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If you see a car you like, now is not a good time to wait to see if the rate improves. With some Audi’s now having a delivery lead time quoted at 26 weeks there is far from an over supply out there. It now seems that the ‘bible’ used by leasing companies to predict future car values, CAP, may be as much as 10% adrift in its valuations which is likely to lead to some re-alignment of rates quoted by the leasing companies. Read more »

We recently had the Mercedes C63 AMG on offer. If you had ordered a car, which is partly hand built, it would have taken Mercedes about 10 weeks to get the car built and delivered to you. But in one of the worst examples of long delivery of a standard car one dealer recently quoted 20 weeks to deliver a standard VW Polo. This is partly because this particular dealer had used up his allocation but even dealers with Read more »

 Contract hire is still by far the most popular method used to finance vehicles according to members of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association. Contract hire of cars has remained pretty static over the last 5 years, consistently hovering around 1.3 million mark. LCV’s (vans) have dropped slightly over the years from 180,000 to 176,000. Contract purchase and personal contract purchase have both dipped over the last year. So it seems that businesses and consumers continue to understand the benefits of contract hire, long may it continue. By Graham Hill

I was sitting outside a dealership a few days ago and saw something happening that I felt I should bring to your attention. I’ve raised this before and told the full story in my book, An Insider Guide To Car Finance. In my book I explain that a friend of mine was working in the reception of a very large main dealer and told me about a practice that she had part witnessed and been told about by staff that absolutely amazed me. In her dealership they were Read more »

Now here’s a strange fact! When it comes to new cars the most popular colour constantly flips between black and silver with, strangely enough, white coming up on the inside rails. Who ever thought that white would ever make a return as one of the most popular colours for new cars, what next – chocolate brown or possibly beige? Anyway, for years the most popular colour for used cars has apparently been blue, replaced in the first quarter of this year, according to Manheim auctions, by Read more »

The number of dealerships in the UK is dropping, as one would expect in a recession. The number of franchised dealerships 10 years ago stood at 6,139 but has now dropped to 5,077, a 17% loss. For those that are still trading this of course isn’t all bad news because it has meant that they have increased their average sales across all franchises from 442 in 1999 to the current level of 502. Less than 10 new cars per week per franchised dealer, that doesn’t seem a lot does it? By Graham Hill

More and more people that either bought or leased cars over the last two years are either holding onto their cars or extending their leases. Leasing companies have been encouraging extensions putting back the need to sell the end of lease car till as late as possible in the belief that used car prices will recover. But as I reported recently this drop in demand for new cars hasn’t led to a mass of unsold cars finding their way Read more »

It would seem that we are still waiting for some sort of bailout of the car finance sector in order to get people back into new cars but are the Government at risk of doing what they have done with banking and put the money in the hands of the wrong people. There are many lenders other than banks and they should have been helped before the banks who have simply bolstered up their balance sheets in preparation for Read more »

Things are looking a bit bleak in the motor trade over here but in the US they suffered a drop of 37.1% of new car sales last month over January 2008. However, whilst their sales are dramatically down to the levels of 1992 the sales have been steady for the last 4 months which has drawn the conclusion from the various experts and manufacturers across the pond that sales have bottomed out and are set to rise as we Read more »

Are you becoming green conscious? Many more people it would seem are taking the green issues into account when selecting their new cars so the Government has reacted by providing drivers with a tool that enables them to compare the green credentials of all cars. You can do this by visiting the following site: http://campaigns.direct.gov.uk/actonco2 I found it a bit slow to load but interesting once you’re there. By Graham Hill