The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

You may think long and hard about using an Internet company but when considering which finance method to use you may carry out some research into the various options. The obvious route to go is to buy my book, ‘An Insider Guide To Car Finance’. But you may think that taking advice from such authorities as Glass’s Guide (EurotaxGlass), Sunday Times and Telegraph would provide the solution and offer up good advice. Well think again. I strongly criticised Read more »

As the credit crunch bites harder funders and brokers/intermediaries fight each other for the lowest rates on the Internet to encourage you to use them, sometimes as a result of lying and conning. So now is the time to be very very careful as to which company you use to provide your car if you want to avoid problems in the future. Probably the most important fact to be aware of is that the person you place your business with on the Internet is not working for the funder or the dealer – he is actually working for Read more »

I recently warned anyone who has a car they own to get out of it as soon as possible and get into a lease car that carries no residual risk and reduces cash flow. The drop in used car values achieved at auction has again been highlighted by British Car Auctions who reported an average monthly drop in May of 3 year old cars of 2.6%. This continued into June with the average drop reaching 4.2%, the largest single month’s movement for several years. Again, get out of car ownership and into a form of finance which takes away all of the residual risk. By Graham Hill

Proposals have been made to re-schedule MOT tests. The first to take place after 4 years followed by biannual checks. As cars are built better and service intervals stretch out to 2 years or 20,000 miles it is felt that MOT tests are not required so frequently. However, the vehicle repairer’s association, MVRA, has objected strongly referring to ‘serious safety issues’ if the new proposals are adopted. I’ll keep you posted. By Graham Hill

Leasing companies are really starting to feel the squeeze from several directions. Interest rates are going up, new car prices are increasing, there are fewer customers and more importantly used car prices have taken a sudden dive resulting in losses on virtually every car that is being de-fleeted  forcing rates up further on new cars in order to balance the losses. However, in addition to the rate adjustments we have seen many leasing companies try to recoup losses from customers by making large Read more »

As the Government stands firm on it’s 6 year old Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) you should now consider the real benefits of paying for your own car personally and charging the business compared to having a company car. To remind you the AMAP rates are 40 pence per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25 pence per mile thereafter. The charge is tax and NI free but even 40% taxpayers are seeing the benefits badly eroded. The charge is to recover not just fuel but all Read more »

The Government is to tighten up on new car advertising as a result of pressure from the greenies to better advise the public about CO2 emissions. In future all literature including posters and all print ads must include CO2 emission information. This is now believed to conform to EU directives on the level of information that should be made available to car buyers. Strangely no such rules apply to used cars which are in the vast majority and kick out many more CO2‘s than their new equivalents. Or am I missing something?

We have finally had confirmation from the treasury that the tax changes mentioned in the last budget only apply to new cars. Not that anyone expected it to be otherwise but the statements should never have been so vague in the first place. Cars that are already in use by April 2009 will not be subjected to the new rules so this will no doubt spur on a lot of activity between now and next April as companies look to maintain their current beneficial tax Read more »

As any of you that have become readers of my weekly ramblings would know I am a great supporter of the safety system ESP developed by Bosch. I believe that it should be fitted in all new cars as it is relatively cheap and would save more lives than ABS. Well, the good news is that Bosch have started work on a new version that will hopefully move them closer to having the system fitted in all cars. The new version integrates sensors for Read more »

There has been a great deal of talk recently about extending the use of tachographs to all vehicles used for business as it seems unfair that the driver of a commercial vehicle is covered by European driving hours directives whilst sales people and service engineers driving small vans or cars aren’t but are just as likely to fall asleep at the wheel. However, many are not aware that the law already applies if the car, or 4×4, plus trailer plated gross weight exceeds 3.5tonnes. If this is the case the vehicle should be fitted with a tacho and drivers Read more »