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The Motoring Ombudsman (not to be confused with the Financial Ombudsman) has revealed that few drivers are aware that they can extend their manufacturer’s warranty beyond the initial period. Really? If that’s the case a few dealership salesmen should be sacked!

Anyway, they found that more than half of all participants in a recent survey didn’t know that you can extend the manufacturers warranty. 32% were not aware that you can use an independent provider, you don’t have to take the manufacturer’s warranty.

This is quite important as more people are opting for 4 and even 5 year agreements in order to reduce the costs. In most cases that takes you beyond the manufacturer’s warranty period but whether you take an extended manufacturer’s warranty or take one from an independent provider make sure you check what you are covered for.

Also, if you decide to take out a 4 or 5 year PCP or PCH remember that you have other costs to take into account. Often new cars come with a breakdown service for the first 3 years which would need to be renewed or replaced. Service and maintenance costs increase as more items need to be replaced or renewed. Then there are often connectivity services and subscriptions that need to be renewed such as Sat Nav updates and alerts.

So what may seem like a good deal over say 4 years compared to 3 years, saving £20 per month could easily be eaten up by the added costs in the 4^th year. Graham Hill

Thatcham Research that carries out safety tests on behalf of Euro NCAP have now started carrying out tests that tell drivers how easy it is to break into their cars.

The ratings are ’Superior’, ‘Good’, ‘Poor’ and ‘Unacceptable’. The ratings are awarded based on how well a car performs in a range of security tests. Tey include one that identifies how vulnerable cars are to digital ‘hack’ in keyless cars.

11 cars have been tested so far, of which 5 were rated as ‘poor’. There are Ford Mondeo executive car, Toyota Corolla family hatchback, Lexus UX and Hyundai Nexus SUV and Kia ProCeed Estate.

At the top of the scale rated as ‘Superior’, were Jaguar XE Saloon, Range Rover Evoque, Audi eTron and Porsche Macan SUV’s along with the Mercedes B Class MPV. The Suzuki Jimny small SUV was the only car to be rated ‘Unacceptable’.

According to Thatcham’s Technical Officer, Richard Billyeald, the Jimny was given the rating as a result of, ‘This car scores consistently badly across all criteria, missing some fundamental security features that consumers might rightly be fitted to a new car’.

Thatcham have introduced the new ratings system as a result of increased awareness of car buyers and their demand for more information on security risks. It also ties in with the increasing cost of car thefts in the UK. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said that the cost of claims relating to vehicle theft has increased in 2018 by 29% compared to 2017 with claims running at £1 million per day.

The ABI pointed out that the main reason for the increase was the increased use of keyless entry systems and the ease with which thieves can hijack the signal from the key fob then use it to unlock and start the car.

The ABI went on to explain that drivers are worried about car theft and that the record amounts being paid out in claims ‘in part reflects the vulnerability of some cars to keyless relay theft’.

In response, the Society For Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) hit back by explaining that the automotive industry ‘takes vehicle crime extremely seriously’. It added, ‘The latest technology has helped to bring down theft dramatically during the past 20 years. However, criminals will always look for new ways to steal cars; it’s an ongoing battle and why manufacturers continue to invest billions in ever more sophisticated security features and software upgrades’. By Graham Hill

Auto Express investigated how accurate the speedometers were on 10 cars were. They did this by comparing how fast the speedos said they were going with the actual speed, revealed by a VBox meter.

Car speedometers are not allowed to ‘under-read’ – they can’t tell you that you’re going more slowly than you really are – but they are allowed to over-read by up to 10 per cent plus 6.25mph. So they could read 50.25mph at 40mph.

All the cars that were assessed were well within legal limits, although some read with near-perfect accuracy, while others over-read by 3mph. This, with the different approaches police have to enforcing limits, means some variance will always remain around speeding.

Commenting on the investigation, AA president Edmund King said it is “sensible to have some flexibility” with speed-limit enforcement, “as the last thing we need is drivers concentrating solely on the speedo and not the road”.

King added that, with speedometers becoming increasingly accurate, “Auto Express’s testing is a valid reminder to drivers not to gamble on their speedo perhaps providing some leeway”.

The speedo accuracy test explained:

The VBox is a clever piece of kit that uses a GPS signal to measure a car’s speed. It’s very accurate, gauging velocity to within 0.1km/h, so is perfect for assessing speedos.

They set their test cars to 30, 50, 60 and 70mph using the built-in speed limiter or cruise control to ensure a steady speed, then used the VBox to measure how fast they were going. This gave them a fair idea of the discrepancy between actual and indicated speed.

“Not many drivers have access to a VBox, but a separate smartphone app or sat-nav can give you an idea of how accurate your speedo is. Here are the results of the tests:

By Graham Hill & Auto Express

Did you know that some insurers reduce their premiums by up to 20% if you have a dash cam fitted in your car? I personally believe that fitting a dash cam as standard in a car should be a legal requirement and could be fitted into the rear of the rear view mirror.

Years ago cars didn’t have immobilisers fitted but they are now a statutory requirement along with a car alarm. And it would cost considerably less than the cost of fitting an aftermarket unit.

Dash cams can be incredibly useful in the event of an accident in order to help the driver prove his case and the incidents of ‘Cash For Crash’, where a driver pulls in front of an innocent driver and brakes hard causing the car behind to hit the car in front, then every person in the car in front making a whiplash claim, has reduced as a result of dashcams.

Dashcam footage has also helped police to apprehend dangerous drivers and drunk drivers following erratic and dangerous driving. But for the cameras to be effective they must be capable of creating clear footage with easy transfer to a mobile device.

With this in mind AutoExpress have tested out some of the popular brands and come up with their top 3 cameras.

Their Best Buy was the Nextbase 612GW, priced at £249.99. It has a 150 degree lens capture with recording in 4K Ultra HD. In the tests number plates were easy to read as were road signs and pedestrians could be seen I a low light. A polarised filter enhanced colour quality and settings were easily adjusted on the move. The BlackVue had better picture quality but the price difference gave the Nextbase the edge.

Recommended was the Blackvue DR900S-1CH with the best picture quality but priced at £399.95. It has a 162 degree lens capture with recording in 4K Ultra HD at 30 frames per second making it the most accurate. In the tests this cam recorded pedestrians and number plates well even in low light as a result of the 8megapixel camera. Settings are changed via a downloadable app. It is WiFi enabled so recordings can be uploaded from the camera to Cloud Storage. In summary the cam and the features justify the high cost – loved by the testers.

Also recommended was the Thinkware Q800 Pro at a cost of £269. The unit looks a little messy as it comes with a hardwire lead powered by a plug and play 12v unit. There is no screen and and footage is accessed by the Thinkware app. The unit comes with a Sony Exmor R Starvis sensor to record 1440p quad HD quality footage at 30 frames per second. The review describes the quality as good but behind the first two. Lowlight conditions are the strength of the Thinkware with Night Vision 2.0 is excellent.

If you want to see all of the reviews you need to get your hands on the 1^st May edition of Auto Express. By Graham Hill

Over a fifth of drivers have got out of their car to confront another driver in road rage incidents according to latest survey data. And a further 39% have said that they have been affected by road rage on more than one occasion.

Amazingly, 19% of drivers admitted getting so angry whilst driving that they deliberately followed another driver. The survey polled 1,000 motorists and was carried out by motor data firm HPI. While women were more likely to follow other motorists, men were more likely to get out of their cars in road rage incidents.

Those that responded to the survey said dangerous overtaking was the most common reason for road rage while van drivers were felt to be the most irritating road users followed by cyclists and minicab drivers. Let’s all just calm down – life’s too short. By Graham Hill

My new training video series will cover this subject but in the meantime, I thought I should highlight a not so uncommon problem. Let’s face it when we lease or buy a vehicle we take it on to either solve a problem or massage our egos or both.

The problem could simply be to get the kids to school and get you to work as effortless as possible or to cart around goods or equipment to deliver to customers or to use in your trade as a plumber, carpenter etc. On the other hand, you may opt for a car that has the wow factor and gets you from a standing start to 60 mph faster than a fighter jet.

Whatever the reason you shouldn’t need to have a law degree, be a qualified accountant or be a qualified car mechanic in order to enjoy effortless use of your vehicle throughout the time you possess it. Especially if you lease the vehicle and the vehicle is covered by a manufacturer’s warranty throughout the lease period.

Which brings me to a problem faced by an old client of mine. One of his vehicles was a van that suddenly developed a leak from the windscreen turning the passenger well into – a well – literally, any time it rained.

It seemed fairly obvious that as there was no damage to the glass that there must have either been a manufacturing fault or an assembly fault so the driver took the van into the main dealer for them to sort out as part of the warranty.

The dealer, after consulting with the manufacturer, decided that it wasn’t covered by the warranty. At this stage, the client contacted the leasing company. After all, they own the van at all times, the client simply rents it. Knowing that the customer needed the van as part of his business they instructed the dealer to carry out the repair which was done and the van returned to the customer.

One would think that this was a happy ending and it was until the customer received an invoice from the leasing company for the cost of the repair. Clearly, he shouldn’t have had to pay for the replacement screen and re-fitting. Whilst I’m not wanting to point the finger of blame I simply want to bring this situation to the attention of all of those leasing a car or van because it raises some very fundamental questions.

First of all, in my opinion, this should have been a very simple warranty claim and the manufacturer should have simply paid for the repairs. However, once the repair was refused and hindsight is a great thing, the client’s insurer should have been called in.

Insurers will only pay out on a claim if the windscreen was damaged. As experts in their field had they said that the leak was a result of manufacture or assembly faults the manufacturer would have been hard pushed to continue to refuse the claim. On the other hand, they could have agreed that the leak was attributed to accidental damage and the screen replaced with the customer having to pay a small excess fee.

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, my clients are not engineers or car mechanics so I wouldn’t expect them to think about contacting the windscreen company but I would expect the dealer to suggest this route unless they were simply looking to replace the screen and make money out of the customer, supported by the dealer. Why did they not do this?

Moving on to the owners of the vehicle, the leasing company. They have their own engineering department who deal with service and maintenance issues. As they own the car I would also suggest that they should take up any warranty claims on behalf of the customer.

After all, if you rent a car from Avis you would expect them to take care of the problem if you suddenly heard a knock from the engine. Down to them to sort out any warranty claims as they own the car and the warranty.

But even if they didn’t accept that they should take responsibility for the warranty claim they did take up the case with the dealer. At that stage, an engineer to engineer discussion should have taken place and if the leasing company agreed with the dealer and manufacturer that this was accidental they should have explained this to their client and recommended that the customer make a claim on his insurance, after all, they are the experts, not my (and their) client.

Finally, without reference to their customer, the repairs were authorised by the leasing company. However, they didn’t have the permission of the customer to spend his money. It is unlawful to spend someone elses money without authorisation, which wasn’t given in this case so the customer has every right to refuse to pay. The argument continues but I’ll let you into a little known secret.

This all took place in the third year of the warranty. Did you know that in most cases the manufacturer only provides the first two years of the ‘manufacturer’s’ warranty? The 3^rd year is ‘paid for’ by the supplying dealer. And whilst the way this is done is shrouded in secrecy I have heard that one large dealership group self-funds.

In other words, if you make a warranty claim in the 3^rd year and repairs are carried out the supplying dealer will pay for them. It works out cheaper than paying for the warranty cover on every car.

So there is an incentive to decline a warranty claim. Now I’m not saying that this is the case in this instance but it throws a big question mark over the way that warranty claims are handled.

I’ll be keeping an eye on things with regard to my client and report back the final outcome. By Graham Hill

In 2012, a lawsuit was brought up against a McDonalds restaurant due to a slip and fall injury. In the suit a 54 year old woman claimed to have suffered a severe injury to her spine.

Over the course of the investigation, it was determined that the owner had received the proper guidelines on maintaining a clean working environment while keeping things safe and clean.

The final verdict came in that the staff of McDonald’s failed to follow the inspection protocol and there was spilt food/drink and the woman won $2.6 million in economic damages and $3 million for non-economic damages for diminished quality of life.

Whilst compensation in the UK is nothing like the compensation paid out in this case similar rules apply in slip and fall cases. And if my memory serves me correctly the lady involved actually spilt the ketchup in the first place.

So what has this got to do with potholes? When the roads in this country first started to deteriorate local authorities found it cheaper to pay for the occasional tyre blowout and bent alloy than repair the roads. You would take a photo of the pothole and send it with a receipt for the repair and the local authority paid out instantly.

Similar to the responsibility of those who maintain public spaces to make them safe for the public you would assume that the same applies to local authorities when it comes to potholes. But it seems to have changed and the same rules of responsibility apply. You now have to prove that the local authority was already aware of the pothole and did nothing about it. Or doesn’t have a maintenance programme in place. This has got to be wrong.

I always recommend that you take legal cover with your car insurance as they can give you legal advice in these circumstances and even send you a legal letter that you can use when claiming compensation. If you have a winnable case they may even take the council to court on your behalf..

If you haven’t got legal cover you can upgrade your policy or the RAC offers a very good policy for just £15 per annum. Always take advice from a financial advisor before taking out insurance. By Graham Hill

It wasn’t that long ago when it was only top of the range cars that had mobile Bluetooth connectivity which meant that the internal storage in the car would store all of your phone book. You, therefore, had to delete your phonebook if you didn’t want the new owner to have access to your list of family, friends and contacts.

Things have now moved on and even the most modest of cars has a pile of data stored about you. What Car has looked into this and come up with a list of things you can do to protect yourself from a cyber attack.

• Keep in touch with your car’s manufacturer regularly to check whether it has issued software updates or recalls to improve security. Alternatively, you can see if your car has an outstanding recall notice at gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall.

• To minimise the impact if your car and/or sat-nav is stolen, use any security features your sat-nav offers and think about regularly wiping all the data, such as your home address, from the system.

• If your car has built-in wi-fi, never leave the default password on it and never leave a note of the new password inside the car.

• Turn your car’s wi-fi and Bluetooth off when you’re not using them.

• If you download any smartphone apps that will be processing payments for your car, such as road toll fees, make sure they’re password-protected.

• Make sure your smartphone’s operating system and apps are the latest versions; updates are often issued to patch possible security vulnerabilities that can give cyber criminals access to your phone.

• Protect your social media accounts by making sure you’ve activated the privacy settings. With Facebook, avoid public updates and only send posts to your friends. With Twitter, you can’t be as selective.

• Protect your home by making your car’s sat-nav less accurate. If you don’t want cyber criminals to know where you live, instead of setting your home address to your house, consider setting the shortcut to a nearby junction or the closest motorway exit.

What to do if you’re selling your car or returning a hire car

• If you’ve paired your phone to the car to access hands-free operation, go into the Bluetooth set-up menu and remove your phone from the paired phones list, as well as deleting your contacts if they’ve been downloaded onto the system.

• Check the car’s manual to find out how to clear all your private data from the infotainment system. It might be listed as a ‘factory reset’ option.

• If your car has web-connected services that bring data from your favourite apps and social networks to the dashboard, disconnect this. If you don’t, other drivers might be able to gain access to your Facebook and Google accounts. To wipe the information, you’ll need to reset the infotainment system to its factory-fresh state.

• If your vehicle has an integrated remote control that you’ve paired with your front gate or garage door, your vehicle is essentially a gigantic key to your house. Check the instruction manuals for your electric gate or garage door for resetting instructions.

By Graham Hill

It’s that time of year when sap starts falling from the trees, birds feel the need to leave a present on your windscreen and bugs start committing suicide by throwing themselves on your windscreen. The net result is a difficult to see through windscreen.

If this happens you need to clean it as quickly as possible because it’s illegal to drive your car when the screen is difficult to see through with some hefty penalties.

Car owners have a responsibility to make sure their driving doesn’t negatively impact other motorists.

One way this could happen is by having a dirty windscreen or another glass surface which is required to be clear while on the road, such as the side mirrors or rear windscreen.

Having a filthy windscreen could impair your vision and similarly your decision making and reaction times and could lead to an accident.

Regulation 30 of The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, says that drivers are required to keep class surfaces clean and clear.

“All glass or other transparent material fitted to a motor vehicle shall be maintained in such condition that it does not obscure the vision of the driver while the vehicle is being driven on a road,” the law states.

If you were to have an accident as a result of having a dirty windscreen then you could be fined and charged for careless driving.

Punishments for careless driving range from an on-the-spot fine of £100 and three penalty points.

However, if your case was to go to court then you could see that fine increase to a massive £5,000 and receive up to nine penalty points.

Serious offences could also see you lose your driving licence.

Neil Greig, Policy and Research Director at IAM RoadSmart, said: “Careless driving is all about penalising the negative impact you have on other drivers.

“If a dirty windscreen is stopping you from driving safely then you should expect to be caught and charged.

“Not having clear vision in low sun situations is a really serious issue.

“In 2016 ‘dazzling sun’ was recorded by the police as a factor in 28 fatal crashes, 463 serious injury crashes, and just over 2,100 slight injury crashes.

“The best solution is to keep your windscreen clean, inside and out, and to carry a pair of sunglasses all year round.”

In order to keep your screen clear AutoExpress have tested a number of windscreen washes. Their Best Buy for 2019 was Dirtex Aquaphobic Screen Wash as a cost of £13.95 for a litre. Visit www.chipex.co.uk . Their Recommended award went to Angelwax Clarity at a cost of 7.95 per litre. Both were evenly matched but Dirtex edged out Angelwax as the dilution ratios actually made Dirtex cheaper.

So don’t risk a fine and up to 9 points on your licence.   By Graham Hill