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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 »

Government figures show that up to 1 million scrapped cars are still being driven on the road. Whilst 2 million motorists told the DVLA that their cars were being destroyed only half were issued with a Certificate of Destruction, the proof that a car has been destroyed. Dodgy dismantlers have been exploiting a legislation loophole whereby the DVLA doesn’t need to see the Certificate before it registers a car as Read more »

Manheim, the large auction house and end of lease vehicle inspectors have identified over £12 million of end of lease damage charges over 90,000 inspections during 2009. 38% of the vehicles that were assessed had damage in excess of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association fair wear and tear guidelines resulting in an average charge of £350 per vehicle, up by 14% on 2008. Some of this was blamed on Read more »

This week I was going to open with an amazingly interesting piece about the Budget and the effect on the motorist and how we are going to have things a little easier than we had thought but that one was pretty much buggered 2 minutes after the Chancellor stood up. We’ve managed to get the fuel duty hike spread over the year and um er, that’s about it really. Oh no I think he mentioned something about Read more »

I know I seem obsessed with potholes at the moment but they are such a pain and costing motorists a fortune. The Germans came up with a solution in the village of Niederzimmern near Leipzig. They sold their potholes for 50 Euros which the council filled with asphalt and a metal plaque which carries the owner’s name or a tribute to a loved one. Of course not wishing to miss an opportunity the Brits are planning Read more »

A group of companies including Ricardo and Volvo Cars are working on new technology that will allow for road trains to be created whereby regular users of a motorway can lock onto each other forming a train of vehicles kept at a constant speed and distance enabling the drivers to get on with other things such as work and phone calls. Much of the technology is already available such as sat nav, distance sensors and Read more »

It would seem that companies are more environmentally aware than private motorists. According to statistics issued last year, as part of Fleet News Intelligence Report, and more recently backed up by information from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), average CO2 emissions from cars put onto fleet leases dropped from 149.9g/km to 144 g/km following a drop of 9 percentage Read more »