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If you’re an avid reader of my newsletter and blog you will have read that you no longer need to have your car serviced by a main dealer in order to maintain your warranty. The rules that were relaxed several years ago that prevented you from having your car serviced wherever you wanted are known as the EU Block Exemption Rules. These rules have just been reviewed again and the rules pretty much left as they Read more »

With the banks currently announcing profits well beyond expectations the Government really needs to step in and start rattling their cages as they continue to lend to simply those that are safest but in many respects don’t need it as badly as those who have been struggling and whose credit history is less than perfect. I have never quite understood how someone (or company) who has experienced a problem and Read more »

Over the years I have put forward many reasons why you should opt for Dealer HP over a personal loan (contrary to all advice given in the media). Your legal rights are so much greater when you take HP. If you have read my book An Insider Guide To Car Finance, or been a regular reader of my newsletter, you would know the reasons that I put forward. However, I have just uncovered a new one that you may Read more »

What a bloody surprise! After hiking up their prices last year, no less than 4 times, which coincidentally coincided with the £1,000 manufacturer’s scrappage scheme contribution, Ford are now dropping their list prices by between 6% and 15% across their smaller cars from August, after all the pipeline scrappage orders have totally washed out of the system. No wonder the biggest benefactors were the Read more »

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the lack of attention that some people pay to the new car they are about to order. Some of this is actually caused by me and my colleagues by occasionally coming up with a deal that you can’t refuse, making the decision a bit of a no brainer but it is still a good idea to get a test drive of a car that you are likely to order. It is also important to check for certain items that for Read more »

This week Graham Hill’s famed car review is on the Aston Martin DBS special edition, known as Carbon Black. Surprisingly it is black, which I think is gorgeous, even though I think that black makes any car look smaller than it is! And of course the purist Aston fans that like to listen to Elton John and the Beatles in the rather expensive stereo sound system will kick up a fuss over the fact that Aston have dared to fit loads Read more »

The importance of using a good car finance broker has been once again highlighted by press reports confirming a lack of money available to lend, as the effects of the credit crunch continue. In a recent article, John Lewis, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, pointed out that funding is still in limited supply and ‘the days of easy credit are long gone.’ He went on to confirm what I have been saying Read more »

Service intervals have crept out with some cars not needing a first service until it is 2 years old. Some of the earliest first service intervals are still a minimum of 12 months but there is a problem with this. You see years ago, by the end of the first year, your car would have had 2 or 3 services with the first after just 1,000 miles to have an oil change and remove the swarf that had built up in the bottom of the oil sump. Read more »

The Great Wall is coming to the UK. The first Chinese manufacturer has signed up a distribution deal to distribute their cars through the Daihatsu network of 90 dealers and some Subaru showrooms when their first cars arrive early next year. For those that thought the Great Wall was just a reference to China, it’s not, they are actually called Great Wall. The models get better, who remembers Datsun’s Cherry or Read more »

There have been a lot of hurrah’s and yippees as Ford have dropped their list prices by up to 12% on many models in their range. Obviously it passed everyone by that in fact they increased their prices by 15.1% last year when inflation was bouncing along at a little over 0%. In fact the actual increase imposed by Ford was higher than 15.1% as the increases took place in 4 chunks and I’ve disregarded the Read more »