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Department for Transport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The news of the moment relates to the raft of new driving laws that could end up with on the spot fines of £100 and 3 points on the offender’s driving licence. In addition the old bill’s powers have been increased when dealing with existing offenders in order to reduce the number of cases going to court.

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.

Much of the industry feels that this may be a bit of a cash cow and with targets set for the number of tickets issued it could also cause tickets to be issued in a somewhat ruthless manner even though lives are not apparently put at risk.

So what are the changes? First of all it is illegal to now hog the middle lane of the motorway. It is also illegal to tailgate, either of which will attract a fine of £100 and 3 points on the offender’s licence. In the case of serious offenders the police can still opt to issue a ticket that will require the driver to attend court.

There will also be a degree of flexibility as the authorities will be able to provide training as an alternative to the points on the licence, as currently happens with speeding first offenders. As with other fixed penalties drivers will still have the right of appeal through the court system.

Some fines will increase such as using a phone whilst driving, up from £60 to £100 as will also be the case with less serious speeding offences. Non endorsable offences such as not having a visible tax disc or failing to give way at a junction will attract fines of £50, up from £30.

Not wearing a seatbelt will now cost the driver £100 and 3 points, up from £60. Finally driving without insurance will increase from £200 to £300. Defending the new fines the Department for Transport said that fines hadn’t been increased since 2000 and were now out of step with other non vehicle related offences.

My personal view is that some of the more serious offenders may get off lightly with a fine when previously they would have ended up in court which is much more of a wake up call than a fixed penalty ticket which is simply an inconvenience for many offenders.

Mobile phone laws need to be tightened, I’ve seen so many potential accidents whilst drivers have tried to negotiate a roundabout or weave their way through parked vehicles with disregard for pedestrians, that something more needs to be done but will an increased fine be enough – probably not!

Let’s see what happens in 12 months when I report the road accident statistics. I suspect they won’t be any different to now. We need education, not random penalties.

Related articles

• New Powers Given to the Police to Issue Fixed Penalty Notices to Careless Drivers (sbwire.com)

Possibly not but it might be useful to know what you are likely to face in the future. I can help there because Auto Express has carried out a survey amongst 46,000 readers to come up with the best and worst dealers by manufacturer.

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.

I can’t reveal all but I can give you a rundown of some of the best and worst dealers. In the best category Lexus heads the list for the second year running. Suburu and Toyota come in at positions 2 and 3. Honda was 4^th and Jaguar 5^th. Porsche, Skoda, Mitsubishi, Renault and Kia finished off the top 10.

Strangely not many Germans achieved a top 10 position. But what abouth the bottom of the list, the last 10 places. At the bottom was Seat at position 31, Chevrolet was 30, Ford at 29, Fiat 28, Citroen 27, Peugeot 26. Next up the list were a few Germans, at 25 was VW, just above was BMW at 24, Audi 23 and Chrysler/Jeep at 22.

A few surprises there and very interesting. Probably won’t influence too many buying decisions but interesting to know all the same.

The RAC has brought itself up to date by fitting out their patrol vehicles with state of the art diagnostic technology in order to increase the number of roadside fixes it can carry out.

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.

The RAC has invested £6 million in Scan+ diagnostic software that will enable patrols to interact with a broken down vehicle’s own diagnostic system and on-board sensors to identify faults.

The technology will allow technicians to do a repair on parts that often need electronically adapting before they will operate – even battery replacements need computer ‘coding’ after replacing. No I didn’t know that either!

RAC Technical Director, David Bizley said, ’The RAC has always utilised the latest technological advances to ensure we offer the very best repair for motorists.

RAC Scan+ will give our patrols the very best information from the vehicle’s own diagnostic equipment to enable them to repair the car.’ Over to you the AA!

Bits&Pieces: I think most of my readers know my feelings about statistics, most of them leave me scratching my head thinking – so what? Someone, whoever decided to carry out the survey, needs to get a life.

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.

For example did you know that Seat drivers are most likely to make an ‘at fault’ insurance claim? Really??? Oh there’s more, Kia and Mini owners were next most likely to claim with Subaru, Smart and Fiat owners putting in the least claims.

Astonishing or what? So who carried out this totally pointless survey? Money Supermarket that’s who. Totally bloody pointless – Money Supermarket – get a life!

The AA has warned that fuel prices are set to rise by 5p per litre over the summer months. Apparently petrol stations have already started to pass on higher wholesale prices to customers at the pumps.

They said that costs had already increased by 1p per litre in July – not at my bloody Tesco, more like 3p!

Who do you use to insure your car? Think twice about Swinton as they were fined £7.4 million for miss-selling policies between April 2010 and April 2012. They were found guilty of using an ‘aggressive sales strategy’  over the phone and failed to tell customers that some of the add-ons were optional extras.

I can see that it won’t be long before we start to see congestion charges in all towns and cities. Cambridge, who dropped the proposal for a congestion charge 3 years ago, are now considering this as an option to reduce traffic gridlock. Before going ahead they will need to convince local businesses.

My first ever automatic was a big old Jaguar. It worked perfectly with just 3 forward gears, 1^st, 2^nd and Drive. Having just 3 gears wasn’t a problem, after all it was an automatic so after a while you didn’t even realise the car was changing gear.

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.

Move on the lifetime of my children and my latest car, an E Class Mercedes has a silky smooth 7G,  7 speed automatic gearbox with paddle changes on the steering wheel for those that like to play at F1 racing drivers – in an E Class Mercedes – I know, I should grow up!

So I was surprised to read that the next E Class will come with a 9G, 9 gear automatic gearbox. The box will be launched in Europe later this year and in the UK next year. Mercedes say there is method in their madness as the new gearbox will reduce CO2 output and improve MPG but changing gear 8 times simply to get out of your garage seems a tad over the top to me – but what do I know?

If it means I contribute to the well being of Sussex and save money on fuel who am I to argue?

Image by None via CrunchBase

Who is the worst payday lender? I’m not sure of the answer to that one myself but certainly the most honest seems to be Wonga. I have written a new book that will be launched soon in my Simple Guide series called APR – A Simple Guide.

Amongst many crooked activities revolving around the abuse of APR I talk about payday loans. I agree with a comment made in Credit Today when they suggest that instead of displaying a ‘representative APR’ in their adverts, payday lenders should display ‘lots’ and leave it at that for the usefulness it provides.

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.

I give an example in the book of a call made to a Payday lender who quoted a representative APR of, I believe 2,450%. However this is the rate if I borrowed money on the 1^st of the month and repaid it on the 31^st. After questioning a very nice chap on the phone before he hung up on me he gave me the amount of interest I would pay in cash terms if I had the loan for a complete month.

However, when I explained that it was less than a week to my payday, would they still charge the same fee that I would pay if I had the loan for a month, the answer was yes. When I explained that this reduction in time would seriously affect the APR the phone went dead. Everything about APR is a joke and is completely misused by those lending and misunderstood by those borrowing.

Recently Wonga, in an attempt to reflect more closely the borrowing of their customers, changed their worked example in their advertising by moving from £207 over 20 days (£47.20 in charges) to £150 over 18 days (£33.49 in charges). Nothing wrong with that you might think, if anything it is taking an honest approach to their lending, tell it as it is.

But unfortunately because of the ridiculous way that APR is calculated on short term loans it moved the APR from 4,214% to 5,853%. As a result the press had a field day, balloons went up, old people had sticks waved at them as they were identified as the old kindly people in the Wonga ad and brown, rather smelly stuff, was thrown at the office fan of many journalists as they fought to condemn Wonga.

The Daily Mail said, ‘Payday firm’s 1,600% rise leads to calls for tighter regulation.’ The Guardian also noted the rise with ‘Increase calls for a cap on the cost of short-term credit.’ In my book I’m calling for a massive change in the way that the world measures credit and this furore strengthens my resolve because APR is total nonsense.

Let me break this down for you without giving away my new approach to lending. Faced with a rise of 1,600% in the interest and charges that we would now be expected to pay, as illustrated by the Wonga example, you and I might throw a tantrum but what does it really mean?

What caused there to be hundreds of column inches to be written in the press about this massive rise in interest? If you take the first example from Wonga and break it down you will find that you will pay £207 over 20 days, or £1.14 per day per £100 in charges. In the second example you will pay £1.24 per day per £100 in charges. So this extra 1,600% amounts to ten pence per day per £100 that you borrow.

The massive reaction was over 10 pence per day per £100 borrowed. What a bloody nonsense – read my book when it comes out, you are in for some shocking revelations!

Oh and before you get the wrong impression I’m not a big fan of payday lending but if properly controlled with full disclosure there is a place for it for those struggling with their finances. Official statement over!

Related articles

• APR ‘confusing’ say payday lenders (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)

OK here is today’s test, what is an STD. Nope – you’re wrong according to an article in the Antipodean periodical – The Australian. They ran an article that gave advice to their readers on how to reognise, avoid and treat disgusting STDs.

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.

The piece was written by Larke Riemer (that’s a woman with a very strange name), director of women’s markets at Australian bank – Westpac. With the holiday season underway and the fears attached to drunken nights whilst enjoying the benefits of sun, sea and sex one may welcome a few words of cautionary wisdom from Larke (no I don’t know how to pronounce it either).

But the article was nothing of the sort, Ms Riemer, being a true banker, wasn’t talking about dodgy rashes in intimate places but something completely different, she called it Sexually Transmitted Debt.

She was referring to the unwanted burdens that people (mainly women) coming out of relationships can find themselves stuffed with. So the advice was not about the dangers of unprotected sex but more about unprotected debt, telling people to talk honestly to each other about money issues, make sure that you read everything that is financially committing before signing and don’t leave your name on utility bills before leaving.

I think I had better suppress any further comment before I dig a serious hole for myself. Goodbye.

Tonight those lovely old ladies that present the BBC 1 programme called Rip Off Britain had a piece about Log Book Loans. In most respects, contrary to my usual complaints about the press and consumer programmes, it was surprisingly accurate but it missed a few very key pieces of information.

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.

First of all Log Book Loans, as pointed out in the programme, are what are known as Bills of Sale, regulated not by the Consumer Credit Act but The Bill of Sales Act 1878 and the amendment act of 1882. This Victorian act was created in the days when rights were with the lender, not with the borrower, as they are today.

A loan is secured against a car at a high APR, normally around 300% – 400%. In a case highlighted a lady had a recovery company call late at night to recover a car which they said had money owed on it on a Log Book Loan. The collection at a late hour was questionable but in a panic the lady handed over the keys and having already bought the car in good faith was later told that she would have to settle the outstanding finance if she wanted the car back.

The fact is that the finance company was acting within the law. In fact contrary to much of the rubbish written on the Internet, on various consumer sites, by people who have no knowledge of the law, they don’t even need a court order, which is the case once you have paid off a third of the debt on HP.

They can even enter your property, break down the doors of your garage and remove the vehicle. Unless of course, as one very smart chap suggested on a famous consumer blog, you remove the battery and two of the wheels! Nice idea unless you actually bought the car to drive – you dope!

The strange thing is that in 2010 the Government carried out a review of the act and amazingly did nothing to it leaving ‘innocent buyers’ in the cold. If you buy a car on HP or PCP, i.e. a loan secured against the car, and you buy the car not knowing that the car had finance secured against it, having asked the owner, title still passes to you as an ‘innocent buyer’.

So until log book loans raised their ugly head you didn’t need to fork out for an HPI check that tells you if finance is secured upon the car. The HPI guarantee covers you up to £30,000 against losses as a result of the finance not being recorded.

This was in fact a bit of a sleight of hand because as a consumer you were covered up to £30,000 under the Consumer Credit Act anyway so when the debt collector comes calling for the £15,000 worth of finance outstanding on the car you bought and HPI save you this money they simply phone the HP company and explain that you were an innocent buyer and the finance company, in most instances, will simply go walkies. But now that you have log book loans recorded also we are in a different ball game.

It is now worth paying for an HPI check (the full online check) if you are to protect yourself against the fraudulent selling of a car to you that has a log book loan secured upon it. What they didn’t make at all clear in the programme was that you should never simply hand over keys to anyone who turns up at your door with a piece of paper, that could be a forgery, saying they are the owners of the car.

And if the paperwork does not mention ‘bill of sale’ then the chances are that they are trying to recover a car that was on HP or PCP and as long as you don’t hand anything over you will be considered as an innocent buyer of the car and entitled to keep it. Once you forfeit the car you give up your rights.

Remember, if you feel at all intimidated call the police. I award 8 out of 10 to the kindly ladies of Rip Off Britain.

English: 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car at the 2011 Washington Auto Show (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Google led the way in the US by gaining permission to test their driverless cars on public roads. We are now about to follow suit with the Government giving permission for driverless cars to be tested on public roads in the UK, preferably somewhere in the North as I live in the Sarf.

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.

Researchers at Oxford University have been co-developing autonomous car tech with Nissan for some time and have already tested a prototype based on a Leaf (that’s their electric car not something hanging off a tree) on private roads and test tracks.

The announcement means that they will be able to carry out more extensive tests on quiet rural and suburban roads although to begin with they will have to test with a back-up driver as a safety precaution. By Graham Hill Car Finance

Related articles

• Report: UK to begin testing driverless cars in bid to ease congestion (autoblog.com)

Is it about time to move away from MPG to MPL? For the last 20 years we’ve been buying fuel by the litre but continued to measure fuel consumption by the gallon, it doesn’t make a lot of sense and a third of all drivers seem to agree, according to the AA who surveyed 21,450 motorists. The AA also agreed that they also felt that mpg was Read more »