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Diesel car sales are exactly the same as they have been since the beginning of the year. That’s my experience however if you believe press reports diesel and petrol car sales swing backwards and forwards like a pendulum. A couple of weeks ago when fuel reached its all time high the press reported the bottom falling out of the diesel market and everyone immediately turning to petrol. According to my sales and enquiries diesel demand was just as strong. A couple of weeks later and an unexpected drop in fuel prices sees Read more »

One in five of all reported road incidents involves a parked vehicle. There are 700,000 incidents costing an estimated £1.25 billion to repair. About 80% of the parked car incidents (PCI‘s) occurred on the street. The remainder were in public car parks. The cost of repair averaged £1,800. London topped the list of worst cities in the UK for PCI’s followed by Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Norwich. One in 10 PCI crashes handled by Accident Exchange were recorded in the capital. Main contributing factors to the PCI problems are increased congestion on residential streets and competition for car park spaces. The real fear is that with more information available identifying hot spots the insurance companies may increase premiums so much that residents are priced out of insuring their vehicles. By Graham Hill

As the credit crunch bites harder funders and brokers/intermediaries fight each other for the lowest rates on the Internet to encourage you to use them, sometimes as a result of lying and conning. So now is the time to be very very careful as to which company you use to provide your car if you want to avoid problems in the future. Probably the most important fact to be aware of is that the person you place your business with on the Internet is not working for the funder or the dealer – he is actually working for Read more »

BMW Financial Services have warned about an increase in lease scams whereby cars are obtained illegally by the scammers then sub leased to innocent third parties. One such fraudulent act included the customer signing the documents of a well known finance company and a seperate direct debit form which paid money straight into the scammer’s account and not the contract hirer’s account. The scammer made no payments for the car and disappeared whilst the driver continued Read more »

Last year saw the lowest number of road deaths since records began 80 years ago. The Department for Transport revealed that deaths fell by 7% last year from 3,172 to 2,943 despite indications that levels of traffic rose. Road deaths have been slowly dropping year on year but last year saw the biggest drop over recent years. In 2007 car driver and passenger deaths dropped by 11% and the number of seriously injured and other casualties dropped by 9% and 6% respectively. Whilst the latest drop was welcomed by the RAC Foundation and RoSPA  both organisations warned against complacency. Whilst the figures have dropped significantly there are still thousands dying on our roads each year. By Graham Hill

Warnings have been issued by Specsavers Corporate Eyecare regarding the lack of eye tests being insisted upon by employers. They recommend that all employees that drive a car as part of their job should have their eyes tested every year and at worst every other year, if not this lack of management could lead to prosecution of the employer in the event of a fatal injury. Their investigation found that 84% of employers recognised the need for Read more »

Sheilas’ Wheels have reported that more than three quarters of female motorists drive while hungry even though nearly half say that driving whilst hungry causes a loss of concentration. For 40% they say that feeling hungry increases their tiredness on the road. When asked why they drive whilst hungry the general response was it ‘slips my mind’ so the message must be if you want to be safe in a car with a woman driver listen out for the danger sounds, not tyres squeeling or knocks coming from the engine but a rumbling tummy and take a bag of chocolate to fix the problem. By Graham Hill

News from the US is worrying as Chrysler Finance make the first move to distance themselves from leasing by refusing to extend their lease business as a result of increased money costs and plunging residual values of their gas guzzlers. GMAC and Ford Motor Credit are likely to follow suit by reducing the amount of lease business they write. The projections are that other funders will follow their lead. This will have a dramatic effect on the market in the US as leasing accounts for 26% of auto car sales. Will this have an effect in the UK? Read more »

Researchers from the University of Alabama have proven that every cloud has a silver lining. We are all moaning like mad about rocketing fuel costs but the researchers have claimed a direct correlation between increasing fuel costs and decreasing road deaths as people look to save fuel by driving slower or not driving at all. The study showed that if petrol remained at $4 a gallon or higher, for a year or more, traffic deaths would drop by 1,000 every month across the country. Co-Author Michael Morrisy said Read more »

When I first started driving I drove an Austin Nash-Metropolitan, a rather cool car with a bench seat, column gearchange, low slung windows that you could really lean out of and wait for it – a built in valve radio that could pick up the pirates a treat although it did take a trip of more than 20 minutes to warm up! I could snuggle up to the latest squeeze whilst driving with my right arm nearly scraping the road whilst squeeling round corners on two remoulds a cross ply and a radial (Pirelli – naturally) having been to a disco and drunk to the point of being probably twice the legal drink drive limit by today’s standards then believing that I could drive at Read more »