Tuesday, 6. August 2013
For years my blog, www.thebestcarfinanceblog.co.uk has remained at number 1 on Google. Search Car Finance Blog and you will find my blog at number 1 out of 342 million (as of today, 5th August 2013). This is no mean achievement but it must say something about the quality and quantity of information that I post.
Even after being off line for several months whilst recovering from a hip operation I still remained at number 1. My next target is to take my book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide to number 1 in the best selling finance book list on Amazon. So if you would like to help and gain some insight into car finance please click the link below to get yourself a copy. You can buy the book as a downloadable Kindle or an old fashioned paperback book. Best wishes Graham Hill
English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Monday, 5. August 2013
Are Ya Thirsty (Photo credit: Roy Montgomery)
As the weather continues to keep us in our shorts and the ice cream salesmen wring their hands with glee how are you keeping your drinks and food cool when taking the family to the beach or the park. The latest range of cool boxes allow you to keep everything cool whilst in the car via the car’s electrics. You can normally plug the unit into the mains then when you get into the car plug it into one of the auxiliary outlets in the back of the car or in the boot. These types of cool boxes don’t come cheap but could save a fortune in cold drinks when out. Auto Express have tested the best of the bunch and found that the Campingaz PowerBox 28L Deluxe priced at £89.95 to be the best. The capacity was good and the design of the inside made it one of the best to store cans and food. It also had a neat battery monitor in the plug. In second place and recommended came the Sealey 22L Cool Bag 12v. More of a bag than box it has non chilled pockets for items you don’t want cooled, maybe fruit and utensils. Priced at £50.34 it was good value albeit smaller than the winner. 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. Don’t forget that with these units they are not refrigerators, they take time to cool so would benefit if the food and drink you put into the box is chilled already. Having said that the Rolls Royce of those tested, the Waeco Tropicool TC-21 will cool much lower than others and it ca also be used to heat. Good use of the 21 litres capacity made it a favourite of the judges. The cost is £169. Finally if there is a large group of you then you may want to consider the 40 litre Halfords Electric Coolbox. Because of its size it is fitted with wheels and a nice feature was the ability to set the level of temperature reduction. There is no power light or switch and at £129.99 it was expensive although, at the time of writing, there was a promotion on reducing the price to £79.99, that’s more like it.
Sunday, 4. August 2013
Bits & Pieces: Boris has set up a task force in London to carry out road improvements. A budget of £30 million was announced by the task force when they unveiled their plans which included more 20mph zones, proposals to improve cycling routes plus more travel at off-peak times.
If you’re reading this Boris I don’t suppose you could bung a few quid in the direction of West Sussex in order to fill a few bloody potholes could you? I’ll take that as a no then!
According to Home Secretary, William Hague, foreign diplomats and embassies owe more than £68.6 million in unpaid parking fines, congestion charges and business rates. Apparently the biggest culprits are the Americans, with unpaid fines of £7.2 million. I have to say William – your debt collection is shit! If you need a hand I know a couple of gentlemen that know their way around a baseball bat if you get my drift.
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.
Ever had a row with your neighbour? If you have it is most likely to have been about parking, as according to the AA (not the group who like a drink or two) fall outs between neighbours, in the majority of cases, are over parking.
In a third of all quarrels investigated they turned out to be over a blocked access or driveway or parking outside a neighbour’s home. For goodness sake sort your lives out! Good grief! Do you have a little receptacle in your car into which you drop your loose change for use when parking?
If you don’t, you should! It would seem that a staggering £1.3 billion is wasted every year by drivers who don’t have the correct money when they pay for parking at the pay and display ticket machines.
The study, carried out by Direct Line, found that drivers overpaid on average by £2.19 per week or £113 wasted each year. All for the sake of throwing your loose change in a pot in the car!
Sunday, 4. August 2013
Rear-facing infant car seat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I sometimes agree with rules that come out from the EU as an imposition upon our legal system. I have to say not often but today is one of those very rare days. Being a dad myself and having spent a fortune on car seats over the early years of my kids lives and still feeling that the seats were not adequate I welcome the new rules to be known as i-Size.
The current rules called ECE R44/04 mean children that weigh over 9kg can be put in a forward facing seat. But by basing the decision on the weight of the child could mean that some parents put children in front facing seats to early, as young as 9 months old.
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.
This could lead to some serious neck and back injuries in the event of an accident. The new rules will make it mandatory to keep children in rear facing seats until the age of 15 months which will make it easier for parents to select the right seat.
The new regulations will also require the seats to be tested more rigorously and will now also include a side impact test to provide more protection for the baby’s head in the event of an accident.
Whilst the new rules will gradually be phased in the old seats built to the current regulations can be used till 2018 when the current rules will cease and be replaced by i-Size. Anything that makes our children and grand children safer in cars has my support.
Saturday, 3. August 2013
Car Radio (Photo credit: nedrichards)
You know when you are on your computer and you start searching for holidays then by the magic of technology every time you open a page or carry out a search for something else you suddenly see holiday ads flash in front of you on the screen?
Well the same is about to happen on your radio. Instead of hearing general ads during programmes you will start to hear targeted ads.
Known as Aha Radio they say that instead of you hearing an ad for We Buy Any Car.Com you could hear we’ll buy your car for £8,900 based on your car being a 2007 BMW 320d with 80,000 miles on the clock, which of course is your car.
The new radio is in fact an Internet platform that will be bundled into infotainment systems in new cars from Porsche, Mazda and Ford so far. Their aim is to target the customers as they do on the Internet rather than scattergun.
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 ad breaks will be tailored based on the car you are driving, where you are going and where you are. For example it will detect that you are about to pass a branch of Starbucks and alert you to any deals going on at the time.
Safety experts might have something to say about this as it might prove to be a major distraction. A clever idea though. By Graham Hill Car Finance
Friday, 2. August 2013
English: 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car at the 2011 Washington Auto Show (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Google led the way in the US by gaining permission to test their driverless cars on public roads. We are now about to follow suit with the Government giving permission for driverless cars to be tested on public roads in the UK, preferably somewhere in the North as I live in the Sarf.
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.
Researchers at Oxford University have been co-developing autonomous car tech with Nissan for some time and have already tested a prototype based on a Leaf (that’s their electric car not something hanging off a tree) on private roads and test tracks.
The announcement means that they will be able to carry out more extensive tests on quiet rural and suburban roads although to begin with they will have to test with a back-up driver as a safety precaution. By Graham Hill Car Finance
Friday, 2. August 2013
Highways Agency Traffic Officers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It would seem that the Government is being a little bit sly. There is a bit of a hole into which the Government is going to have to pour a ton of cash before too long. In fact there isn’t just one hole there are thousands of them and not just any hole but pot holes.
It is a real headache for the Government but it will have to be addressed if the whole of the roads infrastructure isn’t to come to a halt or it causes a major catastrophe. The Government seems to have a solution because many of the delays don’t seem to be the lack of funds but unworkable civil service rules.
So Stephen Hammond, Transport Minister, announced that the Highways Agency will become a publically owned corporation. This move will free it from red tape and ensure funding going forward.
As a publically owned company it can be scrutinised more effectively. It can also offer better incentives to staff. The move is part of £28bn funding for UK roads and accounts for 8 years of funding up to 2021 ensuring at least 6 years of financial certainty.
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.
In the past funding has been on an annual basis, not good for making plans into the future, so this will allow them to plan ahead. The funding will also be protected against future governments wanting to cut this allocation.
There are fears that this could ultimately lead to the further privatisation of the Highways Agency and eventually lead to toll roads and other road charges so we need to keep an eye on this one!
Oh and in order to sort out the pot holes £12bn of the funding is set aside for re-surfacing and maintenance, half of which will be spent on Motorways and A Roads. It sounds good but as always the proof is in the eating. By Graham Hill Car Finance
Thursday, 1. August 2013
Peugeot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If the financial problems weren’t enough it would seem that Citroen and Peugeot need to sort their cars out, or more importantly their electrics, according to a new report prepared by BBA Reman – a specialist in remanufacturing problematic electrical components (no I don’t know what that means either), based in Rochester, Kent.
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.
They say that they dealt with more Citroens than any other make of car among its 43,500 UK customers. The most common fault was within the ECU’s fitted mainly to C4’s and C5’s.
The same issue caused Peugeot to fall into 2nd place with the same problem occurring in 206, 307 and 407. Whilst some would say that this isn’t surprising given the difficulties faced by the manufacturers, they may be surprised to learn that contrary to belief that Germans are the most reliable VW and Audi were 3rd and 4th respectively. Maybe a bit of a wakeup call there! By Graham Hill Car Finance
Wednesday, 31. July 2013
Now I know this will cause you to roll about the floor in fits of hysterics but I actually have a soft spot for French cars. No seriously – it’s true. They tend to be ultra comfy, have lots of gadgets and occasionally look a little bit tasty/different.
I remember a Renault 25 V6i that I had years ago. At the time Renault were consistently winning the touring car championship and supplied many of the F1 engines but more than the fact that the engineering was amazing it actually had a graphic equaliser built into the centre console! How brilliant was that? And with seats thicker than the average armchair it was a delight to drive.
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.
So I was unhappy to read that the French manufacturers are struggling badly. As was recently reported PSA Peugeot Citroen’s finances are in a mess. The group is ‘burning’ 200 million Euros (£172m) every month and sales are not strong. The French Government has already loaned the group 7 billion Euros (£6.03bn) and are now represented on the board but long term the group needs a new industrial and financial partner.
GM has a 7% stake but is showing no appetite to invest further. Rumours obviously involve China with a hot favourite DongFeng (no I haven’t either), but there has been no official comment. In the meantime PSA will continue to bounce along with a grave lack of direction. I for one hope they turn things around. By Graham Hill Car Finance
Tuesday, 30. July 2013
English: No Parking Minster Yard Double Yellow Lines or a worn single. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Eric Pickles MP, Conservative Party Conference, 30 September 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That very cheery Conservative, Eric Pickles MP has a great idea – according to him. He is about to re-invigorate the high street and by doing so annoy the Lib Dem’s and win the next general election.
His proposal, not quite thought through yet, is to allow vehicles to legally park on certain double yellow lines from 5-15 minutes before they receive a fine, clamp or are towed away.
Now for those like Eric and I who are a little on the portly side, being able to nip out from the car and buy a diet Coke and low fat packet of crisps without a warden slapping a ticket on the windscreen would of course be a Godsend. Not least it would save the walk from the multi-story to the shop expending energy unnecessarily, who needs it?
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.
But as much as it appeals I have to say Eric, I think it will be a disaster. Selecting the places where parking will be allowed will be a nightmare as will the policing of it. Assuming of course that the double yellows were put there for a reason in the first place, i.e. to keep traffic flowing, it could cause gridlock or be dangerous for pedestrians.
As for winning the election Eric, I can’t imagine queues at the ballot box waiting to stick their cross in the Tory box in order to get double yellow line parking. Nice try though! By Graham Hill Car Finance
