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It’s gadget time again! Just as I was adjusting myself to touch screen technology in cars with the new touch screens able to control the sat nav, heating system, on board computer and stereo I’m told it is now old hat! The new technology about to be introduced is hover technology whereby you simply hover your finger over the key you would have previously touched on the screen and the screen senses it Read more »

You know what it’s like when you come to a set of traffic lights that have stopped working, from my experience it causes total confusion because there is no specific right of way for drivers and pedestrians appear to close their eyes and run across the road in blind hope of reaching the other side. It’s a nightmare, fortunately most pedestrians seem to have an overwhelming will to live so they use a sixth sense Read more »

Cars are getting wider and the question is being asked why? Are the manufacturers on a mission to increase replacement door mirrors after they are pretty much smashed to pieces after being clipped by an oncoming car, in ever tighter roads carrying bus lanes and cycle lanes? It certainly seems that way. Or is there another reason? No one seems to know, it is either a bit of subterfuge as I’ve suggested or are they all Read more »

We recently had the Mercedes C63 AMG on offer. If you had ordered a car, which is partly hand built, it would have taken Mercedes about 10 weeks to get the car built and delivered to you. But in one of the worst examples of long delivery of a standard car one dealer recently quoted 20 weeks to deliver a standard VW Polo. This is partly because this particular dealer had used up his allocation but even dealers with Read more »

How much is a jar of marmalade? This is a serious question, do you know? Very few of us know the answer, mainly because there isn’t just one answer. I carried out a little experiment and found that I could buy a jar of marmalade for 69 pence. The most expensive jar I could find was £4.99, that’s a difference equating to 723%. Now not being expert on marmalade, although I do like a bit of thinly cut on a slice of brown Read more »

The 2010 What Car and J D Power Ownership Satisfaction Survey is out now and available in the July issue of What Car. The survey arrives at its findings after analysing returns from 17,200 motorists travelling a total of 300 million miles in their cars. 104 models from 27 manufacturers have been rated with every aspect of owning scrutinised. The satisfaction percentage score is made up of four sections. Read more »

One of the biggest confusions over end of lease charges is that of scuffed alloy wheels with bills for repairs being as high as £120 per wheel. Many drivers cannot understand why scuffs to alloy wheels are chargeable as damage. As one woman that wrote to me explained ‘We all scrape wheels on the pavement when parking, surely it is no different to worn carpets, and stone chips?’ The fact is that if you are driving Read more »

We have a bit of an exclusive from GHA Finance this week. I am often fighting with dealers and my quoting systems to get the keenest rates for my clients. But whilst we try to get the rates as low as possible customers see this as the only area where they can make cost savings when changing their cars. In fact this shouldn’t be the end of the journey, it should be the start. There are many things you can do to minimise your transport costs which we have discussed in the past such as:  Read more »

Whiplash claims are becoming a pain in the neck to all motorists not just those that suffer the injury. Car insurance has increased by 25% in the last year according to the latest Retail Price Index (RPI). Insurers have blamed the massive surge on whiplash injuries. According to a spokesman for esure/Sheila’s Wheels group it’s the desire to push up injury claims, often by people chatting in the pub, that has pushed up Read more »

Bonkers Boris is charging ahead with plans to build 25,000 recharging points for electric cars. This will attract 100,000 battery vehicles into the city. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I understood that there was a ‘Congestion’ charge, aimed at keeping cars out of London. It isn’t a ‘Stop London from getting smelly’ charge or a ‘Let’s reduce the emissions’ charge, it’s aim was to try to get everyone onto public transport Read more »