car insurance advice « MotorQuoteDirect

Posts Tagged ‘car insurance advice’

Insuring an electric car

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Insuring an EV (electric vehicle) is similar to insuring a regular vehicle and once a customer has picked an insurance company to cover their electric vehicle, they will then have to pick which policy is best suited. There are still some challenges and benefits involved when insuring an electric vehicle and it is important to make an informed policy choice.

When it comes to insuring the vehicle it should be remembered that electric vehicles are still fairly new to the automotive market and will require specialized parts, not to mention specially trained mechanics who can properly repair them after an accident or breakdown. This means parts will often not be readily available locally and will need to be ordered. Additionally, the specialized mechanics will cost more money as well and this will all need to be considered by insurance companies. Generally, electric vehicles are bought primarily by drivers who wish to do something about the environment and not because of the cost, so the extra costs involved in insuring the vehicle do not come into the equation. However, knowing that repairs will be more expensive than many gas vehicles allows a buyer to make a much more informed decision.

At the moment the vast majority of people still get a motor insurance quote for a petrol or diesel vehicle. However this is likely to change in years to come as electric models become more popular. The Government currently offer grants of up to £5,000 for everyone who buys an electric car, but they are still a lot more expensive than many similar diesel vehicles. It is worth getting quotes for cover before purchasing the vehicle and remember that electric vehicles are not liable to road tax or the congestion charge in London.

Some electric car owners lease the battery that powers the vehicle and some insures feel that this makes insurance cover more complicated. Anyone leasing the battery needs to make that clear to the insurance company before getting a motor insurance quote. Anyone in this situation should make it very clear to the insurer before purchasing insurance. The battery is normally the most expensive part of the car so the insurance needs to be correct, otherwise the driver may be liable after an incident. Electric vehicles are cheaper to run but most will travel only 40-70 miles before needing a recharge. The Coalition Government are subsidising the roll out of extra charging points across a number of United Kingdom cities, making it easier to use an electric vehicle.

Tags: Car Insurance, car insurance advice, electric car
Posted in Car Insurance | No Comments »

Motorists promised a review of bad weather planning… again

Monday, December 6th, 2010

As the winter weather plays havoc with motorists best laid plans in the UK, questions are being asked about the Highways Agency and if it is up to the job. Many car drivers will be asking why the question hasn’t been brought up before.

Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, has announced an urgent review into how the varying transport authorities are coping with the unseasonal snow and early indications would suggest they are hardly coping at all. He said in one interview that urgent action had been taken in the summer to make sure the government agencies were better prepared for severe weather this winter, including a national salt and grit reserve. It would appear to have made little difference.

Weather forecasters have certainly done their bit as they have broadly pinpointed the areas where the snow would fall and when. However, this seems to be making very little difference to how the authorities in those areas cope. Seven days into this cold snap, airports at Dundee, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Teeside, Gatwick and Southampton are closed. In the case of Southampton warnings from the met office clearly indicated the area would get snow 48 hours before it fell and yet any plans made were obviously insufficient. Southern rail who would have had the same warnings have closed their network down as well.

It is, however, the poor motorist who once more bears the brunt of the bad weather. Of course there is no excuse for motorists going out in bad weather when they have been warned that snow is imminent and their journey isn’t urgent, but is there any justification that motorists should be stuck in their vehicles for two nights in an area of the country where two main road arteries dissect the region. This has happened on the major trunk road that is the A57 in South Yorkshire.

It certainly makes a mockery of any driver car insurance if no-one can actually get in the car and how many car drivers have turned to their breakdown insurance in the last 7 days to find that they can’t get through.

It is for sure that many frustrated travellers will await the review with interest. Whether they can take any notice of the outcome will be a different matter altogether.

Tags: Car Insurance, car insurance advice, Motor insurance
Posted in Advice, Car Insurance, Car Safety | No Comments »

Councils look to raise parking fines as motorists take a chance

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

It seems that motorists just don’t get any respite in avoiding increased charges for all things related to driving.

Hot on the heels of the latest government induced levy on petrol prices and the disclosure from insurance sources that a motor insurance quote has raised by about 40% over the last 12 months, local authorities across the land are now calling for an increase in parking fines. The British Parking Association (BPA) is standing side by side with the councils over the issue as they start to pressure the government to increase the maximum fine available to them.

The Councils and BPA are looking to get permission from the government to enable them to hike the maximum parking fine from the present limit of £70 to match that in London, which is currently £120.

Surely this is just about local authorities looking to raise much needed funds to ease the severe financial brought upon them by the austerity measures imposed by the Government Spending Review last month. Apparently that is not the case. In many towns and cities in the UK lots of motorists are taking a chance on not buying a ticket because the differential on parking for the day and paying the fine is not that much different.

The situation in Cambridge illustrates the point. To park in a council owned car park for the day costs £23. Well that is not an amount to be sneezed at, will be the opinion of most motorists and that is indeed the opinion of many motorists in the City. Instead of buying a ticket they are taking a chance on illegally parking and not getting caught. If they do get caught then the £50 fine is halved if it is paid immediately leaving them just £2 out of pocket.

Many motoring organisations although not happy about any increases in the cost motoring are making the point that law abiding motorists will not be affected at all by this. The same point was made by a spokesman for the Transport Ministry who said that although no decision had yet been taken on the matter, the government was listening to the councils and BPA but were mindful of the rights of motorists.

Tags: car insurance advice, Motor insurance, parking fines
Posted in Advice, Car Insurance | No Comments »

Jazz makes all the right noises

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

The Honda Jazz is a bit of a conundrum really. Often placed by dealers and motoring journalists into the super mini class, the Jazz isn’t really comfortable in there. Most of the superminis concentrate on style and speed. The Jazz is neither stylish nor speedy, it’s different, but then again what can you expect from Honda, never a company to play follow the leader, they have created something a bit special with the Jazz.

Honda has delivered a compact exterior design with a deceptively spacious interior, this is exacerbated by the panoramic window available with models at the top of the range, and it gives one the feeling of being in a cockpit. Although the panoramic roof window can’t be opened it can be shaded, handy on the way back from the supermarket for instance.

Perhaps the greatest innovation of all though is the seat design. Honda call them magic seats and that is an apt description. With the gentlest pull on a lever, the back seats flip up giving enough space to place something as big as a bicycle in the car, the space could be very handy for visits to the garden centre as well. Need a bit more space? Then a lever will fold the rear seats completely to the floor, and no need to remove the headrests first. Given that the passenger seat can be folded as well, the Jazz could easily be used as a van, items up to 2.4 metres in length can be accommodated.

It is on fuel consumption that the Jazz definitely differs from other super minis. Instead of the oomph in the first few seconds of motoring, Honda have delivered a vehicle that has an average urban performance of 42.3 mpg, open road driving gives slightly over 60mpg with a combined cycle of 52.2. It has a top speed of around 112 mph and achieves 0-62 mph in around 12 seconds.

The Jazz does not come with a spare wheel, instead there is a compressor which will repair a flat long enough to get to a garage, although the boot has been designed in such a way that a spare can fitted in there.

There is no need to ever get hungry or thirsty in a Jazz. It has a refrigerated glove compartment, very handy for sandwiches and ,believe it or not 10 cup holders situated around the car.

There are only six models in the range, the S, SE,S-T, SI, ES, and EX and they are available in six different colours; Milano Red, Storm Silver, Crystal Black, Cerulean Blue, Alabaster Silver, Deep Sapphire Blue.

All in all the Jazz is definitely a car worth getting a motor insurance quote on.

Tags: Car Insurance, car insurance advice
Posted in Car Insurance | No Comments »

Future of cars is changing

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Back in the 1980s Knight Rider, a television show from the USA, starred a black Pontiac Trans called K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) the car could talk, drive itself and also get its human driver out of any predicament using its onboard computer. At the time, it seemed having a car like this was just fantasy some might say it was even laughable. Yet today in 2010, this once futuristic car is becoming reality or very close to it, anyway. Currently four vehicles are slowly making their way from Italy to China driven by instructions from a satellite. If a car does come out that can drive itself, it will bring a whole new meaning to any driver car insurance when contacting a company for a motor insurance quote.

Some of the technology is already here and ready to use while other advances will need further research to iron out the current flaws. Today, several technologies are competing to eventually replace the current dependence on fossil fuels, accepted now as environmentally unfriendly and the truth is that they will eventually run out. Bio diesel and ethanol, both renewable fuels have made significant steps on the premise that we can always grow more. But both of these are causing controversy. A debate is starting to brew about the ethics and science of using crops to make fuel rather than food.

Everyone should have heard of a hybrid car and some will already be driving one. Hybrid vehicles combine a traditional engine but with an electric motor which delivers increased fuel efficiency and are the first stepping stone of the new technology. Hybrids will be around for some time to come, even when the all electric cars come to dominate the roads. Many of the cars made in the 21^st century last much longer than those of 10 or 20 years ago, and they will continue to need the support of the petrol filling stations. Today, all electric cars are the Holy Grail of clean transportation that all manufacturers are looking for. This is because they produce zero direct emissions. What is even more crucial about electric cars is that they have the potential to be completely none polluting by making it possible to recharge them with emission free solar or even wind energy. A lot of manufacturers are bringing out electric cars in the near future and eventually they will outnumber petrol vehicles.

Tags: Car Insurance, car insurance advice, future of cars
Posted in Car Insurance, Car Types, Cheap Car Insurance | No Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘car insurance advice’

Insuring an electric car

Motorists promised a review of bad weather planning… again

Councils look to raise parking fines as motorists take a chance

Jazz makes all the right noises

Future of cars is changing

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives