Category Archives: Motoring News

New Mercedes V-Class Delivers MPV Luxury

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New Mercedes-Benz V-ClassMercedes-Benz has released the first official images of its new V-Class, the luxury MPV version of the Vito/Viano minibus.

The new V-Class will come to the UK in early 2015, and I also expect to see a new model Vito van around that time, too, as the models are built on the same platform, and are, essentially, the same vehicle.

The new V-Class ups the stakes in the luxury van-based MPV department.

Mercedes says that the new V-Class will be “the perfect vehicle for everyone who appreciates great spaciousness but does not want to sacrifice style and comfort”, and it’s easy to see why from photos like this:

New 2015 Mercedes-Benz V-CLass

Inside the new V-Class, expected to reach the UK in 2015.

The V-Class will be powered by state-of-the-art 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine with two-stage turbocharging, which has already been used successfully in a number of Mercedes’ cars, and has been tweaked further for use in this MPV model.

The standard model offers 163hp and 380Nm of torque, with combined cycle fuel economy of 46.9mpg and CO2 emissions of 149g/km. There will also be a more powerful 190hp version, designed to replace the outgoing model’s 3.0-litre V6 diesel option.

All V-Class models will include the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive system, which a combination of eleven driver assistance systems that use radar, camera and ultrasound sensors to control safety systems such as Crosswind Assist and Attention Assist, which is a fatigue detection system.

A wide range of other safety and convenience systems will be optionally available, as will several seating configuration options and a raft of luxury features, such as leather seats, wood-look trim, multi-zone climate control, LED headlamps, electric rear windscreen and Agility Control suspensions.

Once the new V-Class hits UK shores, you may be able to hire one from your local car or minibus hire company (click here to compare prices on MPV and minibus hire) — although these are more likely to be rented out under luxury car tariffs than minibus tariffs, with lower spec models such as the Viano/Vito 9-seater available for minibus use.

Van Driving On Ice: Stay Safe This Winter

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Snow covered car

Don’t be one of those idiots who just scrapes a ‘porthole’ clear on the windscreen and drives along peering through it, unable to see anything around them. Clear the windscreen and the side windows completely before driving off.

Based on the view out of my window this morning, cold winter weather finally seems to be arriving in the UK — and with it the icy mornings and evenings that catch out so many drivers each year.

The traction problems caused by snow and ice can be reduced by using winter or all-season tyres, but even if you use these cold weather-rated tyres on your own car, you will find that virtually all hire vans in the UK come with ‘standard’ summer tyres.

These provide very little grip in snow or ice — not ideal if you’re driving an unfamiliar hire van laden with your personal possessions or a valuable delivery of business goods.

Driving tips for icy conditions

With the help of Peter Rodger, who is the Institute of Advanced Motorist’s chief examiner, I’ve put together six key tips for driving safely in icy conditions. By following these tips, you can reduce the chance of being involved in a cold weather-related crash and keep your van, and yourself, safe.

  1. Keep to main roads where possible, as they’re more likely to be salted. Also bear in mind that after the frost has gone, ice can remain in areas which are shaded by trees and buildings – and it forms there first, so be careful in the evening as the temperature drops.
  2. It may seem obvious to say, but every year people forget to make sure that they have de-icer and a scraper in their vehicles. If you’re driving a hire van you’ll need to provide your own, so make sure you have a spare or ‘borrow’ them from your car. Whatever you do, don’t be one of those people who only scrape a small area of glass clear and drive along looking through a slit – clear the whole windscreen to be able to see properly, otherwise you are a danger to yourself and other road users.
  3. If the road is slippery when you start off, do it in second gear, releasing the clutch and accelerating gently, avoiding high revs – this will help prevent wheel spin.  As you drive, stay in higher gears to help avoid wheelspin.
  4. It seems obvious, but cars and vans go in ditches every winter because drivers haven’t taken icy roads seriously enough.  If it’s cold outside, treat wet looking patches with great care – they could be ice, not water.
  5. Stopping distances are increased by up to 10 times in icy conditions, so leave plenty of distance between your van and the vehicle in front – plan so that you’re not relying on your brakes to stop, as they may not have any effect in icy conditions. If it is really slippery, slow down early, and use the gears to do it.
  6. If your van loses grip and starts to slide sideways, take your foot off the accelerator, and point the front wheels where you want to go.

Rodger is keen to emphasise that your attitude and mental preparation are key to staying safe on the roads in winter conditions:

“Being mentally prepared as well as having the right equipment is vital, so think about any problems you encountered last winter, and what you need to do to avoid them or overcome them if they recur this year.”

I agree, and suspect that many drivers get into trouble in winter conditions because they simply don’t know — and haven’t ever been taught (or learned) the correct way to drive in snow and ice.

Rodger’s tips make a great starting point, and I’d strongly recommend you read through them a couple of times to ensure that you know what to do when you are faced with an icy road or snowy conditions on a journey you can’t avoid.

Government Scraps A14 Toll Plans

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Busy motorway at twilightThe government has abandoned the idea of introducing tolls on a proposed section of the A14, south of Huntingdon.

As I reported in September, the idea was that tolls would be used to help pay for the Huntingdon Southern Bypass, a new section of the A14 which is due to begin construction sometime in 2016. This idea has now been scrapped, and the new road will be fully-funded by the government.

Here’s an overview of the plans from my original post:

  • A new Huntingdon Southern Bypass, with junctions at Ellington, at Brampton (where the A14 would meet the A1), at Godmanchester, and on the existing A14 at Swavesey. (This is the section where tolls were being considered, this idea has now been abandoned.)
  • The A14 through Huntingdon would be de-trunked. The A14 viaduct over the mainline railway in Huntingdon would be demolished, enabling the existing A14 to be tied into local roads, greatly improving traffic flows in the town and accessing sites for possible new development.
  • The A14 will be widened from Swavesey to Milton (the section between Girton Interchange and Histon will be widened earlier as part of a separate improvement scheme. Work is due to start in early 2014).
  • A new single carriageway access road will be built alongside the improved A14 between Fen Drayton and Girton and is intended for local use.
  • Girton and Milton junctions will be upgraded to improve traffic flow and to add more capacity, with improvements to other junctions along the route.
  • Two new junctions will be constructed at Bar Hill and Swavesey to maintain existing access to the trunk road and to connect with the new local road network
  • The A1 will be widened between Brampton and Alconbury in order to provide the additional capacity needed to cope with traffic linking to the A1 from the new Huntingdon Southern Bypass.

Unsurprisingly, the Road Haulage Association was one of the biggest opponents of the toll, which it believed would have made it harder for East Anglian hauliers and the Port of Felixstowe to remain competitive. John Howells, RHA Southern and Eastern Regional Director, had this to say following today’s news:

“We have been against the suggestion since it was first raised nearly two years ago. It would have meant a tax on the economy of East Anglia and Suffolk as hauliers would have had to pass on the additional costs. In addition, it would have greatly undermined the competitiveness of the Port of Felixstowe and other ports in the region by adding to the cost base of haulage to and from the port.

Personally, I think that random and uncoordinated tolling isn’t the solution — where a toll system is put in place, it needs to be centrally planned so that it generates enough revenue to justify its existence, and the burden of paying the tolls is spread evenly across road users so that the competitive landscape remains unchanged.

Most European motorway tolls are operated on this basis, giving all hauliers have the choice of paying equal toll costs or travelling more slowly and cheaply on non-toll roads. Simply tolling random stretches of road to lower the cost of their construction isn’t a solution to 21st century traffic management problems.

Don’t Rely On Lady Luck: Deadly Driving Distractions You Need To Avoid

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Crashed car

A moment’s inattention while adjusting your sat nav is all it takes to cause a major crash.

The risks of drink-driving and driving tired have rightly had lots of publicity over the last few years.

What isn’t always appreciated, however, are the risks posed by routine, legal and accepted activities such as smoking, eating, drinking, and adjusting your sat nav or car stereo.

The reality is that anything which takes your eyes off the road and distracts your mind from the core activity of driving is a danger.

This week is Road Safety Week, organised by the charity Brake, and to mark the occasion I’d like to take a closer look at three of the biggest risks many drivers take when on the road:

  1. Mobile phones: Hands-free or not, there is no doubt that having a telephone conversation distracts your mind from the job of driving and increases the likelihood that you will have an accident. According to Brake, drivers using mobile phones are four times more likely to crash, even if they are using a hands-free kit. The problem is the distraction, not holding the phone.
  2. Sat navs & MP3 Players: Back in the day, you’d switch on the radio when you got in the car, and that would be it. Today, drivers navigate through complex touch-screen systems that involve digital maps, traffic information, mp3 playlists and much more. It’s all a bit like operating a computer — something no rational person would do while they were driving. If you use a sat nav or an mp3 player, program the device and set it up before you set off, and then listen to it as you drive. Don’t ‘touch and look’ as you drive — you are effectively driving along with your eyes closed.
  3. Smoking, eating & drinking: I doubt there is anyone who hasn’t done at least one of these things while driving along — I know I have — yet the reality is that each of them distracts you from the job in hand, and frequently creates an in-vehicle hazard that could end up causing an accident. The dropped-cigarette-and-boiling-coffee-in-the-lap scenario is no urban myth, and even if nothing goes wrong, you are still distracted.

Now, I know that some of you will read this and think yes, that’s all very well in theory, but I live in the real world. I can hold a cup of coffee and look where I’m going, and as for sat navs — well, they are obviously designed to be looked at. Who doesn’t look at their sat nav while they are driving?

All I can say in response is that recent research in the USA showed that driver inattention was a factor in 78% of crashes.

I know, and you know, that most regular drivers have had near misses due to being distracted — and the only difference between a near miss and a crash is luck. Do you really want to rely on Lady Luck to keep you safe?

Although a certain number of crashes are inevitable — we’ll all human, and we do make mistakes — allowing ourselves to be distracted by electronic gadgets and junk food simply isn’t good enough. When driving, switch off your phone and put it out of reach, don’t play with your sat nav or mp3 player and don’t eat, smoke or argue with passengers.

A14 Bypass Could Cut Journey Times For Van Drivers

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Busy motorway at twilightThe Highways Agency has today announced plans for a major upgrade of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

If you travel in this area regularly, you will know it is a notorious bottleneck and is very prone to major delays, so in principle at least, this is good news.

As always, however, the devil will be in the detail. Will we end up with another underused, privately-operated toll road like the M6 Toll, while the majority of traffic continues to pound the non-toll, taxpayer-funded road into submission?

A public consultation will run from Monday 9 September to Sunday 13 October, with public exhibitions planned in the Cambridge and Huntingdon area from Tuesday 17 September, but here’s an overview of the Highway Agency’s proposed solution:

  • A new Huntingdon Southern Bypass, with junctions at Ellington, at Brampton (where the A14 would meet the A1), at Godmanchester, and on the existing A14 at Swavesey. Proposals under consideration include this section of bypass being tolled.
  • The A14 through Huntingdon would be de-trunked. The A14 viaduct over the mainline railway in Huntingdon would be demolished, enabling the existing A14 to be tied into local roads, greatly improving traffic flows in the town and accessing sites for possible new development.
  • The A14 will be widened from Swavesey to Milton (the section between Girton Interchange and Histon will be widened earlier as part of a separate improvement scheme. Work is due to start in early 2014).
  • A new single carriageway access road will be built alongside the improved A14 between Fen Drayton and Girton and is intended for local use.
  • Girton and Milton junctions will be upgraded to improve traffic flow and to add more capacity, with improvements to other junctions along the route.
  • Two new junctions will be constructed at Bar Hill and Swavesey to maintain existing access to the trunk road and to connect with the new local road network
  • The A1 will be widened between Brampton and Alconbury in order to provide the additional capacity needed to cope with traffic linking to the A1 from the new Huntingdon Southern Bypass.

The A14 is one of the busiest routes in the country, as it links the M1, A1 and West Midlands to major East Coast ports such as Felixstowe. Nearly 85,000 vehicles per day travel on this road, so it would be good if a solution was found that was both cost-effective for the taxpayer and beneficial to  the majority of road users.

As the Freight Transport Agency pointed out today, road users expect accountability and value for money, and should be entitled to minimum service levels in the event that the new road is tolled:

Any contract to manage and charge for a new road must be accompanied by minimum standards of service, including route availability in severe weather, breakdown recovery and assistance times, minimum transit times and parking and rest facilities.  Freight companies will expect value for money and compensation when service falls short of promised standards.

The scheme has initially been priced at £1.5bn and work is due to get underway in late 2016 (subject to statutory processes and continued value for money), with completion expected in 2019/20.

For full details, visit:

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a14-cambridge-to-huntingdon-improvement-scheme/

Ford Marks Southampton Closure With Transit Charity Donation

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Ford donated 3 minibuses to Southampton communityFord has marked the closure of its Transit plant in Southampton by donating three of the last Transit minibuses built at the factory to local organisations with long-standing ties to the Southampton plant.

Two of the minibuses were donated to Naomi House children’s hospice and The Cedar School, both of which have long-standing ties with Southampton employees at the Ford plant.

The third minibus was donated to Southampton City Council, in recognition of the firm’s long-standing relationship with the city and its community.

The council’s white, nine-seater minibus was handed over to The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Southampton (Councillor Ivan White) by Southampton operations manager, John Oldham, and will be used by Southampton charities and organisations across the city as a community bus.

Ford is no longer the major employer it used to be in the city, but it has been able to re-employ 134 employees at its new Vehicle Refurbishment Centre, which has opened on the existing Ford site at Swaythling and is the result of a £12m investment in the future of the site. The new facility will prepare vehicles for sale through Ford Direct, the company’s approved use sales program.

Cut Van Hire Fuel Costs The Easy Way With VanRental.co.uk!

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Fuel gauge nearing emptyIn the latest edition of the vanrental.co.uk newsletter, I took a look at the popular habit of ‘chasing the cheapest litre of diesel’.

What I mean, of course, is driving out of your way to save one or two pence per litre when filling up.

The problem with doing this — apart from wasting time — is that you often end up wasting money, too.

In the case of my personal van, a short wheelbase Ford Transit, I usually get around 36mpg, which equates to a fuel cost of 17.6p per mile, assuming that diesel is 140p per litre, as it is in my area.

This means that a diversion of six miles to fill up will cost me £1.05.

If the fuel I buy is 2p per litre cheaper than I would have paid, then I have to buy at least 52 litres before I save any money (52 x 2p = £1.04).

I’m sure you can see the problem – the cost of the fuel required to drive to a cheaper garage can easily be more than the money you save at the pumps. Plus you waste a load of time, probably on your way to or from work…

There is a better way!

What I’ve found, through long experience, is that finding the cheapest fuel may save me a few pence, but learning to drive with a lighter right foot will save me pounds.

At the start of this post, I said that my average fuel consumption was 36mpg — but I have seen it vary from 33mpg to 40mpg, depending on how I drive.

On long journeys, with a light right foot and keeping motorway speeds below 65mph, I can get 40mpg. If I hoon around like Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne, then unsurprisingly, fuel consumption drops dramatically!

The upshot is that a 10% improvement in fuel consumption is quite easily achievable for many drivers — which equates to a cost saving of 1.8p per mile, no diversions or wasted time necessary!

All-Season Tyre Review: Hankook RA10 (Part 2 – Winter, Snow)

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Hankook RA10 All-Season Tyre

Hankook RA10 All-Season Tyre

Disclosure: I paid for these tyres myself and have no relationship with the tyre manufacturer or the tyre supplier.

Back in September, I reported on how I’d decided to put my money where my mouth was and replace the worn-out tyres on my van with a set of all-season tyres, rather than summer tyres.

My reasoning was that for most of the year, the weather in northern England where I live is decidedly wintry, and certainly not warm or dry. In addition, I wanted to see if all-season tyres provide an advantage in snow and ice — whether they lived up to their billing as a good compromise between summer and winter tyres.

I decided to go for a set of Hankook RA10 all-season tyres, a mid-range option. You can click here to see the first part of my review, which covers summer and general impressions.

Winter wonderland

Given the weather we’ve had this winter, I’ve now had a chance to try these tyres out in a wide range of conditions, including snow, ice and very wet conditions.

Overall, the RA10s have lived up to my expectations, delivering better grip in cold and wet conditions, especially in snow and ice.

They certainly aren’t as good as a set of winter tyres, but I don’t need them to be and I’m happy to compromise in order to use them all year round. To round off my review, I’ve compared them against the same criteria I used last summer, to see how they performed against my previous Goodyear Cargo summer tyres:

How do they compare? I’ve compared the Hankook RA10 tyres to my previous Goodyear Cargo G26 tyres below, after using them in a wide range of conditions this winter.

Dry grip: In colder conditions, the advantage of the all-season compound becomes more obvious.

Wet grip: The Hankooks definitely provide a better grip on cold, wet or frosty surfaces than the Goodyears.

Snow & Ice: A clear improvement — there’s definitely more grip and a more confident feel. I haven’t got stuck and the impression I get is that they sit nicely between summer and winter tyres in terms of grip, as you’d expect.

Noise: The Hankook’s remain noiser than my Goodyear tyres were, although perhaps less so in cold weather.

Fuel consumption: No noticeable difference.

Wear: Too early to say. As always, keeping them correctly inflated and cornering sensibly will help prolong tyre life.

Conclusions

Overall, I’m happy with my switch to all-season tyres and intend to continue using them in the future. Wet weather and snow/ice performance is definitely better, and everything else is roughly the same or good enough — which seems like a fair swap to me.

I don’t expect them to last quite as long as good quality summer tyres, but this isn’t necessarily a problem unless you do high mileages.

What do you think? Am I talking rubbish or are you a fan too? Leave a comment to let me know.

Pothole Hell As Britain’s Roads Crumble (Again…) Ever Wondered Why?

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Potholes UK rural road

It’s not just rural roads like this that are being stricken with potholes — motorways are being hit, too.

It’s no surprise that after just a couple of weeks of snow and cold weather, out roads are littered with potholes that simply didn’t exist before Christmas. But why? 

Potholes.co.uk says the use of cheap materials – brittle, porous Stone Mastic Asphalt as opposed to the more hard-wearing Hot Rolled Asphalt – to surface and fix roads over the last 10-15 years is now leaving Britain gridlocked.

I’ve never heard of Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) or Hot Rolled Asphalt (HRA) before, and I suspect you haven’t either, so what’s the difference?

Stone Mastic Asphalt vs. Hot Rolled Asphalt

If you want to see what they two types of asphalt look like, click here and scroll down about half way to a group of four images. I’m sure you will recognise both the HRA photo (bottom left) and the SMA one (bottom right).

There’s a clear difference between the two and its easy to imagine how HRA may provide a smooth, sealed surface that should be fairly hard for water to penetrate, whereas the SMA has a open, fragmented surface into which water, and hence ice, can easily enter, causing frost damage and potholes.

Note: I know nothing about road building or asphalt and could be completely wrong. But the evidence of my eyes suggests that there is a problem with the road surfacing materials used in the UK — otherwise potholes wouldn’t sprout everywhere after just a couple of weeks of normal winter weather.

Back to the potholes

Potholes.co.uk, which is operated by Warranty Direct, says that data taken from 10,000 pothole reports on its website reveals that not only are the craters appearing on the UK’s crumbling network deeper than ever before, increasing in depth from three to four inches on average in the last two years, but that the problem is not limited to smaller, rural roads.

Warranty Direct managing director, Duncan McClure Fisher, said:

“The pothole epidemic is the direct result of years of under-investment in our roads by the Government. Temporary fixes have just escalated the problem over the years and our highways have now got more holes than Swiss cheese.

“Unless more permanent repair materials and methods are adopted immediately, Britain may never again be able to get through a winter without having to contend with a Third World road network.”

Third World may be a slight exaggeration, but I’ve driven on roads all over continental Europe, including Germany and Scandinavia, where the winters are much worse than the UK — and I’ve rarely encountered major roads with as many potholes as those around my home, in the North of England.

It just isn’t necessary — road surfaces can be made more frost-proof than they are, and it would save councils hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, if not millions. 

We pay the price

Individual motorists, fleet operators and car and van hire companies are being hit with escalating repair bills as tyre, wheel and suspension damage runs rife as a result of the nation’s potholes.

Although a careful driver can avoid many potholes, sometimes — in busy traffic, darkness, rain and snow — it just isn’t possible and you end up crashing through the pothole instead.

Cutting Fuel Duty Would Boost The Economy, Raising It Won’t

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Fuel gauge nearing emptyIf the Chancellor wants to raise more money through taxes, he should be cutting fuel duty by 3p, not increasing it.

Chancellor George Osborne is getting ready to increase fuel duty by 3p per litre in January 2013 — an increase that has already been postponed twice, in January and August of this year. [UPDATE 05/12/2012: The 3p increase in fuel duty scheduled for January 2013 has now been cancelled. This was announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement earlier today]

Yet even that 3p per litre is deceptive — once you add on VAT, which is charged on the price including fuel duty, the actual increase will be 3.62 pence per litre. That’s an extra £2.90 per tank on a Ford Transit. It soon mounts up.

While I appreciate the environmental logic behind increasing fuel duty — people won’t use less fuel and cut pollution unless they are forced to — it is rather brutal and I very much doubt that Osborne is remotely bothered about the environment.

Increasing fuel duty is simply a handy way to raise money to fill the Treasury’s empty coffers — or is it?

Counter-productive cuts

A new report from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) suggests that increasing fuel duty by 3p will ultimately result in the loss of 35,000 jobs and a 0.1% fall in GDP. The logic is simple — higher fuel prices mean that ordinary consumers like you and I have less spare money to spend on other things, so other businesses suffer.

This argument works both ways, according to NIESR. If the Chancellor decided to cut  fuel duty by 3p instead of raising it, the economy would get a very significant boost. According to NIESR, cutting fuel duty by 3p would deliver the following benefits:

  • Create 70,000 jobs
  • Boost GDP by 0.2%

Of course, in the short term tax revenues would fall — by approximately £1,800m, according to NIESR. But that’s less than 0.2% of GDP and this growth plus the increase in employment would be likely to compensate for this in the longer term, helping to speed up the UK’s recovery and kick-start growth.

Don’t kid yourself

I very much doubt that there is any chance that Chancellor George Osborne is going to change direction now and start cutting taxes to boost the economy. He says it’s not prudent and he needs to reduce the UK’s debt, but as we are seeing in countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy, if cuts lead to rising unemployment, then tax receipts fall and no one benefits.

How you can save money on fuel

Although we can’t control our government, we can control our own purchasing decisions — and the simplest way to save money on fuel is to spend less on it.