Archive for May, 2011
Continuous car insurance law comes into force
May 23rd
Do you have a classic car, or maybe a car you’re repairing, tucked away in a garage?
You may think that because it’s not on the road, you don’t need to insure it.
But, from today, you’d be wrong, as a new law called Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) takes effect – although it won’t be fully enforced until June 20 to allow time for an advertising campaign to raise public awareness.
The practical effect of the new law is that police will no longer have to wait to catch someone driving without cover – just owning a taxed vehicle without insurance cover in place is now an offence that could lead to a fine, court action or having your car seized and destroyed.
Clearly, the aim is to cut the number of uninsured drivers on the roads, and here’s why:
- Uninsured drivers kill 160 and injure a further 23,000 people each year
- They cost honest motorists £500 million in extra premiums
- About four per cent of vehicles (roughly 1.4 million) have no motor insurance at any given time
- Responsible motorists pays an average £30 each per year in premiums to cover crashes involving uninsured and untraced drivers.
So, unless you have declared your vehicle as being off the road (SORN), you will be sent a warning letter followed by a fixed penalty notice with a fine of £100 if no action is taken.
In extreme cases, the fine could jump to £1000 or your vehicle could be towed away and crushed.
Gerry Bucke, general manager of Adrian Flux Insurance Services, welcomed the new laws.
“In principle it should help cut down on the number of uninsured drivers on the roads, which can only be a good thing,” he added.
“But there is a danger that some honest motorists could be caught out, like owners of classic vehicles who only insure their cars for the summer or are carrying out restoration work while the vehicle is still taxed.”
Uninsured vehicles will be identified by checking the Motor Insurance Database (MID), a record of every vehicle insured, against the records of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
Any registered vehicle which shows up on the DVLA’s records but not the MID, about 1.4million of the UK’s 35 million registered vehicles, will be investigated.
So if your vehicle is off the road, make sure you either declare it as such, or make sure it has insurance cover.
All your CIE questions answered.
Sarah bags first podium of the season
May 19th
Sarah Bennett-Baggs grabbed her first podium finish of the season in her Adrian Flux sponsored BMW E46 M3 alongside racing partner Jensen Lunn.
The pair combined to take second overall in round three of the Britcar Production Championship at Donnington.
Sarah Bennett-Baggs grabs a podium finish
Mechanical problems had dogged the pair in the second round at Rockingham, but testing at Donnington went smoothly before qualifying on a wet but drying track.
Both drivers struggled for grip on slicks, with the pair forced to park the car because of tyre flat spots, leaving them to qualify in sixth out of nine in class, 29th out of a mixed grid of 39.
By Sunday, the weather was dry and sunny and Sarah climbed into third in class in the first hour after losing a couple of places early on. A flawless pit stop and driver change helped to secure their result, with Jensen moving into second in class and overall. The Mosler of Paul White and Calum Lockie also secured a second overall in the main Britcar GT race, giving Strata21 a double team podium result of the weekend.
Sarah said: “A great result for Strata21 to get two seconds in both the Britcar GTN and GT races, they thoroughly deserved it. Everyone has worked very hard in preparing the cars, thanks to all our back-up, especially our new radio man Andy Curtis and of course my superstar co-driver Jensen for keeping it all clean. We still have some time to come out of the car, so we are looking ahead now to see what we can achieve for the rest of the season.”
The duo are currently lying seventh overall in the championship standings and are back out at Thruxton for round four on June 11.
Is this the Coolest Car Configurator?
May 9th
Like any car fan, I love having a play around with car configurators. These days manufacturers go to great lengths to make them stand out from the crowd, using cool animations, 3D viewing tools and cheeky gimmicks to make them stand out from the crowd.
Range Rover have been trying extra hard with the marketing push for their new Countryman-esque Evoque model. We previously covered their crowd-sourced effort, and now they have created a car configurator that builds your perfect car in tandem with your answers to a seemingly unrelated Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style set of videos.
The production values are very high, resulting in a film that is visually stunning, but I guess only users will decide if configuring a car by choosing nail polish is the way forward.
You start here:
And, yes, that is the bloke from The Wire…
Play on at www.helloevoque.com/beinghenry
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