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I get very worked up over this subject and I’m really pleased that the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has now issued warnings to all car manufacturers over Safety Recalls after the disgraceful attitude towards safety displayed by Vauxhall and BMW over recent months.

Before I get to the meat of this piece do you know what a safety recall is? Briefly, if a car is found to have a problem and the manufacturer, through its harvesting of statistics, finds that the fault appears on a lot of cars of the same model manufactured over a specific period of time, they will find a fix then issue a recall to all the current owners of cars that potentially carry the same fault in order to have the fix applied.

Now, this could be something simple like a boot lid having to be slammed to close or the intermittent wipe on a rear windscreen wiper not functioning. These are called technical recalls and not so critical as the potential for a car to catch light in certain circumstances or a gearbox to fail at speed. This type of recall is a safety recall and it is these that the DVSA are tightening up on.

A recall can occur at any time, in the case of the BMW safety recall it applied to cars built between 2007 and 2011 so this isn’t restricted to just new or nearly new cars.

This all follows the highly publicised cases of the Vauxhall Zafira model B’s that caught light and the BMW’s that had an electrical fault caused by a B+ battery connector. Neither Vauxhall nor BMW were prepared to acknowledge the faults until BBC’s Watchdog got involved and exposed the problems.

So to start with shame on Vauxhall and BMW. In the case of BMW Narayan Gurung lost his life when he hit a tree trying to avoid a broken down BMW as a result of this known fault. Following the accident BMW recalled 36,000 vehicles, it was only after the Watchdog show that a further 312,000 vehicles were recalled.

There are two important points to be made here. Firstly the faults very rarely apply to all cars so whilst we see that a total of 348,000 cars are recalled it doesn’t mean that all the cars have the fault. Having said that we don’t know until the cars are inspected whether the car has the fault or not, so even though you haven’t experienced the brake fault or electrical fault that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t return your car to a main dealer to have it checked.

If you don’t you could be putting yours, your passengers and third party’s lives at risk. The new rules imposed on manufacturers by the DVSA means that once a safety-critical fault is known the manufacturers have just 10 days to issue a recall notice or face prosecution and a fine.

DVSA CEO Gareth Llewellyn has made it clear that when the 10 day warning has been issued it will also be made public, unless the manufacturer can give a good reason why the recall shouldn’t be made. This will put pressure on the manufacturers to take action. The situation gets a little more complicated when a company car driver isn’t made aware of a recall as the notice would be served on the company that owns or leases the cars.

Whoever is responsible for the company vehicles will be held responsible and if a recall isn’t conveyed to the driver and the car inspected he can be fined up to £20,000 and face 3 months in prison. I hope that the DVSA gets tough on manufacturers who seem to take a very casual approach when dealing with life-threatening safety recalls.

It should also be pointed out that if a car has a recall notice on it and the driver doesn’t have it inspected it could invalidate your insurance. Something that few people are aware of.

If you would like to check the MOT history of your car and whether there are any outstanding recalls you can check online by entering your registration number. Go to: https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

Whilst I believe that there have been suggestions along the lines that recall notices should be checked at the time of the car’s MOT test it doesn’t cover cars during the first 3 years of a car’s life. Maybe that should also apply to those servicing your vehicle also, they should check at the same time. By Graham Hill

Finally, after banging the drum for the last two years, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has agreed with my views that diesel still has a part to play, especially when the Bosche system starts to find its way into new car production. By 2020 when the Bosche system is fully rolled out across all manufacturers the NOx emissions will be a tenth of that required when Euro 7 rules are introduced making diesel cars more environmentally friendly than petrol.

In the meantime,, Nissan hasn’t helped by being caught out doing something similar to VW and falsifying emissions tests in Japan. That aside Chris Grayling supported diesels by saying, ‘If you’re driving long distances and are out and about on the road for work, diesel is a perfectly sensible option.’

The Government is aiming for zero emissions by 2040 but as Grayling pointed out this has to be industry and consumer-led and technology neutral – no I haven’t got a clue either but that’s what he said. But he went on to say, ‘Diesels can still play a valuable role in reducing CO2 emissions during that transition period to a low-emission future.’

However, Grayling told the SMMT that diesel engines need to continue getting cleaner. The response from the SMMT was to question whether his views would translate into positive changes to the tax regime. The Government promised to remove the 3% diesel company car supplement from April 2016.

However, not only was that decision reversed in the wake of the VW emissions scandal it was increased to 4% from April 2018. Of course, if I was being cynical I would say that the UK Government along with Germany and France have allowed false information to circulate in order to penalise drivers of diesel cars.

However, this attempt at crucifying diesel drivers will end up biting them on the rear end because diesel car sales have dropped through the floorboards leaving them with far fewer drivers to rob. Time will tell how this argument pans out but I’m pleased that the Government has come out positively. By Graham Hill

The RAC Foundation is to receive funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) to look into the ways that accidents, resulting in fatalities and injuries, are investigated in order to find out the genuine cause and how the accidents may be prevented in the future.

£480,000 is being invested in the project allowing the Foundation to recruit the services of specialists and use sophisticated data analytics to come to more accurate conclusions. For example, speed may result in an accident but why was the driver speeding?

Was there a distraction, a fault with the car or simply trying to meet unrealistic appointment or delivery targets set by an employer? Beyond individual cases, the data will be used to identify patterns relating to the make and model of car, the driver, temperature, time of day, road conditions, number of passengers etc.

By analysing the accidents in a totally different way to the police, who are looking to apportion blame, they are hoping to have a positive effect on the number of accidents and the outcomes. Let me be clear, accidents resulting in death or injury are down massively.

In 2016 the number of deaths was 1,792, up 4% over 2015 but compared to 10 years earlier the death rate is down 44%. However, the rates are starting to flatline so new ideas have to be developed if we are to bring them down further. The RAC Foundation believe they will be having a positive effect very soon.

They are introducing some of the techniques that accident investigation teams use when working for Maritime, Air and Rail organisations when trying to find the cause of a crash. By having an independent body it will take a lot out of time spent by the police investigating accidents leaving them to get on with other duties. By Graham Hill

Knowing the best products to use on your car can be a bit daunting. Ask the advice of a shop assistant and you have to ask if he or she is giving you best advice or is he simply looking at the commission he can make or the product with the most profit in for the shop?

Well, I’ve got the answer thanks to Auto Express who evaluated 236 products and came up with the best. To help you I’ve shown them below:

So there you have it, the results of tests carried out by Auto Express.

Fleet News highlighted the problems faced by most of us in the industry this week as manufacturers try to resolve the problems they face attempting to get their cars through the WLTP (Worldwide harmonised Light vehicle Test Procedure). As cars are tested and fail the more stringent tests they are removed from the manufacturers’ price lists whilst they work on a ‘fix’.

They fix the problem, test it themselves, feel that the car is OK and back on the list they go ready for the next test. The car then fails again because the manufacturers haven’t been able to totally replicate the test conditions imposed on their cars at the test centres. So the car is removed from the price list again.

This means that some manufacturers have stopped taking orders and stopped production of some of their models altogether. Orders can’t be placed as the manufacturers can’t say when their cars will be approved and without knowing the cost of the modifications necessary to get them over the line they can’t set the list price.

Without the cost, they can’t calculate the new list price. Without the list price the leasing companies can’t release their rates – it’s a mess! As a result of all the confusion, one leasing company has decided to take all cars off their lease quoting system unless they have been WLTP approved. One of the reasons for this is the confusion caused over interim arrangements put in place to calculate benefit in kind tax for those driving company cars.

The rules tighten further from the 1^st September which means that if cars have not been approved under the WLTP rules they cannot be sold. This will, in theory, lead to a lot of cars being pre-registered in August at big discounts unless, like the rest of Europe, our Government allows an extension. This has led to uncertainty amongst those waiting to take out a new lease expecting some mega-deals in August.

This situation could well lead to some brilliant lease deals – but it may not. It’s a gamble that I won’t advise on when asked if customers should wait. What with the uncertainties of Brexit life is tough at the moment in the car industry and confusing for customers. By Graham Hill

We hear so much about the UK, what we think, what we want, our trade relationships etc. etc. but what is going on in the EU? Clearly, companies who import goods from the UK are getting worried about supply and more important, costs if a free trade deal isn’t thrashed out.

Unknown by many is the size of our car components industry. They not only supply parts to UK based car manufacturers but they also export across Europe. The Dutch Government recently announced a Brexit Impact Scan service which asked businesses ‘Do you want to be less dependent on the British market? Consider focusing your activities on other countries’.

Dutch authorities advise that ‘After Brexit, parts made in the UK will no longer count towards minimum production in the EU’. And here’s the rub, goods made in the EU can pass across EU countries without facing tariffs, as long as the proportion of their components, typically around 55% – have been made within the EU.

If the UK leaves without favourable trading arrangements, EU car companies using UK components could push them under the 55% figure, removing their ability to trade freely across the EU tariff-free. The European Commission has previously said that businesses should, ‘Treat any UK inputs as ‘Non-Originating’ when determining the EU preferential origin of their goods’ after Brexit.

To put this into perspective the UK employs 82,000 people in the Automotive Supply Chain industry. 65% of British manufactured components are exported to EU countries with the sector being worth about £4.9 billion (according to the SMMT).

It will be bad enough if we are forced to walk away with no deal and fall within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, whereby imports and exports are subject to tariffs and the issues arising that are related to cost. It has been suggested by the SMMT that new car prices from Europe will increase by an average of £1,500.

But what about the component manufacturers? And where did this 55% rule come from? I’ve never heard of it and yet it is crucial to the negotiations and certainly puts us on the backfoot. It just keeps getting worse! By Graham Hill

It is now getting ridiculous. How long are we going to allow local Government to demonise diesel and force drivers to pay unfair penalties for driving cars that just a couple of years ago the Government was encouraging consumers and businesses to drive?

There is now little to choose between diesel and petrol cars when it comes to environmental damage. Last year saw CO2 output from cars rise for the first time since records began and for the first time in years we saw warnings issued about the damage that petrol cars could be causing to the Ozone layer as a result of increased CO2.

And with some particulate filters believed to allow zero soot emissions from the exhaust of diesel cars it seems ridiculous to demonise the cars and punish the drivers the way that local authorities do. London councils are leading the way when it comes to hating diesel cars (or loving them in terms of increased income).

Charging extra for older (pre-2005) cars to enter the central London congestion charge area may seem to make a little bit of sense but some boroughs charge premiums for parking permits for diesels irrespective of their age.

Merton charges an annual surcharge of £115 for all diesel cars, Islington is £99.65 and Hackney is £50. Kensington and Chelsea and Lambeth charge £43 and £40 respectively for pre-Euro 6 diesels. Camden and Barnet charge a surcharge on all diesels.

The problem is that this unjustified surcharge could well spread across the rest of the UK as local authorities see the opportunity to rip off diesel drivers and add to their income.  By Graham Hill

It seems that a lot of claims could be turned down because drivers aren’t making complete and honest returns on their insurance proposal forms.

Saying that a car is stored in a garage overnight when there isn’t enough space to store a bike in your garage could cause a claim to be rejected. It now seems that even silly things can lead to an insurance company rejecting a perfectly normal claim.

In some extreme examples, explained by one of my colleagues on Rip Off Britain, an insurer could reject a claim because you didn’t mention that the car was fitted with a tow bar or a roof or cycle rack. Even if the part fitted had nothing to do with the accident you could still have a claim thrown out.

The most ridiculous and extreme examples include the fixing of stickers and say company adverts or logos, regarded as ‘adjustments to the bodywork’. So be warned, better to advise than not. By Graham Hill

As you get older it’s pretty common knowledge that you become more grumpy. I like to think that I’m not grumpy but I probably am.

However, alongside being grumpy – or not in my case, I find myself worrying more about things around us than I ever did when I was younger.

I worry about the health service, possibly because I’m no doubt getting closer to the time when I could become reliant on it. I worry about our kids’ education and the way we don’t prepare them for the real world.

Kids should have better life skills such as opening a bank account, credit cards and how they work along with debt advice including car finance – right the way through to basic cooking skills, how to iron, get a passport and especially, with so many youngsters dying on our roads, attending a speed awareness course – BEFORE they start driving.

I worry about the environment and I worry about the disgraceful state of our roads. Accidents are happening daily as a result of poorly maintained roads but what are we doing about these avoidable accidents? Naff all.

The SMMT suggests that there are 37.7 million vehicles on our roads but I agree with Mike Rutherford who writes for Auto Express that if you take into account drivers on our roads driving cars that are unregistered and the many more foreign trucks delivering bits from Europe massively outnumbering the number of our trucks in Europe we probably have over 40 million vehicles on our roads?

We are not only running out of space but the roads we have are a disgrace with potholes big enough to drop an elephant into without it touching the sides. I know there are many other things to worry about but if we don’t get our roads in good repair and build new, wider roads the whole of our road transport system will come to a standstill. Having travelled on the M25 last week I think it already has! By Graham Hill

If you are old like me you will remember the days when you used to collect empty beer and soft drink bottles, take them to the off-licence or local shop and get a few pence for each returned.

In those days, of course, the bottles were re-used so it was good for us kids, boosting our pocket money, and good for the environment. I’m not sure if the creators of Britain’s first recycling reward bins had this old idea in mind but the principle is the same.

Each plastic or glass bottle or empty coffee cup that you put into the recycle bin, installed in the services in Maidstone in Kent, earns you a 5p voucher towards your cup of coffee. Researchers have measured the litter levels in the Kent service centre over the last 4 weeks and will compare the impact of the machines over the next 6 months.

If successful we will see them installed at many more sites. The trial is being run by environmental charity Hubbub and has been backed by Highways England. The company has calculated that litter thrown out by motorists costs taxpayers £8 million a year.

Wayne Moore of Highways Agency is in favour of the initiative as he points out, employing people to pick up litter is not only dangerous, they can be a distraction to motorists and they could be used elsewhere more productively. Funny how some of the old ideas are still the best! By Graham Hill