Posts Tagged ‘car safety’

Is your car as safe as it should be?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

ONE than five million motorists are driving dangerous cars says leading breakdown service Britannia Rescue. Its survey found that

  • The most common faults were worn tyres, defective brakes and faulty exhaust pipes. It goes without saying that worn tyres and faulty brakes cause accidents and could lead to a motorist being held responsible for injuries caused to another.
  • One in five drivers had known about the fault on their vehicle for more than six months but not bothered to do anything about it.
  • One in three said they could not afford to fix the problem whereas one in 10 said they did not have time to get their car repaired, neither of which would be an excuse in law if they caused an accident and someone was injured or killed.
  • Some 5% of vehicles in need of repair had broken or missing wing mirrors, while about the same number had broken head or tail lights.

Steph Savill of female friendly marketing service FOXY Choice suspects that some motorists have become complacent about their cars, imagining that if they are fairly new they are probably safe.

“Just as the recent vehicle recalls by so many manufacturers tell us, even nearly new cars can have serious safety issues and we mustn’t treat our cars like household appliances, doing little to take care of them and expecting to throw them away when they get old. Even those of us who are competent at checking our car’s tyres, oil and water levels can miss important safety concerns because we don’t have the professional eye to spot the unusual.”

Steph recommends that all motorists have their cars checked by garage professionals on a regular basis and explains that

“A dangerous car can cause a serious accident that could kill or seriously injure the driver, passengers, pedestrians and the occupants of other cars. Those who own a poorly maintained car may find that their insurer withdraws cover if it can be proven that the accident was caused because the car owner had neither carried out regular maintenance nor had it serviced often enough.”

Find out where the good and female friendly garages are in your area.

Find out how women drivers can save money on everyday motoring bills including garage charges.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in cost of motoring, green motoring, marketing to women, road safety | No Comments »

Commiserations to Toyota and their drivers

Friday, February 5th, 2010

I am sorry to hear of Toyota’s problems at present – we know they are an organisation committed to quality and that they are not the only car manufacturers with cars to recall and serious safety issues to address.

I was taken aback to read that the adult family who died in the Lexus with the accelerator stuck on had the time to call the US equivalent of 999 but did not necessarily know to brake, declutch or switch the engine off… until it was too late.  Perhaps the driver was too scared or perhaps these remedial actions didn’t work?

I heard Toyota UK’s MD on R4’s Today programme this morning and he coped well with some awful questions like ‘Can you give us a cast iron guarantee that Toyota cars are 100% reliable…’ How can anyone be expected to answer such a question in these circumstances?

Let’s hope the recall process is speedy for all concerned and that this message reaches any secondhand Toyota car owners who might be affected but not on the manufacturer or dealership mailing lists.

Of course Toyota will do all it can to sort this out as soon as possible and of course other drivers will be fearful until their car is checked.

And whilst Toyota is taking the public flak, Honda is recalling cars and so is PSA but without the media spotlight on them.

But perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from being the recently largest global car manufacturer in a beleaguered industry and needing to keep an eye on the share price.  During the latter part of 2008 I read in a trade publication that Toyota was planning to introduce ten new models into the UK market in 2009 – not good timing with the benefit of hindsight.

I don’t think they all did come to market but it was clear to me then that the strategy was for new product development not the status quo.  And whilst quality and reliability have been Toyota’s strengths for many years I understand that the accelerator problem is caused due to changes made to their ABS system so one has to wonder whether the new systems were well enough tested pre new model release. Or if a degree of complacency might have crept in somewhere…

If you were to ask me which manufacturer would be most likely to have safety and reliability at the top of the agenda then I’d refer to the Reliability Index where Toyota appears in fourth position behind Suzuki, Honda and Mazda and well ahead of the likes of Ford, Vauxhall and BMW.

Too soon to measure the cost (£ billions are estimated) but the customer awareness and reassurance campaign that will undoubtedly follow will be every bit as important as the vehicle checks and remedial work to rebuild the customer trust that was part of the Toyota brand.

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Better consumer communications needed

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Apparently women drivers aged 25 to 35 are the worst at keeping their cars in good condition according to a recent survey carried out by Bridgestone Tyres. This is particularly worrying because this age group is more likely than others to have children in their cars at some time.

I wonder if they surveyed female students as these are some of the motorists we find are looking to cut corners for financial reasons.

We are told that motorists in Nottingham are notorious for failing to maintain vehicles well yet Leeds leads the way in car maintenance.

In Nottingham, one in three drivers regularly fails to service their car while other “bad” regions include Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich and Sheffield.

Seven years ago our daughter was fleeced by a garage in Nottingham – this was the catalyst for my business, FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

None of this surprises me but I am disappointed that the retail motor industry has failed to get a stronger message across that a badly maintained (and serviced) car of any age is less safe, less green, less reliable and more expensive to run in the end.

I’d also want more motorists to understand that a professional eye is better than an amateur doing her (or his) best with car maintenance AND that a bad garage does not mean a good car service.

One area that I’d want to look at is the increasingly attractive sales promise that a new car needs fewer services… as the intervals in between lengthen. Yes this is good news for the fleet buyer but how are they checking that their car is being maintained in between? Lots of motorists/businesses think that an U3 year old car doesn’t need much maintenance in between servicing and few know how to choose one of the best local garages.

Maybe the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will start to make these points, now that companies can be held liable in law if negligence can be proved or if an employer has failed to demonstrate a duty of care to their employees using their private cars for business use.

Imagine a situation where a female employee whose private car is insured for regular travelling to and from her work (in addition to the normal domestic, social and pleasure cover) and is involved in an accident as a result of her badly maintained car. How long will it be before the claiming solicitors look to the employer for settlement under this Act?

Makes sound sense for them to subscribe to FOXY’s corporate membership solution and get quarterly car checks, a friendly helpdesk and professional legal motor claims advice and fees I’d have said…

FOXY Steph

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Posted in buying a new car, motoring, women, women drivers | No Comments »

Car safety question mark

Friday, May 9th, 2008

A recent survey confirmed that 1 in 5 cars failed their first MOT in Britain.

That doesn’t surprise me as few motorists, female and male, seem to do regular maintenance or visit local garages as often as they might. Only recently my next door neighbour found she had run her ’special’ 3 year old VW tyres flat and paid £400+ for a new set (after two years of not checking them at all). She was not a FOXY member then btw…

What concerns me most is the genuine possibility of existing MOT rules being slackened from a 3 year old first MOT test thence yearly (referred to as 3:1:1) to the EU model of a 4 year old first MOT test then biennial tests (referred to as 4:2:2).

Knowing that so few of us, women and men drivers alike, check our tyres regularly, let alone the performance of our brakes, or economic/environmental indicators like oil levels, this would be an all round bad thing in my opinion. I am seriously surprised that little seems to have been made of this whilst the UK’s back door seems still open to this EU approach…

Perhaps this is because those of us who trust others to know best (as many women do in a male-oriented and often female-unfriendly industry) will welcome a financial save of the test fee, £50.35, in tough economic times, without any thought to possible safety consequences…

I recall that the only EU country to do worse than us in this respect was Spain which could support the theory that if left a further year ie tested at 4 not 3 years old, more cars will be less safe and potentially more dangerous; never mind the added environmental considerations of all poorly maintained cars.

There is a sense that today’s cars are safer than they used to be and that young cars don’t need much servicing or maintenance. Certainly longer intervals between servicing means lower running costs to vital car fleet operators YET commonsense tells us that a poorly maintained car is inevitably less safe, less green, less reliable and less economic to run than one that has been loved, whatever its age.

Shameless FOXY plug – Realising this, what we do is encourage women driving cars [of all ages, women and cars ;-) ] to claim FREE green and safety car fitness checks as part of their membership; these check tyres, oil levels, lights, emissions, brake fluid levels and so on, working with Bosch Car Service across the country. For details see http://www.foxyladydrivers.com/freegreenchecks.php

There are now moves afoot to either progress this EU 4:2:2 route or park it once and for all.

Dear Gordon – please see the BIG picture here and support the 3:1:1 route for UK motorists and garage jobs alike – it’s dangerous enough out there as it is and the standard of MOT centres is better policed than ever before.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in green motoring, motoring, women, women drivers | No Comments »