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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 »

Who are EuroNCAP? Do you know? Well it turns out that far too few people do so they are on a mission to become more visible. They are a group formed in 1997 by the Transport Research Laboratory and they are the organisation that crash tests every new car to award it safety stars from the driver’s perspective, passenger perspective and pedestrian perspective. Over the years many companies have insisted upon Read more »

A warning from Warranty Direct suggests that turbo charged engines are more likely to break down than non turbo charged. Around 11% of their customers suffer an engine failure with a typical repair cost of £619 but turbo charged engines have a failure rate of  28% with an average repair cost of £875, worth considering if you are thinking about buying a used car. Don’t forget that most diesel engines, especially those fitted in larger cars, are turbo charged. By Graham Hill

Great news, Ford are dropping their prices! Hopefully this is just the start and we will see other manufacturers joining the party and we will start to see some lease rate drops! But hang on a minute, whilst they have dropped the price of some models by 10% – 12% isn’t this coinciding with the end of the scrappage scheme? I noticed a trend last year of manufacturers increasing their prices at a time of virtually Read more »

Calls have been made for more information regarding driving abroad to be more easily available. As I have reported previously countries have different rules regarding insurance, breakdown cover, warning triangles, emergency fluorescent jackets, replacement light bulbs and first aid kits. But there are other rules regarding drink driving, speeding and parking that could result in some very heavy fines and even Read more »

The new road fund licence rules come into force on the 1^st April. For some it is good news as those with low emission cars will see the cost of their RFL or road tax reduced, in some cases to zero, but a big row has broken out because drivers have to renew before the 1^st April to ensure that the car is taxed at all times but because the DVLA was having a cup of tea they couldn’t be arsed to change their computer Read more »

The recent major recall by Toyota, as a result of their brake and accelerator problems, has given rise to some knee jerk reactions amongst drivers when they now receive recall notices. As I recently pointed out, recalls are fairly common but not all faults that are in need of attention are life threatening so there is no need to stop using the car and start taking the bus to work the moment a recall notice arrives in Read more »

A few months ago I announced proposed changes to insurance claims procedures that should speed up undisputed insurance claims. The good news is that the new rules come into effect from April 30^th. The new rules should speed up payout and reduce legal costs on personal injury claims between £1,000 and £10,000 resulting from a motor accident. This covers around 80% of all personal injury claims so good Read more »

It’s bad enough trying to run a small business during a recession whilst at the same time ensuring that you don’t accidentally breach employment, health and safety, consumer etc. laws that could land you in all sorts of trouble. In the current climate its not unusual for small businesses to come to an arrangement with employees to use their own cars, rather than go to the expense of providing a company car, for Read more »

The OFT has hit out at used car dealers, who they claim are letting customers down and not taking their legal responsibilities seriously. They are saying that more needs to be done to make customers aware of their legal rights and dealers aware of their legal responsibilities. Dealers are avoiding their responsibility to have vehicles checked prior to sale or to fix problems when pointed out by customers. Following a Read more »