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I am grateful to Jo Tacon, Editor of the journal Motor Finance for which I write a regular (and clearly the most popular) column. Jo forwarded a couple of articles that appeared in the Sun newspaper, written by Kelvin MacKenzie. In the articles he complains about the end of contract charges imposed upon him by Mercedes Benz Finance (MBF) after returning his end of lease car. The charge was £1,800 and I Read more »

According to tyre provider, Protyre, pothole damage is increasing whilst local authorities are unwilling to carry out repair work until the bad weather is over, for fear that any work done now will be wasted if the cold weather continues and re-pops out the filler. Protyre suggest that 300 new potholes are being identified in Britain every day with hundreds of pounds of damage being caused to tyres and suspension. Read more »

Brake, the road safety charity and Direct Line have issued a warning article about the care of safety components such as tyres and brakes, things I have touched on previously. The fact is that far too many drivers rely on a service or MOT to identify faults and wear when in fact drivers should take more responsibility themselves. Andy Goldby, director of underwriting at Direct Line said ‘Drivers seem to be willing to Read more »

I’ve pointed out the importance of correct tyre pressures in the past but during the recent bad weather many motorists are believed to have dropped their tyre pressures in order to increase the grip on roads covered in ice and packed snow. It is important, if you did this, to re-inflate to the correct pressure. In fact, according to compressor manufacturer Ring Automotive, you should check your tyre pressures Read more »

This month is Tyre Safety Month! I know I probably didn’t need to mention this as you probably knew already but what it has done is highlight the fact that 80% of cars have tyres that are incorrectly inflated. Incorrectly inflated tyres can affect the handling characteristics of cars and even more dangerously fully laden vans. Vans become far less stable when they carry heavy loads and tyres are incorrectly inflated. The recommendation is that Read more »

According to Michelin we are likely to see much greener tyres in the future. Not colour green, those wags at Michelin point out, but environmentally green. They explained that along with many other tyre manufacturers they have been supporting the tests carried out by DEKRA and TUV. They take a fleet of cars and fit single make tyres on them then drive the 8 identical cars a distance of 10,000Km in 2 convoys. The routes Read more »

Tyres are on the move! Increasing in cost that is. The sudden jump in the cost of crude oil last year followed by the drop in value of sterling resulted in a continued increase in the cost of the raw materials that are used to manufacture tyres. This has meant that prices increased by 20% over recent months with the industry warning that prices will rise even further during 2009. Kwik Fit Fleet say they are expecting some Read more »