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Tyres are on the move! Increasing in cost that is. The sudden jump in the cost of crude oil last year followed by the drop in value of sterling resulted in a continued increase in the cost of the raw materials that are used to manufacture tyres. This has meant that prices increased by 20% over recent months with the industry warning that prices will rise even further during 2009. Kwik Fit Fleet say they are expecting some Read more »

If you are still one of those that likes to own a car but is worried by the loss in depreciation – if you are then don’t buy a Maybach 62 which is reported by trade valuers Parkers to have lost £128,899 during 2008. However, downsizing and demand for city cars has kept used prices of smaller cars high producing the lowest cash losses in 2008. You should therefore ditch the Maybach, Bentley or Aston and replace with one of the following: Read more »

Fraud and forgery crime increased by 16% in the 3^rd quarter of last year blamed on the credit crunch. Attention has been drawn towards brokers that arrange mortgages and finance as some of the main culprits helped along by the increasing acceptance of the Internet. As I recently reported things are getting tough for most of us involved in the finance industry and as happened in the last recession desperation Read more »

My advice when applying for finance is make sure you check your credit file and sort out any errors. If you went through a difficult patch, divorce, redundancy, death in the family etc. and things are fine now make sure that you put that information on your credit file (as explained in my book ‘An Insider Guide To Car Finance’) by entering a Notice of Correction, this also applies if you think that an error has Read more »

Three times this week I have had discussions about APR for absolutely no reason. The bottom line question to be asked about any finance arrangement is how much will it cost and can I afford it? I am completing a book listing over 40 ways to fund a car and I point out at the very beginning that APR is not important in many cases. I have compared an HP agreement with a PCP the latter of which has a higher APR but Read more »

It looks as though things are happening to make it easier and cheaper to park in our towns and cities although hopefully we won’t be following the French who have a much greater problem with parking than we do. So they are introducing intelligent parking meters linked to the parking bays. The clever French get the meters to assess whether a driver has exceeded his allotted time and if so an alert is sent to the Read more »

Underwriting is becoming a bit of a nightmare with lenders seemingly running out of money. It’s all very frustrating as I have loads of enquiries and proposals but far too many are being declined for credit, a situation that will only get worse. Applicants need to take more care over their credit and avoid any adverse or suffer the very severe consequences. Also consider the amount you are prepared to pay up front Read more »

There appears to be a bit of a shake up in  the way that cars are insured. Where companies allow drivers to use their own cars for company business it is being suggested that the companies now take out company policies that include the cars owned by the employees in order to ensure that all cars used for company business are adequately covered. There are also proposals to introduce Read more »

So what do we think of the Mandelson bailout? Frankly not a lot although time will tell. The problem with all these packages seems to be that they get to the point of understanding the problems and seeking a solution but they don’t seem to then tell those to whom they are giving the money how they want it used. They gave money to the banks and told them to start lending again but they didn’t tell them when, how much 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