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Classic Porsche 911 – A car video clip, comprising of a collection of images presented in a high quality video slideshow, with a decent soundtrack.

Car insurance options
For drivers, the UK`s roads are fraught with difficulties and dangers; 247,780 casualties occurred during 2007 alone – and nearly 3,000 people were killed. No matter how good a driver you may be, by taking to the road you are at risk of an accident, which is why car insurance is not only a crucial financial investment but also a legal necessity in the UK.

What car insurance options are available?

Broadly there are three types of car insurance available in the UK:

- Third party only (TPO) – Covers injuries to others and damage to their property. It will also cover accidents caused by passengers or by caravans or trailers attached to the car.

- Third party fire and theft (TPFT) – As per third party only but with the addition of fire damage and theft cover.

- Comprehensive cover – This offers the most protection but policies will vary from provider to provider depending on the options you choose.

In addition there are specialist policies available for new drivers, older drivers, female drivers and drivers of specialist vehicles such as classics and high-performance cars. These policies may offer unique benefits, for example handbag cover and child seat cover for women drivers and agreed valuations and limited mileage discounts for classic cars. However, they are not necessarily the cheapest.

How do you choose a car insurance policy?

Before shopping for car insurance familiarise yourself with some common car insurance terms. Here are a few examples:

- Excess
An excess is what you are liable to pay towards any claim. There are two types of excess: compulsory and voluntary. The former is set by your insurance company when you take out a policy, whilst the latter is what you choose to pay in addition to the compulsory excess. Generally, the higher your voluntary excess, the lower your premium will be.

- Exclusions
Most policies will feature key exclusions i.e. areas that the policy will not cover. These will be outlined in your policy documents.

- No-claims bonus
The `no claims bonus` is a reward for people who don`t make a claim on their policy. Insurance companies will usually give a discount for claim free driving.

- SDP
An acronym for “social, domestic and pleasure” this covers you for day-to-day driving such as to the shops or to see relatives. Your insurance will not cover you when driving to and from your place of work unless it includes “SDP and commuting”.

From there, decide which options you want to include on your policy. For example, will you require a courtesy car if your vehicle is involved in an accident? Do you want accidental damage cover? What about cover for your windscreen, or legal assistance?

Remember that most car insurance companies will not match the level of cover you have in the UK if you take your car overseas – instead they will simply offer a “Green card” which means you have basic (third party only) cover when abroad. If you want more protection then you must contact your insurer directly to request it.

Which car insurance provider should you choose?

According to a comparison website`s research, Swiftcover and Kwik-Fit are the cheapest car insurers on average in the UK with typical quotes averaging £277. However, they may not be the cheapest for you based on the risk you present and the level of cover you require. Remember that the cheapest policy is not always the best value policy, so the key is to shop around with a car insurance comparison website to find the right deal for you based on the level of cover you require and the price you`re willing to pay.

It turns out we’ve got a few months before the Large Hadron Collider sucks us all into a black hole, and it seems rumours of the finance sector’s death have been exaggerated, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. The prime minister is warning of a recession and, having been chancellor for ten years, he probably knows what he’s talking about.

So, shares, house prices, and the pound are sliding, and pretty much anything else you care to invest in is coming down in value. If you’ve got money to save you could put it in a high-interest account, but it was the dodgy lending decisions made by some of the world’s banks that helped get us into this mess in the first place. The uncharitable amongst us might think that, if we’re already buying them out of trouble with our taxes, we shouldn’t top it up with what we’ve got left.

It’s at times like these, so I’m told, that smart investors look to buy into commodities with an intrinsic value. That means something rare and precious, the supply of which is unlikely to be affected by what happens to everything else – something like gold.

But although gold’s pretty to look at, it doesn’t really do a lot else. Cars, on the other hand, are fun. Unfortunately, you’d have to be pretty optimistic to see a new one as a sound investment – even premium small cars like the Mini lose a chunk of their value the moment you drive them off the forecourt. But choose a car that hasn’t seen a forecourt for, say, 25 years and you might really be onto something.

Classic cars are, at least in some ways, a bit like gold. They’re in limited supply, and we can all agree that they’re worth something even when we aren’t sure about our houses and the money in our pockets. As with everything at the moment, though, it’s hard to be sure exactly what they’re worth. Motoring pundit Quentin Wilson says prices are falling, but auctioneers BCA are putting a positive spin on recent sales.

My solution? Cover all your bases – money, transport and housing – by investing in a classic car that, should it all go wrong, you can live in. VW Camper, anyone?

IMAGE by Flickr user Elsie esq.