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Drivers have been complaining for years that the MPG figures provided by car manufacturers are inaccurate and don’t reflect every day driving. Correct, the figures are calculated by applying very strict conditions within a controlled environment to best reflect the conditions, known as Urban, Extra Urban and Combined.

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The fact is that every car is subjected to exactly the same tests so if nothing else the resultant figures provide a fairly accurate way of comparing the results of different models. It can’t be done any other way. If you were to drive the same Ford Fiesta round the same route in the middle of Bath on three separate days I guarantee you will achieve three different results.

Add to that changing weather conditions along with different driving styles and the results become meaningless and can vary massively. So let’s stop whinging on about the manufacturers’ fuel consumption figures and simply use them as a guide as to which cars use more fuel than others. In America the situation is different.

There have been a string of high profile cases involving Kia, Hyundai and Ford after they all admitted leading customers astray over fuel consumption figures. The cases resulted in hefty fines and compensation being paid to car buyers.

But before you start opening Word in order to start your claims process the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) say it is unlikely that any similar claim in the UK would succeed as the EU testing regime does not claim to represent real world driving conditions. Sorry ladies and gentlemen but simply drop the suggested MPG by 15 to 20, that should give you a more accurate figure. By Graham Hill

Regular readers know that I’m rarely controversial but it really gets my back up when people take statistics and draw cow poo conclusions from them. Last year there was a huge drop in the number of miles that motorists drove, technology has meant that salesmen and engineers, those most commonly involved in road incidents, have been on Read more »

Virtually every car I provide is new so I’m often asked what is the ‘run in period?’ This won’t mean much to my younger readers and enthusiastic followers of my musings but this was a practice that car manufacturers insisted upon to ensure that your car lasted beyond its one year warranty and you didn’t end up driving a car with an engine that Read more »

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Who wants to know the best selling cars of 2010? No-one? Well tough I’m going to tell you anyway! The Fiesta tops the chart for the second year but the Nissan Qashqai has popped into the top ten as a result of Nissan’s car sales hike from 77,924 in 2009 to 87,396 in 2010, a jump of 15%. This made Nissan the most popular Japanese car maker in the UK overtaking Toyota who suffered badly with its massive recall dropping sales by 15%. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) who Read more »

I was talking to a client recently after he had been to a dealer for a test drive. Whilst there, he was shown a ‘pre-registered’ car that had just 10 miles on the clock and was £3,000 less than the list price. He was interested in the car and asked my advice and as this is quite a common occurrence I thought I would share the facts with readers of my blog. First of all there is no such thing as a pre-registered car with respect to dealers. This was made illegal by Stephen Byers at the time he was Trade & Read more »

One of the last meetings I attended at which we discussed the state of the motor finance industry, we were told by one of the leading accountancy practices in the UK along with a couple of large leasing operations that the biggest problem faced by the industry was lack of liquidity or in other words lack of money to lend to you and me. This has been confirmed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Read more »

The car and car finance industry is full of opinionated people who haven’t a clue as to what they are talking about. So called experts guess and make assumptions without any real knowledge on the subject. About now you will see national newspapers, radio and TV reporters telling you to shop around for finance before the launch of the new 60 registration, ignore dealer HP and find yourself a cheap personal loan, Read more »

I attended the Buckingham Automotive Forum on Thursday at the University of Buckingham, the quarterly meeting at which the good and the great of the industry give us an indication as to what is likely to happen in the future and if the future is looking good or bad for the industry. In fact I was a guest speaker at the event, speaking alongside Professor Peter Cooke, Professor at the University and government Read more »

Sales of new cars surged by 19% last month over sales for March last year according to latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It sounds like a large increase but the sales last year were abysmal but hey we’ll take any glint of light that indicates things are moving in the right direction. Having said that, the sales in March were the highest monthly sales for 2 years, so it’s Read more »

It would seem that companies are more environmentally aware than private motorists. According to statistics issued last year, as part of Fleet News Intelligence Report, and more recently backed up by information from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), average CO2 emissions from cars put onto fleet leases dropped from 149.9g/km to 144 g/km following a drop of 9 percentage Read more »