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There’s a scandal out there that no-one realised. Yep, you guessed it we’re talking exhausts here. Dirty exhausts. Emission testers Emission Test Facility UK, based in Longbridge, West Mids. tested scores of aftermarket exhaust systems against manufacturer’s own with some shocking results. Some emitted up to 20 times the level of nitrogen dioxide and twice as many hydrocarbons. One well known brand’s £300 Read more »

The Graham Hill review of the week is on two cars following the re-birth of Lotus, one of my favourite car makers of all time. Probably because my namesake drove for them when he started his motor racing career and won his second world F1 title in his famous Lotus 49. Anyway, after returning to F1, Lotus have now launched the new Esprit and Elise at the Paris Motor Show (along with Elan, Elite, Eterne and a Read more »

My gadget of the week is a smart fob that transfers data onto your iPhone. It collects data from the car every time the driver switches off the engine, recording things like trip information, mpg, fuel level and tyre pressures. It also includes maintenance alerts and can even warn you if you leave a window open. If the driver then holds the fob next to the phone whilst running the app the information is transferred wirelessly Read more »

I recently reported that a large number of recalls don’t get the level of publicity that they should after Toyota took a beating over the brake recalls but were then found not to hold the record for the most numbers of single model cars being recalled this year. However it was put into perspective recently when Bentley had to recall 300 UK cars. The major concern affected Arnage, Azure and Brooklands models built Read more »

The Department for Transport has revealed the top ten reasons why people crash. The top reason was failure to look, accounting for more than a third of  all smashes. Failing to look properly was the reason for 38% of crashes but this differed in regions with this reason being cited in London for 57% of smashes but in the Midlands this dropped to 32%. Failing to judge other motorists speed was next followed by careless Read more »

If you are illegally using a disabled badge when you pop into town in order to park closer to the shops, beware, as local authorities take a stronger stand. Research in Leeds and Newcastle found that the illegal use of the blue badges was now out of control. Research found that 60% of disabled badges used in Leeds were illegal and more than half of the badges in use in Newcastle were similarly illegal. Around Read more »

Years ago car number plates were screwed to the body work by two or even four screws making it a bugger of a job to remove a plate but these days even prestigious cars have their number plates fixed on with a couple of strips of double sided tape. It was hardly surprising then to see a warning from the Retail Motor Industry Federation about theft of number plates. Thefts have doubled over the last 3 years with the Read more »

Insurance premiums are being secretly increased by the application of admin fees according to research firm Defaqto. In 2004 the admin charge on an insurance policy was 2% of premium but that has now increased to 7% in 2010. The insurance industry, like the finance industry, has realised that people ignore the terms and conditions attached to contracts and simply focus on the lowest rate so they use stealth measures to increase the return without touching the premiums. Mike Powell, Read more »

The motor finance industry was to see a potential new broker association being formed that would concentrate on providing benefits to consumers and small business  operating predominantly in the retail sector. The NACFB (National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers) offered their support to any such initiative but when this came to my notice, as an ex director and president of the association, I saw a huge potential for the association and immediately got to work with the chief Read more »

One of the constant questions I get asked is if the bank rate is at 0.5% why are personal loans running at around 8% – 10% and HP can be much more than that? Well unless you are a banker or you have a tracker mortgage the bank rate is pretty meaningless and this has always been the case when interest rates have been running at a pretty low level. The fact is that the interest a lender charges is his income. He might have a few fees that bolster up his admin costs but he still has his overhead costs to Read more »