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I am often quoted in the press when it comes to things like new car registrations and why diesel sales are up or down compared to petrol sales. I haven’t of late because many of the journalists, not all I would hasten to add, simply put out a story that they want to rather than the truth. Oops sounding like Trump there for a moment!

It isn’t all the fault of the journalists, often it is the fault of the so-called experts they approach for a comment other than myself. The sort of people who have probably never spoken to a customer or a member of dealership staff. They simply guess, then before you know it the guess becomes the truth.

One of the biggest problems in all the commentary is the fact that behind the comments are usually statistics and they don’t come with sufficient explanation – leaving it to the ‘experts’ to interpret the figures. Take new car sales in August and September this year. Quite correctly, following the announcement that new car sales in August were up on previous Augusts, the headlines picked up that due to the new WLTP emissions test rules cars had to be sold by the end of August – or any unsold cars that didn’t meet the new levels could be forcibly scrapped.

Not surprising that any cars in stock were heavily discounted. Hence the spike in sales – all fine so far. In the meantime, cars were being tested, failing, modified then retested in order to meet the new standards. In the case of Jaguar Landrover, they shut down their order book and stopped making cars that hadn’t been emissions approved.

So when Joe Public walked into their local dealerships to buy a new car on the new registration for September there were no bloody cars. So they either bought second hand or they placed an order for a new car. So orders and new car sales in September may have been on target or even up on previous years (I’m not saying they were) the ‘experts’ immediately searched for reasons.

Things such as Brexit, EU manufacturers turning their backs on the UK, the economy not as strong as was thought, consumers and businesses not confident about the future. When all they measured was sales and not orders it’s not bloody surprising – there were no damned cars to register – good grief.

And don’t even get me started on the diesel vs petrol debate. Such appaling information on the issues related to either petrol or diesel emissions confuses everyone. And whilst the debate goes on London and other cities see a bit of a cash cow and treat all diesels as destroyers of the universe and tax them for entering the city and parking. Whilst environmentalists report an increase in CO2 emissions last year for the first time since records began. That’s the stuff that petrol engines generate more than diesels.

On the other hand a lifetime of breathing in NOx whilst walking down the street has been statistically proven to shorten lives – by an average of 3 minutes. Look, I’m not making light of car emissions and their effect on health but as with new car registrations and all other statistics – can we please add caveats to the stats. in order to bring some reality into the comments? Probably not – they won’t make such exciting headlines! By Graham Hill

Citizens Advice have warned about unreasonable behaviour by bailiffs. According to CAB 850,000 consumers have had a bad experience with a bailiff, from forced entry to near illegal threatening behaviour. Charities have called on the Government to take action and regulate the industry.

When it comes to cars, some lenders will use bailiffs to recover cars that are still on a finance agreement. Far too often ‘Innocent Buyers’ are forced into handing over keys when in fact they legally own the car. If you buy a car from someone and it turns out to be on HP, provided you’ve asked if the car is on finance and the owner has told you that it isn’t then you are the legal owner of the car (doesn’t apply to contract hire).

You don’t have to check that the car is on HPI because there is no legal obligation on lenders to record their finance agreements on there in the first place. Some bailiffs will turn up with a copy of the agreement showing that the finance company that has appointed them still owns the car. They will explain that you should contact the seller of the car and sue him to recover what you paid as he was not entitled to sell the car in the first place.

They will often have a form that they will ask you to sign that effectively passes the car over to the Bailiffs ‘innocently and without pressure’ and ‘voluntarily’. Once you have signed the form and handed over the car keys it is virtually impossible to get your car back.

Whatever the circumstances unless bailiffs turn up with a court order tell them you want to verify what they are saying, leave their card and give you 24 hours. Then phone Citizens Advice or if you have legal cover on your contents or car insurance phone their helpline for advice.

If you are visited by a bailiff who is acting unreasonably call the police and if you are unsure of your rights and you don’t have access to a legal helpline call the company that the bailiffs work for. Yet more examples of the law being toothless. It’s a disgrace! By Graham Hill

My previous blog was entitled Is The Consumer Rights Act Fit For Purpose? I give a typical example of how consumers are being ripped off by dealers not willing to honour their legal obligations. I also give a number of actions that customers can take that will help them to get a result.

After a lot of research, I have come across what I believe is a better solution. The RAC has a legal insurance policy called Legal Care Plus. It covers much more than a normal legal cover extension on the average car insurance policy.

The important cover is:

Motor Vehicle Consumer Disputes

RAC will cover up to £5,000 in legal costs following a breach of an agreement relating to the sale, purchase, hire or servicing of a motor vehicle.

I spoke to a representative who confirmed that this would cover warranty disputes as a result of the vehicle being faulty. In addition, it covers legal costs and expenses for uninsured loss recovery, for example, loss of earnings to the tune of £100,000. Where you have an accident that was not your fault you can also recover your excess.

Along with other cover, the policy looks really good to me. And the cost? Just £15 per annum. Always take professional advice before taking out an insurance product. By Graham Hill

I’ve just been reading yet another story about someone trying to reject a faulty car and not being allowed to by the dealership. What the hell is the point of an act of Parliament to protect consumers if it is totally toothless when you try to apply it?

What Car reported an incident that involved a lady who was driving a nearly new BMW 1 Series, bought with 2,200 miles on the clock for £22,000. After 5 days and 93 miles the car broke down, it shuddered, misfired and lost all power. The oil warning light came on and the onboard computer stated there was a problem with the drivetrain.

The lady driver stated that the car broke down in a dangerous position but she managed to get it to limp to a safe place then made a long walk to a friend’s house. After advising the supplying dealer it was a week before the car was collected. They then called a day later saying that they had driven the car for 60 miles and couldn’t find a fault so suggested that she could collect the car.

Following the non-repair the car has suffered sporadic electrical problems leaving the lady with no confidence that it might break down again leaving her stranded. As a result the lady wrote to the supplying dealer telling them that she wanted to reject the car under the 30-day rejection rule as part of the Consumer Rights Act. She was told by the dealer that she couldn’t reject the car as there was nothing wrong with it.

As reliability and safety were all important to her, especially as she is normally in the car alone, she still wasn’t happy. She wrote to the dealer advising them as such and informing them that she wanted to return the car for a full refund.

They replied by explaining that as there was nothing wrong with the car she couldn’t return it for a refund. But they offered another 1 series that they had in stock as a replacement. The car was cheaper than her original car so she would be financially out of pocket as they refused to refund the difference. The lady felt that she had been treated appallingly – sadly she isn’t alone.

So what was the outcome when she wrote to What Car?

They, first of all, confirmed that she was within her rights to return the faulty car for a full refund. The car was considered to be of unsatisfactory quality as the car was, and continued to be, faulty. And as it was likely to break down again leaving the lady stranded it was also considered to be unfit for purpose. All of which I totally agreed with.

What Car suggested that the lady go back to the dealership and reiterate what they had said to her. She did that and on the same day the dealer got straight back to her and said she was wrong about her consumer rights and she could not reject the car. As a result What Car contacted BMW’s UK head office to ask for their intervention – which they duly did. The following day the dealer called her and agreed to a full refund.

Now whilst this may look like a great outcome and in the case of the lady concerned – and it was but in my opinion, it is wrong on so many levels. Not least of which the dealer will receive the car back with a fault – so given their attitude will they fix it? No, they won’t because they don’t believe the car is faulty. So will they continue to sell the car until someone accepts their argument and accepts the faults or pays for the fix themselves – if it can be fixed? I suspect that this is the route they will take.

Solution 1: Record on HPI and Experian that the car had been rejected and list the reasons. The dealer wouldn’t do this automatically because it alerts the new owner so they would need to be obligated to by law. But if we do that we will need to make it compulsory for lenders and insurers to record finance links and insurance damage – something that isn’t compulsory at the moment. Ridiculous. We need changes.

If you experience a fault immediately after taking delivery of your car (within 30 days), either new or used, from a dealer or trader (not private) you should reject it immediately by putting it in writing. An email or a letter should do (I suggest a letter that is signed for). If the issue is minor such as say a loose piece of trim that can be easily fixed you can give the dealer an opportunity to fix.

Remember you don’t have to give the dealer an opportunity to fix within the first 30 days but the fault does have to be genuine, you can’t just change your mind about the car. I’ve heard of situations whereby the customer has a fault and insists that the dealer refund the cost. The dealer (as in the case above) takes the car back, repairs the fault then says that a fault didn’t exist. So this is where my next piece of advice is all important.

If your car suffers a fault take as many photos and/or videos that you can with your phone showing the car running badly, an item not working and certainly warnings that appear on the dashboard. Don’t put yourself at risk so get the help of a friend or relation to take photos if the fault occurs and you can get someone else to video it whilst you’re driving.

The next thing is to register your complaint with Trading Standards. The more people that complain the better the picture that Trading Standards will have of the dealer. If the dealer has a bad record of not treating customers fairly and meeting their legal obligations you may find that they come to a quick solution. And Trading Standards have legal clout.

The problem is that you can no longer contact Trading Standards direct. You have to go through the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline and they decide whether to refer to Trading Standards. In most instances that won’t be a problem – just a minor delay.

Make sure that you don’t sign any forms, simply write to the dealer advising that you want to exercise your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to hand the car back for a full refund and explain why. Some dealers will hand you a form to sign which may have a string of conditions included – they are not legally enforceable but they’ll try it on. Don’t sign it.

You can write to the manufacturer as well, as happened with What Car and also to any trade association of which the dealer is a member. Most are members of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. They should be able to refer you to an independent dispute resolution body but make sure that it isn’t the Motor Ombudsman as I don’t believe they are totally independent. You can only use them if the dealer is a member which costs them money so I believe their advice cannot possibly be totally independent.

It should also be born in mind that if you buy goods from a shop, say a kettle from Argos, it is the responsibility of the shop if the goods are faulty, not the manufacturer. Once the shop has resolved your complaint it is then up to the retailer to take up the issue with the manufacturer – nothing to do with you. A manufacturer’s warranty is in addition to your legal rights – not a replacement. However, this isn’t the case with a Franchised dealer. He trades as an extension of the car manufacturer as a ‘franchisee’ so when you deal with the dealer you also deal with the manufacturer.

The manufacturer has a reputation to maintain so it isn’t unusual for them to overturn a local decision made by their franchisee. So if you don’t get satisfaction from the dealer certainly go for the manufacturer.

Finally, check your home and car insurance policy if you have legal cover. At worst they will give you legal advice at best their lawyers will write to the dealer. By Graham Hill

Have you ever had a headlight bulb blow on your car? In truth, if you only ever drive new cars with a full manufacturer’s warranty you could be excused for believing that they would be covered for the term of the warranty so it wouldn’t matter if a bulb did blow. But if you think that – you might like to check the terms of your warranty.

Some manufacturers cover your light bulbs till the warranty runs out but others will cover the bulbs for a fixed term or until you reach the first service. They all seem to have a different approach. So I found it interesting to read the results of an investigation carried out by What Car.

Now, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t bother reporting on such an article. Especially as I had a bulb blow on my Mercedes after about 2 years. I simply popped into Halfords, bought a bulb for about £18 and they fitted it for me. In fact it took no more than seconds to disconnect the connector, flip a clip, replace the bulb, clip it in place, reconnect the connector and it was all done.

However, a friend with a Renault Megane found that in order to replace a headlamp bulb you have to practically dismantle the whole of the front of the car which can be extremely expensive, especially if this replacement isn’t part of the warranty. And it isn’t a job you could do yourself unless you are an engineer.

But it gets worse. When What Car carried out its survey it found that exchange bulbs varied greatly. The cheapest they found was a Suzuki Swift Halogen bulb, costing £4 with prices increasing up to a maximum of £20 for a Citroen C3 Halogen bulb. But that’s just Halogen bulbs.

If your car has High-Intensity Discharge bulbs fitted you could be in for a shock. According to some bulb manufacturers, the bulbs should last for 10 years whilst others say they should last the lifetime of the car.

So you may not have to replace a bulb but if you do it will be then that you will find out that you can’t simply replace the bulb, you have to replace the whole sealed unit  which, according to What Car, can cost from £211 on an Audi A1 S-Line to £846 for a replacement unit fitted to a Polo GTI. A Vauxhall Corsa can cost £317 whilst a Honda Jazz can be £714. And those prices don’t include fitting.

At these prices, it has been known that used cars with a blown bulb have been written off as it costs more to replace the bulb or headlamp unit than the car is worth. This is what What Car says: If you’re going to keep your car for many years or are buying second hand, we’d recommend avoiding models and trim levels that have sealed headlamp units. Stick with halogen bulbs if you want the cheapest replacement bulb costs, or go for a model such as the Mini Hatchback that lets you replace HID bulbs separately.

They go on to say that ‘If your car fails its MOT test because the lights aren’t bright enough, rather than replacing the light units, you can buy a headlight restoration kit for less than £20. You can use this kit to polish up yellowed or lightly scratched headlight lenses so they’re crystal clear again’. But of course, this won’t help if the bulb has blown.

Yet again a hidden cost that really should be made apparent when you buy your new or used car. And it raises the big question that I’ve been discussing around warranties. If your warranty has bulbs covered till your first service and a bulb goes after the service is this an enhancement of your legal rights – which is what a warranty should be? I would suggest not.

Don’t forget (see my PCP Report free on grahamhilltraining.com) that at the moment you are covered by the EU 2 year guarantee that comes with anything you buy, new or used, from a trader or business (not privately). By Graham Hill

This isn’t down to the cost of the glass itself, which is expensive enough, but more down to the cost of re-calibration of cameras and software. Something that most drivers are unaware of when they have a windscreen replaced.

Sadly this could well have an adverse effect on smaller independent windscreen replacement companies but could also lead to cars being less safe as the fitters, unable to re-calibrate as they don’t have the equipment, simply leave it leaving you with unsafe safety systems.

The safety systems fitted to new cars, called Advance Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) include autonomous emergency braking and lane assist, both of which rely upon cameras that operate through the windscreen. If the systems are not recalibrated following a windscreen replacement you may find that the car drifts out of its lane without detection or the emergency braking fails to identify an obstacle.

In 2015 just 1% of cars required recalibration. That has now increased to 9% of private cars and 34% of fleet/business cars as they tend to be newer. National Windscreens has invested £2 million in ADAS recalibration whilst Autoglass is launching 14 new recalibration centres and will have 70 workshops with the capability open by December 2018.

Dr Chris Davies, director of superiority at Belron (no seriously that’s his title), owners of Autoglass, explained why recalibration is necessary. When manufacturing the glass there are levels of tolerance and with slight differences in the positioning of the windscreen it can cause the cameras to effectively be in a different position.

Most cars require a static recalibration which can take place in a workshop but some must be dynamically recalibrated on the road. All recalibration must be carried out by a qualified engineer but dynamic recalibration needs the car to be driven at a fixed speed over a certain distance which can cause problems in city centres or at times of the year when you’ve got snow.

All of this makes it impossible for some smaller windscreen fitters to be able to do what is necessary to make the car safe so there is a risk that the recalibration doesn’t take place. Not good when your life could depend on it. If you know that your car doesn’t have ADAS systems fitted you should be fine but if in doubt make sure you use a major windscreen fitter.

Let me take you back a few years. I used to arrange stocking finance for dealers and traders i.e. they borrowed money to buy their stock then as they sold the vehicles they repaid the loan. On one occasion I was approached by a wholesaler who bought cars in bulk with big discounts and sold them to car supermarkets in smaller batches.

So they would buy 100 cars as a minimum then sell them in batches of 10. It turned out to be an accomodation. The cars were being bought by small daily rental companies who were given up to 45% discount by the manufacturers but funded by the wholesalers via me. The wholesaler would pay for the cars and pass back £100 per car to the rental company. In most instances, the daily rental company never saw the vehicles.

The wholesaler took £250 per car then sold to the supermarkets, still at massive discounts. I didn’t know this at the time but found out much later. On one occasion an order had been placed for 100 cars through a dealer. I won’t say which manufacturer. Before delivery, I had a call from the dealer. He said that he had 87 cars produced that were sub-spec. I didn’t know what this meant so asked to have it explained.

The dealer said that whilst the cars were all GL (not the actual model) the cars had fitted L spec. upholstery, missing fog lights and missing cup holders. He then asked if we wanted them? If we did he would knock £250 off the cost of each car. I called the wholesaler and told him what the dealer had said. He said that he was happy to include the 87 cars in the batch of 100 cars. He asked if they all had GL badges which the dealer confirmed.

Clearly selling sub spec. cars to daily rental companies is not a problem, after all if you were to hire a car for a few days you wouldn’t be questioning the interior or the missing spotlights not matching the model. You just hire the car. And although it has been questioned in the past, the daily rental companies can sell the cars after a period of time, normally 3 months or 5,000 miles, whichever comes first, as a second-hand car – as seen. So if the buyer is happy with the upholstery and lack of spotlights they will simply buy the car.

I don’t doubt for one minute that the wholesaler ‘forgot’ to tell the car supermarkets that items were missing. They would have simply thought they bought new GL’s and sold them as pre-registered cars to customers. At this point, I stopped providing the finance as I wasn’t comfortable as this was a very dubious operation even though I heard that the manufacturers were aware of what was going on and turned a blind eye.

Now given the fact that the car supermarkets were selling new cars at less than the dealers could buy the cars from the manufacturer for it led to car dealers setting up their own daily rental operations which they used to buy heavily discounted cars registered in the name of the daily rental operation. This came about after the Supply Of New Car Order 2000 prevented dealers from pre-registering cars and selling them for less than they would sell a normal new car for.

So why should this concern you? The fact is that these cars can easily be switched into the contract hire supply chain. The leasing company doesn’t see the cars beforehand and neither does the driver who probably doesn’t think of inspecting the car to see if any of the spec. is missing. In one instance one manufacturer had more diesel engines than they needed to keep in stock having changed the engines to a more efficient one. They also had a new body design but fitted a batch of new cars with old model engines – offering brokers an extra £2,500 discount per car.

As a result, I was aware of this and leased two cars after splitting the discount between myself and the customers who were fully aware that the new shape cars had old style engines fitted. But there were plenty of ‘brokers’ who were arranging leases on the cars as though they were heavily discounted fully spec’d ‘new model’ cars.

So again – a low rate could be hiding a sub spec. car.

Know who you are dealing with and what you are getting. We will only supply genuine cars from reputable dealers. By Graham Hill

In order to reduce rates, those providing PCH must find ways of buying cars more cheaply. There is a process called ‘Pre-Registration’. It simply means that cars are registered to the dealer first, in order to capture some extra discounts being given away by the manufacturer, that may be limited to a number of vehicles or vehicles registered by a certain date.

This often happens when the current model is facelifted or replaced. If it’s a facelift it’s probably only cosmetic so light clusters may change, the grill design may alter and there may be some tweeks to the interior. The wheels will probably change and you may find a few options now standard. If there is a model change the whole design will change and whilst the car may keep the model name it will look markedly different to the outgoing model.

So why should this affect you? The chances are that you will check out the car you’re interested in online or even visit a main dealer. In each case, you will probably be looking at the very latest model, not the last model. Those who simply want to advertise a cheap rate will advertise the car but won’t explain that the car has been pre-registered. You won’t know because you don’t see the registration document (V5C).

At the time of writing the current registration is ‘68’ and it is November. So if a car arrived on a ‘68’ plate you could assume that it had just been registered if you hadn’t been told otherwise but it could easily have been registered on the 1^st September and be the old model. Of course, it could still be the current model just registered two months earlier to capture the extra discount and enable the broker to offer the car more cheaply.

The effect could be twofold. Firstly the car may be the previous model leading to disappointment when you believed the car was the latest model that you ordered. We often promote cars that have been ‘pre-registered’ but we always tell the customer not only that the car was pre-registered but also the month in which it was pre-registered. You may feel that you are entitled to refuse delivery but you’ll find all sorts of excuses and charges tucked away in their terms and conditions.

The month is important, especially if you take out PCH without maintenance, as the service clock starts ticking from the moment the car is registered. When you take a new unregistered car it will normally be registered the day before or even the day of delivery. So there is a chance that when you take out a 3 year PCH that you may just be able to avoid the last service, depending on annual mileage. But if the car was pre-registered you are pretty much guaranteed to need a service before the car is returned, adding to the overall cost.

Know what you are getting and know the risks when you opt for a cheaper rate. By Graham Hill

Following the warnings from the BVRLA and myself, it is important to carry out a check to see if the company you are dealing with is properly authorised. If the company isn’t authorised the onus falls on your shoulders should fraud have been committed.

You cannot make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) against a company that isn’t on the FCA register as authorised.

That is scary because it means if you’ve been scammed by an unauthorised firm – you’re stuffed!

You can check the FCA Register by clicking on the following link and inserting the company name. Try using ‘GHA Finance’ as an example.

https://register.fca.org.uk/

Here is an extract from the FCA website:

If you deal with an unauthorised firm you will not be covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service(link is external) or Financial Services Compensation Scheme(link is external) (FSCS) if things go wrong.

Unfortunately there are firms that operate without our authorisation and some knowingly run scams like share fraud and other investment scams.

If a firm does not appear on the Register but claims it does, search for it in the list below and contact our Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768.

Beware of fraudsters pretending to be from a firm authorised by us, as it could be what we call a ‘clone firm‘. If you are cold-called by a financial services firm always ring them back on the switchboard number given on the Register.

We add firms to this list as soon as possible but it is not exhaustive. Do not assume a firm is legitimate just because it does not appear in this list – these firms frequently change their name and it may not have been reported to us yet.

You should take further steps to protect yourself from unauthorised firms and check our list of warnings from foreign regulators(link is external). You can also find out about share fraud and other investment scams.

Search for an unauthorised firm below or see the most recently added firms.

As you can see, not carrying out a quick check could leave you seriously out of pocket with no-one to turn to for help.

Warnings have been issued by the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association (BVRLA) regarding the increase in contract hire scams. Knowing who you are dealing with is much more important than simply searching for the cheapest deals.

The BVRLA has warned about scammers preying on those looking for the cheapest deal. In its simplest form, the ‘brokers’ advertise cheap deals that don’t exist and ask for a holding payment to secure the rates or a car. Or they wait till closer to the time they say they can deliver and ask for the 6 or 9 months advance rental, often thousands of pounds. Then disappear.

One of the very few benefits to taking out a PCP through a dealer is that you know where they are and who they are. They have a physical showroom and you can see the person you are dealing with. In the case of contract hire most contracts are agreed online with someone you will never meet so you really need to know who you are dealing with. Creating or cloning a very professional looking website is easy so you need to know that the people you are dealing with are as professional as the website looks.

And as warned by the BVRLA and I it is very easy to scam and it’s becoming more widespread than you think.

Following on from the warnings issued by the BVRLA I have another of my own. I’ve seen websites that have been cloned from an original legitimate site but changed all the contact details. Customers who check out the company that they think they are doing business with, find them to be legitimate – but they’re not.

The FCA suggest that whilst you are checking that the company is on their register you can also check the website contact details to ensure that the email address and telephone numbers agree. Even then it isn’t 100% as a legitimate company could have an 0800 number on the website but a landline number stored on the FCA register.

Also watch out for ‘cloaked’ email addresses. You may see something like graham@ghafinance.co.uk on the website but when you click on the link it takes you to something like graham@ghafinances.co.uk They will have an email account set up with the slightest of modifications like adding an ‘s’ at the end of ghafinance. By Graham Hill