The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

By way of an update and a warning I mentioned a few weeks ago about the likely increase in car finance fraud as the recession leads to desperation and potentially fraudulent actions by dealers and brokers simply to survive. I also mentioned the case of a lady who was hiding away an Audi in her garage, too frightened to drive it as bailiffs were trying to repossess it, following the collapse of Read more »

Unless you work in the finance industry you may not fully understand the term ‘credit crunch’. It is simply the running out of money to lend, hence the reason why the Government is having to step in to inject more money into the economy and provide money for the banks to lend – in theory. Of course all they are doing is using the money to bolster their balance sheet making the ‘cash in bank’ look a little healthier. The problem for you and me is the ability to borrow money, Read more »

It has been reported this week that many people do not see the distinction between credit crunch and recession. For those that lived through the last recession, as I did, you will know how hard things got before we turned the corner and things started to dramatically improve. And this was all down to a recession, which was pretty much left to run its course by the Government. Whilst it seemed pretty harsh at the time it was a way of streamlining business in the UK and weeding out the good from the bad. Sadly, Read more »

One of the biggest problems with running a car either privately or through a business is being able to predict the true ‘whole life’ cost in order to select the most appropriate way to fund the car. Few of us actually enjoy playing with figures so we tend to concentrate on the car itself (much more exciting) and relying upon advice from friends rather than doing the calculations to work out the most Read more »

CAP who provide vehicle valuation guides based on achieved auction prices have said that they are about to launch a significant downward price review based on the continued drop in prices achieved by fleet sellers in auction. This will have the affect of putting up lease rates unless the leasing companies can counter this with greater bonuses from the manufacturers. And be dismal news for those who Read more »

Car thefts are down by 12% according to Home Office statistics to end of June 2008. But HPI have been quick to point out that car theft is not the only crime and motorists need to be more vigilant than ever if they are to avoid some of the more sophisticated crime that the crooks are now perpetrating. As a result HPI have offered up some advice for motorists to follow. HPI checks reveal that around 30 vehicles Read more »

The ‘recession/credit crunch’ is already cutting fairly deeply and now is a time to think very carefully about the financing of your next car. Not only should you take care over the type of finance that you use but you should also take care over the supplier. In the last week I have heard of three dealer groups that have gone, locally we lost Sidlow, mainly VW, Audi, Seat and Alpha as well as Barkers Citroen and another VW Audi dealer, Dane. This has been bad news for those who paid deposits and initial rentals to these companies, Read more »

Manufacturers were going a bit crazy last week as they warned contract hire companies and brokers from selling on hugely discounted new cars. As though this was earth shatteringly new! It isn’t, how do you think the car supermarkets have been able to sell new cars more cheaply than main dealers can buy them for? The practice of daily rental companies selling on brand new cars to Read more »

Finally it would seem that fewer people are using private cars for business since the Government chose not to adjust the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) in line with increasing running costs especially the increase in fuel costs. The rates are still set at 40 pence per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25 pence per mile thereafter, tax and NI free. This rate was set six years ago Read more »

As if to support my comments made over the last few weeks market analyst Datamoniter has recorded a growth in vehicle leasing in the fleet sector as more companies release cash tied up in their vehicles and reduce exposure to market conditions by selling off the cars they own and replace them with leased vehicles. New vehicle sales generally slumped further in August from the July drop of 7.3% to an unprecedented 15.6%. Consumers, unaware of the cash flow benefits of leasing new cars, have really Read more »