Monday, 17. May 2010
Oh dear I’m not sure how this is going to go down with employees but it seems that there has been a bit of an upsurge in the provision of logos for company cars. In the past companies that run vans and trucks would use them as a mobile advertisements for their business but very few, other than estate agents and letting agents, adorn their cars with advertising logos. But just recently employees have been Read more »
Sunday, 16. May 2010
There have been a lot of hurrah’s and yippees as Ford have dropped their list prices by up to 12% on many models in their range. Obviously it passed everyone by that in fact they increased their prices by 15.1% last year when inflation was bouncing along at a little over 0%. In fact the actual increase imposed by Ford was higher than 15.1% as the increases took place in 4 chunks and I’ve disregarded the Read more »
Sunday, 16. May 2010
There is something I feel guilty about as a broker and that is test drives. Customers need to test drive a car before they take them from me but we are unable, as we used to do years ago, to arrange for a car to be sent to the client from the manufacturer for him to test drive. So the client has to visit a dealer knowing that the car won’t be supplied by him, as we have volume arrangements with specific dealers or the Read more »
Saturday, 15. May 2010
Daft gadget of the week award – Tyrepal. That’s probably a little unfair because this new device monitors the tyre pressures and tyre temperatures and therefore could prevent an accident and even save a life. You fit four sensors on your tyre valves to replace the valve caps and a small screen that looks a bit like a sat nav monitors each wheel and warns of any dangers, all done wirelessly. The device, according to Read more »
Friday, 14. May 2010
Auto Express has uncovered a potential hugely dangerous oversight that many drivers may make when taking out insurance. Most of us are aware that we need to provide details of any modifications carried out on our cars when we complete the application form but few would consider the fitting of a towbar as a modification that could invalidate the insurance if not declared. When one of their readers tried to renew Read more »
Wednesday, 12. May 2010
Warnings have been issued regarding the screen resolution of your computer. Well not exactly the resolution itself but the affect that your screen resolution can have on the colour options shown on the manufacturer web sites. Customers, ordering new cars, have been choosing colours from the car manufacturer’s website only to be totally disappointed when the car has turned up looking several shades away from Read more »
Saturday, 8. May 2010
Leasing fell dramatically across Europe during 2009 according to Leaseurope, the trade association representing the European leasing and vehicle rental industries. New lease business was down by 28.4% last year compared to 2008, this represented the greatest fall since they started keeping records in 1994. My own view is that much of this was the result of manufacturers diverting money into scrappage whilst Read more »
Thursday, 6. May 2010
Mobile phone users who still use their phones whilst driving without a hands free kit are back in the news as conviction figures show another fall. Recently published figures show that convictions in England and Wales were down to 116,000 in 2008/9, down by 5% on the previous year, which in turn was down on the 167,000 convictions in 2006/7 even though the use of a mobile phone whilst driving was introduced as Read more »
Tuesday, 4. May 2010
I am, without doubt, the leading expert in car finance in the UK. However, wherever you look there are ‘experts’ who will not fail to give bad advice. This seriously winds me up because it can cost people a lot of money and in some of the worst cases, their home. It’s bad enough when this bad advice is given by well meaning friends down the pub or an accountant who is really not specialist, as I am, in vehicle finance. Read more »
Saturday, 24. April 2010
Not only do the Americans have cheap lease rates they have some great incentives offered to buyers in order for them to choose their car over others. The latest gimmick is being offered by Hyundai. They are offering every buyer of their new V8 Equus luxury limo their service book loaded onto an Apple iPad. Customers can even use the iPad to book services or receive information updates. I didn’t get one of these Read more »