News - September
Dumping cars is being scrapped
The number of cars being dumped on Britain´s streets has drastically dropped as the cost of recyclable metal rises.
A few years ago scrap merchants would charge £30 to take a rusty motor away once it had failed its MOT. Now scrap yards will pay motorists up to £200 for their old banger and cars with reusable parts could fetch even more.
Councils in 2003 were removing an average of 800 cars a day. This year the number has dropped to 225. The dramatic drop is due to a combination of factors: councils are now removing dumped cars in less than 24 hours and the cost of recyclable metal is soaring. It´s for these reasons that it makes more sense for motorists to sell their old bangers instead of dumping them.
Only four years ago steel was selling at £3 a tonne, now recycling companies are exporting steel to Spain and Turkey for £150 – £200 a tonne. Copper is being sold to the United States for £3,000.
With new rules being introduced to deter people from dumping their cars, motorists are being urged to sell their bangers and make a few quid. For example, a Nissan Micra could sell for £75, whilst a Land Rover 90 could make £160.
So anyone out there with a car, if your beloved vehicle has just taken its last journey, don’t just dump it on the street, send it to scrap yard heaven and make a bob or two.
Motorists can now take their cars to bed
A team of Berlin architects have designed the ultimate living space for those people who just can´t be separated from their cars.
The new drive-in apartments have an elegant but heavy duty lift that will hoist the car directly to the loft-style apartment. The car is then parked outside in a conservatory that is separated from the living space by a large glass door.
Wherever the driver stands in the open-plan apartment, they will be able to see their precious vehicle.
The apartment, which is designed more with the car in mind than the person actually living there, also comes with a pampering unit for the vehicle. The bodywork can be washed, moisturised and given anti-ageing treatments.
The whole process of approaching the building, entering the apartment and parking the car takes two minutes. An electronic system allows the driver to open the lift door and take it to their floor without reaching out and pressing a button. They simply stay in their car until they reach their living room.
Most motorists may think this is a little far fetched, but six apartments have already been sold in Berlin, with the penthouse costing €1.6million.
The idea will now be rolled out to Brussels, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi. Surely London is next.
So it could soon be sweet dreams for you and your car!
Fifth gear makes MPG worse!
In recent months the price of petrol has hit an all time high, costing the average person £2,000 a year. As a result, motorists are constantly looking for new ways to get the most mileage out of their tanks.
There have been a number of suggestions to help improve a car´s miles per gallon (MPG), such as reducing a car´s weight, making sure the car’s tyre pressure is correct and driving at a constant speed.
Channel 5´s Fifth Gear recently put this to the test, hoping to prove that by making small changes to a car they would significantly improve its MPG.
So what did they find out? Fifth Gear took a standard Polo and tested its MPG before any modifications had been made. They did this by running the engine completely dry and then filling the car with one gallon of petrol. On a test track they drove the polo at a constant speed of 60mph. The car finally came to a stop after 46.9miles.
For the next test they modified the car. They replaced traditional tyres with an energy efficient make and lost 12kg from the back of the car by removing the spare tyre and jack. Next they had the car´s chip replaced with a super chip, which reprogrammed the engine, in theory meaning the car should need less throttle to stay at a steady 60mph.
To measure the effects they again filled the car with one gallon of petrol and drove round the test track at a constant speed of 60mph. If all the reports were to be believed the car should have performed much better with these modifications.
To the presenter’s horror, at just 46.4miles, the car stopped a whole 0.5miles sooner then before the car had been modified.
So if a super chip and weight loss wont help to improve a car´s MPG, is there anything out there that will?
