Aug 10, 2016
If we’d talked about car WiFi a decade ago, it would have sounded like the stuff of science fiction. However, it helps to keep in mind the fact that ten years ago nobody had yet laid eyes on an iPhone or iPad!
The world is very different now; These devices are ubiquitous. For many, they’ve changed road travel in all kinds of ways. Consider the following:
- Many people now use their smartphone as their key satellite navigation device.
- Many individuals also store music on their phones, or use Internet streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify as their main source of music. The “iPod input” of 2006 is now more than likely to be used as an input for a smartphone.
- Families often use Internet-connected devices to provide entertainment during long journeys. An iPad with access to streaming movies or a Kindle book can make such road trips far less stressful, as many parents will surely attest.
With all this in mind, it actually makes complete sense to have WiFi in the car when traveling. While a smartphone with data connectivity is useful to a point, it’s not much use to a family, who may all want their own connectivity for different devices. Furthermore, unlimited WiFi on smartphone tariffs is increasingly rare, and will soon add up if multiple people are all using data at once.
How to get Car WiFi
New cars are starting to appear with onboard Internet hotspots, but it’s just as easy to add one to an existing vehicle.
Essentially, all you need is a router for mobile broadband. These connect to the Internet using the same cellular network as your mobile phone, but also create a mobile hotspot that multiple passengers can connect to. For example, your passenger can stream music to the car stereo while your kids watch YouTube videos on their tablets in the back.
While any 4G router will serve the purpose to a point, devices have started to appear that are specifically designed for car WiFi use. One example is the Buzzard 2 device from EE (pictured). As you can see, this is designed to plug directly into a cigarette lighter socket in order to stay powered. Passengers just connect to it like any other WiFi hotspot.
Taking Things Further
Something like the Buzzard device is great for UK travel, but can get rather expensive if you travel further afield. Some of the tariffs available at the time of writing include some EU roaming data, but only 100MB’s worth.
This may sound like a lot but it’s really not – it actually amounts to about 10 mins of YouTube playback! It’s therefore not an awful lot of use if you’re planning a road trip through Europe (or elsewhere) unless you’re prepared to pay a lot of extra charges.
Another option is to take a look at a company called MIOWIFI. This firm does things rather differently, offering a service they describe as “portable WiFi for travellers.”
Essentially, MIOWIFI uses mobile broadband routers just like traditional providers. This is basically the same technology we’ve already talked about above. However, they’ve geared their service specifically to travellers to over 110 countries, who wish to avoid those roaming charges everyone dreads. The other most significant difference is that MIOWIFI rent out their devices as well as selling them.
The idea of this is that you can borrow a device for the duration of a holiday or business trip. When you arrive you switch on, connect to a local cellular provider, and have unlimited data to share with up to ten people.
This means you can, for example, hire a device, fly to the USA, and switch it on in your hire car to give yourself and your family unlimited car WiFi abroad. Prices range from £4 to £8 per day. When you’re done you post the device back to them.
Taking the Internet with you
It’s worth noting the MIOWIFI device isn’t only intended for car WiFi. You can use it wherever you want. So, you can use it (in the UK or abroad) in the car, in hotels, in rental properties and anywhere else. If you consider what it can sometimes cost to hook up to WiFi whilst travelling (and how pitifully slow this can sometimes be), the prices are really rather low when you consider that up to ten people can connect at once.
If you think about it, MIOWIFI is actually worth consideration for a UK holiday too. The reason being that traditional mobile Internet plans often have data caps and long contracts. If you only go on one or two long road trips each year, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay when you’re not using the device – and pay as you go options are never unlimited.
As you can see, there are plenty of options for car WiFi, but MIOWIFI does provide an interesting and slightly different proposition, especially if you want an absolute guarantee you won’t get hit by roaming charges abroad. Parents who rely on Kindles and tablets to make long journeys tolerable could find renting one of these devices makes the road trip part of the summer holidays more enjoyable than they thought possible!
Jul 15, 2016
The VW diesel emissions scandal may not be hitting the headlines so much nowadays, but it still rumbles on, with the aftermath costing Volkswagen something in the region of £12 Billion. For those unaware of what happened, it emerged in September 2015 that VW had used “defeat software” to cheat tests and provide unrealistic data on fuel economy and emissions data, resulting in a huge scandal and a queue of millions of VW owners expecting recompense.
On the other side of the Atlantic, American owners of affected VW diesel cars are each being financially compensated, to the tune up to $10,000 (£7,400 at current exchange rates). US owners also have the option of having their vehicle repaired or having it “bought back” by VW.
Now, according to a BBC report, it’s emerged that British VW diesel owners aren’t in line for anything like the same deal. The 200,000 affected people are merely being offered a free repair job – something the report suggests around a quarter of the owners have taken VW up on so far.
Blame for this inferior deal, which MPs have described as “deeply unfair,” is being placed on government inaction. The Transport Committee feel that the government has “lacked the will to hold VW accountable for its actions.”
Will the scandal spread beyond VW diesel cars?
A question that’s arisen frequently since the scandal broke is whether it would emerge that other manufacturers were implicated in similar tactics to cheat emissions tests. This possibility is also explored in the BBC article referred to above.
A detailed report last month suggested that diesels from a host of manufacturers could be significantly more polluting in colder weather conditions, due to software configurations that allow more emissions in inclement weather. Due to “loopholes” in EU laws, it’s thought that manufacturers have found ways to get around this without breaking any rules. However, it means – just as before – that these cars are throwing out far more pollution that they were ever supposed to on paper.
Between 2017 and 2021, European regulations are going to get much tougher on emissions. The unfortunate problem here is that significant environmental damage has been (and is being) done in the interim period.
Jun 28, 2016
Now we all know that the nation has voted to leave the EU, our thoughts turn to what the implications could be for “Brexit motoring.”
As per our last news item, petrol and diesel prices are widely expected to rise, at least in the short term – something people are already beginning to see (although not yet to the level some people predicted). However, there’s far more to motoring than the cost of fuel.
Many media outlets and national newspapers have begun to discuss other implications for UK drivers, so we thought it would make sense to give some space to some of the theories and suppositions. It’s very important to remember that when it comes to Brexit motoring, even the most informed opinion can only really be described as speculation at this stage.
No formal “Brexit” negotiations have yet taken place, so our exact relationship with most of mainland Europe is yet to be determined. However, it is possible to consider some of the EU’s current impacts on motorists and get a good idea of what could change.
Brexit Motoring: Insurance
Car insurance is arguably the thing that will be most affected by our planned withdrawal from the European Union, for a couple of reasons. One headline theory is that it could actually get cheaper – at least according to some pundits.
Why IS this? Well at the moment, it’s mandatory for UK car insurance policies to provide for a minimum level of legal cover when cars are driven in EU countries. If we’re no longer part of the EU, it’s possible that insurance companies could pass on the savings in not having to provide this cover, in the form of lower premiums.
However, this will mean that those who do wish to drive on the continent will have to pay separately (as many drivers already do to ensure a comprehensive level of cover) – and if we’re not part of the EU, these extra insurance costs could be high. So, reading between the lines we have a speculative advantage for drivers who never drive outside Britain, and a potential extra cost for those who do.
There’s more: As explained in a This is Money report, a law changed back in 2012 following an EU ruling, preventing insurance companies from offering cheaper policies to drivers based on their gender. This saw the end of a trend that was allowing (statistically safer) female drivers to pay less for car insurance than men. If an independent UK decides not to maintain this legal provision, we could see cheaper insurance for women once again, but probably more expensive insurance for men.
Driving in Europe Post Brexit
As (contrary to the understanding of many) the UK has never been part of the borderless Schengen zone, there have always been passport controls between the UK and mainland Europe (the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland being an exception).
As such, this part of driving in and out of Europe will remain unchanged, whatever is eventually decided regarding freedom of movement. However, once we leave the EU, we will no longer be able to fill our cars with cases of wine and cheap tobacco. It will likely be possible to buy small amounts at even lower prices, but within the same strict limits that apply to true “duty-free” purchases in places like Australia and the USA.
Ensuring these limits are adhered to is likely to make crossing out of Europe rather more arduous and time-consuming than it is now, but this change could be offset by fewer people crossing these borders once the “booze cruise” days are over.
Unless other European countries leave the EU, road laws will remain consistent. However once Britain is no longer part of the EU, the country may well choose to amend some motoring laws on this side of the Channel.
Brexit and the Car Industry
The impact Brexit may have on car manufacturing, and the car industry in general, is where things become really speculative. As you will know if you watched any of the pre-Brexit debates, the car industry was used repeatedly by both campaigns as a political tool to influence voters.
It’s too early to speculate on what might happen regarding manufacturing (even though plenty of newspapers are attempting to!) Until Brexit negotiations are well underway, it’s almost impossible to accurately predict whether manufacturers might move factories or whether the EU may impose trade tariffs.
However, we can still have a think about what could happen to car prices in the short to medium term. According to the same report referred to above, The RAC believe there’s “little evidence” that buying a car will become any more pricey. This is referring to the interim period while negotiations get underway.
After Brexit is complete, things could change; If we don’t negotiate a good trade deal, car prices could go up, resulting in cars here costing more than in mainland Europe. Toyota is one manufacturer who’s been open about this.
Also, while there’s not yet been any sign that interest rates will rise (and, in fact, speculation that they could fall yet further), if they do go up it could mean that car finance deals get a little more expensive.
Brexit Motoring Conclusion
You’ll notice we’ve been very cautious to only summarise some of the most common theories relating to Brexit motoring. It’s well worth emphasising that a huge number of factors remain up in the air at the time of writing, so informed speculation is the best we (or indeed anyone else) can offer. Whatever happens, nothing’s going to change particularly quickly at this point.
Jun 24, 2016
Whether you stayed up all night to watch the results come in, or you saw the news this morning, you’ll no doubt know by now that Brexit is happening. The referendum resulted in a narrow but clear victory for the “Leave” campaign, and as a result Britain is now taking its first steps towards leaving the EU.
Back in April / May we conducted a poll of our members, which included questions on Brexit voting intentions. If you are one of our members, you may have participated. Thanks to a fantastic response, it turned out to be the biggest poll conducted during the whole referendum campaign, and the first to correctly predict a “Leave” outcome, as reported at the time by The Sun.
We now know it was also extremely representative of the real life outcome, predicting the leave / remain split correctly across all four UK nations to within a couple of percentage points. For example, our poll pointed to England voting 55% in favour of Leave, with the real-life result being 53.4% in favour of Leave.
What does Brexit mean for petrol prices?
There’s no way to sugar-coat the fact that it’s almost inevitable that petrol prices WILL rise in the coming weeks in the aftermath of the referendum result.
The key reason for this is the enormous fall in the value of Sterling – the biggest drop seen since the mid-80s. As oil is purchased in Dollars, it’s immediately become considerably more expensive for Britain to buy. As a result, both The AA and the Petrol Retailers Association are predicting increases of up to three pence per litre, taking effect as soon as next week.
Beyond these almost certain increases, it’s hard to predict what will happen next – because we really do find ourselves in uncharted political and financial territory. Two factors that could restrict further increases are a bounce-back in the value of Sterling, or a fall in the oil price. Crude oil has actually fallen in price today in the wake of the Brexit announcement, but it’s possible this could just turn out to be a temporary market shock.
Obviously we will keep you informed as things develop. In the meantime, one thing that’s certain is that disparities in fuel prices will widen as the increases set in, making it all the more important to shop around. You can find the cheapest fuel wherever you are by using our free service, or by downloading our new apps for Android and iOS:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
Jun 23, 2016
Over the years, I’ve had various frustrating episodes involving car hire insurance charges. However, a real low point was on a trip to Florida a few years ago.
We’d booked a deal involving a flight, accommodation, and car hire. As committed “independent” travellers, my wife and I usually book all these things separately. However, this deal was particularly good, and we didn’t really imagine that much could go wrong.
Having been stung for car hire insurance before, we were prepared for a couple of unexpected bolt on charges. But our experience at the car hire desk in Orlando took things to a whole new level. As we stood, tired and jetlagged under the spotlights, the representative explained our various insurance options – all costing a significant number of dollars per day on top of what we’d already paid.
The really shocking thing was how financially liable we would still be in the event of an accident if we chose anything other than the most expensive insurance package. The background thought that a superficial accident could end up costing us thousands of dollars was never going to make for a very relaxing holiday. So, like many people we reluctantly and angrily handed over our credit card – for insurance charges in the region of $500 on top of what we’d already paid for car hire.
Car Hire Insurance
This wasn’t the first time this had happened to us, but it was the most extreme incident. The fact that a pile of cash that had been destined for Florida’s outlet malls had disappeared before we’d even left the airport made us determined not to land ourselves in that position again.
The irony is, it’s actually really easy to protect yourself from the car hire excess racket, by buying a third-party car hire excess waiver policy from a company like ReduceMyExcess.co.uk. These policies can reduce the charges you need to pay to avoid a huge excess by 80% or more, and can be purchased for individual trips, or on an annual basis. If the worst does happen, you can claim from the excess waiver company.
As always, even if you have one of these policies it’s important to truly understand what you are and are not covered for. While there is no doubt that add-on policies are quite a profitable racket for the car hire firms, the fact remains that car insurance itself is quite a complex topic – so never be afraid to ask questions until you completely understand your liability.
That said, having your own excess protection policy is always going to work out cheaper that paying the “captive audience” car hire insurance price when you get to the desk. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about turning down all the costly added extras because you can confidently say that you already have a policy that protects you from a huge bill in the event of an accident. Next time my wife and I are fortunate enough to visit Florida, we’ll definitely make sure we hang onto those 500 bucks for the shopping malls!
Jun 3, 2016
We’re pleased to announce that we now have brand new petrol price apps available for both iOS and Android devices.
The apps have gone through months of development and testing and are completely free to download and use. They allow you find the cheapest fuel near to you at any time, and also to locate the best value petrol stations along your journey, so you can fill up tactically and drive further for your money.
You can read on to find out more, but if you want to jump straight in and grab the free app the links are here for your convenience:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
What can our petrol price apps do?
The simplest answer to that question is “save you money on fuel!” But let’s look at some specifics.
PetrolPrices.com Price Engine
One of the key features of the PetrolPrices.com app is the price engine. As soon as you open the app and log in, the app will find your location and show you the cheapest fuel in your locality. You can specify your preferences for default fuel type and radius either within the app settings, or within the My Account section of this website.
You can also use the buttons at the bottom to change what you’re looking at “on the fly.” This is useful if you want to check the price of a different type of fuel, or temporarily expand your search radius. You can even find a particular fuel brand if you wish.
The price engine also has a search facility. Type a postcode into here, and the map will zoom to your chosen location and show you the best value fuel there as well. Work is underway to improve the accuracy of searching by village, town or city, but, for now, you’ll get the most accurate results with a postcode search.
Other features of the PetrolPrices.com apps
Our apps also incorporate several other features to make your life easier and help you find cheap fuel without even having to visit our website. For example, you can do all of the following:
- Change all the details associated with your PetrolPrices.com account, including your login c.
- Set all of your desired preferences to help you find cheap fuel even faster.
- Use the “find location” feature to find the cheapest fuel near you – anytime, anywhere.
Where to find the PetrolPrices.com apps
The apps are completely free and available from the iTunes / App Store (for Apple iOS) and the Google Play store (for Android). Here are the links:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
Any problems?
Our apps have gone through extensive testing, but development is ongoing. We are constantly looking to improve the apps and add features, and working on the continual process of ensuring the apps function on the ever-evolving plethora of new phones and mobile devices.
As such, if you have problems using the apps, we’d be delighted to try and help you resolve them via [email protected] – we can look at your query individually and work with the developers to make the app as useful as possible to you.
We hope our petrol price apps save you lots of money over the coming months, and we look forward to bringing you more refinement and additional features in the near future.
May 31, 2016
If you’ve seemed to notice many more signs warning you about average speed cameras while you’ve been out on your travels lately, you’re definitely not mistaken.
The BBC has revealed that the coverage of average speed cameras on the UK’s roads has doubled in the last three years. The cameras, which calculate your average speed over a stretch of road, rather than catching you out at a specific moment, now cover 263 miles of Britain’s routes. There are 51 permanent average speed camera schemes in place at the time of writing, and plenty more put in place on a temporary basis, often around the site of roadworks.
The largest-scale scheme in place covers a full 99 miles on the A9 in Scotland. At the opposite end of the scale is a scheme covering the length of Tower Bridge in London – a rather scenic drive that people probably don’t object to slowing down for!
The Rise of Average Speed Cameras
The BBC cite various reasons for rise in popularity for average speed cameras. The first is technology. It’s far cheaper to implement an average speed system than it once was. According to the report, the cost was around £1.5 Million per mile back in “the early 2000s.” That cost has now dropped to around £100,000 per mile – still not an insignificant amount, but an amount that one assumes is easily covered by the revenue earned from fines!
Also on the subject of technology, it seems that on some occasions the powers that be are opting to replace old-style speed cameras with average speed cameras. The report reveals the surprising fact that some of these old-fashioned “yellow box” cameras still use traditional 35mm film.
The other factor, which will probably surprise some readers, is that average speed cameras are apparently “better received by motorists” than their old-school equivalents, at least according to the House of Commons’ Transport Committee. We’ll leave you to tell us if you agree with this in the comments section!
May 26, 2016
It was nine years ago when we first produced an article about contaminated fuel here on PetrolPrices.com.
Since then, a great many people have used our comments section to report incidences of contaminated fuel and share their experiences. As such, we thought it was high time we gave the article an update and provided some advice.
A steady stream of contaminated fuel stories continue to hit the news, but there are also more isolated incidents that seem to go unreported, as our comments section suggests
If you think you’ve been affected by contaminated fuel – perhaps because your car starts to judder and feel unresponsive, there are some important steps you should take.
- Stop driving the vehicle as soon as you can so that if the fuel is contaminated, it doesn’t do any more damage to your engine.
- Contact a local garage or main dealer and seek their confirmation that contaminated fuel is the cause of your problems. If so, arrange for them to take a sample of fuel from the vehicle. You will probably have to pay for this initially, but can potentially claim for it further down the line.
- Document everything that happens, including noting all related expenses.
- Contact the retailer where you purchased the fuel in the first instance.
- If you need help dealing with any claim, make use of your local trading standards office or Consumer Direct.
- Don’t let contaminated fuel sit in your tank for too long. You will need to arrange for your tank to be drained and the fuel disposed of.
- Check with your insurance company with regard to how they can help you; You may be in luck if you have accidental damage coverage.
Contaminated Fuel: The Number One Precaution!
A key precaution that will really help you if you one day fall victim to contaminated fuel is to always keep your fuel receipts. If you ever end up in a compensation battle, that tiny piece of paper has the potential to make your life so much easier.
We’ve carried over the many past comments from the older version of this article. We are happy to let the comments section act as a forum so your can reach out to see if fellow drivers have experienced issues at the same garage(s). However, please note you are responsible for your own posts, so please ensure you are confident of the facts before singling out any particular garage.
Misfuelling
If you pull away from a petrol station and suddenly get a sinking feeling that something’s wrong with your car, don’t immediately assume contaminated fuel is the issue. You may have in fact have been one of the 150,000 drivers each year who inadvertently fill their car with the wrong fuel.
So, retrace your steps and see if this might have been the case; check your receipt as well – if it says diesel and you use unleaded, you may be in a spot of bother. It’s at this point that you’ll hope you added misfuelling cover to your car insurance policy – or even took out a dedicated policy to protect yourself against such an incident. Either way, it’s time to call a local garage – you should never try to drive a car that’s been misfuelled OR filled with contaminated fuel.
May 3, 2016
If you’re still one of those people who thinks of self drive cars as the stuff of science fiction, it’s time to get used to the reality. Volvo has announced one of the largest UK trials of such vehicles, which will include families being transported in “autonomous” cars on public roads in London as soon as next year.
According to a report in The Telegraph, there will be up to 100 of these vehicles driving themselves around the UK by 2018. With the speed that technology moves, it’s reasonable to expect plenty more trials of this nature in the next couple of years. Another has already been announced for Greenwich this summer.
Learning to “drive” self drive cars
Meanwhile, the European Transport Safety Council is discussing how to adapt driving tests to take account of the continual development of self drive cars.
One of the key points is in training drivers when to decide to “take back control” of a vehicle that is designed to be autonomous. One can imagine this being quite a judgement call when trust is placed in the hands (or wheels) of a machine! It will therefore be key to ensure drivers understand how the underlying technology works. According to the report, the self drive cars themselves will also have to be capable of passing a driving test!
In other related recent news, The Telegraph has also been discussing autonomous features that are already reasonably widespread, specifically autonomous breaking, which can spot upcoming hazards and brake if you fail to yourself.
Apparently, studies show that cars with these systems can reduce incidents of driving into the vehicle in front by nearly 40%. However, thanks to confusion over the naming conventions of these systems, they’re not being adopted by drivers as quickly as would be ideal.
As the functionality of self drive cars improves, the real battle will be to persuade traditional drivers to trust them. A recent study suggested that 75% of US drivers “fear” these autonomous vehicles. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Apr 22, 2016
The diesel emissions scandal has rumbled on since the Volkswagen revelations emerged last year, but until recently not that many new details have hit the mainstream news.
That’s all changed this week with the publication of the results of a UK enquiry into diesel vehicles. The results of the enquiry are eye-opening – to say the least.
According to a report in The Guardian, the general findings of the government study point to diesel vehicles routinely emitting far more pollution in real-world tests than they do in a laboratory setting. Some of the diesel emissions revealed in the test exceed EU safety standards by as much as 12 times.
37 different diesel cars were tested in the government study. “Not a single car” managed to meet current EU standards, with average diesel emissions five times higher than target limits.
Diesel Emissions and Volkswagen
The information above may lead you to question whether other car manufacturers have been involved in the kind of practices uncovered at Volkswagen last year. In fact, that’s not the case. The Department for Transport has stated that no devices intended to trick the tests were found in any other cars, and that “there have been no laws broken.”
Junior Transport Minister Robert Goodwill has stated that he’s disappointed that “the cars that we are driving on our roads are not as clean as we thought they might be.” Environmentalists will no doubt see this as something of an understatement.
It’s hard to see quite how the motor industry (and government) is going to move forward from here in any practical way. According to targets, by 2020 all diesels sold will have to comply with an 80mg/km diesel emissions limit. That’s all very well, but does little to address the countless diesel vehicles already on the roads pushing out far more pollution that anyone thought.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Volkswagen has reached a settlement deal in a court in California to make amends for their part in the diesel emissions scandal. Full details have yet to emerge, but it’s thought VW will have to pay out Billions in compensation, and offer to buy back nearly half a million vehicles.
