The Department for Transport (DfT) is currently exploring the feasibility of forcing car manufacturers to install safety black boxes to all vehicles, in order to help cut the death toll on Britain’s roads.

At present the DfT is consulting with international bodies in order to formalise a set of standards that can be applied to all vehicles for recording key data.

At present the main concerns are keeping a record of vehicle speed, and steering angle, before the car crashes. In additional, it is expected that the boxes would be able to determine when a car has crashed and automatically alert emergency vehicles if detected, using on board satellite navigation systems to help direct police and ambulance services to the scene of an accident.

Similar devices are already fitted as standard to most vehicles supplied to the American motor vehicle market. Known as Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDR), they were originally developed to help improve the response of air bags, but have since been advanced to record a range of data useful for accident investigators.

Although the government has acknowledged that civil liberties groups may raise concerns, the final say may lay with manufacturers. With each black box projected to add as much as £500 to the price of a new vehicle, consumers may be more primarily concerned with the extra cost involved.

Honda has announced that it plans to offer a greater range of hybrid fuel cars to the UK over the next two years.

The hybrid cars will initially utilise FCX fuel cells, with plans to manufacturer and distribute over 200,000 hybrid vehicles across the world by 2009.

Although fuel cells are generally regarded as uneconomical, Honda intends to apply a range of technologies and energy management systems to additionally improve the effectiveness of the vehicles.

They are already implementing similar systems into the latest BMW S Series, which have already shown fuel and emissions savings of up to 25%.

Known as EfficientDynamics, this includes a system called Stop & Go which conserves fuel when the vehicle is stationary.

In addition, another system call ed Brake Energy Regeneration redirects energy that would otherwise be lost when the car slows down.

While critics are uncertain whether fuel cells in themselves can become a primary source of energy for cars in the near future, Honda expects that production of hybrid fuel cars will be unable to cope to demand.

Government plans to revise the MOT will mean cars will only have to be checked once every two years.

As in Europe, the first test will take place when a car is four years old.

Currently new cars are tested after three years and then annually but a review by the Treasury has suggested that motorists could save £465 million every year by adopting the EU regulations.

Led by Lord Davidson, the review is part of a bid by Gordon Brown to cut back on bureaucracy 

Britain’s regulations were found to be among the strictest in Europe, with the exceptions only of Hungary and Latvia, and Ministers believe modern technology allows for less regular testing. 

Although individual motorists would save money by only paying the £50 test fee every two years, critics fear the implications for road safety.

Nearly 30% of cars fail the annual test and safety campaigners say the plans could mean over half the vehicles on the roads are not roadworthy.

New research from Kwik-Fit shows that while it now costs less to buy a vehicle, running and maintenance cost have increased sharply.

According to the research, the cost of purchasing a vehicle has fallen by 26.1 per cent over the past ten years.

However total vehicle running costs increased by 52 per cent between March 1997 and March 2007 and vehicle maintenance costs rose by 64.8 per cent.

Tax and insurance costs increased 50.2 per cent during the period, while fuel went up 48.4 per cent.

With overall inflation during this period rising by 32 per cent, it is now significantly more expensive to keep a car on the road.

According to the Driver and Vehicles Licensing Agency, less that half of cars scrapped in the UK in 2006 were issued with Certificates of Destruction (CoD). The certificates prove that the cars were recycled in a manner which protects the environment.

CoD’s are required to comply with ELV Regulations. In 2006 only 762,776 CoD’s were issued for scrap cars, while it is believed that up to two million cars are scrapped each year in the UK.

CoDs are issued by authorised vehicle recyclers of which there are around 1,400 in the UK. These recyclers operate treatment facilities where vehicles are scrapped in a manner that will not harm the environment. All hazardous oils, fluids and components are removed before the vehicle is shredded.

The figures were released following a European Parliament report which expressed concern that the number of certificates issued in the first nine months of the ELV Directive’s first target period were lower than expected.

The report mentions a loophole in DVLA regulations which allows the final owner of a vehicle to tick a box on their vehicle deregistration form to say they had scrapped their cars themselves, without requiring a certificate.

The DVLA is working with the Department of Trade and Industry to overcome the problem.

247spares has always made a point of only working with accredited suppliers who strictly adhere to DVLA regulations.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the steady fall in car production since October 2006 finally came to a halt in March 2007.

UK motor vehicle production in the three months to March was unchanged from the previous three months.

Vehicle production for the home market fell 0.8 pct, while output allocated for the export market grew 0.3 pct.

Compared with same period in 2006, production fell 6.9 pct in the three months to March 2007. Production for the domestic sector was 8.8 pct lower while production for exports fell by 6.3 pct.

Commercial vehicle production in the three months to March fell 3.8 pct from the previous three months, but were 0.7 pct higher year-on-year.

On average, approximately 126,000 cars a month were produced in the three months to March. Around 93,000 cars were for the export market and around 32,000 were for the home market.

As part of its commitment to alternative fuels and advanced propulsion systems, General Motors’ subsidiary, Vauxhall, has launched the UK’s first large-scale fleet trial of biodiesel compatible vehicles.

GM plans to trial biodiesel B30 with BSkyB’s fleet. About half of the 450-strong Vauxhall fleet will be able to run on the fuel within the next six months.

The biodiesel B30-compatible models use 2.0 CDTI Vivaro and 2.5 CDTI 100PS and 120PS Movano engines. They emit up to 20% fewer CO2 emissions on a ’source to wheels’ basis compared with the standard Euro 4-compliant diesel units.

As part of the controlled fleet trial, a number of vans across the UK will run on biodiesel B30, allowing GM and Vauxhall to investigate the long-term potential for the fuel in the country.

Biodiesel is made from sustainable sources such as sunflower and rapeseed oils, where the oil is extracted and transformed into a methyl ester.

Biodiesel B30 is a mixture of 30% biodiesel and 70% conventional diesel. The fuel helps reduce carbon emissions because plants grown for conversion to biodiesel absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.