Tuesday, 10. February 2015
Have you ever, lost or stood on your car key (I use the expression ‘key’ lightly). My brother in law once had his BMW key eaten by their dog, just before the car was due to be returned at the end of the lease.
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.
He wasn’t too worried until he saw the cost of the replacement. I was staggered to read a report from company, Recover Me, whose founding director, Robin Reames, revealed the cost of replacement keys on the UK’s top 10 selling models. He explained that finding out the cost of a replacement key is nigh on impossible until you need to replace it.
Hence the reason for revealing the costs, which average £206 per car. Of course the reason why the costs are going up and will continue to rise is the amount of information stored within the circuitry of the key. It’s like a mini black box. I remember taking my BMW 7 series in for a service a couple of years ago and the service agent asked for my key, not to drive the car but to see what needed to be done!
In order to make sure you take good care of your car keys here is a list of the top 10 selling cars with the cost of the replacement key alongside:
- Ford Fiesta              £220
- Ford Focus              £220
- Vauxhall Corsa          £135
- Vauxhall Astra`         £130
- VW Golf                £190
- Nissan Qashqai         £280
- Fiat 500                £230
- BMW 3 Series           £216
- VW Polo               £210
- BMW 1 Series           £233
Shocking or what, worth their weight in gold – literally!! By Graham Hill
Friday, 22. July 2011
Image via Wikipedia
My review this week isn’t some dopey supercar that no-one can afford and if you spurted away from traffic lights in it on full power would leave your small intestines still waiting at the lights. Nope it is a sensible car, the all new BMW 1 Series. It has been a popular car since its introduction because it enables bakers and other business owners who like Read more »
Wednesday, 9. March 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Years ago when run flat tyres were introduced they seemed like a great idea but drivers were then told that they couldn’t mix up run flats with conventional tyres and you couldn’t get a puncture repaired. Once the tyre had been punctures, whilst the run flat would get you home the bad news was that you then needed to replace the tyre. However, I have found out that this isn’t necessarily the case. It was highlighted recently when a lady driver managed to get a nail in her run flat tyre fitted to a Read more »
Sunday, 13. June 2010
The 2010 What Car and J D Power Ownership Satisfaction Survey is out now and available in the July issue of What Car. The survey arrives at its findings after analysing returns from 17,200 motorists travelling a total of 300 million miles in their cars. 104 models from 27 manufacturers have been rated with every aspect of owning scrutinised. The satisfaction percentage score is made up of four sections. Read more »
Sunday, 9. November 2008
Looking for a reliable car has always meant that you must look in the direction of Japanese cars but following the annual survey carried out into company car reliability BMW has come out on top. The survey which sampled 881,000 vehicles leased by the top FN50 companies showed BMW to become the first ever non-Japanese company to top the reliability charts. Since the reliability charts were launched either Read more »
Tuesday, 14. October 2008
Well having reported a few weeks ago that white cars have been making a comeback it would seem that used car buyers are not quite so keen according to Eutotax-Glass’s who report that some supercars and luxury grand tourers can lose as much as £5,000 compared to a popular metallic colour. Whereas some high performance and those fitted with sports kits do very well. To demonstrate the quirkiness of the market Read more »
