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As you can imagine, in order to produce my weekly newsletter and my blog I carry out a lot of research. The information I receive comes from a number of sources leaving me to decide on the accuracy before I report it. Most of the time I feel quite happy with the information that I have and when I recently reported on the rip off price of diesel in Read more »

My review of a new car is going to be light of detail this week but I saw some pictures of the car in question and it looked a vast improvement on the old model. I’m talking about the Mercedes A Class that looked a bit too much like a small MPV and if you remember, when it was launched, if you drove it reasonably hard round a bend it fell over. The Read more »

Have you heard of the Environmental Audit Committee? Me neither but they appear to be a group of nutty MP’s who probably drink soya milk and breed chickens. They certainly aren’t part of the real world as their report proves! They have this great idea that motorists should foot the bill for public transport. In turn this has outraged the Taxpayers’ Read more »

On the question of economy Auto Express carried out a test to see what the real effect would be of driving a car faster over the same distance. They carried out the test using a Renault Megane Sport Tourer 2.0l diesel. They covered a distance of 70 miles on the Longcross Proving Ground in Surrey. They used this 2 mile circuit as it allowed them to set Read more »

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My gadget of the week is in fact an additive of the week. With fuel costs increasing daily (well it seems that way) a few additives have entered the market claiming to improve your car’s performance, improve fuel consumption and reduce CO2 output. One of these is called Mergi and is described by the manufacturer as ‘Magic in a bottle and helps you get Read more »

Even without the full increase in fuel duty we are seeing a constant increase in fuel cost. Petrol rose by 23% (21 pence per litre) last year whilst diesel increased by 13% (13 pence per litre) and we have already seen fuel increase by about 8 pence per litre this year. On average petrol increased every 2 weeks and as the increase was spread over the year it hasn’t led to serious discontent. But with fuel set to rise Read more »

A recent report in Fleet News has revealed that the EU is planning a new carbon tax on all motor fuel. This would add a further tax to VAT and fuel duty already charged. Thomas Carroll, the EU’s taxation directorate general, told a recent meeting of European accountants that the new commission could review the EU’s 2003 energy taxation directive as early as the New Year. The draft proposals insist that excise duties Read more »

As with anything ecological there are some strong views when it comes to the debate on battery powered cars. The Labour Government believes that battery power is the way to go and is offering a £5,000 subsidy per battery powered car from 2011. This will cost £230 million but according to experts in the motor industry the future depends totally upon the ability of the battery manufacturers to develop batteries 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 »

As cars become more efficient and manufacturers strive to avoid huge fines that will be imposed upon them by the EU if they don’t hit the CO2 reduction targets set, VW announces its first car to achieve zero VED status (that’s zero car tax to you and me). The new model which is based on the Golf 1.6TDi S 105bhp has the Blue Motion features and includes stop/start system, regenerative braking, longer gear ratios, low Read more »