Car Chute

Published on Tuesday 7 February 2012 09:21

An independent survey amongst over 1,000 motorists carried out by car insurance provider Hastings Direct has revealed the extent to which motorists are changing their driving habits due to the rising cost of motoring.

At the turn of the century petrol prices were about 77p per litre – they have nearly doubled in just 11 years and the trend is set to continue.

The Hastings Direct survey asked motorists what they would do at key future price points for petrol.

One in five drivers will give up their car completely if petrol hits £2 per litre, whilst more than one in ten (12 per cent) will buy a hybrid or electric car at this price point.

67 per cent of drivers currently use their car mainly for social use. When asked at what petrol price point drivers would stop using their car socially – over one in three (35 per cent) will at £1.50 per litre, one in five (20 per cent) at £1.60 and at £1.70, 18 per cent.

The rising cost of motoring has already hit drivers significantly in the last 12 months. Over three quarters (78 per cent) say that the rising costs have affected how frequently they drive including one percent who has given up their cars completely.

Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) have generally cut down on using the car – nearly half (49 per cent) have cut back at least 25 miles each week, nearly a third (32 per cent) by 50 miles per week and over seven per cent by in excess of 100 miles a week.

When asked how likely their next car was to be a hybrid or electric car nearly one in three (31 per cent) said it would – and six per cent said they would definitely buy an alternative powered car.

Managing directorTobias van der Meer said: “Our survey clearly shows the pressure motorists are feeling on their finances.

“Taking the right actions – reducing mileage and driving safely – can help motorists cut the cost of their insurance and their fuel bills, but ultimately motorists cannot and will not keep be able to keep on paying higher and higher petrol prices.”

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Ferrari Formual One drivers Fernando Alonso, on the left, and Felipe Massa at a wintry Fiorano with one of the specially customised Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8′s.

The unlikely marriage of Fiat and Chrysler has resulted in some strange offspring – but these two must be among the most off-beat.

Two examples of the new Grand Cherokee SRT8, which Chrysler says is the most powerful production Jeep yet built, have been customised in Ferrari colours and presented to Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Talk about making an entrance – each is the visual equivalent of an air-raid siren, with special SRT styling in Ferrari’s unmissable Rosso Corsa, embellished with classic Ferrari styling cues.

The traditional seven-slot Jeep grille is finished in matte black with special red inserts, while an offset “go-fast stripe” in black with a white edge accent runs right over the top (pun intended) from the front bumper and bonnet to the roof and rear spoiler.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

Add to that a gloss black rear light bar with red accents on the Jeep logo, a matt black painted dual-pane sunroof, carbon-fibre mirror housings and red, white and green stripes (no, we’re not kidding; we couldn’t make this stuff up) on the underside of the rear spoiler.

You can hardly give Fernando Alonso a new 344kW all-wheel drive toy and expect him not to go out and play in the snow.

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Ride height has been lowered 38mm and the Cherokerrari’s run on gloss black, 20” forged-aluminium rims.

The interior of each car is trimmed in leather with Ferrari red inserts in the sculpted bolsters of the sports seats, the door trim panels and the instrument panel; even thre black leather-trimmed steering wheel has red contrast stitching, while the dials have yellow faces, just like those quirky little sports cars they make in Maranello.

NUTS AND BOLTS

These two special Jeeps are based on the 2012 Grand Cherokee SRT8 model, due to debut in South Africa in late May or early June.

It has a new 6.4-litre Hemi V-8 engine with fuel-saver technology that switches off four of the eight cylinders when full power isn’t needed – but when it is, you get 344kW and

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Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife

Like many other automakers Hyundai is running ads on this year’s Super Bowl, including one for its popular Elantra line of cars. This one is a straightforward affair, focusing more on the vehicle than on, say, raging zombies, barking/singing dogs or Soup Nazis. Still, there’s one element that will be missing from the commercial that’s appeared in other of the automaker’s ads for car, namely its fuel economy ratings.

While the Hyundai representative we spoke with assured us the spot was originally conceived exclusively to highlight the car’s (well deserved in our opinion) accolades and awards and at no time was any mention of the Elantra’s mpg estimates planned, at least one consumer organization is claiming a victory of sorts.

A group called Consumer Watchdog has been dogging Hyundai in recent weeks, asserting its “40 miles per gallon” claim for the Elantra to be inflated, albeit depending on how one looks at it. The Elantra’s official fuel economy rating, certified by the Environmental Protection Agency, is indeed 40 mpg highway, but only 29 mpg in the city and 33 mpg in combined driving.

The group is disseminating its own counter-advertisement showing the cost to consumers of the difference between claimed and actual fuel economy, which can be viewed via the You Tube video at the bottom of this post. The clip contends that even Consumer Reports could get nowhere near the claimed mileage, obtaining just 29 mpg in combined city/highway driving in its own testing. In fact, CR obtained a close-enough 39 mpg on the highway, though it just got 20 mpg in city driving, which brought down the combined rating. [Click here for CR's fuel economy estimates.]

“Consumers who increasingly buy cars on the basis of high miles per gallon—then can’t get close to the posted figure—are justifiably angry,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “Hyundai’s omission of its touted ’40 mpg’ claim in its Super Bowl ads, after making a very big deal of it in earlier advertising, shows that the company is hearing the hoofbeats of consumer outrage.”

The differences between claimed and real world fuel economy

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Heathrow airport cancelled half of its flights as the snow and cold weather continued to cause problems across the UK, stranding motorists and leaving roads icy and treacherous.

The travel chaos ensuedon Sunday as the worst of the wintry showers came to an end across the country and forecasters predicted dry conditions and a partial thaw.

Although the snow flurries are now expected to move eastwards, swaths of the UK were on “amber alert” on Sunday, the Met Office‘s second highest severe weather warning, with icy conditions across much of England, Scotland and Wales.

Church Fenton in North Yorkshire and Wattisham in Suffolk recorded 16cm of snow, while up to 15cm was forecast for parts of Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, North Yorkshire, the Peak District and the Midlands.

The icy spell has seen daytime temperatures plummet four or five degrees lower than average for February, traditionally the coldest month of the year.

Heathrow, which had initially cut only 30% of its flights, said the decision was intended to minimise disruption and was made in anticipation of freezing fog.

Although the runways, taxiways and stands had been cleared of snow, only half of the 1,300 scheduled flights went ahead. The London airport, however, said its snow plan had worked “far better” than in previous years, adding that it would operate a normal flight schedule on Monday.

A spokesman said Heathrow, which operates at 99.2% capacity, was “getting back to normal” as it worked to clear the backlog of flights. “We took the decision with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance,” he said.

“By cancelling flights in advance airlines have been able to rebook some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not.”

Extra staff were being drafted into terminals to help passengers rebook flights, he added.Inbound flights to the airport were also affected, with six transatlantic flights from the US redirected to Shannon airport in Ireland because of the cold snap disruption.

Some were in UK airspace or on approach to London when they were ordered back over to Ireland.

Shannon Airport Authority confirmed arrangements were being made for 400 stranded passengers to stay overnight. The affected routes included Heathrow-bound services from Dallas, Miami, Houston, Washington, Denver and Atlanta.

The transport secretary, Justine Greening, said the authorities at Heathrow were taking the right approach to the problems created by the weather.

“Actually cancelling flights in advance so passengers don’t get to the airport and then find their flight being cancelled was one

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MOTORING tales of nostalgia are sure to loom large at the annual Macedon Ranges and District Motoring Club’s annual show.

Thousands of classic car buffs will make the journey to Hanging Rock on Sunday, February 12, in what has been described as the biggest car show of its type in the southern hemisphere.

Club president Graham Williams believes this year could be the biggest yet with a revival happening in the world of car clubs.

“In the last 12 months, there has been a change to how people can register their vintage car by taking out a registration by a club permit system,” he said.

Mr Williams said the expense, a fraction of the cost of normal car registration, had led to many more older cars on the road.

Under the provisions, car owners can take their pride and joy out up to 90 times a year by logging their trips.

Details: picnicathangingrock.com.au

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MOTORING tales of nostalgia are sure to loom large at the annual Macedon Ranges and District Motoring Club’s annual show.

Thousands of classic car buffs will make the journey to Hanging Rock on Sunday, February 12, in what has been described as the biggest car show of its type in the southern hemisphere.

Club president Graham Williams believes this year could be the biggest yet with a revival happening in the world of car clubs.

“In the last 12 months, there has been a change to how people can register their vintage car by taking out a registration by a club permit system,” he said.

Mr Williams said the expense, a fraction of the cost of normal car registration, had led to many more older cars on the road.

Under the provisions, car owners can take their pride and joy out up to 90 times a year by logging their trips.

Details: picnicathangingrock.com.au

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Updated, 13.38

AN INDEPENDENT TD has urged the government to consider amending Ireland’s car registration plate system for next year – because some superstitious motorists do not want cars with ’13? on the plates.

Michael Healy-Rae has called on finance minister Michael Noonan to examine the possibility of changing the registration plate system for next year, saying the move would benefit the motoring industry as a whole.

“There’s people now who, we’ll say, always change their cars every two, three or four years,” Healy-Rae told TheJournal.ie.

“Take you, for instance – you might be one of these men who change their car every three years, and 2013 is your year to change.

“People like you are after going to the garages and saying they’ll wait until the next year” before replacing their cars, he added, simply because they did not want to drive cars carrying a number which is often thought to be unlucky.

Healy-Rae said car deals had already approached him to raise their concerns, which in turn had been fuelled by remarks from prospective car buyers who felt it might be bad luck to drive cars with the number 13 on them.

Alan Nolan from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) said the possibility of a superstitious drop in sales would hurt a sector that is already struggling.

“You have to put this in the context of the market, which has fallen from around 180,000 new cars per year… this year we’re looking at 75,000 or so in new sales,” he said.

“Even if it was five per cent of people [who opted against buying a 2013 car], in a market of 75,000 it’s still something that would have a real problem.”

Nolan said his society had been campaigning for an overhaul of the licencing system because it meant that the car trade was seasonal, with the majority of cars sold in the first quarter of the year.

Ireland could follow the UK’s lead by adding a new identifier to numberplates on cars registered after July, he suggested, by simply putting an X on the numberplate to read ‘X12-D-123456?.

Rural divide

Car dealers in certain areas had also experienced difficulty in car sales given how the county name on a numberplate cannot be edited afterward.

Some Dublin-based dealers were reluctant to buy viable second-hand cars, Nolan suggested, because they carried a rural county – meaning they would be more difficult to sell to another buyer.

“For a fee, as a moneyspinner, a dealer should be able to pay

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Natural gas vehicles are not yet as common as more traditional uses of the fuel like gas-powered furnaces, stoves and water heaters.

But Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have launched an initiative to increase the use of natural gas vehicles in their state automobile fleets, an effort they hope will make the vehicles more affordable for the average car buyer.

“It’s a win, win, win,” Hickenlooper said. Driving natural gas vehicles instead of cars and trucks powered by gasoline or diesel fuel will save money, create a new demand for a fuel that is plentiful in the U.S. and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, he said.

“I think it makes the world safer,” Hickenlooper said.

The initiative will also promote Oklahoma’s natural gas industry, said Fallin’s communications director, Alex Weintz. Oklahoma was the third-largest natural gas-producing state in 2009 behind Texas and Wyoming, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“What’s great for Oklahoma is that we have an enormous amount of natural gas right here,” Weintz said.

The biggest market for natural gas vehicles currently is light-duty utility and delivery trucks, said Michael Ming, Fallin’s secretary of energy who helped develop the plan.

“That segment is already going on its own,” Ming said. But converting a gas- or diesel-powered car or truck to burn natural gas costs up to $10,000, “which puts it out of the price range of average consumers.

“How can the state move the needle?” he asked.

Fallin, Hickenlooper and the governors of seven other states have signed a memorandum promising to invest in natural gas vehicles when they replace older cars and trucks that burn traditional fuels. Its aim is to encourage U.S. automakers to develop original equipment: fleet natural gas vehicles that will also meet public demand.

“The intent is to get a functional and affordable four-door vehicle,” Ming said. “They’re on this. We just want to partner with them and help them along.”

This year, the states’ plan to jointly issue a multi-state request for proposal to give car and truck manufacturers a demand base sufficient to support the design, manufacture and sale of natural gas vehicles, Ming said.

Fallin says the initiative will create jobs, promote Oklahoma ‘s natural gas industry, reduce fuel emissions and will improve national security by helping to wean the U.S. off of foreign oil.

Besides Oklahoma and Colorado, the governors of Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have signed a memorandum committing their states to the initiative. Hickenlooper said Texas also plans to join.

Ming said the states have committed to acquiring 500 natural gas vehicles each year. If enough states commit to purchasing the vehicles, it

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