Insurance Guide

Enjoy hammering the throttle down the freeway and feeling the wind rush through your hair? Here are a selection of five of the best convertible cars that will help save the earth and save you money in the long run. There are few better ways to take on the highway than in a convertible. Cruising along the open road with the wind rushing through your hair and the sun in your face is an exhilarating experience unmatched by more traditional means of transportation. With increasing concern about the environmental impact of motorised transport, and the increasing costs of fuel, there has been a push towards more fuel efficient vehicles. We explore some of the best options for an eco-friendly thrill ride.

So it turns out the internet isn’t just for looking at pictures of cats (who knew?), you can also use it to diagnose your medical maladies. WebMD is one of numerous online diagnosis sites that have popped up in the last few years. If and when you’re sick, these sites allow you to list your symptoms and see what the probable causes are. This is done either by searching the symptoms directly, or clicking through diagrams of the anatomy and selecting suggestions for what your symptoms may be. Once you’ve submitted these symptoms, a list pops up of the potential ailments that the all-knowing doctor of the interweb believes may explain your symptoms. In this hi-tech, fast paced, instant gratification era that we’re all living in, sites such as WebMD are becoming increasingly popular. Let’s face it, anyone with a laptop or smartphone and a propensity for being too lazy to arrange a Dr’s appointment has used one. We’ve all woken up with a rash, or a sore throat, maybe a body part looks a bit swollen, and we can’t face the hassle of making an appointment with the doc, taking the day off work and sitting in a doctor’s office full of sickly, sneezing, potentially contagious types, only to be told we simply have a common cold or have a mild allergy to our new detergent. Instead, we whip out our smartphone and tap away explaining to WebMD what’s sore or swollen or leaking, and the internet tells us “all is ok, no appointment is necessary, go about your day as normal” or, what seems more likely on these sites “Warning! You absolutely have x,y,z and every other letter of the alphabet, death is im­minent!”. Clearly, there are reasons why self-diagnosis is not such a grand idea. Namely, we haven’t seen WebMD’s medical qualifications - where did this great wise interweb doctor do his 7 years of medical school? More importantly, if you’re self diagnosing with your laptop, there goes your chance of getting a lollipop from the nurse for being a good patient. With that in mind, we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of using online diagnostic sites to see whether this is the way forward for healthcare or a misguided fad.

Mark Six Lottery fever is in full effect in Hong Kong and every week hundreds of thousands of ticket holders are already planning how to spend their winnings, as soon as they correctly match all six balls. And with the highest single payout at more than HK$86 million, there are plenty of popular and expensive items to consider buying. Anyone interested in flashy cars will find just the ride they're looking for at show rooms all around Hong Kong. So even if the next big winner is not a car guy or girl, a new set of wheels should definitely be in order because mega-millionaires don’t ride the Metro, and a boring Mercedes-Benz, Bentley or Rolls-Royce simply won’t do. Here is a short list of the priciest auto options; for most of us simply a wish list, but for the next Mark Six winner, some very applicable advice.

Hong Kong is easy to travel around and has fantastic public transport connections, so in this city, a car is not a necessity. While locales around the world work tirelessly to push the electric car and other environmentally friendly public transport options, Hong Kong seems to stay in its own bubble, continuing to celebrate the more luxurious, high maintenance car models. Just take a drive along Gloucester Road and Queen’s Road Central in Wanchai to get an idea of what people in Hong Kong want to buy. From Lamborghini and Ferrari dealerships to Porsche and Rolls-Royce showrooms, all the big names are waiting to be taken for a spin - often by drivers of equally impressive stardom. And as if the big engines and flashy alloys weren't enough, there is also a huge demand for private number plates to accompany the cars. Very often these number plates are added to quite standard BMW cars because their owners want to add a bit of individuality to their vehicles by giving them a name like 'GIGGLES' or ‘DREAMY,’ or the more arrogant drivers use their plate to make a certain kind of statement, with ‘U WISH’ and ‘ARRIVED’ displayed on the front and back of two Hong Kong sports cars. The most common vanity plates in Hong Kong include the lucky number 8 - or they use the owners’ initials to turn the car into even more of a status symbol. This is the case for Bank of East Asia’s CEO David Li, whose car has the number plate DL 1, and China Club’s David Tang who has at least two licence plates beginning with the letters DT. Hong Kong tycoon and ‘King of Gambling’ Stanley Ho is also known to be a fan of this style of number plate and has been rumoured to own a yellow and silver Rolls-Royce Ghost with the number plate SH and another silver Rolls-Royce Phantom with the well-known HK1 plate.

Anyone who loves cars knows that buying a new car isn't just exciting; it’s like starting a romance. Make, model, color, horsepower, seating options, fuel mileage, power-equipment packages, warranty, GPS, Bluetooth connectivity, iPod docks - all of these are critical considerations, right? And don't forget about getting a great purchase price and the potential resale value when it comes time to replace ol' Betsy in a few years. But what about safety features? After all, just like love, there are some practical aspects that have to be considered when buying a new car; not every decision can be made with your heart. Some still have to be made with your head. It’s easy to assume that all the safety stuff has been sorted out by the auto industry and that all new cars are pretty much the same, but the reality is that there are still some very big differences in safety features between new cars today, even amongst different models from the same automaker. A lot of time has passed since the steel coffins of the 1950's and 60's plied the motorways, and since that time some great (and occasionally not-so-great) ideas have been developed to make our automobiles both safer and more efficient, but it's up to you to make sure you take advantage of these improvements in your next purchase.