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Years ago I was group general manager for a reasonable sized PLC. I was responsible for a large number of departments including IT, general admin, cost and management accounting,  personnel (known as HR these days), health and safety and much more including our fleet department responsible for over 700 vehicles.

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At the time Peugeot had introduced some major new development in the area of diesel cars, in the past diesels were mainly fitted into vans and trucks. They were still a bit noisy, lacked a bit of low end power, especially the non turbo versions – 0-60 in a week and a half and filling up with diesel meant you stank of the stuff until it wore off 5 days later!

But being a Cost and Management Accountant I crunched the figures and decided that company cars should all be diesel, except the main board of directors and me! The staff kicked off, as did their managers and directors, but I was having none of it. The figures didn’t lie so the drivers had diesel imposed upon them, after all when is a company ever run as a democracy – good grief!

Constantly I would hear the argument that I should be driving a diesel and I would use every reason under the sun until it came down to the fact that I simply didn’t want to. Now I was reminded of this situation when I read that the Government have finally agreed to include 150 electric vehicles in their fleet of cars used to ferry ministers around. The £5 million scheme is expected to extend to councils, the police force and the NHS.

Considering the government has been pushing EV’s for 5 years why has it taken so long to lead the way? I could understand if this was in the 70’s and the government was a company but they are a democracy for goodness sake! With this new initiative led by the Government to push more of us into EV’s, will I be changing my car next year for an electric car? The hell I will, only just started driving diesels! Have a word! By Graham Hill

Now I know this will cause you to roll about the floor in fits of hysterics but I actually have a soft spot for French cars. No seriously – it’s true. They tend to be ultra comfy, have lots of gadgets and occasionally look a little bit tasty/different.

I remember a Renault 25 V6i that I had years ago. At the time Renault were consistently winning the touring car championship and supplied many of the F1 engines but more than the fact that the engineering was amazing it actually had a graphic equaliser built into the centre console! How brilliant was that? And with seats thicker than the average armchair it was a delight to drive.

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.

So I was unhappy to read that the French manufacturers are struggling badly. As was recently reported PSA Peugeot Citroen’s finances are in a mess. The group is ‘burning’ 200 million Euros (£172m) every month and sales are not strong. The French Government has already loaned the group 7 billion Euros (£6.03bn) and are now represented on the board but long term the group needs a new industrial and financial partner.

GM has a 7% stake but is showing no appetite to invest further. Rumours obviously involve China with a hot favourite DongFeng (no I haven’t either), but there has been no official comment. In the meantime PSA will continue to bounce along with a grave lack of direction. I for one hope they turn things around. By Graham Hill Car Finance

Related articles

• French Government Said It Seeks Investment Bank for PSA (inautonews.com)

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My review of a new car is going to be light of detail this week but I saw some pictures of the car in question and it looked a vast improvement on the old model. I’m talking about the Mercedes A Class that looked a bit too much like a small MPV and if you remember, when it was launched, if you drove it reasonably hard round a bend it fell over. The Read more »

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I am often asked how the lease rates on some cars can be so low compared to the cost of the car? Take for example the deal we had last year on the VW Passat CC (their new 4 door coupe). If you had taken the car on a 2 year lease you would have paid the equivalent of 26 payments x £229.99 + VAT. That’s a total of £7,175 on a car that cost around Read more »

On the question of economy Auto Express carried out a test to see what the real effect would be of driving a car faster over the same distance. They carried out the test using a Renault Megane Sport Tourer 2.0l diesel. They covered a distance of 70 miles on the Longcross Proving Ground in Surrey. They used this 2 mile circuit as it allowed them to set Read more »

Graham Hill’s in depth review of a car takes me back a little to probably my most favourite car to drive. No it wasn’t my 7 Series BMW, which I actually loved or any of the prestige and exotica cars that I have driven over many years of being in this business. Strangely it was back in the early 80’s when I drove a Renault 25 V6i. It was gorgeous, at the time it looked great, it drove wonderfully with a cabin that felt a cross Read more »

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My view, over the last few weeks, that we will see some return to the fleet market by manufacturers, now struggling with sales, following the end of the scrappage scheme, seems to be substantiated as Skoda, Chevrolet and Renault have all stated in one week that they are aiming at the fleet market. Renault aims to increase its market share from 3.17% to 5% this year whilst Chevrolet launches an independent fleet sales Read more »