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Following on from my previous blog post in which I was musing over the next steps to a cleaner environment. Maybe VW/Audi had the answer all along!

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Rather than fiddle the emission figures they have been working in the back room on a revival of the hydrogen fuel cell, something of which I’m a great supporter. According to their press releases the car will be more dynamic and more efficient than anything else in production.

The only thing they haven’t revealed is the bodystyle they will use to launch the new technology. Audi have produced hydrogen powered concept cars in the past as A2 and Q5 models and they have recently been showing off the A7 h-tron prototype which can power to 62mph in 7.9 seconds with a range of 300 miles.

Dr Rene Van Doom, powertrain engineer for fuel cell technology, confirmed that Audi has four major priorities for the immediate future, one of which is alternative drivetrains. He added that Audi were set to go into volume production with fuel cells as soon as the market and infrastructure justifies the move.

Their 10 year plan includes providing an electric alternative for every model in its range. With mild hybrid (whatever that is), plug in or hydrogen cell system. In 2016 a new 48 volt hybrid will be launched with an electric compressor to eliminate the annoying turbo lag and boosting efficiency by shutting down the engine when coasting.

If that wasn’t enough to put them ahead of the game again they are now working on electronic dampers that not only reduce body roll but they use the movement to regenerate kinetic energy to charge your mobile phone and air-con in the way that kinetic energy generated in hybrid cars recharges batteries. They claim that they can recuperate 150 watts meaning a CO2 saving of 3g/km. Amazing!

They also mentioned that they still understand the importance of internal combustion engines and will not neglect development of this technology. Good to hear! By Graham Hill

Following on from my views regarding the testing of driverless cars on public roads I’ve just read a piece on the likely changes to legislation that will be necessary. But before I get to that I have a couple of questions of my own. First of all what will be the eventual cost of one of these driverless cars?

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

We know that electric cars have been a dismal failure. Very few people have taken them, not least because when you replace a traditional engine with an electric motor and install a big battery it adds, on average, £10,000 to the cost of the car. So with all the technology needed to replace a driver will they cost circa £100,000 or am I missing something? And why?

Why do I want to be in the driver’s seat of a driverless car? I actually quite enjoy driving and although I am about to replace my current car with the same car but the latest model, I’m getting excited. Can’t see me getting excited over a car I won’t be driving, a bit like getting excited over getting in a taxi. Will they reduce congestion? No, if anything more cars will appear on the roads.

Will they make the roads safer? I don’t think so. Communism is a great concept with everyone being treated equally but it can’t work as long as human beings have desires, aspirations and the basic need to be better than the next bloke. And so with driverless cars, they will only make roads safer if every driver has one.

Many pundits have suggested that driverless cars will provide ‘full business mobility’. People will be able to hold meetings in cars and work as they travel from A to B. What a load of tosh! Have they not heard of public transport, airplanes and chauffeurs? Improve public transport, especially trains and make it possible to travel to London from just outside Brighton without having to stand all the way in a carriage that uses an open window as a means of air conditioning.

Moving on to legislation? Does entering into the car’s control system the data needed to calculate the destination and speed make you a ‘driver’ and do you therefore need a licence? As I understand it some cars will be ‘highly automated’ whilst others will be ‘fully automated’, will both require a driving licence or just the highly automated vehicles?

If you need a licence to drive a highly automated vehicle one must assume that you could be convicted if caught using a mobile phone, eating at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt. God forbid that you are caught drunk as a skunk in a driverless car, will you be convicted of drunk driving? For me the whole idea of driverless cars is a nonsense. But then I would have probably thought that you couldn’t improve on a horse and cart. I’ll get my coat! By Graham Hill

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• Driverless cars in California rack up four accidents since September (slashgear.com)

As most of my customers are aware you can now have your car serviced at any service or repair centre without the loss of the car’s warranty provided the work is in line with the conditions stipulated by the manufacturer.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Since this European rule, known as Block Exemption, was introduced in 2003 it has meant that anyone who buys a new car carrying a manufacturer’s warranty can have their car serviced and maintained at a non-franchised dealer, thereby saving a substantial amount of money.

However, when you lease a car and you are responsible for the servicing of the vehicle, can the leasing company insist that you only have the car serviced at a main dealer as this would be a contradiction of the regulations? Again, regular readers will know that most leasing companies are happy for you to have the car serviced at non franchised dealers provided the work is carried out in line with the manufacturer’s instructions using original or compatible parts.

But you need to check your contract as these things have a habit of changing without notice. Mercedes-Benz changed their rules a few years ago so that if you return a lease car (including PCP) and the service work has been carried out by a non authorised service/repair centre they will impose an end of lease charge, in some cases, over £1,000, even though the car has been serviced on time and even using Mercedes original parts.

I took some legal advice on this and was advised that whilst the car is owned by the finance company they can include terms relating to the service and maintenance of the car. So whilst they may be out of line with the rest of the leasing industry they are not acting, on the face of it, illegally, albeit that they are acting outside the spirit of the law.

But there are two issues on which they could justify their stance. The first is the quality of the work which Mercedes could argue would be of a lower standard if carried out by a service centre. I would argue this every day of the week having received some of the worst services ever when I have had a Mercedes serviced by a main dealer in the past.

On the other side of the coin a judge might argue that a customer should be free, in an open market, and given the Block Exemption law, to choose where the car is serviced – it is the whole point of the law to make it competitive and stop the protectionist approach that most manufacturers had used when insisting that their cars are serviced at a main dealer or lose your warranty before it changed in 2003.

The other argument could relate to resale value of the car when it is returned which they could argue would be less than if the car had not been serviced by a main dealer. However, they list a scale of charges which could suggest a penalty, which in these circumstances could be considered illegal.

If, through breach of contract, you were to cause the other party a loss they can not charge anything above their losses incurred. Having spoken to many trade buyers over the years most would not draw a distinction between a car that has ‘Full Service History’ and ‘Full Mercedes Benz Service History’ so it might be difficult to prove their case against a customer in front of a judge.

If you have been charged a ‘penalty’ by MB Finance and you are unhappy about it you could take out a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are a ‘consumer’. Putting MB Finance to one side the point of all this is that Halfords are about to launch an aggressive new campaign to take away a larger share of the £10 billion a year after care market from main dealers.

This comes on the back of the Auto Express Driver Power Survey in which a large number of dealer networks were criticised by drivers. Traditionally the Halfords target market has been 3 – 5 year old cars but the new approach will attract new to 3 year old car drivers looking to save up to 40% of the labour cost. They will be introducing new receptions that will look more like the pods you will see in an Apple store and they will offer a collect and return service.

The receptions will also have Wi-Fi facilities and you will even be able to watch your car being serviced on an iPad that they will provide for your use. So it may be worth considering Halfords for your next service but don’t forget to check your lease agreement first and don’t forget you can always negotiate with the main dealer before booking your car in for a service. By Graham Hill

If I was to sell you my used Vauxhall Astra and it had a badge on the back that suggested that it was a top of the range Elite when in fact it was an entry level Exclusiv, there wouldn’t be much you could do about it unless I had advertised it as a fully spec’d Elite. The same would apply if the car I was selling was a 2010 car but was 2009 model year spec. Exclusiv.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

The fact is that you can inspect the car and see that the car doesn’t have leather seats, electric rear windows or fog lights that were fitted on an Elite as standard when the car was new or the addition of fog lights and sat nav when the car changed from 2009 to 2010. You see exactly what you are getting so the basic rule of Caveat Emptor – buyer beware prevails.

Of course this isn’t the case with a new car that you don’t get to see before you buy it or lease it. With some cars changing model spec at least once if not twice every year you may not receive what you thought you had ordered. Especially as manufacturers will throw a few thousand pounds across the bonnet (that’s dealer speak for bonus) of the outgoing model in order to sell them quickly to make way for the new model coming out.

Whilst this represents great value for money (we currently have deals on top of the range outgoing Focus models) you may not be told that the cars on offer are not the new model cars. Some may be pre-registered whilst others may just be stockpiled so whilst I would be suspicious if the cars are pre-registered, suggesting old model cars, that may not be the case if they are unregistered.

If unregistered you might assume that the car you will receive will be the car advertised on the manufacturer’s web site with at best a different spec. at worst a completely new shape. Manufacturers will also advertise a new model maybe 2 months in advance of launch, again fooling you into thinking that the car you just ordered is the new model. So always check with the supplier that the car you have ordered is the car you want? Don’t simply be tempted by a cheap rate. By Graham Hill

There is a motor journalist who frequently bangs on about things that are of little or no importance causing the little hairs on the back of my neck to bristle. Not because they are all of no importance but often because I disagree with his views. I don’t want to give him any publicity through my blog or newsletter by mentioning his name but it’s Mike Rutherford.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

This time he is banging on about car manufacturers not telling buyers of their cars when and where their cars were ‘made’. He says that it is wrong for ‘German’ manufacturers not to tell you that the car you are buying was made on a certain date in South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Hungary or anywhere else.

He suggests that like a low-fat yoghurt cars should come with a tamper proof sticker showing its place of birth and date of birth. Good grief – what a doughnut. First of all does he think with the cost of stocking cars that they will be sitting around for any length of time before they are sold.

The days of Mercedes changing their design once every 5 years are gone. I have had notice today that Volvo are about to stop taking orders on 2014 and a half model year cars to replace with 2015 model year cars that will be available from April. I don’t know what Mr Rutherford thinks will be revealed but few cars sit around in stock for more than weeks, a couple of months at the most.

As for where the car was ‘manufactured’, firstly it wasn’t, it was assembled, mainly on fully automated production lines on equipment that was made by just one company to an exact design from the manufacturer and shipped around the world to wherever they can get the car assembled as cheaply as possible.

When it comes to the manufacturing process the car will be fitted with brakes made by Bosch, windscreens made by Pilkington, Tyres made by Goodyear, Lights made by Lucas and I have a customer in the UK who makes dashboards for about 5 different manufacturers.

So who gives a damn about where the cars are ‘manufactured’? Are you going to roll up to your Mercedes dealer to find that the brand new C Class that you are about to buy was built 3 months ago in Brazil and say ‘Don’t want that, have you one that was made in Germany yesterday please? Silly man! By Graham Hill

My first ever automatic was a big old Jaguar. It worked perfectly with just 3 forward gears, 1^st, 2^nd and Drive. Having just 3 gears wasn’t a problem, after all it was an automatic so after a while you didn’t even realise the car was changing gear.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Move on the lifetime of my children and my latest car, an E Class Mercedes has a silky smooth 7G,  7 speed automatic gearbox with paddle changes on the steering wheel for those that like to play at F1 racing drivers – in an E Class Mercedes – I know, I should grow up!

So I was surprised to read that the next E Class will come with a 9G, 9 gear automatic gearbox. The box will be launched in Europe later this year and in the UK next year. Mercedes say there is method in their madness as the new gearbox will reduce CO2 output and improve MPG but changing gear 8 times simply to get out of your garage seems a tad over the top to me – but what do I know?

If it means I contribute to the well being of Sussex and save money on fuel who am I to argue?

My gadget of the week is called Anti Sleep Pilot. It attaches magnetically to a 3M pad on your dashboard and consists of a small disc shaped device with light and audio monitors built in. The unit is powered by a single AAA battery and powers on automatically when attached to the dashboard. Mercedes now have an Attention Assist system built into Read more »

Insight Part 1: I’m often asked why there can be some incredible differences between the contract hire rental rates quoted by different companies advertising on the Internet. There is no simple answer to this question, in some respects it is not dissimilar to the answer that an insurance company would give as to why insurance premiums can be Read more »

Banks are lending less to leasing companies making life even more difficult for small businesses to secure funding. As of 31^st March 2011 lending to the leasing companies was down by 16% from £28.4 billions the previous year to £23.8 billions. Leasing is seen by many small businesses as an alternative way to fund their vehicles and equipment as Read more »

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April saw an increase in the sale of premium cars such as BMW and Audi. Whilst new car sales suffered during the month the premium brands all saw growth. The companies that showed growth included Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, BMW and Saab. Jaguar was the only make to suffer with sales down 60%. BMW even got into the top 10 car sales with its 3 Read more »