New VW Golf MK 7 goes on sale

The 2013 Volkswagen Golf – the Golf Mk 7 – is now on sale in the UK just weeks after its official debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Volkswagen has put the new Golf – the MK 7 version of the best-selling Golf – on sale in the UK already, with first customer cars due to arrive in January 2013 – although the range is still limited. On offer to order now in the UK is the Golf S, Golf SE and Golf GT, but if you want the new Golf GTI – or a BlueMotion of 4Motion Golf  Mk 7 – you’re going to have to wait until well in to 2013 to be able to place your order.

One Lap of the Web: A rally car drinks beer

-- Thierry Neuville was somewhere on his way back to the pits after finishing the final stage of the WRC Mexico when his Hyundai i20 rally car sprung a leak: The hole in the radiator was bleeding coolant at a frightening rate. If Neuville didn't make the 33 kilometers back, he would lose his second place standing behind Volkswagen and all would be lost. (Alas, them's the breaks in the sometimes-quixotic rulebook of the World Rally Championship.) Well, lucky for Neuville, his sponsors at Corona had presented him with a massive bottle of beer, which he then proceeded to pour into the radiator.

Insurance interest costs motorists millions

BRITISH drivers are paying £682 million more than they should be for their car insurance by paying monthly. Most insurers charge a high rate of interest for the privilege of spreading payments out over the year, with the average pay-monthly customer hit by an additional £88. Almost a third of people (31%) pay their car insurance by monthly direct debit, market research from Consumer Intelligence has discovered.