From predicting the weather to contact friends, smart phones make life a lot easier. But communication and weather apps aren’t the only things your smart phone can provide; they make driving easier too.

With all the little annoyances that come with driving, you’ll be glad to have these apps tucked away in your pocket.

Google Maps – Pre-packed onto pretty much every phone out there, this is the benchmark for all other map applications. There too many useful features stuffed into it to mention here, but we’ll touch on the most useful for you.

The first and most common use for the app is its directions function. It turns your phone into a sat-nav offering accurate, turn by turn navigation helping you find your way home or to the beach with ease. And when coupled with the Google Earth app you can make use of street view too. This shows images of the location you’re headed, so if you haven’t been there before, you know exactly what you’re looking for.

When in the app if you swipe from the left hand side you can hit the ‘traffic’ button. The app then alters the colours of roads to show how busy they are. So you’ll be able to find the quickest and least congested route home.

We can’t express how useful this app is; not just in driving, but in every other scenario when you need a little help finding your way.

You can download it here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.maps&hl=en_GB

WhatGas Petrol Prices – Isn’t it annoying when you shell out for an expensive fuel stop, drive 5 minutes down the road and spot a petrol station that’s selling it cheaper?

It’s enough to make you pull your hair out.

If you know what we’re talking about then download WhatGas to your phone. Designed to help you keep in check of petrol prices it’s the perfect app for anyone who spends a long time behind the wheel. Open it up and it’ll show a map with the nearest petrol stations and the cheapest prices for Unleaded, Diesel and Petrol.

It’s a community too; allowing you to share your cheap petrol discoveries with other drivers. There’s a pro version with a few more features and a free version. We’ve linked the free version below.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatgas.android

Find My Car – Imagine: you arrive at the airport to jet off on your holidays. You decided to drive rather than pay out for a taxi. When you arrive, the car park is a sea of vehicles. You catch sight of a spot, rip the steering wheel round and dive into the space. Sorted. But when you come back, how are you going to find your car in the endless horizon of gleaming roofs?

There’s an app for that!

Find My Car makes hunting down your parked car easy. It’ll take note of the GPS position, and can then use Google Navigation to guide you back to it. It does this and a whole lot more; well worth it if you’re forgetful.

Download the app here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elibera.android.findmycar&hl=en

Spotify – Music makes spending long hours on the road a lot more fun, but that CD you’ve had in your car for a year has become a little tiresome.

So download Spotfiy; with it (providing you’ve paid for premium) you’ll have literally millions and millions of songs at your fingertips. You can even create a playlist of your favourite driving tunes!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.mobile.android.ui&hl=en_GB

Oh, and one last point. Make sure you use your phone sensibly; no driving and using it at the same time. Purchase a hands free kit!

Take a look at how many cars get written off with our interactive graphic!

A ‘write-off’ is an accident many of us can’t afford. Our cars are important to us; we use them every day to get to work, pick the kids up from school, do the weekly shop, and so many more jobs that, without the use of 4 wheels, would prove difficult.

But how do insurers decide that a car isn’t worth fixing?

If the car is damaged the insurance company will send out an assessor to examine the damage inflicted. They then determine the cost of repair that’s required to the vehicle against the actual value of the car. If it costs more to repair the car to a roadworthy standard than its actual value, the insurer will decide to write the car off.

It’s a common occurrence; one we should expect considering the amount of cars on the road in the UK – a staggering 34,000,000.

To put that into perspective, check out how many vehicles ‘go under’ in the UK each minute below. It might just surprise you…

 

If your car has been ‘written off’, damaged, or is a non-runner then get in touch with us. Here at Sell Your Problem Car ® we make selling your vehicle easy. All you need to do is give us the reg number and we’ll give you a free quote – it’s that simple.

Costs of everyday items are rising and with the average cost of a vehicle in 12 months alone being £3,800 we give you some top tips on how to reduce these motoring costs – allowing you to pocket some cash! We show you how to save up to £1,000 a year by reducing your fuel costs, driving economically, shopping around for breakdown cover and considering the Tax & Insurance implications when looking for a new vehicle.

The car market has been up and down lately – with increases in new cars year on year. Used cars are by far the most cost effective solution to owning a vehicle nowadays, with Ford’s being the most popular used car to own by far in the UK – over 200,000 used cars sold in the last quarter on 2013. Our infographic below shows some of the best statistics from the used car market.

New car technologies in the pipeline that you thought only existed in sci-fi

If you thought that ‘intelligent’ cars that make their own decisions and act of their own accord were things of the far distant future, only made real by sci-fi films then think again. These technologies could be a lot closer to reality then you ever dreamt they were!

Here are five of the most mind-blowing technologies that you could see in brand new vehicles in the not so distant future.

Cars that ‘talk’ to each other

Many car manufacturers are putting a lot of effort into researching technologies that will enable vehicles to communicate with other vehicles and objects around them in order to avoid accidents. Vehicles would be able to communicate their location, speed and direction to other vehicles in the vicinity so that even if you don’t spot another vehicle your car will be able to take evasive action to prevent a collision. As well as potentially being able to communicate with other vehicles, the technologies in question would also be able to receive information from road signs and traffic signals.

Augmented reality dashboards

Imagine if your car’s dashboard was able to tell you information about everything that you are seeing on the road. Perhaps your car would sense that you were too close to the vehicle in front and flash up a warning, or advise you on which lane you need to move into, all without you ever having to take your eyes off the road in front of you. Sounds too good to be true? Well you may not have to wait too long for this technology as many manufacturers including BMW are already working on making it a reality.

Drift control

Did you know that the biggest cause of motoring accidents is people nodding off at the wheel or having a momentary lapse in concentration? Well there is technology in the pipeline that when installed in a vehicle will warn the driver and correct the vehicle’s path if the vehicle begins to drift out of its lane. This technology would work by using sophisticated camera systems to read road markings and could also monitor the driver’s heartbeat to determine how awake or drowsy they are at any given time.

Solar panelled vehicle body panels

In the future cars may be able to produce some of their own energy using solar panelled body parts. The vehicle’s roof and side panels would be equipped with solar panels to produce energy efficient hybrid cars.

Self-driving cars

Self-driving cars may sound pretty far out there, but engineers from Google have already test-driven cars that are capable of driving themselves. Self-drive cars use a combination of lasers, cameras and radars in order to read road signs and traffic lights whilst communicating with and receiving information from other vehicles and objects on the road.

It’s amazing how quickly technology advances these days and many people believe we could see self-driving cars on the road within the next decade with many of these other technologies appearing even sooner.

Have a look at our graphic on some of the most popular cars from the movies.

Want a run-down on what you should do with your problem car? Take a look at our infographic