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As you get older it’s pretty common knowledge that you become more grumpy. I like to think that I’m not grumpy but I probably am.

However, alongside being grumpy – or not in my case, I find myself worrying more about things around us than I ever did when I was younger.

I worry about the health service, possibly because I’m no doubt getting closer to the time when I could become reliant on it. I worry about our kids’ education and the way we don’t prepare them for the real world.

Kids should have better life skills such as opening a bank account, credit cards and how they work along with debt advice including car finance – right the way through to basic cooking skills, how to iron, get a passport and especially, with so many youngsters dying on our roads, attending a speed awareness course – BEFORE they start driving.

I worry about the environment and I worry about the disgraceful state of our roads. Accidents are happening daily as a result of poorly maintained roads but what are we doing about these avoidable accidents? Naff all.

The SMMT suggests that there are 37.7 million vehicles on our roads but I agree with Mike Rutherford who writes for Auto Express that if you take into account drivers on our roads driving cars that are unregistered and the many more foreign trucks delivering bits from Europe massively outnumbering the number of our trucks in Europe we probably have over 40 million vehicles on our roads?

We are not only running out of space but the roads we have are a disgrace with potholes big enough to drop an elephant into without it touching the sides. I know there are many other things to worry about but if we don’t get our roads in good repair and build new, wider roads the whole of our road transport system will come to a standstill. Having travelled on the M25 last week I think it already has! By Graham Hill

If you are old like me you will remember the days when you used to collect empty beer and soft drink bottles, take them to the off-licence or local shop and get a few pence for each returned.

In those days, of course, the bottles were re-used so it was good for us kids, boosting our pocket money, and good for the environment. I’m not sure if the creators of Britain’s first recycling reward bins had this old idea in mind but the principle is the same.

Each plastic or glass bottle or empty coffee cup that you put into the recycle bin, installed in the services in Maidstone in Kent, earns you a 5p voucher towards your cup of coffee. Researchers have measured the litter levels in the Kent service centre over the last 4 weeks and will compare the impact of the machines over the next 6 months.

If successful we will see them installed at many more sites. The trial is being run by environmental charity Hubbub and has been backed by Highways England. The company has calculated that litter thrown out by motorists costs taxpayers £8 million a year.

Wayne Moore of Highways Agency is in favour of the initiative as he points out, employing people to pick up litter is not only dangerous, they can be a distraction to motorists and they could be used elsewhere more productively. Funny how some of the old ideas are still the best! By Graham Hill

I have been speaking a lot about the Real World emissions tests recently and the way that they have affected vehicle availability. The actual name of the tests is World Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP) and frankly, it is confusing just about everyone involved.

One of the big problems is the way that the changed tests are finding that emissions are actually much more than the readings recorded previously. At the moment we are in a period of transition.

New and facelift cars in 2018 are tested and must conform to emissions levels before 1^st September but existing models have been given an extension with a formula applied to the old and new emissions to arrive at a new CO2 emissions figure.

In theory, CO2 emissions should have ended up roughly the same after applying the formula so that company car drivers weren’t suddenly hit with increased BIK tax bills.

In fact, the revised CO2 emission figures have increased on average by 20%. The problem is that all real-world readings come into force in 2020 which means that if a company took out a 3 year lease for an employee they could face a massive hike in BIK tax from year 2 onwards.

So many companies are extending their current leases to see if the Government will do anything to soften the blow for those paying BIK tax. Beyond that manufacturers are saying that the only way to reduce and control CO2 emissions is to change our attitudes.

First of all Kwik Fit have said that we will have to reduce the size of wheels that we fit to our cars in order to reduce the rolling resistance and in turn the CO2 emissions. Car manufacturers are suggesting that we will see a falling off of the small SUV’s as these are the least efficient cars and generate the most CO2.

The prediction is that we will revert to standard saloons and hatchbacks in place of the small, less efficient SUV’s. The shape of cars may well change also in order to make them more streamlined. Boring times ahead! By Graham Hill

The Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) has reported an imbalance in diesel demand which is causing all sorts of headaches with leasing and PCP providers.

New car demand for diesels has dropped through the floorboards causing manufacturers to scale up petrol production whilst dropping off production of diesel cars.

However, demand for used diesel cars is still running at the same level with no sign that it will drop soon. With fewer diesels finding their way into the used car market diesel prices will increase as times goes on.

This could start to make leasing and PCP costs for new diesel cars lower and more competitive again. New car supply has also had an effect on used car prices as people switch to used cars when they can’t get their new car quickly enough.

So there has been a slight increase in demand for nearly new petrol cars created by buyers who would normally buy new and who have decided to go for petrol this time around.

With lower running costs and better fuel consumption, experts feel that diesels are still here to stay even though some manufacturers have announced that they will be dropping their diesel engines fairly soon.

Personally, I feel that they have been a bit premature especially in light of recent reports that the ‘real-world’ emissions testing on petrol and diesel cars have found that there is very little to choose between petrol and diesel emissions.

We are still desperate for guidance from the Government. By Graham Hill

I mentioned that the EU were about to announce a suite of safety features to be standard on all new cars from 202. I finally have the list which experts suggest will save 7,300 road deaths each year and avoid 38,900 serious injuries.

Here they are with brief explanations:

Advanced Emergency Braking: Also known as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), this system applies the brakes automatically if the driver fails to take evasive action.

Alcohol Interlock Pre-Wiring:  Alcohol Interlocks prevent a car from starting until a ‘clean’ breath sample has been provided. From 2021 new cars must be pre-wired for ‘Alcolocks’, allowing them to be fitted to cars of repeat drink drivers.

Drowsiness & Inattention Detection:  Scans drivers’ faces for signs of fatigue or inattention. And sounds warning alerts if either is detected.

Event (Accident) Data Recorder: Logs telematics data in the event of a collision, allowing authorities to work out how a crash occurred.

Emergency Stop Signal: Flashes hazard warning lights if heavy braking is applied, to warn following traffic.

Better Seatbelts:  Tougher standards for seatbelts in  full-width frontal impact tests together with softer deceleration in the event of a collision. Improved pre-tensioners or seatbelt airbags could achieve this.

Safer Windscreens: Crash tests will assess a larger area of the windscreen, because cyclists tend to hit windscreens higher up than pedestrians.

Intelligent Speed Assistance: Comprises traffic sign recognition and a speed limiter with the prevailing speed limit setting the car’s limiter – although drivers will be able to override the system.

Lane Keeping Assist: Gently steers a car back into its lane if it strays across white lines without indicating.

Extra Side-Impact Protection: Collisions involving tall, narrow objects, such as telegraph poles, can cause devastating damage, so from 2021 new cars will be strengthened to improve the ‘pole side impact’ protection they offer.

Reversing Camera or Detection System: From 2021, all new cars must either have rear parking sensors or a reversing camera to help prevent ‘back up’ accidents.

By Graham Hill

It has been admitted that some Mercedes Euro 6 diesels have been fitted with ‘defeat devices’ in order to pass emissions tests. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has now given Mercedes a deadline to issue a recall over the emissions irregularities. Can you believe it?

I’m mystified that this hasn’t been headline news following the VW debacle. The view is that fewer vehicles have been affected although in Germany – Daimler, owners of Mercedes Benz, has ordered the recall of 238,000 cars. In the UK the cars reported to be affected are 90% of those fitted with Vito 1.6l diesel (OM622) and 2.2l diesel (OM 651).

Affected are C Class and GLC with 4 cylinder engines. Single digit percentages of the following are also affected, S Class, E Class Coupe, G Class, ML Class and GLE. These are exclusively those fitted with Euro 6b engines. The DVSA has given Mercedes till 22 June to respond to their call to issue a recall. Last week Germany’s transport ministry, the KBA, said that 744,000 Mercedes Euro 6 diesels across Europe contained ‘illegal switch off devices’ to pass emissions tests.

A spokeswoman for Mercedes said ‘Open legal questions will be clarified in the objection proceedings. We will update the DVSA with information specific to the UK as soon as we can’. I find it totally disgraceful that any manufacturer should openly fiddle the emissions tests and seemingly get away with a recall. Incredible.  By Graham Hill

The technical expression is semi-autonomous when a car is fitted with safety equipment which allows drivers to do other things whilst driving. Many experts are starting to throw doubt on the accuracy of figures that suggest that accident rates will fall along with road deaths as a result of safety equipment being fitted.

There is no hard proof behind the statistics which are estimates that take account of lane markings, speed restrictions, proximity of other traffic etc. However, if drivers become more reliant on the safety systems and concentrate less, this increases the possibility of having an accident again. So they are now assessing the true benefits of these safety systems.

In the meantime, the European Commission last month announced that it wants 11 advanced safety features fitted as standard features on all new cars and vans launched from 2020 and all new cars and vans sold 2 years later. I mentioned in a recent report that it can take several seconds for the driver to take back control from autonomous systems that could result in an accident.

I would suggest that much more research is required before making some of the safety systems obligatory. By Graham Hill

Since the tightening up of personal data stored about us on various sites the question has been asked about car telematics, the data that is collected and stored about us when driving our car, especially our company car. Clearly companies do it to make sure that their cars and commercials are being driven efficiently and not abused.

They can also check driving style to see if you are driving the vehicle in an economical way. Are you taking the best route in order to minimise fuel consumption and time? All of these things can generally be justified and included in your terms and conditions of employment.

But what about when you are using the vehicle for your own personal use? Some would argue that as the car is owned or leased by your employer he has a right to know where his vehicles are, where they travel to etc. However, most people believe that this is a breach of data protection.

It has nothing to do with the employer what you do and where you go in the company car when it is being used for pleasure as part of your contract of employment. If you are an employer and agree with this then you should consider Geotab as your next Telematics provider.

They have developed a new system that has incorporated a privacy mode for personal use. So when an employee is using his company car personally he can switch off the tracking. It is controlled via the MyGeotab App that comes with the tracking system.

There are mixed views from employers but it is certain that drivers would prefer to be able to control their privacy. What may not be appreciated is that many new cars have Telematics systems built into them to assist manufacturers to improve their car design and features. We currently have no say over the use of data collected by manufacturers. That will have to change. By Graham Hill

What a surprise, the crooked fuel suppliers, having seen that people are massively switching from diesel to petrol, have seen fit to increase the pump cost to its highest for 18 years. OK, you can’t help it if oil prices increase and the reasons given for the highest increase, according to the RAC, since their records began in 2000, is that crude has increased as a result of the weakening pound and the drop in production from Iran.

That might seem quite reasonable. However, I heard that the fuel providers have increased the cost at the pumps because they were hedging against the cost of oil going up further in the future as a result of  Trump ditching the Iran Nuclear Deal. So we’re paying for an increase that may or may not happen!

Immediately following the trashing of the Nuclear Deal crude rose as Iran decreased production but, according to experts, the pump prices have increased by more than that dictated by the increased crude price. You can draw your own conclusions, especially as Saudi Arabia has agreed to fill any production gaps left by Iran.

So supply should remain the same. In May the average cost of petrol increased from 123.43p to 129.41p. Diesel increased by more but that was still less than the highest increase that occurred in 2008. Simon Williams of the RAC said that crude oil has flattened off and that there is an OPEC meeting on the 22^nd June when they are expected to step up production so we could see a small drop in the cost of petrol and diesel. By Graham Hill

A shocking survey has been released showing that all new diesel engine cars fail to meet EU standards in independent real-world emissions tests. The survey carried out by the International Council Of Clean Transport (ICCT) found that 4 manufacturer groups had average emissions more than 12 times above the Euro 6 diesel type-approval limit, with the highest emitting vehicle family having emissions 18 times the limit!!!!

Petrol cars performed better with all Euro 6 petrol models receiving a ‘good’ or ‘moderate’ rating. In fact, the highest emitting petrol Euro 6 vehicle family had approximately the same level of NOx emissions as the lowest-emitting diesel vehicle family.

And this wasn’t a test on a few hundred vehicles the tests were carried out on 700,000 cars and 4,850 vehicle models, nearly all designed and built to Euro standards 3-6, across Europe.

The project named CONOX and funded by the Swiss Federal Office for The Environment, had an initial dataset comprising of samples collected in France, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

In London, for example, researchers used remote sensing technology to measure the emissions from more than 100,000 vehicles during a 5-month sampling campaign that stretched from November 2017 through to March 2018.

Measurements were carried out over a period of 45 days at 9 locations in the Greater London area. All results have been put into a searchable database by the Real Urban Emissions Initiative (TRUE – no I couldn’t work that out either) which aims at bringing transparency to the public debate and awareness of vehicle emissions and urban air quality.

The way that the readings were obtained involved using technology developed by ICCT which required a beam of light to be passed through the exhaust emissions from a sampling location on the road. Automatic number plate recognition technology was used to determine which model of car was being tested.

They also felt that this method of monitoring real-world emission made it almost impossible to cheat or falsify the figures. Their results were graded Good (Green), Moderate (Yellow) and Poor (Red). They also grouped them under Euro 3, 4, 5 and 6 and even Euro 6 results only showed a few diesel cars that had climbed out of Poor to Moderate.

No Euro 6 standard diesel engines received a green rating but the yellow ratings were achieved by only 1 top-selling brand and that was BMW. Euro 5 performed particularly poorly and it was one of the car families in this group whose NOx emissions were 18 times over the limit.

You can read more about these frightening results by visiting the TRUE website. By Graham Hill