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Insurance premiums should start to fall soon as the Government introduces a tough new law next year to clamp down on the 1.5 million uninsured drivers. The legislation will put the onus on the registered keeper of the car to ensure that the vehicle is on cover. This will be monitored via a link between the Motor Insurance Database (MID) and the DVLA with the uninsured automatically fined £100. Andy Drane, Read more »

OnePoll.com has carried out a survey amongst 3,000 male drivers asking their thoughts of letting their partners drive the car. The poll revealed that more than a third don’t feel safe when their ‘other half’ is driving. G makes no comment. Those who didn’t feel safe were asked the reasons why? They responded with braking too late, getting too close to other cars and fiddling with the stereo. Personally I would add Read more »

If you are looking to take out an aftermarket vehicle warranty (that’s a warranty that you take out when the manufacturer’s warranty has run out) you can check to see if the provider has signed into the code of practice provided by the auto watchdog Motor Codes, unless it’s an AA warranty and I can tell you that they aren’t. The code was set up to help customers by ensuring that the warranties provided by the warranty Read more »

The drive in movie is a phenomenon that never really caught on over here as opposed to the USA where it seemed to feature in any movie (did I say movie?) that had young actors and actresses in making the film appear hip and trendy. But thanks to the RAC this is changing this year. They are sponsoring outdoor screenings of car-themed films across London. For details of where you can go and sit in your car and Read more »

As the economy bumps along showing minimal signs of recovery the CVO Survey shows that large companies continue to actively use contract hire as its main method of financing its company cars whilst SME’s continue to blindly use cash, loans and overdrafts. Why should this be? I would suggest out of ignorance. Far too little is understood about leasing for SME’s to make a considered choice so they end up Read more »

This week Graham Hill’s in depth car review focuses on the all new Audi A7. As a broker I absolutely hate Audi because they have the longest lead time of all the manufacturers. This means that if I agree a deal with a client today I will probably have to wait till 2011 before I’m likely to see the money I’ve earned – it’s a bloody disaster! But as a car the new Audi A7 looks simply stunning, both inside and out! It is a 4Dr Read more »

If you’re an avid reader of my newsletter and blog you will have read that you no longer need to have your car serviced by a main dealer in order to maintain your warranty. The rules that were relaxed several years ago that prevented you from having your car serviced wherever you wanted are known as the EU Block Exemption Rules. These rules have just been reviewed again and the rules pretty much left as they Read more »

A good friend of mine, Dick Appleby (he lives on the Wirral – that’s how desperate I am to have friends), wrote to me recently regarding a situation that has arisen regarding a Mercedes that was returned 3 years ago to Custom Fleet, part of GE Capital. Out of the blue he received a charge for the month and a few days that the car waited on his drive for them to collect. That’s right, the car went back about 3 years ago and Read more »

We’re encouraged to keep cars for longer as the manufacturers review their warranty periods. Toyota have announced a warranty extension to 5 years/100,000 miles joining Hyundai on 5 years also and Kia now on 7 years. These being the only manufacturers to announce the extended warranties across their full range of cars. Fiat now offers 5 years but only on the Bravo. The move, according to Toyota, has 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 »