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What a bloody surprise! After hiking up their prices last year, no less than 4 times, which coincidentally coincided with the £1,000 manufacturer’s scrappage scheme contribution, Ford are now dropping their list prices by between 6% and 15% across their smaller cars from August, after all the pipeline scrappage orders have totally washed out of the system. No wonder the biggest benefactors were the Read more »

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the lack of attention that some people pay to the new car they are about to order. Some of this is actually caused by me and my colleagues by occasionally coming up with a deal that you can’t refuse, making the decision a bit of a no brainer but it is still a good idea to get a test drive of a car that you are likely to order. It is also important to check for certain items that for Read more »

This week Graham Hill’s famed car review is on the Aston Martin DBS special edition, known as Carbon Black. Surprisingly it is black, which I think is gorgeous, even though I think that black makes any car look smaller than it is! And of course the purist Aston fans that like to listen to Elton John and the Beatles in the rather expensive stereo sound system will kick up a fuss over the fact that Aston have dared to fit loads Read more »

It seems that the manufacturers are not going to fight a price war but outdo each other by providing more for free as part of the purchase package. The latest has been the extended warranty. Toyota had to react to the drop in sales following their recall problems by extending their standard warranty from 3 years to 5 years. In the meantime Kia/Hyundai have reacted following their massive growth during the Read more »

If you see a car you like, now is not a good time to wait to see if the rate improves. With some Audi’s now having a delivery lead time quoted at 26 weeks there is far from an over supply out there. It now seems that the ‘bible’ used by leasing companies to predict future car values, CAP, may be as much as 10% adrift in its valuations which is likely to lead to some re-alignment of rates quoted by the leasing companies. Read more »

This week the Graham Hill in depth review is a dribble over the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing. It looks amazing! I could probably stop there as that’s probably all you need to know but for those that enjoy my in depth review here goes. It is a retro looking car but without seeming dated and is the current F1 safety car. With the doors open you think it looks as though it could fly if the driver took it up to 150 mph plus! 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 »

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 »

This week in my car review I thought I would find something that I could get excited about, something I could wax lyrically about, and then someone sent me some pictures of an estate on show at the Geneva Motor Show. Now I have to say that I’ve never really understood estates but I can just about understand why a salesman or engineer might want a big car to stick his samples or tools in the back of. Volvo estates Read more »

Yet another famous car review from Graham Hill who has that spooky knack of understanding what people really want to know about:  I was at the launch of the new Porsche Cayenne last night making friends with anyone who I thought might wish to invest in my latest business venture. They were serving Champagne and a couple of fruit drinks, I stuck to lemonade, the real stuff that looks like it’s been floating off the Read more »