1930s Plmouth Raditator Cap Hot Rod Auto Car Ornament on 2040-parts.com

Pregnant women 'more likely to crash'

BEING pregnant significantly increases a woman driver's chances of having a serious car crash, research has shown. During the second trimester of pregnancy – weeks 14 to 26 – the risk of being involved in a road accident requiring hospital treatment rose by 42%, a Canadian study of more than 500,000 pregnant women found. In the three years before getting pregnant, the women between them had an average 177 crashes per month.

CAR tech: who's to blame for your car's terrible fuel economy?

In early 2013 Audi lost a case brought by the Advertising Standard Agency (ASA) because of ‘misleading’ fuel economy figures used in an advert, after a customer complained they couldn’t get anywhere near the 68mpg quoted. The court case once more exposes the yawning gap between officially sanctioned mpg figures and those experienced by owners. A recent study by the Independent Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) looked at cars sold in the UK and Europe, and discovered the difference between official mpg figures and real-world driving had grown from 8% in 2001 to a barely believable 21% in 2011.

Lotus chief exec Dany Bahar suspended: what's next?

Group Lotus chief Dany Bahar has been suspended while complaints about his conduct are carried out by parent company DRB Hicom. Weekend newspapers reported that the dispute was over expenses for building work carried out on one of Bahar's homes. Bahar was suspended on Friday and the new owners stressed that Lotus Cars continued to run in his absence.