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The now famous Graham Hill new car review focuses this week on another unnatural car, the 4Dr Aston Martin Rapide. First of all Aston Martin create the craziest car ever, their new city car, then they bring out a 4Dr saloon. I was beginning to think these sport car producers had lost the plot until I recently saw the 4Dr Porsche Panamera in the flesh and it actually looked pretty good. I was all set to hate it but I Read more »

One of the biggest confusions over end of lease charges is that of scuffed alloy wheels with bills for repairs being as high as £120 per wheel. Many drivers cannot understand why scuffs to alloy wheels are chargeable as damage. As one woman that wrote to me explained ‘We all scrape wheels on the pavement when parking, surely it is no different to worn carpets, and stone chips?’ The fact is that if you are driving Read more »

Bonkers Boris is charging ahead with plans to build 25,000 recharging points for electric cars. This will attract 100,000 battery vehicles into the city. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I understood that there was a ‘Congestion’ charge, aimed at keeping cars out of London. It isn’t a ‘Stop London from getting smelly’ charge or a ‘Let’s reduce the emissions’ charge, it’s aim was to try to get everyone onto public transport Read more »

As companies look at various ways to raise money, as we slowly emerge from recession, some are now looking at their company cars as a possible way to raise funds for expansion. For those that don’t want to approach their bank to increase their borrowings this could be a good alternative. The scheme, known as sale and leaseback, is an arrangement between a leasing company and the customer whereby the leasing Read more »

I’m grateful to Auto Express for the story about the driver in London Ontario who was clocked doing 66mph in a 31mph zone. As Auto Express said, because they’re all a bunch of comics there, his excuse for speeding, when stopped by the police, didn’t hold much water when he explained that he had been speeding to dry his car after washing it, get it (groan)? It may however turn out to be the most expensive car wash he’s ever had because, if convicted, he could face a fine of up to $2,000 (£1,300). They finished their report by saying that the car would be impounded for 7 days at the owner’s expense, lets hope it’s in dry storage (G falls off seat in hysterical laughter). By Graham Hill

The Department for Transport has released figures that show a decrease in the number of vehicles on the road during the first quarter of this year. Car traffic decreased by 3% while traffic on motorways fell by 2%. However light van traffic increased by 2%, most of whom were on their mobiles if my experiences are anything to go by! Congestion times also decreased with the inter-urban journey delays dropping from 3.9 minutes to 3.65 minutes per 10 miles. Journey times remained the same for urban trips at 3.34 minutes per mile. See, I’m an absolute mine of information! By Graham Hill

Time for this week’s dopy gadget award! It has to go to Rolls Royce and their first iPhone app that allows you to configure your £195,000 Ghost via the free to download app. You will be able to use it on your iPhone or iPod Touch and configure the car of your choice selecting the colour from 12 options along with 3 different wheel styles, visible exhausts (don’t ask) and a contrasting satin silver bonnet. Inside there are Read more »

On the subject of grey fleets, ALD Automotive who provide fleets with licence checking services, have highlighted the need to constantly check employee licences if they are expected to drive their own cars on company business. Their advice followed the discovery of a driver who had received 16 years of bans in a space of just 16 weeks. ALD first checked his licence in 2009 and noted that he had received a 12 Read more »

Now here’s a funny story! There has been a lot of  criticism over the way that companies encourage their staff to use their own car (known as the grey fleet) for business use. There are many health and safety implications but the criticism has been aimed at companies that don’t vet the vehicles that are being used and are taking a cavalier attitude towards the environment and the way that they are happy for their Read more »

I’ve often pointed out to customers that they can now have their new cars serviced at non franchised dealers and still retain their warranty cover. This resulted from the changes that were made to the EU Block Exemption rules removing the stranglehold that manufacturers had over the servicing of new vehicles during the warranty period, that was cunningly extended by most manufacturers to 3 years. In an effort to Read more »