Manufacturer News
ACCC Addresses Car Insurance Concerns.
Stratton Finance CEO Rob Chaloner has backed the ACCC’s stance to oppose a 20 per cent cap on commissions paid to car dealers who sell add-on insurance products, arguing that a commission cap will lessen competition and ultimately harm consumers.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued a report named “A market that is failing consumers: The sale of add-on insurance through car dealers”
, which claims consumers are being sold expensive products that often provide little to no benefit – and are sold at a time when the consumer is often buying a new car and distracted. It recommended a 20 per cent cap.
Chaloner argues: “Removal of competition has always resulted in a bad outcome for the consumer. In this case, the competitive nature of provision of insurance products to dealers means if commissions are the same industry-wide, insurers won’t compete for business and premiums will rise. This means higher costs hitting consumers’ wallets.
“If commissions are capped at 20 per cent, premiums will rise to bolster the dealers’ income to make it viable. There is no way around it, the consumer would suffer. Markets need to find their own level and free competition does that.
“Well done to the ACCC for not going along with this commission cap. It would simply hurt the people it purports to help.”
Chaloner also contends that a number of add-on insurance products are in fact highly valuable to customers, contrary to the ASIC report.
“GAP in particular saves consumers from harm in the real world. It can cost as little as $600-800 over a 60 month loan to know that if you write off your car, you won’t have to write an expensive cheque. Currently a dealership may earn a $240 commission from this. It takes considerable time to offer the product, inform the customer of the features and benefits and complete the contract. Let’s be realistic, if the service commission is capped at $120 nobody would bother and consumers would be harmed as a result,” notes Chaloner.
Add-on insurance is usually associated with consumer credit insurance, gap insurance, walk away insurance, and trauma insurance. Alternatively, it may relate to the vehicle itself, such as comprehensive insurance, extended warranty insurance, or tyre and rim insurance.
Tyres for Dummies
Tyre durability and performance are really important factors in how a car handles and steers. Many of us are happy to just jump inside our cars, turn the key and drive away with little thought given to tyre performance, science and design. On the side of your tyre are a whole lot of numbers that mean lots of different things. Let’s take a look at the most important ones.
When it comes to a tyre, size really is significant. Ultimately, you want the right size tyre for your car. The car’s designer engineers have tested and proven the right size tyre for you particular car’s design. So getting it wrong here really makes a huge difference to the way your car handles safely. What do the numbers mean? Using an example of a 235/45/17 tyre, these numbers tell us that the tyre’s width is 235 mm. The next number to consider is 45; and this figure is a percentage figure that tells us the height of the tyre wall. So the height of the tyre wall is 45% of the width of the tyre. The width of the tyre in this example is 235 mm, so the height of the tyre’s side wall is 45% of 235 mm which equates to 105.75 mm.
Take a look at your car’s tyres and you’ll see there is plenty of other information printed on the sidewall. Some of the other figures you’ll find provide other important information. The load rating, the speed rating and the type of tyre can be found printed on the sidewall of the tyre. An example might be 94Q M+S. This tells us that 94 is the load rating for the tyre which stands for 670 kg. Any weight on the tyre that is less than this means that the tyre will safely perform; exceeding this weight and it becomes dangerous. There is a load rating table that you can refer to in order to make sure that you have the right tyre for your car.
Now, the Q stands for the speed rating of the tyre, and in this case Q means that the tyre has been designed to safely perform at speeds up to 160 km/h. Over this speed and the tyre becomes unpredictable and unsafe. The higher the letter, the faster you can go, so a tyre with a Z speed rating will be commonly found on supercars like Porsches and Ferraris.
The letters M and S stands for a “Mud and Snow “ tyre design which is a pretty standard all-season tyre – common for many vehicles.
You’ll also find the maximum tyre pressure rating. It might be “Max 44 psi”. This stands for the maximum amount of pressure that the tyre can handle without exploding or at least becoming dangerous. This is, however, not the tyre pressure you should set your tyre to for everyday driving. I does depend upon the manufacturers specifications. Generally most cars have their tyres set between 26 and 36 psi, but it’s always best to check the manufactures manual. Trucks and trailers have very different requirements for tyre pressures.
You’ll also find the brand of tyre printed on the sidewall. Michelin, Goodyear and Bridgestone are some common reliable brands.
Amazingly more than 200 different materials are used in the construction of a tyre, and you’ll find materials like carbon black, silicon, sulphur, plastersizers (which increase the plasticity or viscosity of a material), vulcanizing agents, steel or even Kevlar. These different raw materials are used to make a wide variety of components that are used in the manufacturing of a tyre – each of which give the tyre strength, durability and flexibility.
If you’re a driver who wants the best performance and handling from your machine, doing a bit of homework on the brands and types of tyres available, and there reputation in the wet and dry, will help you to make the best informed decision when it comes time to get a new set of tyres put on your car. Some of the better known tyre brands are: Michelin, Bob Jane, Bridgestone, Dunlop, Goodyear, Hankook, Kumho, Pirelli, Continental and Yokohama.
Most of all, drive safe out there!
Holden Racing Team Lose Out As Holden Drinks Red Bull.
Holden has confirmed its commitment to Supercars and motorsport in Australia, announcing a new three-year deal with Triple Eight Race Engineering to form the Red Bull Holden Racing Team from 2017.
Holden also announced that the next-generation Commodore will be on the Supercar grid from 2018. The new factory-backed Red Bull Holden Racing Team will develop, build, race and win with the next-generation Commodore Supercar from 2018.
This announcement also confirms that as part of Holden’s ongoing brand and business evolution, it will move to a single factory-backed race team from 2017 onwards.
Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Bernhard, said he was thrilled to be confirming that Holden is committed to Australian motorsport and Supercars for the next three years, and is proud to be partnering with Red Bull and Triple Eight Race Engineering.
“Motorsport has played a significant role in Holden’s heritage and we’re proud to be carrying on that tradition with the new Red Bull Holden Racing Team, while reshaping our brand and presence in the market and in motorsport. We’re taking our company forward.
“I’d also like to thank and pay homage to Walkinshaw Racing with whom we have shared a proud history over many years,” said Mr Bernhard.
“We’ll also continue to help Walkinshaw wherever we can. We support every Holden team in pit lane through various avenues such as marketing support, technical support, sponsorship acquisition, even down to helping design certain race liveries. We’ll continue that with Walkinshaw and I wish them all the best. Our relationship with Walkinshaw remains strong and we are working closely on future road vehicle initiatives as part of our ongoing partnership with HSV.
“Fans around the country will see the new Red Bull Holden Racing Team on the grid from next year but I’m especially excited about our next-generation Commodore hitting the racetrack in 2018. Australia can rest assured that our next-gen Commodore will live up to the iconic nameplate, on and off the track.
“Triple Eight is the most successful team of the modern era, they are simply the best at what they do. We’re very proud to continue our partnership with them,” said Mr Bernhard.
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Drive A New 3-D Printed Car
With new automotive technology rampaging on it seems that we’ll be able to buy our own 3D-printed cars. The world’s first 3D printed car is called “Strati” and is made by Local Motors, and is reportedly going on sale during 2016.
Did you know that most vehicles that we drive around in today are made up using around 2000 parts? Local Motors indicate that the Strati is made up from just 40 parts. Mechanical parts like the suspension, motors and battery are sourced from a Renault Twizy – which is a battery-powered two-seater electric city car designed and marketed by Renault. Everything else on the Strati is made up of integrated single material pieces. These pieces include the exterior shell, frame and some of the interior features, which have been printed using ABS plastic that has been reinforced with carbon fibre.
Strati
Local Motors has developed the car so that it’s available with all the digital 3D-print files and build manuals available to the public for downloading and modifying by individual users. Local Motors aims to open around 100 micro-factories near major cities around the globe over the next ten years. The Strati boasts a sporty, little 2-seater design that, at present, takes 44 hours to print. Local Motors are working to speed this process up so that it only takes 24 hours to create. The Strati’s body is laid down layer-by-layer or slice-by-slice, and the Strati has approximately 212 layers laid down in its body. So, similar to a home desktop 3D printer, the Strati uses BAAM (big-area additive manufacturing) technology which relies on a digital 3D model part becoming sliced into layers. These modelled layers are then used to generate real layers of ABS plastic that are generated by the 3D printer.
Amazingly, this sort of 3D technology could have you download the necessary files from Local Motors, choose your options, create your own individual Strati on your computer and Local Motors could have the car made up inside two days. Design engineers from Strati suggest that you could even come up with your own design idea, have it looked at by Local Motors and then once settled, could be printed into your very own unique car design. That sounds fun; you could design and build your very own car.
The Strati vehicle is currently powered by a 6.1 kW battery which can be recharged in only 3.5 hours. It alsohas a top speed of 80 km/h – a perfect city car with zero emissions, and costing not much in power to charge.
Manufacturer, Divergent Micro-factories, is also in the business of creating their own 3D-printed cars with a difference, using the latest green technology. Take a look at their exciting supercar model called the Blade which has a 520 kW biofuel engine that is capable of flinging the car from 0-100 km/h in less than three seconds!
The Blade
3D-printing has been used in all sorts of engineering and modelling projects. Progressively, 3D-printing has been used in the building industry with all sorts of ingredients used for layering down in its design. You can even use 3D-printing and it’s layering machines to layer down a concrete building in any style or shape. This sort of technology allows you to get back to the lego block days when you really could create anything from your childhood imagination.
So what about layering down the dimensions and shape of a 1961 Jaguar E-Type?
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