Leading insurance companies have warned motorists of the importance of having the right insurance.
According to a poll released in the past few days by Marks & Spencer (M&S) shows that nearly 60% of all drivers in the UK have fallen victim to car crime.
Meaning that a fully protective policy is vital for anyone that is looking for insurance, which isn’t a problem but it seems a lot of drivers are putting this area of their insurance at risk.
Almost 60% of drivers admitted in the anonymous survey that they do not activate their vehicle’s alarm when it is left parked up.
Andrew Ferguson, M&S head of general Insurance said:
"It’s important to make sure the vehicle is secure when unattended."
The RSA Insurance group have recently announced the UK’s first online insurance service, RSA customers can now add cover options to their accounts without having to phone a call centre.
The company believe that as the policy is only available online it will help keep premium costs down to a minimum.
Head of RSA Insurance Keith Maxwell said:
RSA eChoice is all about empowering the customer to take complete control of their insurance. Our customers want to be able to pick and mix their covers, rather than buying an off-the-shelf package as traditionally provided by insurers.”
Volkswagen today completed its takeover of Italian design consultants Italdesign with an overall majority share of 90.1%.
The acquisition now officially makes the VW group the largest car manufacturers in Europe and Italdesign seem happy to be under this umbrella commenting:
“Italdesign has now become a permanent member of the Volkswagen Group. Given the full order books and numerous interesting projects, the perspectives are better than ever.”
The Italian company have been in business for over 50 years and pride themselves on having designed some of Italy’s iconic exports such as the Fiat Punto and the Alfa Romeo 156. Other clients of the company include Volkswagen where Italdesign were responsible for the Passat and Sicrocco.
The remaining 9.9% of shares have stayed with the founding family the Giugiaro’s who will stay on as directors of the company.
No details have been released yet as to whether the IDG would work exclusively for VW or carry on in its contracting business.
A unique Audi A1 painted by Britain’s number one contemporary artist Damien Hirst fetched around £350,000 at auction last month.
The car which was the centre piece at Sir Elton John’s White Tie & Tiara Ball was sold to raise money for John’s AIDS Foundation and close to 700 VIP guests were there when the car was out to auction.
The A1 which Hirst painted in a spin technique will not actually be available to UK customers until November 2010 and is being billed by the German firm as a premium compact hatchback. Hirst was specifically commissioned by the car company to paint this one-off model.
Sir Elton John commented on the vehicle saying:
“That’s the most exciting object we’ve ever had on auction at the White Tie.”
Audi have built up the latest addition to their fleet in a big way, many early reviewers have already described the car as being competition to the Fiat 500 and Mini and will enter the market at around £15,000.
The ‘Bio-Bug’ is a custom adapted Volkswagen Beetle that runs on biogas created from human waste.
The concept isn’t brand new but this will be the first of its kind in the UK to run fully on the electric alternative.
Experts believe that the power produced by biogas is enough to outdo electric second to none, and users of the Beetle have the choice between bio material and standard petrol or once one runs out the driver can convert to the other.
The vehicle itself is a standard 2.0 litre Beetle and experts are reckoning that one sewage plant could run a fleet of the vehicles over 95,000,000 miles a year and that consumer’s will not even notice the difference between a regular Beetle and the modified edition.
Developed by GENeco, a UK based sustainable energy and a subsidy of Wessex Water for its company car fleet it plans on trailing the vehicles for a set period of time before converting all of its cars if successful.
Mohammed Saddiq of the sustainable energy firm said:
“Previously the gas hasn’t been clean enough to fuel motor vehicles without it affecting performance,”
Adding:
“Using the latest technology our Bio-Bug drives like any conventional car and what’s more it uses sustainable fuel.”
The fuel conversion rates for the vehicle are impressive averaging 5.3 miles per cubic metre of biogas and around 18 million cubic metres of the materials needed are refined at Wessex Water’s treatment plant in Bristol.
Lord Rupert Redesdale, Chairman of the Biogas Association said:
“This is a very exciting and forward-thinking project demonstrating the myriad benefits of anaerobic digestion.”
