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If you are hiring a car or van over the Christmas period it might be wise to ask if you can see the service book before taking the vehicle. There have been some warnings issued that some small daily rental companies have cut costs by not having their cars serviced on time, especially those that are keeping cars longer. The larger rental companies tend you only keep their cars for 3 – 6 months but the smaller operators are Read more »

We tend to be pretty reactionary when it comes to the way we act in our day to day lives. We hear that there has been an increase in paedophile activity in public parks so we keep a closer eye on our children when taking them out or even stop the kids from going out at all. Hear that Swine Flu will become a pandemic and we rush out to get vaccinated – and rightly so. So when we hear that road injuries sustained Read more »

Trying to get everyone to go green overnight and buy electric cars will simply not work. The view is now to take a piecemeal approach and start by getting people gradually into more fuel efficient cars that kick out fewer CO2’s. Drivers should first be made more aware of cleaner driving practices. Knocking 10% off your cruising motorway speed can improve fuel consumption along with controlled braking and less Read more »

A couple of weeks ago the Telegraph, like most of the media tend to do from time to time, headlined an ill informed, inaccurate and misleading article about ex daily rental cars suggesting that buyers of these cars had not been told that when buying these cars from dealers that they had been ex rental cars. The article suggested that the cars, most of which were well under a year old and usually with no more than 5,000 miles recorded, were considered to be sub standard and Read more »

 Warnings have been issued, especially to companies who have a duty of care for those who drive on company business, about the new Government campaign to reduce the amount of drug-driving especially amongst younger drivers following research that shows 1 in 10 young male drivers admit to driving after taking illegal drugs. The £2.3 million campaign has been launched which will no doubt be complimented by increased police activity. Road safety charity Brake has also adopted the anti drink and drug driving theme for its Road Safety Week – Not A Drop, Not A Drag – taking place from November 23^rd – 29^th. By Graham Hill

I have just quoted a customer on a BMW X5, similar to the last car that he contract hired 2 years ago. On his old car the difference between the 2 year and 3 year rates was about £15 per month (2 years more expensive). However, the difference now is £134.53 + VAT per month! Why should this be? 2 years ago it could be argued that there was more discount/bonus in the car virtually wiping out the first year’s depreciation. 2 year old cars may have had a greater resale desirability than 3 year old cars on pro-rata mileage. But £135 + VAT per month? I don’t think so! Or maybe I’m to blame. You see I have explained Read more »

This time of year many people are jetting off to hotter climes for their summer holidays. They have probably searched around to get the best deal for their holiday but are then faced with a horrific cost for parking up the car for 2 weeks or rely upon public transport to get them and the kids to the airport for a 2.00am flight. Well I have read what seems to be the answer. Read more »

Considering the latest announcements relating to electric car production and the government emphasising its efforts to support electric cars by increasing incentives it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bosch announce that petrol and diesel cars will be by far the most dominant vehicles for the next 20 years. They went on to explain that this would be due to planned improvements that are due to take place in the internal combustion engine and as a result of an insufficient understanding of technology which has led to unrealistic forecasts about electric vehicles. Dr Bernd Bohr, chairman of Bosch Automotive group, predicted that Read more »

You may have noticed the latest campaign to encourage motorists to use seat belts, 40 years after Jimmy Saville’s Clunk Click campaign. Whilst I find it amazing that people have to be reminded to do this every trip it’s worth mentioning that if all drivers and passengers belted up on every trip one life would be saved each day! By Graham Hill

Good to see that Alphabet, the car leasing company, has spotted something in the new tax rules that are to come into force next April that I reported upon many weeks ago. Under the current rules you can only charge to profit a percentage of the monthly rental cost of a contract hire lease once the cost of the car exceeds £12,000 up to a maximum of a 25% disallowance. This variable rate has now been replaced by Read more »