Cars that will be affected by new speed limit law that comes into place today

A long-awaited law change has come into effect and will have an impact on cars in the UK.

Back in 2022, the European Union passed legislation which stated that cars would needed to be fitted with speed limiters, and the UK has not seen fit to deviate from this now it's come into effect.

It's rather sensible really, as cars made and sold in the EU and Northern Ireland need to have speed limiters on them, so if you want to sell cars to the EU or buy cars made in the EU then you've got to follow their rules.

What does this new law mean?

According to the new law, all new cars bought from today (7 July) onwards will need to be fitted with an Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) system, with all car manufacturers in the UK legally required to make sure all cars on sale have speed limiters fitted to them.

They will also be required to make sure older models for sale are retroactively fitted with ISA systems before purchase.

From now on all new cars sold will have to have a speed limiter. (Getty Stock Photo)

That includes cars that have been sitting on dealership forecourts but have not yet been bought.

So there you have it, any new car bought after 7 July will have a come with a speed limiter already fitted.

If you're personally selling a used car then you're fine, but every new car sold from this point onwards is going to be affected by the changes to the law.

What is a speed limiter and how do they work?

When it comes to speed limiting technology, the new part on cars is called an Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) system, and there are three different types of this gizmo which could be fitted onto the car.

With the three different types comes a varying level of interference in the way that you drive, though all of them use speed sign recognition cameras and GPS to figure out what the speed limit on the road is and how fast the car is going.

You'll have no excuse for doing 80 on the motorway now your car knows what's going on. (Getty Stock Photo)

A lot of Sat Navs already know what the speed limit on the road is and how fast the car it's guiding is going, but speed limiters can go a few steps further in trying to get a driver to bring their speed down.

The first and least intrusive form of ISA is the 'advisory' one, which simply detects whether you're going too fast and tells you to check your speed.

After that is the 'supportive' ISA, which will make it harder to push down on the accelerator pedal if the car's onboard technology detects that you're above the speed limit.

In essence, this makes it harder to floor it above the speed limit and will try to help you get back to what you ought to be going at.

Finally there's the 'intervening' system which will reduce power to the engine if the car detects that it's going above the speed limit, slowing it down to acceptable levels.

Additional words by Brenna Cooper.