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I wasn’t surprised to read that over 1,000 drivers each year appeal MOT test results. However I was surprised to read that these appeals were against a pass rather than a fail. Only 100 appeal a fail each year with about 40 being successful.

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So why would anyone appeal a pass? As it turns out it is quite logical, they are customers who have bought a used car with a new or relatively new MOT that they subsequently feel is dodgy and want to use the results of the appeal to either return the car or take a dealer to court.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) confirmed that over 1,250 motorists contacted them in 2014 believing that their car should have failed. The number is increasing as this figure is up by 100 from 2013.

As for those appealing a fail whilst only 116 in 2014 this is the highest over the last 5 years. Of the 1,250 appeals against passed cars only 22% were successful but that shows that nearly a quarter of cars sold with a Full MOT are not roadworthy.

That is frightening. The DVSA carry out an annual Compliance Survey whereby they carry out retests on recently tested cars. They found that 15% of all MOT’s are wrong. Over 11% were given a fail when in fact they passed and 18% were given a pass when they should have failed.

I find that even more frightening! What is wrong with our testing systems whether they are for safety reasons or emission reasons. This isn’t good enough. By Graham Hill

As you know, as it has been the subject of previous blog posts, things have been a little confusing when drivers are given a parking ticket for overstaying the time paid for in private car parks.

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Many articles have been written about private car park owners who have issued a £100 ‘fine’ to motorists for overstaying their allotted time considered to be a ‘penalty’ which in English law is not allowed unless by statute, such as a speeding ‘fine’ or on road parking ‘fine’.

The argument has always been that had the driver vacated the space the parking company could have sold that space for the time that the car was ‘illegally’ parked, let’s say an hour plus a ‘reasonable’ admin fee. But thanks to a Supreme Court ruling this is all about to change. Mr Beavis took action when he was given an £85 parking ticket when he overstayed the two hour parking limit by just under an hour. Mr Beavis took the private parking company, Parking Eye, to court.

The case of Beavis v ParkingEye hinged on whether the fine charged by Parking Eye was classed as a penalty, which would make it unlawful unless it equates to actual losses incurred by Parking Eye. Open and shut one would think as the company didn’t appear to sustain a loss from the overstay. Not so said the Supreme Court who ruled, ‘The fine was not a penalty as the charge authorises the company to control access to the car park in the interest of customers and the wider public’.

The judgement said fines were beneficial to motorists themselves as they make parking spaces available to them which might otherwise be clogged up by long stay users. I have not read about this case anywhere else other than my one secretive source and yet the findings have a massive impact on the basic understanding that if a commercial ‘penalty’ doesn’t reflect a loss incurred it ain’t lawful.

This is what John de Waal QC of Hardwicke Chambers who represented Beavis had to say about this monumental decision, ‘The case sets a new test for ‘take it or leave it’ consumer contracts as the law was last considered at this level 100 years ago’.  He went on to say, ‘Until today, charges that had been agreed in advance, payable on breach of contract, were disallowed as unlawful penalties unless they could be justified as a genuine pre-estimate of loss.

Today’s judgement sweeps away that rule and says that deterrent charges will be allowed if there is some commercial justification for them’. A very strange decision on the part of the Supreme Court but no doubt one that will have all car park owners, other than local authority car parks, singing in the streets! By Graham Hill

As VW continue to fight fire as things get worse following the latest revelations that 800,000 petrol cars have incorrectly stated CO2 emissions. In a statement from VW following a question about the effects on personal tax of those driving affected company cars, they have said that they will stand any additional CO2 based tax due from drivers and went further asking that the Governments involved charge VW direct rather than involve drivers.

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We are yet to see the responses from Governments across Europe – this is getting very messy. In addition VW have issued an action plan. The new chairman, Matthias Muller, said in the plan, ‘We have to look beyond the current situation and create the conditions for Volkswagen’s successful further development.’ There’s an optimist for you.

The first of the 5 point action plan – aimed at the re-alignment of the group, is to support customers affected by what VW is now referring to as ‘the diesel issue’. The company is working towards finding effective technical solutions to help its models to meet historical Euro4 and Euro5 emissions limits which it plans to roll out in January 2016 having liaised with the German Federal Motor Transport Authority.

Second on the action plan list is to carry out a thorough investigation in to how the software that was allegedly installed to falsify emission figures, during certain testing conditions, came into existence and why. Muller added, ‘We must uncover the truth and learn from it’. They have also recruited audit firm Deloitte to assist with the investigations and added that ‘those responsible for what has happened must face severe consequences’.

Third on the list is a total re-organisation of the group in an attempt to ensure that this can never happen again. Group management is to be decentralised to a greater extent in the future with individual brands and regions being given more independence. Muller said that the company would examine the portfolio of more than 300 models with a view to examine the contributions made by each model to earnings.

They will also look into ‘cross brand strategies’. The fourth ambition is one of openness. This will involve a realignment of the Group’s culture and management behaviour with a focus on retaining ‘the pursuit of perfection’ and employees’ commitment to the company. The company will change the way the business handles and communicates mistakes with an aim to create ‘a culture of openness and cooperation’.

Finally VW Group, which had a 2018 strategy, has replaced it with a 2025 strategy shifting emphasis from sales numbers to building ‘qualitative growth’. Muller revealed that they would be working on the new strategy over the next few months to be unveiled in mid 2016.

I have written several articles recently asking whether this ends with emissions. In the past manufacturers have been trusted to keep us safe in our cars and meet the many standards laid down by Governments. But is this the tip of the iceberg? Will other manufacturers be caught out fiddling emissions but worse have any of them been fiddling safety tests in order to sell more cars? By Graham Hill

As we know many local authorities have questioned the effectiveness of speed cameras with some switching them off completely as they found them just too expensive to maintain. But the presence of speed cameras, whether working or not, are considered to be braking ‘black spots’.

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A study carried out by driver data firm, Wunelli found that hard braking was on average 6 times more likely to occur just before a speed camera with some sites up to 11 times more likely. The report raises concerns that speed cameras actually encourage poor driver behaviour with drivers braking hard within 50 meters of a camera then speeding up immediately after.

The conclusions were reached after analysing data collected collected over a billion miles of motoring resulting in a top ten of speed camera braking black spots. The events were collected within 50 meters of each camera and between 50 and 100 meters in residential areas with 30, 40 and 50mph speed limits.

Founding director of Wunelli, Paul Stacey, explained that he wasn’t in favour of speeding and wasn’t opposed to speed cameras but the report questioned the value of speed cameras as safety tools. He went on to say, ‘They appear top encourage poor driving behaviour. After hard braking, drivers often speed up again.’

Looking at the top ten, number 1 on the list is on the M4 near to Boston Manor rail station, West London. They recorded 57 hard braking events within the 50 meter range, that is 11 times the average. In 2^nd place, again 11 times the norm, was a camera on Rochdale Road in Middleton, Greater Manchester. Followed by a camera on the A4146 Leighton Buzzard Road in Hemel Hempstead, Herts running at 8 times the average number of events.

The highest number of single hard-braking events was found at the camera on the A40 Western Avenue, Ruislip, North West London. Here drivers hit the brakes 261 times within 50 meters of the camera. The usual response came from the RAC Foundation pointing out that the law is the law and no-one should be exceeding the speed limit in the first place which would mean that drivers wouldn’t have to slow down at the sight of a speed camera. Really?

Well who’d have thought? The fact is that there must be a better way of controlling speed, someone needs to get their thinking cap on. By Graham Hill

The rules have always been pretty clear when it comes to claiming back business miles when an employee uses their own car. These days I see more cars being funded privately than through a business as a company car, often to avoid benefit in kind tax.

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.

As an employee claiming a mileage allowance, again it is very clear, you can claim up to 10,000 miles per annum at 45 pence per mile which is tax and NI free, beyond 10,000 miles you can claim 25 pence per mile, again tax and NI free. All fairly straight forward but what if the car is an electric car as the HMRC do not regard electricity as ‘fuel’.

Also what constitutes a business trip? With regard to the electricity question how does this also affect hybrids that run partly on electricity and partly on petrol? I have read various reports regarding electricity which, whilst already confusing, are further confused if the company provides charging points in the workplace and therefore provides free electricity.

Some companies are paying the full fuel allowance but could this be a problem waiting to explode when the Revenue decides that as electricity is provided at work the employee cannot claim the fuel allowance. At the moment the consensus is that as there is no rate set for electric vehicles that employees can only claim for the electricity that they provide themselves. Totally unfair.

I will keep you posted on this one but in the meantime the Revenue has provided some guidelines regarding business miles as follows, recently issued under HMRC 490 Employee Travel – a tax and NICS guide for employers:

• ‘Ordinary Commuting’ is specifically excluded from being considered a business journey. This is any travel between the employees home and a permanent workplace.
• An employee such as a service engineer, who travels between different clients throughout the day and who has no normal workplace, can treat all his journeys as business miles, including the first and last trip of each day to and from home.
• An employee who works for the same company at two different sites cannot treat as business mileage the journeys to or from either site and home. But any journeys between the two offices would be business miles.
• Travel from home to a depot where an employee picks up jobs or tools prior to setting out on appointments would be considered commuting – the depot would be a permanent workplace, even if the employee spent the rest of the day away from the site.
• If an employee leaves home and passes his permanent workplace, but does not stop, on the way to see a client then all the journey is business travel. If, however, he stops at his normal workplace for ‘substantive duties’, such as making a phone call, this would be treated as two journeys – a commute to his workplace, followed by a journey to the client, and only the latter would be classed as business miles.

So there you have it, up to date advice on claiming business mileage but still with many questions left unanswered such as stopping to do some shopping or drop the kids off at school on the way to a client, and so on. By Graham Hill

Did I mention that I won the Innovation of the Year Award at the Frontline Solutions sponsored Finance & Insurance Awards 2015? Well in case I didn’t mention it – I did! And very proud of it I am too. Earlier in the day at the conference, speakers spoke about the motor finance industry and the need for much more education, not just for those selling the finance products such as dealers, brokers, banks, building societies and others but also customers who stand no chance if the people selling the products don’t have a grasp of the way the finance functions.

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.

To add to the confusion salesmen, anxious to make a sale, end up emphasising benefits that often don’t exist and certainly avoid telling clients anything that may put them off. For example a bank won’t tell you that an unsecured personal loan puts you at greater risk than a secured personal loan.

If you don’t repay your £2,000 loan that is secured against your house and you end up in court it would be very extreme for the judge to throw you and your family out on the street and order the sale of your house with maybe north of £100,000 equity in it for the sake of a £2,000 debt.

On the other hand if the £2,000 was ‘unsecured’ a court order could be issued and you could end up handing over valued possessions such as your TV, computer, jewellery etc. I always say that unsecured means unsecured against nothing in particular. So whilst explaining the finance they kind of miss that bit out albeit that it may be in the small print.

Oh and it doesn’t stop there, they could still go for your house if you don’t have enough value in your possessions in order to pay the debt, known as a charging order. This will force you to pay the debt back if and when you sell your house which is basically what happens when you take out a secured loan that you cannot repay. And that is the tip of the iceberg.

Many retail car salesemen don’t understand how contract hire (better known as a lease) works. But neither do customers and even accountants often miss some of the massive advantages attached to car leasing. At the other extreme there are customers whom, having taken a car on a lease, suddenly become as expert as me! They simply tout around the market to find the cheapest deal but will it end up being the cheapest with so many opportunities to charge all sorts of ‘extras’ included in the contract?

The rates are often not fixed so between ordering the car and delivery you may find that the rates have increased by £30 per month as a result of a £1,000 increase in cost of the vehicle. There are also some ‘brokers’ who are not conforming to the new FCA rules, are not members of any trade association and possibly don’t have professional Indemnity Insurance or are just managing to survive and could be closed down before your car even gets delivered.

How will you deal with that situation? If he is shut down or goes bust what happens to the car you have on order? If the car was ordered by the broker the order will be cancelled and you could be back to square 1. See what I mean? There is more to education than just understanding the basic products.

That’s why I am in the midst of re-writing my best selling book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide and creating educational videos to make sure you understand the upsides, downsides and matters relating to vehicle finance. Watch this space for future announcements and products. By Graham Hill

The Finance & Insurance (F & I) Conference and Awards dinner took place at the very impressive Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 15th October. The conference, run by Frontline Solutions, was hugely successful with some great presentations topped off by a motivationally impressive Simon Weston, survivor of the Argentina conflict badly burned on the bombed HMS Sir Galahad.

Spencer Halil of Alphera kicked the day off following introductions by Frontline creator Andy Shuter and MD Martin Hill (no relation). He started with a very interesting presentation on the industry and started the ‘education’ ball rolling. At several points during the presentation education of those providing finance was brought into focus as was the education of consumers and SMEs.

This was followed by Adrian Dally of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) who provided us with some very interesting statistics. In terms of new cars by far the most popular way of financing them in the consumer sector was now PCP (73%) followed by HP (21%) then leasing (4.5%) with personal loans lagging well behind on just 1.6%.

However, it was pointed out that whilst PCP is by far the most popular way to finance a car it had taken a while to catch on, as is happening with lease or personal contract hire (PCH). PCH more than doubled over the last year from 2% so the penny is starting to drop, especially when consumers and more to the point, dealers, start to grasp the product.

But again the education void was mentioned, something that the industry and various associations need to address. In the afternoon we had a very entertaining and informative presentation by Georg Bauer, the German vice president of Tesla Financial Services, Europe and APAC. Whoever said that German’s don’t have a sense of humour? He was very funny as well as providing an insight into the latest electric vehicle technology. Fascinating. Why are all other manufacturers lagging so far behind?

Finally, Simon Weston recalled what happened to him along with some harrowing pictures. At the time Wales were still in the Rugby World Cup whilst England had been knocked out so as a Welsh ex rugby player he had a dig at us at every opportunity – not laughing now are you Simon. He went on to explain what he was doing now to help other war victims and the massive amount of charity work he does now. What an amazing guy and more than worthy of the standing ovation he received at the end of his presentation.

The evening awards dinner was hosted by newsreader Louise Minchin, and a brilliant job she did too. The motor racing legend who is Nigel Mansell recalled many of his scary and happy moments after performing a magic trick. I hadn’t realised he is rumoured to have joined the magic circle! Finally came the awards which was the evening’s biggest shock. By the time the awards were being announced I have to say I was a little tipsy. So when people on my table pointed out that my company, GHA Finance was a finalist, according to the screen, in the category, Innovation Of The Year I was very surprised.

Then when it was announced by the lovely Louise that I had won, surprise turned to shock. I’d like to report on the rest of the evening but I have to say it was somewhat of a blur! But I would very much like to thank Andy, Martin and all the organisers for creating what is for me one of the best conferences, if not the best, of the year.

Also sincere thanks to the judging panel who awarded the prize and especially Luke Curtis and MotoNovo who sponsored the award! Thank you all so very much. Oh and I haven’t stopped, I have another app in development and I am in the middle of a re-write of my book Car Finance – A Simple Guide, available on Amazon. By Graham Hill

Did you know about the changes that have come about over the last few months at Companies House? It will now be easier for lenders to access your business data held by Companies House as it is now FREE for anyone to access under the new Government Corporate Transparency Rules which are part of the BIS Open Data Strategy.

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.

This means that anyone, including the general public, can access over 170 million records held by Companies House including such information as Registered Office, Current & Resigned Officers, Mortgage Charge Data, Previous Names Data, Insolvency Data, Document Images, Accounting Information and much more.

And in time more will be added. The new initiative also includes free access to developers who may wish to access information held at Companies House as part of a computerised assessment program.

Some may argue that little has changed as it only cost a quid to get your hands on any of this information in the past and it hasn’t exactly been widely publicised that the information is now free but more worrying is the path this is taking us.

How much more information will become available not only those who wish to use it for legitimate reasons but to those who wish to use it for less than legal reasons or for targeting. Worrying times in my opinion. By Graham Hill

I only found out recently that the fine for driving an uninsured car is just £300. No wonder so many young drivers drive without insurance because the fine, if they get caught, is considerably less than it would cost to take out insurance in the first place.

Even with the cheapest car the premium could be many times the fine. It must be time to increase the fine to a minimum of £5,000 for driving without insurance along with compulsory confiscation of the vehicle. Sadly we don’t seem to have punishments in this country to fit the crime. By Graham Hill

OK time for a little bit of insider information. It would seem that the European regulators are taking a very close look at pollution and not because of the VW/Audi situation.

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.

In fact it has nothing to do with what comes out of the car but more about what gets sucked into the car. Concern is increasing as congestion reaches an all time high on British roads and with many cars and vans not fitted with stop start technology or have it but switch it off, if you are sitting in a queue of traffic there is a concentration of pollutants being sucked into the cabin.

Executive electric vehicle maker Tesla revealed the investigations when they launched their new Model X SUV with the weirdest back doors that open upwards in the old seagull style. They have a new system called Bioweapon Defence Mode (seriously) which features two air filters that Tesla boss Elon Musk says will give the car, ‘air cleanliness levels comparable to a hospital operating room’.

As Musk pointed out, they are ahead of the game. It doesn’t take a mastermind to work out that the emissions from the idling car in front has to go somewhere and it makes sense that most finds its way into the car behind.

Not surprisingly, having taken steps to stop children from being damaged by cigarette smoke it is logical that other in car pollutants will come under attack. You heard it here first. By Graham Hill