Wednesday, 7. July 2010
One of the things that continues to amaze me is the lack of attention that some people pay to the new car they are about to order. Some of this is actually caused by me and my colleagues by occasionally coming up with a deal that you can’t refuse, making the decision a bit of a no brainer but it is still a good idea to get a test drive of a car that you are likely to order. It is also important to check for certain items that for Read more »
Friday, 2. July 2010
I am often asked about small autos and what CVT auto is? CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission and tends to only be fitted to small autos. Such as the Micra. Unlike a traditional auto which operates in a similar way to a manual, automatically changing between gears the CVT system consists of a belt that slides up and down two cones, effectively providing an infinite number of gear ratios. Unfortunately Read more »
Tuesday, 29. June 2010
I attended the Buckingham Automotive Forum on Thursday at the University of Buckingham, the quarterly meeting at which the good and the great of the industry give us an indication as to what is likely to happen in the future and if the future is looking good or bad for the industry. In fact I was a guest speaker at the event, speaking alongside Professor Peter Cooke, Professor at the University and government Read more »
Thursday, 24. June 2010
Graham Hill’s famous car review turns this week to a favourite, the Mini. This week I’m carrying out an in depth review of the new Mini 7. Well, I would do but I don’t like the car so it won’t be as in depth as most people might like to read! Anyway, for those old enough, you may recall that when the Mini was launched it came out in a number of guises. There was the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin 7 Mini along with Read more »
Thursday, 24. June 2010
A Trading Standard team based in Birmingham have found that an incredible 90% of used tyres being sold by independent tyre dealers and fitted on cars don’t meet minimum legal standards. Among the tyres inspected officers found some with nails embedded in them as well as one tyre that was 17 years old. The investigation, run by the city council and overseen by Trading Standards boss, Chris Neville was a Read more »
Saturday, 19. June 2010
This week the Graham Hill in depth review is a dribble over the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing. It looks amazing! I could probably stop there as that’s probably all you need to know but for those that enjoy my in depth review here goes. It is a retro looking car but without seeming dated and is the current F1 safety car. With the doors open you think it looks as though it could fly if the driver took it up to 150 mph plus! Read more »
Thursday, 17. June 2010
If you have a friend or family member likely to take their driving test this year they may need to get a move on and get it done by October when the test gets a lot tougher. The biggest change to the current test will be the need to drive the car around a town simply following road signs in order to promote ‘independent decision making’ in new drivers. This new part of the test is seen as ‘effortful, mentally demanding Read more »
Wednesday, 16. June 2010
We recently had the Mercedes C63 AMG on offer. If you had ordered a car, which is partly hand built, it would have taken Mercedes about 10 weeks to get the car built and delivered to you. But in one of the worst examples of long delivery of a standard car one dealer recently quoted 20 weeks to deliver a standard VW Polo. This is partly because this particular dealer had used up his allocation but even dealers with Read more »
Sunday, 13. June 2010
I don’t know why but every time someone starts to explain how wonderful the scrappage scheme was the hairs on the back of my neck start to bristle. The latest is Graham Hope, deputy editor of Auto Express. He says that whist not everyone was in favour of the scrappage scheme it brought ‘some benefits, not least its condemnation of thousands of death traps’. His comments are an introduction to an article about the Read more »