The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Now is the time to take great care with the funders, dealers and brokers, both online and offline, that you use to fund your next car. Things are getting tough and having lived through the last recession I know many of the tricks and scams that they all get up to in order to secure life saving orders. Cars are expensive items and great care should be taken over the selection of suppliers. I’ve been in this industry for over 25 years and I am Read more »

I mentioned the tax changes that will take place in April 2009 relating to company cars. However, some people are confused over the affects on leased cars whilst others still have concerns over their capital allowances after the changes have taken place. It would of course be wise to seek the advice of your accountant but in order to shed some light on a confusing situation – I hope this helps. First of all one thing will not change and that is the position with regard to ‘Low CO2 Emission Cars’. Whilst the threshold Read more »

Fuel is coming down, the sun is shining and the banks are lending again. Well 2 out of three can’t be bad! I think the email from the Government to the banks must have got lost in cyberspace somewhere or maybe they sent it in the post without a large letter stamp attached. Either way I am still waiting, as are most in the finance industry, for the glimmer of light that suggests that Chancellor Brown oops I mean Darling did the right thing for us common people or whether things will continue to deteriorate. The annoying thing is Read more »

A report from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) showed that their members financed £5.6billion of consumer expenditure on new cars in 2007 and a third of total expenditure on cars throughout the year. Interestingly, new car finance was named by FLA consumer finance members as the most important use to which consumers put their funds, with used car finance the 4^th most important Read more »

The 1st October sees the introduction of new regulations that ensures that customers with hire purchase or conditional sale agreements are reminded specifically of their rights to voluntary terminate (VT) the agreement when 50% of the total amount due has been paid. The Consumer Credit Act 2006 states that Read more »

I have been quite frustrated this week as a result of the plight of a lady who has a major problem with a finance company. As a court case is pending I cannot comment on the details but suffice to say that I am doing everything to help. The lady had a arranged a car through Gwent Fleet Management of Abergavenny who are now under investigation by the police but as a result of their actions the lady now has a battle with a finance company called Mallard Finance, who are, Read more »

If you are the sort of person who still likes to own your car then at some stage you will need to sell it again but according to contract hire company Lex it depends where you live as to how much you will get for your old car. If you have gone green and now own a hybrid or electric car you will be better off in the South especially around London as a result of the affects of congestion charging. Conversely Read more »

Much has been written recently about ‘wholelife costs’ when comparing purchase methods to leasing of cars because the one most important element of the equation is the value of the car in 2 or 3 years time. The problem is that most people are far too optimistic and this throws the whole calculation out of kilter. Take for example a Renault Scenic 1.6 Dynamique S costing £18,000 including metallic paint. In a straw poll I asked several people what they thought the car would be worth in 3 years time on average mileage. Their estimates ranged from Read more »

My quote of the week goes to a spokesman for BMW‘s UK operations following an announcement that BMW cars were to receive a substantial price hike. He was trying to reassure us in the UK that we were not included in the expected increases. The company had issued a profit warning and said that due to increased oil and raw material costs they would be forced to increase prices – but not in the UK – he said, Read more »

Very bad news if you have bought a car or are buying it on HP but great news if you are leasing! EurotaxGlass’s has warned that used car prices will fall by at least 12% between now and the end of the year as retail demand continues to ease and the supply of second hand cars exceeds demand. The drop is around three times the drop experienced Read more »