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11 shares 28 View comments Painful legacy: Anne Spoor is still suffering five years after being hurt on a coach New laws to tackle the growing compensation culture that has turned the UK into the ‘whiplash capital of Europe’ will hit genuine victims, warn lawyers. Anyone suffering personal injury must pay their legal costs if they claim compensation, as dramatic changes to the law on ‘conditional fee agreements’ – better known as ‘no-win, no-fee’ deals – kick in from tomorrow. It means that even when victims win compensation in the courts, their legal costs can no longer be recovered from the defending side. The changes are part of a Government clampdown on fraudulent whiplash claims, which as Financial Mail has reported since 2009 have inflated motorists’ insurance premiums by more than 20 per cent. But some lawyers argue that genuine claimants – some who suffer severely after an accident – will be more reluctant to bring claims while lawyers may refuse to take o

48 shares 55 View comments The arrival of the 13 number plate for new cars has seen motorists snapping up vehicles from the forecourt, but it’s no secret that many will lose their value quickly. And while most new cars will lose a significant proportion of their starting price, some will lose considerably more than others - and as we explain below this may be even worse for 13-plate models thanks to people's superstitions. But with a bit of savvy buying, your car may hold far more of its value than you expect, or you may be able to target a three-year-old bargain. To help motorists pick a winner, This is Money and car website Auto Trader have complied the top five cars which held on to the most of their original value last year – and the five that didn’t. Winners and losers: The Skoda Yeti and Volvo S80 feature in the list below 13 plate – unlucky for some? It could prove to be a strange six-month period for new car buying, as the 13 number plate may prove

35 shares 46 View comments The price is not right: Even the keenest car buyer would be lucky to find a similar vehicle for the money an insurer offers for a write-off. It's no secret that car insurers have a handy bag of sneaky tricks to milk more money out of their customers. If you've ever had the misfortune of having a car written off, which sadly I have, it's likely you will have suffered one of the most financially painful. Two separate incidents brought this trick to my mind this week. The first was our story on car deprecation winners and losers which ranked the new cars that kept their value. Some readers questioned whether it was actually possible to bag some of the bargain cars for the prices quoted. Then comparing quotes to renew my car insurance, an insurer placed an automatic value on my car some £2,000 lower than the £7,000 that I paid for it just last October. As this was an already very keenly priced car that we managed to negotiate an

8 shares 7 View comments Motorists ignored superstition and bought 394,806 cars with new ‘13’ number plates last month, coincidentally the 13th month of rising sales, the Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders (SMMT) has reported. New registrations were 5.9 per cent up on March 2012 and took the number of sales for the first three months of 2013 to 605,198 – a 7.4 per cent rise on the January-March 2012 figure. Registrations of petrol-fuelled cars surpassed diesels in the first three months of this year, spurred on by the growth in the small car and private sector markets. Ford Fiesta: The small economical motor continues to be the most popular new car to buy Earlier this year research by motoring organisation the AA suggested the number 13 plate may prove unpopular with new motor buyers. In a survey, it found that a third of potential new car buyers would think twice about snapping up a 13 plate – not because they fear a mishap, but because they fear tryi

74 shares 127 View comments MoT changes: Older cars now face more stringent tests My Vauxhall is due for MoT next month but my regular garage has warned me already that it may fail as there are some new tests that it has to pass under EU laws. Could your motoring experts please explain? It may mean I have to fork out more on repairs or even have to get a new car. Via email. Linda Mckay of This Is Money replies: Hard-pressed motorists have to deal with increasing road tax, fuel rises and now it seems the possibility of further costly repairs if their vehicle fails its MoT. An additional 15 boxes on the MoT checklist will now need to be ticked before cars are deemed legal to be on the road. The changes, which include stringent checks on warning lights, handbrakes and wiring, were introduced in January last year. But it is only now that they become mandatory. I asked our experts for clarification.   More... Top five cars that hold their value best and five that

17 shares 34 View comments Drivers with long standing no claims discount protection may lose money Drivers paying extra to protect their no claims discount are worse off than non-protected motorists if they do not make a claim in the first year, according to research by comparison website Moneysupermarket.com. Motorists pay an average of £23 extra on top of their annual car insurance for no claims discount protection. But according to data from the price comparison firm, the longer the protection is in place the less cost-effective it becomes. Moneysupermarket said drivers with a five year no claims discount, who had paid to protect that discount, would be £21 better off on average if they claimed in the first year of the protection versus a motorist who made a claim on a unprotected policy. However, in the second year motorists would be £2 worse off and in the third year, motorists protecting their no claims discount would be almost £25 worse off, although there

9 shares 14 View comments The most powerful Jaguar sports car for a generation is unleashed today as the car-maker seeks to make a quantum leap in sales. Ambitious Jaguar boss Adrian Hallmark hopes the F-Type will help Jaguar sales more than double within a few years. As spiritual successor to the E-Type of the 1960s, the new sports car, costing from £58,500 to £79,950, will be the trail-blazer for this stellar performance. Gloves are off: Adrian Hallmark said: 'With the F-Type, we¿re back with a vengeance' But it is a forthcoming ‘baby-Jaguar’ saloon – a rival to BMW’s 3-series – which will really drive the massive expansion. And though Hallmark declines to discuss in detail ‘potential future products’, it is, in truth, this more volume-led luxury saloon on which Jaguar is betting the house. I joined Hallmark in Northern Spain – on the road, on the race-track and, after a hard day’s driving, over dinner – for the first global test-drive of the stunning B