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There are many drivers who would never entertain driving a new car – usually for all the wrong reasons. ‘They depreciate quicker than a used car’ – not necessarily so if you go for a nearly new used car! I’ll have a training video for that! They cost more to service! Some new cars can be 2 years old before they need their first service which is just an oil and filter change. And a new car certainly doesn’t cost more to maintain and is covered for at least 3 years, 60,000 miles by the manufacturer’s warranty.

But even worse than this is the number of used cars that are ‘clocked’. This is the name given to the practice of reducing the miles showing on the car’s odometer. It is illegal to do so then sell the car on with the customer believing that the mileage on the clock is genuine.

The Local Government Association (IGA) which represents 370 councils in England and Wales found a large surge in the number of vehicles that had been clocked. In fact 0ne in 16 cars are clocked according to the IGA at a cost to buyers of £800 million every year. This is the difference between the value of cars on their genuine mileage and the value on the clocked mileage.

But more important for me is the potential danger of driving a car that has had the mileage adjusted. Many service and maintenance alerts are mileage based so by winding back the mileage it can throw out the alerts which means you could be driving a car that is seriously dangerous not only to the driver and passengers but also pedestrians and other road users.

This situation has been in existence since before I learned to drive with my dad and that was a very long time ago. And the same loophole still exists in the law. It is technically illegal to sell a car that has had the mileage clocked it is still legal to alter the mileage of your car. The EU was to introduce a law in May making it illegal to advertise the electronic devices used to clock cars but that legislation has been delayed.

Councillor Simon Blackburn from the LGA said ‘Car clocking is a major rising fraud, that not only rips off motorists but can have dangerous implications. The proposed EU ban on mileage correction services needs to be made part of UK law as soon as possible’. Automotive data company, HPI, found one in 16 cars had a mileage discrepancy, with the number of clocking incidents rising by 25% between 2014 & 2016. Something needs to be done urgently – lives could be at risk.

In a final piece of research I have found a warning from Autonet Insurance Group saying that if you buy a car that has been clocked, so the declared mileage to the insurer is incorrect, you risk making your insurance cover invalid. So you need to make sure you take every precaution to ensure that the mileage is correct. You have been warned. By Graham Hill

As a consumer, you are probably aware that you have a very strong position in law whenever you have disputes with a supplier whether or not finance is involved. When it comes to cars your position is stronger if you have taken out finance because you have even more Acts of Parliament to protect you.

But what if you are a sole trader, partnership or SME without the resources of a large corporate? Certainly not enough money to take on a large dealer group when you believe that the car isn’t fit for purpose or as described and the only course of action is to go to court.

What many small business owners are unaware of is that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is available not only to consumers but also small business owners. At one stage the facilities were available to sole traders and small partnerships only but this has been extended to limited companies provided they are what is termed in EU law as a Micro-Enterprise.

To qualify as a Micro-Enterprise you must have a turnover of less than 2 million Euros AND employ less than ten members of staff – even if you are a limited company. Now here’s the interesting thing. If you look through consumer credit legislation it pretty much excludes businesses. But the Ombudsman isn’t constrained by the law and will sometimes find in favour of a supplier or customer based simply on his sense of fairness.

The thing is that even if it doesn’t go your way you don’t have to accept the Ombudsman’s decision. You can still go to court if you have the money to do so, whilst on the other hand, if you are successful the other side must accept the decision of the Ombudsman if you choose to accept the ruling.

So in future don’t despair if you aren’t being treated fairly by a dealer or their finance provider. Register a complaint with the FOS. By Graham Hill

A new police unit has been set up to deal with dash cam and helmet cam footage showing drivers committing offences as part of a Government road safety initiative.

The announcement of the creation of this new unit was made by the Department for Transport (DfT) as a 2-year plan to make roads safer. In their announcement, they stated that it is intended, ‘ to combat road rage, encourage greater mutual respect between road users and protect the most vulnerable’.

The task force does not yet have a name but will be a ‘national back office’ serving police forces. An initial investment of £100,000 has been put in to test the waters. No information is yet available as to how the public will get the video footage to this team but according to AutoExpress they feel the new scheme will operate in the same way as Operation Snap that was introduced in Wales.

When piloted it reduced the time taken to review footage from up to 15 hours (really?) to just 15 minutes. There are 7 offences that the public can report using video footage as follows

Dangerous Driving

Driving Without Due Care & Attention

Careless Driving

Using A Mobile Phone

Not Wearing A Seatbelt

Contravening A Red Traffic Light

Contravening Solid White Lines

The DfT says that dash cam footage and video from motorcyclist and cyclist cameras could lead to investigations for ‘other offences where the driver is clearly not in proper control of the vehicle and which could lead to collisions’. By allowing drivers to submit video footage they believe that they will be able to increase detection rates at no extra cost.

The 2-year plan also includes allowing local authorities to issue tickets to drivers parking in cycle lanes with penalties from £70 to £130 in London. Councils will also be encouraged to spend 15% of their local transport budget on cycling and walking infrastructure. Personally, the whole thing concerns me as I can see a rapid increase in road rage. By Graham Hill

I’ve done this myself and got really angry in the worst town in the world for driver convictions (in my opinion) – Croydon. I was fairly close behind a bus travelling through the town and as we crossed over a crossroad into the same road without seeing any sign to show that the road opposite was simply a two-way bus lane. Of course by the time I saw that the road was simply a bus lane it was too late. A No Entry sign showing ‘Except buses, taxis and cycles’ underneath would have been handy.

So I wasn’t surprised to read that drivers were fined £42 million for driving in bus lanes last year. One road alone generated £1.48 million in fines. Last year there were 888,760 notices issued. In London the fines for driving in a bus lane reached £7.57 million with Ealing council responsible for more than 40% (£3.1 million) of London’s total.

In Glasgow drivers were fined £6.52 million whilst Cardiff drivers had to part with £5.59 million for driving in a bus lane. Confused.com were behind the figures collated after a Freedom of Information request. It also found out that 39% of drivers admitted driving in a bus lane whilst 48% said they had done so unwittingly. 41% said that they had done so because of unclear markings or signage – I know what they mean.

Confused.com’s motoring editor, Amanda Stretton, suggested that bus lanes present the most confusing challenge to motorists. She also suggested that the money raised should be used to improve signage and questioned the level of fines as motorists felt they were ‘unfair and excessive’. The High Street in Oxford was the road that generated the most revenue at £1.48 million. Potentially because only buses, taxis and cycles are permitted to enter sections of the street between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

You’ve been warned. By Graham Hill

I’ve warned about this before but since the tightening of Data Protection rules with GDPR it’s worth mentioning again. It all started a few years ago when the wife of a well-known football player part exchanged her car for a new one. When she sold the car she didn’t think of clearing down the information stored in her in-car telephone book.

The dealer who bought the car as a part exchange realised that he could access the telephone numbers and seeing that there were many mobile numbers of A-list celebrities he offered them to a National newspaper. When it came to light what had happened, after journalists were contacting the celebrities, a court case ensued. The dealer argued that as he bought the car he also bought the data stored in the car. The onus was on the previous owner to remove anything that wasn’t included as she would have done with any personal effects.

Data protection rules were not so tough at the time but even so the dealer was seen to be breaking data protection regulations and was fined. Since then, of course, the amount of data stored on your car has increased. Addresses, places you have visited along with telephone numbers and in some cases driving style. You may think that most of this information is pretty benign but it may not be.

If you own company cars or you are a company car driver there is an onus on the employer to ensure that they protect driver’s personal data. There is a now a company that will cleanse ex-fleet cars and remove all data but they only deal with company cars. If you are concerned about your data stored in your car you can always remove it yourself or ask your local dealer to remove it for you before you return it at the end of your lease or PCP or part exchange it.

If the car is part exchanged the dealer is responsible for ensuring that the data is removed before selling it on. With fines of up to 2% of global annual turnover this could end up having a major effect on employers and/or dealers. By Graham Hill

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

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

One very important thing to remember is that a contract hire agreement:

IS NOT A LOAN AGREEMENT!

I have run training courses and seminars for leasing company employees and executives, dealership staff and consumer groups. In each, when I talk about contract hire agreements I tend to describe them as more like an insurance policy. The problem is that many consumers don’t bother reading the terms and conditions because they believe them to be similar to a loan agreement.

A loan agreement provides you with some key information regarding the finance, amount borrowed, loan term, interest rate, APR, monthly payments etc. This summary is followed by a dozen or so terms and conditions, pretty much falling in line with the Consumer Credit Act  1974, with most of the terms and conditions much the same between each lender, whether it is a bank or a supermarket.

The fact is that once you have the money you can buy a car following which everything is down to you, when, where and how you have the car serviced, the type of insurance you take out, the tyres you fit, when, where and for how long you take your car abroad and how you deal with warranty claims. It’s all under your control.

However, take a car on contract hire and you don’t own it. The leasing company owns it and wants you to take care of it whilst you have the use of it. Because they end up having to sell the car at the end of the agreement and want it to fetch as much as possible at auction. They also want to maximise their profit out of the deal and the profit comes from many places. However, in extreme ignorance, consumers and SME’s with decide upon a car based purely on the rate and totally ignore the contract they are about to sign.

I have pulled out of my files 7 recent contract hire agreements and each one is substantially different from the others and each contains terms that are incredibly vague and confusing. It’s frightening for someone with the knowledge and experience that I have let alone those who are not financially astute.

Here is an example from one of the contracts:

Except where the Customer deals as a Consumer (as such term is defined in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1994) or if in Scotland this Agreement is a Consumer Contract (within the meaning of Sections 12 and 25 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977) the Vehicles hired under this Agreement are hired without the benefit of those terms implied by Sections 8. 9 and 10 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 which terms are (except where the Customer deals as Consumer defined as before) expressly excluded.

Got it? I know what it means but most people would find that incredibly confusing and could leave a customer seriously out of pocket and without a car following a warranty claim. And that’s just one of a hundred terms. So even if you take time to read through the terms and conditions you may still be as knowledgeable as if you hadn’t read them in the first place. It’s a scam.

The fact is that none of the contract hire companies are registered charities and they all need to return profits so think of the monthly rate as just one part of an equation aimed at relieving you of money. Oh, and part of their equation is cost so some employ school leavers on minimum wage to take calls from customers with little training so you can’t expect a high level of customer support if any at all. And raise a problem with a bucket shop broker and you’ll be given short shrift with the response – sort it out with the leasing company! By Graham Hill

According to car warranty providers Warranty Direct mobile phone and speeding offences are decreasing. They have found out that using a mobile phone whilst driving offences have dropped by 44% and speeding offences have dropped by 8.5%. They came to this conclusion after analysing data from the Ministry of Justice over the last 5 years.

They put this drop down to increases in fines and penalties introduced in March last year. Really?? Their analysis showed that each time penalties or fines have been increased this has been followed by a drop in prosecutions. Last March not only saw fines increase, the penalty points awarded if you were caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel also increased from 3 points to 6 points.

The CEO of Warranty Direct, Simon Ackers, said to What Car, ‘It’s great to see these updated driving laws have had a significant, positive impact on driving behaviour in such a short space of time’. ‘I don’t believe it’s just the increased financial penalties, either; motoring authorities have increased their efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of unsafe driving’.

According to road safety website, Think, you’re 4 times more likely to be in a crash if you’re using a mobile phone whilst driving. OK, I don’t have a problem with the above but could some of the drop in prosecutions possibly be down to the drop in the numbers of police out and about able to catch those breaking the law?

In Sussex, where I live, you can go days without seeing a police car and I don’t think they have a local plod. Speed cameras were switched off years ago and even little hidey holes that mobile speed detectors used to hide away in to catch you speeding are no longer used. So it’s great that offences are down but is it because fewer people are breaking the law. I personally don’t think so. By Graham Hill

The EU’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) says the number of fake parts fitted to cars on British roads is on the increase. They have estimated that over £2 billion of fake tyres and batteries alone are fitted to cars across Europe. In the UK investigations have revealed that the most common fakes fitted to cars are filters and lights but the fakes that can put lives in jeopardy are brake pads and airbags.

The IPO has explained the huge increase in fakes is mainly due to problems identifying the fakes from the originals. In order to sort the problem out the IPO has joined forces with manufacturers BMW and Audi, selling platforms Amazon and eBay as well as numerous part suppliers. They have come together to issue guidance on how to spot fake car parts.

One of the recommendations was to have dealers or garages source parts for you and fit them rather than source parts yourself and then ask a dealer to fit them. You might save money by sourcing parts yourself but if the dealer sources the parts then he is responsible for the job from start to finish including the parts he provides. They can’t guarantee a part that you provided yourself.

Audi pointed out how difficult it was to identify the fakers from their websites that are looking more and more professional and as genuine as the websites of genuine providers. Their ‘Brand Protection Team’ finds it more and more difficult identifying the crooks from their website. The first indicator is the price that is ‘too good to be true’. The next is spelling. Often there is the slightest of spelling mistakes that alert them and should alert you. That applies not only to the website but also the packaging.

I remember years ago a friend that owned an electrical shop ordered in some Sharp calculators that were at giveaway prices. They looked exactly the same as the original, the logo looked exactly the same but when you looked closely Sharp was spelt Shrap. He asked everyone who came into the shop to tell him what was wrong with the calculator. Hardly anyone saw it as the logo looked so genuine.

The quality of the packaging can also be a giveaway. Some manufacturers also put small marks on the packaging to make it easier to detect fakes. What Car suggests that you take your car to a recognised garage, one that is signed up to the Motor Industry Code Of Practice for Service and Repair.

I feel that a central database of all fakes found by Trading Standards, Customs and Excise and other regulatory bodies be posted on a ‘Fakes’ website to alert consumers about the fakes and how to identify them. By Graham Hill