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The latest, and potential ongoing, problems with the US economy means that the future of the US dollar is becoming a lot less predictable. One of the downsides to this is the global use of the US dollar to set oil prices. Whilst countries around the world have pushed to change this method of establishing prices it looks as though we’re stuck with it for the Read more »

Insight Part 2: Whilst I’m in the mood to expose some of the trade secrets that lay behind contract hire rates let me delve a little deeper into the area of vehicle pricing and depreciation. Fleet News recently reported some incredible increases in new car costs, mainly as a result of the exchange rate against the Euro. Since January 2008, according to Read more »

Insight Part 1: I’m often asked why there can be some incredible differences between the contract hire rental rates quoted by different companies advertising on the Internet. There is no simple answer to this question, in some respects it is not dissimilar to the answer that an insurance company would give as to why insurance premiums can be Read more »

This is now getting bloody monotonous! Every week I seem to read something about warranty claims that aren’t being honoured by the dealer or manufacturer because the claim has been made just outside the warranty period or mileage. Last week it was the Guardian, this week it’s What Car that have made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end! Read more »

If you are a regular reader of my postings you know that I rage on about simply taking the cheapest lease rate. In a recent article in Fleet News I found that I wasn’t the only one holding these views, most of the leasing companies do also. In fact it seems that the reason why many large lessors have pulled out of the broker market is that they don’t Read more »

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You, like me and my millions of readers are fairly intelligent, we all have GCSE’s and all sorts. So help me out here. I’ve been looking at the new workplace parking schemes, that come into force from April 2012, and trying to get my head around them. With companies unable to simply up stakes and move to another county that doesn’t have such a scheme Read more »

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I am often asked how the lease rates on some cars can be so low compared to the cost of the car? Take for example the deal we had last year on the VW Passat CC (their new 4 door coupe). If you had taken the car on a 2 year lease you would have paid the equivalent of 26 payments x £229.99 + VAT. That’s a total of £7,175 on a car that cost around Read more »

Whilst I hear many a complaint in the pubs and bars about the fact that you aren’t charged the half percent bank base rate interest when you take a loan or HP, most people understand the reason why. If lenders were to charge half a percent interest they would soon go bust as that wouldn’t cover the cost of the documents let alone all the other costs Read more »

Have you heard of log book loans? Do you know what they are? As more people find themselves out of work and desperate to raise some cash to pay bills or attend interviews they are looking at some of these grey areas of raising cash. There are of course the loan sharks that everyone should avoid but there is one area that seems to have an air of Read more »

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Following from my previous article there has been much confusion for years about warranties provided on used cars. It has been a much held view that a car warranty is an insurance policy and therefore falls within the control of the Financial Services Act. In other words you have to be a regulated advisor to discuss the product and the product itself Read more »