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What do you think the main reason is for having a row in a car? Halfords surveyed those that were on their mailing list and two thirds responded and admitted that it was poor navigation or the getting lost that led to the worst rows. Whilst 80% of women argued that it was the lack of planning by their partners that led to the row the same point was argued by 65% of men. The second biggest cause was the continuing Read more »

If you are a regular reader of my articles and newsletter you will know how I bang on about the benefits of the Electronic Safety Control (ESC or also called ESP). Car testers EuroNCAP say that all cars should be fitted with ESC now without waiting till they are legally obliged to do so. Only 60% of new cars are fitted with ESC compared to 99% in Sweden, 80% in Germany and 72% in Spain. If ESC isn’t fitted as standard on Read more »

Warnings have come out again from the AA who have reported a 6% increase in callouts for miss-fuelling during the first 6 months of 2010. It all seemed to have settled down last year as filling stations made sure that pumps were more clearly marked and manufacturers made it more obvious as to what fuel needed to be pumped into the tank. But for no apparent reason we have suddenly had this increase. The AA Read more »

If you have a fairly recent BMW you will need to keep an eye out for low flying birds using your car as a toilet! There has been a lot of publicity recently about lime damage caused to BMW paintwork because of lime in the pooh, according to BMW. They go on to say that they will not pay for any re-sprays as a result of damage caused by bird’s mess as the damage is caused ‘as a result of outside influence’. Not good Read more »

My gadget of the week is a 5 second jump start that is capable of charging up a flat battery in 5 – 8 seconds, enough to get the car started. If it doesn’t the manufacturer, Powertraveller, claims that a further 10 – 15 minute charge should do the trick. In 2009 there were a total of 1,084,150 callouts to emergency services to revive flat batteries, that’s two a minute! This handy new product can be stored in the glovebox Read more »

The renowned Graham Hill car review of the week looks at the new Mercedes CL Coupe, one of the last cars to be given a much needed makeover. We had a really cheap deal on some CL 500’s about 2 years ago which caused a massive stir and lots of enquiries so it just shows that what some saw as a bit of a relic still has some life in it and improved immensely by the makeover. The CL 500 is the 2dr coupe version Read more »

We all understand that we need to replace vehicles driven by fossil fuels with alternatives as we are running out, that’s a fact. The answer certainly seems to be electric vehicles as we can create electricity from natural renewable sources such as wind, light and sea movement so we can see the benefits of developing this technology. Something that was understood by the government when it was labour led who Read more »

Whilst I’ve been warning about long lead times for months now the industry has warned those that lease their cars to make arrangements earlier to replace their cars as some leasing companies are proving to be very inflexible with regard to lease extensions unless you are replacing your current car with another of the same make, especially where a captive funder has been used. Worst at the moment are VW Read more »

There’s all sorts of confusion about the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% next January. The increase affects vehicles in different ways. If, as a business, you buy a car outright you cannot claim back any VAT at all, there is a 100% block. Even if the car is a pool car and only available for use by employees for occasional personal use (and not necessarily used by them) the 100% block will be applied. Even if an employee Read more »

How’s your breathing, do you suffer with hay fever? Well if your breathing has been affected recently it may not have been because of pollen. It seems that the European Commission has been threatening Britain with legal action for allowing more unhealthy PM10 particulate matter airborne pollution than permitted under EU legislation. Transport is a key source of PM10 pollutants. As a result the UK has been given 2 Read more »