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‘Hidden’ damage on hire cars costing drivers

MORE THAN one in three hire car users have found unreported damage on hired vehicles upon collection, according to new data. A survey conducted by YouGov found that 37% of business travellers found damage to their hired vehicle which was not marked down on the documentation when they collected the car. This could lead to the user being charged for the damage and liable to lose any insurance excess amount – which could be as much as £2,000.

I Draw Cars: The sketchbook that puts drawings into perspective

I Draw Cars is a project set up by Adam Hubers and Matt Marrocco – both CCS graduates – to encourage designers young and old to pick up their pens and practice that most basic yet powerful tool in their kit: sketching. Their new book features over 100 pages of perspective underlays – from basic views right up to complex three-point – to use as templates with which to practice. Each underlay is printed in non-photo blue, meaning it won't be picked up by a scanner should you choose to drop it into Photoshop.

Watch the sad, final moments of a crusher-bound heap

Automotive wrecking yards are good places to reflect on the real-world values of heavily depreciated vehicles versus global current scrap-metal prices, and to see which cars have suddenly had the fix-it-versus-total-it line moved by insurance companies (the early-21st-century Subaru Legacy Outback, for example, appeared in large numbers in high-turnover wrecking yards just during the last year, as fairly minor collision damage on these cars is no longer worth fixing). You'll see the things that a car's last owner does in a desperate attempt to sell (or at least live with) an increasingly decrepit heap (as we learned in "Repo Man," you really will find a Little Tree in every car). During a recent trip to a San Jose, Calif., yard, I encountered this sad yet strangely compelling scene.