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Things are not getting any easier for us brokers or our funders. I heard yesterday that a large part of the Audi range is now on Feb/Mar 2010 delivery for orders placed now. Most funders will price fix for 3 months from the date of order which means that the monthly rate will be held as long as the vehicle can be delivered within the 3 months. However, if delivery is beyond this, rates may be subject to review as a Read more »

I’m not sure if this applies to all motorists but LeasePlan has found that the most dangerous day of the week to drive is Monday, replacing Tuesday in previous years. More company cars are involved in accidents on a Monday than any other day of the week with the most dangerous time to travel being between 8.00am and 10.00am. They also found that 10% of the accidents involved cars hitting stationary objects. Is this a good reason to turn up for work late on a Monday? I’m not sure but could be worth having a word with your boss. By Graham Hill

If you are not aware of ESP or Electronic Stability Program (also known as ESC Electronic Stability Control) you must be new to my newsletter and never watched one of my new car videos. If you are aware of ESP you will know that I go on about it constantly because I truly believe that it should be fitted as standard on all cars now and not in a few years (2014) as has now been insisted upon by the EC. Around the world 1.4 million people die in Read more »

If you aren’t going to be sensible and take a car on lease through me don’t get conned by a dealer when negotiating the purchase price of a new car if you are specing it up with a pile of factory options. According to What Car, dealers receive exactly the same discounts from the manufacturer on the factory fitted options as they do on the car, so if your dealer is offering you Read more »

This is becoming a real technology week, we’re now onto Sat Navs that save you fuel! Yep, I kid you not. Whilst the sat nav on my last car, a BMW 7 Series, insisted on taking me round in a complete circle in the middle of London for a good ¾ hour last Christmas and after averting a traffic jam on the M25, on many occasions, insisted on re-routing me straight back into the midst of the logjam, they think they have the technology to calculate the route that saves most fuel! Bosch are currently Read more »

Just as I see many more manufacturers embrace the ESP/ESC safety systems that help you to avoid an accident a new one emerges called FlexRay which is apparently set to become the new standard in safety devices moving us closer to the time when we don’t actually have to drive cars, just programme them and they get on and do it whilst we sit back and enjoy our freshly brewed Earl Grey and munch on a few choccy Hob Nobs whilst reading my blog FAQ’s received via your communications interface. It may all seem Read more »

Unless you have money to burn now is not a good time to be too precise when it comes to selecting your next car. I recently explained that the rates between contract hire companies on the same car can be staggering but compare the rates for similar size and spec cars and it can be much worse. And its not just down to the purchase price of the car. Lets take as an example a Chrysler 300C, this is a great, value for money car in terms of what you get for your cash (it’s the Bentley looky likey car). Leather, auto and lots of gadgets. To buy an equivalent Audi or Mercedes would cost an additional Read more »

When I first started driving the most technical pieces of equipment in my car were the window winders and the optional heater, that was either on or off. Radios were not standard equipment and cassette players were somewhat futuristic. So other than your passengers, there were very few distractions inside the cockpit of your car, added to which, if you were anywhere north of Watford you could drive for 3 days and still not come into contact with another driver. These days things are different, there are 30 million cars registered and many of those Read more »

You’ve seen the warning adverts on the TV showing how a rear, unbelted, passenger can smash into the back of a driver and kill him or her in the event of an accident? Well what do you think happens when a 2 stone dog does the same? And yet no attention seems to be given to the dangers of a loony dog running from window to window, either side of the rear seat, sticking its head out and covering passing traffic on one side and pedestrians and cyclists the other side with doggy slobber! You brake hard and either you or your passenger ends up wearing the dog! But fear not Read more »

For those of my readers that find it essential to be dressed in the right colours for the current season I can now reveal the car colour to be seen in to be (drum roll please) Black. Black overtook Silver last year and has retained the honours for this year according to car paint manufacturer, DuPont. However, hot on its heels, along with silver, as the most popular tints is white. The question is how did they arrive at Read more »