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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 »

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The US is making a piece of technology a legal requirement by 2014 and yet there are very few cars fitted with it in the UK as standard or have it available as an option. The technology provides images picked up by reversing cameras to be displayed in your rear view mirror. Will it be the next big thing in the UK and become a legal requirement? Time will Read more »

You know I like to search out great deals for my customers and boy have I found a real Bobby Dazzler for you!! How would you like a car which comes with a free servicing package? Not for just 3 years or even 5 years but 7 years. That’s right, a whole 7 years. Before you look for the Vauxhall style lifetime warranty catch, ie. restricted to 100,000 miles Read more »

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Whilst the debate continues as to whether the future for the car is electric or hydrogen Toyota have announced that their new family sized electric car to challenge the Nissan Leaf will make full use of many of the apps that are available via Microsoft as a result of a joint venture. The idea is to make the new cars ‘information terminals’ with new apps that Read more »

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Toyota and Honda have run into production difficulties following the Japanese tsunami. Honda had scaled down production of its Civic, Jazz and CR-V models at Swindon in Wiltshire by half earlier in April and have now announced short time working whilst their Japanese plants, producing essential parts, get back up to full capacity. Toyota shut Read more »

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Just as you think that we are moving rapidly through the highest tech era this planet has ever been through with new advances being announced virtually daily you hear a story that makes you realise that we still actually live in the real world. I read that Mazda have recalled 65,000 of their 6 model cars in north and central America. Suddenly you think Read more »

DEKRA, Germany’s equivalent to our AA or RAC, has voted the Vauxhall Insignia as Europe’s most reliable car. The findings came about following 15 million inspections of 230 different models so a pretty significant survey. DEKRA is highly regarded for its independent inspections and testing. The Insignia came out on top with more than 96% failure free. Good news for GM as their Corsa topped the chart last year. In second and third place came the Ford Fiesta (95.8%) and the Toyota Prius (95.6%). So surprise surprise we have made the Insignia our deal of the week. Do you run an Insignia, has it been reliable for you? By Graham Hill

If you are into your apps there’s a new one from Toyota that keeps a check on your driving through a glass of water. Not real water but an app glass of water for your Apple device. You put your iPhone into the cup holder (get it) and it shows a glass of water which you must attempt not to spill. Clearly the smoother your driving the less chance there is of spilling it. The app records key information such as journey distance, time, fuel returns and water spilled. As a result Toyota claims that drivers could save as much as 10% of their fuel. To get the app log on to www.aglassofwater.org What do you think, worthwhile or just another novelty? By Graham Hill

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• Graham Hill Gadget Of The Week – Amazing! (thebestcarfinanceblog.co.uk)

Talk about left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing! VW has had some great deals towards the end of this year. Demand was great but they hadn’t realised that when they promote a car they should make sure that they can meet demand – sounds a bit logical to me. But no, that would be far too simple and obvious so now we have some very unhappy customers who are still not being told when they can expect to receive their Passat CC’s or Touareg’s even though they were originally told Read more »

I recently reported that a large number of recalls don’t get the level of publicity that they should after Toyota took a beating over the brake recalls but were then found not to hold the record for the most numbers of single model cars being recalled this year. However it was put into perspective recently when Bentley had to recall 300 UK cars. The major concern affected Arnage, Azure and Brooklands models built Read more »