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If you think that your new Mercedes was built in a highly efficient factory in Germany you would be mistaken, most models are now made around the world. Some are built in South Africa and some are built and shipped from South America to name just two.

The VW Polo is also built in South Africa and because of high import duties many manufacturers have factories in India. Many cars are manufactured in the most unlikely of places. Take the Vauxhall Mokka X – it is built in Bupyeong in South Korea and as for the true Brit Mini, whilst several models are built in the UK some are built in Austria and some in the Netherlands?

Buy a BMW X3 and it will have to be shipped over from the country of origin – the USA. And that’s not to mention the parts with some Ford parts for their Fiesta such as engines and gearboxes being manufactured in Brazil and Mexico – did you know that Mr Trump? So does it really matter? I would suggest not.

I can’t remember the last time I was asked where a car   was bolted together as a deciding factor – but could this change? Would you be happy if your brand new car turned up with a ‘Made In China’ sticker attached? But this could soon become a reality.

Not because the main manufacturers are considering building cars there but the Chinese manufacturers are considering selling their cars outside China and targetting Europe. And if they gain a foothold it may encourage European manufacturers to start building cars there.

After all Kia’s and Hyundai’s are manufactured in South Korea and their reputation is one of the highest in the marketplace, now ranked above Ford in terms of worldwide sales. In order to gain a foothold Beijing recently hosted their International Motor Show at which journalists were invited to Lynk & Co’s manufacturing plant, built at a cost of £1.4 billion.

They expect to produce 200,000 cars per annum at the highly automated plant. The consensus amongst the journalists was that the plant was incredibly impressive – as were the cars. As Auto Express said, the cars rolling out of the plant were finished to a higher level than many European cars. VW made noises that they would consider exporting cars made in China into Europe. Watch this space! By Graham Hill

When electric vehicles(EV) were first introduced you had to find one of the very rare charging points and leave your car plugged in for many hours in order to achieve a full charge. Th good news was that most of these charging points were totally free to use.

We then saw the introduction of home (or works) chargers that could be installed at home and run off the standard domestic electric supply. In order to encourage the installation of these charges whilst promoting the use of electric cars the Government offered a subsidy to those installing a charge point.

Of course this now meant that you would be paying to top up the batteries with latest figures showing that to charge the battery of the Renault Zoe from 0 – 80% would cost in the region of £4.00. Compare this with what you would now have to pay to charge your car at a public Polar slow charge point and it will now cost you £13 over 3 times as much.

What Car has looked into the anomalies and I’ve used some of their findings to report on the current situation. First of all they found that there were still some free charging points. They also found some wide variances between suppliers. Looking at the cost per kilowatt hour – when you charge your car at home it will cost on average 14p per kWh. Some public chargers are charging up to 40 pence per kWh with Shell currently on a promotional tariff of 25pence per kWh which will rise to an astronomical 49pence per kWh from 1^st June.

The charging points can charge at 22Kw or 43Kw, a slow or fast charge. But they found that whilst they were charged for the fast charge they only received the slow charge when connected to a Polar charge point in Hampshire. This meant that they paid £6 for a 30-minute charge but only got the equivalent of 15 minutes charging.

In addition to the cost of the electricity, you can also be charged per visit. This can add as much as £3.50 to the cost each time you charge the car. Some demand a registration fee of up to £20 to join their network. To add to the total confusion some will charge on a kWh basis whilst others charge on a minutes or hours basis. This makes it very difficult to compare tariffs.

The range of the cars is also confusing. The Zoe is top of the production car trees with an official range of 250 miles. But in the middle of Winter in real-world conditions, it was only found to achieve 130 miles. Like many EV’s the Zoe has two battery sizes, 22kWh and 41kWh, the second capable of rapid charging. Using the car with the larger capacity battery they carried out a 10% charge at a Source London charging point in south-west London. It cost £2.07 which may seem reasonable but would have cost £17 had they charged 80%. The fast charger took half an hour to charge up to 10%.

Next they were off to Winchester on the M3 where they hooked up to an Ecotricity rapid charger. They were down to 30% but in 46 minutes were back up to 80% at a cost of £6.90. That would mean the cost of 0-80% would be £9.36. However, if you are an Ecotricity customer with a home charger fitted the cost would drop down to half that figure as you receive a 50% rebate.

Finally, on their way back to London they used a Polar instant charger which cost £6 for a 30-minute charge. However, the bill was calculated on a charge rate of 43kWh but in fact they only received a 22kWh charge so they only received half of the charge they paid for.

So the industry needs to tighten up and if the cost of charging increases much more simple economics will take over and put people off this ‘cheaper form of motoring’. So is running an EV becoming more expensive to fuel than a petrol or diesel car. What Car put it to the test.

A 50% EV charge will give you a realistic 65 mile range. You pay £6 for that via a rapid charger. That calculates out at 9 pence per mile. If you have to add an admin fee for every charge (Geniepoint London demands £1.80 every time you charge using one of its rapid chargers)  the figure increases to 12 pence per mile. If you stop at a Shell garage after 1^st June the figure increases to 15 pence per mile.

Compare these figures with a Fiesta 1.0 petrol which costs about 13 pence per mile or a VW Polo 1.0 Diesel that costs 11 pence per mile. Of course, the electricity cost comes down if you only ever use your home charger. But if you use public chargers the cost is already above petrol and diesel equivalents. Something needs to be done. By Graham Hill

We all know that one of the most common car insurance fiddles is the widely publicised Cash for Crash whiplash claim. Simply a car races past you, swerves in front and brakes hard. You brake and still run into the back of the car. As you ran into the car in front you are considered at fault whilst all 5 people in the car at the time claim for whiplash and each receive several thousands of pounds in costs and compensation.

With the introduction of the Civil Liabilities Act (at Bill stage at the moment) compensation for whiplash claims will drop from the current maximum of £1,850 to £425. The new Act will make it illegal to submit a whiplash claim without medical evidence. Together it is felt that this will discourage this scurrilous activity and in turn save the Insurance Industry £1 billion each year.

This is the equivalent to £35 per motorist. The Ministry of Justice says that despite the UK having some of the safest roads in Europe the number of whiplash claims has increased by 50% in the past 10 years. They blame a predatory industry that encourages motorists to submit exaggerated or fraudulent claims driving up insurance premiums for all.

Justice secretary, David Gauke, said, ‘This legislation will ensure that whiplash claims are no longer an easy payday. The Bill will seek to set fixed amounts of compensation for whiplash claims and halt the practice of setting claims without medical evidence.’

Whilst some insurers, including Liverpool Victoria and Aviva have pledged to pass on any savings to motorists I have my doubts. And how will we know? Will they send a note to all clients advising of a drop in their premiums? I doubt it. My concern is that the £425 ceiling is too low when applied to a genuine case. Genuine cases of whiplash should be treated fairly with those affected being suitably recompensed. I know people who have suffered whiplash with the problem remaining forever. It can be very painful and debilitating. £425 hardly seems fair to me simply because a few crooks make false claims. By Graham Hill

If like me, you like to watch QI you will know that when asked a question with an obvious answer, the chances are that the obvious answer is wrong. So if you believed that the obvious answer to the question above was the ‘UK’ you would only be partly right.

The reason for saying this is that we will still be exporting to Europe, whether free of duty or not, the products must still conform to health and safety standards set down by the EU. Emissions from our cars must still conform to the EU standards, currently Euro 6.

But that aside we will have International Accounting standards that mean we can’t account for anything in a way we feel we should do – we must conform to the International rules. And that’s not all. What or who is the United Nations? If you thought out loud and said a body set up to maintain world peace and you were sitting on the panel of QI you would have an incorrect answer klaxon blasting in your ear.

The truth is that the UN is currently not only investigating the use of Chemical weapons by Assad but also headlight glare. A United Nations working party has been set up, following concerns by the public, to look into headlight glare to determine whether headlights are now too bright? With newer cars now being fitted with bi-xenon bulbs and even using matrix laser technology (no I don’t either) the public are suggesting that they are being blinded by the bright headlights.

Seriously, a body that I thought was set up to police the world is checking out the safety of car headlights. When did that responsibility pass to them or am I completely missing a point here?

On the point of headlights I read in the same article that an RAC investigation found that 65% of all motorists claimed that they were regularly blinded by oncoming traffic. Good enough then – no wonder the UN are involved. I could possibly understand it if headlight blinding was resulting in a serious number of accidents each year – but there is no evidence of that. All very confusing.

If they carry on down this path I can see us exiting from the UN – let’s call it BREXITUN. The world’s going nuts! By Graham Hill

Insurance comparison website comparethemarket.com has found that car insurance rates are cheaper in the summer than in the winter. New figures showed that insurance rates were most expensive in December. They explained that over the past 4 years the cost of a typical car insurance premium was 13% higher in December than the monthly average for the rest of the year.

Summer and Spring months were found to have the cheapest policies. The comparison site said that in December, call centres are often less heavily staffed and closed for certain periods, leading to less competition in the market and higher prices overall for drivers.

As a result the comparison sites have suggested that drivers should look to take out policies in the summer. Very Strange! By Graham Hill

When Apple updates the operating system on their iPhones in the autumn of this year to IOS 11 it will include a mode that will prevent alerts from coming through to their iPhone whilst driving.

The ‘Do Not Disturb Whilst Driving’ feature is activated when connected to a car via Bluetooth or cable. It will silence all notifications and blank the screen. The feature will also respond to all messages coming through with a text message that says that the person is currently driving and is unavailable.

Passengers who are also connected to the car can opt to disable the feature by confirming that they are not behind the wheel. Drivers will be able to send messages in an emergency by saying the word ‘Urgent’ and can tailor the replies to different contacts.

The new feature, whilst it doesn’t stop those who are not Bluetooth connected from holding the phone to their ear or texting whilst driving, it is certainly a step in the right direction. Others in the industry have given the revision a thumbs up.

Pete Willians, spokesman for the BePhoneSmart campaign said, ‘We’re pleased that at last millions of drivers who use an iPhone are about to be able to put an end to intrusive notifications while they are behind the wheel.’ I agree. By Graham Hill

Nearly a million bus lane fines are issued a year according to the RAC. Between 2015 and 2017 3.4 million penalty charge notices have been issued by local councils, estimated to be £68 million a year or £200 million over the 3 years – so why has this been happening?

The RAC puts it down to ‘inadequate’ or ‘confusing’ signage causing drivers to accidentally move into a bus lane without realising it. It begs the question, is the signage poor in order to catch unsuspecting motorists? The problem is that whilst the local councils wring their hands the confusion causes traffic delays and jams leading also to increased emissions.

One of the problems, in addition to signage, is inconsistency. Some towns and cities have bus lanes that are reserved as bus lanes 24/7 whilst others allow other drivers to use their bus lanes outside set times. So when motorists travel from town to town, to be on the safe side, they stay out of the bus lane.

You will often see cars pulling over at the end of a bus lane to turn left at a junction or roundabout only to be prevented from doing so by those who have zoomed down the bus lane (as they know the rules) giving the impression they are doing something illegal – when they aren’t. This can lead to traffic delays at junctions and possible road rage. A motorcyclist also pointed out that in some towns he can drive along the bus lanes at any time whereas others he can’t.

If you are concerned about receiving a fine it was interesting to note that Manchester was top of the fine list. 2^nd was Glasgow, followed by Cardiff, Bradford and Nottingham. Strangely, whilst London was left off the list, it actually slotted in below Glasgow – quite a surprise. I won’t bore you with more stats but I would point out that in London the borough with the biggest increase was my good friends – Croydon with a 787% increase. I think if you sneezed in a car in Croydon you’de be done for driving without due care and attention!

So the warning, check the signage carefully and don’t assume that a car whizzing down the bus lane knows the rules and is taking advantage, then follow him, he’s probably just nicked the car and doesn’t give a damn! By Graham Hill

The new emissions tests were supposed to stop any emissions test fiddling and allow employers to make a more educated assessment when deciding on their car policy – even when the car policy only extended to one car. As a result, we all knew that there was a very high probability that the emissions figures, for both CO2 and NOx would both increase which would affect employees benefit in kind tax, vehicle excise duty and NI.

And that is pretty much the sum total of all the information provided by the Government. As over 60% of my cars are supplied on business agreements I thought I would explain where we are at the moment. The current testing procedure is called NEDC and it’s the result of those tests that we use to calculate benefit in kind tax.

Since September 2017 all new cars launched or facelifted have to be tested under the new regime, the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). The other thing we know is that all new cars must be tested under WLTP from 1^st September 2018 (unless the car is on runout) but given an NEDC correlated figure.

This figure was assumed to mean that if your car had emissions of 95g/km of CO2 under NEDC and 120 g/km under WLTP a calculation would be made and we would end up somewhere close to the NEDC reading. Unfortunately, that’s it – all the information we have. So we have yet to learn how the changes will affect benefit in kind tax, vehicle excise duty and National Insurance.

From what I have been reading everything else, other then the two known deadlines, is total guesswork. We haven’t even been told that if the car you are driving is tested and the calculation applied to arrive at a CO2 emissions midpoint, whether you will pay increased benefit in kind tax and NI. The assumption is that if you already have the car you will continue to pay at the old NEDC emissions level. But we don’t know. Apparently, the Treasury is still ‘assessing the impact’.

Another assumption is that given company vehicle lifecycles it is assumed that until 2020, any cars taken by businesses and provided as company cars will attract BIK tax and NI based on the WLTP test results then run through the calculator, known as CO2MPAS, to arrive at the mid-point figure. Assuming also that after 2020 the full WLTP reading will be used. Again, whilst it is the general feeling of the industry, 2020 has not been confirmed as the change date.

Whilst it was originally believed that once the CO2MPAS calculation was applied that the CO2 readings would only increase marginally, it has been found that they have increased by between 10 and 20 percent, hitting company car drivers pretty hard as the readings bump them up the tax bands. This could lead to a number of employees switching from company cars to car allowances which is not good. Experience shows that employees don’t take such good care of their cars and they err towards used cars as opposed to new cars.

I have to say that I was a remainer, not a remoaner. I knew that the BREXIT decision could go either way and I was prepared to accept the decision – whatever the outcome. But if this is an example of how we take back control, we are in for a very rough ride! By Graham Hill

I first started using contract hire in the late 70’s. I was working for a large manufacturer and leasing company and as General Manager I had overall responsibility for over 700 vehicles. We owned all of our vehicles and I had to fight a massive battle to convince the board that we would be better off leasing our vehicles. I had progressed from being the Group Cost and Management Accountant through Group IT Manager to Group General Manager.

This background meant that I could put forward a very strong and convincing case. It also meant that in those days for a contract hire company to capture a fleet of that size they had to be very flexible. It meant that we could pool our mileage and whilst some cars would be returned in excellent condition some, with very high mileage, would go back in pretty ropey condition. Again they would take a view and we rarely received a charge for damage repair.

In other words, cars that were returned under mileage would use their mileage credit to offset any cars returning over mileage. So we effectively received a rebate. And cars in showroom condition when returned would help to balance out those in relatively poor condition.

Those days are long gone, causing many customers all sorts of issues at the end of their contracts. For example when you set your mileage at 10,000 miles per annum and at the end of 3 years you exceed the mileage allowance by say 3,000 miles you are likely to receive a bill for say £300 if your excess mileage charge was 10 pence per mile. However, if you sent back the car with just 27,000 miles on the clock, 3,000 miles under, you receive no rebate. That’s not fair. I wouldn’t even mind if your rebate was just 5 pence per mile for under mileage, I would be a little happier.

The same applies to end of lease damage, especially if you are a good customer. I have to say that whilst I’m currently taking on MB Finance over a lease extension, when it comes to returning a car with minor damage on it I have twice had the charge waived as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.

Here’s the point, All leasing companies tend to work the same when it comes to excess mileage but I have just quoted the same car on the same mileage with two different suppliers. The excess mileage with one company was 8 pence per mile whilst the other was more than twice as much at 16.7 pence per mile. It becomes very confusing.

The same applies to repairs if you return the car with damage. Most leasing companies use the BVRLA standard recommendations, which is good news. The bad news is that they charge different amounts for the same work to be carried out. We need more consistency if leasing is to expand at least cost to the customer. By Graham Hill

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