Category: Automotive

Scrap Your Petrol Car for an EV? Does the Claim Actually Add Up?

A provocative new study says replacing even a nearly new petrol car with an EV can reduce carbon emissions. The maths is credible, but real cars, real owners and the global motor industry make the answer more complicated

Imagine you own a perfectly good petrol car. It works, it is reliable and it might be only a year or two old. According to a startling new scientific study, the environmentally responsible thing could be to scrap it and buy a brand-new electric car. Yes, really. New Scientist summed up the finding with the wonderfully provocative headline: “It’s good for the planet to scrap a new petrol car and buy electric.”

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UK Speeding Laws Explained: The Myths That Could Cost You Your Licence

Speeding Lawyer reveals how not to get banned
Do cameras have to be yellow? Is “10% plus 2” really law? Motoring lawyer Jeremy Sirrell separates UK speeding law from motoring folklore and explains the mistakes that could cost drivers their licences

Do speed cameras have to be yellow? Is the famous “10% plus 2 mph” allowance actually written into law? Can you briefly exceed the limit while overtaking, or argue that a 20 mph restriction is absurd for the road? Speeding law inspires more folklore than almost any other part of motoring. Unfortunately, repeating something confidently in a pub, owners’ club or WhatsApp group does not turn it into a defence.

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Car Wars: America Profits, Europe Falters, Has China Already Won?

The Car Wars

Detroit is rediscovering the immense profits in petrol-powered trucks, Europe is cutting jobs and cherished models while funding a painful transition, and China is building electric cars at a scale and price the old guard cannot match. Who is winning the Car Wars?

Have you seen the news from the car industry lately? There is a very clear trend emerging, and it looks like some have played a solid hand while others are flailing about trying to find a way out of the quagmire. Or is this really a rabbit and tortoise situation?

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Every Speed Camera Explained: How Do They Catch You?

speed cameras explained
From the traditional Gatso to the AI ‘RoboCop’ traffic cameras – what are they, how do they work, what can you do?

Think you know what a speed camera looks like? The familiar yellow box beside a British road is only the beginning. Around the world, cameras can hide inside parked vans, monitor six motorway lanes, calculate your speed over several miles, distinguish a lorry from a car and even observe traffic from the air.

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China’s £7,000 Classic Car Body Shells: Brilliant, Fake or Unsafe?

Chinese classic car body shells
A vast factory in China is stamping brand-new bodies and panels for the Toyota AE86, Datsun 240Z, Ford Bronco and other classics. It could save the cars petrolheads love, but what about quality, identity, legality and safety?

Imagine ordering a brand-new Toyota AE86 bodyshell for around £7,000. Fresh steel, a perfect floor, an unblemished roof and not a single crusty sill, suspicious patch or wheelarch apparently reconstructed from newspaper, filler and the lid of an old biscuit tin.

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Geely Starray EM-i Hybrid Review: The Cut-Price Volvo Alternative?

Geely Starray EM-i review
With up to 84 miles of electric range, premium aspirations and prices from under £30,000, Geely’s latest plug-in hybrid SUV is taking aim at established rivals with remarkable confidence

Geely is one of the world’s largest automotive groups, owner of Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, LEVC (maker of London’s new hybrid black taxis) and nearly a 10 per cent stake in Mercedes-Benz, so it already knows a thing or two about building desirable cars. The question is whether that expertise has filtered down into the new Geely Starray EM-i, a plug-in hybrid SUV that arrives in the UK with bold claims, impressive specifications and pricing that looks incredibly competitive.

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Exclusive First Look: MG’s Bold New Future! GO! Hatch, Cyber SUV and Self-Driving Tech Revealed

MG tech Day Go! Concept Cyber Concept
Ahead of their global debut, I got exclusive access to MG’s future plans, including two striking new concept cars, next-generation hybrid technology, semi-solid-state batteries and autonomous driving systems that could soon be reversing themselves out of dead ends

If you still think MG is simply the company making affordable electric family cars, think again. I was invited to MG’s London headquarters for an exclusive technology preview, and what unfolded wasn’t merely another product presentation. It was a statement of intent. From a cheeky little electric hatch that wears its British heritage proudly on its sleeve, to a dramatic performance SUV concept, plus a roadmap for hybrid powertrains, semi-solid-state batteries and autonomous driving, MG is making it abundantly clear that it wants to be seen as far more than just a value brand.

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The Future of Motoring: Driverless Cars vs Restomods. Has Driving Become So Miserable We’re Ready to Give It Up?

Driverless Cars vs Restomods
Artificial intelligence is bringing us closer than ever to autonomous cars, yet at exactly the same time classic cars and restomods are booming. Coincidence? I don’t think so

The other day I found myself driving around London. Well, “driving” might be stretching the definition somewhat because most of the time you’re crawling along, staring at the back of somebody else’s hatchback while trying to remember whether this particular road is still 30mph, has become 20mph, or was quietly changed last Tuesday while you weren’t looking. And it got me thinking that perhaps the future of motoring isn’t going to be electric versus petrol, hydrogen versus batteries or even SUVs versus saloons. Perhaps the real battle is going to be something entirely different. Perhaps the future is going to be driverless cars versus restomods. Bear with me, because the more I thought about it, the more it actually started to make sense.

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STOP Buying Premium Petrol! You’re Wasting Your Money… Unless Your Car Really Needs It

Think premium petrol is always better for your car? For most drivers, that’s one of the biggest and most expensive motoring myths around.

Every day, millions of motorists pull into petrol stations across Britain, glance at the pumps and make a decision that feels sensible. “I’ll treat the car to the premium stuff.” After all, it costs more, so surely it must be better? Well… not necessarily.

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