The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Did you know that 80% of traffic lights could be scrapped without any detrimental affect on traffic flow? So says a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). They could be replaced by filter-in-turn or all-way give way layouts at junctions (no I haven’t a clue either).

According to the report if we ditched all the unnecessary traffic lights we would avoid unnecessary delays and if this saved 2 minutes per trip it is estimated that the move would save the economy £16 billion a year. The study found that the number of traffic lights had increased by a staggering 25% since 2000.

In addition the report suggested that many bus lanes, cycle lanes, speed cameras and parking restrictions should go also – wow I’m with them on these thoughts. Cities in Germany and the Netherlands have already ditched 80% of their traffic lights successfully and the IEA believes that we could do the same.

The IEA finishes by saying, ‘The affect of these measures puts an enormous burden on the UK economy, It also imposes huge costs on road users, tax payers and communities.’ And I for one agree! By Graham Hill

Just to prove my point regarding my insurance premiums, law firm Thompson’s Solicitors, has produced a report that shows that over the past 5 years insurance claim payouts have decreased whilst premiums have increased allowing the insurers to pocket £7 billion since 2010.

In response the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has hit back claiming that Thompsons, a claims solicitors, are upset with Government plans to end the right to cash compensation for minor injuries like whiplash and to increase the upper limit for small claims court personal injury cases to £5,000.

Thompsons reported that premiums between 2010 and 2014 had dropped in real terms and motorists were paying less in 2014 than they were in 2010 but cumulatively premium income increased by £353 million whilst insurers saved £7 billion in payouts. There has been a net drop in the number of motor claims made of 4% but the net cost of claims incurred is down by nearly 30%.

The ABI refutes the claims made by Thompsons and suggest that savings of £1 billion have been passed on to motorists. Who’s right? I don’t know but I would suggest that much of the increased income is down to people not thoroughly checking their insurance renewals. By Graham Hill

Having just renewed my insurance I have first hand experienced of the way that crooked insurance companies are trying it on through the ‘auto renew’ con. I had the paperwork through explaining that they had researched the market on my behalf in order to achieve the best possible rate which in fact increased my premium by a third.

But by expressing the new premium in monthly terms on the face of it the figure could have easily been overlooked and being lazy I could have continued on with the same insurer. But having checked the previous year’s premium I was staggered and immediately jumped on comaparethemarket.com (free cinema ticket every week for a year – there’s my dates off match.com sorted for the next year).

When I saw the premiums I was staggered. I was about 40 quotes down the list before the premiums were anything close to the quote from my existing insurer. In fact the quote I went for with the RAC was about £100 a year less than the premium I paid last year. I had a similar experience with Mcafee for my computer protection insurance. I paid the Argos shop £19.99 for one year’s protection last year.

When it came up for renewal they were going to hit my credit card to the tune of £89.99. When I phoned to say I didn’t want it they said they would reduce it to £45.99. After checking with Argos I told the lady to shove it. I believe that if you sign up to auto renew a policy of any kind, if the premium increases by more than say 5% for whatever reason it should be clearly explained and you have to opt in rather than opt out. Rant over! By Graham Hill

I recently reported that the Government is planning to scrap large numbers of sets of traffic lights as they seem to slow down traffic flow rather than improve it. Taking things one step further Transport for London (TfL) have been experimenting with removing central lane markings on busy streets around Croydon and Haringey.

Studies carried out during the experiment has shown that average speed has reduced by 13%. They have concluded that fewer road markings improve safety by making drivers more cautious and aware of their surroundings. The report stated that it has been found that a drop in average speed of just 1 mile per hour is associated with a 5% reduction in accident frequency.

TfL is not the only authority to remove centre lines. Apparently similar schemes have been introduced in Norfolk, Wiltshire and Derbyshire. In fact in Norfolk, Tracy Jessop, assistant director for Highways and Transport at Norfolk Count Council, said ‘We’ve been removing centre white lines for at least 15 years in locations that have the right characteristics and where there is community support.’

Personally, like Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, I think this is a dangerous move. When you drive along a road and you see bits of tree strewn all over the place you sense danger and slow down accordingly, the same would apply if suddenly you had no guidance as to where the centre of the road is, people don’t slow down because the road is safer, they slow down because they sense danger – in this case not without reason. By Graham Hill

Here’s an interesting dilemma. Customer buys a new car, it could be any car but in this case it’s a VW Golf. The car is fitted with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) which basically stops you from accidentally running up the bum of the car in front.

As the car was in Ireland the costs are in Euros which I have conveniently converted to Sterling to save you checking exchange rates and grabbing your calculator. I’m like that! Anyway, the driver’s ACC warning light lit up on the dashboard. No I wouldn’t know either!

The light surprised him as nothing had happened other than the fact that he was driving the car normally. Off he toodled to the main dealer who said that the system was damaged, possibly from an impact. The cost to replace the ACC was going to be £1,145 and as it was the result of an impact the replacement would not be covered by the warranty.

As he hadn’t had an impact and as he had managed to safely drive a car for many years without this latest gadgetry he asked the dealer to simply disable it. The driver, Ben Smith, was told that the dealer couldn’t disable the set-up and because it was a serious road safety issue they wouldn’t let him drive the car away without signing a consent form. This is when it gets interesting.

He had the car towed away for an alternative inspection by an independent garage as he felt he was being forced into having work done that may not be necessary. He was shocked to learn that, according to the independent inspection, no damage had been caused to the unit, instead the report, according to Auto Express who saw the report, found that three sensor bracket sensor nuts had come loose, causing messages to appear.

The report also claimed that the bracket VW claimed had been broken was not the one found in the car. The fix cost Ben £46. OK one would assume that the dealer was trying it on and that they would apologise and Ben would continue driving his car in the knowledge that he won’t accidentally ram the car in front. But no! Auto Express contacted VW who explained that a mount was found to be broken (not according to the independent garage) as well as a cracked camera.

Not mentioned by the independent examiner. Of the independent fix VW said ‘Without repairing the vehicle as per manufacturer guidelines and calibration of the ACC system after replacement, (it wasn’t replaced by the way), the repair hasn’t brought the vehicle back to manufacturer specification. VW cannot guarantee that the vehicle will operate as the manufacturer intended.’ This implies that Ben could lose his warranty cover because he didn’t pay to have a repair carried out that wasn’t needed in the first place.

That is frightening but what wasn’t mentioned in the piece was the Government backed arbitration service called Motorcodes. This is what they say on their website: Motor Codes is the government-backed, self-regulatory body for the motor industry. Its voluntary membership of thousands of garages is committed to maintaining high standards covering new cars, the administration of new car warranties and car service and repair.

So as always I am providing more information than a major motoring magazine. If Ben gets in touch with Motorcodes they will have to look into his complaint and will give a legally binding ruling. The web address of Motorcodes is: http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/ By Graham Hill

In the town in which I live they have been building houses like they are going out of fashion. Virtually every piece of free land is being built on which I guess is pretty good news, especially if you’re a first time buyer. But the downside is that each new development needs electricity, water, phone and sewage facilities which means roads have to be dug up.

This in turn means that temporary traffic lights are erected and currently at the end of my road is a set of 4 way lights. As you can imagine I can wait what seems like 10 minutes to get out of the end of my road. I then have at least 1 if not more sets of temporary lights to contend with before I reach my destination elsewhere in the town.

My complaint isn’t that we have temporary traffic lights but that no bugger ever seems to be working on the bit of road that the lights are protecting, especially at weekends. As a result the Government is going to take action. They plan to fine local councils and utility companies £5,000 a day for road projects left unattended at weekends that unnecessarily inconvenience motorists.

So work would have to continue at weekends or the roadworks lifted at weekends until work resumed on the following Monday. Also fines will be imposed when lights are left in place after work has been completed. Arguing against this Peter Box, a spokesman for the Local Government Association, said that there are often reasons why roadworks are left unattended, for example when concrete has been laid it takes time to dry.

He can see that if the rules come into force people will be employed at weekends to watch concrete dry rather than receive a fine. As a final word, before you get over excited about driving freely around at the weekends the rules will only apply to A roads and not rural B roads or residential streets – damn. By Graham Hill

If you are one of those who uses a mobile phone whilst driving without a Bluetooth hands free kit be prepared for extra points on your licence and an increased fine if you get caught.

New proposals from the Department for Transport (DfT) will increase the number of points to 4 which means that under the totting up rules if you get caught 3 times you will automatically lose your licence, previously you had to be caught 4 times.

After seeing an increase in accidents involving drivers using mobile phones whilst driving the Government has decided to take action. Not only will the points increase to 4 but the fixed penalty fines will increase to £150 from £100. HGV drivers will see their points increase to 6 if caught using a mobile phone whilst driving.

Most new cars come with Bluetooth so yet another reason why motorists should lease their cars – well what did you expect me to say? By Graham Hill

How do you fancy driving an executive car that achieves 148 miles to the gallon? Well you can with the new BMW 330e M Sport which we just happen to have on offer at the moment. It is BMW’s entrée into the Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).

Whilst the new tiered Government Grant scheme has dropped the grant from £5,000 to £2,500 it is still good value for money on a lease. You will need a means to re-charge the car from an electric charge point that can be installed in your garage (grants available) or via charging points now available at services on motorways, some hotels and on certain streets.

The electric motor starts you up and moves you off whilst the 2.0 petrol engine takes over to boost power or take over when the 87bhp electric engine starts to flag. In EV mode the car has a top speed of 80 mph but switch across to petrol and you increase the top speed to 140 mph. The car has all the usual refinement of a 330i but with all the economy of a hybrid, the general consensus is that the car is a definite winner leading the way for other hybrid cars across the BMW range.

Oh and another piece of breaking news, Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin has announced plans to allow PHEV vehicles to have access to bus lanes in the eight Go Ultra Low cities across the UK as part of a £40 million investment plan in readiness for electric and hybrid vehicles. Some of the investment will be used to provide rapid charging hubs and plug in points at street lights. Time to make the move? If not we are certainly getting close. By Graham Hill

The EU Commission had already made it clear that emission testing would be tightened up from 2017 but they have now announced that they will be going several steps further. As a result of growing mistrust of the emissions testing procedures which were to reflect real life motoring conditions by 2017 the Commission has announced a number of additional rules.

First of all, instead of randomly selecting cars off production lines to test they will in future be selected from cars that are already on sale as well as cars from production lines. Recalls will be issued if cars are found to emit different levels of regulated emissions than those suggested by the manufacturer. Financial ties between European test centres and the manufacturers will be cut (I didn’t know there were any), thus making the system fairer.

It seemed that testing could be carried out in any country within the EU in the past for it to be accepted across the EU. So manufacturers were having cars tested at centres where they knew controls were more lax. This is being address with greater controls being imposed upon the test centres.

The Commission is also applying for additional powers to suspend, restrict or withdraw the number of services that a test centre can offer if it is performing at a less than acceptable level. The Commission is also pushing for access to new car ‘software protocols’ and the ability to restrict the use of such devices as the ‘defeat device’ used by VW. I’d have thought these sorts of devices should be banned rather than just restricted!

Whilst it seemed to be a move in the right direction there were some observers who believed the new rules still ‘lacked teeth’. In a damning statement Greg Archer, green vehicles director at campaign group Transport & Environment said, ‘Without the threat of future EU sanctions, it will be  mission impossible to break the strong bond between national regulators and their car makers that has protected the industry but at the cost of higher emissions.’

And I thought I was outspoken! The EU Parliament is now considering the proposals ahead of a debate and vote. If approved the new rules will come into force immediately = as if that could happen! Ridiculous! By Graham Hill