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I listened very carefully as the debate over smoking in cars with children onboard rolled on. As someone whose father smoked like a chimney in his car whilst my brother, sister and I breathed in the disgusting smoke, when we were very young, I know how uncomfortable it can be.

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 was bad enough in the house but in the confined space of a Morris 8 it was very uncomfortable and very selfish although I accept that at the time he didn’t know the potential harm he was doing. Fast forward to the 21^st century and the fact that cigarette packs tell you that smoking kills I find it hard to come up with an argument for not banning smoking in cars that are carrying children.

It is already illegal for drivers of company vehicles to smoke in their cars, vans and trucks so I couldn’t understand the ‘impossible to police’ argument as there are already legally enforceable laws banning smoking. If laws were only introduced if they were easy to enforce we would have very few laws on the statute book so like most people I agree with the ban and that we shouldn’t simply rely upon the responsibility of parents.

Lets face it if parents were responsible we wouldn’t be considering the new law in the first place to protect children, it would be unnecessary. It is illegal to batter kids even in the parent’s own home but virtually impossible to enforce, unless a child is taken to hospital and the police alerted so the ‘unenforceable’ argument doesn’t wash as a reason not to pass the law.

If parents light up in the car their babies and children can’t simply scramble out of their childseat or babyseat, climb out of the car and continue their journey on foot (or crawling) to avoid the smoke that they don’t know is harming them in the first place. So it now looks like the law will have grudging approval but how serious are those that say they are in favour?

On the 4^th October last year, in an old blog posting, I revealed that a Canadian company had developed an App that allowed anyone with a smartphone to photograph cars that are illegally parked which would be date and time stamped, located by GPS and with the use of plate recognition, the driver of the car identified.

This information would be forwarded to the local authority for a ticket to be issued, using the information captured by the app to convict the miscreant. Once convicted the person providing the information will receive part of the fine imposed. This apparently works in Canada whilst in the US there is a similar app used to convict anyone parking in a disabled parking space.

But could and should it be extended to cover other crimes such as driving without a seatbelt fastened, using a mobile phone or smoking in a car with children onboard? I’m sure that there are passionate people out there that would provide the evidence through a purpose created app for no fee. So if enforcement is the problem is this the direction we should be moving in? I would welcome your thoughts – without the expletives! By Graham Hill

Related articles

• Ban smoking in cars carrying children: Labour forces vote on new law to fine offenders £60 (dailymail.co.uk)

What car can do 0 – 60 in 5 seconds, return 15 miles to the gallon and out perform a Ferrari F40 away from the traffic lights? Answer, a company car, or so the old joke goes. These days company cars are much better cared for as transport managers and employers know that poorly cared for cars could result in end of contract charges.

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.

So buying what used to be a dodgy ex company car is no longer such a risk. But as one buyer of a used car from a BMW main dealer found out, buying a used car isn’t always as safe as it seems when he bought an M3 that had previously been used as a track car. There was nothing wrong with the car and it drove perfectly but you can only imagine the stresses and strains applied to that car whilst being hammered around a race track by a racing driver or instructor.

Of course the buyer was upset when he found out about the previous use of the car but there is no obligation on the part of the dealer to tell him that the car was used as a track car and I have to say an M3 was built as a performance car so should not be in the slightest affected by its previous use.

But there is one use of car that buyers actually queue up to buy without knowing how badly the car may have been criminally abused. Treated like a performance car from new with certain components stressed to their limit many buyers actually boast that they have bought one of these cars in preference to a brand new car.

I’m talking about the ex-demonstrator. I always advise against these awful cars which are often worse than ex hire cars and wildly over priced. Yes you appear to have a large discount but often that is after a load of unnecessary extras have been added to the car in order for the dealer to demonstrate.

So you have a £20,000 car with £5,000 worth of extras added with a £7,000 discount, dropping the price to £18,000 or the price you would have paid for a new car without the bigger wheels, sports suspension, special paint, larger fuel tank, privacy rear glass, smokers pack etc etc. So often the saving is not as it seems.

But that is minor compared to the real problem. In industry I was group general manager for a PLC with around 700 vehicles. When you run a fleet of that size you are provided with demonstrators every day of the week. It was nothing for a a couple of transporters to turn up with 20 cars from Astras to E Class Mercedes brand new with no miles on the clock.

They would be handed out to staff to use who would drive the cars like lunatics (I’m embarrassed to say I was one of them).  A driver would drive the car out of the car park getting close to 60mph out of the car in first gear. We didn’t care as they weren’t our cars and we justified the abuse by saying that the cars were being ‘put through their paces’ which is why we had the cars in the first place.

And this is the rub. People that buy ex demonstrators believe that they are buying a car that has been carefully driven by nervous drivers with a member of dealership staff sitting beside them, hardly getting above 30mph. The truth is that they are handed out to drivers for maybe 2 or 3 days at a time and the cars are ‘hammered’.

They come back, often in a disgraceful state but are repaired, professionally valeted and sold proudly as an ex demonstrator. My advice is leave them, you are potentially buying a disaster unless you like having a car that spends more days in a repair shop than out of it. By Graham Hill

Bits & Pieces: Ageism still exists it would seem! Insurance companies can still turn you down for insurance based on your age and this happened to over 100,000 last year. However, to help the elderly keep mobile the Government introduced a scheme that meant that if an insurance company would not provide cover due to age they must refer the driver to an insurer who will and apparently it worked as they are all happily still driving. Stop complaining about old drivers – you’ll be there one day!

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 those who enjoy the occasional spliff then jump into their car and weave their way home in the belief that they won’t get ‘done’, think again as the Government has announced an investment of £120,000 for cannabis screening devices to be installed into police stations in an effort to tackle drug driving. It is estimated that drug driving is responsible for 200 deaths on the road each year – no laughing matter.

On the earlier subject of age there are now over a million drivers on UK roads aged over 80 and amazingly there are 195 aged over 100. The Institute of Advanced Motorists added that older drivers are actually safer with fewer, in terms of percentage, having points on their licences. By Graham Hill

New moan started, a few years ago a journalist with about as much knowledge about all things financial as a garden fork started a blog. In fact it was started about the same time as I started mine.

The difference was that I didn’t allow every John Henry and his mate to post things on my blog, unlike my charismatic friend. If anyone wanted to post anything on my blog I would mediate and if what they wanted to post was incorrect or simply trying to sell their pet insurance policy I would trash it.

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.

On the other hand many other blogs would allow complete (but often well intentioned) doughnuts to express opinions online which others would then take as absolute gospel. For example I have seen someone desperate because they are facing a £1,500 charge to repair a PAS pump, 3 weeks after the manufacturer’s warranty has run out on his car, seeking advice because he’d been told the repair was outside the warranty and therefore fully chargeable.

As you know from postings on my blog this isn’t unusual. In this case the car had only covered 15,000 miles but some numbnuts said, oh dear, sadly as you are outside the warranty there is nothing you can do, chat to your bank manager and arrange a loan. Which is what the poor sod did!! So this ill informed do-gooder just cost the driver with the problem £1,500.

The truth is that under the Sale of Goods Act the driver had a legitimate claim against the supplying dealer as the goods have to be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. The ABS pump should last as long as the car, at least 8 years, so the dealer should make at least some contribution towards the cost of repair as the item concerned would appear to not be of satisfactory quality.

Oh and notice I said dealer and not manufacturer, the claim is against the company that sold you the goods, not the manufacturer. It’s up to the dealer to seek compensation from the manufacturer. This is just one of many pieces of advice given by ignorant subscribers with no legal knowledge whatsoever.

Sometimes on this and other blogs the advice has been accurate at the time it was given in say 2009 but the law has since changed and the advice is now wrong. So if you are one of those people that searches through blogs for accurate information, tread very carefully, the advice you follow could cost you a fortune.

It’s about time that blogs were properly policed before too many people catch a serious cold. 2^nd moan over! By Graham Hill

Department for Transport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The news of the moment relates to the raft of new driving laws that could end up with on the spot fines of £100 and 3 points on the offender’s driving licence. In addition the old bill’s powers have been increased when dealing with existing offenders in order to reduce the number of cases going to court.

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 industry feels that this may be a bit of a cash cow and with targets set for the number of tickets issued it could also cause tickets to be issued in a somewhat ruthless manner even though lives are not apparently put at risk.

So what are the changes? First of all it is illegal to now hog the middle lane of the motorway. It is also illegal to tailgate, either of which will attract a fine of £100 and 3 points on the offender’s licence. In the case of serious offenders the police can still opt to issue a ticket that will require the driver to attend court.

There will also be a degree of flexibility as the authorities will be able to provide training as an alternative to the points on the licence, as currently happens with speeding first offenders. As with other fixed penalties drivers will still have the right of appeal through the court system.

Some fines will increase such as using a phone whilst driving, up from £60 to £100 as will also be the case with less serious speeding offences. Non endorsable offences such as not having a visible tax disc or failing to give way at a junction will attract fines of £50, up from £30.

Not wearing a seatbelt will now cost the driver £100 and 3 points, up from £60. Finally driving without insurance will increase from £200 to £300. Defending the new fines the Department for Transport said that fines hadn’t been increased since 2000 and were now out of step with other non vehicle related offences.

My personal view is that some of the more serious offenders may get off lightly with a fine when previously they would have ended up in court which is much more of a wake up call than a fixed penalty ticket which is simply an inconvenience for many offenders.

Mobile phone laws need to be tightened, I’ve seen so many potential accidents whilst drivers have tried to negotiate a roundabout or weave their way through parked vehicles with disregard for pedestrians, that something more needs to be done but will an increased fine be enough – probably not!

Let’s see what happens in 12 months when I report the road accident statistics. I suspect they won’t be any different to now. We need education, not random penalties.

Related articles

• New Powers Given to the Police to Issue Fixed Penalty Notices to Careless Drivers (sbwire.com)

The RAC has brought itself up to date by fitting out their patrol vehicles with state of the art diagnostic technology in order to increase the number of roadside fixes it can carry out.

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 RAC has invested £6 million in Scan+ diagnostic software that will enable patrols to interact with a broken down vehicle’s own diagnostic system and on-board sensors to identify faults.

The technology will allow technicians to do a repair on parts that often need electronically adapting before they will operate – even battery replacements need computer ‘coding’ after replacing. No I didn’t know that either!

RAC Technical Director, David Bizley said, ’The RAC has always utilised the latest technological advances to ensure we offer the very best repair for motorists.

RAC Scan+ will give our patrols the very best information from the vehicle’s own diagnostic equipment to enable them to repair the car.’ Over to you the AA!

Bits&Pieces: I think most of my readers know my feelings about statistics, most of them leave me scratching my head thinking – so what? Someone, whoever decided to carry out the survey, needs to get a life.

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 example did you know that Seat drivers are most likely to make an ‘at fault’ insurance claim? Really??? Oh there’s more, Kia and Mini owners were next most likely to claim with Subaru, Smart and Fiat owners putting in the least claims.

Astonishing or what? So who carried out this totally pointless survey? Money Supermarket that’s who. Totally bloody pointless – Money Supermarket – get a life!

The AA has warned that fuel prices are set to rise by 5p per litre over the summer months. Apparently petrol stations have already started to pass on higher wholesale prices to customers at the pumps.

They said that costs had already increased by 1p per litre in July – not at my bloody Tesco, more like 3p!

Who do you use to insure your car? Think twice about Swinton as they were fined £7.4 million for miss-selling policies between April 2010 and April 2012. They were found guilty of using an ‘aggressive sales strategy’  over the phone and failed to tell customers that some of the add-ons were optional extras.

I can see that it won’t be long before we start to see congestion charges in all towns and cities. Cambridge, who dropped the proposal for a congestion charge 3 years ago, are now considering this as an option to reduce traffic gridlock. Before going ahead they will need to convince local businesses.

After the recent F1 disasters with their tyres exploding on a far too regular basis you would think that Pirelli would concentrate on making them safer.

Used Tires (Photo credit: www.ericcastro.biz)

Well in an effort to multitask it would seem that the designers have not only improved the reliability but they have brought out a new series of road tyres that they say reduces the road noise in a car by 50%.

Assuming that we won’t see a repeat of the F1 blowouts it’s worth noting that developments continue on road cars. The first cars to benefit from this new technology are the Audi RS6 Avant and RS7. They will be offered as optional extras (no I don’t know how much), but I guess they must be expensive if they are only offered as options on two of their top of the range cars.

In order to reduce the noise the tyres have a layer of noise cancelling sponge under the tread blocks. Pirelli says it reduces the amount of vibration and noise through the steering wheel.

Let’s hope the tyres don’t suffer the same problems faced by Hamilton & co.

Related articles

• Webber slams F1 tyres (sbs.com.au)

OK here is today’s test, what is an STD. Nope – you’re wrong according to an article in the Antipodean periodical – The Australian. They ran an article that gave advice to their readers on how to reognise, avoid and treat disgusting STDs.

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 piece was written by Larke Riemer (that’s a woman with a very strange name), director of women’s markets at Australian bank – Westpac. With the holiday season underway and the fears attached to drunken nights whilst enjoying the benefits of sun, sea and sex one may welcome a few words of cautionary wisdom from Larke (no I don’t know how to pronounce it either).

But the article was nothing of the sort, Ms Riemer, being a true banker, wasn’t talking about dodgy rashes in intimate places but something completely different, she called it Sexually Transmitted Debt.

She was referring to the unwanted burdens that people (mainly women) coming out of relationships can find themselves stuffed with. So the advice was not about the dangers of unprotected sex but more about unprotected debt, telling people to talk honestly to each other about money issues, make sure that you read everything that is financially committing before signing and don’t leave your name on utility bills before leaving.

I think I had better suppress any further comment before I dig a serious hole for myself. Goodbye.

Call me old fashioned but I still find it amazing how easily individuals part with their personal details to companies they know nothing about. I write about this time and again and still people are dopey enough to part with every piece of information a crook needs to open a bank account in your name or take out a credit card.

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.

If I wanted details from a number of high net worth individuals I would offer a great car deal on say a BMW X5 or M3, either car for say £299 + VAT per month. Absolutely impossible to get to those figures. I would then set up a dummy web site and wait for the enquiries to flood in.

I would have a very believable person answering the phone explaining how the boss has committed to a number of cars in order to achieve the very low rates on offer, all we need to do is take a finance application from them and away we go.

I would ask for some proofs such as a copy of a driving licence and passport along with a few bills and for good measure a copy of the front and back of a credit card. Oh and by the way last 3 months bank statements wouldn’t go amiss when applying for credit!

It would be that simple as people are greedy, they want everything on the cheap and that is what the crooks rely upon. Oh and by the way the scenario I described isn’t far fetched, it actually happened!

This leads me to the latest figures released by fraud prevention service, CIFAS. In the first 5 months of this year nearly 60,000 people were victims of identity fraud. There were more than 46,000 cases of impersonation over the period where fraudsters used individual identities to open new accounts.

They also showed that more than 13,500 were victims of ‘takeover’ when an existing account is broken into and hijacked. Around 96,000 confirmed frauds were reported to CIFAS in the first 5 months of this year.

By the way the identity theft I referred to earlier was on BMW X5’s, the same company carried out the same fraud when advertising Vauxhall Astras at well under the market rate, so you don’t have to be a high net worth individual.

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• European Study Reveals ID Fraud To Be Rife In UK (misco.co.uk)