The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

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 »

If you are still one of those that likes to own a car but is worried by the loss in depreciation – if you are then don’t buy a Maybach 62 which is reported by trade valuers Parkers to have lost £128,899 during 2008. However, downsizing and demand for city cars has kept used prices of smaller cars high producing the lowest cash losses in 2008. You should therefore ditch the Maybach, Bentley or Aston and replace with one of the following: Read more »

Do you ever feel that you are banging your head against a brick wall? How many times did I say before Christmas that some of the deals that are available may never return so take them whilst you can. But no, obviously I was lying or simply trying to pull a few deals in to pay for my extravagant Christmas and New Year celebrations. The truth is that I wasn’t. There was a huge effort on the part of some manufacturers to Read more »

If you like to drive a prestige car and have thought that owning is a much better option consider the Bentley GT Coupe owner whose car is now depreciating at £500 more per week more than it did 12 months ago which means, according to trade newspaper Fleet News that it has depreciated by more than £67,000 in its first year, that’s a staggering 56% off its new price of £120,000. Who said that owning a car is the best option?? By Graham Hill

Mini takes the prize for the car that holds it’s value best according to EurotaxGlass. After 3 years travelling average mileage the Mini diesel retains 63.3% of it’s original value although this is down from its high of 71% in 2007. The worst performer was the Alfa 166 which at the end of 3 years with 37,000 miles on the clock is worth just 12% of its original cost. Amazing! By Graham Hill

If you are a lover of 4 wheel drives now may be a good time to buy or lease one with rates and prices plummeting. You may find in the future a lack of choice and not for the reasons you may think. When the EU announced that all manufacturers in Europe were to be given CO2 targets across the whole of their production or face some substantial fines many of the manufacturers dismissed it and said Read more »

Looking for a reliable car has always meant that you must look in the direction of Japanese cars but following the annual survey carried out into company car reliability BMW has come out on top. The survey which sampled 881,000 vehicles leased by the top FN50 companies showed BMW to become the first ever non-Japanese company to top the reliability charts. Since the reliability charts were launched either Read more »

After a damning report produced by Which magazine saying that the ‘super fuels’ did not save money, improve the car’s performance or improve the environment any more than standard fuels. BP stood by its claims of the benefits of it’s Ultimate fuels. It also criticised the fact that Which used only 3 mainstream models, a Ford Focus, Renault Megane and VW Golf. They said ‘It simply isn’t possible to obtain reliable comparison of the fuels based on Read more »

Companies have already started to cut back on their transport costs, as of course consumers have also, in preparation for the difficult times ahead. Sadly the problem here is not a need to downsize or purchase cheaper cars etc. it is really a need to understand the finance tools that are available. Various types of leasing could save businesses a fortune. Taking on a tax efficient purchase scheme when the company is making no profits against which they can write off depreciation and interest is pure lunacy. Losing the Read more »

What Car has produced the top ten cars offering the best visibility and the top ten worst visibility. The study was carried out following complaints that visibility was getting worse in new cars. Conventional safety assessments such as EuroNCAP crash tests don’t include visibility tests. Driver safety experts say poor visibility is becoming more Read more »