Insurance is a necessary evil; it's a grudge purchase that people would rather not think about. Smart insurers like Progressive are using black box technology to monitor their customers – safe driving can lead to double-digit cost cuts. But are people comfortable trading their data for rewards?

Tesla didn’t set out just to challenge the automotive sector – it wants tochangeit. It ranks in the top five brands among motor enthusiasts, and celebrity fans of Tesla include Jay-Z, Ben Affleck and Jay Leno. But how has an electric car company become a cool cult brand?

Where once buying a car meant travelling to a dealership and speaking directly with forecourt dwellers, this is changing. It is estimated that at least 2,800 dealerships could disappear in the US alone by 2020. So in 2014, how exactly are people going about purchasing a new set of wheels?

A global survey on the perception of German luxury arrived at the word “perfection”. But HSBC’s Luxury Goods report lists only one German company, and German’s traditionally prefer to buy designer goods from Italy, UK and France. Is German luxury really driven by function over form?