IT’S not nice to start off the new year with a moan, but filling up the average family car will cost you up to £20 more than it did this time last year. Yes, fuel prices are on average 30p per litre more than at this time last year, even though the wholesale cost of fuel is up just 18p, we – the world’s highest taxed drivers – are paying more than 12 pence more per litre than is honest.
FairFuelUK and the all-party parliamentary group Fair Fuel for Motorists and Hauliers have called for the long-awaited ‘PumpWatch’ to be implemented. PumpWatch would be an independent pump price monitoring body to protect consumers, just like Ofgem, Ofcom or Ofwat.
Every week I go to get petrol I seem to get less and less for the money I pay #petrolprices #IRELAND
— gary o brien (@obriengary4) February 27, 2012
The British Government’s efforts to work with the fuel industry to keep pump prices competitive and market-driven, ensuring consumers benefit from lower prices, are simply not working. This is bad for the economy, inflation, business, jobs and for you and me. Rip-off oil companies are fuelling the cost-of-living crisis as they refuse to cut prices at the pumps even though the international oil price has fallen.
Pump prices don’t just affect car drivers, though – the price of fuel at the pumps affects all of us. Most companies that deliver food to the shops and goods to our home do so using petrol and diesel vehicles and are affected by the price of that fuel. The simple fact is that it is crucial to the development of positive economic growth, jobs, business investment, logistics, consumer spending and social mobility to have a fuel price watch scheme. This is yet one more area in which Boris Johnson is letting voters down – he should wake up and smell the coffee. And the petrol.
I won’t hold my breath, though.
Shadow lights up small car sector
ESPECIALLY for 2022 , the South Korean motor manufacturer Kia has revealed the Picanto ‘Shadow’, a special edition of their popular city car.
The Shadow throws down the gauntlet to its rivals with a comprehensive list of standard features and equipment, ultra-low insurance, low running costs and an affordable purchase price. The special edition model is available now to order from Kia dealers, priced from £13,845 on the road. That’s just £895 more than the equivalent ‘2’ model.
The Shadow offers a range of high-value additions to lure customers into the darkness. These include 15-inch alloy wheels, privacy glass, LED daytime running lights and bi-function projection headlamps, rear LED lights and front fog lamps, while the body is finished in a premium Astro Grey metallic paint.
Inside, the Shadow gives occupants a six-speaker audio system, eight-inch touchscreen display with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a centre console storage box with sliding armrest and a reversing camera system with dynamic guidelines. Furthermore, there is an exclusive new black faux leather upholstery with light grey stitching.
The Picanto Shadow is powered by Kia’s popular 1.0-litre petrol engine paired with a five-speed manual transmission. It also features a range of comfort and safety features including air conditioning, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Electronic Stability Control, and Torque Vectoring by Braking technology. Order books for the Kia Picanto ‘Shadow’ are open today across Kia’s UK dealer network, with first customer deliveries due to start within a matter of weeks.
They do say good things come in small parcels.
Suzuki leads the field in reliable older car stakes
SUZUKI is celebrating great news from the What Car? reliability survey in which readers report on their car ownership experience for cars aged between six and 15 years.
Of the 27 car brands measured, Suzuki was top of the brand league table with an overall score of 97 per cent. What Car? received over 16,300 owner responses across all manufacturers and measured 139 different used models across the industry. Owners praised Suzuki for having very few faults to report in their ownership as well as being inexpensive to repair.
The Vitara recorded 100 per cent reliability with no faults at all reported and was one of only three cars that scored 100 per cent in the survey.
The good news continued for the Suzuki Swift too as owners reported 97.8 per cent reliability and no repair bill exceeding £100. The Swift was 13 per cent better than the average small car rating in the magazine survey.
Editor of What Car? magazine Steve Huntingford said: “There are plenty of good reasons to buy a Vitara but the most compelling has to be its faultless reliability record. According to owners, it’s the best small SUV in our survey with not a single Vitara causing its owner any trouble over the last 12 months.
“A used Swift is another good bet if you are looking for a small car that won’t let you down”
