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Bits & Pieces: Halfords Autocentres found in a survey that a third of motorists believed that kicking tyres was sufficient to check whether tyres were safely inflated. Men are more likely to use this test (42%) compared to women (30%). Are they nuts or what?

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.

Have you ever wondered how drivers of fighter jets keep their windscreens clear? No, nor me but it may be that the technology used on jets could replace windscreen wipers. They use frequency waves to keep the windscreen clear and this technology is being developed by McLaren and could ultimately find its way onto production cars. Especially when it was revealed that this technology could be mass produced for as little as £10 per car. Congestion is costing drivers a fortune according to traffic information company Inrix and the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Gridlock in the UK is costing households £4.4 billion each year with London accounting for £2 billion. By Graham Hill

If I was to sell you my used Vauxhall Astra and it had a badge on the back that suggested that it was a top of the range Elite when in fact it was an entry level Exclusiv, there wouldn’t be much you could do about it unless I had advertised it as a fully spec’d Elite. The same would apply if the car I was selling was a 2010 car but was 2009 model year spec. Exclusiv.

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 fact is that you can inspect the car and see that the car doesn’t have leather seats, electric rear windows or fog lights that were fitted on an Elite as standard when the car was new or the addition of fog lights and sat nav when the car changed from 2009 to 2010. You see exactly what you are getting so the basic rule of Caveat Emptor – buyer beware prevails.

Of course this isn’t the case with a new car that you don’t get to see before you buy it or lease it. With some cars changing model spec at least once if not twice every year you may not receive what you thought you had ordered. Especially as manufacturers will throw a few thousand pounds across the bonnet (that’s dealer speak for bonus) of the outgoing model in order to sell them quickly to make way for the new model coming out.

Whilst this represents great value for money (we currently have deals on top of the range outgoing Focus models) you may not be told that the cars on offer are not the new model cars. Some may be pre-registered whilst others may just be stockpiled so whilst I would be suspicious if the cars are pre-registered, suggesting old model cars, that may not be the case if they are unregistered.

If unregistered you might assume that the car you will receive will be the car advertised on the manufacturer’s web site with at best a different spec. at worst a completely new shape. Manufacturers will also advertise a new model maybe 2 months in advance of launch, again fooling you into thinking that the car you just ordered is the new model. So always check with the supplier that the car you have ordered is the car you want? Don’t simply be tempted by a cheap rate. By Graham Hill

Years ago I was group general manager for a reasonable sized PLC. I was responsible for a large number of departments including IT, general admin, cost and management accounting,  personnel (known as HR these days), health and safety and much more including our fleet department responsible for over 700 vehicles.

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.

At the time Peugeot had introduced some major new development in the area of diesel cars, in the past diesels were mainly fitted into vans and trucks. They were still a bit noisy, lacked a bit of low end power, especially the non turbo versions – 0-60 in a week and a half and filling up with diesel meant you stank of the stuff until it wore off 5 days later!

But being a Cost and Management Accountant I crunched the figures and decided that company cars should all be diesel, except the main board of directors and me! The staff kicked off, as did their managers and directors, but I was having none of it. The figures didn’t lie so the drivers had diesel imposed upon them, after all when is a company ever run as a democracy – good grief!

Constantly I would hear the argument that I should be driving a diesel and I would use every reason under the sun until it came down to the fact that I simply didn’t want to. Now I was reminded of this situation when I read that the Government have finally agreed to include 150 electric vehicles in their fleet of cars used to ferry ministers around. The £5 million scheme is expected to extend to councils, the police force and the NHS.

Considering the government has been pushing EV’s for 5 years why has it taken so long to lead the way? I could understand if this was in the 70’s and the government was a company but they are a democracy for goodness sake! With this new initiative led by the Government to push more of us into EV’s, will I be changing my car next year for an electric car? The hell I will, only just started driving diesels! Have a word! By Graham Hill

After watching the accidents that appeared in the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend it not only brought into focus the very high level of safety now in F1 cars but also the fact that even the precautions fitted to the cars can’t allow for the very infrequent freak accident that happened to Jules Bianchi, our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

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.

Much of the F1 technology has been transferred across to normal road cars, from tyres to brakes and traction control. Fatalities on UK roads are dropping, as is the seriousness of the injuries received by those caught up in the accidents. Volvo, known for their very high safety standards, have stated that by 2020 no one will be killed or seriously injured in their cars.

But having said that the EU believes there is more to be done across the board and has set targets for the introduction of automatic systems into all new type-approved cars that will automatically alert the emergency services should the car be involved in an accident along with a locator that will advise the emergency services the exact location of the vehicle.

The plan was to make this statutory from the start of 2015 but the car industry said it needed at least 3 years to test and implement such a scheme. They also need to decide upon an acceptable method of advising the emergency services across Europe. Some prestige cars already have an emergency system fitted into the car but it requires someone to activate it which then dials into the manufacturers own call centre who then has to do something to alert the emergency services.

Some have suggested the use of mobile phones but they are not too accurate when pinpointing location and an automatic alert app. would need to sense when the phone flies across a car in an accident. eCall is a device proposed by the EU in 2004 and is already being used by some manufacturers.

It is a box that detects an accident through sensors mounted in the car, calls the emergency services and pinpoints the location but the system still needs refinement and certainly won’t be ready for the launch date proposed by the EU, now moved back to October 2015. According to Volvo’s own system, On Call’s, product manager, Michael L Sena the industry would need a further 3 years before every new car was fitted with such a device. He also saw problems with setting up the infrastructure across Europe for the same device to work in every EU country.

It was a massive task and not one that could be completed in less than a year. He also pointed out the legal implications around data protection, human rights etc. many drivers would not be happy with someone somewhere knowing of their every move and being able to track them, something I touched on recently in one of my blogs.

The argument to that is that the system doesn’t track you, it only activates in the event of an accident. It is likely to happen though, as earlier in the year the EU voted for ‘the deployment of the necessary infrastructure’ to accommodate the new eCall system across Europe. So it should now be under way. By Graham Hill

I am often asked why manufacturers have included things like stop/start technology and are hell bent on reducing engine sizes to that fitted to a 1960’s moped? Are they all becoming amazingly environmentally responsible? Well I’m sure some manufacturers would argue that they are becoming more responsible and are concerned about the environment but I would suspect that it is more to do with cash!

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.

Or more important fines that will be imposed by the EU if the manufacturers don’t meet CO2 emission targets. And they won’t be pussy footing about, they are set to impose fines of millions of Euros so it is important that the manufacturers tow the line. But how is the ‘average’ CO2 being calculated?

It isn’t as simple as one would think? The obvious suggestion is to take the total cars sold x their individual CO2 output then divided back by the number of cars sold. If you thought this, you would be wrong because it would be unfair on manufacturers of prestige cars compared to those who make predominantly small cars.

The answer was to build in each car’s weight into the equation. As a result Business Car applied the rules to the top 20 manufacturers to see who was producing the greenest cars and which manufacturers were meeting the CO2 targets for their range. Surprisingly no manufacturers were on target but they listed the top manufacturers as follows with their achievement compared to target:

By Graham Hill

You may or may not know that taxi fares are calculated (automatically via software in the metre) using a mixture of time and distance. For example, the cabs in London travelling between 06.00 and 22.00 on a normal weekday (excluding bank holidays) charge according to Tariff 1. For the first 252.4 metres or the first 27.1 seconds (whichever is reached first) there is a minimum charge of £2.40.

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.

For each additional 126.2 metres or 27.1 seconds (whichever is reached first), or part thereof, if the fare is less than £17.40 then there is a charge of 20p. Once the charge has reached £17.40 the charge increases to 20p per 88.5 metres or 19 seconds (whichever is reached first), or part thereof.

As it’s easier to calculate the cost per mile than per hour (we don’t know the speed the cab will travel at) the rate goes from £15.30 per mile to £2.55 per mile after the minimum charge then it increases again to £3.64 per mile once the charge reaches £17.40. All very complicated but converting into a cost per mile provides us with a better perspective.

So I was quite surprised to read a totally different perspective on rail fares following the last, above inflation, fare rise announcement. It was not only shocking but also gave us a very good reason why people are still not choosing to take public transport over their precious car. The report suggested that peak time rail fares are one of the worst value items, sitting alongside car insurance, inner city/airport parking, energy bills and car mechanics charged by some dealers at £200 per hour.

The columnist explained that his short, early morning trip cost an amazing £1.20 per minute travelled or £72 per hour. So comparing that with a black cab after the minimum charge of £2.40 you pay 20p per 27.1 seconds or £0.44 per minute or £26.40 per hour. Is it me and the columnist, Mike Rutherford, or is this madness? He calculated that those doing the 121 minute trip between Manchester and London during peak time costs them £1.33 per minute or £80 per hour.

He points out that it is just a matter of time before 2^nd class peak travel will reach £100 per hour or £150 per hour first class. Apparently an annual season ticket between London and Manchester costs £14,000 which works out at £1.33 per minute. He then compared that with the cost of a new Mini which, after allowing for ALL running costs including the cost of the car, fuel, insurance, servicing, RFL, depreciation etc. it came in at 33p per minute if you assume an average 60mph.

Now this may be a little unrealistic but it puts rail travel into context. No wonder people still want to avoid train travel! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Rail passengers ‘hit with £664 fare rise’ (telegraph.co.uk)

Philips have issued a warning about counterfeit Xenon bulbs being sold as Philips originals but are actually ripoffs sold in what looks like Philips original packaging.

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.

They are dangerous, poor quality counterfeits that could end up blinding oncoming vehicles, provide poor road illumination and do not have precision mounts that can lead to the electrics burning out. The lamps are not homologated which means they wouldn’t pass a vehicle inspection.

They could even damage the car’s onboard computer system which could cost a fortune to repair or replace. Philips have warned sellers, both online and offline such as spares shops and garages that they will be subject to litigation if caught but have asked for the help of buyers. If you buy a Philips bulb you can check online to see if it is original and report it if it’s a fake.

If you want to check online go to www.philips.com/original If you fit a fake bulb that could be considered responsible for causing an accident you could find yourself in court, as could the supplier. Don’t take the risk. By Graham Hill

When you take your car in for servicing or repair is it dealt with by a fitter or a mechanic. Personally, until recently, I didn’t know the difference and frankly it isn’t something that keeps me awake at night.

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 in new guidelines issued by the Government, as part of its plans to licence garages, it apparently fails to identify the clear distinction between the two which has upset a few mechanics. So to clarify, a fitter is someone who simply changes components as recommended by the manufacturer/computer.

Whereas a mechanic is someone who needs a much greater understanding as to how things work. So there you have it, recognition at last for the mechanics who have been confused with those far less qualified fitters! By Graham Hill

OK, we are now on the final straight, I am now going to talk about the finance application itself. But before I discuss the content there is an overriding requirement on you to answer each question accurately, if you don’t and you are found out, then you could be considered to have acted fraudulently.