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I’ve spoken about this subject before and whilst I support the objectives of the Government it is simply introducing a law that is virtually impossible to police. I’m talking about smoking in cars with children under 18 also in the car. From the 1^st October the ban on smoking in cars with children under 18 present comes into force.

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 follows a similar ban in Wales and is being considered in Scotland. The ban won’t apply to anyone smoking alone and it won’t apply to convertibles with the roof down. Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison, said, ‘Three million children are exposed to second hand smoke in cars putting their lives at risk.’

OK as a lifetime non-smoker I have never got my head around the need to suck smoke into my lungs, it simply makes no sense at all. Having said that I guess the main reasons why I would never partake is the sight of my dad, first thing in the morning, coughing and spitting his lung lining into the toilet every day having smoked the best part of 40+ untipped cigarettes the previous day, as he did most days.

For a child that was an incredibly frightening experience. My dad smoked in the car but always with the window open – thanks dad and we all (my sister and brother) carried around with us the delightful stench of smoke. So I’m against smoking but I also uphold the individual rights of people to smoke if they want to as long as it doesn’t affect me.

I also agree that smokers should not smoke in cars with children aboard but if you are such an uncaring parent to do it in the first place is a law going to make any difference? Parents shouldn’t smoke in confined spaces with children around through a sense of responsibility, not because the law says so. We are gravely lacking basic life skills in our education system and I’m about to go on a mission to change it.

Kids might leave school knowing the capital of various countries around the world or what the Boston Tea Party was all about but they need basic health and safety skills. Finance skills are essential such as how to open a bank account, take out a credit card and arrange a mortgage. Isn’t it time we educated our kids better in these areas rather than feel the need to introduce laws to prevent people doing things that one would think would be common sense! Good grief! G gets off his soap box! By Graham Hill

Following on from my notes on the change in law regarding Brits breaking motoring laws in Europe, it would seem that Jonny Foreigner is more likely to get away with offences over here than we are over there as the number of traffic cops in England and Wales has dropped by 23% over the last 4 years.

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.

In March 2010 the number of traffic cops stood at 5,635 but by March 2014 the number had dropped to 4,356. Some areas have been cut back dramatically, for example Devon and Cornwall have dropped from 539 to just 57 in 2014, a drop of 76% with Essex declining by 71%. The figures have angered the RAC who have said, ‘These figures make a mockery of motoring law.

If there are not enough police on the road, we can introduce all the new rules we want, but those breaking them just will not get caught.’ And to prove the point some figures were recently released that showed the worst speeding culprit to be a moron driving at 128 mph in a 30mph zone exceeding the limit by a mind blowing 98 miles per hour.

The highest recorded speed in the UK was recorded on a camera on the M25 in Kent with two cars hitting 146 miles per hour – twats! The frightening figures were revealed following a Freedom of Information request made by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) following which all but 6 of the 36 police forces across England and Wales responded.

Each force that replied had at least one case of a driver exceeding 110MPH. Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive, said, ‘It was disheartening, to say the least, that some road users are showing such disregard for the safety of all other road users. At speeds of 140 MPH it is simply impossible for an individual to react to anything that might happen in front of him.’ By Graham Hill

It now seems that you are more likely to suffer a speeding fine when travelling abroad than in the UK. It was a few years ago when the DVLA became obliged to provide driver details if a Brit was caught speeding, or committing any other vehicle related crime, in another EU member country.

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.

But you only received a fine if you were stopped by roadside police, you would not receive a fine if caught on a speed camera. But that is about to change. The European Parliament has now voted in favour of new laws that give police forces on the Continent the power to track drivers home and pursue payment of fines.

Authorities in any member EU country can now use the number plate picked up by the speed camera to identify the driver and his home address then issue the fine and even take court action if the fine remains unpaid. As it goes I don’t know too many people who nip across to France simply to put the Ford Focus through its paces on a French motorway, sticking two fingers out of the car window as yet another speed camera catches them exceeding the motorway limit.

In fact quite the opposite, for at least half their trip, as the car strains to get much beyond 30 mph as it carts back to the Ferry 40 cases of the mega hypermarket’s finest red ‘for personal use only’. What I do see, living not that far from Dover, is cars and trucks with foreign plates breaking just about every law going so I was pleased to see that the laws apply across Europe so we will be able to pursue foreign drivers breaking the law in the UK.

The new laws that come into force in May include offences such as speeding, ignoring red lights, drink & drug driving and using a mobile phone. In the past the only offence that could be pursued was speeding. Whilst the new laws come into effect in May the DVLA has been given a 2 year extension to adapt their systems before it is legally bound to share data on UK drivers caught abroad. At the moment the laws only relate to fines but next year the EU is looking into harmonising penalty points.

If this comes about it means that UK drivers could end up losing their licences through breaking the law abroad. Our roads minister, Robert Goodwill (no I’d never heard of him either) has said we will oppose such a move and we would vote against such a move. This whole issue raises questions over data protection. We like to think that our systems in the UK are robust but what happens when data is requested by other EU countries, could the information be used for other purposes? A question that hasn’t been answered. By Graham Hill

Most of us are enjoying the lowest fuel prices for years. But there are a few people living way out in the sticks that are not only having to pay much higher prices for their petrol and diesel but they have to spend money driving for miles to get to the fuel 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.

The Government introduced their Rural Fuel Rebate Scheme in 2012 which meant that petrol stations in selected areas could claim up to 5 pence per litre from the Government as a reduction of the fuel duty payable, which in turn enabled them to sell their fuel at a more competitive rate than previous.

In order to be able to do this the Government had to have the scheme approved by the European Commission who would only approve the scheme if applied to islands off the mainland, these included the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, islands on the Clyde and the Isles of Scilly.

The Government now want to extend the scheme to the rural areas of mainland England and Scotland. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has said that he is hopeful that the extended scheme will be introduced before the general election in May. The European Commission has already approved the extension of the scheme onto the mainland but the proposal must also be approved by member states through the Council of the European Union.

The extended scheme, if approved, will be selected by postcode taking into account current pump prices, cost of transporting the fuel, areas have to be more than 100 miles from the nearest refinery and population density, this must be no higher than any currently in the scheme. As a result the following will fall within the extended scheme, parts of the Scottish Highlands, Argyll and Bute, Northumberland, Cumbria, Devon and Hawes in North Yorkshire. Fuel retailers within scheme areas must apply to HM Revenue and Customs in order to claim back the duty.

If you find a retailer charging high prices in your rural area you should make sure that they are receiving the rebate and that they are passing it all on. Pop in and have a chat. By Graham Hill

Following on from my views regarding the testing of driverless cars on public roads I’ve just read a piece on the likely changes to legislation that will be necessary. But before I get to that I have a couple of questions of my own. First of all what will be the eventual cost of one of these driverless cars?

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.

We know that electric cars have been a dismal failure. Very few people have taken them, not least because when you replace a traditional engine with an electric motor and install a big battery it adds, on average, £10,000 to the cost of the car. So with all the technology needed to replace a driver will they cost circa £100,000 or am I missing something? And why?

Why do I want to be in the driver’s seat of a driverless car? I actually quite enjoy driving and although I am about to replace my current car with the same car but the latest model, I’m getting excited. Can’t see me getting excited over a car I won’t be driving, a bit like getting excited over getting in a taxi. Will they reduce congestion? No, if anything more cars will appear on the roads.

Will they make the roads safer? I don’t think so. Communism is a great concept with everyone being treated equally but it can’t work as long as human beings have desires, aspirations and the basic need to be better than the next bloke. And so with driverless cars, they will only make roads safer if every driver has one.

Many pundits have suggested that driverless cars will provide ‘full business mobility’. People will be able to hold meetings in cars and work as they travel from A to B. What a load of tosh! Have they not heard of public transport, airplanes and chauffeurs? Improve public transport, especially trains and make it possible to travel to London from just outside Brighton without having to stand all the way in a carriage that uses an open window as a means of air conditioning.

Moving on to legislation? Does entering into the car’s control system the data needed to calculate the destination and speed make you a ‘driver’ and do you therefore need a licence? As I understand it some cars will be ‘highly automated’ whilst others will be ‘fully automated’, will both require a driving licence or just the highly automated vehicles?

If you need a licence to drive a highly automated vehicle one must assume that you could be convicted if caught using a mobile phone, eating at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt. God forbid that you are caught drunk as a skunk in a driverless car, will you be convicted of drunk driving? For me the whole idea of driverless cars is a nonsense. But then I would have probably thought that you couldn’t improve on a horse and cart. I’ll get my coat! By Graham Hill

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• Driverless cars in California rack up four accidents since September (slashgear.com)

We all know that crooked private car park and land owners got their come upance when the Protection of Freedom Act 2012 was introduced that banned the clamping of cars on private land.

If you work in the finance industry you have probably been involved in debates and discussion over the last 12 months regarding some of the biggest changes to the consumer credit industry since the introduction of Hire Purchase in the 60’s. If you are a lender, broker, dealer or consumer (this includes small businesses that are small partnerships or sole traders) life will never be the same again.

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.

The Government passed over administration of the Consumer Credit Act from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in April 2014. Since then confusion has reigned. I’m not going to talk about the affect on the lenders and the brokers but you need to understand the potential detrimental affect on you as a customer.

In the past when a dealer, broker, shop or anyone else had to provide advice on finance they had to hold a Consumer Credit Licence. It was a totally meaningless piece of paper, we all knew that, as long as you didn’t have a criminal record or were an undischarged bankrupt you could apply for and be granted a licence. It was simple but actually meaningless.

So when the FCA took over and changed the system from a single licence with a number of categories such as credit broking, debt collection, debt advice etc. we now have a three tier system, named Full Permission, Limited Permission and Appointed Representative. It was all beginning to look good, at last there was a body to police the consumer credit industry that might get rid of a large number of crooks and ensure that new entrants and even those already providing advice were properly qualified.

However, the opposite seems to be happening. In order to apply for permission brokers and dealers will need to spend a lot of money, not only in application costs but ongoing administration and reporting costs. This will result in some smaller used car dealers withdrawing their finance offering because the new regulations are far too complicated for them to understand.

It will also cause some brokers to withdraw for similar reasons so you as a customer will have less choice. It also means that the cost of being regulated will increase sharply so those costs will be reflected in the finance charges. On the other hand brokers who offer commercial finance to limited companies, i.e. non consumers are also being encouraged to apply for Full Permission.

I find this approach by trade bodies and lenders obnoxious. These companies with little or no experience of consumer finance will be able to provide customers any consumer product they wish from personal loans to HP and buy to let mortgages. It’s a disgrace, these brokers should never be given Full Permission but if recent history is anything to go by every applicant will be granted Full Permission with very few rejections.

Sounds like Consumer Credit Licences all over again. If you are currently considering various car finance options make sure that you are talking to someone who is properly qualified. By Graham Hill

I’m in the process of setting up a new marketing business that will give those who sign into my new scheme access to a wide range of discounts and bonuses from cheap MOT, servicing and repairs to cheap subscriptions to motor magazines, special offers on tyres, discounts or added free benefits to roadside breakdowns and much more.

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.

One of the latest developments is the addition of cheap legal advice from legal specialists. The need for such a service was highlighted when I read about the buyer of a new Audi A1which developed a fault after just 2 days.

The car was taken back by the supplying dealer for him to repair but after 2 weeks the fault had only just been identified as a fault with the ABS control unit. Unfortunately the dealer couldn’t find a fix so the driver, quite rightly demanded a replacement car. After a lot of buggering about without a solution the driver involved Auto Express who contacted Audi who agreed that the driver should have the car replaced.

By this stage I would have been on Audi’s rooftop with their MD dangling by his boot laces pleading to supply a new car even if he had to go to Germany to collect it himself. It is your legal right as well as claim compensation. In the end and no doubt as a gesture of bloody goodwill the driver not only had the car replaced but had the spec. upgraded to an S-Line.

We need a legal helpline for drivers to access in order to get rid of all the ignorance that exists about buyers legal rights. Watch this space, lots of exciting things happening this year. By Graham Hill

If you thank that is dopey, how about the 2,410 drivers who managed to lock a child in their cars resulting in a call out for the AA in 2014. A further 1,014 AA customers managed to lock their pets in their cars with a staggering 40,072 forgetting whether their vehicles ran on petrol or diesel and filled their cars with the wrong fuel. Jeepers!

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.

Oh and the 1,014 pets weren’t all dogs, they ranged from guinea pigs to snakes. Who would be an AA patrolman? According to the AA it’s not as simple as opening the door to allow the driver to get to their precious pet, they often escape cages and boxes and manage to squeeze into the back of the dashboard requiring the patrolman to dismantle it in order to rescue a pet that was in fact quite comfy where it was.

Who’d have thought you would need a tetanus jab in order to work for the AA? There were an amazing 3 million callouts in 2014. Top of the callout list was batteries at 427,586 followed by tyres at 373,746, lights 131,527, alternator at 106,587 and clutch failure at 103,229. Mondays are the busiest days for the AA with an extra 1,000 callouts over the daily average of 9,337.

Monday 24^th November was the busiest day last year with 14,501 callouts. Bloody interesting eh! The longest recovery was 615 miles from south London to Ross-shire. Amazing! By Graham Hill

When people move house they tend to look for certain things in the area into which they are planning to move. Ease of access, closeness to schools with high teaching standards, where the shops are, likelihood of flooding etc. etc. But it is felt that a new credential is starting to surface, as a result of which those crazy girls and boys at Confused.com have carried out a survey in order to help.

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.

What is this new credential? Obviously it is the greenness of your nearest town or city. What they did was look at every car  registered to an area and calculated the average CO2 emissions figure.

Now I have to say girls and boys this isn’t the most scientific way of arriving at the greenest and dirtiest towns and cities across the land but it is a start and must have nicely filled a few otherwise boring days with something productive and incredibly useful (better than sitting in front of your PC’s playing Candy Crush – just).

In terms of cities, and according to Confused.com, London is the worst of all for CO2 emissions, followed by St Albans (is that a city?) then Brighton & Hove. This is what Gemma Stanbury, head of motor at Confused.com, had to say, ‘With so many Brits relying on their cars for work and other commitments, it’s unrealistic to think that people will be able to do without their cars.

But it’s encouraging to see that many drivers are making an effort to become greener.’ Are they? I have to say Gemma that I don’t have many clients that make their final decision based on the car’s CO2 unless they are looking at the benefit in kind implications which is more of a financial decision rather than a ‘save their local environment’ decision.

In case you are at all interested here are the vitally important stats in the event you are considering a move in the near future: