Sunday, 6. March 2011
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Drivers are travelling less miles according to figures issued by the Department for Transport for 2010. Provisional figures show that vehicle use is down by 3.3% since 2007 which means that we drove a massive 8.3 billion miles less last year. From 1993 to 2007 car use continued to rise peaking at 251 billion miles in 2007. However, 2010’s total of 242 billion car miles means that we are back to 2002 levels. If you include in the figures all vehicle types the total is 306.6 billion miles in 2010, also Read more »
Thursday, 3. March 2011
Garmin, manufacturer of sat nav’s has come up with a new device that will alert you via the sat nav if a car moves out of a pre-determined area acting as a tracking device. You can be alerted by text message or email. The new GTU 10 system can be self installed and self monitored. The kit links to any nuLink enabled Garman Sat Nav so you don’t have to be near your computer to check the units status. You can edit your preferences via your computer and view a history of where your car has Read more »
Sunday, 27. February 2011
Knowing what you are doing when it comes to car finance is so important. I know I bang on about it all the time but let me be quite clear if you guess and get it wrong it could end up costing you a fortune. In a recent edition of Auto Express a lady bought a 5 year old Mini Cooper S Convertible for £10,500 from a main dealer under the Cherished Car scheme. On her way home a warning light came on and the ABS cut in when it didn’t need to. Already a clear case of faulty goods. She returned to the Read more »
Wednesday, 29. December 2010
This year has been a bit of a struggle for many industry sectors but not so much for the motor industry. Following the scrappage scheme it was expected that the motor industry would contract and dealerships close, something I personally didn’t think would happen. In anticipation of a potential downturn the manufacturers started to scale down production in 2008/9, some would say too far, as virtually every new car drifted out to long delivery lead times as demand remained relatively high. This Read more »
Thursday, 16. December 2010
One of the most staggering things I reported recently was the running costs of used cars versus new cars, it was cheaper to run a new car than a used car. Now to add to the pain of used car motoring, statistics from secondary warranty suppler, Warranty Direct, shows that one in three repairs carried out on cars from 3 years old to seven years old is as a result of wear and tear. The small print in most of these warranty policies excludes such items so whilst motorists who take out these policies Read more »
Sunday, 12. December 2010
During many of my discussions and presentations it is often clear that those using vehicle finance or personal loans think that there is some sort of master format that means they don’t have to bother reading it. Those that may understand that this isn’t the case may ask which terms are important, the ones they need to read? Whether it is only necessary to understand the terms in a lease as opposed to a personal loan. The fact is that EVERY term in a contract is important and should be read and Read more »
Monday, 6. December 2010
If you were to have some major surgery, I’m sure you would need to know that the person carrying out the work was a qualified and capable surgeon with a history of successful operations. If not you may end up a paraplegic or worse still not survive the operation, so I’d say that it was quite important to feel confident that you are using a professional who is good at his job. On the other hand you may have a faulty gas appliance and need a repair carried out. Who would you call in to carry out the Read more »
Sunday, 28. November 2010
I know it’s a subject I talk about a lot but as we run up to Christmas I’m onto drink driving. It was shocking reading for the Government, about to launch their Christmas campaign, that one in four drivers admit to drink driving recently. The survey was carried out on behalf of insurer Quinn Direct but the real shock was that nearly 80% of under 24’s said they had never driven under the influence of alcohol whilst 25% of the over 55’s admitted to driving whilst over the limit. 31% of men admitted to Read more »
Saturday, 27. November 2010
There was a programme on the BBC on Thursday 25th November called Rip-off Britain. In the first part a couple bought a used car that broke down within a few miles of driving it off the forecourt. This is clearly wrong and the buyer was entitled to his money back but it seemed that lack of assistance from Trading Standards meant that the buyer accepted what the dealer said and sold the car on at a loss. It’s a disgrace. The RMIF representative stated that there are 9 million used cars changing hands Read more »
Monday, 22. November 2010
Not only is my blog still number one in the world on Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN, Ask Jeeves and AOL when you search on the expression ‘car finance blog’ (on Google I am number one out of 77 million I’ve now found that I am 27th in the world on Yahoo if you search the expression ‘finance blog’ out of 1.6 billion. Not bad eh!