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One of the main reasons why drivers refuse to consider leasing as an option is the misguided mental evaluation of their car when they eventually part exchange for a new one. By the time reality hits them it is far too late because by the time they learn the truth the car is three years old and they have lost £’000s.

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Let me explain. I carried out a not too scientific experiment. I used as an example a Renault Scenic which cost about £15,000 brand new. I asked about 30 people, friends, relations, people down the pub etc. what the car would be worth when 3 years old with 30,000 miles on the clock. The answers ranged from £7,000 to £10,000 with the majority £8,000 – £9,000.

The actual value of that car in the trade and what would be achieved as a part exchange was just under £4,000. Now here’s the problem, when working out the potential cost over 3 years most of those asked would have said that the car would be worth around £7,000, which, after adding interest charges, having taken the car on HP, would have compared roughly with the lease costs over the same period.

However, the truth is that the resale or part exchange estimates were around £4,000 adrift making the lease option much more favourable but as I say you only find that out when you sell the car. Auto Express carried out a similar exercise when they recently asked 12 drivers what they believed their cars were worth (I don’t just throw these things together, it’s called planning) and they came up with similar findings.

They used the trade valuers CAP to come up with the valuations. Other than one lady with an 09 Focus who thought her car was worth £4,500 but in fact it was worth £5,500 all drivers over estimated their car’s true value. One driver with a BMW M3 Evolution was over £3,000 adrift with most other drivers around £1,000 to £2,000 over the true value.

Having said that most cars were 5 to 10 years old so you would expect the estimates to be a little closer to the truth. Philip Northard of CAP said that the reason why many drivers over estimate the value of their car is that when they check on sites such as Autotrader or notice a similar car on a dealer’s forecourt, the figures they see are retail figures and include the dealer’s margin.

Of course you won’t achieve these figures when you take your car into the dealer as a part exchange. The argument over expected future values won’t go away, I’m sure, but I thought it might be worth mentioning if you are considering leasing as an option, you take away all risk in the depreciation and don’t get disappointed when you aren’t offered what you thought your car was worth when you come to replace it. By Graham Hill

The RAC has brought itself up to date by fitting out their patrol vehicles with state of the art diagnostic technology in order to increase the number of roadside fixes it can carry out.

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.

The RAC has invested £6 million in Scan+ diagnostic software that will enable patrols to interact with a broken down vehicle’s own diagnostic system and on-board sensors to identify faults.

The technology will allow technicians to do a repair on parts that often need electronically adapting before they will operate – even battery replacements need computer ‘coding’ after replacing. No I didn’t know that either!

RAC Technical Director, David Bizley said, ’The RAC has always utilised the latest technological advances to ensure we offer the very best repair for motorists.

RAC Scan+ will give our patrols the very best information from the vehicle’s own diagnostic equipment to enable them to repair the car.’ Over to you the AA!

Lots of lenders and brokers are starting to quote lease rentals based on 6 rentals in advance in order to make the monthly rentals appear low. It also helps with underwriting as the higher the initial rental, the lower the risk. However, I still try to stick with 3 rentals in advance which may make the monthly cost look high but it makes the initial rental Read more »

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So you want to ‘pimp’ your aging Fiesta but not sure how to go about it? Well, Graham Hill’s Gadget of the Week sorts it out for you. The manufacturer, Ring Automotive guarantees that you will stand out from the boring crowd when you add their Prism Lamps to your car. They use white LED’s in a tube to surround your front lamps and red LED’s in a Read more »

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One of the smaller changes to the benefit in kind tax rules following the budget was the removal of the upper limit when applied to company run prestige cars. In the past there was a limit placed on the list price used when calculating personal benefit in kind tax of £80,000. This has now been removed so taking a Bentley Flying Spur as an example with Read more »

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Well, I guess the big news of the week, and one I was waiting to break before sending out my deal of the week and updated blog, is the launch of Tesco Cars www.tescocars.com. I have been working as a consultant with Carsite, whose site has been updated to accommodate the new name and Tesco loans. The same procedure is being adopted by the new website as happened under the old scheme with car photos, HPI and inspection reports. The difference now is the addition of 2,000 clubcard points with every car Read more »

It seems that every week I read a similar story in Auto Express about a driver who has bought either a new or used car that has turned out to be a complete dog then struggled to get their money back. The fact is that the law is very clear on this point. If you buy faulty goods and a fault is found immediately or within the first 6 months you can return the goods and insist on a full refund. And the supplier must give you a full refund. On the other hand you can give the supplier the opportunity to either repair or replace the goods without losing your right to insist on a refund. In the latest case that Auto Express came to the rescue on a buyer of a new Hyundai i30 found the car starting to judder. The driver gave the dealership the opportunity to repair the fault which they attempted without success. The dealer and Hyundai offered a replacement but couldn’t guarantee that the fault would not exist in the replacement. This was 8 months later! The driver decided that he simply wanted his money back, which he received, after Auto Express stepped in – as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’ A gesture of bloody goodwill! It’s his legal right and he should also be entitled to compensation for the inconvenience. This infuriates me because dealers, supported by the manufacturers, feel they are above the law. It’s a disgrace but I really think that Auto Express should employ the services of a solicitor to bang off a formal letter each time they have a similar case to point out the driver’s legal entitlement and tell them to stick their ‘gestures of goodwill’ where the sun don’t shine. Have you experienced similar problems with a dealer not honouring your legal rights? Here’s a little graphic that I found on a Government website that may explain your rights a little easier than my wording:

By Graham Hill

As most cars have in car computers fitted these days wouldn’t it be a great option to have incorporated, whereby you input the cost per litre of the fuel that you put into your car and at the end of each journey or possibly during the journey, it showed you the cost of the fuel that you’ve used. Now wouldn’t that stop a few unnecessary trips, especially short trips that might return on 10 miles to the gallon compared with the average of say 40mpg. Any views? By Graham Hill

I’ve already reported about the way that Ford increased its list prices during the scrappage scheme and, now the scheme has ended, has now decided to lower its list prices by up to 15%, quite a coincidence eh! But to make matters worse they say that even after reducing their prices that buyers should still negotiate the price further as dealers have the ability to provide additional discounts from 5% to 15%. But this is the Read more »

There have been a lot of hurrah’s and yippees as Ford have dropped their list prices by up to 12% on many models in their range. Obviously it passed everyone by that in fact they increased their prices by 15.1% last year when inflation was bouncing along at a little over 0%. In fact the actual increase imposed by Ford was higher than 15.1% as the increases took place in 4 chunks and I’ve disregarded the Read more »