New Report Reveals The Cash Cows Known As Smart Motorway Cameras

Monday, 23. September 2019

As we see a mass push to turn motorways with hard shoulders into Smart Motorways, Highways England has revealed the costs to motorists.

 

Each camera on new “smart” sections of Britain’s motorways is expected to rack up £600,000 in fines every year.

 

Disobedient drivers will be slapped with £100 fines and three penalty points under the controversial new system being laid out by road chiefs.

 

So many motorists are expected to be pounded by the punishment that police are recruiting more staff to deal with the extra workload.

 

One of Britain’s biggest police forces, Thames Valley, is taking on an extra 15 civilians to process all the fines expected when Highways England switches on the smart sections of the M4 and M40 later this year.

 

The move has prompted complaints that drivers are being milked for cash under the new system.

 

Smart sections use variable speed limits and the hard shoulder as an extra lane during busy periods to control traffic and improve safety.

 

There have already been calls for smart motorways to be scrapped after four people were killed on one stretch of the M1 as there was no safe place to stop.

 

AA president Edmund King said: “If more resources were put into making the gantry signs accurate and the variable speeds right for the conditions, you might not need more resources for enforcement.

 

“Accurate technology and more consistent and appropriate speed limits would actually reduce the levels of fines.

 

“Any ‘income’ from fines should go into making these roads safer by sorting technology and doubling the number of lay-bys.”

 

The huge numbers expected to be caught by the automatic cameras – either for breaking the speed limit or straying into lanes that have been temporarily closed with a red ‘X’ gantry sign – are revealed in a report by Thames Valley police.

 

It said of the smart motorways which will be introduced later in the year: “It is anticipated that the M40 and M4 will each capture 30,000 infringements per year.”

 

A Highways England spokesman said: “There are around 150 speed camera sites on smart motorways; normally one between each junction.

 

“They are clearly signed and are bright yellow for visibility. The vast majority of drivers on smart motorways drive within the speed limit.”

 

There are already more than 200 miles of smart motorway in the UK, including London, Birmingham and the North.

 

Advice by Highways England reported in the Sun is as follows:

 

 How to safely drive on a smart motorway

Highways England gives the following advice when driving on a smart motorway:

  • Never drive under a red “X”
  • Keep to the speed limit shown on the gantries
  • A solid white line indicates the hard shoulder – don’t drive in it unless directed
  • A broken white line indicates a normal running lane
  • Use the refuge areas for emergencies if there’s no hard shoulder
  • Put your hazard lights on if you break down

 

By Graham Hill and the help of The Sun.

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Germany Heading For Recession – Good News For Car Buyers (Lessees)?

Monday, 9. September 2019

Fears that Germany is heading for recession are mounting after industrial production in the eurozone’s most important economy fell sharply in July. The 0.6pc drop in factory output will put pressure on the European Central Bank to take urgent action.

 

The official data for July followed up the disclosure that total output, or GDP, in Germany fell in the second quarter. A further decline in GDP between July and September would mean that Germany is in recession.

 

The driving force behind this reduction is reported to be car manufacturing which has plummeted by 20% from its peak at the end of 2017. The main contributor has been the sharp switch from diesel and petrol to hybrid and electric vehilces.

 

A transition that the Germans have struggled to keep up with when compared to the rest of the world. And with the spotlight on their biggest producer – VW, they have also struggled to keep on top of the tougher real-world emissions tests applied to current petrol and diesel models.

 

Whilst this has generated a financial cloud over the whole of the Eurozone – when Germany suffers, everyone suffers! And it may make life a little easier when Boris finally gets round to negotiating a deal, how will this affect British buyers of German cars?

 

Well, I’ve got it wrong in the past but whereas I had predicted increases in European car costs and lease rates at the beginning of the year I hadn’t expected Germany to be on the verge of recession.

 

So this could be good news for German car buyers In the UK and good for lease rates as German producers fight to keep their factories open and maintain staff levels. This could result in some large discounts coming our way and some exceptional lease rates.

 

That may sound like a good reason to hold back your decision to take a new car but I should add that this may not be the case if we exit without a deal or if the German economy suddenly shows signs of improving so if you see a good deal, don’t delay – ‘fill yer boots’! You may never see the deal again. By Graham Hill

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Car Insurance Premiums Calculated Using Duff Data

Monday, 9. September 2019

There are many similarities between the way that consumers are assessed when taking out car insurance and taking out finance. The main similarity is that decisions are based on either inaccurate or inadequate data and what could be described as illegally biased interpretations.

 

I will be talking more about the inadequacies of the finance systems in due course but in the meantime the following appeared in Saturday’s Mail regarding Insurance premiums.

 

Researchers at Which created a series of scenarios to see how much they would be quoted on Confused.com and MoneySupermarket.com. In one, the driver had damaged his car, but had not claimed for the repairs. Two of the cheapest quotes – from Hastings Direct and Churchill – wrongly guessed the driver had made a claim as a result and factored this into the quote.

 

When this was corrected, Hastings Direct lowered its premium by £10, but Churchill made a reduction of £207 – a cut of more than 25 per cent.

 

Which? also found that while it is compulsory to declare all recent driving incidents, not all comparison sites let you specify which, if any, led to claims, resulting in some incorrect assumptions.

 

Which? previously showed how some insurers offer discounts of as much as 15 per cent for using a dashcam, however many comparison websites did not. Seemingly irrelevant questions about lifestyle and personal circumstances also affect quotes.

 

For example, they were on average 4 per cent cheaper for homeowners and 4 per cent more for divorcees – apparently based on the assumption a divorcee is more likely to have an accident.

 

It also found that the way drivers describe their job title can influence premiums.

 

When the driver called himself a painter (working in art), his cheapest was £372, but when he listed himself as an artist, it fell to £343.

 

Which? Money editor Jenny Ross, said: ‘To beat these quirks compare different routes for buying insurance, look at various levels of cover from different providers, and shop around every year.’

 

Confused.com said the findings will help them work with insurers to improve their quote process. MoneySuperMarket said: ‘We work with insurers to make sure we ask the right questions, however we do not control how insurers interpret our data.

 

‘We don’t ask customers to supply the cost of a recent claim as this is often something they will not know – for example, costs may have been paid direct by an insurance firm to a garage for repairs.’

 

Hastings Direct said: ‘When the customer clicks through to our website, we do give the option to check their data which would enable them to specify further.’

 

Churchill said: ‘Anyone purchasing through a comparison website can still phone their preferred company to provide any further detail.’ By Graham Hill thanks to Which? And The Daily Mail

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Number Plate Offences Are At An All Time High – Are Yours Legal?

Monday, 9. September 2019

Number plate offences are at a five-year high, so just how easy is it to buy a dodgy plate and what is the DVLA doing about it?

The UK’s number plate system is wide open to abuse because of the easy availability of fake plates online, while the number of traffic stops for missing or dodgy plates reached a five-year high in 2018, Auto Express can exclusively reveal.

 

In two linked investigations, we asked police how many number plate offences they had issued tickets for between 2014 and 2018; separately, then we ordered three sets of number plates from online suppliers, all of which were delivered no questions asked, and would be illegal to display on the road.

 

  • How to transfer a number plate from one car to another

 

Official data obtained by Auto Express via Freedom of Information requests shows that police issued 9,170 tickets for number plate offences last year across the UK, the highest figure in the past five years.

 

Number plate offences

2014    8,635

2015    7,662

2016    7,671

2017    8,247

2018    9,170

A total of 41,385 stops were made by police between 2014 and 2018, with officers issuing 11 per cent more tickets last year compared with 2017 for number plates not meeting regulations, or plates that were missing from vehicles altogether. London’s Metropolitan police issued the most tickets or rectification notices for dodgy plates (4,411) over the past five years, with Northern Ireland police issuing the second highest number of tickets (4,005).

 

What’s the penalty?

 

Motorists can be issued with a Traffic Offence Reports (TOR) or a Vehicle Defect Rectification Scheme (VDRS) notice (escaping a penalty if the fault is fixed within 14 days) for various offences related to number plates, including missing or obscured plates, and plates not conforming to regulations.

 

Top forces for number plate offences

Police force     Offences (2014-18)

Metropolitan   4,411

Police Servic of Northern Ireland       4,005

West Yorkshire           3,501

Humberside     2,652

North Wales    2,274

Of the 35 police forces to respond to our request, 23 provided offence codes, revealing that roughly 70 per cent of stops made for number plate offences are for driving or keeping a vehicle “when the registration mark fails to conform to regulations”. Number plates not meeting regulations could contain improperly placed characters, be made up using an unofficial font, or have colour-capped screws placed in their characters to change how the plate reads.

 

What do the authorities say?

 

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) told us that all number plate suppliers based in the UK “must be registered with DVLA and must conduct checks before supplying number plates”. The organisation added,“It is an offence to not request the required documentation from the customer [or] keep a record of the transaction, or to supply a non-compliant number plate.”

 

However, at least two of the suppliers we ordered plates from are based in Jersey and they may not be breaking the law there, because it is a separate jurisdiction from the UK.

 

The DVLA told us: “Our officers conduct intelligence-led enforcement activities to tackle a wide range of offences, to investigate and, where necessary, prosecute suppliers – including those who trade illegally using the internet.” The organisation also highlighted that drivers who alter the appearance of their plates face a fine of up to £1,000 and risk having their personalised registrations confiscated.

 

  • Banned UK number plates

 

The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) told us “ANPR [automatic number plate recognition] data is increasingly enabling police to identify vehicles operating on cloned plates using tools such as journey time analysis. Thisfurther informs our investigative work.” The organisation also advised that “local forces continue to offer crime prevention advice… dependent upon the particular offending seen in their locality”.

 

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: “Car cloning is on the rise and the DVLA is not doing enough to tackle online retailers. Buying banned registration plates in road-legal specifications is concerning, but more worrying

 

is the ability to lift a number plate off a website and copy it without any ownership checks.

 

“Ultimately, the buck stops with DVLA for not doing enough to tackle online retailers issuing plates to those who have no legal right to claim them.”

 

What we did

 

Cloned plate

 

We copied a registration from a BMW X5 (the most commonly stolen car in 2018, according to Tracker) offered for sale in an online classified ad.

 

We then ordered this number plate, LS15 ***, from Jersey-based My Showplates, and were not asked for any details aside from an address and credit card number during the ordering process. The plates arrived within two days. My Showplates did not respond to our requests for comment.

 

Banned plate

 

We bought the number plate BO19 CKS – a registration banned from the road by the DVLA for being too rude – from A1 Show Plates, a company with an almost identical address to My Showplates.

 

Despite selecting ‘Road Legal’ from a ‘Plate Legality’ menu, this banned plate arrived within two days, and we were not asked for documentation other than an address and credit card number. A1 Show Plates did not respond to our requests for comment.

 

Incorrectly spaced plate

 

NU02BER, a legitimate reg offered for sale by the DVLA, was supplied to us by Show Plates Direct. But we took out the space between the ‘2’ and ‘B’ when ordering the plate, making it illegal to display on the road.

 

We contacted Show Plates Direct, who initially claimed that it had “no such order for this registration or indeed payment from this E-mail address”. The firm did not reply when we provided an order number and explained to them that we used a different E-mail address to place our order.

 

The responsible vendor

While the three companies above sent us dodgy plates with no questions asked, one supplier acted in accordance with UK regulations.

 

 

DVLA-approved, Yorkshire-based Number1Plates asked us to provide a copy of our V5C logbook, retention certificate or other proof of ownership, as well as a utility or bank bill. We did not send these documents, did not receive the dodgy plates and Number1Plates subsequently refunded our £25.97.

 

Why are fake plates bad news?

 

Police Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras may not read improperly spaced number plates, plates with incorrect fonts and those with colour-capped screws. This makes crime enforcement more difficult – although police stress that ANPR tools are becoming more sophisticated.

 

A more worrying issue is cloned plates. A criminal with a stolen car may find an identical car for sale online, get a duplicate plate made up based on the advertised car’s registration, then fit this plate to the stolen car. The advertised car won’t have been reported stolen so this cloned plate won’t activate police alerts, despite being placed on a stolen car. The number of drivers telling the DVLA that their car had been cloned has quadrupled over the past six years. By Graham Hill thanks to Auto Express

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EU Law Now Affects Drivers Across Europe When Committing An Offence

Friday, 6. September 2019

The Road Vehicles Registration and Licensing (Amendment) Regulations 2017 came into force on May 6, 2017 and drivers abroad and fleet operators, who may have either ignored them or were unaware of them would be wise to take note of them.

 

As we prepare to exit the EU it is likely we will see the Europeans take a tougher position when UK drivers are found to commit motoring offences.

 

The regulations require the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to provide details of the registered keeper of vehicles alleged to have been involved in certain motoring offences across the EU.

 

The details include name, address and date of birth; or legal status if the keeper is not an individual, as well as the make/model and chassis number of the relevant vehicle.

 

The alleged offences include failure to stop at a red light, drink-driving or driving under the influence of drugs, speeding and using a mobile phone while driving.

 

Cross-border EU prosecutions for road offences have been unusual, rare even, but these regulations may change that situation for the better from a road safety point of view.

 

Of course, for employers, there’s the risk that they have simply added another layer of bureaucracy to operations, as well as opening employees to the risk of a foreign prosecution for offences they may deny having committed.

 

In real terms, there are some business considerations for those with a European reach. One of these could be the requirement to engage with foreign justice systems – language barriers and cultural differences may present a challenge, for example.

 

Larger operators may have been able to task in-house legal teams with managing this role, but smaller players may need to find external support – and, of course, this will come at a cost.

 

Another consideration is the interplay between employee relations and the regulations.

 

Businesses will need to ensure their employment contracts and handbooks are up to date, and that their procedures for managing employees accused/convicted of criminal offences abroad are adequate.

 

Operators should also consider their position with regards to supporting (or otherwise) accused employees with legal assistance – especially if a guilty verdict would have a significant impact on the employee’s ability to continue in their role.

 

For those travelling abroad in their own cars, it is important to have insurance cover in the case of a foreign prosecution. Not all insurance policies, even with legal cover, will defend the insured whilst abroad. Check with your insurer. By Graham Hill with thanks to Fleet News.

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Superfast Chargers To Take A Little Longer To Fully Charge Than Fill With Petrol Or Diesel

Friday, 16. August 2019

In another report on the increased acceptance of electric vehicles, BP Chargemaster has announced that it has opened its first 150kW ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers on a BP retail site.

 

The new 150kW chargers are able to provide ultra-fast charging to the latest and next generation of EVs, convenience that BP sees as essential to support the continued growth of the UK’s EV market.

 

It announced plans to roll out a new network of fast chargers just over a year ago following its £120 million acquisition of Chargemaster.

 

Two of these new chargers are now installed at BP’s retail site at Cranford near Heathrow airport, west of London and begin operating this week.

 

They are the first in a planned rollout of 400 ultra-fast chargers at BP sites across the UK by the end of 2021, with the network continuing to grow in line with new vehicle models arriving on the market that will be capable of ultra-fast charging.

 

David Newton, chief operating officer of BP Chargemaster, said: “We believe our establishment of a nationwide ultra-fast charging network will be transformative for the electric vehicle market in the UK.

 

“Working closely with global vehicle manufacturers, we are developing the solutions that electric vehicle drivers need to enable them to charge confidently and conveniently, wherever they are in the country.

 

“BP’s forecourts are ideal locations for this technology, which will provide an expected dwell time of 10-12 minutes, not dissimilar from the average of around seven minutes spent by drivers of petrol and diesel cars on a forecourt today.”

 

Formed in 2008, Chargemaster was acquired by BP in 2018 and renamed BP Chargemaster. It has continued to rapidly grow and expand its offers as the UK’s EV market has grown and evolved.

 

Today it operates Polar, with more than 7,000 public charge points, and provides a range of home, workplace and public charging solutions.

 

BP recently entered into an agreement with DiDi, the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, to develop EV charging infrastructure across China.

 

BP also continues to make venturing investments into innovative new companies in this space such as advanced battery technology firm StoreDot and PowerShare, the online platform for EV charging in China.

 

Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of BP’s Downstream business, said: “As the world of mobility evolves, BP is determined to be the fuel provider of choice whether drivers need electric charging or liquid fuels.

 

“BP Chargemaster continues to develop and is leading the way for our understanding of how we can best support and succeed in this fast-growing new market.”

 

He concluded: “Convenient and reliable ultra-fast charging will be critical in driving the wider adoption of electric vehicles in the UK.

 

“The combination of BP Chargemaster’s EV charging expertise, experience and customer base with BP’s retail sites across the UK is now allowing us to develop the UK’s first nationwide network of ultra-fast chargers.”  By Graham Hill Thanks To Fleet News

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Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Now Exceed Number Of Petrol Stations

Friday, 16. August 2019

According to a Fleet News report there are now 9,300 EV charging locations compared to 8,400 fuel stations – almost 1,000 more public places to charge electric cars than there are fuel stations.

 

In less than a century since Britain’s first fuel station opened – November 1919 at Aldermaston in Berkshire – the number of forecourts has peaked, declined and been overtaken by charging stations designed for battery, not combustion, powered cars.

 

It has happened more than a year before Nissan’s 2016 prediction of August 2020 – a result of the accelerating adoption of EVs amongs UK motorists.

 

Almost 80% of UK petrol stations have closed since 1970, whilst the number of electric vehicle charging locations has increased from a few hundred in 2011 (when the Nissan Leaf went on sale) to more than 9,000 in August 2019.

 

Of these locations, more than 1,600 provide ‘rapid charging’, and can recharge a typical EV battery to around 80% in under an hour.

 

According to Zap-Map, two new rapid charge devices came online every day in the last month. Almost all UK motorway service stations have charging stations installed, the majority of which provide a rapid charge option.

 

Transport for London (tfL) has installed more than 1,000 EV charge points in the last year alone, yet supply of conventional fuel within the capital is becoming scarcer.

 

Central London has nearly half as many petrol stations per car as the Scottish Highlands; only four remain within the congestion-charge zone.

 

One of the country’s oldest forecourts, the Bloomsbury Service Station, which had been in operation since 1926, was closed in 2008.

 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) welcomed the figures showing the growth in the EV charge point network. A spokesman told Fleet News: “With charging points now outnumbering petrol stations in the UK, we are powering forward on the road to net zero emissions by 2050.

 

“This is happening alongside significant investment we’re already making to support the development of the latest vehicle battery technologies and establishing and strengthening low-carbon supply chains for the long term.”

 

The introduction of the new Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in April 2019, has led to increasing numbers of London drivers looking to zero-emission solutions for their commuter or commercial transport needs.

 

Most electric vehicle owners only need to charge at home however, so the UK government is looking to further support EV adoption, recently announcing a proposal for the installation of charge points for EVs in all new housing.

 

Kalyana Sivagnanam, managing director, Nissan Motor (GB), said: “Many consumers are saying their next car will be electric. That means the industry needs to ensure their desires are met with both the car – how far it can go, what technologies it has – and how it interacts with the world around it – where they can charge and how convenient that is for them.

 

“We’ve moved beyond the early concerns of range anxiety with EVs now exceeding the vast majority of customer’s daily driving needs.

 

“The next challenge is for charging infrastructure to keep pace with the number of EVs on the road, and that the experience of recharging is as enjoyable and effortless as that of all-electric driving.”

 

Since Nissan launched the Leaf in 2010, EV technology has continually improved, with the latest models both affordable and practical for the majority of new car buyers. As a result, the UK is experiencing unprecedented growth in the demand for battery-powered transport.

 

In August 2019, compared to the previous year, demand for battery electric vehicles increased 158.1%, resulting in a 1.4% market share, the highest monthly market share on record.

 

Seán Kemple, director of sales at Close Brothers, said: “2019 may be remembered as the year when electric vehicles went mainstream. While sales are still relatively low in real terms, the speed of growth is accelerating, and it looks like we’re months, not years, from the tipping point.

 

“Consumers are becoming more aware of the benefits of AFVs or an electric vehicle – from environmental protection to lower costs of running a car after the initial outlay – and manufacturers are responding to this demand. The overwhelming number of EVs and AFVs on display at the Geneva Motor Show is evidence of this.

 

“Education is needed to help customers overcome their concerns about range, charging time and costs, and this sits with the Government and manufacturers alike.

 

“The Government should also steer its focus towards developing the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of rising demand, from charging points outside of the big cities to solutions for customers with on-street parking.”  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

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Did Jaguar Landrover Manage To Avoid A VW Type Scandal?

Thursday, 8. August 2019

A report released earlier this year resulted in the recall of a number of Jaguar and Landrover models after it was found that they emitted more CO2 than was recorded in the official certification.

 

At a time when the group is struggling financially the recall, whilst expensive, was nothing like the costs and fines that were imposed on the VW Group. Did someone play down the findings to give Jaguar a chance to instigate the recall?

 

Here’s the report from the BBC:

 

Jaguar Land Rover is recalling 44,000 cars in the UK over carbon dioxide emissions, the car maker has said.

 

Regulators found 10 models were emitting more of the greenhouse gas than they had been certified to emit.

 

The car maker will contact owners to arrange repairs, a JLR spokeswoman said.

 

JLR is facing a number of challenges at the moment, including a slump in demand for diesel cars and a sales slowdown in China.

 

The firm said it was a voluntary recall of certain 2016-2019 MY Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles fitted with two litre diesel or petrol engines.

 

The affected models are:

 

Some two-litre 2016 to 2018 Land Rover Discovery and Discovery Sport cars

Certain two litre Range Rover Evoque, Sport, and Velar cars

Jaguar E-Pace, F-Pace, F-Type, XE and XF cars.

Most models are petrol, while some are diesel.

 

Some of the models will need physical repairs in a dealership, while some will need software updates, the spokeswoman said.

 

“The modifications made to affected vehicles will be made free of charge and every effort will be made to minimise inconvenience to the customer during the short time required for the work to be carried out,” the firm added.

 

In January the firm confirmed it is cutting 4,500 jobs, with the substantial majority coming from its 40,000 strong UK workforce.

 

The firm has complained about uncertainty caused by Brexit.

 

Emissions have come under more scrutiny since Volkswagen’s diesel scandal.

 

Investors are pursuing the German car giant for about €9.2bn (£8.2bn) in damages, claiming the company should have come clean sooner about falsifying emissions data. By Graham Hill

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Survey Reveals Best Car Insurers & Breakdown Services

Thursday, 8. August 2019

Auto Express have carried out some surveys amongst their readers into satisfaction levels achieved by Insurance Companies and Breakdown Services.

 

The winner of the insurance top place was a surprise to me, is not available on the comparison sites but has won for the fourth time in a row. The top breakdown service was also a surprise to me but as the report shows it’s the 7th year in a row for this one.

 

To see the full survey buy a copy of Auto Express or look it up online. The insurance survey asked 7 questions:

Ease of purchase (web & phone)

Telephone experience when making a claim

Keeping you informed when claim is being assessed

Speed to settle a claim

Friendliness and helpfulness during claim

Value for money

Overall satisfaction with claim process

 

The top 5 insurers were as follows:

  1. The National Farmers Union Mutual (NFU Mutual) – available to everyone
  2. RIAS (up 9 places)
  3. Privilege (Part of Direct Line)
  4. LV= (Formerly Liverpool Victoria)
  5. Quote Me Happy.Com (Budget arm of Aviva)

 

I would add one to avoid – Zurich which didn’t even appear in the top 50. They refused a payout when I made a claim and it took two and a half years to finally get the Financial Ombudsman to find in my favour after an adjudicator had constantly told them to pay out – avoid like the plague!

 

Moving on to the top breakdown services. There are 190,000 breakdowns each year according to Highways England so seen as a must have for most motorists. Auto Express listed 25 top providers which you can see in the full report but for your information, I’ve shown the top 5. First of all the list of questions asked:

 

Ease of purchase

Keeping you informed

Speed of recovery

Ability to fix the fault

Friendliness and helpfulness

General presentation

Value for money

 

The top 5 breakdown services were as follows:

  1. GEM Motoring Assist (7th year in a row)
  2. Green Flag (best at keeping customers informed)
  3. LV= Britannia Rescue (LV owned Britannia carried out most roadside repairs)
  4. AutoAid
  5. AA (largest UK provider)

Just out of interest the RAC was next after the AA.

 

So there you have it – By Graham Hill

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Should You Fit New Tyres On The Front Or Back Of Your Car?

Thursday, 8. August 2019

As we move towards the winter months when poor weather can lead to problems with grip it raises the question as to which end of the car should you fit the new tyres?

 

I addressed this problem earlier this year but it might be worth reminding you what was said at the time. You may think this is a daft question – simply replace the tyres that are worn – right?

 

Front tyres generally wear out quicker than rears if your car is front wheel drive and rears wear quicker if rear wheel drive, so wouldn’t it be correct to replace the tyres that wear fastest with the new boots? No!

 

Most safety experts ignore the wear element or whether the car is front, rear or all wheel drive and suggest that you always put freshest tyres on the rear of the car. This is because if the car loses grip in a corner, it will either oversteer or understeer.

 

Unless you are an F1 fan you may not understand what this means. Understeer is when the front tyres lose grip in a corner causing the front of the car to slide out whilst oversteer means you lose grip at the back of the car, causing the rear of the car to swing out.

 

It’s actually easier to control a car that is understeering than one that is oversteering – simply slowing down should help to regain grip if the car is understeering.

 

This is why it is important that you should maintain the greatest grip at the rear and fit your new tyres at the rear of the car. This will minimise the chance of potential oversteer and minimise the chance of a serious accident. Great advice eh! Graham Hill

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