National Trivia Day: Facts about cars and insurance

It’s National Trivia Day on 4 January so we thought what better way to celebrate than by sharing some little-known facts about both cars and insurance…

• You can get fined up to £5,000 if you splash someone and you’re driving in a way that demonstrates ‘a clear act of incompetence, selfishness, impatience and aggressiveness’.
• Grey is Britain’s most popular new car colour.
• Mercedes Benz not only patented the airbag in 1971 but also were the first to fit a driver’s airbag and front passenger’s airbag as standard in all of the brand’s models in 1994.
• Director Michael Bay has sent at least 354 cars to scrapyards during the making of his films.
• Karl Benz is credited with inventing the first automobile (in 1886).
• The first insurance contract was signed all the way back in 1347.
• The Great Fire of London inspired the invention of fire and house insurance.
• As of 2024, the average cost of UK car insurance is £861.
• The UK car insurance industry is valued at around £19.1 billion.
• The UK insurance industry is the largest in Europe and fourth largest in the world.

Do you have any further fun facts to share about cars or insurance?

Sources

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/drivers-warned-5-000-fines-174900866.html

https://media.smmt.co.uk/new-car-colours-2023

https://media.mbusa.com/releases/release-34b22cdf3837beba024634fab13f9b1d-40-years-ago-mercedes-benz-launched-the-drivers-airbag-and-seat-belt-tensioner-in-series-production

https://www.scrapcarcomparison.co.uk/blog/dangerous-directors/

https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/tradition/company-history/1885-1886.html

https://www.denniswatkins.co.uk/articles/a-brief-history-of-insurance/

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/has-car-insurance-gone-up

https://www.uswitch.com/car-insurance/car-insurance-statistics/

https://www.abi.org.uk/about-the-abi/about-us/