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BMW is extending a recall after Watchdog found that cars could cut out completely whilst being driven.

It is recalling 312,000 vehicles, including the BMW 1 Series, the 3 Series, the Z4 and its X1 petrol and diesel models made between March 2007 and August 2011.

BMW initially recalled 36,410 petrol cars in 2017 over safety issues. It said it now agreed that there may have been similar problems in cars not covered by the first recall.

The German carmaker initially recalled cars in the UK after Narayan Gurung, who was travelling with his wife on Christmas Day in 2016, died when their Ford Fiesta crashed into a tree to avoid a broken-down BMW in Guildford, Surrey.

The BMW had suffered an electrical fault, causing its brake lights to fail and resulting in the vehicle stalling on a dark A-road.

An investigation by Watchdog has found that the fault could affect a wider number of cars.

One BMW owner, Mwape Kambafwile, told the BBC how his BMW 3 Series car had cut out completely while he was driving in December 2016.

He said, “I just thought to myself if I was driving on the motorway with my family in the car, that could have been very dangerous.”

Mr Kambafwile said he took his car to BMW who called the next day to say that they had found the fault, which looked like “the cable had burnt out and no current was passing through the fuse box”.

BMW allowed Mr Kambafwile to take the car home without any warning not to use it.

He refused to drive the car and was furious to later discover that petrol versions of the same vehicle had been recalled for the same fault.

It recently emerged that BMW had failed to tell the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency about the electrical fault in some of its cars that led to the death of Mr Gurung.

BMW said it had worked with the DVSA and rejected suggestions it had ignored instructions or provided incorrect information.

An inquest revealed that the carmaker had received complaints of an electrical issue that caused a total power failure as early as 2011.

BMW recalled 500,000 cars in the US in 2013, as well as in Australia, Canada and South Africa.

Commenting on Watchdog’s investigation, BMW said: “We now recognise that there may have been some cases of similar power supply issues in vehicles not covered by the original recall.

“In order to reassure customers with concerns about the safety of their vehicles, we are voluntarily extending the recall.

“We are therefore announcing today that we will take the proactive step of expanding the existing UK recall to cover all vehicles potentially affected by the power supply issue.”

BMW said that it will open a customers’ complaints line and will contact affected owners directly. By Graham Hill

Jason Lloyd is MD of www.petrolprices.com. He recently commented on a report/map published by insurer Admiral of fuel usage across 16 Western European Countries.

It reveals that petrol is Europe’s most popular fuel with the Netherlands topping the list and the UK coming in at 6^th place.

The UK uses slightly more petrol than diesel with a split of 49% petrol and 47.5% diesel which pretty much reverses the situation of about a year ago.

The UK comes 10^th in the diesel usage chart with Ireland top of the list. Italy leads the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) chart with the UK hardly using any at all.

Norway leads the way when it comes to Electric Vehicles (EV) and Hybrids at 39.2% in combined usage.

The change in Norway over the last 3 years has been amazing, leaving most other countries behind. A series of tax breaks has made electric vehicles cheaper to buy.

EV users also have access to cheap electricity for charging, free parking and road tolls and free use of bus lanes.

Whilst the UK has been fairly bold in announcing that there will be no petrol or diesel cars sold after 2040 we are badly lagging behind other countries when it comes to EV and hybrid sales.

They really need to follow Norway’s lead if they are to mean what they say and offer enough incentives to make buying an EV, in the words of Jason Lloyd, ‘a no brainer’. By Graham Hill

Years ago, whilst in industry with a proper job, I had use of the company’s chauffeur car and driver. I hated getting up at the crack of dawn to be in say Birmingham by 10.00am so being picked up by the chauffeur was one of life’s little luxuries that I liked.

I could go through paperwork or more important I could have a little snooze and arrive at the other end fully charged up.

So whilst there is a lot to dislike about driverless (autonomous) cars, the one big advantage for me was that I could effectively be chauffeur driven again. Have a snooze, read a newspaper or report, listen to music, watch a movie or anything else that took my fancy whilst being transported to my destination was very appealing.

Unfortunately, we now learn that this is not going to be the case. We had already learned that we couldn’t get plastered then jump into the car and let it drive us home via the kebab shop.

We still need to be responsible and whilst ‘in control’ of the car adhere to all drink and driving regulations. But now we learn that drivers may still be required to actually watch the road.

Proposed new laws, aimed at drivers of autonomous vehicles, will stop drivers from doing anything that will distract them, including reading newspapers, watching TV and using their phones. The aim is to ensure that drivers are able to take back controls in an emergency.

A new study carried out by autonomous vehicle consortium Venturer concluded that it takes 2 seconds between instructing the car that the driver is taking back control and actually assuming total control.

At 50mph that represents a distance of 45 metres when neither the car nor the driver are in control.

With this in mind the regulations will seek to reduce the ‘out of control’ period to as little as possible by making sure that drivers are always alert and not being distracted.

Report director Professor Sarah Sharples, said that , ‘It may be necessary for the rollout of highly autonomous vehicles to be accompanied with the advice, or even law, that in some or all circumstances the driver must maintain attention to the driver situation and that other activities should be minimised or avoided.’

Others have called for a totally new driving test for drivers of autonomous cars. Professor Natasha Merat from the Institute for Transport Studies has suggested that there should be a new form of licensing and training for autonomous vehicles.

The ‘handover lag’ between car and driver presents a challenge for insurers if there is an accident because attributing blame between car and driver could prove difficult.

It has even been suggested that response times should be taken into account with older drivers paying more than younger drivers as they would be slower to respond. Think I’ll buy some Lotto tickets and with the winnings get another chauffeur! By Graham Hill

That’s the way that Thatcham research have described one particular car. This car, which has been available for many years in the UK, has never had an occupant fatality recorded. The research body analysed police-provided Government accident statistics, cross-matching them against insurance data.

The car was the Volvo XC90 and when checked Thatcham could find no record of anyone dying in an XC90 from 2004 when records began to 2017. Over 54,000 of the SUV’s have been sold since its launch in 2002. So want a safe car get a Volvo XC90! By Graham Hill

When you took out the insurance for your car do you recall be ing asked what class of car insurance you wanted? Yes you would have taken out fully comprehensive insurance, especially if your car was leased, it would be a condition of the finance agreement. But there are also three categories you would have chosen from.

All policies cover you for Social, Domestic and Pleasure (SD&P). This basic cover only covers you for personal use and doesn’t even cover you to commute to and from work. The next level is SD&P including commuting. This means social domestic and pleasure and commuting to and from work but it doesn’t cover you to travel to another branch or to say a training course.

Class 1 is the next level which includes personal business use. This includes personal business use in connection with your job, which covers travelling between branches, attending training courses etc. Class 2 will cover you and others for SD&P and all business use. Finally Class 3 will cover SD&P and commercial travelling.

You may read this and not give it much further thought but Graeme Trudgill, Executive Director at British Insurance Brokers Association, said that the law requires you to be insured for the correct use of your car, if not you risk voiding your policy and a fine. So ignore this at your peril. By Graham Hill

A few years ago I returned to my Mercedes having been away for the day at a conference only to find that the car had been keyed. I actually felt relieved that I’d been driving prestige cars for many years and this was the first time my car had been vandalised.

It didn’t stop me from parking at the corner of the road for three nights running in the hope that I would catch the cretins doing it again – very silly I know but I was furious! So I was quite surprised to read that the most vandalised car in the UK is the Smart Car. Churchill insurance analysed insurance claims and found that Smart ForTwo and Smart ForFour were the most vandalised cars.

Analysis showed one in one hundred cars being vandalised, to put this into perspective next on the list was the Mini at one in one thousand cars. Small Alfa Romeo, BMW and Mazda car owners have complained about their cars being deliberately damaged. After analysing claims between 2013 and 2017 they found that there was a vandalism claim every 22 minutes.

Most claims were for cosmetic damage with 15% blamed on scratches and similar incidents. 12% of claims were for damage to bumpers with another 12% dings in doors. Steve Barrett, head of car insurance at Churchill said, ‘We advise victims to report vandalism to police, even when the damage is minor.’ We don’t know what the problem is with Smart cars, in 2009 several were pushed into Amsterdam’s canals and 2014 several were turned upside down in San Francisco.

Bloody typical, just as we have a great deal on them! By Graham Hill

I have to say that I’m not a big fan of President Trump and when he was constantly moaning about False News I thought he was being paranoid but reading all the nonsense printed and reported about diesel cars I can understand what he means.

I’m not going to deny that petrol and diesel cars are not good for the environment but the difference between the two is minimal. Petrol pushes out more CO2 whilst Diesel pushes out more NOX. Diesels also had a problem with particulates but used properly a new Euro 6 diesel emits no particulates at all.

I was speaking to an MOT tester and even 3-year-old cars often emit zero particulates when MOT tested. My view is that by raising diesel emissions as a major problem, mayor Khan and many local authorities are using the scare tactics to impose more penalties on those driving all diesels and not just the old models.

Ford have already said that they are committed to diesel cars and others are taking a similar line but we could be looking at a totally different playing field in 2 years time. Bosche have developed a new system that will reduce NOX emissions to just 13mg/km.

That’s about a tenth of the limit set to be the level required in 2020 under the next set of regulations known as RDE2. In technical terms, Bosche has moved the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) System and the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) closer to the engine, allowing them to operate at optimal temperatures.

A faster-spooling turbo is fitted to improve operating efficiencies and the exhaust gas re-circulating system is modified to keep hot air pointed at emissions reduction components. The set-up also includes improvements to the fuel injection, Adblue dosing equipment and engine management software, while the development car’s engine capacity was reduced from 2.0 litres to 1.7 litres without loss of power.

When testing Bosch found the worst case scenario was driving around town when their car, a VW Golf, recorded a maximum NOx emission of 26mg/km because in very cold conditions the car struggled to get up to full operating temperature.

Fuel and AdBlue consumption remained the same although technicians said that in very cold congested conditions fuel consumption could increase by between 3% and 5%. Whilst the equipment cannot be retrofitted to older diesels it is available for manufacturers to order now. But the hardware changes needed mean the complete system is unlikely to be integrated into production lines for another two years. Excellent news for us supporters of diesel! By Graham Hill

If you think that your new Mercedes was built in a highly efficient factory in Germany you would be mistaken, most models are now made around the world. Some are built in South Africa and some are built and shipped from South America to name just two.

The VW Polo is also built in South Africa and because of high import duties many manufacturers have factories in India. Many cars are manufactured in the most unlikely of places. Take the Vauxhall Mokka X – it is built in Bupyeong in South Korea and as for the true Brit Mini, whilst several models are built in the UK some are built in Austria and some in the Netherlands?

Buy a BMW X3 and it will have to be shipped over from the country of origin – the USA. And that’s not to mention the parts with some Ford parts for their Fiesta such as engines and gearboxes being manufactured in Brazil and Mexico – did you know that Mr Trump? So does it really matter? I would suggest not.

I can’t remember the last time I was asked where a car   was bolted together as a deciding factor – but could this change? Would you be happy if your brand new car turned up with a ‘Made In China’ sticker attached? But this could soon become a reality.

Not because the main manufacturers are considering building cars there but the Chinese manufacturers are considering selling their cars outside China and targetting Europe. And if they gain a foothold it may encourage European manufacturers to start building cars there.

After all Kia’s and Hyundai’s are manufactured in South Korea and their reputation is one of the highest in the marketplace, now ranked above Ford in terms of worldwide sales. In order to gain a foothold Beijing recently hosted their International Motor Show at which journalists were invited to Lynk & Co’s manufacturing plant, built at a cost of £1.4 billion.

They expect to produce 200,000 cars per annum at the highly automated plant. The consensus amongst the journalists was that the plant was incredibly impressive – as were the cars. As Auto Express said, the cars rolling out of the plant were finished to a higher level than many European cars. VW made noises that they would consider exporting cars made in China into Europe. Watch this space! By Graham Hill

When electric vehicles(EV) were first introduced you had to find one of the very rare charging points and leave your car plugged in for many hours in order to achieve a full charge. Th good news was that most of these charging points were totally free to use.

We then saw the introduction of home (or works) chargers that could be installed at home and run off the standard domestic electric supply. In order to encourage the installation of these charges whilst promoting the use of electric cars the Government offered a subsidy to those installing a charge point.

Of course this now meant that you would be paying to top up the batteries with latest figures showing that to charge the battery of the Renault Zoe from 0 – 80% would cost in the region of £4.00. Compare this with what you would now have to pay to charge your car at a public Polar slow charge point and it will now cost you £13 over 3 times as much.

What Car has looked into the anomalies and I’ve used some of their findings to report on the current situation. First of all they found that there were still some free charging points. They also found some wide variances between suppliers. Looking at the cost per kilowatt hour – when you charge your car at home it will cost on average 14p per kWh. Some public chargers are charging up to 40 pence per kWh with Shell currently on a promotional tariff of 25pence per kWh which will rise to an astronomical 49pence per kWh from 1^st June.

The charging points can charge at 22Kw or 43Kw, a slow or fast charge. But they found that whilst they were charged for the fast charge they only received the slow charge when connected to a Polar charge point in Hampshire. This meant that they paid £6 for a 30-minute charge but only got the equivalent of 15 minutes charging.

In addition to the cost of the electricity, you can also be charged per visit. This can add as much as £3.50 to the cost each time you charge the car. Some demand a registration fee of up to £20 to join their network. To add to the total confusion some will charge on a kWh basis whilst others charge on a minutes or hours basis. This makes it very difficult to compare tariffs.

The range of the cars is also confusing. The Zoe is top of the production car trees with an official range of 250 miles. But in the middle of Winter in real-world conditions, it was only found to achieve 130 miles. Like many EV’s the Zoe has two battery sizes, 22kWh and 41kWh, the second capable of rapid charging. Using the car with the larger capacity battery they carried out a 10% charge at a Source London charging point in south-west London. It cost £2.07 which may seem reasonable but would have cost £17 had they charged 80%. The fast charger took half an hour to charge up to 10%.

Next they were off to Winchester on the M3 where they hooked up to an Ecotricity rapid charger. They were down to 30% but in 46 minutes were back up to 80% at a cost of £6.90. That would mean the cost of 0-80% would be £9.36. However, if you are an Ecotricity customer with a home charger fitted the cost would drop down to half that figure as you receive a 50% rebate.

Finally, on their way back to London they used a Polar instant charger which cost £6 for a 30-minute charge. However, the bill was calculated on a charge rate of 43kWh but in fact they only received a 22kWh charge so they only received half of the charge they paid for.

So the industry needs to tighten up and if the cost of charging increases much more simple economics will take over and put people off this ‘cheaper form of motoring’. So is running an EV becoming more expensive to fuel than a petrol or diesel car. What Car put it to the test.

A 50% EV charge will give you a realistic 65 mile range. You pay £6 for that via a rapid charger. That calculates out at 9 pence per mile. If you have to add an admin fee for every charge (Geniepoint London demands £1.80 every time you charge using one of its rapid chargers)  the figure increases to 12 pence per mile. If you stop at a Shell garage after 1^st June the figure increases to 15 pence per mile.

Compare these figures with a Fiesta 1.0 petrol which costs about 13 pence per mile or a VW Polo 1.0 Diesel that costs 11 pence per mile. Of course, the electricity cost comes down if you only ever use your home charger. But if you use public chargers the cost is already above petrol and diesel equivalents. Something needs to be done. By Graham Hill

We all know that one of the most common car insurance fiddles is the widely publicised Cash for Crash whiplash claim. Simply a car races past you, swerves in front and brakes hard. You brake and still run into the back of the car. As you ran into the car in front you are considered at fault whilst all 5 people in the car at the time claim for whiplash and each receive several thousands of pounds in costs and compensation.

With the introduction of the Civil Liabilities Act (at Bill stage at the moment) compensation for whiplash claims will drop from the current maximum of £1,850 to £425. The new Act will make it illegal to submit a whiplash claim without medical evidence. Together it is felt that this will discourage this scurrilous activity and in turn save the Insurance Industry £1 billion each year.

This is the equivalent to £35 per motorist. The Ministry of Justice says that despite the UK having some of the safest roads in Europe the number of whiplash claims has increased by 50% in the past 10 years. They blame a predatory industry that encourages motorists to submit exaggerated or fraudulent claims driving up insurance premiums for all.

Justice secretary, David Gauke, said, ‘This legislation will ensure that whiplash claims are no longer an easy payday. The Bill will seek to set fixed amounts of compensation for whiplash claims and halt the practice of setting claims without medical evidence.’

Whilst some insurers, including Liverpool Victoria and Aviva have pledged to pass on any savings to motorists I have my doubts. And how will we know? Will they send a note to all clients advising of a drop in their premiums? I doubt it. My concern is that the £425 ceiling is too low when applied to a genuine case. Genuine cases of whiplash should be treated fairly with those affected being suitably recompensed. I know people who have suffered whiplash with the problem remaining forever. It can be very painful and debilitating. £425 hardly seems fair to me simply because a few crooks make false claims. By Graham Hill