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Now here’s a funny story! There has been a lot of  criticism over the way that companies encourage their staff to use their own car (known as the grey fleet) for business use. There are many health and safety implications but the criticism has been aimed at companies that don’t vet the vehicles that are being used and are taking a cavalier attitude towards the environment and the way that they are happy for their Read more »

Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions have warned drivers to ensure that they don’t risk their lives and the lives of others by missing services on cars. In a study carried out by Ford it was shown that 15% of Britons miss out a service in order to save money during this recession whilst 18% don’t have breakdown cover. The biggest culprits are the 18-24 age group who miss services with over a third not having a breakdown Read more »

Considering the particularly bad winter that we suffered there are suggestions that we should follow other European countries and introduce winter tyres. Whilst not wishing to go the compulsory route it has been suggested that we should adopt the Dutch system of making winter tyres widely available. After making the tyres available about 10 years ago it is understood that about 50% of drivers switch each winter. Read more »

There have been a lot of hurrah’s and yippees as Ford have dropped their list prices by up to 12% on many models in their range. Obviously it passed everyone by that in fact they increased their prices by 15.1% last year when inflation was bouncing along at a little over 0%. In fact the actual increase imposed by Ford was higher than 15.1% as the increases took place in 4 chunks and I’ve disregarded the Read more »

There is something I feel guilty about as a broker and that is test drives. Customers need to test drive a car before they take them from me but we are unable, as we used to do years ago, to arrange for a car to be sent to the client from the manufacturer for him to test drive. So the client has to visit a dealer knowing that the car won’t be supplied by him, as we have volume arrangements with specific dealers or the Read more »

I am grateful to Jo Tacon, Editor of the journal Motor Finance for which I write a regular (and clearly the most popular) column. Jo forwarded a couple of articles that appeared in the Sun newspaper, written by Kelvin MacKenzie. In the articles he complains about the end of contract charges imposed upon him by Mercedes Benz Finance (MBF) after returning his end of lease car. The charge was £1,800 and I Read more »

Carsite, the online reseller of ex lease cars, has used their experience gained over the last few years to identify the top 10 contributors to a sharp intake of breath from the car dealer, when you part exchange your car, which results in much less being offered for you car than would have been otherwise. They have even suggested what the dealer is likely to knock off his offer as a result. Some things are damage items such Read more »

More people are taking cars on lease as it saves money and improves cash flow. They are also wising up to the fact that cars have to be returned in a ‘reasonable’ condition which means any damage should be repaired or you could face some serious refurbishment charges if the leasing company assesses the work when the vehicle is returned. As a result many are turning to the cheapest alternative and that is the Read more »