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Ohio – Factors that Affect Auto Insurance Rates
Every state in the United States of America has written its own set of rules and regulations. Every state wants its citizens to feel safe. There are rules specifically written to ensure protection of drivers and motorists on the highway. Auto insurance is one such safety measure. Many states have made it mandatory. Ohio is one such state that has made auto insurance mandatory.
Auto insurance policies are mandatory in the state. There is a minimum liability that each of such insurance policies must have. The minimum rate is decided according to the financial responsibility laws. These laws state that every driver must have proof to show he has enough finances to ensure payment for any damage he might cause with his vehicle in an accident. The minimum liability is twelve thousand five hundred dollars for bodily injury per person and twenty five thousand dollars for bodily injury in total. There is also a minimum of seven thousand five hundred dollars for property damage. Property damage covers any damage to cars, houses or building, fences and lamp posts etc.
There are many factors affecting insurance rates.
Age is one such factor. Statistics have shown that drivers below the age of twenty five are rash. Therefore, they are high risk and will be charged more premiums. Married people are supposed to be safer than unmarried people. Hence unmarried people will have higher rates of interests too. Drivers over the age of fifty years will have lower premiums because they are considered to be very safe drivers. Gender plays a factor too. Women are considered to be much safer drivers than men and their interest rates will be much lower.
The place you stay will matter a lot. If you stay in a place with a lot of traffic in the centre of a busy city, chances of you being in an accident will be very high. However, if you stay in a rural and sparsely populated area, you will be a much lower risk and will be charged very low premium. If you stay in an area with a high crime rate, your interest rates are bound to go up. Theft is a constant possibility in such areas and therefore your premiums will also be high. Keeping a clean past record helps a lot. Insurance companies monitor your driving record for the past five years. If you have a spot less driving record, it means you are a safe driver.
However, a bad record would mean you are high risk. Your premiums will naturally be affected by this. A clean record will get you great rates while a bad one will get you high interest rates. It would be better to drive a cheap car. An expensive imported car will have very high premiums. A cheap car manufactured locally will not cost as much as far as insurance is concerned. A fast, imported sports car has a higher chance of being stolen than a normal car. Hence it is costlier to invest such cars as well. Your credit score affects your rates too. God scores get you cheaper insurance.
2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Blue Drive Plan – Auto Shows – Car and Driver
In 2010, a hybrid version of the redesigned Sonata family sedan will hit the market, most likely as a
. The Sonata Hybrid Blue Drive, announced at the
, will have a parallel-hybrid drive system that will be able to move the car on solely electric power, or with a combination of gas and electric power. A 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine designed to run the more efficient Atkinson cycle and with various tweaks to increase fuel efficiency will be connected to a 40-hp electric motor with 151 lb-ft of torque. Power ratings of the gasoline engine are unknown, but we’d guess that it will make about 160 hp in the hybrid. Putting the power to the road will be a six-speed automatic transmission with revised, taller gear ratios.
Batteries Included The most innovative part of the Sonata hybrid is its unique battery pack made by electronics giant LG. Hyundai will not be using the nickel-metal-hydride batteries that power current hybrids, nor will Hyundai be using lithium-ion batteries of other future hybrids. Instead, Hyundai is planning on using new lithium-polymer batteries that the company claims are lighter, more powerful, less expensive to build, cooler running, more robust, and longer lasting than both lithium-ion and nickel-metal-hydride batteries. Hyundai claims that the new batteries have twice the energy density of nickel-metal hydride batteries. While a lithium-ion battery pack is made up of many small lithium-ion cells each roughly the size of a AA battery, the new lithium-polymer batteries use a gel instead of a liquid as the electrolyte, which allows the lithium-polymer battery to be housed in a lighter aluminum casing. The new technology will debut on the next-generation Sonata that Hyundai claims will have a slippery drag coefficient of 0.29. A plug-in version of the hybrid system will follow at some point in the future.
Hyundai Sings Us the Blues Hyundai Blue Drive is the name of the Korean automaker’s new initiative that proposes to increase the fuel efficiency of its entire fleet. Hyundai has stated that its goal is to achieve the 2020
requirement that calls for manufacturers to have a fleet average of 35 mpg five years early, in 2015. The first vehicles Hyundai is launching that wear the Blue moniker are the Accent Blue edition and the Elantra Blue edition. Like General Motors’ XFE (extra fuel economy) products, the Accent and Elantra Blue gain fuel economy through various aerodynamic tweaks, revised engine and transmission calibrations, and low-rolling-resistance tires. Hyundai promises that the more fuel-efficient Elantra Blue and Accent Blue will cost less than the non-Blue Elantra and Accent when the two cars go on sale in 2009.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/08q4/2011_hyundai_sonata_hybrid_and_blue_drive_plan-auto_shows
First Test: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
2008 Audi Q7 4.2 TDI – First Drive Review – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver
At the tail end of our first drive experience of Audi’s mouth-watering coupes, we were thrust into the driver’s seat of something entirely different in pretty much every conceivable way: the newly minted Q7 4.2 TDI. Some of us rolled our eyes at this, since this particular oil burner, positioned as the current flagship of the Q7 line in Europe (until the V-12 TDI launches), won’t be making it stateside any time soon. Furthermore, Audi didn’t bring any
—which we will get late next year as an ’09 model—for comparison. But we set out to learn a thing or two anyway, as the Q7 4.2 TDI represents the interesting combination of a diesel SUV with a performance bent, and where better to explore the limits of this torquiest of all Audis than on the German autobahn? And so we did.
No Surprises Driving the big diesel Q7 offered absolutely zero surprises. With 561 pound-feet of torque available between 1800 and 2500 rpm, the 4134cc (yes, that rounds to 4.1 liters—don’t ask) turbo-diesel V-8 pulls the Q7′s three tons of metal, glass, rubber, and fattened-up passengers as if tethered to a Lufthansa 747. Audi says the big beast shoots from 0 to 62 mph in 6.4 seconds—entirely believable, if a bit cautious. The Quattro system’s 40/60 front-to-rear torque split makes for predictable, tractable acceleration in a straight line as well as in turns, and the Tiptronic six-speed is fitted with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, not that we desperately needed them with all that torque.
At high speeds, there is no drop-off in the fun factor. With 326 horsepower, the Q7 4.2 TDI has no problem maintaining speed and stability while the speedo climbs into the 140-mph range (gotta love autobahns), offering plenty of passing power when called on to take to the left lane. (The Q7 4.2 TDI’s top speed is 240 km/h, or about 145 mph.) All the while, the interior remains remarkably quiet—not exactly silent as in an A8, but comfortable and conversation friendly.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/07q2/2008_audi_q7_4.2_tdi-first_drive_review