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One leasing company has finally taken the initiative and decided to make inspections of vehicles at the end of a lease a little more comfortable for the drivers by arranging for a joint inspection in order to alleviate refurbishment costs. A joint inspection is carried out by a qualified and independent vehicle inspector along with the driver. Will it improve the situation? We will see. If you have had a nightmare experience why not share it with me? We can only address the problem if we know how bad it is. By Graham Hill

If you see a car you like, now is not a good time to wait to see if the rate improves. With some Audi’s now having a delivery lead time quoted at 26 weeks there is far from an over supply out there. It now seems that the ‘bible’ used by leasing companies to predict future car values, CAP, may be as much as 10% adrift in its valuations which is likely to lead to some re-alignment of rates quoted by the leasing companies. Read more »

How much is a jar of marmalade? This is a serious question, do you know? Very few of us know the answer, mainly because there isn’t just one answer. I carried out a little experiment and found that I could buy a jar of marmalade for 69 pence. The most expensive jar I could find was £4.99, that’s a difference equating to 723%. Now not being expert on marmalade, although I do like a bit of thinly cut on a slice of brown Read more »

The 2010 What Car and J D Power Ownership Satisfaction Survey is out now and available in the July issue of What Car. The survey arrives at its findings after analysing returns from 17,200 motorists travelling a total of 300 million miles in their cars. 104 models from 27 manufacturers have been rated with every aspect of owning scrutinised. The satisfaction percentage score is made up of four sections. Read more »

One of the biggest confusions over end of lease charges is that of scuffed alloy wheels with bills for repairs being as high as £120 per wheel. Many drivers cannot understand why scuffs to alloy wheels are chargeable as damage. As one woman that wrote to me explained ‘We all scrape wheels on the pavement when parking, surely it is no different to worn carpets, and stone chips?’ The fact is that if you are driving 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 »

Bonkers Boris is charging ahead with plans to build 25,000 recharging points for electric cars. This will attract 100,000 battery vehicles into the city. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I understood that there was a ‘Congestion’ charge, aimed at keeping cars out of London. It isn’t a ‘Stop London from getting smelly’ charge or a ‘Let’s reduce the emissions’ charge, it’s aim was to try to get everyone onto public transport Read more »

Just as we were hoping to see more lease deals come through and rates start to drop CAP, the used car valuation company, has announced a weakening of the used car market and prices through auction starting to fall slightly. Mike Hind of CAP said that he wasn’t too concerned as ‘This is not the same dynamic as the panic of 2008.’ Although he went on to point out that the market is at its weakest for 12 months with no Read more »

I’ve often pointed out to customers that they can now have their new cars serviced at non franchised dealers and still retain their warranty cover. This resulted from the changes that were made to the EU Block Exemption rules removing the stranglehold that manufacturers had over the servicing of new vehicles during the warranty period, that was cunningly extended by most manufacturers to 3 years. In an effort to 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 »