The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

I came across an interesting piece of information from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that showed we produced 574,257 cars and 82,256 commercial vehicles in the UK in the first 3 months of this year, most of which were destined for abroad. Considering that most people think that we don’t produce vehicles in this country any more and think that all Mercedes are made in Germany (many are made in India and Brazil) that looked like some amazing statistics. By Graham Hill

Some good news on the ESC (Electronic Stability Control) front. The EC has moved to make ESC compulsory on all new cars. The bad news is that the system will only be phased in from 2012 and made compulsory from 2014. You will recall that this is the system that checks your speed vs angle of steering and slows you down if you are about to go into a skid, it also applies power and/or braking to the wheels that are gripping. It’s an amazing system that was 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 »

I certainly notice less drivers using mobile phones whilst driving, possibly as a result of more prosecutions and fines, but we now see local authorities turning more of their attention to smokers in company vehicles. Whilst some issue warnings many are starting to issue more £30 penalties. A recent case saw a self employed painter and decorator, Gordon Williams fined £30 by his local council for smoking in his van, even though it is privately owned and he wasn’t working at the time. 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 »

Concerns have been raised over the noise levels of hybrid and electric cars. Not that they are loud, quite the reverse – they are too quite making it virtually impossible for pedestrians and cyclists to hear them before they reach them. As a result, Lotus have used new technology to synthesise the noise of an engine. They have developed a Safe & Sound Hybrid demonstrator, a Toyota Prius with a loudspeaker on the roof which Read more »

Whilst there are plenty of opponents to the congestion charge scheme in London for those that have no choice but to travel around the city centre it at least cuts down delays and enables them to get on with their business even at the cost of £8 per day – NOT! It would seem that London’s roads are just as gridlocked as they were 5 years ago when congestion charging was introduced. Now some may argue that without congestion charging London would have Read more »

As more people understand the benefits of leasing over purchase Tesco have announced the launch of a staff leasing scheme in association with Lombard Vehicle Management. They have launched a pilot website under the name of Tesco Cars. This is the supermarket giant’s latest handle on the service industry where it already sells finance, insurance and warranty. Could this be their inroad into car leasing plus Tesco points? Under the new scheme Tesco will Read more »

After all the public outcry over the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) reforms that were proposed by the Chancellor, a cross party committee has come out in favour of the proposals. When the Chancellor announced his plans to introduce the green banding retrospectively on not only new cars but also old cars pushing millions of used cars into higher tax bands the Tories and some Labour MPs condemned him for Read more »