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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

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.

Are Ya Thirsty (Photo credit: Roy Montgomery)

As the weather continues to keep us in our shorts and the ice cream salesmen wring their hands with glee how are you keeping your drinks and food cool when taking the family to the beach or the park. The latest range of cool boxes allow you to keep everything cool whilst in the car via the car’s electrics. You can normally plug the unit into the mains then when you get into the car plug it into one of the auxiliary outlets in the back of the car or in the boot. These types of cool boxes don’t come cheap but could save a fortune in cold drinks when out. Auto Express have tested the best of the bunch and found that the Campingaz PowerBox 28L Deluxe priced at £89.95 to be the best. The capacity was good and the design of the inside made it one of the best to store cans and food. It also had a neat battery monitor in the plug. In second place and recommended came the Sealey 22L Cool Bag 12v. More of a bag than box it has non chilled pockets for items you don’t want cooled, maybe fruit and utensils. Priced at £50.34 it was good value albeit smaller than the winner. 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. Don’t forget that with these units they are not refrigerators, they take time to cool so would benefit if the food and drink you put into the box is chilled already. Having said that the Rolls Royce of those tested, the Waeco Tropicool TC-21 will cool much lower than others and it ca also be used to heat. Good use of the 21 litres capacity made it a favourite of the judges. The cost is £169. Finally if there is a large group of you then you may want to consider the 40 litre Halfords Electric Coolbox. Because of its size it is fitted with wheels and a nice feature was the ability to set the level of temperature reduction. There is no power light or switch and at £129.99 it was expensive although, at the time of writing, there was a promotion on reducing the price to £79.99, that’s more like it.

I’ve mentioned on several occasions that you are able to have your car serviced at a non franchised dealer but you have to be extra careful about warranty claims as manufacturers will try to squirm out of them. A recent case involved Ford and a young lady with a 4 year old Ford Ka. She suddenly found that the car had developed rust Read more »

Most of us are aware that ABS is fitted to our cars and you are probably sufficiently technically astute to know that ABS is a system fitted to your brakes that enables you to brake and steer at the same time, especially important on wet or slippery roads. If you’ve ever used it, it sounds like a machine gun as the brake pads grip the brake disc then let go and Read more »

Oh dear, can you hear that bubbling? If you can it’s my blood boiling. Today it’s a manufacturer that’s managed to get my back up and the fact that Auto Express seems to be a bit short on advice again. A reader negotiated a good discount on a Vauxhall Corsa but then saw an ad for zero percent finance so naturally asked for the deal. The dealer explained Read more »

Image via Wikipedia

I’m not going to labour this point but whilst thumbing through a recent copy of Auto Express I saw the comparison reviews between the VW Tiguan and the Kia Sportage, their versions of small 4WD cars similar to the Rav 4 and Honda CRV. The Kia won hands down and yet whenever I’ve offered Kia’s to potential customers as a great alternative to some Read more »

Image via Wikipedia

My review of a new car is a bit of a disappointment, no surprise there then. When the Vauxhall Zafira came out it revolutionised the 7 seater and made it possible to haul around a mass of kids without the need to feel as though you were driving a Transit van. They were compact, comfortable and economical and frankly I quite liked them. Over the Read more »

Auto Express recently reminded us that since the changes to European Regulation 461/2010 (Motor Vehicle Block Exemption) you can have your car serviced at an independent garage and provided they carry out all work in accordance with the rules set down by the manufacturer your warranty will be honoured. That is fine and I totally Read more »

Image via Wikipedia

Car manufacturers love to confuse us poor customers. Just as we had firmly fixed in our minds the colour green as being representative of  anything that was environmentally friendly, not only in the UK but around the world, they decided that blue would be the new green (was this a careful ploy on the part of the Conservative party I ask myself). Read more »