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Years ago, a well-known comedian, Jasper Carrott, had a routine that included a part where he read out reasons given to an insurance company by drivers trying to explain the cause of their car accident. They all sounded ridiculous but apparently quite genuine and very funny.

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 was reminded of this routine whilst reading the causes given to the Highways Agency why people had stopped on the hard shoulder of a motorway. I should point out that it is illegal to stop on a hard shoulder unless there is an emergency. It is also illegal to drive down the lane of a motorway if a red X is displayed above it, something that is appearing more frequently as the Highways Agency open up hard shoulders for drivers to drive along at various times of the day.

Between July and September last year there were 2,062 instances of drivers braking the law by stopping on hard shoulders for reasons other than an actual emergencies. According to the Highways Agency, drivers that ignore the law could face a fine and points on their licence if they break either law.

The Central Motorway Police Group sent out over 700 letters to motorists misusing hard shoulders between September 2013 and April 2014 resulting in just 20% repeat offences. They seemed to be quite happy with that! Why aren’t they banning the drivers for 5 years for a repeat offence, ridiculous?

HA1-000949 (Photo credit: Highways Agency)

Anyway, here are the ten most dopey reasons given by drivers as to why they stopped on the hard shoulder:

• One motorist pulled over because they saw fire” on their dashboard display, it later turned out it was the name of the Adele track they were listening to.
• One motorist parked up and fell asleep on the M6.
• People stopping to read a map or check their sat-navs.
• Traffic officers stopped with two cars on the hard shoulder – the owners were half way through the selling and buying process for one of the cars.
• One driver realised their car insurance policy was up for renewal – they were ringing around for quotes to renew.
• A group of motorcyclists parked on the hard shoulder on the M1 to review their route and have a drink.
• Taxi drivers waiting on the hard shoulder around Heathrow airport for their client’s flights to arrive.
• A mobile phone operator, stopping at regular intervals in their private car carrying out signal tests on the hard shoulder.
• A driver who stopped to pick flowers.
• Have you broken down Sir? No, came the reply, we are taking pictures of our new born grandchild (in their open top sports car) as it is a lovely day.

Sadly not in the same league as Jasper Carrott, who is making a comeback by the way, but all pretty dopey and potentially dangerous! By Graham Hill

I’ve just found another little snippet of information. If you are planning a trip to Germany in the future you may have to pay a toll to use their roads from 2016 if proposals announced by the German Government go ahead. Foreign drivers would have to purchase a permit costing 10 euros (£7.90) for 10 days or 100 euros for a year long permit, depending on your car’s emissions.

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.

Germany’s transport minister said Germans would also have to pay but would be offset by a tax cut elsewhere. They estimate that the toll will raise 2.5 billion euros over 4 years. Germany is one of the few European mainland countries that doesn’t charge cars.

Next door neighbours France and Austria have tolls but don’t distinguish between nationals and foreigners. According to the report I read it is still unsure whether Germany will be allowed to carry out its plan because of its discrimination against foreigners.

Toll Booths, Hong Kong (Photo credit: Ian Muttoo)

But re-reading the report it says that they will also be charging German drivers but giving tax cuts elsewhere to offset the cost. Maybe I misunderstood! Is it me? Anyway, watch this space. By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Autobahn Thrills to Cost Foreigners Under German Plan – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)

It would seem that more and more Brits are hiring cars whilst on holiday. So as we come up to the serious holiday season it is quite timely for me to give you a bit of advice that could save you a lot of money if you are one of them. In a survey carried out by the Post Office it revealed that more than half of British holidaymakers hiring cars in Europe could face a huge hidden rental bill.

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 survey revealed that 56% of UK holidaymakers aren’t protecting themselves from accidents or theft with excess waiver insurance (EWI). Three quarters don’t bother with cover for glass, tyre or undercarriage damage. On average this extra insurance, payable on arrival, is about 12% of the cost of the excess but drivers are either not aware or ignore this insurance and run the risk of being hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

And don’t think the excess is the same as your domestic car insurance policy if you have an accident whilst in say Spain or Portugal of say £250, oooh no! The average accidental excess in Spain is £839 and in Portugal is £903 but the EWI and tyre and glass cover is just £99.10 and £87.55 respectively for 7 days cover.

Oh, and if you venture off the main roads in Greece, Spain or many other holiday countries you could hit a pothole that makes our potholes look like dimples causing all manner of expensive damage to wheels, suspension, brakes, undercarriage etc. Andrew Brown of Post Office Travel Money said, ‘It’s a false economy to cut costs by sticking to the basic cost when booking car rental online.

English: An old AVIS Car Rental advert on a side of a building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What’s more don’t leave it till you get to your holiday destination to find out what the hire car will really cost. Calculate all the costs by doing your homework in advance to find out the realistic price of car rental and holiday motoring.’ Good advice there from Mr Brown. Happy holiday! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• The great car hire rip off in Europe: £1,000 excess charges and insurance that DOUBLES the price of car rental (dailymail.co.uk)
• Holidaymakers warned about car hire costs: It’s cheapest in Cyprus at £295 week (while in Majorca it’s a whopping £514) (dailymail.co.uk)

I know we seem to be a nation of moaners in this country when it comes to weather conditions but there are few other countries in the world where they have a huge expanse of water on one side and the equivalent to a duck pond the other. Walk north for a few miles and you are stepping onto a glacier but take a few steps in the opposite direction and you’re negotiating sand dunes.

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.

And it doesn’t stop at ground level, racing around above us, when it feels like it, is the notoriously unpredictable jet stream. Add it all together and we end up with cars, the majority of which still don’t have air conditioning as standard because ‘it’s never that hot for that long’, and heating systems that don’t seem to have changed much since my dad’s Ford Consul.

But when it comes to adapting to weather conditions there is something we need to do, which the Government has the power to change and that is British Summertime. Not because of the inconvenience of re-setting your watch, phone, tablet, computer, laptop, electric toothbrush and all things electric twice every year but it is also dangerous.

Pedestrians have long made the argument against the annual change but statistics regarding car accidents are continue to add weight to the argument that we need to revert to GMT all year round. Typical of us Brits, we invent time by way of Greenwich Mean Time, the standard against which time around the world is measured, then we quite randomly add on the odd hour, then remove it a few months later for reasons that are now lost in the mists of time (I’m sure someone will enlighten me).

But this is all getting serious, as I witnessed myself a couple of days ago. At this time of year, when the skies are clearer and the sun at its most powerful, it reaches eye level during the rush hour. This, according to the AA has led to a quadrupling of head on crashes with lorries, believed to be caused by the long shadows cast by lorries, made even more dangerous when cars are turning.

Glare (Photo credit: theevilmightyf)

As a result the AA has come up with some suggestion to help prevent accidents:

• Always keep the windscreen clear both inside and out. I always keep a glass cleaner spray and kitchen roll in the boot to clean the outside, especially useful towards the end of the summer when bugs splatter themselves on your windscreen.
• If blinded slow down immediately. It is tempting to carry on regardless to let the glare pass but by then it may be too late.
• If driving at sunset, anticipate the effects of glare on you and other drivers. Drivers heading west or through terrain where the sun may appear suddenly need to expect to travel more slowly than usual.

I really do think we should be taking another look at the need to adjust our time twice every year. By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Dazzling road safety danger exposed (telegraph.co.uk)

Following on from my last piece it seems that 1 in 6 applications for finance were rejected last year according to statistics revealed by OceanFinance.co.uk. It will be interesting to see how this compares to 2014 following the introduction of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in April of this year.

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 found that more than a third of the adult population (38.6%) applied for finance of some form or another over the last 12 months. This was an increase from 2013 when 33% applied for one or more of the popular credit products. Men are more likely to apply than women by quite a margin, 43.6% vs 34.4% over the last 12 months.

The age group most likely to apply for credit are 25 – 34 at 60.6% whilst only 17% of the over 55’s applied for credit according to the stats. The most likely decline would be if you apply for an overdraft at nearly one in five declines (18.6%). 16% of those applying for a personal loan get declined.

The good news for applicants last year, not so sure the same will apply this year, is that car finance applications were most successful with just 11% being rejected. Applications for a first mortgage was the type of  finance that lenders liked the most as they were most likely to be accepted, no doubt helped along by the Government incentives reducing the risk. 84.5% of all applications were accepted over the last 12 months.

The type of lender most likely to lend to applicants are what are known as ‘crowd lenders’ or ‘peer to peer lenders’ with an acceptance rate of 86%. It was also found that rather than operate a straight accept or decline process applicants were offered a higher rate of interest if they were felt to be higher risk, particularly when applying for credit cards.

I fear that this will all change dramatically over the coming year – for the worse! By Graham Hill

As the new rules imposed upon consumers and small businesses via lenders by the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) start to take affect there is a worrying undercurrent starting to gather momentum. Earlier this year I was in a meeting with directors of one of the biggest lenders in the car finance industry.

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 asked what they believed the effect would be of the forthcoming FCA regulations and the rules that had started to filter through. Their response was, at the time, quite dismissive. They pointed out that they had been in the motor finance industry since 1959 and by now they actually knew how to underwrite a customer.

Whilst they weren’t prepared to share actual numbers with me they explained that the amount of delinquency was minimal (that’s the amount of defaults and arrears) and it was certainly manageable so the idea of a Government body telling them what they needed to look out for when underwriting a customer was frankly – ludicrous!

The idea that you needed to carry out some strange affordability tests and have copies of umpteen bills and proofs was simply several steps too far. We all had a bit of a laugh, a cup of tea and a chocolate Hob Nob before moving onto the next item for discussion.

Fast forward a couple of months and that same company is suddenly asking for more information, copies of tax returns, 3 months bank statements and a tree’s worth of paperwork to prove the person is who they say they are. So what has happened? Fines, that’s what has happened. The lenders who are new to the rules of the FCA have been told that if they don’t tow the line they will be fined – and I mean FINED!

Last year the FSA and FCA dished out £472 million in fines, even what many would consider to be minor breaches attracted fines measured in tens of thousands of pounds. So suddenly lenders have had a wake up call and who suffers? Other than brokers like me, the customers – that’s you!

Let me give you an unbelievable example, traditionally lawyers have been extremely low risk applicants as they generally operate as partners which means that all of their personal assets are on the line when taking out finance. In a recent application, out of 5 partners 4 had houses worth over £1 million and not one had a mortgage, the fifth had a house worth £800,000 with a £200,000 mortgage on it.

The company had been trading over 20 years and neither the company nor the partners had a blemish against them. Perfect you would think. Ohhh no, we even had last 3 months bank statements available showing a balance never less than £70,000 but their year end is September so the last accounts to be completed were for September 2013, which had not been finalised so the last audited accounts available were 2012, too old for the lender, or should I say the FCA when testing for affordability.

The lender then wanted management accounts, which the company doesn’t run. As the senior partner pointed out, they make obscene amounts of money, as explained by their accountants once a quarter, so why would they need to know how much they spent on paper clips or stamps? So no accounts dated within the last 12 months and no management accounts – customer declined.

After appeal we managed an acceptance but with a much larger initial rental to which the customer said no – or words to that effect. The times are certainly changing and in my opinion – not for the better. But the real reason for writing this piece is to warn you if you are due to arrange finance for a new car.

First of all forget the fact that you have had finance before, many funders now ignore that totally, you will be treated as a brand new customer. Make sure that you prepare for finance as I explain in my book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide (available on Amazon), make sure that your last 3 months bank statements are looking good and if they don’t, wait till they do and make sure there are no returned (bounced cheques/direct debits) items on the statements, that would be a straight decline.

Get a copy of your credit report and see what it says, make sure there are no mistakes on there, it is simple enough and that extra bit of preparation could be the difference between getting a car or not. Oh and use a proper broker that can make sure that he can help you along the process, you often only have one shot at finance so don’t let a bucket shop blow it for you. By Graham Hill

I was quite shocked to read that crooks no longer need to break a window to get into your car and forget about the tea leaves that  break into your house to nick your car keys along with the family silver and the contents of your fridge.

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.

Apparently the new techie toe rags can get into your car in less than 10 seconds with a computer or special gadget. Software or special gadgets that you can buy online fool your car’s computer that a smart key is present or it can be plugged into the car’s ECU to produce a ‘blank key.’

Not quite sure how you do that without breaking into the car in the first place? Anyway, it would seem that 47% of all car thefts in London last year were carried out using this method. That’s 9,870 out of 21,000. But the worst is yet to come.

When the police were asked how this type of crime could be prevented their only suggestion was to have a Thatcham approved tracking device fitted which operates separately to the ECU enabling the police to track and recover. Is that it? No fancy blocking device or an alarm that senses when an outside device is connecting to the ECU that isn’t approved? A bloody tracker!

What good is that after the event when some thief has driven your pride and joy like a bat out of hell for 5,000 miles? Worrying – very worrying! As a PS I have found out that manufacturers are more than aware of the problem and are addressing it – so there you have it.

Many years ago, when my namesake was racing cars I watched a demonstration by one of the F1 drivers showing how to avoid a skid by rapidly tapping the brake pedal. The driver applied and released the brakes in quick succession which gave greater control as the tyres moved round increasing the grip and avoiding a skid.

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 is the principal that developed into what has now been used for many years called ABS. Thousands of lives have been saved as a result of the fitting of ABS to all cars but now Thatcham have called for the latest brake development to be added to ABS and ESP as standard requirements on all new cars.

The new system known as Autonomous Electronic Braking (AEB) is already available or fitted to 23% of all new cars but Thatcham feels that more should be done by the Government to encourage the fitting of this technology by offering a £500 incentive to drivers that have it fitted.

Thatcham claims that the device would save 1,220 lives over 10 years and reduce casualties by 136,000. So what is AEB? It detects vehicles in front and applies the brakes in an emergency in time to prevent a front to end accident. In the more sophisticated systems the ‘radar’ can detect pedestrians and cyclists as well as solid vehicles.

At the moment if the system is fitted to a company car this will increase the driver’s benefit in kind tax and class 1A National Insurance Contributions, this is wrong according to Thatcham as the device is as much for the benefit of those outside the vehicle as inside.

Thatcham have shown that with AEB third party injury claims drop by 18%, whilst studies in the USA have put the reduction at 26%. Amazingly in Switzerland and Sweden front to rear crashes would drop by 31% and 48% respectively.

Whilst I have seen various claims relating to the benefits of AEB it is clear that this technology, if fitted, could save lives so I’m behind Thatcham and hope that they can convince the Government to do something to encourage the fitting of this life saving technology.

It might also help to prevent some of the crash for cash insurance claims so maybe the insurance companies should contribute something. Just a thought!

Related articles

• New AEB brakes ‘safer’ for cars (bbc.co.uk)

Oh dear, I once again find myself disagreeing with the self promoted ‘Motoring’s most outspoken and opinionated colomnist’ Mike Rutherford. This time over electric cars. He has described 100% electric cars as ‘stillborn’.

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.

He has written a rather amusing article in which he goes head to head with Richard Bruce who is the head of the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) over the reasons why we should persevere with electric vehicles(EV’s). Quite naturally Mr Bruce is heavily in favour of EV’s as without them his job pretty much becomes meaningless so of course he is in favour.

Mr Rutherford’s point is that they are expensive and you can’t cover more than 100 miles in one charge, both of which are reasonably true – at the moment. But not everyone needs a car to cover more than 100 miles in a single trip and for those that do there will come a time when cars will be able to cover over 1,000 miles with a single charge.

Look, I’m not a huge fan of electric cars but I’m not going to suggest for one minute that after spending £millions if not £billions in research that we should simply throw out the idea and revert to fossil fuel vehicles or mixtures of fossil fuel engines and battery power packs. That Mr Rutherford is simply dopey!

And don’t forget this is electricity we are talking about – just think back to the days of Thomas Edison, it only takes one experiment to solve the problem even though it may have taken hundreds of experiments previously. With what I have read and reported upon we are rapidly moving closer to the point where cars can cover several hundred miles on one charge, chargers can charge very rapidly and as volumes grow prices will tumble as a result.

Even now we can provide a Nissan Leaf, after allowing for the Government grant for less than £200 + VAT per month on a car that costs over £21,000. My money is on Mr Bruce and whilst he is very protective about EV’s I believe he has a good point and for many drivers EV’s represent the future so go off and have a whinge about something else Mr Rutherford. Don’t you just hate these people that can only moan and groan about things! By Graham Hill

You may remember the days when a mobile phone battery only lasted for 4 hours before it ran flat so the solution was to carry a spare battery that sat in the charger with the phone giving you 8 hours of standby time and 60 minutes of call 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.

Then the new batteries came along and increased substantially the standby time and talk time meaning that you could be out for a complete day and not think about the phone dying on you but what if you are nowhere near a USB connector or unable to plug in a charger? The answer could be a mobile charger.

You charge up the mobile charger which then stores enough electricity to charge your mobile around five times before the charger itself needs charging. Unfortunately the power pack takes around 5 hours to charge but given the extra range that it gives your mobile phone I don’t think that is too bad.

One such device is the Just Mobile Gum++ Charger which fits into the palm of your hand. It costs 69.95 Euros (£57) and can be bought online. Go and have a look by visiting www.just-mobile.eu well worth a look. Oh one last thing it can only be charged via a USB connector, it doesn’t come with a mains plug. By Graham Hill