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.
Volkswagen today confirmed that they would be taking over the leasing contract for dishwasher suppliers Winterhalter.
The German company announced they would be supplying 47 vehicles to the company including Caddy Maxi, Transporter and Crafter vans.
Winterhalter designs and manufactures commercial dishwashing systems for catering and hospitality businesses, it will use the vans as part of its national service operation network.
Jason Mackay, Operations Director for Winterhalter said:
We operate a 96% first time fix service for our customers so vehicle reliability was very important in out purchasing decision.”
Adding:
“As a UK based German manufacturer we were pleased to find a German van brand that could meet our standards.”
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Volkswagen has added a further three award to its BlueMotion range at the What? Car Green Awards this week.
The Golf BlueMotion was named best Green Small Family Car and also beat eight other winners to win the night’s biggest prize of Green Car of the Year.
Steve Fowler, Editor of What? Car said:
“The Golf is a well deserved award winner: carbon dioxide emissions are a paltry 99 g/km making it exempt from road tax and its average fuel economy is 74.3 mpg. So, as well as being impressively green, the Golf is classy, well made, practical, safe, brilliant to drive and an affordable long-term investment. There surely aren’t many other virtues you need?”
Head of Chassis development Dr Stefan Gies collected the award for Volkswagen and said:
“Ever since the first BlueMotion model was launched in 2007 our strategy for this environmental sub-brand has been to produce class-leading vehicles which are efficient, sustainable, practical, comfortable and competitively priced. This is what our customers want and all these values are encapsulated in the Golf.”
The Golf BlueMotion runs a 1.6 TDI common rail engine and gives its environmental and economic savings through new innovations such as Start/Stop and a configuration that accounts for battery regeneration.
The awards come on the back of the car winning Green Car of the Year award at the 2010 World Car of the Year awards.
The vehicle is a fantastic option for business owners or people wanting to lease a car for business purposes as its low running costs and trademark Volkswagen reliability mean less money spent on your side.
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The 2011 Audi A8 will be the first car in the world to offer a wireless network to owners, giving users an internet connection whilst they travel.
The system which comes as an optional extra has not been given a price by Audi as of yet but if rivals Citroen’s wifi offering is anything to go buy it should be around £500.
Passengers in both the front and rear of the car can access the service which works in two ways. The first has the driver insert a data capable sim card into the Bluetooth online car phone to activate the network or a connection can be created via Bluetooth with a mobile which also contains a valid data sim.
Audi have said the users can expect speeds of around 7.2Mbit/s and that it is highly capable to use for checking emails, browsing the internet and downloading the latest applications.
Critics have said that the system is just redistributing a 3g signal wirelessly so if all the passengers have 3G phones or connections then the wireless would not be ant improvement, if anything it would make it worse.
But the connection is not just limited to passengers, the A8 uses the connection to get real time traffic updates and implements them into its satellite navigation system. Audi are also looking at trying to integrate Google Maps into the system allowing for detailed street views of locations and destinations.
Another feature, which is already preset is an information point integration. For example if you drive past a landmark that could be of some interest the system will alert you and pull up information about the location from info services such as Wikipedia, the information can also be broadcast on the entertainment screens in the rear of the vehicle for passengers to see.
Last when I was driving my 1996 LT 35 petrol, with full speed. I could enjoy it the most and that was the thing that made me think about this vehicle again and again. Soon the rear back light of my car was not in working condition and I had to think about places that could help me get with the parts of the Volkswagen LD 35 rear back lights. As I wanted the parts to be reinstalled in same way so that no one could recognize that we had to change any part. I have had heard about the carsparefinder and soon when I got in to this situation, I just thought of contacting them personally. The carsparefinder people really helped me with everything that they could. They organized the real rear back lights for me and this was helpful for me.
They are there with largest range of car lights and even with the styles of rear lights. They offer you great savings even when you order the most new ones. Whether you want ABS style Lexus style rear lights or any other, you will be having good help from these. The carsparefinder supply you with rear lights and car indicators and also growing range of angel eyes headlights for all of the cars. Whether you want to change the spare parts of any of your car in UK, you can get to them and they provide you with bets products and services. I needed one for my Volkswagen and if you need for Audi, you will surely get rear back light of any of this. These rear light also acts as a great safety functioning valve for you and this is the reason that you should get it repaired as soon as you get it damaged. When I used to see many people driving away without any rear lights in their car then I used to feel that I should ask them to get it from good spare parts company. And the best place to get it done correctly is carsparefinder. This has got some of the top model rear lights with such a great view that you would love its spare parts. Many people neglect these facts as these bulbs are neglected by them most of the time.
Carsparefinder will help you to replace and find one of the good rear light that will help you replace your damaged car light within few seconds. I have found greatest help with the real light parts in carsparefinder and there are good styles of rear light available to you in market and you can get all models of UK cars in this carsparefinder. So get accustomed to it and treat your car as the new model that you bought just from the showroom.
Audi will be introducing a revolutionary safety system in 2011 in a bid to try and curb rising misfuelling incidents.
Over 150,00 people in the UK accidently fuel their car with petrol instead of diesel every year, but Audi hope to stop this with their new preventative system built into the fuel filler neck of cars. The neck, which has been redesigned to incorporate contact points that only open the fuel tank when the larger diesel nozzle is pressed against them is expected to be introduced in the 2011 ranges of the A4, A5 and Q5 TDI models.
This is sure to be a relief to drivers prone to a lack of concentration when stood at the pump as misfuelling is a costly error. Estimates for repair can vary from £300 to a massive £8000 depending on the vehicle and if it has been driven or not since the refuelling also companies such as the AA and RAC will not cover you for misfuelling.
Audi believe one of the reasons behind misfuelling, which averages one every three and a half minutes is the advances in diesel technology saying:
“Thanks to high pressure common rail injection technology, Diesel powered vehicles operate very nearly as smoothly and quietly as their petrol counterparts.”
The company also suggest that the new system will be of huge benefit to fleet owners and people who are just making the switch from a petrol fuelled car. They also predict that this will not be a one-off addition to productions adding:
“The newly equipped models in the A4, A5 and Q5 family will be joined by further Audi models in the near future as the system is gradually rolled out.”
The A4 is Audis answer to the BMW 3 series. It is comfortable, a little bit sporty and is quite well suited to cruising the freeway/motorway/autobahn There does appear to be a problem though as many A4 owners have complained of an Audi A4 ignition coil problem.
Audi A4 car owners complain of tarry burning smell just after starting the engine. The Audi engine control unit (ECU) engine management light comes on and the car loses power. RAC breakdown recovery mechanics say that they often come across this problem. Audi VW Group all over the world have been suffering from this problem. The company had discovered a fault with its ignition coils leading to their failure. Audi issued a recall notice and replaced the coils of many customers’ vehicles. Although the problem has now been long rectified, some customers where not happy. One customer, Buzios commented; What annoyed me most at the time was that Audi knew about this problem but were not telling customers. Also they were only replacing failed coils so many people broke down several times as each coil failed in turn. Owners of today’s modern Audi A4 will be relieved to know that this problem only affected 2001/2002 models. If you have an A4 manufactured with in those dates then you may be affected. You may wish to contact the VW Audi group in the UK. and to keep in contact with the VW Audi Group Owners Club Forum
The Audi TT received great reviews upon its unveiling. Very modern looking and at the cutting edge of style, Jeremy Clarkson in describing it said “it’s all form and no function” and “a hair scrunchie for men”.
Now that the TT has been around for a few years. How is it fairing in the reliability stakes. Have any problems surfaced?
There are no huge problems, but nothing is perfect. The first problem is minor. If the radio and rear screen de-fogger are used at the same time, you may hear a whining noise from the speakers.
Some cars may suffer a coolant leak. This comes form the Thermostat housing and is usually down to a bad O-ring.
The Engine noise may make a funny noise. It can howl or groan due to a problem with the pressure system.
Some TTs have problems Idling. Dirty throttle bores, faulty plugs and dislodged idle control dampers may cause rough idling
The Quattro Models are being fitted with front and rear stabilizers to improve handling
