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The price of motor insurance is to be officially investigated by the Office of Fair Trading after it found premiums rose by 9% in the first three quarters of 2011.

The announcement follows a call for evidence made by the watchdog in September, when it said it wanted to establish if there were any competition or consumer issues contributing to a continued rise in insurance costs. Prior to price increases this year it said private motor insurance premiums paid in the UK rose by about 12% between 2009 and 2010.

Its investigation will now focus specifically on the provision of third-party vehicle repairs and the cost of replacement vehicles hired to drivers involved in accidents that are not their fault.

“Our concerns relate to the provision of third-party vehicle repairs and credit hire replacement vehicles to claimants, where we suspect companies may be competing to extract money from each other rather than keeping premiums as low as possible and providing car owners with value for money,” said Sonya Branch, OFT senior director of services, infrastructure and public markets.

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Tags: Insurance, Motor Insurance

If you’re shopping for a new vehicle, you’ll probably be bombarded with all of the catchphrases du jour. Like “fuel economy.” “Advanced technology.” “Improved safety features.” “Eco-friendly.”

Thankfully, there are some vehicles which have not completely sterilized the driving experience. Here are a half dozen of these cars that you’ll see on new car lots for 2012.

Toyota Yaris SE – Toyota made some changes to the 2012 model of this compact car. The electric steering has been quickened, the suspension has been stiffened, and the tires, wheels, and disc brakes have all been upsized. The result is a frisky, playful car that actually makes you look forward to driving it. Plus, the car insurance rates aren’t bad either. Infiniti M35h Hybrid – Are you tired of sacrificing muscle when a hybrid engine shifts from gasoline to electric power? Then strap yourse Read more…

For the last couple of years electric cars have started becoming a bigger part of the motoring world and although the growth may be slower than initially expected, more charging station, eco incentives and models of electric cars are being released.

For example, in the last week alone there have been calls by environmental groups to give Scottish electric car drivers a £10,000 incentive and Nissan want to roll out more charging points at UK motorway service stations.

Electric Car Critics

However, there are still a lot of critics of electric cars, claiming that they take too long to charge, only work well when they still have a petrol engine and cause more environmental damage in production that they reduce in operation.

What’s more, electric cars now face a new hurdle as 3 were crash tested in America last week only to then burst into flames days later, calling into question the safety of the wiring and build of electric cars when they crash and how much motor insurance quotes would be on them!

A New Alternative

With the world’s source of petrol being depleted and environmental damage becoming more of an issue for most countries, an alternative to traditional petrol and diesel cars is needed and electric cars has been seen as the most sensible alternative for some time.

However, there now seems to be a new horse in the race for solving the petrol problem and that is hydrogen cars. Alth

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Tags: Cars, Electric Cars

When you buy a new car, do you think about how the make and model of your car will impact on your car insurance quotes? If you answered no, you’re not alone. Insurance is an important issue when buying a new car, but many people don’t actually think about it until it’s too late.

This is a hot topic as your choice of make and model of car can have an impact on how much you have to pay for car insurance. As you might expect, some cars costs less to insure than others, so if you are hoping to keep down the costs of motoring over the long term, it’s certainly an issue worth thinking about from the start.

This is partly because some cars are safer than others. This means that if you buy a car that has a good safety rating and also has other factors in its favour, such as a low-powered engine and good security, you are likely to benefit from cheaper car insurance. This is Read more…

Tags: Car, Car Insurance