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It would seem that companies are more environmentally aware than private motorists. According to statistics issued last year, as part of Fleet News Intelligence Report, and more recently backed up by information from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), average CO2 emissions from cars put onto fleet leases dropped from 149.9g/km to 144 g/km following a drop of 9 percentage Read more »

Good news for those living near or travelling down the A13 in East London. Transport for London have introduced, for the first time in the UK, average speed cameras on a road with multiple entry and exit points. 84 cameras based at 37 locations will ensure that you don’t escape by monitoring the speed of vehicles. Sledgehammers and nuts spring to mind, maybe someone should check the accident and fatality stats for the stretch of road in question under the Freedom of Information Act? As I don’t go there I won’t bother of course! By Graham Hill

Whilst the number of new cars fitted with Electronic Stability Control (ESC), also known as Electronic Stability Program (ESP), is increasing, following a push by inventors Bosch and the Association of Car Fleet Operators (ACFO), to inform car buyers of the benefits, more private buyers are having the safety device fitted than fleet buyers. Department for Transport research suggests ESC equipped vehicles are 25% less Read more »

I am grateful to Jo Tacon, Editor of the journal Motor Finance for which I write a regular (and clearly the most popular) column. Jo forwarded a couple of articles that appeared in the Sun newspaper, written by Kelvin MacKenzie. In the articles he complains about the end of contract charges imposed upon him by Mercedes Benz Finance (MBF) after returning his end of lease car. The charge was £1,800 and I Read more »

Hindsight is great isn’t it? We can identify exactly where we went wrong and occasionally where we went right! When the recession started to bite, many businesses and individuals, who were leasing their cars and due to change, decided to extend their leases. Not such a bad thing if the lease was only 2 years in the first place but many of those that extended from 3 years to 4 years have maybe regretted that decision. And Read more »

My Mercedes is being a bit of a pain. Since I got it a year ago the dealer has had two tries at sorting out two warning lights that came on unexpectedly, one related to the tyre pressures and the other the ESP system. I asked if I could drive the car safely and they pointed out that as the warning lights were orange and not red, as long as I checked my tyre pressures all should be ok till I could get the car in for repair a Read more »

I recently warned about the dangers of not having your car serviced on time from the point of view of safety. We have now had further warnings from manufacturers and leasing companies about the importance of having your car serviced on time. The manufacturers are referring to the potential loss of warranty cover if the car is not serviced ‘as per manufacturers’ recommendations’. The chances of an engine Read more »

After a year of successful growth in used car prices we are now starting to see prices level and, in some cases, slightly fall in auction. With fewer new car registrations, a reduction in rental car fleets and cars being scrapped the supply chain of used cars reduced significantly through the year. Businesses started to buy used cars instead of new as well as hold onto their lease cars by extending contracts turning the Read more »

There are a number of vehicle recalls each year, some of which are fairly minor causing no more than an irritation whilst others are much more serious which could result in injury. One of the latest recalls was issued by Ford on 29,000 Focuses for a potential overheating problem in the cooling fan to be rectified. The warning read: Focus (potential overheating/fire risk), models from 20/02/04 – 31/05/06. Read more »

Over the last few months we have seen a great deal of activity in dealerships offering a greater variety of finance products to customers. Manufacturer provided finance facilities are offered through ‘captives’ that are either funded by the manufacturer or through a major finance provider. The funder provides the facilities on documents printed in the name of the manufacturer. As a result of increased competitiveness Read more »