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Fears are growing regarding the safety of cars on our roads as drivers put off service and maintenance work in order to save some money during the recession. There has also been an increase in employees either asking to be put on a cash for cars scheme or for their employers to introduce a scheme. It is felt the motives are purely financial with employees looking to downsize their car and pocket what equates to an Read more »

After a year of successful growth in used car prices we are now starting to see prices level and, in some cases, slightly fall in auction. With fewer new car registrations, a reduction in rental car fleets and cars being scrapped the supply chain of used cars reduced significantly through the year. Businesses started to buy used cars instead of new as well as hold onto their lease cars by extending contracts turning the Read more »

A reader of What Car, Carey Trewavas, wrote in to effectively confirm something I have been warning about since the recession started. He arranged to lease a car through a broker, known as Auto Dealer Direct. In August he sent a bankers draft for £2,511 as his deposit payment on the Audi A5 that he ordered. Since then he hasn’t been able to contact Auto Dealer Direct by phone, email or letter. According to What Read more »

It was earlier this year when I warned that money was tight in the vehicle finance sector that would mean only the squeakiest of clean business would be written. In some instances I heard that acceptances were down to just 20% of applicants, not because the vast majority of applicants were poor credit risks but available funds meant this was the maximum number of applicants that could be accepted. Many Read more »

Over the last few months we have seen a great deal of activity in dealerships offering a greater variety of finance products to customers. Manufacturer provided finance facilities are offered through ‘captives’ that are either funded by the manufacturer or through a major finance provider. The funder provides the facilities on documents printed in the name of the manufacturer. As a result of increased competitiveness Read more »

Fraud, miss-selling and malpractice cases have been on the increase during the recession causing a serious re-think about the regulation of the motor finance industry. In the meantime brokers are strongly advised to provide warnings to customers about the dangers of signing a legally binding contract without reading and understanding the terms and naively basing the decision to take finance on rate or APR alone. I Read more »

It wasn’t that long ago when you could return a car at the end of a lease in pretty average condition and the leasing company would overlook anything other than serious damage. These days they send out specialist inspectors to check over the car and seem to charge for anything that doesn’t conform to showroom condition, in one case they counted the number of stone chips on the bonnet and argued that there were Read more »

Warnings about stone chips have been issued as we move into winter. With local authorities operating on reduced budgets more roads will remain unrepaired as frost causes pot holes to appear. So when the roads start to get gritted, causing the usual stone chips on windscreens, drivers have been warned to have the chip repaired rather than run the risk of hitting a pot hole which can often result in an instant crack. Don’t forget Read more »

The importance of using a broker rather than a bucket shop for lease cars has been highlighted again this week following the consolidation of the leasing industry. Where your lease provider may have been merged or taken over by another provider you may find yourself subjected to end of lease charges that you may not have received by the original provider who may have been fairly relaxed about defleet recharges. Read more »

It has been estimated that there are in excess of 1 million businesses in the UK considered to be running ‘small fleets’ of company vehicles (25 or less). It would seem that the vast majority of these businesses don’t see themselves as running a ‘fleet’ of vehicles but they should be aware that the same rules and regulations regarding duty of care, health and safety and the Corporate Manslaughter Act along with Read more »