General Motoring

Using the magic of statistics the team at Confused.com, the car insurance comparison site, have discovered the unluckiest cars in the last 12 months. The in-depth mathematical wizardry was achieved by analysing 12 months’ worth of quotes and claims. So without further ado, the top 3 makes and models with the highest accident rates are…

1)      Honda FR-V Six-seater – According to the data, out of 2,529 owners, 466 accident claims were made in the past five years, giving the Honda FR-V a claim rate of 18.4% – that’s roughly one in five.

2)      Volvo XC90 – Again using 12 months of quotes and claim data, out of 3,886 drivers who used Confused.com for their car insurance, 619 drivers made claims for accidents, giving the Volvo XC90 a claim rate of 15.9% – that’s roughly one in six drivers.

3)      Lexus RX – And last, but not least is the Lexus RX. According to the statistics received, out of 3,701 drivers, 574 made claims, giving the RX an accident claim rate of 15.5% – again that’s roughly one in six.

A number of other models also made the ‘unluckiest car’ list including the Mazda 5 at 15.4%, the Volkswagen Touran, the Hyundai Santa, the Toyota Rav and the Mazda 3 – all of which had an accident rate of nearly 14% – one in seven. I find it interesting that the top 3 cars and many of the other unlucky models are all MPV’s and people carriers, family drivers clearly aren’t the safest then…

But fear not, because in all likelihood the makes with the higher ‘unlucky’ percentage are likely to be the most popular models, thereby giving them a higher chance of getting in a knock, compared to something rarer like a retro or classic. They say that 88% of all statistics are made up, so there’s no need to start flicking through the Auto-Trader and changing your car insurance just yet. Though if you’re looking for the ‘safest’ car then go out and grab yourself a Mazda 2 TS TD, which has a total of 9 accident claims via Confused.com in the last five years…

A while back I wrote a post about the plight of potholes and how you can actually do something about them, well now thanks to an (old) BBC news piece I thought I’d do the same kind of post about Speed bumps, the other blight on the slammed motorist.

Basically the most important thing you will get from this whole post is this fact: The 1999 Highways Regulations state the maximum dimensions of a road hump shouldn’t be higher than 10cm.

Did you get that? 10cm, 100mm, 3.9 inches, 0.33 feet! Anything taller than that, quite small number, is technically illegal! Now obviously the absolutely awful concrete sleeping policeman that you get in private car parks, that are 50ft high and designed to cause you as much pain and money as possible don’t fall under these laws as they are not on public highways, but anything you encounter on the public roads should adhere to this.

To get all legal about it you can read this pdf which says about all Highway Road Hump Regulations. The most important part is section 4, Nature, dimensions and locations of road humps, where it says:

4.(1) Subject to regulation 7, no road hump shall be constructed or maintained in a highway unless-

(a) each face of it across the carriageway oh the highway in which it is constructed is at right angles to an imaginary line along the centre of that carriageway;

(b) it has a minimum length of 900 millimetres measured parallel to an imaginary line along the centre of that carriageway from the point where one face meets the surface of that carriageway to the point where the other face meets the surface of that carriageway;

(c) the highest point on it is not less than 25 millimetres nor more than 100 millimetres higher than an imaginary line parallel to the centre line of that carriageway connecting surface of that carriageway on one side of the road hump to the surface of that carriageway on the other side of the road hump and passing vertically below that point;

(d) no vertical face of any material forming part of that road hump exceeds 6 millimetres measured vertically from top to bottom of that face.

It also goes on to say exactly where speed bumps or road humps can be placed so if you have a particularly annoying one near you that falls within the size restrictions it could be worth carefully checking over it’s location and positioning to see if you have a case there.

So what can you do if you think you have spotted a speed bump that fails to meet regulations? First off, go to your local council or write a letter to your local MP with the issue and await a response. Sometimes constant pestering will be your only route but eventually someone will get back to you. You can also get in contact with an organisation like CRASH who could help you get in contact with the correct people to make a case. You can also take a look at sites like the Bromley Borough Roads Action Group and see how they are tackling the speed bump problem and if you are politically inclined yourself you can even do what Ron Allen, a structural engineer from Derby did and run for local council!

Residents in Derby were so annoyed by speed bumps that they petitioned and campaigned to get the humps removed but when the council refused they decided to put forward a candidate in the local elections with the sole campaign issue of abolishing speed bumps. Amazingly they won the elections and slowly the humps are being removed from all over the city.

Obviously that is a pretty full on way to get things done but if you need something done, you better just do it yourself.

Finally for anyone reading this and thinking ‘my car clears speed bumps fine and they do stop speeding so I’m actually a fan of them they help stop road traffic accidents‘ I will leave you with a quick list from CRASH saying some of the common problems associated with speed bumps:

• They are detrimental to the environment, increasing pollution by forcing cars to slow well below the speed limit and then accelerate away.
• They increase noise levels where they are implemented. Not just by engine and brake noise from people slowing down and speeding up, but also from trucks and lorries carrying loads that get bounced around.
• They cause damage to vehicles, particularly sports cars (even at low speed).
• They slow the response times of emergency vehicles.
• They cause discomfort and back injury to drivers and passengers. This also includes those travelling on buses who may be walking down aisles or using the stairs, causing them to fall and injure themselves.
• They cause vibration when vehicles navigate them and send shockwaves through the ground. This has been proven to damage nearby properties. In fact, the official UK regulations state that they may not be implemented anywhere within 25 metres of bridges, subways or tunnels.
• They often divert traffic to alternative residential streets.
• They cost drivers money by using more petrol and brake pads in addition to the damage caused to suspension, oil sumps and exhausts etc. This often makes cars more dangerous.
• When vehicles drive over them with their lights on, this points the dipped beam up to eye level. This not only causes nearby houses disturbance, but also gives the illusion of the headlights being flashed, dazzling and causing confusion to other motorists and often causing accidents.
• They are a substitute for active enforcement, even though they do not even slow down most vehicles.

Does anyone remember this advert going around from years ago? It is actually quite true for a lot of cars I know, the line ‘everyone out we need to get over this bump’ is something I’ve actually heard before…

Now everyone go out there and pave a clear and smooth path on our roads. Happy Speed bump hunting!

POTHOLE – A word that strikes fear into drivers everywhere.

Probably not a fan of bad roads…

The pothole is one of the most feared things on our roads and it causes some major bum twitching every time you have to scrape, bounce and crash across one. It is bad enough on some roads driving in normal super deluxe soft suspension but anyone that runs super low or relatively hard suspension will know just how bad potholes and broken roads can be.

Often you hear people say things like “wow the roads where that guy live must be much nicer than here to run a car like that”. However it would seem that according to a post I came across on Popular Mechanics dodgy roads aren’t just a British problem, Americans have to put up with mini road-craters as well. It is quite an interesting post and says that in New York City workers can fill up to 5000 holes a day. I don’t think my local council work anywhere near that fast…

So why do we get potholes that need filling in the first place? Unfortunately potholes seem to be fairly unavoidable, you may have noticed that the roads get worse a lot over the winter, what happens is any tiny little cracks in the road surface get filled with water and then when the temperatures plummet the water freezes and expands inside the little crack turning it into a slightly larger crack with the tarmac being pushed up and out. This then causes a chain reaction where the weak spots create larger gaps allowing more water in which in turn makes the holes and gaps even bigger. These weak spots also get trampled on continuously by traffic which moves around the weak surface. So next time you weave all over the road missing potholes, you are not only saving your suspension and broken back but you’re also saving the road a little bit!

It isn’t just surface water getting into cracks that are a problem either, a lot of roads don’t have great drainage and water can get beneath them causing the tarmac to have a slight spring to it, like when you step on wet grass, however because tarmac isn’t that flexible it starts to crack and then the surface water gets into those cracks… Can you see where I’m going with this?

A lot of the time when complaining about potholes to non-car people, I get the simple answers of don’t lower it so much and get softer suspension. Well obviously that just isn’t an option, I’ll leave lifting cars until I get a 4×4, however there are multiple reports from companies like the AA and RAC that show that potholes are a problem that effect wallowy standard cars as much as modified cars. This RAC post says that due to lack of funding combined with an increasing number of potholes the local authorities are carrying out cheap short term repairs instead of paying for more costly long term solutions. A Survey of RAC patrol teams found a 25% increase in call-outs caused by poor road conditions in the past 12 months with wheel and tyre damage being the biggest problem.

This is, believe it or not, a real accident that happened due to a huge hidden pothole!

Another report says bad roads cost British drivers around £1m a day in repair bills, with the average bill for each car coming to around £240. Because of this cost a lot more people are claiming on their insurance. A report from the AA says the average price for a claim is £1,300 (but the average is often a very misleading piece of information…) The most expensive claim last year was over £14,000 after a driver lost control and crashed after hitting a pothole. More insurance claims lead to higher insurance premiums for everyone which isn’t good so it might be worth seeking help from a road traffic accident specialist solicitors and try and claim damages from the council. It might even show that potholes are a big problem and I’m sure the council will realise they need to fix up the road if they start having to pay out a lot for damages.

You can also do your part in trying to fix up the roads because the council can’t repair roads they don’t know about. Most local councils will have an online form where you can report a faulty road surface, for example you can report roads in Devon here and roads in Somerset here via their local council websites.

Remember: You’re not drunk, you’re just avoiding potholes!

As well as doing all the normal making cars and vans that vehicle manufacturers would normally do, it seems VW have taken it upon themselves to be known as the greatest advertisers in the automotive world and the latest series (I have come across, I think it was from last year some time) is awesome for film geeks. It was done for the Volkswagen sponsored ‘See Film Differently’ campaign. The official blurb from the SFD site says:

Of course, Volkswagen is all about cars. But a lot of us, like many of you, also love movies. So much so, that we’ve been sponsoring independent cinema across the UK for the last six years. Now we’re making that involvement bigger and better than ever before. On this site you’ll find exciting events, interactive tools and exclusive online features – all to help you get the most out of your passion for film.

The adverts were done by ad company DDB London and they are forms for insurance claims and vehicle inspections filled out as if they were done by people in films. Sounds a bit odd but once you check out the pictures below it will all come clear. It is a very cool series and they haven’t actually put the film each picture is about on the ad so you have to figure it out yourself – which should be quite easy…

Click the pictures to see them full size and readable.

My favourite one though is this Vehicle Inspection form from the Hill Valley Testing Station that fails a car because of distracting clocks, burnt tyres and an engine bay littered with rubbish amongst other things.

So go on then without looking at the file names, who managed to get them all? It was pretty easy!

The Norwegian division of VW have a pretty ace advertising deal going on at the moment. They have what they claim is the first ever test drive within a print ad and the advert, which is placed in magazines and newspapers, presents the reader with a long stretch of road (in both winter and summer versions) and asks you to download a phone app that lets you drive a new VW by hovering your phone over the road using augmented reality.

You can test out three features of the car including lane assist, adaptive lights and cruise control. Obviously it still won’t compare to a real test drive but it is pretty darn cool and I like the forward thinking involved with exploiting new tech like this. Volkswagen have always been pretty switched on when it comes to advertising, they went viral with their latest advert using Star Wars that was shown during the Superbowl; they work well with interactive media as shown in this new advert and their ‘The Fast Lane‘ series and they were pretty radical with their ideas way back in the 70′s when they were trying to sell their vans to America with a campaign of print adverts that poked fun at the bus-like look of the campervan.