The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

A good friend of mine reports on the crooked activities of the motor industry and has recently expressed his concerns over the direction that many of the online (bucket shop) advertisers as well as even some lenders are going. The latest scam revolves around delivery of your new car. The driver turns up with your car and an invoice for £250 delivery charge. They even carry with them a GPS credit card terminal on which you can make the payment. They point out the charge was included in Read more »

It seems that every week I read a similar story in Auto Express about a driver who has bought either a new or used car that has turned out to be a complete dog then struggled to get their money back. The fact is that the law is very clear on this point. If you buy faulty goods and a fault is found immediately or within the first 6 months you can return the goods and insist on a full refund. And the supplier must give you a full refund. On the other hand you can give the supplier the opportunity to either repair or replace the goods without losing your right to insist on a refund. In the latest case that Auto Express came to the rescue on a buyer of a new Hyundai i30 found the car starting to judder. The driver gave the dealership the opportunity to repair the fault which they attempted without success. The dealer and Hyundai offered a replacement but couldn’t guarantee that the fault would not exist in the replacement. This was 8 months later! The driver decided that he simply wanted his money back, which he received, after Auto Express stepped in – as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’ A gesture of bloody goodwill! It’s his legal right and he should also be entitled to compensation for the inconvenience. This infuriates me because dealers, supported by the manufacturers, feel they are above the law. It’s a disgrace but I really think that Auto Express should employ the services of a solicitor to bang off a formal letter each time they have a similar case to point out the driver’s legal entitlement and tell them to stick their ‘gestures of goodwill’ where the sun don’t shine. Have you experienced similar problems with a dealer not honouring your legal rights? Here’s a little graphic that I found on a Government website that may explain your rights a little easier than my wording:

By Graham Hill

Knowing what you are doing when it comes to car finance is so important. I know I bang on about it all the time but let me be quite clear if you guess and get it wrong it could end up costing you a fortune. In a recent edition of Auto Express a lady bought a 5 year old Mini Cooper S Convertible for £10,500 from a main dealer under the Cherished Car scheme. On her way home a warning light came on and the ABS cut in when it didn’t need to. Already a clear case of faulty goods. She returned to the Read more »

Image via Wikipedia

Following on from the news that windscreen replacement company, Auto Windscreens, has gone into liquidation we hear that our roads are in the worst condition ever, despite an extra £600 million being spent on them last year. The information regarding the condition of our roads comes in a report called the Highways Condition Index (HCI) released by the Department for Transport. The report shows that only 68% of the roads were classified as ‘Good’ whilst 26% were ‘Reasonable’ and 6% were Read more »

It’s been a busy week this week, I attended a round table discussion hosted by Motor Finance, the journal of the industry and one for which I have written a regular column for many years. This was followed by the annual dinner of the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), attended by 1400 guests, all movers and shakers in the finance and leasing industry. Recession – what recession? Anyway, going back to the round table, one of the main items on the agenda was the new EU Consumer Credit Read more »

I have read several reports recently complaining about the motor insurance industry, it’s pretty much in turmoil with anomalies, inefficiencies over charging and deceit. I reported recently that some companies are now charging substantial arrangement and documentation fees in order to keep the monthly premiums low. We all know that there are a trillion terms in each policy making straight comparison very difficult so we tend to go for the cheapest and hope for the best. By that I mean try Read more »

With new car deliveries stretching out all the time and 4 month delivery becoming the norm rather than the exception, many are tempted to go the used car route, often paying over the odds for a car less than 12 months old simply to get a fairly new car. I’ve mentioned the dangers in the past but with so many people being forced to take a used car because their current leased car cannot be extended, it’s worth mentioning the dangers again. I explained that servicing costs increase with age but Read more »

If you were to have some major surgery, I’m sure you would need to know that the person carrying out the work was a qualified and capable surgeon with a history of successful operations. If not you may end up a paraplegic or worse still not survive the operation, so I’d say that it was quite important to feel confident that you are using a professional who is good at his job. On the other hand you may have a faulty gas appliance and need a repair carried out. Who would you call in to carry out the Read more »

Auto Express recently carried a story, explaining how Stephen Larkin from Newcastle ordered a Skoda in March and was told that delivery would be delivered by early July at the latest. After passing this date he decided to cancel the order and wrote to the dealer saying he wanted to cancel the order as they hadn’t delivered the car and asked for his £1,000 deposit back. He sent numerous letters and calls to the dealer without joy along with no help from Skoda, all they said was that it was down to Read more »

I had an interesting chat with a lawyer friend of mine a few days ago. He had returned a lease car at the end of the agreement and received a bill for the repair work that he was angry about for a few reasons. As far as he was concerned, the work was either unnecessary, as a result of fair wear and tear, or the charges were too high for the work required. Read more »