Unexpected Centres Of Congestion In UK

Saturday, 4. September 2010

If I was asked where would you least like to be in the UK, behind the wheel of your car at rush hour, my immediate answer would be in the centre of London. As I’m sure would be the answer given by most of my readers. But this isn’t the worst place to be, in fact according to Government figures it’s one of the best places to be, the worst being the West Midlands with 4 out of 5 commuters making their twice daily commute behind the wheel of a car. The national average is 10% less at 70%. The next Read more »

Culprits Jailed After 93 Staged Smashes

Tuesday, 24. August 2010

Two brothers have finally been jailed after being found guilty of staging 93 smashes at Eden Point in Stockport in Cheshire. Is it me or don’t you think that a couple of alerts should have sprung up somewhere after half a dozen similar incidents happened at the same spot? Ninety bloody three – what was going on? The brothers, Rehan and Rezwan Javed ran North West Claims Centre in Burnley. They paid crooks £500 Read more »

More New Cars Are Not Fitted With A Spare Wheel At All

Tuesday, 17. August 2010

Run Flat Tires - Bridgestone Parody Ad
Image by Scott Clark via Flickr

It seems that every week I have something to say about tyres – and this week isn’t going to be any different. It would seem that there has been a growing trend towards the removal of a spare wheels from new cars, first of all replacing a full spare with a skinny emergency wheel and more recently with a puncture repair kit consisting of either a can of foam that you squirt into the tyre inflating it and sealing the Read more »

Mixed Views About Current New Car Shortage

Tuesday, 17. August 2010

The car and car finance industry is full of opinionated people who haven’t a clue as to what they are talking about. So called experts guess and make assumptions without any real knowledge on the subject. About now you will see national newspapers, radio and TV reporters telling you to shop around for finance before the launch of the new 60 registration, ignore dealer HP and find yourself a cheap personal loan, Read more »

Government To Clamp Down On Uninsured Drivers

Sunday, 15. August 2010

Insurance premiums should start to fall soon as the Government introduces a tough new law next year to clamp down on the 1.5 million uninsured drivers. The legislation will put the onus on the registered keeper of the car to ensure that the vehicle is on cover. This will be monitored via a link between the Motor Insurance Database (MID) and the DVLA with the uninsured automatically fined £100. Andy Drane, Read more »

Graham Hill’s In Depth Car Review Of The New Audi A7

Thursday, 12. August 2010

This week Graham Hill’s in depth car review focuses on the all new Audi A7. As a broker I absolutely hate Audi because they have the longest lead time of all the manufacturers. This means that if I agree a deal with a client today I will probably have to wait till 2011 before I’m likely to see the money I’ve earned – it’s a bloody disaster! But as a car the new Audi A7 looks simply stunning, both inside and out! It is a 4Dr Read more »

Car Servicing Allowed At Non Franchised Dealers

Thursday, 12. August 2010

If you’re an avid reader of my newsletter and blog you will have read that you no longer need to have your car serviced by a main dealer in order to maintain your warranty. The rules that were relaxed several years ago that prevented you from having your car serviced wherever you wanted are known as the EU Block Exemption Rules. These rules have just been reviewed again and the rules pretty much left as they Read more »

Leasing Companies Can Chase You 3 Years After The Return Of Your Car

Wednesday, 11. August 2010

A good friend of mine, Dick Appleby (he lives on the Wirral – that’s how desperate I am to have friends), wrote to me recently regarding a situation that has arisen regarding a Mercedes that was returned 3 years ago to Custom Fleet, part of GE Capital. Out of the blue he received a charge for the month and a few days that the car waited on his drive for them to collect. That’s right, the car went back about 3 years ago and Read more »

New Extended Car Warranties Up To 7 Years

Wednesday, 11. August 2010

We’re encouraged to keep cars for longer as the manufacturers review their warranty periods. Toyota have announced a warranty extension to 5 years/100,000 miles joining Hyundai on 5 years also and Kia now on 7 years. These being the only manufacturers to announce the extended warranties across their full range of cars. Fiat now offers 5 years but only on the Bravo. The move, according to Toyota, has Read more »

What Do People Argue About Whilst Driving?

Tuesday, 3. August 2010

What do you think the main reason is for having a row in a car? Halfords surveyed those that were on their mailing list and two thirds responded and admitted that it was poor navigation or the getting lost that led to the worst rows. Whilst 80% of women argued that it was the lack of planning by their partners that led to the row the same point was argued by 65% of men. The second biggest cause was the continuing Read more »