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The new car market is in total confusion. As the extended scrappage scheme finally comes to an end I have predicted that the manufacturers will turn their attention to the fleet market and offer incentives to fleet buyers and leasing companies. Unfortunately experts don’t share my optimism, they feel that manufacturers will still be cautious and unlikely to offer more incentives than are already available with increased Read more »

Whilst the number of new cars fitted with Electronic Stability Control (ESC), also known as Electronic Stability Program (ESP), is increasing, following a push by inventors Bosch and the Association of Car Fleet Operators (ACFO), to inform car buyers of the benefits, more private buyers are having the safety device fitted than fleet buyers. Department for Transport research suggests ESC equipped vehicles are 25% less Read more »

Toyota finally looks as though it is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel after what must have been the worst start to a year in its history. So far this year 188,500 cars have been recalled, the majority of which require replacements to their accelerator linkages (180,000) and 8,500 Prius require modifications to their braking systems. The accelerator linkage repairs take about 30 minutes to complete. Whilst Read more »

According to tyre provider, Protyre, pothole damage is increasing whilst local authorities are unwilling to carry out repair work until the bad weather is over, for fear that any work done now will be wasted if the cold weather continues and re-pops out the filler. Protyre suggest that 300 new potholes are being identified in Britain every day with hundreds of pounds of damage being caused to tyres and suspension. Read more »

From the 1^st April 2010 the new showroom tax is being introduced to severely penalise the most polluting cars. In addition the annual road fund licence (tax) increases also. In essence the showroom tax includes the first year’s road fund licence. The bandings run from A to M with A representing cars with CO2 emissions of less than 100 g/km with M representing cars emitting 265 g/km or more. For vehicles emitting Read more »

During this bad winter the number of car insurance claims have sky rocketed. From crashes to pothole damage, it’s been a disaster. As a result we are likely to see a hike of between 7% and 11% in premiums making it even more important to shop around when it comes to renewing your car insurance. Increased oil prices are going to add to the pain by adding up to 5 pence per litre with predictions that fuel will Read more »

I don’t normally comment on new cars in these ramblings but I recently saw the new Nissan Cube and feel that it’s just a step too far! Have you seen it? What a load of old sh*t! as Catherine Tate playing the part of ‘nan’ would say! It has to be the dopiest car I’ve ever seen. It is actually offensive to look at, nearly as bad as driving past a field with your car full of kids who ask why a horse is trying to get on the back of Read more »

What is the benefit in kind tax position of an employee who is provided with a hire car? I could go into lots of detail as it depends on whether the employee has a company car provided and whether he has it for 30 days continuously. Whether the car is better or worse than his company car and if it’s not to replace a company car then how much of the mileage is private! Oh this is so boring, If you really want to know look it up on Google or something! I’ll just move on before I bore myself to death! By Graham Hill

Small businesses are finding it more difficult to finance vehicles using their traditional and most popular methods of finance, HP, business loans and overdraft. It seems that more are now turning to leasing, according to Fleet News, as it is easier to arrange the finance, reduces the risk and spreads the funding around. Last year, according to the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), financing new and used cars to Read more »

I am grateful to Jo Tacon, Editor of the journal Motor Finance for which I write a regular (and clearly the most popular) column. Jo forwarded a couple of articles that appeared in the Sun newspaper, written by Kelvin MacKenzie. In the articles he complains about the end of contract charges imposed upon him by Mercedes Benz Finance (MBF) after returning his end of lease car. The charge was £1,800 and I Read more »