The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

You are obviously aware that owners of private land can no longer clamp or remove  your car when parked there, I advised as such on my blog. Following this Government ruling owners of private car parks and land, where people parked without permission, could still issue parking tickets quite legally.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Whilst drivers became more cautious about private car parks and land on which there was a parking warning posted, they generally ignored the fact that some of the worst culprits at issuing parking tickets are now supermarkets, hospitals and motorway service owners if you park longer than the allowed time.

But what you may not have known is that there is an independent adjudication service called the Parking On Private Land Appeals service which was set up to coincide with the new rules that came into force in October 2012. Since it started it has overturned more than half the tickets issued.

So far they have received 2,000 appeals of which 1,058 fines have been overturned with 911 found in favour of the operator. In the past the only way to appeal a ticket was to go to court at the risk of losing and having to pay court costs. This service is totally free so now you know and if you or someone you know receives a ticket it is worth appealing. Here is the website: http://www.popla.org.uk/ By Graham Hill

Related articles

• AA warns of surge in private parking fines (telegraph.co.uk)

Drivers are generally happier with their servicing than ever before according to a survey carried out by the self regulating body, Motor Codes. They surveyed 57,000 drivers and found that 95% of those using a Trading Standards approved Motor Codes garage would recommend it to a friend.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

It also revealed that one in ten had reason to make a warranty claim whilst there was also a 10% rise in satisfaction from 84% to 94% over the last 5 years when using a main dealer to maintain their cars. Surprisingly the age of cars maintained by Motor Codes recommended garages has risen from 10% in 2010 that were 11 years old or older to 18% in 2013.

This could be down to a number of factors as older cars are becoming less capable of being maintained by the DIY’ers or it could be that there is more money about as we come out of recession making it affordable to have cars maintained by a garage rather than a mate with a set of spanners. By Graham Hill

Bits & Pieces: Britain’s most expensive parking space is up for sale in London’s Kensington Area. The underground bay is up for sale at £400,000, 15 times the average UK salary of £26,500. It is also double the average price of a house in the UK. But with property prices in the SW7 region of London averaging £2.3 million the parking space will soon be snapped up I’m sure.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

I reported a while ago that electric cars will soon be charged wirelessly (like your kettle) in the near future. I can now confirm that Toyota are carrying out field trials on a wireless charger embedded into the floor of a number of domestic garages. The car is parked over the bed and fully charged in 90 minutes.

Trials are being carried out on the new Prius Plug In Hybrid. Again talking about Toyota they have closed on a deal with BMW to supply them with a family of diesels. The 1.6 currently fitted on the Verso will be extended across other cars in the range whilst platforms developed for 2.0 litre units are already prepared for production. By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Next-Gen Prius Plug-In Will Auto Park Over Wireless Chargers (caranddriver.com)

There is a motor journalist who frequently bangs on about things that are of little or no importance causing the little hairs on the back of my neck to bristle. Not because they are all of no importance but often because I disagree with his views. I don’t want to give him any publicity through my blog or newsletter by mentioning his name but it’s Mike Rutherford.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

This time he is banging on about car manufacturers not telling buyers of their cars when and where their cars were ‘made’. He says that it is wrong for ‘German’ manufacturers not to tell you that the car you are buying was made on a certain date in South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Hungary or anywhere else.

He suggests that like a low-fat yoghurt cars should come with a tamper proof sticker showing its place of birth and date of birth. Good grief – what a doughnut. First of all does he think with the cost of stocking cars that they will be sitting around for any length of time before they are sold.

The days of Mercedes changing their design once every 5 years are gone. I have had notice today that Volvo are about to stop taking orders on 2014 and a half model year cars to replace with 2015 model year cars that will be available from April. I don’t know what Mr Rutherford thinks will be revealed but few cars sit around in stock for more than weeks, a couple of months at the most.

As for where the car was ‘manufactured’, firstly it wasn’t, it was assembled, mainly on fully automated production lines on equipment that was made by just one company to an exact design from the manufacturer and shipped around the world to wherever they can get the car assembled as cheaply as possible.

When it comes to the manufacturing process the car will be fitted with brakes made by Bosch, windscreens made by Pilkington, Tyres made by Goodyear, Lights made by Lucas and I have a customer in the UK who makes dashboards for about 5 different manufacturers.

So who gives a damn about where the cars are ‘manufactured’? Are you going to roll up to your Mercedes dealer to find that the brand new C Class that you are about to buy was built 3 months ago in Brazil and say ‘Don’t want that, have you one that was made in Germany yesterday please? Silly man! By Graham Hill

English: Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) built in the exhaust pipe of a Peugeot) Deutsch: Dieselrußpartikelfilter (DPF) in einem Peugeot Français : Filtre à particules (FAP) de Peugeot Citroën (PSA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may or may not be aware that the MOT rules have changed recently. One of the changes relates to the use of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) and the requirement that if a car is fitted with one as standard from new that it is intact and working properly. If it isn’t the car will fail its MOT.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

However, it seems that the only effective test that an MOT station can carry out is a visual inspection so it seems that in order to get around the rules some companies are offering a removal service whereby they remove the DPF leaving just an empty canister which looks fine but clearly isn’t working.

This infringes section 75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which prohibits alterations from being made to a car that renders it unroadworthy. After the MOT rule change, the motor insurance industry has become more vigilant and has warned motorists that if they remove the DPF then have a crash they should consider the consequences of not having valid insurance.

Remember that if your car has a diesel particulate filter fitted and you want to avoid clogging in the first place, you need to run the car at a minimum of 50mph for a minimum of 20 minutes each month. This creates a chemical reaction that clears out the particulate filter.

Yet another potential problem when buying a used car, even with an inspection carried out by an engineer, there is no way of knowing how badly clogged the filter may be when you buy a used car. And they aren’t cheap I was told a VW owner paid £1,650 for a replacement filter. Do you really want a used car? STOP PRESS: Strangely I have just had a call from a desperate driver (oooerr missus) who thought that he would save money by taking a low cost ex demonstrator.

He’s had the car for about 4 months and the car is still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. After the particulate light started to glow on the dashboard he took the car into the dealer to have it looked at and they said the particulate filter is blocked and it will cost £1,400 to have it replaced.

They then shocked him by explaining that this is a wear and tear item, not covered by the warranty. Another reason why you should never take an ex demonstrator, you just don’t know how the 50 or more drivers of the car have driven the car! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Press release: New rules for MOT to test for diesel particulate filter (gov.uk)

I listened very carefully as the debate over smoking in cars with children onboard rolled on. As someone whose father smoked like a chimney in his car whilst my brother, sister and I breathed in the disgusting smoke, when we were very young, I know how uncomfortable it can be.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

It was bad enough in the house but in the confined space of a Morris 8 it was very uncomfortable and very selfish although I accept that at the time he didn’t know the potential harm he was doing. Fast forward to the 21^st century and the fact that cigarette packs tell you that smoking kills I find it hard to come up with an argument for not banning smoking in cars that are carrying children.

It is already illegal for drivers of company vehicles to smoke in their cars, vans and trucks so I couldn’t understand the ‘impossible to police’ argument as there are already legally enforceable laws banning smoking. If laws were only introduced if they were easy to enforce we would have very few laws on the statute book so like most people I agree with the ban and that we shouldn’t simply rely upon the responsibility of parents.

Lets face it if parents were responsible we wouldn’t be considering the new law in the first place to protect children, it would be unnecessary. It is illegal to batter kids even in the parent’s own home but virtually impossible to enforce, unless a child is taken to hospital and the police alerted so the ‘unenforceable’ argument doesn’t wash as a reason not to pass the law.

If parents light up in the car their babies and children can’t simply scramble out of their childseat or babyseat, climb out of the car and continue their journey on foot (or crawling) to avoid the smoke that they don’t know is harming them in the first place. So it now looks like the law will have grudging approval but how serious are those that say they are in favour?

On the 4^th October last year, in an old blog posting, I revealed that a Canadian company had developed an App that allowed anyone with a smartphone to photograph cars that are illegally parked which would be date and time stamped, located by GPS and with the use of plate recognition, the driver of the car identified.

This information would be forwarded to the local authority for a ticket to be issued, using the information captured by the app to convict the miscreant. Once convicted the person providing the information will receive part of the fine imposed. This apparently works in Canada whilst in the US there is a similar app used to convict anyone parking in a disabled parking space.

But could and should it be extended to cover other crimes such as driving without a seatbelt fastened, using a mobile phone or smoking in a car with children onboard? I’m sure that there are passionate people out there that would provide the evidence through a purpose created app for no fee. So if enforcement is the problem is this the direction we should be moving in? I would welcome your thoughts – without the expletives! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Ban smoking in cars carrying children: Labour forces vote on new law to fine offenders £60 (dailymail.co.uk)

As we get closer to the time when the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) takes over control of the Consumer Credit Act it is important to make sure that you and your business, if you are an SME that isn’t a limited company, are in good shape for credit. In future lenders will want to carry out an ‘affordability test’ to ensure that you can afford your repayments.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Whilst some lenders claim that their own affordability tests are already working well and therefore won’t change I personally think that you should assume that lending will tighten up, certainly in the short term. This strengthened affordability test may be in the form of an income and expenditure account or it may be copies of your last three months bank statements.

Whilst your income and expenditure report may show that you can afford repayments the one thing that will kill an application is a returned item shown on your bank statement, if asked for, because you have exceeded your overdraft limit or dropped into an unauthorised overdraft and the bank has not paid an item.

Having an overdraft that is being used isn’t a bad thing although it will probably knock a few points off your credit score but nowhere near as bad as having a returned item. So make sure that your last three months are clean. If not wait until any adverse drops off the last 3 months statements.

You can avoid a returned item if you cancel a direct debit before the money is applied for from your account but beware, this shouldn’t be a direct debit for finance, especially car finance, as a missed payment will show up as arrears. This is another situation that would cause finance to be refused.

You will also be asked for a copy of, or the original of, a current driving licence so make sure that you have both parts available, the paper and the plastic parts. Also make sure that if you have the newer licence that it hasn’t run out of date (has to be renewed every 10 years) and that it is showing your current address.

If you only have an old style licence then make sure that you have a current passport for photo ID to be provided at the same time. One of the issues I regularly address is the need by some funders to see a utility bill dated within the last 3 months. So if you are about to apply for credit make sure that you haven’t thrown away all of your bills as soon as you have paid them.

Mobile phone bills are never accepted and we are finding that fewer funders are now accepting credit card statements and council tax bills as proof of address. Landline telephone bills, water, gas and electric bills are all acceptable along with bank statements as long as they are paper statements not printed off the Internet.

In my book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide, I dedicated the first section to preparing for finance. Essential reading. Final piece of advice on the subject – if you are thinking of changing your car, do it now before the new rules kick in. By Graham Hill

Most people are aware that in order to be approved for finance you need to have a reasonably good credit score. You maintain a good credit score, as you know, by making credit payments on time (pay by direct debit wherever possible), not gaining CCJ’s, defaulting or going into arrears and not applying for credit to too many companies at the same time.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Closing down old credit cards can also help. But I have had a few ‘declines’ just recently because of financial associations that, in a few cases, were no longer in existance. When you apply for credit you can only have your personal details searched so if you have a partner who has very poor credit or could even be bankrupt, they cannot be checked out unless you give permission or you have a financial association.

If you are shown to have a financial association with anyone the chances are that their credit status will also be taken into account. So if you are applying for finance and you and your partner have a joint mortgage or a joint credit card there is a financial association. One client had a girlfriend and they jointly applied for a credit card and were approved at the time.

They didn’t take out the card and split up shortly afterwards but one of them ran into some severe financial difficulties. As the financial association was still showing on the credit reference agency file the unknowing boyfriend was declined for car finance because of the difficulties experienced by the ex girlfriend.

So check your credit reference files and if you are showing any financial associations with any ex’s make sure you write to the credit reference agencies (all 3) and tell them that you no longer have any financial association with your ex, and to remove the link. By Graham Hill

Related articles

• ‘Ex-husband’s debts barred me from a mortgage’ (telegraph.co.uk)

I guess with the cost of diesel so high it was inevitable that people would try to save money by buying dodgy fuel that has either been bought cheaply, as it was intended for use by farmers, and as a result it attracts less duty or it has been stolen from farms where fuel is less protected than filling stations.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back

According to HM Revenues and Customs the sale of illegal fuel is up by 48% and not just from ‘pop-up garages’ and ‘huckster sites’ but also regular filling stations. In the past it was easy enough to identify the dodgy fuel if it originated from a farm as it was dyed red. But to avoid detection the crooks have found a way to strip the red dye from the fuel using a concoction of chemicals.

This is all well and good but the chemicals they use can damage the engine. The damage is made difficult to detect as the effects of the chemicals can take months or even years to be noticed. HMRC has revealed that they found illegal fuel at 388 sites in 2012 compared to 262 in 2009/10.

Closed (Photo credit: Joe Dunckley)

Whilst is seems there has been a surge the HMRC believe that it has more to do with the detection rate rather than a substantial increase in use or theft of illegal fuel. You can draw your own conclusions, just be careful where you are buying your fuel from and what harm the fuel could be doing to your car. By Graham Hill

Related articles

• More garages caught selling illegal fuel (telegraph.feedsportal.com)

What car can do 0 – 60 in 5 seconds, return 15 miles to the gallon and out perform a Ferrari F40 away from the traffic lights? Answer, a company car, or so the old joke goes. These days company cars are much better cared for as transport managers and employers know that poorly cared for cars could result in end of contract charges.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

So buying what used to be a dodgy ex company car is no longer such a risk. But as one buyer of a used car from a BMW main dealer found out, buying a used car isn’t always as safe as it seems when he bought an M3 that had previously been used as a track car. There was nothing wrong with the car and it drove perfectly but you can only imagine the stresses and strains applied to that car whilst being hammered around a race track by a racing driver or instructor.

Of course the buyer was upset when he found out about the previous use of the car but there is no obligation on the part of the dealer to tell him that the car was used as a track car and I have to say an M3 was built as a performance car so should not be in the slightest affected by its previous use.

But there is one use of car that buyers actually queue up to buy without knowing how badly the car may have been criminally abused. Treated like a performance car from new with certain components stressed to their limit many buyers actually boast that they have bought one of these cars in preference to a brand new car.

I’m talking about the ex-demonstrator. I always advise against these awful cars which are often worse than ex hire cars and wildly over priced. Yes you appear to have a large discount but often that is after a load of unnecessary extras have been added to the car in order for the dealer to demonstrate.

So you have a £20,000 car with £5,000 worth of extras added with a £7,000 discount, dropping the price to £18,000 or the price you would have paid for a new car without the bigger wheels, sports suspension, special paint, larger fuel tank, privacy rear glass, smokers pack etc etc. So often the saving is not as it seems.

But that is minor compared to the real problem. In industry I was group general manager for a PLC with around 700 vehicles. When you run a fleet of that size you are provided with demonstrators every day of the week. It was nothing for a a couple of transporters to turn up with 20 cars from Astras to E Class Mercedes brand new with no miles on the clock.

They would be handed out to staff to use who would drive the cars like lunatics (I’m embarrassed to say I was one of them).  A driver would drive the car out of the car park getting close to 60mph out of the car in first gear. We didn’t care as they weren’t our cars and we justified the abuse by saying that the cars were being ‘put through their paces’ which is why we had the cars in the first place.

And this is the rub. People that buy ex demonstrators believe that they are buying a car that has been carefully driven by nervous drivers with a member of dealership staff sitting beside them, hardly getting above 30mph. The truth is that they are handed out to drivers for maybe 2 or 3 days at a time and the cars are ‘hammered’.

They come back, often in a disgraceful state but are repaired, professionally valeted and sold proudly as an ex demonstrator. My advice is leave them, you are potentially buying a disaster unless you like having a car that spends more days in a repair shop than out of it. By Graham Hill