and Ben’s family who said:

“We are pleased that at last Luke McCormick decided to face up to the fact he has caused the deaths of Arron and Ben. However, we are disappointed to discover that he will be eligible for parole after only three and a half years. In court his barrister spoke of the effect this case has had on Luke. We find this offensive. He will restart his life when he is still a young man. Our sons will never experience the things Luke has had”.

They also said:

“Phil will carry the scars of the incident for life. We will both carry the emotional scars forever.”

Brake, the National Road Safety Charity, established with the aim of preventing road accidents through education and campaigns, and supporting those people bereaved or seriously injured in road accidents have published details of this year’s Road Safety Week which is to take place on 10 – 16 November.

With support from companies such as KwikFit Insurance, DHL and the Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS), Brake, founders and organisers of the annual event, is striving to stimulate community involvement in promoting road safety awareness throughout the year.

Whilst parents, community leaders, companies, schools and road safety professionals can do anything they want to promote road safety throughout the week as long as it is aimed at saving lives on our roads, the main campaign for this year is to focus on ‘Family Safety - Protect the Ones you Love’.

Whatever you choose as your theme and activity for the week, the important thing is to do something, and, ideally, help Brake raise funds for families bereaved by road crashes.

Taking part can be fun as well as life-saving.

If you would like to know more about this year’s Road Safety Awareness Week or even take part, and would like to let them know what you are planning to do, why not visit the Road Safety Awareness Week website.

You can even order materials to help you promote Road Safety Week, so get planning!

Motoring Safety Charity, “Brake” have stated that drivers and authorities need to adopt a “zero tolerance” attitude towards risk-taking on our roads.

Brake is a road safety charity (registered charity no 1093244) with two aims - preventing road crashes through education and campaigns, and supporting people bereaved or seriously injured in road crashes.

Whilst Brake have noted the latest Department of Transport statistics showing that the Government is on target to meet its 2010 injury  reduction targets, it has also noted a “shameful link” between deprivation and road deaths.

People living in the ten per cent, most deprived areas of England are almost one-and-a-half times more likely to sustain an injury or be killed on the roads than those in more affluent areas.

Child pedestrians are most at risk with ttraffic being the biggest killer of 15-19 year-olds, and the second biggest killer of children aged 5-14 (second only to cancer).

On any given week in the UK, 53 children are killed equating to more than 7 every day.

Deputy chief executive of Brake, Cathy Keeler comments:

“While the statistics show the government is back on track to meet its casualty reduction targets for 2010, there cannot be any room for complacency… It’s time we adopted a zero tolerance approach to risk-taking on roads.”

Whether car insurance comparison websites are good or misleading makes only a small difference in my opinion.

For the experienced, knowledgeable customer they offer a quick route to the many insurance companies out there offering vehicle cover throughout the UK.

For the inexperienced, they offer details of cover offered by insurers in a relatively straightforward and easy to understand way.

 
Publicity surrounding these sites has brought them back to the fore in recent months with composite insurer, Norwich Union, joining fellow insurers such as Direct Line, and withdrawing from these internet price comparison websites.

With each site offering significantly varied premiums for the same vehicle, UK watchdog consumer associations declare that these sites are failing to provide the cheapest car insurance quotes, car loans or other financial services.

Internet price comparison websites such as Moneysupermarket.com, Tescocompare.com and Confused.com will provide varying results for similar search queries for car insurance, car loans and other financial services.

With this in mind, whilst there is clearly a place out there for price comparison websites, do not simply accept that any particular one offers the best available premium for your vehicle.

Use the information on their sites as a guide and try a few of those insurers/car insurance providers that are not mentioned on the price comparison websites before making a final decision.

I know I did and found my premium dropping from £212 to £136 for the same cover, with the same insurance company via another site at my last renewal.

Norwich Union call it “fronting”, other insurers may describe it differently, but the outcome is the always the same - and it’s not just money at stake here!

There are reputations and lives at risk if you permit say, a young driver to drive a vehicle which is not suited to their driving skills and/or experience.

Although fronting has largely been in connection with cars until now, vans are becoming increasingly popular amongst young people for the extra space they provide for their hobbies and sports equipment etc.

Directors and company owners are running a risk whenever they permit anyone not connected to their business to drive their company vehicles.

Permitting family members or friends who have no connection with your business to drive vehicles insured under that company’s policy may seem a way around those sky high insurance premiums for younger drivers and doing them a big favour but it will in fact invalidate your policy!

In the event of an accident, the company will, in all likelihood, be left to foot, not only the bill for damage to it’s vehicle, but could find themselves on the receiving end of a hefty liabiility claim from their insurer.

Whilst, the Road Traffic Act makes the insurer responsible for meeting Third Party costs,  if they subsequently invalidate the policy, they will probably seek reimbursement of their costs in connection with the accident from the company (or person) named as the policyholder!!

If you are a company owner or director, please ensure you declare all drivers and usage of vehicles when effecting your fleet policies, and equally ensure you fully understand the extent of your vehicle cover.

It’s simply not worth taking the risk!

We have all probably seen posters/signs around the country advertising Car Share initiatives but do not necessarily take the trouble to actually find out about the schemes available.

If you want to save money on fuel costs and make a contribution to reducing car emmisions? – it’s worth looking into.

National Car Share is the longest established car sharing scheme operating across the UK, but most counties are covered by more localised schemes.

Everyone benefits, yourself, your family, your community and the environment. You save money on running costs, you save time looking for parking spaces and you help to save the planet by reducing your carbon footprint. Those normally driving to work on their own also get some company for part or all of the journey to work.

Some employers such as hospitals, may even operate their own scheme or offer  reduced parking fees for people sharing journeys.
Sharing just one journey per week would reduce commuting car journeys by 20%!

With money as tight as it is for most at the moment, there is no better time to consider something like this and interest is increasing as more and more people acknowledge the benefits of the concept.

It is possible you will share the fuel costs and whilst car insurance policies do not usually include cover whilst your vehicle is being used for “hire or reward”, most insurers are flexible when it comes to people using their cars to share journeys so make sure you contact your insurer before joining car sharing initiatives to verify you are covered when taking other people to work or wherever under such schemes.

As a final point, think security, make sure you feel safe or comfortable with your passenger, “if in doubt, leave it out” , find someone else to share with!

The number of children travelling to school by car has doubled over the last couple of decades with one out of every five cars are currently doing the “school run” during rush hour.

Thinking of children’s safety, a responsible approach by parents/guardians, but with almost 70% of these children actually living within a two mile radius of their school, why do some people continue to drive them to school?

Everyone could do themselves a favour and walk them to school, helping both the parents and children burn off a few more calories and save some petrol costs at the same time.

Recent research by uSwitch.com revealed that motorists are now starting to respond to the ever increasing motoring costs by changing their driving habits.

Their research revealed that 27% of people have now stopped using their car to take their children to school and 55% have cut back on the number of journeys they make in their car.

The Government have been attempting to get everyone to reduce their carbon emissions and encouraging us to try alternative methods of travel without a great deal of success. The financial pressures caused by the current credit crunch however seems to be achieving just that, with 11% now part of car sharing schemes and 54% driving more economically.

This change bodes well when it comes to renewal of insurances however, as insurers consider annual mileage when assessing premiums. Couple this with the fact that statistically more accidents happen on shorter trips, you could be saving yourself £’s at renewal time.

Personalised registration plates are continually growing in popularity.

So much so that during a 3 day auction held recently, they managed to sell more than £3million worth of number plates, some of which could only be loosely termed “personalised”.

With buyers having to pay a further 25% on top of the auction prices to cover VAT and fees, it is clearly a popular trend and worth the DVLA doing it.

Most of these plates need a little imagination and perhaps daring, to be displayed in the intended format. AHM 5D (AHMED) and ARA 814N (ARABIAN) went to telephone and internet bidders for £6,000 and £3,000 respectively. The most valuable sale was the registration number 6 B which sold for £102,200.

Whilst a clever way to make money, the DVLA have taken some stick over this kind of activity as it is illegal to alter registration numbers and those caught can face up to £1,000 fines.

Even more hypocritical is the fact that earlier this year the DVLA and police forces launched an initiative against those driving around with modified plates because some motorists used them to dodge speed traps and the London Congestion Charge.

Income so far this year is £87million, with the DVLA keeping £14million to cover the costs of the sales.

A DVLA spokesman said:

‘Our scheme is very popular and generates revenue that is able to be spent on other Government services”.

To be fair, in my opinion, these number plates should be available just like any other, and should not attract increased costs!

The DVLA and the Government are making money off the back of  this and any money to be made should be with the individual. Car owners have to pay the government for the privilege of purchasing a number plate, why should we have to pay again?

It wouldn’t be any surprise to see the next generation of number plates being designed more adaptable for personalisation in some way to increase their coffers even more!!