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Following on from my previous blog post in which I was musing over the next steps to a cleaner environment. Maybe VW/Audi had the answer all along!

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.

Rather than fiddle the emission figures they have been working in the back room on a revival of the hydrogen fuel cell, something of which I’m a great supporter. According to their press releases the car will be more dynamic and more efficient than anything else in production.

The only thing they haven’t revealed is the bodystyle they will use to launch the new technology. Audi have produced hydrogen powered concept cars in the past as A2 and Q5 models and they have recently been showing off the A7 h-tron prototype which can power to 62mph in 7.9 seconds with a range of 300 miles.

Dr Rene Van Doom, powertrain engineer for fuel cell technology, confirmed that Audi has four major priorities for the immediate future, one of which is alternative drivetrains. He added that Audi were set to go into volume production with fuel cells as soon as the market and infrastructure justifies the move.

Their 10 year plan includes providing an electric alternative for every model in its range. With mild hybrid (whatever that is), plug in or hydrogen cell system. In 2016 a new 48 volt hybrid will be launched with an electric compressor to eliminate the annoying turbo lag and boosting efficiency by shutting down the engine when coasting.

If that wasn’t enough to put them ahead of the game again they are now working on electronic dampers that not only reduce body roll but they use the movement to regenerate kinetic energy to charge your mobile phone and air-con in the way that kinetic energy generated in hybrid cars recharges batteries. They claim that they can recuperate 150 watts meaning a CO2 saving of 3g/km. Amazing!

They also mentioned that they still understand the importance of internal combustion engines and will not neglect development of this technology. Good to hear! By Graham Hill

The rules have always been pretty clear when it comes to claiming back business miles when an employee uses their own car. These days I see more cars being funded privately than through a business as a company car, often to avoid benefit in kind tax.

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.

As an employee claiming a mileage allowance, again it is very clear, you can claim up to 10,000 miles per annum at 45 pence per mile which is tax and NI free, beyond 10,000 miles you can claim 25 pence per mile, again tax and NI free. All fairly straight forward but what if the car is an electric car as the HMRC do not regard electricity as ‘fuel’.

Also what constitutes a business trip? With regard to the electricity question how does this also affect hybrids that run partly on electricity and partly on petrol? I have read various reports regarding electricity which, whilst already confusing, are further confused if the company provides charging points in the workplace and therefore provides free electricity.

Some companies are paying the full fuel allowance but could this be a problem waiting to explode when the Revenue decides that as electricity is provided at work the employee cannot claim the fuel allowance. At the moment the consensus is that as there is no rate set for electric vehicles that employees can only claim for the electricity that they provide themselves. Totally unfair.

I will keep you posted on this one but in the meantime the Revenue has provided some guidelines regarding business miles as follows, recently issued under HMRC 490 Employee Travel – a tax and NICS guide for employers:

• ‘Ordinary Commuting’ is specifically excluded from being considered a business journey. This is any travel between the employees home and a permanent workplace.
• An employee such as a service engineer, who travels between different clients throughout the day and who has no normal workplace, can treat all his journeys as business miles, including the first and last trip of each day to and from home.
• An employee who works for the same company at two different sites cannot treat as business mileage the journeys to or from either site and home. But any journeys between the two offices would be business miles.
• Travel from home to a depot where an employee picks up jobs or tools prior to setting out on appointments would be considered commuting – the depot would be a permanent workplace, even if the employee spent the rest of the day away from the site.
• If an employee leaves home and passes his permanent workplace, but does not stop, on the way to see a client then all the journey is business travel. If, however, he stops at his normal workplace for ‘substantive duties’, such as making a phone call, this would be treated as two journeys – a commute to his workplace, followed by a journey to the client, and only the latter would be classed as business miles.

So there you have it, up to date advice on claiming business mileage but still with many questions left unanswered such as stopping to do some shopping or drop the kids off at school on the way to a client, and so on. By Graham Hill

Have you ever, lost or stood on your car key (I use the expression ‘key’ lightly). My brother in law once had his BMW key eaten by their dog, just before the car was due to be returned at the end of the lease.

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.

He wasn’t too worried until he saw the cost of the replacement. I was staggered to read a report from company, Recover Me, whose founding director, Robin Reames, revealed the cost of replacement keys on the UK’s top 10 selling models. He explained that finding out the cost of a replacement key is nigh on impossible until you need to replace it.

Hence the reason for revealing the costs, which average £206 per car. Of course the reason why the costs are going up and will continue to rise is the amount of information stored within the circuitry of the key. It’s like a mini black box. I remember taking my BMW 7 series in for a service a couple of years ago and the service agent asked for my key, not to drive the car but to see what needed to be done!

In order to make sure you take good care of your car keys here is a list of the top 10 selling cars with the cost of the replacement key alongside:

1. Ford Fiesta                          £220
2. Ford Focus                          £220
3. Vauxhall Corsa                  £135
4. Vauxhall Astra`                £130
5. VW Golf                               £190
6. Nissan Qashqai                £280
7. Fiat 500                              £230
8. BMW 3 Series                    £216
9. VW Polo                             £210
10. BMW 1 Series                    £233

Shocking or what, worth their weight in gold – literally!! By Graham Hill

I’m in the process of setting up a new marketing business that will give those who sign into my new scheme access to a wide range of discounts and bonuses from cheap MOT, servicing and repairs to cheap subscriptions to motor magazines, special offers on tyres, discounts or added free benefits to roadside breakdowns and much more.

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.

One of the latest developments is the addition of cheap legal advice from legal specialists. The need for such a service was highlighted when I read about the buyer of a new Audi A1which developed a fault after just 2 days.

The car was taken back by the supplying dealer for him to repair but after 2 weeks the fault had only just been identified as a fault with the ABS control unit. Unfortunately the dealer couldn’t find a fix so the driver, quite rightly demanded a replacement car. After a lot of buggering about without a solution the driver involved Auto Express who contacted Audi who agreed that the driver should have the car replaced.

By this stage I would have been on Audi’s rooftop with their MD dangling by his boot laces pleading to supply a new car even if he had to go to Germany to collect it himself. It is your legal right as well as claim compensation. In the end and no doubt as a gesture of bloody goodwill the driver not only had the car replaced but had the spec. upgraded to an S-Line.

We need a legal helpline for drivers to access in order to get rid of all the ignorance that exists about buyers legal rights. Watch this space, lots of exciting things happening this year. By Graham Hill

As most of my customers are aware you can now have your car serviced at any service or repair centre without the loss of the car’s warranty provided the work is in line with the conditions stipulated by the manufacturer.

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.

Since this European rule, known as Block Exemption, was introduced in 2003 it has meant that anyone who buys a new car carrying a manufacturer’s warranty can have their car serviced and maintained at a non-franchised dealer, thereby saving a substantial amount of money.

However, when you lease a car and you are responsible for the servicing of the vehicle, can the leasing company insist that you only have the car serviced at a main dealer as this would be a contradiction of the regulations? Again, regular readers will know that most leasing companies are happy for you to have the car serviced at non franchised dealers provided the work is carried out in line with the manufacturer’s instructions using original or compatible parts.

But you need to check your contract as these things have a habit of changing without notice. Mercedes-Benz changed their rules a few years ago so that if you return a lease car (including PCP) and the service work has been carried out by a non authorised service/repair centre they will impose an end of lease charge, in some cases, over £1,000, even though the car has been serviced on time and even using Mercedes original parts.

I took some legal advice on this and was advised that whilst the car is owned by the finance company they can include terms relating to the service and maintenance of the car. So whilst they may be out of line with the rest of the leasing industry they are not acting, on the face of it, illegally, albeit that they are acting outside the spirit of the law.

But there are two issues on which they could justify their stance. The first is the quality of the work which Mercedes could argue would be of a lower standard if carried out by a service centre. I would argue this every day of the week having received some of the worst services ever when I have had a Mercedes serviced by a main dealer in the past.

On the other side of the coin a judge might argue that a customer should be free, in an open market, and given the Block Exemption law, to choose where the car is serviced – it is the whole point of the law to make it competitive and stop the protectionist approach that most manufacturers had used when insisting that their cars are serviced at a main dealer or lose your warranty before it changed in 2003.

The other argument could relate to resale value of the car when it is returned which they could argue would be less than if the car had not been serviced by a main dealer. However, they list a scale of charges which could suggest a penalty, which in these circumstances could be considered illegal.

If, through breach of contract, you were to cause the other party a loss they can not charge anything above their losses incurred. Having spoken to many trade buyers over the years most would not draw a distinction between a car that has ‘Full Service History’ and ‘Full Mercedes Benz Service History’ so it might be difficult to prove their case against a customer in front of a judge.

If you have been charged a ‘penalty’ by MB Finance and you are unhappy about it you could take out a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are a ‘consumer’. Putting MB Finance to one side the point of all this is that Halfords are about to launch an aggressive new campaign to take away a larger share of the £10 billion a year after care market from main dealers.

This comes on the back of the Auto Express Driver Power Survey in which a large number of dealer networks were criticised by drivers. Traditionally the Halfords target market has been 3 – 5 year old cars but the new approach will attract new to 3 year old car drivers looking to save up to 40% of the labour cost. They will be introducing new receptions that will look more like the pods you will see in an Apple store and they will offer a collect and return service.

The receptions will also have Wi-Fi facilities and you will even be able to watch your car being serviced on an iPad that they will provide for your use. So it may be worth considering Halfords for your next service but don’t forget to check your lease agreement first and don’t forget you can always negotiate with the main dealer before booking your car in for a service. By Graham Hill

Auto Express has published its list of award winning cars which I am listing below staring with their car of the year, The Mini. It is the first time the Mini has won the Auto Express car of the year award even though it is now into its third generation.

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.

Mini (marque) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well done Mini, still one of my most popular cars and still providing great value for money with the rates we can currently offer. Other awards are as follows with one or two shockers. For full details of the awards you should subscribe to Auto Express:

Car Of The Year                  Mini (on offer)

Best City Car                       Skoda Citigo

Best Supermini                     Ford Fiesta (on offer)

Best Premium Small Car      Mini (on offer)

Best Compact Family Car    Seat Leon (on offer)

Best Crossover                     Nissan Qashqai (on offer)

Best Family Car                   Mazda 6 (on offer)

Best Estate Car                    Seat Leon ST

Best Compact Executive     BMW 3 Series (330d on offer)

Best Executive Car              Audi A6 (on offer)

Best Luxury Car                  Mercedes S Class

Best Hot Hatch                    Seat Leon Cupra (on offer)

Best Coupe                          Jaguar F-Type (on offer)

Best Convertible                  Audi A3 Cabriolet

Best MPV                            Citroen Grand C4 Picasso

Best Compact SUV             Porsche Macan

Best Large SUV                  Hyundai Santa Fe (on offer)

Best Roadster                      Porsche Boxster

Best Pickup                          VW Amarok

Best Performance Car          McLaren 650S

Design Award                      Volvo Concept Estate

Green Award                       BMW i3

Special Award                     Tesla*

Best Van                              Ford Transit (on offer)

Safety Award                      Nissan Safety Shield**

*The Tesla has received the award for its efforts in bringing luxury and speed to electric cars and without the backing of old established manufacturers. They are even in the process of installing fast superchargers at key locations that will allow drivers of their cars to ‘top up’ in half an hour giving a range of 170 miles (a full charge takes longer but offers a range of just about 300 miles), a 0-60 acceleration of 4.2 seconds and the level of luxury and gadgetry you wouldn’t even find in a top of the range premium brand. Who said electric vehicles are dead?

**Nissan Safety Shield is a range of safety devices fitted across much of their range of new cars showing that they take safety very seriously.

So there you have it. Auto Express’s list of their top cars, many of which we have on special offer. So get your quote requests across as soon as possible. By Graham Hill

We have seen, over the last few years, some changes to car lighting. Halogen and Bi-Xenon lights have been lighting up our roads brighter than ever and we are now seeing some very strange driving lights/headlights and tail lights thanks to strings of very powerful LED’s. But according to experts ‘We ain’t seen nothing yet’.

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.

We are likely to see some major influence from China as car designers develop cars with the Chinese market in mind. If you look around any big Chinese city you will see buildings that appear to glow. This same technology will be used to give cars a glow with a very defined outline making the car easier to see at night.

VW/Audi are already looking into this technology for the outside as well as looking at new ways of lighting the interior with different types of ambient lighting. According to VW’s design director in China, Simon Loasby, we will see many more Chinese influenced design changes being introduced into cars for the European market.

One such design development will be the windscreen air filter, seen to be essential in China due to the high levels of pollution. No I haven’t got a clue as to how it would work either! What next? Built in Wok and free Geisha girl? Hmm, don’t get me started. By Graham Hill

Back in the 60’s, when I lived in Slough, obviously we are talking a very young age, they came up with a unique traffic calming system on the A4 that ran alongside the huge industrial estate.

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.

They had a series of traffic lights, about 8 I believe, and if you stuck exactly to 30mph you would breeze through the lot without stopping, much to the joy of the locals and much to the annoyance of them there strangers just passing through.

My dad would be sitting at the lights and a boy racer would turn up on the outside lane with his supped up Cooper S, sitting at the lights whilst revving the piston rings out of the car and glancing over at my dad who would have a bit of a wry smile on his face. Lights change to amber and the Cooper S is off like brown smelly stuff off a shovel.

Next set of lights he would be sitting there whilst the old man sedately cruised by at 30mph just as the lights turned. And so on and so on. Why have I shared these joyous memories with you? Because technology has finally caught up nearly 50 years later thanks to Audi. They have brought out a traffic light recognition system that they say could put an end to waiting at the traffic lights.

The system works via the in car’s Audi Connect which creates a link between the car and the local traffic light network. The system displays a required speed that the driver must stick to in order to smoothly glide through each set of traffic lights.

The system is apparently developed and ready to go. Can’t wait! Oh, and if you are driving down the A4 and the traffic calming is still operational I’d love to know. Drop me a line! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Audi’s Innovative Traffic Light Assist (auto2014.wordpress.com)

Possibly not but it might be useful to know what you are likely to face in the future. I can help there because Auto Express has carried out a survey amongst 46,000 readers to come up with the best and worst dealers by manufacturer.

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.

I can’t reveal all but I can give you a rundown of some of the best and worst dealers. In the best category Lexus heads the list for the second year running. Suburu and Toyota come in at positions 2 and 3. Honda was 4^th and Jaguar 5^th. Porsche, Skoda, Mitsubishi, Renault and Kia finished off the top 10.

Strangely not many Germans achieved a top 10 position. But what abouth the bottom of the list, the last 10 places. At the bottom was Seat at position 31, Chevrolet was 30, Ford at 29, Fiat 28, Citroen 27, Peugeot 26. Next up the list were a few Germans, at 25 was VW, just above was BMW at 24, Audi 23 and Chrysler/Jeep at 22.

A few surprises there and very interesting. Probably won’t influence too many buying decisions but interesting to know all the same.

Peugeot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the financial problems weren’t enough it would seem that Citroen and Peugeot need to sort their cars out, or more importantly their electrics, according to a new report prepared by BBA Reman – a specialist in remanufacturing problematic electrical components (no I don’t know what that means either), based in Rochester, Kent.

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.

They say that they dealt with more Citroens than any other make of car among its 43,500 UK customers. The most common fault was within the ECU’s fitted mainly to C4’s and C5’s.

The same issue caused Peugeot to fall into 2^nd place with the same problem occurring in 206, 307 and 407. Whilst some would say that this isn’t surprising given the difficulties faced by the manufacturers, they may be surprised to learn that contrary to belief that Germans are the most reliable VW and Audi were 3^rd and 4^th respectively. Maybe a bit of a wakeup call there! By Graham Hill Car Finance

Related articles

• Peugeot: European car sales will continue to fall (inautonews.com)