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Online used car resale giant Autoquake has gone into administration losing its investors £19 million in the process as it’s unlikely that anyone would pay more than a couple of thousand pounds for a few cars, an award winning website and some goodwill. Their CEO was known for his arrogance and his despise of car dealers pointing out the error of their Read more »

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When I was training as an accountant one of the subjects I had to cover was statistics. At the start of the course we were shown a graph of the stork population in Sweden over a 5 year period. We were then shown a graph of the baby births in Sweden during the same period and the two graphs were virtually identical. As more storks were born more Read more »

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Years ago when run flat tyres were introduced they seemed like a great idea but drivers were then told that they couldn’t mix up run flats with conventional tyres and you couldn’t get a puncture repaired. Once the tyre had been punctures, whilst the run flat would get you home the bad news was that you then needed to replace the tyre. However, I have found out that this isn’t necessarily the case. It was highlighted recently when a lady driver managed to get a nail in her run flat tyre fitted to a Read more »

With new car deliveries stretching out all the time and 4 month delivery becoming the norm rather than the exception, many are tempted to go the used car route, often paying over the odds for a car less than 12 months old simply to get a fairly new car. I’ve mentioned the dangers in the past but with so many people being forced to take a used car because their current leased car cannot be extended, it’s worth mentioning the dangers again. I explained that servicing costs increase with age but Read more »

If you are a regular reader of my blog and newsletter you will have read my recommendation that if you are applying for insurance online that you change the parameters around when you state whether your car is parked in a garage, on a drive or on the street. We found that many applicants lie about their garage, which is full of kids toys and the freezers, but thinking that a garaged car would save money say that the car is usually in the garage overnight. Or at worst parked on their drive. In Read more »

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 »

I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that there are ways to get hold of dodgy MOT test certificates although since everything is on central computers now I believed that it wasn’t possible to fiddle certificates any longer. Well to prove me wrong a garage owner has been jailed for 6 months for passing 2,500 vehicles without failing a single one. Video evidence was collected against Noor Hussain for presentation at Preston Crown Court. It showed cars going in and out of the test bay in 7 Read more »

I loved the story about those responsible for vehicle fleets attending the recent Fleet Van conference. These people are all responsible for making sure that drivers act lawfully and adhere to all areas of vehicle, driver and employee legislation. But whilst they were listening to the speakers, ATS Euromaster had nipped out to the car park with their tread gauges and checked all the vehicles. The attendees were then confronted by the fact that 9% of the vehicles were given Red Tyre warnings. This Read more »

The dangers of using insurance comparison sites has been highlighted by incidents in which payouts could be avoided by the insurers because drivers have been confused by some of the questions that may have been handled differently and more clearly if an actual broker helped you to compete your application form. As most people know insurers have to be made aware of any modifications that have been fitted to the car. If the mods have not been declared the insurer could refuse payout in Read more »

You can forget going green with your next car in order to save fuel and kick out fewer CO2’s according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM – is it me or does that sound like a cat food?). They suggest that drivers and businesses could save much more by simply using better, more efficient driving techniques, such as advanced anticipation, intelligent route planning and speed control which if used together could Read more »