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Having just renewed my insurance I have first hand experienced of the way that crooked insurance companies are trying it on through the ‘auto renew’ con. I had the paperwork through explaining that they had researched the market on my behalf in order to achieve the best possible rate which in fact increased my premium by a third.

But by expressing the new premium in monthly terms on the face of it the figure could have easily been overlooked and being lazy I could have continued on with the same insurer. But having checked the previous year’s premium I was staggered and immediately jumped on comaparethemarket.com (free cinema ticket every week for a year – there’s my dates off match.com sorted for the next year).

When I saw the premiums I was staggered. I was about 40 quotes down the list before the premiums were anything close to the quote from my existing insurer. In fact the quote I went for with the RAC was about £100 a year less than the premium I paid last year. I had a similar experience with Mcafee for my computer protection insurance. I paid the Argos shop £19.99 for one year’s protection last year.

When it came up for renewal they were going to hit my credit card to the tune of £89.99. When I phoned to say I didn’t want it they said they would reduce it to £45.99. After checking with Argos I told the lady to shove it. I believe that if you sign up to auto renew a policy of any kind, if the premium increases by more than say 5% for whatever reason it should be clearly explained and you have to opt in rather than opt out. Rant over! By Graham Hill

If you are one of those who uses a mobile phone whilst driving without a Bluetooth hands free kit be prepared for extra points on your licence and an increased fine if you get caught.

New proposals from the Department for Transport (DfT) will increase the number of points to 4 which means that under the totting up rules if you get caught 3 times you will automatically lose your licence, previously you had to be caught 4 times.

After seeing an increase in accidents involving drivers using mobile phones whilst driving the Government has decided to take action. Not only will the points increase to 4 but the fixed penalty fines will increase to £150 from £100. HGV drivers will see their points increase to 6 if caught using a mobile phone whilst driving.

Most new cars come with Bluetooth so yet another reason why motorists should lease their cars – well what did you expect me to say? By Graham Hill

The EU Commission had already made it clear that emission testing would be tightened up from 2017 but they have now announced that they will be going several steps further. As a result of growing mistrust of the emissions testing procedures which were to reflect real life motoring conditions by 2017 the Commission has announced a number of additional rules.

First of all, instead of randomly selecting cars off production lines to test they will in future be selected from cars that are already on sale as well as cars from production lines. Recalls will be issued if cars are found to emit different levels of regulated emissions than those suggested by the manufacturer. Financial ties between European test centres and the manufacturers will be cut (I didn’t know there were any), thus making the system fairer.

It seemed that testing could be carried out in any country within the EU in the past for it to be accepted across the EU. So manufacturers were having cars tested at centres where they knew controls were more lax. This is being address with greater controls being imposed upon the test centres.

The Commission is also applying for additional powers to suspend, restrict or withdraw the number of services that a test centre can offer if it is performing at a less than acceptable level. The Commission is also pushing for access to new car ‘software protocols’ and the ability to restrict the use of such devices as the ‘defeat device’ used by VW. I’d have thought these sorts of devices should be banned rather than just restricted!

Whilst it seemed to be a move in the right direction there were some observers who believed the new rules still ‘lacked teeth’. In a damning statement Greg Archer, green vehicles director at campaign group Transport & Environment said, ‘Without the threat of future EU sanctions, it will be  mission impossible to break the strong bond between national regulators and their car makers that has protected the industry but at the cost of higher emissions.’

And I thought I was outspoken! The EU Parliament is now considering the proposals ahead of a debate and vote. If approved the new rules will come into force immediately = as if that could happen! Ridiculous! By Graham Hill

We seem to be having a week of environmental issues! MP’s have prepared a new clean air report for consideration by the Government. In it they recommend that a new scrappage scheme be introduced for diesels and vehicle excise duty (car tax) should be based on nitrogen oxides as well as CO2 and not just CO2 as it is at the moment.

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The report was presented to the Chancellor before his Autumn Statement by the Environmental Audit Committee in a hope that he would take note and encourage people out of ‘polluting diesels’. The chairman of the committee, Huw Irranca-Davies, urged the Chancellor to strike a better balance, he went on to say ‘A National scrappage scheme could provide a shortcut to cleaning up the air in our cities.’

Whilst the Chancellor only retained the 3% benefit in kind loading on diesels in the Autumn Statement that’s not to say that more won’t be done in next year’s budget. My own view is that whilst we should focus on the environment we should stop all this knee jerk reaction, the like of which we’ve seen following the VW debacle.

They did it with pay day lenders which has ended up taking out competition and increasing the use of illegal money lenders and by extending the rules into the whole of the consumer finance industry, to an unnecessary degree, they could end up pushing us back into recession.

Things may look good for the Chancellor at the moment but will it still look quite so rosy in a year’s time when ‘affordability tests’ become the focus of attention by the PPI lawyers? By Graham Hill

2 years ago I reported on some comments made by an environmental and technical expert who said that European targets for emissions were not only becoming difficult to meet but impossible to meet.

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He explained that an internal combustion engine burns fossil fuel which has the negative effect of emitting undesirable gasses and particles that pollute the air. That is a fact that can’t be changed. The objectives to continually reduce the gasses is fine and very environmentally friendly but technology and additives can only go so far before the targets are impossible to meet.

We all know that the harder we drive our cars the higher the amount of fuel we use. We may get from A to B quicker but we use much more fuel in doing so and it goes without saying the more fuel we use the more gas we emit from the exhaust. So as we reach the limit of gas reduction is the next step a control on the way we drive.

The only measure used at the moment is CO2 but will NOx enter the equation following the VW debacle? And by halving the NOx emissions target (Euro VI diesel engines) have we created an impossible task for the manufacturers? As we know fuel consumption figures are shown using different driving conditions, urban, extra urban and combined.

They may not exactly reflect actual driving conditions but we have three, often very different figures so why do we have just one CO2 emission figure as well as other singular gas emission figures when clearly they must differ from 10mph to 100mph? It was clear, even 2 years ago when I expressed my opinion on this subject that some creativity would have to enter the equation if targets were to be met.

However, I didn’t expect that creativity to extend to out and out deception. And whilst there wasn’t a murmur when the new Euro VI emissions came into effect on the first of September, following the VW debacle many manufacturers have announced that they are struggling to meet the Euro VI targets – strange that isn’t it? So what next? Will we see driving style and speed controls?

Limits on motorways dropped to 60mph and a drop from 30 to 20 around town? Or maybe cameras that can measure acceleration away from lights to stop drivers from pretending to be Lewis Hamilton? All very worrying for us petrol heads! By Graham Hill

Are our roads safe enough? Safety organisations and fleet operators think not and are calling for a re-introduction of safety targets called ‘road safety reduction targets. They were first introduced in 1987 but were axed by the Government in 2010.

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The targets were believed to have helped to reduce road deaths and serious injuries on the road each year. Whilst the targets were discontinued in 2010 the road safety community believe that we are now missing a vital component in the tools that make roads safer.

Trade journal, Fleet News, along with the ACFO and the BVRLA have joined forces to try to convince the Government that they need to re-introduce the targets. However, the DfT have said, ‘Britain continues to have some of the safest roads in the world, but every death is a tragedy and we are determined to do more.’

He went on to explain, ‘We are making sure we have the right legal, education and investment frameworks in place to make our roads safer. We have already introduced new laws, given the police tougher powers to tackle dangerous driving and are investing billions to improve the conditions of our road network.

Local authorities are best placed to decide how to use these frameworks to make their roads safer, rather than having centralised national targets.’ Richard Owen, Road Safety Analysis operations director, pointed out that the current Government was opposed to use targets to dictate policy. He said, ‘An example of this is hospital waiting times. This was forcing hospitals to meet numbers and it was having a detrimental impact on patient care.’

However, UK safety bodies believe that targets do make a difference. There is a wider EU target to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2020, but a lack of clear UK targets takes away focus and sends a message that road safety is not a priority. The DfT’s Reported Road Casualties In Great Britain Annual Report 2014 shows that 1,775 people died on the roads (a 4% increase on the year before). A further 22,807 were seriously injured (a 5% increase).

Casualties of all severities rose to 194,477 in Great Britain in 2014, an increase of 6% over 2013, interrupting a steady downward trend since 1997. Pedestrians and bike riders bore the brunt of the increase. Pedestrian deaths increased by 446, an increase of 12%, accounting for three quarters of the overall rise in fatalities. Serious injuries to cyclists rose by 8% to 3,401continuing a long term trend that has been ongoing since 2004.

In response to the figures Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive at safety charity Brake commented, ‘We should be under no illusions as to the seriousness of these figures’. Brake join forces with the RAC Foundation and the Institute of Advanced Motorists in calling for the re-introduction of Safety Targets. I find myself agreeing. By Graham Hill