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Far too often I’ve heard complaints from consumers who have made a warranty claim only to be told that the manufacturer won’t honour it – insisting that the problem was down to wear and tear or the driver’s driving style. In many cases the decision is wrong but what do you do if the manufacturer has point blank refused to carry out a repair?

Well first off you read the relevant sections in my PCP guide – soon to be available as a free download. The same rules apply whether you took the car on PCP, HP or PCH finance. You don’t own the car so your beef is with the owner of the car – the finance provider.

If you’re not satisfied with the response from the dealer and the manufacturer, make a formal complaint to the finance provider. If you still can’t get the problem sorted you report both the lender and the dealer to Trading Standards. They will contact the dealer and the lender. Still no joy? Move on to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) but only if you have financed the car. If you bought for cash there is nothing they can do. The official alternative is what used to be called Motor Codes, now the Motor Ombudsman.

This isn’t part of FOS. FOS is a government-run independent body very much on the side of consumers. However, the Motor Ombudsman is funded by the garages that sign up to their scheme and you can only complain about a garage that is one of their members. Are you starting to get the same feelings as I’m getting? How certain can you be that you’ll be treated fairly over a part that is very expensive and needs replacing? In my opinion, avoid the Motor Ombudsman.

Next down the list are the trade bodies, a route very rarely suggested but can be very effective. Your issue is actually with the lender so check on the websites to see if the finance provider is a member of the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) and the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), you should make a formal complaint against the funder if he fails to get involved or come up with an acceptable solution.

You can also ask the association for details of their Dispute Resolution Service and make an application to them to help if you are in a stalemate. Every trade body must have a Dispute Resolution Service that they can provide details of. The dealer and manufacturer must carry some responsibility, so make the same complaint to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and if you want to take up the case with them (not the lender) you can, but beware of stepping on the toes of a lender. They will also have a Dispute Resolution Service which you can call upon.

Finally, you can file a legal claim through the small claims court but hopefully, you would have resolved the problem before you get to this stage at no cost other than your time. By Graham Hill

If you are a regular reader of my blog posts you will know how frustrated I can get when the advice that is handed out by so-called experts to drivers with a problem falls short of the full and accurate advice. Just because a fault appears on a car that is out of warranty doesn’t mean that you have no claim against the dealer from whom you bought the car. Or if the car is on finance against the finance provider.

I have explained that any complaints should be raised with Trading Standards and also with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Write a letter of complaint to the manufacturer if you feel that the dealer you are using, his franchisee, isn’t treating you fairly.

But there is another line of fire that I rarely discuss. A route that I am about to embark upon with Mercedes who have rather foolishly decided to take me on! Interesting times. You may know that you can go to conciliation if you have a complaint. There are various types of Conciliation. County courts offer a Mediation Service which is free and can resolve issues before they get to court. But to use it you must already have taken steps to sue the other party and that could end up costing you money.

The purpose of the Mediation Service is to see if there is a quick solution that could avoid court time and expense on the part of all concerned. Another form of conciliation service is one provided via a trade body that the supplier is a member of. And this is the real heavy guns in my opinion. First of all establish which trade bodies are involved. You can check out their website for details.

Most lenders are members of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) with some also members of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA). So first of all you need to explain that you want to use the conciliation service of the trade association. The finance company you are dealing with must do that. You can then make a formal complaint to their trade association then discuss the complaint with the independent adjudicator.

As the lender stands a chance of being disciplined or even thrown out of their trade association they will want to avoid this, especially if you are in the right. So you may find their approach relax once you have filed your formal complaint. You can then proceed with the conciliation service.

If the car wasn’t financed you can still raise your complaints with the conciliation service run by the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. You don’t have to accept their findings, you can take up the case with the Financial Ombudsman Service and/or pursue them through the court.

What I do is make a formal complaint against the company to its trade body for bringing the industry into disrepute. This will be followed by an enquiry into what happened and some sort of penalty if they were found to be in breach of the rules. All the time you are breaking them down to the point where they normally roll over.

Too many people are being abused by both lenders and manufacturers when dealing with legitimate complaints. This has got to stop! By Graham Hill

Matthew Avery, director of research at Thatcham Research, explains that the safety star rating isn’t quite as it seems or as people perceive it to be. Over the 20 years that they’ve been testing cars they’ve tested nearly 700 models and awarded ratings to 94%. Of those half have been rated 5 stars.

Over the years the tests have been refined and updated to take account of new technology and legislation. But not all 5 star ratings are equal and comparable. Not because of when the test was carried out, although clearly that has a bearing, but the ratings are awarded within the class of car. It is therefore not possible to compare ratings between say a small family car like a Fiesta and a large luxury SUV such as a BMW X5.

The test procedures are revised every couple of years, responding to new safety technologies. For example when Autonomous Emergency Braking was introduced the tests were altered to accommodate it. It was introduced in 2008 and by 2014 it became part of the star rating test. Although it is only this year that it becomes a pre-requisite of the 5 star rating.

Matthew went on to explain that the car mass (weight) plays a part as a bigger heavier car would be expected to be safer than a small car if involved in an accident. So the ratings are relative within the group. The Fiesta and the X5 could both be considered safe within their class even though they have major differences.

Crash safety science is complicated so they’re looking to make it more comparable. In the meantime, the recommendation is to seek out cars with 5 star ratings.

Now I have to say that I was shocked when I read this. I always believed that if you bought a car with a 5 star rating I believed it to be one of the safest cars on the road but what it really meant was that it was one of the safest cars on the road – within class. But what is ‘the class’? Would a Ford Focus, that cost a similar amount to say a Tiguan 4WD, be in the same class?

As I understand it the stars that are awarded are therefore relative to other cars ‘in their class’. But if a manufacturer introduces some new safety technology as standard on their car and they already have 5 Stars – where do they go from there? Six stars? If a Vauxhall Astra already has 5 Stars then Ford, who also have 5 stars awarded to their Focus, make their car even safer, how would you as a buyer be able to draw the distinction? Especially is safety is your deciding factor.

All very worrying! By Graham Hill

I’ve written about this before but as the Government is putting the squeeze on fleets, private drivers and manufacturers to push the green agenda and at least take the first step along the greener road by moving to hybrids or plug-in hybrids, car warnings were issued by fleet experts that they could be costing more to run than diesel cars.

Employees love the idea of plug-in hybrids as they dramatically drop their benefit in kind tax. And some individual drivers have moved from say their Prius hybrid to a plug-in hybrid and wondered why their fuel usage has gone up when they haven’t been charging their new car from the mains.

First, let me explain the difference. The original hybrids, cars like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight were petrol driven but with rechargeable batteries, like the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) system on Formula 1 cars. When freewheeling or braking energy would transfer to the batteries giving you a small boost whenever you needed it from traffic lights or pulling away on a roundabout, the times when the engine burns most fuel.

You didn’t need to do anything – just drive and you would achieve better fuel consumption and emit fewer CO2’s than your old petrol or diesel engine. The plugin hybrids go one step further with some manufacturers claiming 140 + miles per gallon. But to achieve this fuel consumption you need to plug in the car in order to charge the batteries as the car is far more reliant on the battery power.

The problem is that many companies, under pressure from over-taxed employees, adopted a plug-in hybrid approach, only to see fuel consumption higher than it was with their diesel fleet. The problem is that if you don’t charge the car and drive it as you would have driven a Prius the 140 MPG that you should be achieving drops to around 25 MPG.

So if you’re thinking of going greener by taking a plugin hybrid (PHEV) make sure you are able to plug in your vehicle, either at work or at home, and if you are supplying company PHEV vehicles to staff, in order to save them BIK tax, make sure that the employees are able to and more important, willing to, plug them in at night and use them as they were intended. By Graham Hill

In this next story, Mel Buchan bought a Mini ‘off page’ from an Arnold Clark garage in Inverness. He saw the brand new car advertised on their website, with all its equipment listed, paid a deposit and waited for the car to be built and delivered.

Mel works offshore so couldn’t be at home to sign for the car but was sent photos. Upon inspection, he noticed that the car didn’t have the multifunction steering wheel, as advertised. He complained and was told that the advert was wrong but if he wanted the upgraded steering wheel he would have to pay £425 for it.

By now my blood was boiling and not because I was standing by a radiator. But it gets worse. He actually agreed to pay the extra £425 for the steering wheel – because he wanted it! It was only after this that he realised that the car was advertised as having parking sensors and floor mats. Again these items were missing despite them being clearly shown in the advert.

The only option given by the dealer was to re-order the car with the ‘bits’ on and pay thousands of pounds more! This is when he contacted my dear friends at Auto Express. Following contact between Auto Express and Arnold Clark the extras were fitted – all free of charge, with an apology for the incorrect advert due to ‘human error’. Does no-one read the Consumer Rights Act?

It covers inaccurate advertising and the big no no – supplying goods – ‘NOT AS DESCRIBED’. Whilst Arnold Clark appear to pat themselves on the back for being so nice to the customer someone needs to slap them with a bill for the inconvenience caused to Mr Buchan for inaccurately advertising the car and then giving him the runaround. If there was ever a more straightforward case of providing goods – not as described – I haven’t seen it!

I always support the guys at Auto Express because they constantly fight battles on behalf of consumers but unfortunately they don’t quite get to the right result in the right way, they probably need me on their panel of experts to help them in these sorts of cases. By Graham Hill

Roelant De Waard, Ford Vice President of Europe, announced at the Geneva Motor Show that Ford is to continue its diesel push. Something that must have surprised a few. In the UK Ford’s combined car and commercial vehicle sales in February made it the lead manufacturer with its highest vehicle sales for the month of February since 2004.

Roelant explained, ‘We wouldn’t find it the right decision to move away from diesel because it’s best for CO2, we’ve got NOx under control, it’s better economy wise, it has cheaper operating costs and it’s therefore, by far the most efficient choice. We’re basically putting it back on the map and allowing it to be the powertrain of choice for us.’

Their new Edge SUV is planned to have an 8-speed auto later this year and with an already fuel efficient engine, it is planned to have an even more environmentally friendly engine as it’s planned to be Euro 6.2 compliant. From an NOx point of view, it will be comparable with a petrol engine but with lower CO2 emissions.

With the further planned downsizing of diesel engines from 2.0l to 1.5l the fuel efficiency will continue to improve. So will this change of heart by the UK’s leading car manufacturer bring diesel back into focus? Personally, I think it will and certainly may convince the Government that we need clearer direction rather than the petrol, diesel flip flopping!

Seems like I’m having a week of moaning and talking about the environment – it wasn’t planned like that. By Graham Hill