car

Three teenagers have died after a car entered the River Wear.

Northumbria Police said just before 13:30 BST a black Audi A3 came off the road at Panns Bank near Wearmouth Bridge, in Sunderland, and entered the water.

Four people were in the car at the time and a 17-year-old boy managed to reach safety. He is currently in hospital with non-serious injuries, and has subsequently been arrested in connection with the incident, the force said.

The bodies of two teenage boys and a teenage girl have been recovered from the water.

No other vehicles are believed to have been involved.

Ch Supt Scott Cowie, area commander for Sunderland, said it was “a truly tragic incident”.

“Our thoughts are with their families, friends and all those impacted by what has happened,” he said.

He added the investigation was at an early stage and the force was working to establish the circumstances.

Former child star Bobb’e J. Thompson, who acted in “That’s So Raven” and “30 Rock,” has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison.

Thompson was arrested last fall after police said he was driving 104 mph — more than 30 mph over the speed limit — in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. A news release issued by U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of Iowa said an officer stopped the vehicle and spotted Thompson and the passenger switching seats. The officer reported that, when he approached the car, there was a smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle.

Officers searched the vehicle and, according to the news release, found a backpack holding bags of dispensary-bought marijuana and a .40-caliber handgun that was fully loaded with a 15-round magazine. Police said the gun had been reported stolen from a car in Kansas City, Mo.

Actor Bobb’e J. Thompson speaks at Spike TV’s 2009 Guys Choice Awards at Sony Studios in Culver City.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

The “Role Models” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” actor was also convicted of battery and assault in 2020. Then in 2022 he was convicted of possession of a firearm, which was prohibited because he was a felon.

In April, Thompson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, and last week he was sentenced by an Iowa district judge to more than two years in prison.

Thompson’s “That’s So Raven” co-star Kyle Massey told TMZ on Monday that he loved his former co-star no matter what.

“Free Bobb’e J., man, that’s my brother,” he said. “We love you, we support you, we got your back, whatever you need, man, we’re gonna take care of you. It just always sucks to see one of your friends or someone that you love go through something hard like that. So we’re just gonna be rooting for him no matter what.

“Keep your head up, we’re here and we love you,” he added. “We love you so much, bro. No matter what.”

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, which includes some of the most dramatic sandstone sea cliffs and oceanfront trails in Southern California, closed Monday for utility upgrades. Reopening is scheduled for March 2027.

The closure covers cars, cyclists and walkers. The 1,750-acre Torrey Pines reserve, located north of La Jolla and south of Del Mar in San Diego County, attracts an estimated 4 million visitors yearly. Its population of Torrey pine trees is one of just two spots in the U. S. where that species is found. (The other is Channel Islands National Park’s Santa Rosa Island, where a fire in May killed much of the Torrey pine population.)

Meanwhile, next door to the natural reserve, Torrey Pines State Beach remains open. Visitors can still park at the North Beach and South Beach parking lots and walk to that 4.5-mile stretch of sand, much of it at the foot of 300-feet cliffs.

State parks officials said in a release that the improvement project includes installation of new gas, water, wastewater and communication lines, along with accessibility upgrades.

Tehran, Iran – Hossein, a 32-year-old marketing specialist based in Tehran, has been thinking of replacing his 13-year-old Iranian-made car with a newer model.

Even though he earns about four-and-a-half times the minimum wage after a recent pay rise – his salary is now close to 900 million rials (about $390 at the current exchange rate) – imported vehicles are not even remotely affordable for him.

Even finding a locally made car might be out of his budget, with an economic crisis gripping the country since the United States and Israel launched a surprise war on Iran on February 28 and later enacted a crippling siege and sanctions on the country.

“I’m losing hope of ever being able to buy a new domestic production car too, unless the country opens up and becomes a bit more normal again,” Hossein, who asked to keep his full name confidential for security reasons, told Al Jazeera.

His old manual Peugeot 206 model, an originally French-made car but now produced domestically after foreign counterparts left Iran due to sanctions, can fetch up to 10 billion rials ($4,350) if he sells it towards making a new purchase. However, his replacement options are limited.

Upgrading to a slightly improved Peugeot 207 with an automatic gearbox could cost him 28 billion rials ($12,170) now. This means that, after selling his car, he would need more than 20 months of his entire salary.

A domestic sedan Shahin model costs more than 31 billion rials ($13,480), and a crossover Reera is priced at more than 43 billion rials ($18,700).

With these options, he would need to save about 24 months and 37 months of his whole salary, respectively, and that is if prices remain stable and he does not spend a rial on anything else. But the reality of the fast-rising living costs and lagging incomes in Iran means he can barely put aside any money, let alone afford a new car.

Domestic car prices have mostly risen 40 to 80 percent since the start of the war, while some vehicles sell for more than 130 percent of their September 2025 costs.

The costs of maintaining the vehicles are also rising much faster than people’s salaries. Domestically produced tyres, motor oil, brake pads and clutch kits have at least doubled since last year, with some car parts having more than tripled in price.

Domestic vehicles have generally low safety standards, meaning that they contribute to staggering road accident deaths. At least 1,609 Iranians have been killed so far on intercity roads in the current month of Shahrivar of the solar Hijri calendar, which ends on September 22. More than 20,000 people lose their lives on the roads every year. In comparison, fewer people in the whole of the European Union, nearly five times Iran’s population, died on roads last year.

Iran’s fuel-guzzling cars also contribute to smoke-congested city streets, degrade vehicles faster and increase fuel costs, just as petrol prices have risen for users.

How did we get here?

Experts say, due to a combination of protected state-linked businesses, privileged access, economic isolation and a curtailing of imports, Iranian households have no choice but to pay exorbitant prices – compared with their salaries – to buy low-quality cars.

The damage from the war, including the extensive bombing of multiple steel giants by Israel and the US, has only added insult to injury. The naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports has prevented goods coming in from popular neighbouring markets like the United Arab Emirates.

Under such circumstances, domestic vehicle manufacturers have little incentive to improve.

End customers are also beset by government charges, currency and financing costs, margins levied by murky intermediaries – and in numerous documented cases, industry corruption.

“People are forced to buy expensive low-quality cars whose real prices should be a quarter of global prices, and this is a direct harm done to them,” Mohammad Rashidi, a member of the presiding board of Iran’s parliament, told local media on Saturday. “The traces of a mafia system are visible throughout the process.”

His claims echo those of other officials and state-linked media, who have openly described the industry as resembling an organised crime operation.

According to the latest figures released by state media, about 233,000 cars were manufactured or assembled in Iran in the first five months of 2026, compared with 366,000 the year before. Only about 25,000 vehicles were imported in that period.

Only a handful of state-linked companies or intermediaries are allowed to import vehicles, with duties plus value-added tax increasing final prices up to 200 percent.

The government and parliament have discussed lowering import tariffs this year, with no agreement announced so far.

The premiums are more visible for high-end cars, with a 2026 Toyota Land Cruiser VXR going for approximately 660 billion rials ($287,000) in Iran at the moment, while the same model is available for about $86,000 in the UAE. The same story applies to most other models, at different rates depending on the rarity of the vehicle and the availability of parts.

The price of a mid-range Chinese-designed SUV sold as Exeed VX in international markets is listed at about $32,000 in China, while it is priced at about $42,000 in the UAE. The same car, assembled from imported parts by a state-linked company in Iran under a different name, currently costs Iranian customers the equivalent of $53,000.

The bizarre situation was on full display during a three-day “international” car exhibition in Tehran last week that mostly featured Chinese-manufactured vehicles. These remain available in Iran despite the US sanctions, since Tehran exports almost all of its oil to China and barters this for goods, including cars.

Some domestic manufacturers and importers were absent, either because they had no products to offer or because they had angry customers who registered months ago to get vehicles they never received. Spare parts for some of the vehicles on display are currently either not available in the Iranian market or cost several times their price in international markets.

Even the cheapest vehicles offered at the exhibition were completely unaffordable to the average Iranian. It would take a worker on the minimum wage with standard allowances 50 years to buy an XPENG G9, a Chinese-made electric SUV priced at 120 billion rials ($52,150), on his or her salary, without spending a rial on food, housing or clothing.

Still, there were huge queues outside the exhibition centre each of the three days.

“It was sad because most people just came to take pictures with the cars they knew they could never afford,” a young man who attended the exhibition told Al Jazeera. “The doors of the cars were locked too.”

The virtual safety car (VSC) definitely throws jeopardy into races, but it does not do virtually what the safety car does. Would it not be more balanced to have a minimum of at least one full lap? Yes, this would dampen the jeopardy effect but what happened to Lando Norris feels like a chance card in Monopoly. – Kyle

Lando Norris’ bad luck with the virtual safety car at the Spanish Grand Prix has certainly focused attention on the ways this can disrupt races.

The VSC has always had issues – it freezes a race rather than resets it, which can be a bit boring compared to an actual safety car – but it has the benefit of minimising disruption when a track hazard can be cleared relatively quickly.

It has long been an opportunity for someone to benefit over a rival, because making a pit stop under a VSC takes significantly less time than under racing conditions.

But usually this has been in cases where one team has changed or deployed its strategy with the express intention of waiting for a safety car or VSC (such as Norris himself in his maiden victory in Miami in 2024), and benefiting over a rival who has run a more conventional strategy.

That sort of thing is considered fair game. What happened to Norris – a driver lost a race win because his specific track positioning at the time of a VSC meant he alone was unable to pit under it – is, to the best anyone could remember on Sunday, unique.

The media are not privy to conversations in drivers’ briefings, and Norris in particular gets a bit sniffy when information from those meetings leaks out because they are meant to be a safe space where the drivers and FIA can share opinions without it becoming a controversy.

But it emerged after the race that this issue, as Norris put it, “has been spoken about many, many times”.

Whether Norris’ misfortune leads to a change, such as ensuring that a VSC is deployed for at least one whole lap, remains to be seen.

There is no easy answer, because within F1 it’s recognised that safety cars are part of the competitive jigsaw, and can be used to a team’s advantage. And the latest rules have been arrived at after various previous iterations that worked in different ways, such as shutting the pit lane for specific periods.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “Offering a personal opinion, I’m puzzled myself as to what’s right.

“Is it correct to give enough duration such that everyone will have been subject to the same track conditions? So, for instance, the virtual safety car lasts at least one full lap.

“Or you just keep it in the hands of the Gods, and sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not. I’m not sure.”

There is process for these sorts of discussions – they go to a sporting advisory committee for analysis, before being reviewed by the F1 Commission of teams, commercial rights holder F1 and governing body the FIA.

That won’t happen quickly – unless it is decided by F1 and the FIA that it is a desirable outcome to change the rules. Right now, the momentum for that does not appear to be there.

What are the prospects for rookies coming into Formula 1 next year? Many drivers are re-signing long contracts with their teams. Are there likely to be any new recruits? – Mia

The most likely place for a new driver to come into F1 next season is Haas, where Esteban Ocon’s position looks shaky.

The two main candidates there are Italy’s reigning Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, who is part of McLaren’s driver development programme, and Brazilian Rafael Camara, who is second in F2 this year and part of the Ferrari driver academy.

Both have tested for Haas and are said to have impressed the team.

Haas will want a quick driver who brings money, and it’s not clear who the favourite is. Ryo Hirakawa, Haas’ reserve driver and a long-time protege of Haas’ technical partner Toyota, is also in the picture, but considered a less likely candidate.

Elsewhere, there is talk of Red Bull considering moving F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov, who is Bulgarian, into their Racing Bulls team.

To do so, they would have to drop either Liam Lawson or Arvid Lindblad. It’s hard to see how it would be Lindblad, after such an impressive rookie campaign.

But Lawson has also been doing a good job this year, so it’s not a given.

At Cadillac, they have Indycar race-winner Colton Herta as reserve. They have been planning for Herta to be in F1 before too long – the idea behind him moving to Europe and doing Formula 2 this year was so he could learn the ropes on this side of the Atlantic and be as prepared as possible for graduation to F1.

But Herta has had a very difficult F2 campaign this year – his best result is a fifth place and he is 19th in the championship – so moving him up to F1 for 2027 would be a massive risk.

Ugo Ugochukwu, who won the Formula 3 title in Madrid on Sunday, is another American said to be of interest to Cadillac.

He had been part of the McLaren driver development programme for several years until they parted ways at the end of last season.

But even if Ugochukwu’s Cadillac links become formalised, next year is probably too early for him to make F1.

He’s also extremely tall – well over six foot and much taller even than Ocon, Alex Albon and George Russell, the current tallest drivers – so getting him into an F1 car would not be easy.

The other teams are pretty much locked down, although it’s still unknown whether Fernando Alonso is going to continue in F1 next year.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix after McLaren’s Lando Norris lost out because of the bad timing of a virtual safety car.

Norris was leading comfortably from pole position when the VSC was called on lap 15. The timing was terrible for the world champion – he had already passed the pit exit when the VSC was called.

That meant Antonelli and Verstappen were able to pit under the VSC, saving time, while the caution period ended before Norris could make it around to the pits again.

He did then come in but, to make matters worse, the stop was slow and he rejoined in fifth place.

Norris was able to recover only to third around this track where overtaking is next to impossible.

Antonelli’s eighth win in 14 races this year puts an even tighter stranglehold on the championship for the Italian.

He is now 81 points ahead of team-mate George Russell, who finished fifth after a difficult race on a confusing strategy, and 101 clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who retired early on with brake failure.

The key stories of the maiden race on the new Madring were:

Norris knew that holding on to the lead would be tough from pole but he robustly defended from Antonelli into the first corner.

The Mercedes driver cut the chicanes at Turns One and Two, and again at Turns Five and Six, each time getting into the lead, each time having to give it back.

After that, Norris set about building a lead and looked to be in control of the race as he extended his lead progressively, moving 5.6 seconds clear 10 laps in, and 6.2 when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped at Turn 20 with brake failure.

The VSC was called, but Norris had already reached the pit straight, while Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had not and could come in.

Norris came in the next time around, but the VSC ended a couple of corners before he reached the entry to the pits, allowing the cars still on track to get back up to racing speed – a stop under a safety car saves a driver about 10 seconds over one under green-flag conditions.

To make matters worse, McLaren’s mechanics had trouble with both the right-hand side wheels, and the stop took seven seconds rather than the usual two.

Norris came out in fifth place, 6.3secs behind Russell, and his hopes of winning were gone.

More to follow

Premier League club, Hull City, confirm car accident involving their player Sorba Thomas, but say no injury sustained.

Hull City winger Sorba Thomas ⁠⁠escaped “completely ⁠⁠unscathed” when he was involved in a crash near ⁠⁠their training ground, his Premier League club said on Friday.

British media reported that his car ended up on its roof on Friday morning in the village of Cottingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Images of his upturned car with shattered glass on a narrow ‌‌street went viral on social media.

“Hull City is relieved to confirm that Sorba Thomas is unharmed following a road traffic accident near to ⁠⁠the club’s Cottingham training ⁠⁠ground,” the club said in a statement.

“The club is aware of images of ⁠⁠Sorba’s car circulating on social media and ⁠⁠can reassure supporters ⁠⁠that he has sustained no injuries and emerged from his vehicle completely unscathed.”

Thomas, 27, joined newly-promoted Hull City from second-tier Championship club Stoke City on the transfer deadline day earlier this month.

The Wales international has made two appearances for Hull, ‌‌who are third in the league standings after three games and visit ‌‌Chelsea on Saturday.

A MAJOR UK airport has now become the first to introduce robotic valet parking – which uses no human interaction at all.

But one catch could see certain travellers excluded from the service.

London Gatwick Airport has officially brought in a new Robotic Parking system, said to be designed with customer comfort in mind.

Officially announced two months ago, passengers have already begun to use the parking service from August, which sees drivers leave their vehicle at a private drop-off garage before heading to the terminal.

The “state-of-the-art” robot then takes over, gently hoisting the car from underneath its wheels and moving it to an access-restricted parking area.

One key difference from traditional airport parking is that customers are able to keep hold of their car keys throughout their trip.

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When a passenger returns from holiday, the system receives an alert that they have landed.

This means that when they arrive at the South Terminal car park, their vehicle should already be ready for collection.

However, there are some limitations, with 5 per cent of vehicle models not compatible with the new technology.

This includes popular models such as a Range Rover Sport Hybrid, Renault Trafic Van, as well as SUVs with roof boxes.

It also costs around £109 for a five-day stay (travellers are unable to use the service for shorter stays) and passengers are currently only able to drop off their vehicles on weekdays between 9am and 5pm.

Located at the South Terminal, passengers can reach the parking lot following the marked signs for Robotic Parking, once within the Long Stay car park entrance barriers.

Gatwick airport also said the area includes 24-hour security patrols, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) at the entrance and exit, perimeter fencing, floodlighting and no public access.

Premier League winger Sorba Thomas has been involved in a car crash close to Hull City’s training ground, the club has confirmed.

The 27-year-old walked away from the crash, which happened on Millhouse Woods Lane in Cottingham on Friday morning. His vehicle, a grey Land Rover Defender, was pictured on its roof, with broken windows.

Humberside Police said emergency services remain at the scene, as investigations take place and asked people to avoid the area.

In a statement, the club said it was “relieved” to hear its player, who joined the Tigers from Championship side Stoke earlier this month, was unharmed.

The club added: “The club is aware of images of Sorba’s car circulating on social media and can reassure supporters that he has sustained no injuries and emerged from his vehicle completely unscathed.”

Published on 08/09/2026 – 14:29 GMT+2•Updated
15:54

Three MEPs have agreed in a report to be published Wednesday to tighten the requirements for foreign direct investment in the EU, restricting access to the European market for Chinese investors, Euronews has learned.

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The report comes from the European Parliament’s rapporteurs on the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, MEPs Christophe Grudler (Renew), Pierre Jouvet (S&D) and MEP Anna Cavazzini (The Greens). The act was presented by the European Commission last March and creates a European preference on the EU market to favour products made in Europe, in a move to protect strategic sectors of EU industry from foreign competition.

However, China has threatened several times to retaliate against the legislation, which is still under discussion, putting access to the EU market at the top of the agenda in some ongoing trade negotiations with Brussels.

The exclusive details of the report obtained by Euronews show that in sectors where China is dominant, among them electric vehicles, solar panels, critical raw materials and batteries, the three rapporteurs want to impose strict requirements on investments exceeding €50 million, a threshold lower than the €100 million initially proposed by the Commission.

For such investments, any investor from a country holding 40% of the sector’s global market share will have to meet six conditions: own no more than 49% of the share capital of the EU target; make the investment through a joint venture with an EU entity; transfer technologies to Europeans; ensure that at least 60% of the workforce consists of EU workers; reinvest at least 1% of annual revenue into research and development within the EU; and source at least 30% of manufacturing inputs from within the bloc.

A signal to Beijing

The rapporteurs have added to the Commission’s proposal investments in other sectors such as wind power, electrolysers and heat pumps, making it necessary for the investor to meet at least three of the conditions above.

The report also restricts access to public procurement and public support schemes to products made in the 27 EU member states across areas such as clean technologies, cars and energy-intensive industries.

The Commission will only be allowed to extend the scope to products coming from non-EU countries under strict conditions, such as the application of reciprocal access for Europeans to foreign countries’ public procurement.

This follows intense lobbying from EU foreign partners, which want their products to be recognised as “made in Europe” to access the EU market. Many, such as the United Kingdom, argued that EU value chains were too intertwined with their own market to exclude them.

The report by the three MEPs will now have to be adopted by EU lawmakers before discussions start with EU member states on this future legislation.

However, it sends a signal to China that Europeans will not give up in their attempt to protect the EU market from China’s aggressive industrial policy.

The Grand Tour’s new lineup is filled with “testosterone-fuelled petrolheads” again, and it’s certainly not a progressive apporach to things, says Nicola Methven

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ the old adage goes, and that’s certainly what they’ve gone for with The Grand Tour.

Perhaps you can’t blame them. Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond proved enormously popular after they de-camped from the BBC’s Top Gear and so having three white blokes is a tried and tested formula that no one can argue with.

Testosterone-fuelled petrolheads is what we are used to, and what we are getting.

Andy Wilman says it’s ‘comfort food’ for the audience. But progressive? It certainly isn’t. And the notion that sticking a female car expert into the mix would somehow turn the show into a box-ticking exercise does rankle. What is this, the 1990s?

On the question of whether a male presenter could have infiltrated the fashion world formerly occupied by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine (20 years ago!) I’m going to say, yes, he could. Let’s ask Gok Wan what he thinks.

This whole gender-based stereotyping is just incredibly tedious and without anyone ever pushing back, will never change.

But when it comes to the trio they have chosen, Wilman is not wrong when he says they are likeable. They really are.

Between them, James, Francis and Canadian Thomas have about a trillion followers across every platform imaginable. They eat, breathe, and sleep the one same thing: cars.

Watching the first episode as they race around in motors worth more than some people’s houses, you can feel the passion oozing out of them. Their interaction with guest driver Jenson Button is also very funny.

None of them can hide their glee at being let loose on some of the fastest vehicles on the planet. But they show just as much enthusiasm when it comes to winning races in clapped out old bangers worth £100.

The secret to their imminent TV success is their authentic joy for what they are doing, which is contagious for the viewers. After a few minutes of watching, everyone at home will have adrenaline levels that are sky high, to match theirs. Also, they look so damn happy, you can’t watch without getting a bit of that feel-good glow.

Of course, a woman would be capable of all this too.

When it comes to moving forwards, this show is stuck in a rut. But will it be a car-crash? Absolutely not.

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Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall says she is “lucky and blessed to be alive” after being involved in a car crash.

The 27-year-old American was on her way to training last week when she was involved in a “very scary” head-on collision, leaving her with a “severe” concussion.

While not ruling herself out of this month’s inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest, the reigning world champion says she has been unable to train since the accident.

“Luckily I walked away without any major injuries,” Davis-Woodhall wrote on social media.

“At this point I’m working with my team and doctors to get healthy, but I’m not sure if I will be ready to compete at Ultimate Championships next week. More updates to come.”

Davis-Woodhall said her injuries were not life-threatening but that both cars, which were going at about 20mph, were written off.

“It’s really unfortunate timing; I am at the peak of my training right now,” she said.

“I’m as fast as I’ve ever been. I’m as strong as I’ve ever been. So this decision is very difficult for me. I don’t know where I am right now.”

The championships in Hungary start on 11 September, where athletes will compete for a top prize of £111,000.

The competition brings together Olympic, world and Diamond League champions, as well as the year’s leading performers in a three-day end-of-season event.

Davis-Woodhall won long jump gold at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, before winning the Worlds in Tokyo a year later.

A new study has found that the cost of a week’s car hire can vary by hundreds of pounds

Drivers hiring a car abroad could be paying far more than they need to if they don’t do their due diligence before booking. A new study has found that the cost of a week’s car hire can vary by hundreds of pounds depending on which rental company customers choose.

The biggest difference was uncovered in Dubrovnik, where a medium compact car – such as a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus – cost as little as £261 with one provider but £871 with another. That is a £610 difference, meaning the most expensive deal was 234% more than the cheapest.

The research, by iCarhireinsurance.com, compared prices from Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt for the period from July 25 to August 1, 2026. It looked at seven popular holiday destinations, including Dubrovnik in Croatia, Faro in Portugal, Milan, Nice, Crete, Barcelona and Dalaman in Turkey.

How much could you save by shopping around?

Destination – Cheapest – Most expensive – Difference

Dubrovnik – £261 – £871 – £610

Faro – £390 – £796 – £406

Milan – £373 – £547 – £174

Dalaman – £337 – £487 – £150

Nice – £301 – £401 – £100

Crete – £344 – £423 – £79

Barcelona – £257 – £315 – £58

Faro had the second biggest gap, with prices ranging from £390 to £796 – a difference of £406. In Milan, the difference was £174, with prices ranging from £373 to £547, while in Dalaman there was a £150 gap between £337 and £487.

Even in Nice, where the difference was smaller, holidaymakers could save £100 by choosing the cheapest deal rather than the most expensive. Across all seven destinations, the average cheapest price was £323, compared with an average highest price of £549 – a difference of £226, or around 70%.

But the rental price is not the only cost holidaymakers need to watch. The study found that common extras could add another £391 to the bill if customers bought them all.

An additional driver cost £68 on average for a week, while a sat nav added an average of £76. A week’s super damage waiver excess protection cost an average of £196, while separate tyre and windscreen excess cover added another £51.

The excess is the amount a driver could be liable to pay if a hire car is damaged or stolen. In the study, the average excess was more than £1,600.

Holidaymakers are therefore being urged to look beyond the initial headline price when comparing car hire deals and check exactly what is included. Ben Wooltorton, of iCarhireinsurance.com, said: “It can be easy to assume that car hire prices will be broadly similar, but our research shows just how much they can vary between rental companies.

“Taking a few minutes to compare prices before booking could save a significant amount. It’s also important to look beyond the headline rental price. Extras can quickly add to the cost, and one easy saving is buying a standalone excess reimbursement policy in advance from a specialist provider.”

A standalone excess reimbursement policy from iCarhireinsurance.com costs from £33.15 for an eight-day European trip, according to the company, while an annual European policy starts from £41.99 for eligible customers.

The research was based on quotes for a medium compact car, such as a VW Golf or Ford Focus, from six major rental companies across the seven destinations.