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North Lincolnshire Council may be setting the trend for other authorities by imposing a £20 fine on any driver caught sitting in his car with the engine running. The intention is to stop roadside ‘idlers’ and improve air quality by doing so. Councillor Len Foster explained that officers would use their common sense when issuing notices but hoped that the threat of a fine would be enough to stop drivers from idling their engines. The council will use civil enforcement officers who have more powers than traffic wardens. By Graham Hill

Daft gadget of the week award – Tyrepal. That’s probably a little unfair because this new device monitors the tyre pressures and tyre temperatures and therefore could prevent an accident and even save a life. You fit four sensors on your tyre valves to replace the valve caps and a small screen that looks a bit like a sat nav monitors each wheel and warns of any dangers, all done wirelessly. The device, according to Read more �

Auto Express has uncovered a potential hugely dangerous oversight that many drivers may make when taking out insurance. Most of us are aware that we need to provide details of any modifications carried out on our cars when we complete the application form but few would consider the fitting of a towbar as a modification that could invalidate the insurance if not declared. When one of their readers tried to renew Read more �

There are two reasons why you should not procrastinate when you have found a great deal on a car that is in stock and for which you’ve been approved for finance. Firstly, whilst lenders don’t like to provide information regarding fraud, as it may alert the crooks out there as to how the latest frauds are working, fraud has increased, according to some insiders, at an alarming rate. As a result we are seeing Read more �

When Kelvin MacKenzie, the ex editor of the Sun newspaper, received an end of lease charge of £1,867.48 he was shocked and immediately tore into Mercedes Benz Finance through the columns of the Sun. In the same column he said, referring to the charge from the lender and following details of the charges, “as per the agreement (my fault I didn’t read it).” He didn’t read the agreement but he’s lambasting the lender Read more �

Mobile phone users who still use their phones whilst driving without a hands free kit are back in the news as conviction figures show another fall. Recently published figures show that convictions in England and Wales were down to 116,000 in 2008/9, down by 5% on the previous year, which in turn was down on the 167,000 convictions in 2006/7 even though the use of a mobile phone whilst driving was introduced as Read more �

I am, without doubt, the leading expert in car finance in the UK. However, wherever you look there are ‘experts’ who will not fail to give bad advice. This seriously winds me up because it can cost people a lot of money and in some of the worst cases, their home. It’s bad enough when this bad advice is given by well meaning friends down the pub or an accountant who is really not specialist, as I am, in vehicle finance. Read more �

Road safety charity Brake carried out a poll to see how much support existed for the dropping of the drink drive alcohol limit from 80mg per 100 ml to 50, in line with most of Europe. Their findings showed a 70% support which has prompted the Government to take action and consider dropping the level which would criminalise the Sunday pint in a country pub according to an article in Auto Express. But they Read more �

Motor Codes, the body responsible for producing a National code of practice for servicing and repairs, have called for a single computer database containing every vehicle’s service record to be created to prevent crooks faking car service histories in order to inflate the car’s value. The call was made after it was found that it was possible to guy fake service books and ink stamps online on eBay. Auto Express Read more �

There is pressure mounting to introduce a total ban on mobile phones whilst driving. Latest research shows that even drivers using a hands free phone took 20% longer to hit the brakes in an emergency when on the phone. Following distances increased by 30% as drivers failed to keep up with traffic in front and memory performance fell by 11%. The study was carried out by the University of Utah. Road charity, BRAKE Read more �