Tag Archives: car safety

buying a new car

Ford Mustang falters on NCAP safety front

As you might expect, FOXY keeps an eye on the latest car safety features and reliability ratings.

In fact, Club research confirms that these two topics are at the top of most female car shoppers shortlist alongside affordability and environmental factors.

But these all figure a long way ahead of performance ratings (why would we need to know top speeds when we can’t drive that fast?) assuming there’s enough engine oomph to get us out of trouble, where needed.

So we’re fairly au fait with the likes of Euro NCAP ratings and delighted to see new safety control features like Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) increasingly becoming standards.

We read what Thatcham Research has to say about car safety in particular because they are the independent automotive research centre and the voice of Euro NCAP in the UK. And they tell us that there are safer sports car choices than the current Ford Mustang.

“We have not given a Two Star Euro NCAP rating to any of the top 10 car brands since 2008”, confirms Matthew Avery, Director of Research at Thatcham Research.

“We have concerns about the Ford Mustang’s crash protection of adults and children which also makes it unsuitable for having rear passengers. On top of this, it does not have basic life-saving technology like Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) that is available even on the Ford Fiesta, and the recently launched Ford Edge.

“Ford has made a deliberate choice here. Only minor updates have been made to meet required European (pedestrian) safety regulations which has resulted in poor adult and child protection scores and the high tech radar collision warning system that is available to US consumers is not being made available here in the UK.”

Avoid the 2 star Ford Mustang

A 2 star rating provides nominal crash protection but lacking crash avoidance technology. So you can expect Ford to put this area right for the UK market as soon as possible.

As things stand, the reasons for the poor 2 star Euro NCAP rating include

1. The frontal offset test – where the airbags of both the driver and passenger inflated insufficiently to properly restrain the occupants.

2. The full-width frontal test – where a lack of rear seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters meant that the rear passenger slid under the seatbelt, implying higher risk of abdominal injuries in real life accidents.

3. The side impact crash – where the head of the 10-year dummy contacted the interior trim, bottoming out the curtain airbag.

Wait for the new Ford Mustang later this year

Best to wait to buy the next version of the Mustang because Ford says that a face-lifted Mustang will be available within Europe later this year with Pre-Collision Assist and Lane Keep Assist as standard.

At that stage Euro NCAP will test the safety of this updated model and keep us posted.

NB: Other sports roadster cars better rated by Euro NCAP over the past few years include the Audi TT, BMW Z4 and Mazda MX-5.

Five star Volvo is the ultimate automotive safety brand

In contrast, the Volvo S90 and V90 received Five Star Euro NCAP ratings recently as a result of their class leading safety features. Both follow the safety performance trend of the XC90, with excellent occupant protection, a full suite of AEB functionality that includes pedestrian and cyclist crash prevention technology as well as its unique system that is capable of identifying large animals in the car’s path.

The S90 and V90 results surpass the best overall score of any model tested in 2016 and Euro NCAP’s top-3 best performing cars ever are all now Volvos.

I’d certainly have expected Ford to retain these safety tips from Volvo during their business partnership but clearly US standards are at variance to European ones. Let’s hope the UK retains Euro NCAP standards here, post Brexit.
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FOXY Footnote:

When we buy an expensive new car we expect it to be safe and reliable as a minimum. Which begs the question why any motorist would buy any car if they realised it was significantly less safe (or less reliable) than other brand new models?

How do motorists sleep at night when their buying decision ignores safety concerns that COULD ultimately affect their family members, other motorists and pedestrians?

As you can see, some car brands, such as Volvo, fare better than most others in terms of car safety.

Which is why we’re delighted to have an affinity scheme in place for Club members with Volvo, so they can benefit from truly advantageous discounts to bring their fabulous brand new (safe, stylish and innovative) car models into the affordable reach of more women drivers than ever before.

Terms and conditions apply, as explained in the detail of our affinity car buying schemes at the Club website.

FOXY

buying a new car

FOXY reviews the new Ford Fiesta

A FOXY Lady Car Review by Jill Woolf

carreview

I love driving, I like cars and I write for a living so when I was offered the chance to do some new car reviews for FOXY Lady Drivers Club, I jumped at the chance.

What could be better than sampling the latest models, designs, shapes and colours the motoring world has to offer?

And after reading up about the new Eco-Boost 1.0l Fiesta that’s so economic to run but without sacrificing engine power, I was keen to find out more. Just don’t ask me how Ford manages to do this but my test drive convinced me I was driving a car with a really powerful engine despite my preconceptions based on the engine size.

But, dear reader, please don’t expect any more than this from me about the internal workings of the engine or those complex on-board computers. Despite being fairly street-savvy, I am still one of those women who benefit from FOXY’s Women in the Driving Seat evenings where the garage or dealer shows you what’s actually under the bonnet and what to do with it!

But how times have moved on for Ford since my first car, a Ford Escort, and the many unhappy hours I seemed to spend in repair shops after silly prangs, where the proprietors seemed to take delight in patronising me. Let’s face it I was young, naive and totally inexperienced at the time. FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s female friendly advice wasn’t even a glint in Steph’s eye back then.

Good looks

Ford_Fiesta_Redesigned_Grill_and_Headlights (1)So you can imagine my surprise and delight when I collected my new Fiesta 1.0 Eco-Boost Fiesta from Birchwood Ford in Eastbourne and saw how much Ford has improved the exterior design, making this particular model look very sporty and jazzy.

The car I drove was in shiny metallic Panther Black (grrr…), which also helped!

The front grille, alloy wheels and almost coupé-like side and rear view make this new Fiesta a really good-looking super-mini; one to be proud to be seen in.

Value for money

This being a FOXY review, it’s important to look at the finances of course. I was particularly impressed by the Eco-Boost Fiesta’s fuel economy recording an average 65.7 mpg as well as a free VED (road tax) bill because of its remarkably low C02 emissions. The mpg ratings are affected by the Stop Start feature which means the car isn’t using fuel when you’re sitting at traffic lights or in a traffic jam yet the moment you touch the throttle it powers up immediately.

These are all important considerations in today’s economy when looking at the cost of running cars, not just the cost of buying one. I’d also add the reassurance that comes with buying a trusted Ford, as illustrated in the Reliability Index (see below), knowing that low running costs will add to your car’s resale value when the time comes to buy the next new one.

Driving performance

fiesta_jill_zoe_1332This gem of a car drives beautifully too. The latest in engine technology means it happily and economically purrs along and the Eco-Boost model slips effortlessly into gear to overtake or meet the challenges of a hill, even with a full load of passengers when we visited the ETC exhibition in Brighton.

It really is a delightful ride; the chunky leather sporty steering wheel feels fantastic and the front bucket seats have electric heating, meaning you just don’t want to get out of it on a cold day.

This car handles brilliantly and corners masterfully.

The practicalities

The modern, updated dashboard not only looks good but is actually easy to use once it’s explained. The friendly sales executive at Birchwood went through every button and widget with me (what a contrast to customer service levels I remembered of old) and I found the Bluetooth connection with my mobile phone easy to operate.

The car comes with parking sensors and a rear view camera (always useful), crystal-clear-sounding radio and CD player, power automatically retractable side mirrors (a boon if you have a narrow garage or when you park on a busy street), a mirror which dims when there’s a car with headlights on behind, heated front windscreen, rain sensor lights and a great black leather interior.

There is a full size spare tyre, not one of those slim-line versions, and the tools for dealing with a puncture are all neatly stored under the tyre.

If I had to find faults, I’d say that for an average height person it’s a little short on legroom in the back, the glove compartment could be bigger, the boot didn’t have the storage bins I’m used to and there’s nowhere easily accessible or safe to store a large handbag! Having said that, the back seats are easy to fold down for extra shopping space, to carry a baby buggy or wheelchair, perhaps.

Ford Emergency Assistance is included for my peace of mind and I should add that the older Fiesta came out No 1 out of 100 in the Reliability Index which augurs well in terms of running and servicing costs in future.

I really enjoyed test driving the Fiesta Eco-Boost but it’s flagged something up I wasn’t expecting – a simmering desire to buy a brand new car.

Watch this space for more reviews as I go through my car buying homework with you in the near future.

Jill Woolf

FOXY FACTS

Model: Ford Fiesta 1.0 Eco-boost 125 PS Stop Start 5 door.
RRP: The new Fiesta range starts from £9795. The EcoBoost model we drove costs £17045 plus £495 for the Panther Black metallic paint.
Buying discounts: See Ford’s website http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/CarPromotions/Overview. Offers subject to availability and terms.
Fuel economy: MPG is Urban 53.3, Extra Urban 76.4 and Combined 65.7mpg.
Insurance group: 16E.
Road tax/VED: Nil
Safety: 5 Star Euro NCap rating (2012) incorporating Adult, Child, Pedestrian and Safety Assist tests.
Reliability: Number One in the Top 100 cars chart in the Reliability Index.
Environmental C02 rating: 99gsm.

NB: FOXY is expressing personal views and opinions here. Please read this as part of your own car buying homework and test drive experience related to your family needs and expectations.

women drivers

Strategic uses of hairspray at times of stress

BBC Sussex contacted us recently to ask about instances of road rage and I was able to tell him Jill’s story as we’d discussed this at a previous networking evening.

She was happy to be interviewed about this subsequently and you can hear what she said on the Danny Pike show here.

The point is that the man in question clearly had a superiority and gender complex when it came to motoring. As he saw it, he was in the right at the Shoreham roundabout, and it sounds as if the fact that the other driver was female just added fuel to his fury. In our experience he isn’t alone in this attitude, much as some motorists associate bad driving with little old men wearing hats, many men automatically conclude that any suspect driving behaviour must mean a female driver whereas the problem may well lie with our misguided perceptions in the first place.

In this instance this bias affected his driving ability and, potentially, the safety of a queue of motorists in his wake.

Having lured Jill into the welcome relief of seeing him head for a different exit at the next roundabout (some 5 miles later) he then turned tail and followed her into Steyning. So he was now behind her rather than in front which is a more worrying scenario.

Fortunately Jill could remember the good advice we’d both been given at a Women In Gear Ladies Dealership evening at West Sussex Kia earlier this year. In short, never drive to your home because he’ll then know where you live. Much better to pull into a well lit and busy forecourt where others are or drive to a Police Station you know will be open (which may be trickier in future, what with the cuts…).

And most importantly, have a pen and paper handy so you can write down the registration number – you’ll have to memorise it of course and keep repeating it until you can stop safely and write it down. This means you can then report him to the Police as Jill did. And should the worst come to the worst, or you are accosted in a car park you can’t easily escape from, make sure you know how to lock yourself in your car or have something to defend yourself if he gets too close.

Such as a spray of sorts it was suggested. Hairspray anyone? Ideal for hair emergencies first and foremost – but it’s always good to be prepared just in case…

FOXY

garage services

Is your garage good enough?

Car safety is a topic I feel passionately about and few motorists understand that their garage choice could well be a matter of life and death. Choose a bad garage by accident and you could be compromising your family safety.

Last week a mystery shopping exercise (involving 62 cars with pre-existing faults) carried out by consumer watchdog Which? found ‘shocking levels of incompetence’ and ‘inexcusable dishonesty’ in UK garages where only 8 garages did the job properly and 90% missed at least one potentially dangerous fault.

Shocking yes but no surprises for those of us who know that UK garages aren’t licensed, mechanics don’t have to be qualified, many garages aren’t up to the job and are overcharging us by baffling us into forking out.

If you’d like to know what your best garages are by all means read the Good Garage Guide at FOXY Choice’s website. Where in doubt (and it’s a minefield I’m afraid), pick an ATA qualified mechanic over another whether in an independent, fast fit or main dealership garage. He or she has to stay up to date with the latest best practice, is tested every five years and has signed an ethical Code of Practice.

And don’t trust well-intentioned recommendations from friends; they’re usually based on the friendly welcome there – what you need is evidence of measurable quality of workmanship first of all, such as a professionally qualified mechanic.

You should also remember the following findings from the Which? exercise, that…

Even the best performing garage group (Bosch Car Service) failed to find 36% of faults

Garages from the Good Garage Scheme (don’t be deceived by the name – this is a B2B scheme to sell Forte engine flushing oils to garages, not to identify the best garages by any measurable indicators) performed worst of all, finding just 39% of simple pre-existing faults.

Yes, it’s a lottery out there with your life and purse at risk.

Be aware too that if you opt for a much publicised Motor Codes subscriber, odds are you’ll be directed into a dealership* (the code sponsor here is the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders representing manufacturers and their dealers) where you’ll pay more than you would to a measurably good independent garage. Motor Codes subscribers found 60% of the faults in the Which? Shopping exercise by the way.
*as at 30 August 2010 and using a 5 mile radius; in Glasgow 2 of the 58 subscribers are independent garages, the rest are dealerships; in Manchester 7 are independents out of 47; in Birmingham 5 are independents out of 45; in London 10 are independents out of 43; in Bristol 13 are independents out of 43; in Southampton 5 are independents out of 38; in Exeter 4 are independents out of 30.

Having studied garage safety standards all ways up I can’t see any other solution, after 60+ years of the industry failing to put its own house in order, than full blown Government regulation. We deserve qualified garage mechanics and retail garages (including fast fits and dealerships) that are regularly inspected.

The argument is that regulation will be expensive and the motorist will pay in the end but what price our lives in dangerous cars? And let’s see the cost facts within the context of motorists getting ripped off as the Which? exercise confirms is happening today.

I imagine someone knows how many of the massive number of annual garage complaints are to do with overcharging practices.

If you take anything away from reading this blog I hope it will be to do your homework seriously before choosing a local garage in future. And check out the local one you use, just because it’s convenient.

FOXY

Find out about UK garages that have signed the female friendly FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need.’

road safety

Is your car as safe as it should be?

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