Welcome to AdFeeder’s web Wednesdays, your weekly dose of the latest news and stories that have caught our eye. From technology news to the latest vehicle releases and everything in between, we aim to bring you a quick run down of what you need to know each week.

It’s hard to believe we are in the final few days of May already! Here’s this week episode, where we bid farewell to a motoring icon, and discuss a strange supercar trend!

The Ford Mondeo has officially retired

It’s a car that symbolises the everyday driver, appealing truly to the masses. The Ford Mondeo has come a long way since its launch in 1992, evolving through many, many variations into a car that was used by business people, trades people, enthusiasts and families both large and small.

Ford has sold over 4.5 million Mondeos around the world, but the brand has decided to retire the model name due to a lack of demand and a huge surge in crossover SUVs and family-friendly hatchbacks. In fact, the humble saloon and estate car market looks to be under threat, with the market being flooded with sportier crossovers that provide a more engaging drive whilst not looking too ‘simple’. Customers now look for something that’s as stylish as it is practical, making a generic four door saloon a little redundant.

Anyway, back to the Mondeo. 1993 saw the Mondeo replace the Sierra, which had been a hugely popular model for Ford for a staggering 11 years. It shared very few parts with the Sierra and one of the most radical changes was the switch from rear-wheel-drive to front-wheel-drive. Some online articles state that the model was in development for 6 years prior to launch, costing over £3 billion to produce and at the time was one of the most costly developed cars ever made.

Thankfully, that huge development budget paid off, and the Mondeo was an instant success. Over the years the car was developed further, finding fame on the race track as well as on the road. The Mondeo BTCC car is still in our opinion one of the greatest looking race cars ever, especially with former F1 Champ Nigel Mansell behind the wheel!

The Mondeo really has become an icon of British motoring. During the early 2000’s you’d struggle to drive down any street in the U.K and not see a variant of a Mondeo parked up. It was a true car for the people, and there’s something quite sad about how it’s now coming to an end.

Yet another update to Instagram’s stat checker

We’ve done a fair amount of Web Wednesdays now, totalling hours of research and preparation, but almost all have some kind of update round Instagram. This, of course isn’t a bad thing, the app is constantly updating and developing to ensure its users are kept informed and engaged.

This week’s update sees a revamp on the insights section for business and creator accounts, with a new option to track how Live videos and Reels are performing. With the new insights data in place, users will be able to see how many plays, likes, comments, saves and shares their short-form Reel videos get and how many accounts they reach. For Live videos, the insights page will show the number of comments and shares they get, the number of accounts they reach and of their peak concurrent viewers.

What’s more, its Reach section now divides accounts interacting with a user’s content into followers and non-followers. Further, it ranks content based on reach and account type interaction to give users an idea on what’s most effective for their audiences.

This update should now be live on your app, but if not keep an eye out for any updates coming your way, and always let us know how you’re finding the update!

Cars with windscreens are so 2020

There seems to be a rather strange trend evolving in the supercar world. Let’s take a supercar, add even more power and downforce, then remove the roof. No wait, the ENTIRE roof, not turn it into a folding-roof cabriolet. Now we understand that ‘Speedsters’ are exactly the new kids on the block, they’ve been around for decades with their foundations as deep as the Jaguar D-Type and Mercedes 300 SLR.

Nowadays though, these bare shell hypercars are a different breed altogether. The Aston Martin V12 Vantage Speedster is exactly that, a monstrous V12 variant of the fresh-faced Vantage with absolutely no roof, a stripped out interior and no, and we mean no windscreen. That V12 soundtrack will undoubtedly sound utterly glorious roaring through a twisty B road, but as a driver you might be a little distracted by the splattering of insects across your face and shoulders.

Another, even more ridiculous Speedster is the all-new McLaren Elva. Capable of reaching 60 mph in bug obliterating 2.8 seconds flat, and then onto a top speed of 203 mph. My face hurts just thinking about those figures!

Now I know what you’re thinking; just wear a helmet – problem solved right? Technically, yes. But the whole ethos of these hypercars is to lose yourself in the sheer driving thrill, or look cool crawling through traffic outside Harrods, whatever floats your boat I guess. We just can’t wrap our heads around why these cars exist. Are they purely for marketing purposes and to fund the more downscaled projects in the brand’s pipelines? Potentially.

All we know is, the £1,425,000 price tag on the McLaren could buy an awful lot of just as capable cars!

New funding for 3,550 public EV chargers

New funding has been announced to support the installation of around 3,550 public electric vehicle charge points over the course of the next two years.

Ofgem – the non-ministerial Government department responsible for regulating the UK’s gas and electricity markets – will fund the installation of new cabling at motorway service areas and key trunk road locations to allow 1,800 rapid EV chargers to be built. The regulator will also support the installation of 1,750 new public chargers in towns and cities.

Research by Ofgem suggests 36 per cent of households that don’t intend to purchase an electric car are being put off by a lack of public charge points near their home. It’s hoped the investment in new chargers will help prevent range anxiety.

Once again, time will determine the outcome of this ambitious project, but the figures suggest that the U.K isn’t currently ready for a widespread adoption of electric vehicles, so we are certainly heading in the right direction for change!