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I’ve mentioned this in that past but surprisingly few people are aware of its existence and what it does. So just a reminder if you are buying or leasing a new diesel car or have recently taken delivery of one – quite simply it’s an additive.

It sits in a large at the back of the car, normally around 12 litres in size, and is squirted in small amounts, when the engine is running, into the exhaust gas causing a chemical reaction turning NOx gas into its constituent parts, Nitrogen and Oxygen.

Adblue is a trade name, created by its manufacturer to bring down NOx emissions in some cars that couldn’t meet the Euro 6 emissions tests. It isn’t always clear if your car uses Adblue, some include Blue in their name whilst VW uses SCR in the model name.

For most people, driving low mileage, the tank won’t need topping up between services but if you need to, following a warning light illuminating on the screen, some garages have Adbue on the pumps, costing around 60 pence per litre. Or you can buy it in Halfords or your main dealer for more.

Some cars have the top up away from the fuel filler to ensure that you don’t put Adblue in the fuel tank and vice versa. You need to check your handbook as some fillers can be well hidden, even in the spare wheel well. If you are unsure it might be wiser to call into the main dealer or Halfords who I believe offer to top it up for free if you buy the Adblue from them of course.

Warning:  The AA attended about 20,000 Adblue callouts last year, often because the car ran out of Adblue. A warning light will glow on the dashboard when you have about 3 litres left or about 1,200 miles. If you run out whilst driving, the car will continue but if you turn the engine off with no Adblue left in the tank it won’t restart. So if you need Adblue and you find somewhere to top it up – don’t turn the engine off just in case they’ve run out also. By Graham Hill

Roelant De Waard, Ford Vice President of Europe, announced at the Geneva Motor Show that Ford is to continue its diesel push. Something that must have surprised a few. In the UK Ford’s combined car and commercial vehicle sales in February made it the lead manufacturer with its highest vehicle sales for the month of February since 2004.

Roelant explained, ‘We wouldn’t find it the right decision to move away from diesel because it’s best for CO2, we’ve got NOx under control, it’s better economy wise, it has cheaper operating costs and it’s therefore, by far the most efficient choice. We’re basically putting it back on the map and allowing it to be the powertrain of choice for us.’

Their new Edge SUV is planned to have an 8-speed auto later this year and with an already fuel efficient engine, it is planned to have an even more environmentally friendly engine as it’s planned to be Euro 6.2 compliant. From an NOx point of view, it will be comparable with a petrol engine but with lower CO2 emissions.

With the further planned downsizing of diesel engines from 2.0l to 1.5l the fuel efficiency will continue to improve. So will this change of heart by the UK’s leading car manufacturer bring diesel back into focus? Personally, I think it will and certainly may convince the Government that we need clearer direction rather than the petrol, diesel flip flopping!

Seems like I’m having a week of moaning and talking about the environment – it wasn’t planned like that. By Graham Hill

The Chancellor announced last November that grants would be extended till 2020 but they are still to clarify the rules. For the moment the Government has confirmed that the current grants will last till at least the end of April whilst they continue their review.

Whilst the Chancellor confirmed that a scheme would last till 2020 they only confirmed that the current rates would last till the end of March. I hope that for the sake of the industry the DfT doesn’t simply extend the current rules a month at a time, especially where orders are placed on cars that won’t be delivered till after the end of April.

The best information we have at the moment is that the Department for Transport will advise any changes in due course. However, this hasn’t encouraged manufacturers to come up with some cheap rates for this month although we have just had a reduction on the all-electric Nissan Leaf.

The current structure, that many think will continue, is as follows: Cars with CO2 emissions less than 50g/km and a range of at least 70 miles with zero CO2 emissions – the grant is up to 35% of the cost of the car, up to a maximum of £4,500. Cars with CO2 emissions less than 50g/km and a range of at least 10 miles with zero CO2 emissions – the grant is up to 35% of the cost of the car, up to a maximum of £2,500.

Finally, cars with CO2 emissions of between 50g/km and 75g/km that can travel a minimum of 20 miles emission free – the grant is up to 35% of the cost of the car, up to a maximum of £2,500. The latter two categories exclude cars costing over £60,000.

I somehow feel that if we are to encourage investment by manufacturers in low and zero-emission cars we need a more serious approach by the Government. We are badly lagging behind Europe when it comes to fast charge points and if they end up lowering the grants we will be back to fighting over the emission differences between petrol and diesel. By Graham Hill

You may have read the sad story last weekend about the accident that took place in Arizona when a lady was killed by an autonomous Uber car. traveling at 40 miles per hour when it hit her whilst crossing the road with her bike. The car, an XC90, modified for driverless travel and operated by Uber, had a backup driver behind the wheel.

There were no passengers in the car and investigations are underway but the accident has certainly caused US States, the Government and operators to re-think the potential dangers. Arizona chose to impose very few regulations on autonomous cars in order to attract operators away from neighbouring California which attracted a lot of operators and developers but imposed tough regulations.

As a result, it now looks like the US Government will step in and create countrywide regulations that will overrule individual states. It has also caused many operators in both the States and around the rest of the world to review their safety systems and ask whether the drop in regulations in Arizona and other states has caused development in some developers to drop safety down the list of priorities.

The real worry for many is that there was a driver at the controls of the car that had the accident, acting as backup, and still an accident happened. Was the driver locked out of the controls at the time of the accident? The eyes of the world are now on the findings of the investigation. Much depends on what is uncovered as to how soon we will get to see autonomous vehicles on the road.

And if I may make a final point, I don’t see the benefit of a driverless car if it still needs a driver – just putting it out there. By Graham Hill

We still measure the environmental cleanliness of cars by the number of CO2’s that they emit even though, according to many experts, it’s NOx and particulate emissions from older diesels that are causing the most damage. Having said that, those running city and town centres, seem to have ignored the word ‘older’ and tar all diesel cars with the same brush.

Could this be because by demonising all diesels they can screw every diesel driver, who thought he was helping the planet and doing the correct thing by going diesel, and charge premiums for entering and parking in the centre of town, irrespective of the age of the vehicle. And as a result, contribute to the coffers of the Government and local authorities. Or am I being cynical?

Anyway, off my soapbox, do you know who produces the cleanest cars, by CO2 emissions, in Europe? Do you want to know? I’ll tell you anyway, the top five are:

1.    Toyota – 101.2g/km,
2.   Peugeot –  104.5g/km
3.   Citroen – 105.5g/km
4.    Renault – 106.6g/km
5.   Suzuki – 114.9

So there you have it, a choice list for your next car! By Graham Hill

Each year since 2014 Cox Automotive have pulled together 27 leading motoring journalists to decide upon their choice of best cars in the current year, in this case it’s 2018. Their car of the year is the somewhat understated XC60. The car only just pipped the number two car, the Skoda Kodiaq by a single point with the 5 Series BMW coming in 3^rd. Alongside the Car of the Year award the XC60 also won Best Medium Crossover award.

The award is not before time. For years the Volvo range has led the field when it comes to safety equipment but they are now shaking off the ‘old person’s’ image and bringing them up to date with some of the best equipment fitted as standard. Well done Volvo. The other winners were:

• Best Supermini – SEAT Ibiza
• Best Small Hatch – VW Golf
• Best Family – Peugeot 3008
• Best Executive – BMW 5 Series
• Best Luxury – Rolls-Royce Phantom
• Best Estate – BMW 5 Series
• Best Small Crossover – Citroen C3 Aircross
• Best Medium Crossover – Volvo XC60
• Best Large Crossover – Skoda Kodiaq
• Best Coupe – Lexus LC
• Best Cabriolet – Mazda MX-5 RF
• Best Hot Hatch – Hyundai i30 N
• Best Performance – Kia Stinger

So there you have it with several cars on our latest list of deals and offers. By Graham Hill

Back in 2012 around a quarter of all new car registrations were autos. In 2017 that grew to 1,016,516, around 50%, so clearly there is a strong move towards autos. The reason could possibly be because we spend so long in traffic jams and nothing irritates quite so much as having to put the car in and out of gear every couple of minutes.

Spend half an hour in a traffic jam and the clutch pedal that always seemed light as a feather is now as heavy as a ton weight. Whatever the reason, the demand is increasing but the manufacturers seemed to have missed it. Whenever we have limited stock deals they tend to be mainly manuals unless the cars are executive cars, then they tend only to be autos.

This week we saw a typical example when we had a limited stock deal from VW on Tiguan petrol cars. Half were manual and half auto. That in itself was unusual because most cars of that size on special offer tend to be manuals. Within 48 hours all the autos had gone but we still had plenty of manuals (unfortunately all gone now). Crazy but proves my point.

So come on manufactures lets have access to more autos. They used to be around £30 + VAT more per month but with stronger resale values that difference has dropped to a more realistic £10 + VAT. Personally, I have driven autos for years and certainly wouldn’t go back to a manual. By Graham Hill

Highways England have been trialling smart LED road studs at the Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey. The trial was successful and they are now being installed at the Switch Island junction near Liverpool where the M57 and M58 meet a trio of A roads. 90,000 cars use the junction every day with a crash occurring every 2 weeks. The smart LED road studs work in conjunction with the traffic lights guiding cars into the correct lanes.

The project is likely to be the first of many tech upgrades that will be introduced by Highways England across the country to make roads safer. The first project in Liverpool will cost £3 million and consist of just 170 studs. Oxford-based Clearview Intelligence is undertaking the project using the smart studs. Highways England is looking to make our road network intelligent with smart studs being able to communicate with cars in the future.

Eventually, the smart studs should be able to provide information on road conditions, weather and traffic conditions helping to pave the way for autonomous cars. They will also be able to facilitate communication between autonomous cars and normal cars. Accidents will be detected and emergency services alerted. When in full production the developers estimate that the cost of installing the smart studs will be £10,000 per mile which is apparently a low cost.

The idea sounds very impressive, I can’t wait to see them in action.  By Graham Hill