{"id":3388,"date":"2016-04-21T09:58:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T09:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2016-04-21T09:58:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T09:58:42","slug":"drivers-choose-digital-radio-life-saving-safety-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/drivers-choose-digital-radio-life-saving-safety-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers choose digital radio over life-saving safety kit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Nearly four times as many new car buyers choose connectivity gadgets over safety upgrades when specifying their vehicle, according to research by Whatcar.com.<\/p>\n

Drivers are opting for items like satellite navigation, digital radio and Bluetooth capability rather than safety systems such as lane-keeping assistance and blindspot monitoring.<\/p>\n

Automated emergency braking (AEB) is the most popular safety system selected, but less than 20% of drivers choose it as an option. Six in 10 new car buyers will not upgrade with any safety features at all.<\/p>\n

In contrast, 64% spend extra cash to set up sat-nav and half of all drivers upgrade to get a DAB radio \u2013 at a cost similar to the \u00a3200 estimated to install AEB.<\/p>\n

The research also showed that comfort and styling also rank higher than safety items for new car buyers, with features like heated seats (60%) and alloy wheels (42%) being chosen in more specifications.<\/p>\n

Jim Holder, editorial director of Whatcar.com, said: \u201cWhen it comes to talking about what\u2019s important in a car, most people are vociferous about how vital safety is. However, it seems to be a different matter when new car buyers are sat in front of the salesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritish car buyers are clearly going for style over substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beneficial to have creature comforts in your car, especially if you spend a lot of time driving. But it\u2019s quite shocking to think that features which could save peoples\u2019 lives are taking a back seat to having the right sound quality on the radio, especially when those items often cost around the same as the safety options.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly four times as many new car buyers choose connectivity Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[420,421],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-digital-radio","tag-whatcar-com"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.lnetdev.uk\/thevra2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}