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A warning from Warranty Direct suggests that turbo charged engines are more likely to break down than non turbo charged. Around 11% of their customers suffer an engine failure with a typical repair cost of £619 but turbo charged engines have a failure rate of  28% with an average repair cost of £875, worth considering if you are thinking about buying a used car. Don’t forget that most diesel engines, especially those fitted in larger cars, are turbo charged. By Graham Hill

Hindsight is great isn’t it? We can identify exactly where we went wrong and occasionally where we went right! When the recession started to bite, many businesses and individuals, who were leasing their cars and due to change, decided to extend their leases. Not such a bad thing if the lease was only 2 years in the first place but many of those that extended from 3 years to 4 years have maybe regretted that decision. And Read more »

My Mercedes is being a bit of a pain. Since I got it a year ago the dealer has had two tries at sorting out two warning lights that came on unexpectedly, one related to the tyre pressures and the other the ESP system. I asked if I could drive the car safely and they pointed out that as the warning lights were orange and not red, as long as I checked my tyre pressures all should be ok till I could get the car in for repair a Read more »

Contract hire companies are becoming more difficult when it comes to end of lease condition. Also, whilst new cars retain their warranty, when they are serviced at non franchised garages (dealerships), you need to be certain that the servicing meets the manufacturers recommendations.  So in the case of cars having body repairs carried out you need to know that they are repaired properly to avoid the Read more »

I recently warned about the dangers of not having your car serviced on time from the point of view of safety. We have now had further warnings from manufacturers and leasing companies about the importance of having your car serviced on time. The manufacturers are referring to the potential loss of warranty cover if the car is not serviced ‘as per manufacturers’ recommendations’. The chances of an engine Read more »

There are many stories bouncing around regarding end of lease charges from excess mileage charges that treble per mile if you exceed 10% overrun, eg. the excess charge per mile is set at 4 pence per mile if you exceed 3,000 miles on a 30,000 mile contract, thereafter increasing to 12 pence per mile, through to the leasing companies charging for re-repair of body repairs that they consider to be sub-standard even Read more »

In a recent case, exposed in What Car a lady experienced a sunroof leak in her 2 year old Mondeo. She made a claim on Ford under her warranty agreement but was told that water ingress was not covered by her 3 year warranty beyond the first year but they made an offer to cover 30% of the repair cost and the dealer was prepared to cut his labour rate. The suggestion from What Car was to push for a bigger 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 »

There are now some wide fluctuations in monthly contract hire rentals as many factors come into play. Amid fears that the industry is predicting the collapse of one of the major contract hire companies before the end of the year and possibly the loss of a few smaller ones, the industry is in a mess with rates all over the place. It isn’t uncommon for rates to have a spread of £50 + VAT per month between the cheapest and most expensive rates on the same car. Fleet Operations have found that in the case of a Ford Focus the spread was Read more »

I have received a couple of words of warning about topping your oil up. The first is probably fairly obvious, make sure that the car is on flat ground when you check it. It may seem obvious but in cars where electronic sensors are fitted drivers often forget that when the level is checked the car still needs to be on flat ground. But the lesser known piece of advice is not to overfill the engine with oil. This is especially important with diesels as the oil can find its way into the exhaust and damage the particulate filter which can be very expensive to replace and would not be covered by the warranty. By Graham Hill