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I actually invented the domestic smoke detector. It’s absolutely true, I was working in a large fire alarm company called Sound Diffusion at the time. They sold their equipment for cash although most was leased and hence this is where my background in leasing started.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

After chatting to an engineer about our smoke detectors that all had to be hard wired into a central control panel I found out that the amount of electricity required to maintain a detector on standby was incredibly small. In the first instance whilst doodling one day I came up with a light bulb that above the light was a smoke detector.

I then ‘developed’ the idea further to a battery driven unit. I showed our chairman at the time and it was dismissed as not saleable. He explained that consumers never expect catastrophes to happen, ‘it always happens to the next door neighbour, not to us.’ was his conclusion. A year later a company brought out a stand alone smoke detector for £29.99 and a matter of months later Black and Decker brought out theirs for £9.99.

In the words of Del Boy I could have been a millionaire! So why have I explained my flair for coming up with amazing ideas? Well I have just been reading about the latest announcement regarding electric cars. A series of quick charge units have opened up across the centre of the country, referred to as the Milton Keynes Crosslink.

There are 14 of these charging points capable of charging a car in 20 minutes, located in Cambridge, Bedford, Milton Keynes, Buckingham and Oxford. Now I don’t know about you but I still wouldn’t feel comfortable relying upon these points to get me home in the same way that I might hope to find a service station open at 11.00 at night.

And frankly I don’t consider 20 minutes as a fast charge when I can fill my car up with diesel in 2 minutes. So have we really found the answer to the problem? I don’t think so! Hence my invention! Don’t laugh! First of all it requires all batteries that are used in electric cars to be standardised in terms of size. We also need standard fittings into which a battery could be slotted into close to the ground (the batteries are bloody heavy).

You then enter a drive through bay and with the speed and precision of a group of F1 mechanics someone comes out with a trolley type jack and removes the fitted battery whilst making a note of the electricity reading on a visible dial on the outside of the battery. A freshly charged battery is is then slid into place, locked in place and the car is good to go.

The car drives up to a payment booth, pays for the electricity that he has used, as shown on the old battery, and he is good to go. If the F1 mechanics are anything to go by a driver could be through in about 5 seconds. There you go problem solved! Oh and the old battery goes straight back on charge on a rack of fast chargers. Brilliant or what? By Graham Hill

This next item is of particular interest if you drive or are thinking of driving a petrol car. You may or not be aware that when petrol is manufactured, or whatever the correct expression is, it has to conform to British standards and for many years the standard blend of fuel in the UK has been known as E5.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

This means that petrol has to be blended with 5% Ethanol which cuts down greenhouse gas emissions. The downside is that it delivers 30% less power than petrol but with just 5% added the difference has hardly been noticeable. However, this is about to change because from March 2013 British Standard EN228 has allowed petrol companies to increase the ethanol content to 10%, known surprisingly as E10.

To date none seem to have adopted the new blend as it has been found to cause a problem in older cars. In the US they have investigated the differences the new blend makes to cars and found that there is a drop in economy of about 3-4% between E10 and pure petrol (E0).

In real terms, following an investigation by What Car, on a Dacia Sandero 89bhp, the drop in MPG meant a difference in fuel cost of £202 every 12,000 miles. A 98bhp Hyundai i30 had a 9.8% drop in economy between E0 and E10 amounting to an extra £16 per month. Hybrids performed a little better.

It is thought that 39% of UK road transport CO2 comes from petrol engines and Ethanol has been proposed as a quick fix to help to reduce this. The expected carbon saving is anticipated to be 58% but What Car tests have found that there is actually a slight increase in carbon emissions.

The general feel is that whilst the fuel companies won’t introduce E10 before the end of this year – it will come eventually. Before you start to panic the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders(SMMT) have said that 92.2% of all cars are OK with E10 and that cars built after 2002 should be in the clear but check the manual before filling up.

E5 will still be available so we will be back to the days of ‘Super’ grade and ‘Super Plus’ grade petrol. If a garage sells 3 million litres a year it must offer both grades, less than this and the site will need to decide which grade to offer. Retailers don’t have to identify E5 petrol however the Biofuel (labelling) Regulations state that pumps dispensing more than 5% Ethanol must clearly show it on the pumps so E10 will be clearly labelled.

Manufacturers have known about this for a few years so all new cars will be compatible with E10, yet another reason why you should lease a new car rather than HP a used car! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• New E10 Petrol ‘Reduces Fuel Efficiency’ (news.sky.com)

English: Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) built in the exhaust pipe of a Peugeot) Deutsch: Dieselrußpartikelfilter (DPF) in einem Peugeot Français : Filtre à particules (FAP) de Peugeot Citroën (PSA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may or may not be aware that the MOT rules have changed recently. One of the changes relates to the use of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) and the requirement that if a car is fitted with one as standard from new that it is intact and working properly. If it isn’t the car will fail its MOT.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

However, it seems that the only effective test that an MOT station can carry out is a visual inspection so it seems that in order to get around the rules some companies are offering a removal service whereby they remove the DPF leaving just an empty canister which looks fine but clearly isn’t working.

This infringes section 75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which prohibits alterations from being made to a car that renders it unroadworthy. After the MOT rule change, the motor insurance industry has become more vigilant and has warned motorists that if they remove the DPF then have a crash they should consider the consequences of not having valid insurance.

Remember that if your car has a diesel particulate filter fitted and you want to avoid clogging in the first place, you need to run the car at a minimum of 50mph for a minimum of 20 minutes each month. This creates a chemical reaction that clears out the particulate filter.

Yet another potential problem when buying a used car, even with an inspection carried out by an engineer, there is no way of knowing how badly clogged the filter may be when you buy a used car. And they aren’t cheap I was told a VW owner paid £1,650 for a replacement filter. Do you really want a used car? STOP PRESS: Strangely I have just had a call from a desperate driver (oooerr missus) who thought that he would save money by taking a low cost ex demonstrator.

He’s had the car for about 4 months and the car is still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. After the particulate light started to glow on the dashboard he took the car into the dealer to have it looked at and they said the particulate filter is blocked and it will cost £1,400 to have it replaced.

They then shocked him by explaining that this is a wear and tear item, not covered by the warranty. Another reason why you should never take an ex demonstrator, you just don’t know how the 50 or more drivers of the car have driven the car! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Press release: New rules for MOT to test for diesel particulate filter (gov.uk)

I listened very carefully as the debate over smoking in cars with children onboard rolled on. As someone whose father smoked like a chimney in his car whilst my brother, sister and I breathed in the disgusting smoke, when we were very young, I know how uncomfortable it can be.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

It was bad enough in the house but in the confined space of a Morris 8 it was very uncomfortable and very selfish although I accept that at the time he didn’t know the potential harm he was doing. Fast forward to the 21^st century and the fact that cigarette packs tell you that smoking kills I find it hard to come up with an argument for not banning smoking in cars that are carrying children.

It is already illegal for drivers of company vehicles to smoke in their cars, vans and trucks so I couldn’t understand the ‘impossible to police’ argument as there are already legally enforceable laws banning smoking. If laws were only introduced if they were easy to enforce we would have very few laws on the statute book so like most people I agree with the ban and that we shouldn’t simply rely upon the responsibility of parents.

Lets face it if parents were responsible we wouldn’t be considering the new law in the first place to protect children, it would be unnecessary. It is illegal to batter kids even in the parent’s own home but virtually impossible to enforce, unless a child is taken to hospital and the police alerted so the ‘unenforceable’ argument doesn’t wash as a reason not to pass the law.

If parents light up in the car their babies and children can’t simply scramble out of their childseat or babyseat, climb out of the car and continue their journey on foot (or crawling) to avoid the smoke that they don’t know is harming them in the first place. So it now looks like the law will have grudging approval but how serious are those that say they are in favour?

On the 4^th October last year, in an old blog posting, I revealed that a Canadian company had developed an App that allowed anyone with a smartphone to photograph cars that are illegally parked which would be date and time stamped, located by GPS and with the use of plate recognition, the driver of the car identified.

This information would be forwarded to the local authority for a ticket to be issued, using the information captured by the app to convict the miscreant. Once convicted the person providing the information will receive part of the fine imposed. This apparently works in Canada whilst in the US there is a similar app used to convict anyone parking in a disabled parking space.

But could and should it be extended to cover other crimes such as driving without a seatbelt fastened, using a mobile phone or smoking in a car with children onboard? I’m sure that there are passionate people out there that would provide the evidence through a purpose created app for no fee. So if enforcement is the problem is this the direction we should be moving in? I would welcome your thoughts – without the expletives! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Ban smoking in cars carrying children: Labour forces vote on new law to fine offenders £60 (dailymail.co.uk)

A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference, discussing the world and European car markets. One of the speakers said that he believed that the geeks would soon take over the car industry. We are already seeing Google developing a driverless car but unlike BMW and Audi, who are also developing driverless technology, the Google car will be packed full of amazing geek stuff.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

At the time I pretty much dismissed what was being said as pie in the sky and years away. Then I read about a new car stereo being launched by Alpine, the CDE-185BT. It looks like a normal stereo head (that’s the display to the uninitiated) but you then start reading what it can do. First off you can control everything with your smartphone.

It connects with facebook and keeps you up to date on the go. You don’t have to read anything it reads the updates out loud to you. You can even ‘like’ posts. Through its unique Tunelt feature you can custom tune from bass levels to speaker output and it can all be done via an app on your mobile phone, available as an Android or iPhone app.

You can stream music through Bluetooth, you can operate phone functions using hands free or talking through the head unit. There are loads of connection options through the front and rear of the unit. A USB connector is incorporated into the removable faceplate, ready to play music stored on a memory stick. There is also a 3.5mm mini jack aux input. The clever way that the unit is powered means it won’t switch off when the engine of a stop/start car switches itself off.

You can even buy extra cabling to connect up the unit to the car’s remote steering wheel controls. Finally it has variable RGB illumination. This means that you can have over 150,000 different lights behind the buttons and inside the two line LCD screen. And to think I thought it was just another stereo. Car manufacturers take note! By Graham Hill

You know you are starting to morph into your dad when you are told about new technology and you start asking why rather than when. I recall the introduction of power steering and my dad saying, ‘Why?’ Followed by his reasoning, ‘You can’t feel your way round bends, it’s dangerous and will lead to accidents.’

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Next came electric windows, again my dad’s response was, ‘Why?’ ‘Just something else to drain the battery and go wrong, it’s the beginning of the end – mark my words!’ Not sure what it was going to be the end of but here I am reading about the latest technology that will be used to control your entertainment system.

No not touchscreen, that is so yesterday’s technology, we are talking eye technology that by 2017 will be used to control your stereo system. Australian manufacturer Seeing Machines is developing the new technology based around a smart camera on the dashboard focused on the driver.

It can monitor the driver’s head movements and how open their eyes are. It can also track what they are looking at so instead of having to reach over to the touchscreen to say switch on the radio you simply have to look at it! Why?? Ken Kroeger, CEO of Seeing Machines said that the camera was accurate to one degree over 1.5 metres.

The article then bangs on about reconfiguring instruments so icons would be closer to the straight ahead eye level position, even embedded into the windscreen but I’m going to stop here because I’m now bored because I cannot for the life of me think why this could be of any help whatsoever.

I drive down the motorway in my Mercedes and after 10 minutes of driving I often hear a ping and a small picture of a coffee cup appears on my dashboard because apparently I’m suffering from fatigue and am in urgent need of a stop and a cup of coffee. Sod off! I know when I’m feeling tired and it isn’t 10 minutes after getting behind the wheel after 8 hours sleep.

Is this a joint venture between Mercedes and Costa? For goodness sake – as my dad would say, and I agree with him, Why? By Graham Hill

New moan started, a few years ago a journalist with about as much knowledge about all things financial as a garden fork started a blog. In fact it was started about the same time as I started mine.

The difference was that I didn’t allow every John Henry and his mate to post things on my blog, unlike my charismatic friend. If anyone wanted to post anything on my blog I would mediate and if what they wanted to post was incorrect or simply trying to sell their pet insurance policy I would trash it.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

On the other hand many other blogs would allow complete (but often well intentioned) doughnuts to express opinions online which others would then take as absolute gospel. For example I have seen someone desperate because they are facing a £1,500 charge to repair a PAS pump, 3 weeks after the manufacturer’s warranty has run out on his car, seeking advice because he’d been told the repair was outside the warranty and therefore fully chargeable.

As you know from postings on my blog this isn’t unusual. In this case the car had only covered 15,000 miles but some numbnuts said, oh dear, sadly as you are outside the warranty there is nothing you can do, chat to your bank manager and arrange a loan. Which is what the poor sod did!! So this ill informed do-gooder just cost the driver with the problem £1,500.

The truth is that under the Sale of Goods Act the driver had a legitimate claim against the supplying dealer as the goods have to be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. The ABS pump should last as long as the car, at least 8 years, so the dealer should make at least some contribution towards the cost of repair as the item concerned would appear to not be of satisfactory quality.

Oh and notice I said dealer and not manufacturer, the claim is against the company that sold you the goods, not the manufacturer. It’s up to the dealer to seek compensation from the manufacturer. This is just one of many pieces of advice given by ignorant subscribers with no legal knowledge whatsoever.

Sometimes on this and other blogs the advice has been accurate at the time it was given in say 2009 but the law has since changed and the advice is now wrong. So if you are one of those people that searches through blogs for accurate information, tread very carefully, the advice you follow could cost you a fortune.

It’s about time that blogs were properly policed before too many people catch a serious cold. 2^nd moan over! By Graham Hill

Stop/start is an energy saving method that is now being fitted into more and more new cars as it saves fuel and cuts emissions. Great news. I have it on my car and although I had intensions of switching the damn thing off (which you can do on most cars) I am now used to it and it doesn’t cause any difficulty whatsoever.

It means when I am stop start in the middle of a town or attempting to crawl round the biggest car park in the UK, commonly known as the M25, my fuel consumption doesn’t drop to single figures. But one thing I didn’t mention in my ‘lease a new car vs HP a used car’ series of articles was the increased cost of service and maintenance due to this new technology. I hadn’t realised but the cars fitted with stop/start technology need a much tougher battery than those fitted in a standard car.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

English: Halfords at the Ocean Park retail park in Portsmouth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And to make matters worse, until recently you could only buy replacement batteries from main dealers. I only found all this out when I read that Halfords are now able to fit replacement batteries into cars with stop start technology. The reason for the delay was that they needed to invest in new diagnostic equipment for its branches and be able to provide suitable replacement batteries.

Dave Poulter, head of trading at Halfords said that Halfords were the first national retailer to sell and fit the new Yuasa batteries at a cost of between £175 – £200 a go! Mr Poulter went on to explain that their prices were between 20% and 40% lower than main dealers. Kwik fit stated that are also able to replace batteries in stop/start cars with AGM batteries designed for stop/start cars.

So as this new technology expands so does the cost of service and maintenance. Another reason to lease a new car.

Whilst the Government seems to be moving green issues down the agenda, as people would apparently prefer to keep warm than pay a green levy to save the planet, the car manufacturers are steaming on with their objective of making cars more fuel efficient and kick out fewer CO2 gases.

It was only a couple of years ago when manufacturers were struggling to get below the 120g/km CO2 emissions, even in their smallest of town cars but that is all set to change. The new Vauxhall line up will include its latest 1.6litre diesel eco engines that will drop the CO2 emissions down to 85g/km.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

The engine is already fitted into the Zafira Tourer and is set to be joined by the Astra, Meriva and Mokka which will help Vauxhall keep to the European emissions targets. Alongside the new eco friendly Vauxhall engine is the Ford Focus Econetic (87g/km) and the Peugeot 308 (85g/km).

Of course it isn’t the social conscience of ex hippy retail buyers that are snapping up these low emission cars, it would seem that large companies with high emissions have to pay for each tonne of CO2 they release into the atmosphere and that includes the emissions from the tailpipe of their vehicle fleet.

Other small businesses simply want to keep emissions down although if you think you may avoid congestion charges in London, think again as you need to drop down to 75g/km before you are exempt.

Related articles

• Report: EU compromises on loosening CO2 emission limits (green.autoblog.com)

Bits&Pieces: I think most of my readers know my feelings about statistics, most of them leave me scratching my head thinking – so what? Someone, whoever decided to carry out the survey, needs to get a life.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

For example did you know that Seat drivers are most likely to make an ‘at fault’ insurance claim? Really??? Oh there’s more, Kia and Mini owners were next most likely to claim with Subaru, Smart and Fiat owners putting in the least claims.

Astonishing or what? So who carried out this totally pointless survey? Money Supermarket that’s who. Totally bloody pointless – Money Supermarket – get a life!

The AA has warned that fuel prices are set to rise by 5p per litre over the summer months. Apparently petrol stations have already started to pass on higher wholesale prices to customers at the pumps.

They said that costs had already increased by 1p per litre in July – not at my bloody Tesco, more like 3p!

Who do you use to insure your car? Think twice about Swinton as they were fined £7.4 million for miss-selling policies between April 2010 and April 2012. They were found guilty of using an ‘aggressive sales strategy’  over the phone and failed to tell customers that some of the add-ons were optional extras.

I can see that it won’t be long before we start to see congestion charges in all towns and cities. Cambridge, who dropped the proposal for a congestion charge 3 years ago, are now considering this as an option to reduce traffic gridlock. Before going ahead they will need to convince local businesses.