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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 »

Auto Trader Compare, the insurance comparison site set up by Autotrader, the UK’s largest motoring website, carried out a survey to find out which drivers are considered to be the worst amongst motorists. The worst drivers, as voted by a massive 59% of respondents, are BMW drivers. They are accused of  various bad driving habits including – driving too fast (68%), overtaking in dangerous situations (66%), Read more »

I’m not sure how useful this information is or what real conclusions can be drawn but I found it interesting so am passing it on. Under the Freedom of  Information Act the BBC obtained data regarding MOT failures and Business Car  analysed the figures to identify which cars had the highest pass rates and which cars had the highest fail rate. The statistics are based on 2004 registered cars that were MOT tested for the Read more »

A couple of weeks ago I told you which manufacturers and which cars were the most reliable. This week it’s the turn of the dealerships. The survey was carried out amongst 34 of the UK’s top leasing companies with 27 voting for the dealers in the top slot. Whilst Lexus often takes top honours amongst retail voters only 2 lessors put Lexus in the top 5 dropping them just off the top 10 dealers. The Germans seemed to Read more »

Under the new EU Block Exemption rules you can now have your car serviced at any recognised service garage provided the quality of service matches that laid down by the manufacturer. I still recommend that original manufacturer parts are used but this isn’t necessary provided they meet original spec. However, a problem exists with the service lights that warn you when a car is due for service. Some 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 »

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 »

A report out this week shows a drop in leased vehicles of 10% this year. The reasons are fairly obvious with larger companies making redundancies and having to make better use of resources, fewer vehicles are now required.. One van can now do the job of two and one salesman can cover a larger area as a result of decreases in sales and customers. Having said that Read more »

Whilst on the subject of safety and collision avoidance, I’m often asked what certain expressions mean when I mention them in car specs that I send out in my video car deal of the week. So to help out here are a few quick summaries:

 ABS: Anti Lock Braking system, this prevents the wheels from locking under heavy braking. The disc pads grip the disc, then release then grip again but very fast thus preventing a skid and allowing the driver to steer whilst braking without skidding. It sounds like a machine gun when it operates.

EBD or EBFD: Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, this system varies the amount Read more »