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As we can see from my BMW 7 Series deal of the week, things are starting to improve at the big end of the market. In a prestige, sporting and executive auction held at British Car Auctions in Nottingham 300 dealers attended with 216 bidding online resulting in top models achieving 114% of CAP clean price (that’s trade value to you and me). The rest made 100-104% which is excellent considering the fact that last year the 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 »

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 »

Hindsight is great isn’t it? We can identify exactly where we went wrong and occasionally where we went right! When the recession started to bite, many businesses and individuals, who were leasing their cars and due to change, decided to extend their leases. Not such a bad thing if the lease was only 2 years in the first place but many of those that extended from 3 years to 4 years have maybe regretted that decision. And Read more »

According to the Auto Trader Compare survey BMW drivers are the worst on the road, however, if you look at the number of insurance claims compared to the number of cars insured a different picture emerges. It would seem that whilst BMW drivers are pretty adept at annoying other drivers they manage to avoid accidents, according to the survey results published by car insurer swiftcover.com. The Read more »

Now here’s an amazing piece of information, courtesy of What Car. Do you know the difference between a convertible, cabriolet and a roadster? Or are they all the same? Nope, they aren’t the same. Convertible and cabriolet are the same, they are based on a hard top version of the same car and are usually 4 seaters, such as the A3 Cabriolet or the Mini Convertible. However, on the other hand Roadsters are 2 Read more »

As all of my readers know I treat manufacturers, dealers and lenders with the greatest of respect and don’t go out of my way to make them look daft. I don’t need to as they normally manage that quite adequately themselves without my help. But then I read an item about BMW who are now entering the short term rental market because their fleet sales are down. Now for a prestige manufacturer to enter the short

 term rental  market it smacks of desperation as they have to give away around 30% or more discount and bonus in the cars. Whilst they are off doing that Mercedes are wiping the floor with them with C Class sales via dealerships in association with brokers who are offered special terms. It wouldn’t take much research to identify this potential opportunity. In the meantime BMW are offering cars to an accident management company who offer like with like cars to those whose cars are in being repaired following an accident. BMW sales director Sean Green has pointed out that ‘It is a conquest opportunity for us’, ‘This is an area we hadn’t looked at in the past and are now putting our toe in the water.’ Now I have my daft moments but one would assume that if your car is being repaired the person using the BMW, whilst it is being repaired, will not be placing an order as soon as it arrives out of a body repair shop. In addition the cars supplied on a like for like basis will mean that many drivers already drive a BMW. In the meantime, my brother in law who wanted to replace his BMW with another was looking at a £100 per month increase, so took an alternative car and others that want to drive a BMW are now driving Mercedes as a result of them passing on bonuses through leasing to drivers who are looking for a car NOW! That’s conquest business, not waiting for someone who drove a BMW whilst his car was being repaired to decide on a BMW for his next car in a couple of years. Is it me? By Graham Hill

Trade journal Fleet News has carried out a survey into reliability of cars by contacting the top 50 leasing companies and asking which manufacturer and which individual cars have proven to be most reliable over the last 12 months. BMW just pipped Honda to the post as the most reliable manufacturer with Audi coming in third, jumping from 7^th place last year. Audi was highest rated dealership network for Read more »

In a recent case, exposed in What Car a lady experienced a sunroof leak in her 2 year old Mondeo. She made a claim on Ford under her warranty agreement but was told that water ingress was not covered by her 3 year warranty beyond the first year but they made an offer to cover 30% of the repair cost and the dealer was prepared to cut his labour rate. The suggestion from What Car was to push for a bigger Read more »

I was recently in a meeting when someone announced the fact that as we emerge from the recession there will be a lot of ‘positive negative’ news about. I instantly thought of him as funny farm fodder and expected him to be carted off at any moment by men in white coats forcing him into one of those tailored jackets whose sleeves tie up at the back. Positive negative news indeed, what a nutter, Read more »