The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Recently I have seen a move away from diesel cars towards petrol. Part of the reason is because petrol cars have seen an improvement in their resale values at the end of leases making them, in some cases, a little less to lease. Part is because fuel consumption has been improving as petrol engines become more efficient with some petrol engines capable of close to the same fuel consumption to that of their diesel equivalent.

Also, since the VW emission debacle people have become twitchy over the emissions credentials of diesel engines. The truth is that the new Euro VI engines are about as clean as petrol engines but with lower CO2’s so if that is your argument for moving to petrol it is flawed. But there is a new consideration, that of entering and parking in city centres.

Some authorities in London are imposing charges for polluting vehicles with a suggestion that all diesels are more polluting than petrol, which isn’t true in the case of Euro VI engines. Last April 2015 Islington Council brought in and annual surcharge of £96 if you drive a diesel car with Hackney proposing a £50 surcharge for 2017. They are thinking of increasing this further if the car is pre-2001 due to the higher emissions.

Other cities considering similar schemes are Birmingham, Bristol and Leicester along with congestion charges with a premium if you happen to drive a diesel. Maybe someone should suggest they get all the facts first! By Graham Hill

If you are thinking of driving around Europe this summer, especially if you are driving through France, you will need to carry a breathalyser, especially as not only in the UK, but also in Europe, they have woken up to the benefits of breathalysing motorists in the morning rather than at night.

It is far more difficult to assess whether you are over the limit in the morning, after a skin full the night before, than at night when you have just had a couple of drinks. And with barbeques coming into season in the UK, which I’m told leads to more morning after convictions than over the Christmas period, you need to take precautions to safeguard your licence.

If you agree you may think it is wise to invest in a fairly expensive but accurate breathalyser being sold by Alcosense called the Ultra. It costs a whopping £249.99 but is considered to be one of the most accurate consumer devices. It can be set to the regulations of the country you are in at the time, including France and the US, both of which calculate readings differently.

Once your breath has been detected and analysed by the software algorithm the device will give a reading. It tells you what percentage of alcohol has been detected in your breath then also flashes green, amber or red that indicates whether you are over the limit, under it or completely in the clear.

It also indicates how long it will be before you are fully sober again. So if you are the sort of person who drinks into the wee hours then wonders in the morning if you are safe to drive this could be a valuable investment. By Graham Hill

Have you ever appealed against a parking fine? Obviously I’ve appealed every time I ever received one, even if I was parked on a traffic warden’s foot which was on a set of double yellow lines whilst he was leaning on a post that says ‘No Parking’, because that’s me.

I see it as my civic duty, however not everyone is prepared to go through an appeals procedure that can take up to 3 months, even if it gives you enough time to arrange a Quick Quid loan to pay for it when they finally tell you to grow up! But I have good news, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) has launched a new portal.

The purpose is to speed up the appeals process when appealing against a parking fine. The pilot scheme, which I’m pleased to say will be rolled out in Brighton & Hove, is a great move as that is normally where I get ‘done’, along with Croydon! I remember on one occasion I received a ticket in Croydon, South London, the day after they changed the time rules for parking on single yellows from between 6.00pm to 6.00am to 11.00pm to 6.00am and yes I got a ticket from a warden at 10.50pm. Ridiculous!

I digress, so this new service has been set up with consumer complaints company – Resolver (good name). Following a successful pilot the portal will be rolled out to every council in England and Wales by the end of this year. If you receive a Penalty Charge Notice for parking or bus lane contraventions in England or Wales, other than London which is controlled by TfL, you can appeal online as opposed to the current procedure whereby you have to appeal in writing.

You can appeal using your smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC – that is great! According to TPT 0.5% of people issued with fines appeal and of those 50% have their fines overturned. The system will expand and will already include Dartford Crossing fines and Durham congestion charge. Excellent news, just got to find the app now! By Graham Hill

Nearly 10% of car breakdowns are the result of drivers ignoring vital dashboard warning lights according to breakdown service provider, Green Flag. Their research revealed that drivers took an average of 71 hours to react to a light on the dashboard indicating a potentially serious problem.

One in ten continue to drive with a potential engine fault for nearly a week whilst ABS problems took 76 hours, on average, to address. A small percentage took over a month to take action to sort out a problem and 3% admitted that they had damaged their vehicle further by not reacting to a problem identified by a warning light.

As Green Flag pointed out the biggest problem is that drivers don’t know what the lights mean or even the difference between red, orange or yellow, green and blue lights. And many of the symbols are not fully understood. Nearly a quarter failed to recognise low tyre pressure warnings and 1 in 5 didn’t recognise an engine warning light.

Strangely, those aged 18 to 34 were the worst offenders. Nick Reid, the head of rescue at Green Flag pointed out that, ‘The majority of breakdowns across the UK each year are avoidable, so take time to check your car, ensure everything is working and pay attention to any warning lights on your dashboard.’

Dash warning lights can be anything from advisory, i.e. put on your seatbelt, to warnings that could cause serious damage to your car if ignored, such as low oil levels. You may also fully or partially invalidate your warranty as you may have moved from a cheap repair to an engine replacement through your lack of action. So if you don’t understand the warnings it would be wise that you check them out and remember the red warnings are urgent!! By Graham Hill

If you need to have your windscreen replaced you normally check with your insurance company first who has an arrangement with one of the national windscreen replacement services such as Autoglass. The replacement is arranged between your insurer and the replacement company and all you do is pay your excess to the windscreen replacement company at the time the work is carried out.

All pretty straight forward but did you know that after a modern windscreen is replaced, in many instances these days, the driver assistance systems need to be recalibrated. In a report prepared by Autoglass it was found that 68% of motorists were not following advice to have their safety systems, such as autonomous emergency braking and lane keeping assistance, re-aligned after a windscreen has been replaced.

Following a windscreen replacement Autoglass explained that the cameras needed to be re-calibrated to ensure that they were aligned properly. They went on to explain that as little as one degree out could prevent the car from reading the road correctly. It is anticipated that accurate systems have the potential to save 1,100 lives and prevent over 120,000 casualties over the next 10 years. In 2015 just 2% of cars that had windscreen replacements needed to be re-calibrated.

However, by 2020 this is set to rise to over 40% of all new cars having driver assistance systems fitted. They also reported that when drivers were told by them that a re-calibration would be required and they contacted their main dealer the dealer admitted to knowing nothing about this requirement.

As a result Autoglass has rolled out a nationwide calibration programme that means that their technicians will be able to re-calibrate 96% of all cars. Unfortunately the 96% had not included Britain’s biggest selling car, the Nissan Qashqai when a driver recently had a problem following a screen replacement and Autoglass couldn’t fix it. He visited his local dealer who didn’t know what he was taking about.

Fortunately, according to Auto Express, Autoglass came up with their own solution and the car is now working just fine. But it’s a question you must ask after a screen replacement, does the car need to be re-calibrated once the replacement has been carried out? If it isn’t done you could be putting yours and any passengers’ lives at risk. By Graham Hill

As I continue to wrestle with my decision as to whether we should stay in or exit the EU, I read something that kinda proves that the EU isn’t all bad. It’s been a worry of mine for some time as to what happens to all the data being collected as cars become what is being called ‘connected’.

It started with a warning that I issued a couple of years ago about your phone book that you upload into the phone memory in your car then forget to delete the numbers before you hand it back at the end of the lease or sell the car on to a dealer or private individual.

I reported a case whereby a premier league footballer’s wife part exchanged her car which contained the phone numbers of A listers which the car dealer then tried to sell on as he considered that he was now owner of the data as he now owned the car. He lost the case but we are now entering the murky world of what I referred to recently as Big Data.

You record your destinations via sat nav and with full connectivity to the Internet in many cars, expected to be in 90% of all new cars by 2020, what happens to your search history and data that is being recorded via your in car Internet connection? Not to mention facts and figures on the way you drive.

It is with regard to personal privacy that the EU has stepped in and tightened up on the controls governing personal data collected via the ‘Connected’ features of your car. Within the new rules laid down by the EU they state, ‘There will be a much higher standard for consent, the definition of what constitutes personal data will change and there will be tougher sanctions for anybody falling foul of the rules.’

The EU has given businesses 2 years to tidy up their act and comply with the new, stricter regime, which has been designed to deal specifically with issues arising from connected products and services, including amongst others, vehicles. Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission said, ‘Individuals must be empowered; they must know what their rights are and know how to defend their rights if they feel they are not being respected.’

Whilst the rules apply to personal data various experts have suggested that the rules will extend to virtually all data as the definition of personal data is changing. According to legal expert Stephen Appt, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes it clear that information is considered to be personal data whenever individuals can be identified by online identifiers, including GPS information. Appt, a partner at Pinsent Masons, added, ‘Data that identifies drivers indirectly would be considered personal data.’

So in essence I agree with these moves as individuals need to be protected but it raises two questions in my mind. Firstly would our own Government have tackled this problem and if they did would they impose stronger or weaker rules than the EU? But taking this one step further if we voted out and took back control over our regulations and took a weaker approach would we still be able to sell into Europe?

I would suggest that unless we met their privacy regulations we wouldn’t be able to. So we will have to comply whether we are in or out or we couldn’t sell into our largest market, Europe. It seems to me that we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Take another example. If we decided that say the safety standards set down by the EU on fridges was too low and decided to improve the safety adding a £20 cost per fridge would our own manufacturers thank the Government?

We would no longer be competitive in Europe because of the added cost and it makes no difference anyway as the safety rules laid down by the EU represent a minimum, there is nothing to stop the UK, if we remain in, improving on the minimum safety standard if we felt it was necessary.

Of course we could drop the safety standard of fridges made in the UK if we were out but we wouldn’t sell any into Europe because they no longer complied and I would suggest that we would struggle to sell them elsewhere in the world as European manufacturers would declare UK product as inferior. Confused – yes I certainly am! But congratulations to the EU for tackling this growing privacy problem. By Graham Hill

We all like to save money on insurance and many of us make sure that we move companies annually in order to keep our premiums down but there are still many drivers who simply can’t be arsed and allow themselves to be ripped off. In a chat to an insurance ‘insider’ recently he explained that your existing insurer will generally auto renew your policy the first time with a very modest 5% – 10% increase in premium.

This teaser leads you by the nose into a false sense of security. You think they are a fair and honest company looking after their existing customers. In fact the next time your insurance is up for renewal is when they will load the premium because experience shows that you won’t check the rate so carefully on the second renewal and just accept the increase.

My premium jumped from £400 per annum to over £700 in exactly these circumstances. However, I searched the marketplace and ended up with a much better policy for less than £300 per annum. Case proven. Other revelations from my insider was don’t go direct to the insurer, go via a comparison site as the insurance companies will offer a better deal when they are in competition with others.

I have often suggested that you put a parent, husband, wife, partner or friend onto your policy as a named driver if they have a clean licence as in many cases your premium will reduce as a result. I have only suggested that you add just one name to your policy, even though they may never drive your car, but my insider suggested several named drivers to reduce your premium even further.

It is also annoying when you see that you could obtain a lower rate as a new customer than what you are being quoted as an existing customer by the same insurance company. He suggested that you could wait till midnight when your current policy expires then a few minutes later, rather than renew, you apply for a new policy through the old insurance company claiming the new customer discount.

Another piece of advice was not to simply apply for third party cover thinking you can save money on the premium as it is now becoming common knowledge that an insurer will quote a cheaper rate for fully comp than third party, fire and theft insurance.

When questioned he explained that rather than this being a rip-off there is a solid reason. It would seem that most people taking out fully comp insurance will tend to be older, safer, experienced drivers whereas those taking out 3^rd party insurance tend to be younger, inexperienced, less safe drivers. Hence the higher premium.

Finally, and this is one of my suggestions, if you park your car in the street at night as opposed to in your garage, don’t lie about it as the premium can often be lower if your car is parked in a well lit street as opposed to your garage in which a thief could take his time to steal your car once he has broken into the garage. As with many things in the motor trade they are often not as they seem! By Graham Hill

Now here is something really interesting that proves you can learn something new every day! And this piece of information could affect every single driver with his own insurance as well as companies running fleet cars. It all came about after I read a question regarding 3^rd party damage, following a car accident, when the damage is caused to local authority owned property.

For example if you were to hit a road sign or street light or maybe smash into a bollard or worse still damage barriers or even the road surface. I was shocked to read that a company running a fleet of vehicles was billed £46,000 for barrier repairs without realising the length of the replacement barriers.

The warning was raised by claims management company actually called Claims Management & Adjusting. They had found that in particular fleet operators were being targeted by local authorities for some obscene repair costs. As it turned out the claim mentioned was for a much shorter stretch of barrier as the authority had claimed in yards but the length was only a third as the measurement was actually in feet, not as stated in yards.

After pointing it out the claim was written off. The claims company also claimed a success when an invoice for £56,000 worth of re-surfacing work was challenged after obtaining information under the Freedom Of Information Act that showed a larger stretch of road had been repaired for £750.

It would seem that not only are there a few disproportionate claims for damage but Highways England has allowed certain contractors to decide upon charges and repairs without further reference as long as the claims were under a threshold, commonly £10,000. This caused me to look further into this situation and what a can of worms it turned out to be.

Most people are of the opinion that you only have to report an accident to the police and your insurance for the following reasons; if someone has been injured (report to police and insurance), there is a claim going to be made against you by another motorist (insurance only) or you are going to make a claim on your insurance for damage repairs to your own car or your contents/passengers (insurance only).

However, knock down a bollard and cause little or no damage to your car you may think that this is the responsibility of the local authority and simply drive off. In fact you have caused damage to a third party’s property so by driving off you could be committing a criminal offence. But then you may think that no-one saw you so where is the evidence but with CCTV cameras and people with mobile phones everywhere you may find that several weeks later you receive a bill for the damages.

But having not reported the accident to your insurance company within a certain period (see your policy) they may no longer be obliged to pay out. It seems  that it can take several months for a local authority to make a claim against a driver. Whilst I’m told that every car insurance policy will cover you for third party damage, that isn’t just someone else’s car or someone’s front wall, it also covers you for what is known as ‘street furniture’ which includes road signs, bollards, hoardings etc.

But if you fail to meet the terms and conditions of your insurance policy or they can prove contributory negligence you could be facing a hefty repair bill. In addition you are obliged to stop after an accident and pass your details to anyone involved or the owners of property that has been damaged. If there are no casualties you don’t have to involve the police.

However, if you have damaged privately or authority owned property you must report the accident to the police if the owner of the property is not available to take the details from you. So as you can see this is a bit of a minefield and what may have seemed like a minor accident could potentially leave you thousands of pounds out of pocket! By Graham Hill

I don’t know about you but speed cameras totally confuse me. Many have been shut down around the country because they were too expensive to keep going which is strange because I would have thought anything more than a couple of fines a week and they would be in profit.

I’m a believer in speed cameras being installed near danger spots such as schools, old people’s homes and play areas but as we know they were often put up behind a bush, tree or building where there was no extra danger to pedestrians or other drivers, they were there to catch motorists and boost the coffers of the local authority or those managing the cameras.

Well that’s what I thought but I clearly got that wrong with so many shut down. On the other hand those who argue against speed cameras would claim that they are unnecessary as the number of detected motoring offences more than halved between 2004 and 2014, from 4.33 million to 1.62 million, in their minds proving that cameras are unnecessary. Really?

Maybe it has something to do with the huge drop in active speed cameras. Having reviewed the situation a committee of MP’s have suggested that relatively low cost average speed cameras should be used more widely. These would help to replace the large drop in traffic police who not only caught those speeding but also acted as a deterrent parked at the side of motorways or simply cruising our roads.

The committee have recommended that revenue generated by fines should be re-invested, through road safety grants, rather than kept by local authorities. Even with the shut down of many Gatso’s 90% of all Fixed Penalty Notices in England and Wales are detected by cameras. Exceeding the speed limit resulted in 254 fatal accidents in 2014, 16% of all fatal accidents, as well as 1,199 serious accidents.

Whilst the committee has recommended the use of average speed cameras there are some experts that have said that you have to ask why people speed and in many instances it is a result of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, so these people get away with a fine and points for speeding when in fact they were committing a much more serious crime.

Speed cameras also allow those driving carelessly or without due care and attention to get away with a relatively small fine and 3 points. Personally I’m not sure what the answer is but time will tell if the roads are made safer through the installation of average speed cameras on motorways and A roads. By Graham Hill

I know we all get a little irritated when we see the sign ahead slowing us down to 40mph and the 3 lanes we were happily trundling along about to reduce to a mere single lane but I didn’t realise that when this happens that the roadworkers are in serious danger.

Not of being run over by an inattentive speeding motorist, although this does happen, but in danger of being duffed up by a motorist who feels annoyed that he has been slowed down, abused, spat at, hit with all sorts of projectiles etc. Labourers near Wivanhoe in Essex have been subject to increasing violence from passing motorists whilst creating a new cycle lane, with one motorist caught brandishing a knuckle duster.

The local council has now followed other councils with similar problems and issued workers with police style body cameras to hopefully act as a deterrent as well as provide proof in the case where an attack takes place leading to a prosecution. Other councils suffering similar problems are in the North East and Midlands leading to the issue of these cameras to workers. Reports of attacks range from workers being punched to being shot at with an air rifle.

Ten companies that carry out roadworks have reported 441 incidents in one year alone, including 174 physical attacks. With this scale of incidents it probably won’t be long before all roadworkers are issued with body cams and even portable CCTV to record any illegal behaviour or attacks by motorists.

A sad reflection on our society when people are just doing their jobs. And if you want to duff up someone find the health & safety pen pusher who decided to cone off 5 miles of road for a hundred yards worth of repair work! By Graham Hill