31 October 2002: Contrary to the impression regularly given by the National Safety Council and members of the Government when announcing 'driver blitzes' and new regulations, the death rate on Ireland's roads has almost halved in the last 11 years.

31 October 2002: RHD versions of a V12 BMW 7-Series flagship will be available from January of next year. The car will be powered by a 6-litre engine outputting 445bhp and with a whopping 600Nm of torque.

31 October 2002: It might seem odd that the world’s most popular roadster hasn’t had a fuel warning light, but it has now in a set of enhancements for the 2003 model year.

30 October 2002: Toyota has announced record profits for the past six months and raised its profits outlook for the full year, thanks to better than expected business in the United States and Europe, and due partly to the new Camry (above).

30 October 2002: Young drivers should be restricted from carrying other people under 30 because it seems in those situations that they use their seatbelts less often. That’s according to research carried out at the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

30 October 2002: The Honda Civic hybrid has been awarded the title of ‘Best Environment Car’ at the British International Motor Show. The award was given by the Institute of Vehicle Engineers, and beat 20 other contenders.

Ferry company uses SMS to advise customers

29 October 2002: Mayo County Council has instituted a 'lights on in daytime' initiative throughout the county, following similar programmes by Dublin and Donegal County Councils. The campaign will run until the clocks change again in Spring 2003.

28 October 2002: The controversial 'team orders' are to be banned in a new shake-up of Formula One racing rules, designed against a background of plummeting TV interest and revenues. The 'orders' have led to complaints from fans as Ferrari used them to manipulate finishes between Schumacher and Barrichello.

Premacy goes 7-seat

26 October 2002: Drivers should get their exhausts checked regularly, to avoid causing themselves and other road users serious problems, warns Tenneco Automotive, producer of the Walker aftermarket exhaust system products.

25 October 2002: A 2-litre derivative of the Lexus IS300 SportCross introduced here some time ago has been launched in Ireland and is expected to increase seven-fold sales here of the SportCross.

25 October 2002: Irish Ferries has won two top awards 'Best Ferry Company' and 'Best Travel Website' in the first Holiday Awards competition organised by the travel industry publication Travel Extra. The award was decided by a popular vote taken amongst members of the public and audited by NCB Corporate Finance.

25 October 2002: Radio manufacturers Blaupunkt have developed a mobile MP3 system which can play as many as 250 songs from a single CD. The system is now offered for the first time as original equipment on the North American Ford Focus for 2003.

24 October 2002: Toyota is trying out a whole new way of paying for a car in Japan, by the number of kilometres travelled. The fees consist of a basic monthly fee and a variable fee based on the actual distance for which the vehicle is used.

24 October 2002: In Brazil, the Fiat Stilo has won the first ever 'Top Car TV - best car in Brazil' award. The prize was awarded by a panel of 14 TV motoring reporters representing the nine most important states in the country.

23 October 2002: The second phase of a multi-million-euro renewal programme involving both Fiat Auto Ireland’s own operational structures and its national dealer network is now begun.

23 October 2002: Irish motorists can now own a cost-effective in-car GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation system, complete with the road map of Ireland.

23 October 2002: The RAC School of Motoring has offered advice on driving in the increasingly dark autumn and winter evenings, as the clock goes back this bank holiday weekend.

23 October 2002: Ford today announced its intention to take the Fiesta into rallying with the unveiling of its RallyeConcept, which is expected to go into competition within a year.  

23 October 2002: Toyota and Lexus cars won the top spot in six out of seven car segments in the first customer satisfaction survey of Germany's car owners by market research firm JD Power. Furthermore, the Lexus IS200 (above) received the highest satisfaction score of all participants in the 132-car survey, with 86 per cent.

23 October 2002: Luxury carmaker Jaguar had a surprise up its sleeve for its Press Day photocall yesterday at the British International Motor Show: the world debut of the XJ6 model that it believes offers 'a new level of accessibility' to the XJ range.

23 October 2002: A number of European cars have achieved high star ratings in some stages of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s latest NCAP crash and rollover tests.

23 October 2002: Bosch, the world’s leading supplier of diesel injection systems, has predicted that every third car sold in the UK will be a diesel by 2005 and every second one by 2008.

22 October 2002: MG today revealed its new high performance sports car, the MG XPower SV, at the British International Motor Show. Following development of the original X80 concept, the MG has been radically evolved, is lighter and has increased levels of power with up to 965bhp.

22 October 2002: Ireland is one of 10 European countries which face EU court action over their failure to implement a 'vehicle end of life' directive.

22 October 2002: The joint venture GM-Lada car plant in Russia may well be producing two models under the GM brand next year.

22 October 2002: Daewoo’s Kalos supermini has gone on sale in Ireland, replacing the Lanos and providing the marque with the first of a brand new range of cars to be launched over the next year.

22 October 2002: Volkswagen is to drop the VW Lupo and SEAT Arosa mini cars because of disappointing sales in the segment where the Citroen Saxo is the front-runner in Europe.

22 October 2002: The new Volvo XC90 has been awarded the Motor Trend SUV of the Year title by the US magazine of that name. The publication is one of the oldest and most respected car magazines in North America.

22 October 2002: Ford has had to change the name of the GT40 sports saloon it plans to launch in 2004, commemorating the famous racing car of the same name with which it dominated the Le Mans 24 hours and similar events worldwide during the 60s.

21 October 2002: Hot on the heels of the launch of the new SEAT Cordoba, Volkswagen has revealed details of its own new Polo saloon derivative (above). But it will initially only be on sale in Latin American markets, which have a high preference for notchbacks.

21 October 2002: A world debut at the British International Motor Show this week will revive a once-respected luxury sports car brand, the Invicta. The 170mph hand-built car has a carbon-fibre body and is powered by a 320bhp 4.6-litre V8 engine sourced from a US manufacturer.

21 October 2002: There are an average of three truck roll-overs a day in Britain, according to the Society of Operations Engineers. With each incident costing an average of E160,000, the annual bill of reported accidents is around the E125 million mark.

21 October 2002: Hyundai says it will gradually extend its 5-year warranty to other markets in Europe, because it will be required under new block exemption rules.

19 October 2002: There's 'been a lot of interest' in the new BMW Z4 in Ireland, according to Motor Import Ltd, franchisees for the brand in this country. That's despite the fact that the car won't see these shores until April of next year.

Early bird gets Irish Ferries bargains

18 October 2002: A new, old-fashioned kind of bicycle is poised for a comeback in the United States - as a commuter machine.

17 October 2002: Opel has launched its fastest-ever volume production car, the Vectra GTS 5-door coupe powered by the 211bhp 3.2-litre V6 ECOTEC engine.

17 October 2002: A new car tracking and immobilisation system available from today will work throughout Europe and allows the owner of a car to immobilise it by a simple phone call, no matter where they are.

17 October 2002: A 1.2-litre diesel engine system which has the performance of a 2-litre turbodiesel is being developed in a joint venture by automotive components manufacturers Ricardo and Valeo.

17 October 2002: Fiat has been warned by GM that any change in control of the company might negate an agreement by which the Italian carmaker can insist on GM buying the remaining 80 per cent of Fiat in 2004.

17 October 2002: An estimated 500 extra lives were saved on US roads last year with a 2-point increase in the use of seat belts by American motorists, according to the country's National Highway Traffic Safety Administeration.

16 October 2002: The new-generation SEAT Cordoba, revealed at the recent Paris Show, will be in Ireland in January.

15 October 2002: Are you a young, single buyer on the look out for ‘a good car, out of the ordinary, with a bit more presence that what’s available in the B-Segment?’

15 October 2002: Toyota’s Prius hybrid is being put to the test as part of the Countryside Council for Wales’ (CCW) programme to ‘green’ the organisation.

15 October 2002: Mercedes-Benz in the US is facing up to $118m in payments to owners of 630,000 cars and SUVs because of a claim that the company provided faulty instructions to customers about the motor oil that should be used.

15 October 2002: The Galway Cycle Campaign has issued a safety warning to cyclists and motorists over new red ‘cycle lane’ markings that have been marked on the edge of the Western Distributor road in Galway. The GCC point out that there are serious safety problems associated with the use of such devices in other countries.

14 October 2002: For a six-year-old from Leighlin in Carlow, it was the greatest day yet for a little big fan of Michael Schumacher. Not alone did Kevin Lennon's hero win the final race of the season, breaking some new records as he did so, but Kevin got to sit alongside a car driven by the same Michael.

14 October 2002: The Lexus LS430 has been awarded the Most Appealing Luxury Car status in the latest US JD Power APEAL study. It's the fourth time that Lexus has taken this particular title.

14 October 2002: MG Rover Group will reveal its new high performance sports car at the British International Motor Show in Birmingham on October 22.

14 October 2002: A 4.2-litre V8-powered version of the Audi Allroad will be rolled out in some world markets in the spring. The car uses the engine that powers versions of the A6 and the Audi A8.

13 October 2002: Honda is to show a new sports hatch, the Civic Type-S, at the upcoming British International Motor Show.

12 October 2002: A ‘safety net’ radar system that senses when a car behind is about to collide with your own car and then optimises the seatbelt and other safety systems is just one of a bundle of innovations installed in a standard Ford Taurus for the 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems in Chicago this coming week.

11 October 2002: The candidates for the ‘Semperit Irish Car of the Year 2003’ have been announced by the Irish Motoring Writers Association. The winning car will be revealed at a ceremony in the Berkeley Court Hotel on Thursday, 21 November 2002. This year there are 43 entries vying for the title:

11 October 2002: The Citroen C3 has just been voted Car of the Year in Denmark by the Danish Motoring Press. The 23 journalists voted it in well ahead of the Mazda6 which came second.

11 October 2002: The Alfa 147 GTA we saw at the recent Paris Motor Show will be in Ireland early next year, and is likely to be the opportunity for a rerun of the famous Hannibal Run on which the original 147 was introduced to Irish motoring journalists.

11 October 2002: The majority of cars on our roads have mechanical faults relating to safety components such as tyres, lights and brakes. This was the finding of a series of checks carried out in the Greater Dublin area last month by RAC Ireland. And things might be worse, as the study only involved voluntary checks.

11 October 2002: Children or small people could inadvertantly fool so-called ‘smart’ airbags to the point that the bags become killers, according to a number of airbag manufacturers.

10 October 2002: Ford in the US is getting on the ‘crossover’ bandwagon, with the debut of a new car in 2004 – the Ford Freestyle.

10 October 2002: More than three in four travellers says they have suffered from carsickness, according to a survey conducted by the RAC. And the study found that significant numbers of 'forgotten' fellow travellers are going to extreme lengths to avoid the journey into nausea.

10 October 2002: Toyota will exhibit advanced safety systems and driver-assist technologies as part of its vision of an ITS-facilitated world at the 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (Oct. 14-17) in Chicago.

10 October 2002: Honda has released pictures of its upcoming wagon version of the new Acccord, the saloon version of which will be in Ireland in the spring.

10 October 2002: Eight years after the launch of the NECAR 1 concept study, DaimlerChrysler is now presenting the first fuel cell vehicles to be deployed in fleets and tested by customers in Europe, the USA, Japan, and Singapore.

10 October 2002: Volvo has presented its Environment Prize 2002 to Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta and Professor Karl-Göran Mäler to recognise their pioneering research within environmental and resource economics. The prize is an honorarium of E164,000.

City of Angels embraces fuel cell car

8 October 2002: Elderly drivers are more likely to have accidents involving more than one car, and particularly at intersections, according to Canadian research.

Many leaderboard changes in Murphy rally

7 October 2002: David Lyons from Clarina, Co Limerick, scored his best ever result to secure his first victory of the season on the sixth and penultimate round of the highly competitive 2002 Ford Ireland KA Rally Championship, at the Murphy Construction Cork International Rally.

7 October 2002: The competition in the supermini segment in the critical buying time from January 1 2003 has just got hotter, with the announcement that the new Nissan Micra will be on sale in Ireland from that date.

7 October 2002: A British rally team headed off at the weekend to drive 4,000 miles from London to Athens on the World Cup Rally. In a Smart car!

7 October 2002: Fiat in the UK had a little fun with Londoners recently when it sent a fleet of Multiplas around with lookalikes of famous people at the wheel, including the Queen of England, Ali G, Elton John, Pavarotti and even Batman and Robin!

7 October 2002: We may be in an era when fuel-guzzling is getting a little less politically correct, but General Motors has announced it will will produce a 7.5-liter V-12 engine that will be used in future Cadillac models.

7 October 2002: Drivers who are convicted for taking drugs are up to ten times more likely to die from drug poisoning, accidents and suicide at an early age, than is normal in the population, according to new research from Norway. Drivers convicted for drink/driving are also at considerably higher risk of premature death than the norm.

4 October 2002: The Nissan X-TRAIL has yet again beaten off stiff competition from the Land Rover Freelander, Ford Maverick, Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CRV and has been voted ‘Soft Roader of the Year 2003’ for the second consecutive year by the British off-road magazine, 4x4. This is the third award this year for the X-TRAIL.

4 October 2002: The National Safety Council has launched the Irish Road Safety Endeavour Awards for 2003. This is the second year of the awards programme, which seeks to acknowledge individuals and organisations who have contributed to the promotion of road safety in Ireland.

3 October 2002: Jaguar and Land Rover have exceeded their all-time full calendar year sales records in the US in just nine months of sales in 2002, and the new Range Rover is already selling at twice the rate of the old one in North American markets.

3 October 2002: An innovative miniature helmet-mounted head-up display system developed by BMW will be incorporated into Williams F1 driver Ralf Schumacher's helmet in the next Formula 1 season.

3 October 2002: A new parking aid system which measures if a car will fit into a given parking slot will be introduced on two European cars in the next couple of years.

3 October 2002: There’s no denying that Michael Schumacher’s brilliant driving skills are the key to his extraordinary progress in his driving career, but equally he couldn’t have got to where he is without the extraordinary car he drives. Irish Formula 1 fans will have a chance to see one of those cars at eight locations around the country during October and November.

3 October 2002: A Jaguar S-TYPE R fire tender built by the Special Vehicle Operations department at Jaguar Cars, has been delivered to Silverstone circuit.

3 October 2002: Research carried out in New Zealand suggests that ‘high fear arousal’ anti-drink driving advertisements do not have as much affect on actual drink driving as expected.

2 October 2002: This is the teaser for the world debut of a new TVR coupe to be unveiled at the British International Motor Show later this month.

2 October 2002: Car sales in September were up 13.9% on the same period last year, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), slightly improving the overall car registrations for the first three-quarters of the year which are now down by 5.5%.

Rita gets a Fiesta bargain

2 October 2002: Children in the front seats of cars are more likely to be injured in a side impact than those in the rear, according to a study conducted in the US.

Suzuki Concept-S to be production car

1 October 2002: Suzuki has confirmed that a derivative of its Concept-S car shown last week at the Paris Motor Show will be produced as a production car in 2004.

1 October 2002: Though there has been significant upgrading of the Mitsubishi Space Star for 2003, prices have not been increased against the older version, according to Mitsubishi Motors Ireland's Paddy Murphy.