Search Results for: cars

BY PHILIP FINE

THE EUROPEAN Commission is promoting new hi-tech vehicle accident reduction inventions in a new report Research on Integrated Safety Systems for Improving Road Safety in Europe. It details the activities of its joint group in high-tech accident prevention, including industry and public sector members, who are trying to fulfill the European Union’s goal of reducing road fatalities by 50 per cent by the year 2010.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union energy Commissioner Philippe Busquin has announced that his European Commission directorate-general establish a so-called High Level Group on hydrogen. This group of experts will be tasked with drawing up a strategy to boost the development and use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, especially for cars.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH investors have been given the opportunity to help produce the world’s first air powered car.

French inventor Guy Nègre and his company Moteur Development International (MDI) unveiled their concept to industry and Government officials in September (20th), hopeful of establishing manufacturing units in the UK.…

BY PHILIP FINE

US automakers have hit a setback in their attempt to stave off soaring

legal

costs over thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits.

An appeals court in Philadelphia has thrown

out a request by several companies to be named as ‘related parties’

in the bankruptcy of auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul Global Inc.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a research project examining the benefits and problems of cars using daytime running lights, as is common practice in Canada. It has issued tenders for research teams to bid for a contract to examine how they reduce accidents, including crashes with pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN IMPROVED restraint system for new child safety seats has been made

mandatory in American cars since last week (Sept 1, 2002). The restraints,

a top tether and a lower set of attachments, operate independently of the

vehicle seat belt and adapt to recent government-mandated safety changes to the main body of cars.…

JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH motorists buy brand new cars for their reliability and warranty, as well as the prestige of owning a new model, a recent survey has revealed.

Other top reasons for buying a brand new car, according to a poll carried out by Virgin Cars, were the small price differences between new and one-year-old used vehicles, as well as the opportunity to pick and choose the exact colour, trim and other features.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
VEHICLE thefts from rental customers in Britain reached their highest level for six years last year, according to new figures from British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA). Its annual report has revealed thieves are targeting car keys in order to bypass security systems.…

BY ALAN OSBORN AND PHILIP FINE

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s competition authority has cleared the purchase

by General Motors of a series of production and sales outlets of the South

Korean car manufacturer Daewoo.

GM is to acquire some of Daewoo’s production facilities for passenger cars

and light commercial vehicles in Korea and Vietnam together with sales

subsidiaries in Austria, the Benelux region, (Belgium, Netherlands and

Luxembourg), France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
FIVE YEARS since it was first proposed, the End-of-Life (ELV) Vehicle Directive has just about made it to the statute books of a handful of EU member states. A directive both controversial and complex, it was maybe surprising, if a little disappointing, that the deadline of April 21, 2002 for transposition went by without a single EU country passing legislation.…