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Life savers: safety features drivers should pick for their next car

Life savers: optional safety features drivers should choose for their next car

Car firms can now fit even the most modest motors with an astonishing array of safety equipment. It’s kit that’s designed to assist drivers and prevent crashes happening. But according to a study by What Car?, four times as many drivers prioritise connectivity, fancy audio units, navigation systems and alloy wheels over advanced systems that can help keep them, their passengers and other road users safe.

Many road safety experts believe this is because drivers don’t fully understand what the systems do, and how they can help. Here we investigate some of the most significant safety systems available on used and new cars.

Automatic braking systems

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Which new car options are worth paying extra for?

Which new car options are worth paying extra for?

Not so long ago, choosing optional extras to be fitted to a new car was a guessing game. Unless a dealer had a similar car with fitted with similar options for customers to view, you’d place ticks on an order form and hope for the best. Today, the online car configurator means drivers can easily judge whether larger wheels look better, or if a panoramic sunroof and tan leather upholstery is a better bet than a regular sunroof with black leather trim.

Online configurators are big business. Car companies invest huge sums of money in making them as realistic as possible, because they can make huge sums of money from selling customers optional extras. And the list of those extras is as long as your arm.

Sometimes those options are a good choice. They’ll make driving safer or more comfortable for the owner of the car. But just as often, they’re a waste of money, costing hundreds or even thousands when ordered but worth precious little when the time comes to sell the car.

That’s the view of Rupert Pontin, the Director of Valuations at Glass’s Guide, the organisation that has been monitoring the values of used cars since 1933 – long before there were such things as optional extras.

Glass’s cautions buyers to think before they upgrade. It says that typically, the original cost of any option falls in value faster than the original cost of the car. It’s also better to invest in a higher trim level than to pick a basic car and pile on the options.

So which options are worth adding to a new car? Here are five wise buys.

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Five eye-wateringly expensive new car options that are no April Fools joke

Five of the most expensive car options that are no April Fools joke, including the Rolls-Royce Wraith

You may need to sit down before looking at the price of options on a Rolls-Royce Wraith (Picture © Rolls-Royce)

Anyone who has bought a new car recently can’t help but fail to have noticed the lengthy lists of optional extras that can be added to their new pride and joy – at a cost. These are so long that they make any fixtures and fittings list for a house purchase seem like a Post-it note. Yet extras are increasingly popular, as they allow drivers to give their car the personal touch, stand out of the crowd, or show-off the latest gadgets and gizmos to friends and family.

So, without further ado, here are five of the most expensive options available on new cars in the UK. And not one of them is an April Fools joke…

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