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Have you seen a road sign recently meaning ‘no overtaking’? Did you know that’s what it meant? Apparently 23% of drivers don’t according to a recent survey carried out by Goodyear. Along with many other deficiencies the well known tyre manufacturer surveyed 5,000 motorists and found that there were many instances where drivers were Read more »

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Whilst I’ve reported on drug driving on several occasions it now seems that the Government is about to start taking more positive action against offenders. Transport minister Philip Hammond has given the green light to proposals to tackle the problem. One proposal is to introduce a new criminal offence that will be specific to drug driving. This will Read more »

I’m actually in a state of shock – ish! Whilst thumbing through the advice pages of Autoexpress I noticed that someone had asked the question, should you blur out the car’s registration number when advertising your car online? Now this is something I’ve had an issue with for sometime. It seems quite obvious that you should blur out the number to me Read more »

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Today’s amazing fact is that there are over 25,000 traffic lights across the country with 6,000 in London alone. The number increased by 30% between 2000 and 2008. The figures were collated by the RAC Foundation who also pointed out that the number of lights that were programmed to give priority to busses rose by 221% in just 2 years from 3,801 Read more »

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The first case brought under the Corporate Manslaughter Act has given businesses of all sizes cause for concern. Especially as the new Health and Safety at Work Act makes it even easier to bring prosecutions. In the first case Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings were convicted of the death of 27 year old geologist Alex Wright who died in Read more »

A few weeks ago I had a bet with an old friend of mine over one of the critical sectors that I believed had been omitted from the new EU Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) which came fully into force from 1^st February. The question was over Hire Purchase. I knew that the sister product, known as Conditional Sale, was included but it was my understanding that Hire Purchase was excluded and was therefore simply controlled, as it always has been, by our existing Consumer Credit Act. Confused? It gets 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

DVLA figures show that one in ten motorists have points on their licence. The figures have been broken down by age sex and number of points. It also shows that the Government has collected £280 million from the 3.9 million drivers with points on their licence over the last 4 years (the minimum amount of time before points are cleared. That’s out of a total 37 million licence holders. The majority of drivers with points have just 3 points (3.2m). Just under 600,000 have 6 points and 92,000 Read more »

There is another web scam going about as revealed by the DVLA. The email which includes a few spelling mistakes (bit of a giveaway) asks the recipient to click on a Department for Transport web address and fill in some details. It goes on to warn that if you fail to do so it will cause you to lose your drivers licence and you will have to re-take your test. The URL (web address) isn’t obviously a DVLA address but the template used for the site looks genuine and includes links to agency pages in the Read more »

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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 »