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Average cost of car insurance down 12.5%

The average cost of insurance is now 12.5% lower than it was a year ago, thanks to new EU rules on gender equality. That’s according to over four million quotes analysed on Confused.com. On Bing: see pictures of male drivers Women and car insurance – all the facts The rules, introduced at the end of 2012, said a person’s gender shouldn’t affect their insurance premium.

Who's Where: Christopher Weil becomes head of Mini exterior design, Marcus Syring head of Rolls-Royce exteriors

An internal reshuffle in Munich has seen Christopher Weil appointed head of exterior design for Mini, replacing Marcus Syring who takes up a similar position at Rolls-Royce. The changes see Weil return to Munich after just over a year as director of automotive design at BMW DesignworksUSA in LA. His portfolio includes the BMW 328 Hommage, F30 3 Series, 5 Series GT, current 7 Series and 4 Series.

Cycle or walk, charity urges parents

PARENTS could save a collective £2 billion a year if they ditched the school run and accompanied children to lessons on foot or by bicycle, says a transport charity. On average, each set of parents could reduce costs by £642 a year if they did not use their car to ferry their offspring to and from school, said Sustrans. Around 11 million journeys a day are made between home and school, while, on average, primary school children live 1.8 miles from school, which is a 25-minute brisk walk, or 15-minute bike ride.