Car insurance company Admiral have been looking at car theft and what is taken, with some surprising results.
The most common items that are taken from vehicles, not including stereo systems, are individual CDs, satellite navigation systems and MP3 players. After these come jackets, mobiles and laptop computers. Perhaps a little more surprising though are some other items that Admiral found car thieves have taken, including disco lights, celery, sandwiches and a wet suit!
Admiral also worked out the typical value of items in the average family car, coming up with a figure of GBP2,800 per vehicle. With such a sum of items that can be taken it is important to ensure car insurance covers these different areas to make sure the value of goods taken is covered as well as the car itself.
It comes as little surprise to anyone that the young drivers on our roads today are being charged much more for their car insurance than their older counterparts. The differences though are considerable.
A study has been carried out by an independent body, looking at the typical premiums being paid to car insurance companies such as Swinton Insurance and others like them. The research has found a difference of 115 percent between the national average car insurance cost and that paid by young drivers. The average figure for the nation is GBP439, while young drivers are paying GBP989. This works out for the young driver at nearly 70 percent of their cars value.
Could this be the reason some young drivers go without insurance it has been asked. In fact some young drivers have even had insurance declined simply because of their age, though Swinton are not understood to be one of the insurers that has done this.
Government proposals for new 20 mph zones are receiving mixed responses from officials says car insurance provider Swiftcover.
There has been talk of a new generation of speed cameras supporting these new zones, though a safety campaigner from Exeter was unsure as to whether the cameras were the best way forward. A 20 mph zone would be in area where there are going to be children it would be thought, so the placing of speed cameras would actually take drivers eyes away from the road and onto their speedometers, thus negating the point of the zone in the first place.
An alternative view was put forward by a county councillor who felt speed cameras would be better than traffic calming measures, feeling they would be more effective.
