An iPhone Application That Rates Your Driving Skills

Apple iPhone 3G owners have the opportunity to 'rate' their driving skills through an Application by State Farm, an insurance company. The application gives tips on how to improve your driving and scores your overall performance accordingly. The application uses an accelerometer & GPS location system which measures hard acceleration, hard deceleration and hard swerves - three of the riskiest driving behaviours according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

State Farm Driver Feedback Application available for Apple iPhone 3G users.

Not to worry, State Farm are not archiving any data that has been received or recorded, it is an application that is for 'entertainment purposes only' and will not impact insurance rates. After your journey, the application makes recommendations and advises where you could improve your driving skills. Using the GPS mapping system, it is able to flag certain areas of your journey that you have driven which may have caused you to score lower. 

This gets a thumbs up from us! What is your opinion?

Want to see more applications available for car drivers? See our 10 Applications Available for car drivers. 

10 Useful iPhone Applications for Car Drivers

Got an Apple iPhone 3G? It seems the world has gone app crazy lately, with applications that can tell you where the nearest cash point, McDonalds, Argos or anything else you might possibly need to find at your fingertips - who needs maps anymore?! 

We have compiled a list of 10 useful applications available to download for your iPhone 3G, specifically for car drivers. 


PLEASE READ: We have never tested any of these application and don't plan to. We are in no way recommending them, rather informing you about them, so please read more about them including reviews etc before purchasing as we can't be held responsible for any disappointment! We just thought they were worth sharing as an interesting read of what is available for car drivers!

1. iGasUp! - is an alternative way of finding the cheapest petrol station in your area. You can download a similar version of this for free, the application is called Where?. Apparently it is not as good, but it's free! 

2. Carticipate - If you want to help the environment and save on fuel costs, this is a nifty application that will help you find commuters to carpool with in your area.

3. CarCare -  Lets you track car repair costs as well as fuel costs.

4. MileBug - MileBug is an application that logs the miles that you do - great for company car owners!

5. Parking Meter - This application lets you know exactly where you parked your car - great for multistory parking! It alerts you when your parking ticket is about to expire - avoid getting a ticket with this app! 

6. Trapster! -  This application helps if you are conscious of speed cameras, speed humps or police hot spots, it will alert you when you are approaching any of the above. 

7. iLeaseMyCar - If you’re looking to buy a new car, iLeaseMyCar (and now iLeaseMyCar Pro) is a great tool to carry with as you look at financing costs. This app lets you calculate your payments by changing your down payment, interest rate, and so on. 

8. Shazam - Want to know what song was just playing on the radio? with this handy app you can do just that!

9. AccuFuel - Track fuel efficiency and consumption with this app!

10. ParkingAssistant - Helps you find a parking spot within your vicinity!

If you want to see an application that rates your driving then click here!

April Photo Competition Winner (Mondeostoc.com)

Mondeo Spares Ltd are club sponsors of Mondeo ST Owners Club forum and have been helping to choose winners for the many competitions that the forum runs. 

In April, the competition was to send in a photograph of your Mondeo with the theme 'tree' in mind. We had so many wonderful entries in, some were so inspiring it was hard to pick a winner between them!

We'd like to congratulate Richard Goodman from Nottingham who won this months competition. 

Here is the winning photo:

Richard Goodman from Nottingham's Winning Photo Entry
Photo taken at Wollaton Hall, Notts.

Here are some car specifications of Richard's Mondeo:
Lowered on Eibach suspension,
K&N air filter,
Air tech intercooler,
Forge silicone boost hoses
Forge silicone intake hose
Painted & polished engine bay
De-cat,
MIJ 2.5" Twin exhaust system
Black eye headlights
Hid headlights
Tinted windows

Running approx 165bhp without remap.


As the winner, Richard receives a t-shirt from Mondeo Spares and gets to choose May's photo competition theme. He has chosen "water".

If you'd like to enter the photo competition for May, the closing date is 27th May 2011.

To Enter:

May's theme is "water" so your car must be in the photograph with water near/around it.

You must be a registered user on the Mondeo ST OC forum.

Only 2 photographs per member can be submitted.

No photoshopped images allowed (lighting and contrast adjustments are OK)

Obviously must be a picture of a Mondeo ST.

Register at the forum here:

www.mondeostoc.com 

Automotive Plastic Goes Banana's - Quite Literally!

Alcides Leão, a Brazilian research scientist and the study leader for this particular project, has found value in agro-waste. Leão addressed the National American Society in a meeting a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the properties of Banana’s and Pineapples are proving to be very beneficial for the Automotive industry at the moment. According to Leão, the leaves and stems of fruit with tough skins such as these could play a massive part in the future of Automotive plastics for the future. The unique fibers in these particular fruits have remarkable properties and nano-cellulose that can help to reinforce plastic by making them more sustainable, stronger and lighter. Leão said at the meeting “the properties of these plants are incredible”. The fibers from the fruit can reinforce plastic to build dashboards, bumpers and side panels.

Not just a juicy, fruity, refreshing snack...

It is costly - less than one-half kilo of nano-cellulose is needed to produce 45 kilos of super-strong light weight plastic material. However, the nano-cellulose-reinforced plastic is 30% lighter and as much as four times stronger than petroleum-based plastic and easily matches carbon fiber and fiberglass. 

However expensive, this makes the car more durable and because it will make the car lighter, it will also improve fuel economy. Not to mention more resistant to damage from heat, spilled gasoline, water and oxygen.

Leão goes on to explain how the fibers will help to make plastics even more eco-friendly than ever before. "Before it [plastic] was 50 percent non-biodegradable, non-renewable, that was the plastic based on oil and now we end up with 100 percent bio-degradable, bio-renewable material."

So what could this mean for the future? At the moment, Leão is only focusing on replacing automotive parts for the automotive industry, which he thinks will be available within 2 years time. Parts have already been tested by automotive companies who have said that the results have been “favourable”. But certainly in the future Leão explains how he would like to use this nano-cellulose technology for use in other industries such as medicine and medical equipment; lightening the load for artificial hips for example. He also believes that eventually this technology could possibly replace aluminium and steel automotive parts in the future.  

A 1 Million KM Milestone for Ford

A milestone has passed for the Auto Car Maker, Ford this month. An average joe from Austria bought a Ford Focus (1999) 1.8 TDDi and this week it has passed the 1 Million KM mark (621,371 miles), a first for Ford and a real landmark in automotive history. This just proves that Ford cars really are built to last. Apparently the owner of the car says that the car has had no major surgery in the 12 years of ownership and that he has only had the engine revised once, the clutch repaired once and remarkably the rest of the parts are pretty much the same original parts that were put in the car since it was made in 1999!  

A real milestone for Ford and what every auto car maker wants to achieve.

 "This car is a testament to the outstanding quality of the Ford Focus. With the introduction of the Ford Focus in 1998, we have set a milestone in Ford history in terms of dynamics, design, and vehicle quality,” said Ford Austria general director Steffen Knapp.

“This success story is not only continuing with the introduction of the new Ford Focus in April 2011, but leads the Ford offer to the next level in regards to technology, environmental friendliness, safety and vehicle quality." 


However, if you aren't quite as lucky as to get over 600,000 miles out of your Ford, you can always visit us for affordable Ford spares :)