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Every year traffic wardens, now known as civil enforcement officers, issue close to £1 billion of parking tickets. The Freight Transport Association (FTA) claim that additional administration charges add a further £100 million. However, Neil Herron, founder of parkingticketsappeals.co.uk, says that before local authorities issue parking tickets they should get their own house in order. But far too Read more »

The old question of which car to choose has risen its head again as diesel has now been roughly on par with the cost of petrol for months now compared to a year ago when the difference was 13pence per litre. Whether petrol has increased to meet the cost of diesel or vice versa we’re not sure but with better fuel consumption one would assume that diesel would be more popular, however, petrol engines have been vastly Read more »

There has been a surge in companies offering services that will help you to legally get you out of HP agreements and personal loans. One strategy has been to request a copy of your agreement and a statement of your account. In certain circumstances if the lender fails to provide you with either piece of information, in the past, under section 61 and 127 of the Consumer Credit Act, the contract was deemed Read more »

We tend to be pretty reactionary when it comes to the way we act in our day to day lives. We hear that there has been an increase in paedophile activity in public parks so we keep a closer eye on our children when taking them out or even stop the kids from going out at all. Hear that Swine Flu will become a pandemic and we rush out to get vaccinated – and rightly so. So when we hear that road injuries sustained Read more »

It would seem that some of the carbon friendly effects of the recession are better management of family vehicles and in many cases a reduction in the number of vehicles being driven by the family. Added to which many employees are opting for cash for cars in place of the old company car scheme, effectively seen as increasing their income, as they now use the family car which they had anyway and was Read more »

Brokers don’t work for the leasing companies, they actually work for their clients, in the same way as an accountant or a solicitor does but without the need for a qualification, just a Consumer Credit Licence, which can be obtained fairly easily if the program about loan sharks aired by BBC’s Panorama is anything to go by. When I started as a broker, many years ago, the situation was the same, we worked for our Read more »

The first ever UK parking summit has recently been held to discuss the growing problems faced by motorists whose cars have been clamped by cowboy clampers operating on private land. The summit was attended by parking firms, minsters and motoring groups. The AA called for tougher laws to be introduced. Edmund King, president of the AA, said that it cannot be just for there to be no independent appeal against a Read more »

As all of my readers know I treat manufacturers, dealers and lenders with the greatest of respect and don’t go out of my way to make them look daft. I don’t need to as they normally manage that quite adequately themselves without my help. But then I read an item about BMW who are now entering the short term rental market because their fleet sales are down. Now for a prestige manufacturer to enter the short

 term rental  market it smacks of desperation as they have to give away around 30% or more discount and bonus in the cars. Whilst they are off doing that Mercedes are wiping the floor with them with C Class sales via dealerships in association with brokers who are offered special terms. It wouldn’t take much research to identify this potential opportunity. In the meantime BMW are offering cars to an accident management company who offer like with like cars to those whose cars are in being repaired following an accident. BMW sales director Sean Green has pointed out that ‘It is a conquest opportunity for us’, ‘This is an area we hadn’t looked at in the past and are now putting our toe in the water.’ Now I have my daft moments but one would assume that if your car is being repaired the person using the BMW, whilst it is being repaired, will not be placing an order as soon as it arrives out of a body repair shop. In addition the cars supplied on a like for like basis will mean that many drivers already drive a BMW. In the meantime, my brother in law who wanted to replace his BMW with another was looking at a £100 per month increase, so took an alternative car and others that want to drive a BMW are now driving Mercedes as a result of them passing on bonuses through leasing to drivers who are looking for a car NOW! That’s conquest business, not waiting for someone who drove a BMW whilst his car was being repaired to decide on a BMW for his next car in a couple of years. Is it me? By Graham Hill

VAT is about to increase as of 1^st January 2010. This means that there are going to be some very strange things happening between now and the end of the year in order to entice you to part with your dosh well in advance of your new car being delivered. If you are buying a new car for cash, that won’t be delivered until early next year, you may want to pay for the car in December in order to save some of the VAT. It is Read more »

There are many stories bouncing around regarding end of lease charges from excess mileage charges that treble per mile if you exceed 10% overrun, eg. the excess charge per mile is set at 4 pence per mile if you exceed 3,000 miles on a 30,000 mile contract, thereafter increasing to 12 pence per mile, through to the leasing companies charging for re-repair of body repairs that they consider to be sub-standard even Read more »