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A couple of weeks ago I was asked to appear on ITV’s Tonight programme that went out last Thursday (6^th September). However, with just half an hour available and the main theme of the programme the decision that drivers face as to whether to choose a petrol, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric car next they dropped what was to be a section on finance.

All had their merits, petrol – short around the town trips, diesel for high mileage drivers, hybrids in town but with no ability to plug the car in at home or at work, plug in’s if you have access to electricity and electric for those on low mileage in a city subject to congestion charges with easy access to chargers.

However, they sent a couple on a trip from their home in the north to a party in the south of England in an electric car. A trip that would normally take 4 hours but actually ended up taking over 6 hours, making them 2 hours late. The reason, finding somewhere to charge up the battery en-route. They found at service areas chargers that were broken as well as chargers that couldn’t fast charge. It seemed like a nightmare and got the couple very irritated and worried that they could end up stranded.

One gentleman with a plug-in hybrid found that he needed to charge his car for 6.5 hours at home using the domestic power supply in order to be able to cover something like 25 miles on just the electric motor, think he should change to Duracell Ultra batteries! The programme also questioned the environmental differences claiming, as many others have, that the manufacture of electric vehicles and their batteries come at an increased environmental cost and they still affect the environment as there are particulate emissions from tyres and brakes.

So whilst not all great news electric is the direction of travel and since BP bought out Chargemaster EV charging network we will see many more fast charge points with the next generation able to ‘fill up’ a car in just 5 minutes. Added to which there are already cars that can be used as electricity storage devices. Left plugged into the house electrics any stored electricity could be used when the cost of energy is high then charge the car overnight when energy is low.

Lots happening but I’m yet to be convinced. And the idea of charge points in lamp posts – as was shown on the programme is likely to end up with drivers in A&E as they come to blows as to who was at the lamp post first and whose needs are greater. By Graham Hill

So you’ve been to a party, club or just down the pub and had a skinful. You responsibly get a lift or a cab home. You even have a Halfords special breath tester and test your breath. Great, you’re well under the legal limit of 80mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood (England and Wales) so you jump into your car and off you go. But are you safe?

Scientists from the University of Bath say no. They conducted a meta-analysis (no I don’t know either) of 11 existing hangover studies, determining that ‘Sustained attention and driving abilities were impaired during hangover’. These are people under the alcohol blood limit but still in recovery.

One study showed reaction times to be 20% slower in hungover subjects, while another revealed ‘the ability to control a vehicle, as measured by deviation from a set course was impaired’ following a night of ‘heavy drinking’. Lead author Dr Sally Adams told Auto Express, who reported the findings, hangovers affect two key elements for driving, the first is our ability to concentrate on our activity for sustained periods of time and the second, psychomotor skills(our brain’s ability to control physical activities).

She went on to explain. ‘Your body works hard to metabolise alcohol and produces acetaldehyde as it does so’. And with current research indicating acetaldehyde ‘mimics the neurological effects of alcohol’ she suggested that ‘It may be time we consider if you have to drive the next day, perhaps a heavy night of drinking the night before isn’t a good idea’.

Whilst Government is considering lowering the limit to 50mg per 100ml in line with Scotland and many other European countries this won’t stop the ‘hungover effect’ If you were bladdered the night before. The NHS advises that the body takes 3 hours to break down the alcohol in a 250ml glass of wine and 2 hours to process a pint of normal-strength beer.

Adams finished off by saying that it may be possible in the future to have detectors that will detect if you are suffering from the ‘hungover effect’ and could lead to prosecutions and may be used in evidence in serious or fatal road accidents. You’ve been warned! By Graham Hill

When I first started to write my report on Personal Contract Purchase I did it as an aid for viewers of the Rip Off Britain programme that featured me as their expert dealing with cases involving members of the public who had been treated poorly by either dealerships or finance providers.

It was to be two pages of bullet points at most. 10 months of investigation and re-writing later and we now have a 200-page report stored under the heading of Rip Off Britain Crib Notes – it’s more like War and Peace. But the one main message that comes through is the lack of clarity, probably because of a lack of education on the part of those selling the product as well as those taking out PCP contracts.

The second seems to be the need to be dishonest. If you download the report by visiting www.grahamhilltraining.com you’ll see what I mean. You’ll also have one over on the dealers as you will probably end up knowing more than them. I don’t know what it is, whether it is considered to be good marketing or simply meant to confuse customers in order to make the sale.

Take my latest battle over the extension cost of my Mercedes with MB Finance who rather foolishly have decided to take me on. I won’t go into detail yet, it will get reported in the press when I get a result, but in order to prevent the case going to the Financial Ombudsman Service they offered a sum of money as a ‘Gesture Of Good Will’. Instead of admitting that what they were doing was illegal and simply come to an arrangement they offer a ‘Gesture Of Good Will’.

The fact is that I never ever accept a ‘Gesture Of Good Will’, because I’m either right or wrong. If I’m right – and it is normally over a legal matter – I expect an apology and a full payout. If I’m wrong I will stick my hands up and admit to being wrong and pay any penalty but offering a ‘Gesture Of Good Will’ will only get my back up!

What really got me started on this subject was an announcement in Business Car in which 2^nd biggest Contract Hire company in the UK, LeasePlan, announced that they were to start remarketing used ex-lease cars online under the name of carnext.com. Nothing wrong with that I was a director of Carsite that eventually was re-branded Tesco Cars that did exactly that but 10 years ago.

What annoyed me was that they say in the piece:- that every car comes with a 14-day money back guarantee as though they are offering some special benefit. As the cars are bought online and delivered to you the cars are automatically covered by the Consumer Contracts regulations, formally known as the Distance Selling regulations which means you have a legal right to return any goods you don’t want for any reason within 14 days. Not an exceptional added benefit. Just be honest.

They then go on to say that every car comes with a 1-year warranty. No, they don’t sunshine each car has a 2 year EU Guarantee attached to it. Whilst we are in the EU the 2-year guarantee is still in force which means any trader selling any product, new or used, must come with the EU 2 year guarantee. So not only have they turned a legal obligation into an added benefit but understated it! Grrr – winds me up! By Graham Hill

Speeding: You may or may not be aware of ‘speeding buffer zones’ applied by the police. Essentially if there is a speed limit of say 70mph the police allow a buffer zone of 10% + 2mph making the acceptable speed 79 miles per hour (70 + 7 + 2 = 79). In the case of 30 miles per hour that would be 35mph.

I should add at this stage that this has always been advisory so you shouldn’t assume that the speed limit in a 30mph area is automatically 35mph. It is discretionary so if you were doing 35 miles per hour whilst passing a school with kids everywhere you would probably be fined. However, the ‘buffer’ is currently being reviewed by senior police officers and could well change.

At a recent Police Federation Conference, Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, the National Police Chief’s Council’s lead on road policing announced the possible change of attitude. Ashe pointed out, drivers should not be surprised if they are fined for doing 33 miles per hour in a 30mph zone because they are speeding – simple as that.

In answer to the proposal officers warned that this would increase the number of cases they need to deal with and they don’t have the capacity or the capability to deal with the increased workload. Watch this space and don’t assume that the 10% + 2mph rule will always apply. Repairs: Breakdown firm Green Flag has carried out a survey suggesting that motorists are overspending to the tune of £3.4 billion every year on garage repairs.

On average drivers pay £90 per annum more than they should with 4out of 5 men and 90% of women not feeling confident when confronted with the cost of the repairs and knowing if it is correct. In the same report Green Flag revealed that 39% of motorists had no idea what the annual MOT test involves. Not good. By Graham Hill

Latest casualty figures released by the Department for Transport are for 2016. They show a year on year increase of 7% over 2015. The figures include those either injured or killed in incidents involving drivers over the drink-drive alcohol limits.

The figures showed a total of 9,040 deaths or injuries and has led to calls by road safety charity, Brake for the Government to reduce the legal limit from 80mg/100ml of blood to lower than the 50mg/100ml limit imposed on drivers in Scotland since 2014.

The DfT revealed that approximately 230 people died in drink-related incidents compared to 200 in 2015. Surprisingly the DfT described the higher figure as ‘Not statistically significant’. Going on to say that the data ‘continues a period of stability since 2010’.

Joshua Harris, the director of campaigns at Brake hit out by saying, ‘Today’s figures show that drink-driving is an increasing blight on British roads, and yet the Government sits on its hands and refuses to address the issue.’

Something needs to happen, reducing the limit is only a deterrent if we have enough police testing drivers. If drivers think that they can get away with exceeding the drink-drive limit, wherever it’s set they will continue to drink and drive. By Graham Hill

Things in the world of motoring are completely unbalanced when I find myself agreeing, more than once in a decade, with commentator Mike Rutherford. Not only that and just to show that I think about my blog, this item follows on from the last entry explaining that we are suffering a terrible underspend in our roads infrastructure in Britain.

As Mike points out we are around number 70 in the list of countries around the world when it comes to miles of road per capita. In this country, we have around 67 million inhabitants with a road network of jus 263,000 miles. In France, they have 66 million inhabitants with an eye-watering 640,000 miles of roads.

No wonder we spend disproportionate amounts of time sitting in traffic queues! Even Italy with a population of 61 million inhabitants has more miles of roads than us at 300,000. It’s an absolute disgrace that successive Governments have disregarded our roads.

Traffic jams cause increased pollution, make travel times longer and use more fuel but even worse is the way that it makes us all less efficient. The Government has expressed concerns about our efficiency but part of the problem is our road infrastructure. We can’t be doing anything if we are sitting in traffic for hours on end.

Getting back to the statistics, Spain has a population of 47 million with 424,000 miles of roads. Even Scandinavia with a population of just 10  million Swedes has created 330,000 miles of roads. 5 million Finns had a massive 282,000 miles of roads to speed along – that’s a population of 90% less than us with more miles of road than GB.

Australia with a bigger area but fewer inhabitants than GB has 500,000 miles of roads. Finally the US with a population of 328 million has 4.4 million miles of roads. As Mike points out this situation is not only a disgrace it is becoming a joke and extremely embarrassing. We are so bad we are behind Namibia and Estonia.

Now whilst some of the roads aren’t of the highest quality in some countries and some roads are pavementless we are lagging behind most other sophisticated countries buy a large margin. It can take years just to build a few miles of motorway so we really need to get our fingers out now and agree some heavy spending on our roads infrastructure or run the risk of the whole country grinding to a stop.  By Graham Hill

OK, I have this great new way of charging you for the electricity that you use. In future, you will be assessed by the amount of hot water you use per annum. The more hot water you use the more you will pay for your electricity. As a result, the Government will expect you to use less water and less electricity to heat the water. Makes sense?

Probably a bit of a silly example but the point is that linking the two items doesn’t seem like an obvious way for you to pay for your electricity. You pay for electricity as you use it – seems like a bloody obvious thing to do! So what’s this got to do with cars?

Well, a lot of what we spend on roads and the roads infrastructure is collected in various taxes. First Registration, Road Fund Licence and Fuel Excise Duties being the three main ones that come to mind (congestion charging, scaled parking charges are others). So how do we work out the charge? We charge based on CO2 emissions! No allowance for other emissions just CO2.

It just doesn’t make sense and even with the CO2 emissions, it’s simply assessed on how much comes out of the exhaust pipe over a kilometre. I might be travelling just 5,000 miles a year in a relatively high CO2 emitting vehicle but still pay more in RFL than someone travelling 40,000 miles a year in a car with CO2 emissions that are slightly lower. Again – makes no sense! What does make sense is charging per mile for the use of our roads – a bit like using electricity!

And that is what will have to be considered if we move over to either very low emission hybrids or zero-emission electric cars. To leave things as they are will mean drivers will pay nothing towards the upkeep of our roads infrastructure. So the first out of the blocks is the Republic of Ireland, working on a scheme whereby drivers pay to use roads by the mile in order to fill what could potentially be a fairly large black hole in the finances.

Our government is keeping an eye on what the Irish are proposing, to see if theirs is a model we should copy.  Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, announced earlier this year that whilst he acknowledged that many people felt that pay per mile was the way forward he had no immediate plans to change from the current method of funding our roads.

Unfortunately rather short sighted! Having said that I’m not sure how we would go about collecting the data and making the charges on motorists. By Graham Hill

Probably the most common question asked at the moment without a simple answer. Most lenders will extend their leases these days so the option is there. Most will ask for your current mileage then calculate the extension based on your contract mileage, your average mileage or they may ask what mileage you will cover over the extension period.

In most cases we are seeing an increase in monthly cost so be prepared to pay either the same as you are currently paying or an increase. Some will offer a casual extension whilst others a fixed period extension of 3, 6 or 12 months – or all. The casual extension means that you continue to pay for the car until such times as you no longer need it.

This is particularly useful if you can’t coordinate the collection of the old car with the delivery of the new car or if the delivery of the new car has been delayed. This can often be the most expensive method so expect to pay 20 – 25% more than you are currently paying per month.

A fixed extension may possibly see a reduction in rental, especially if you are under mileage. You will need to contact either the funder or if you have an agreement through me we can sometimes organise this for you. You will receive a quote and from that decide what period you would like to extend for.

This now brings us to the next very vexing question – should you extend simply because you can’t find a suitable car on an acceptable rate or, if you were to replace your current car with exactly the same car, the rate is currently substantially more? Either way, should you extend in the hope that the rates will reduce in the future? And if you do that how long should you extend for?

We are now in very turbulent times. The industry faces two main challenges. Real world emissions tests and Brexit. With regard to the first challenge the old test procedures (NEDC) and standards have been dumped to be replaced by the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP).

The tests are still carried out in laboratory conditions but now take twice as long under tighter scrutiny as a result of cars being tested under NEDC test conditions previously being capable of being ‘fixed’. I’ll mention no names  but VW. Manufacturers have had to carry out substantial design and production modifications in order to make their new and existing models compliant with Euro emissions regulations which has and will increase the cost of new vehicles.

Since September last year till the end of August this year (2018) current models tested under the old NEDC procedures could still be sold but if they remained unsold at the end of August could be forcibly scrapped. As a result, some big discounts have been given away to sell the cars before getting to the point where they had to be scrapped or pre-registered. There has been a little relaxation of the rules whereby a small % of annual sales, if remaining in stock at the end of August, could still be sold in September.

The WLTP tests included options fitted to the car. As we know if a car is fitted with bigger wheels it increases the drag coefficient and, in turn, increases fuel consumption whilst also increasing emissions. The next phase of testing that starts from September 2018 is Real Driving Emissions testing (RDE). This entails the connection of measuring equipment to the car on test and driving it on public roads, measuring the real results, then comparing them to the results achieved in the WLTP tests.

All of this is costing money and could be increasing the cost of new cars as well as delaying deliveries. Land Rover shut down its order book for 3 months and I’m hearing that low sales, because of lack of cars and not so keen finance deals, has resulted in dealerships facing closure. So these uncertain times are causing rates to be very unstable.

We then have Brexit.  On the 29^th March 2019 we officially leave the EU with many suggesting that we could well leave without a deal which means we fall back on WTO rules. The effect of this has been an estimated increase in car costs of 10% or an average increase per car of £2,400. Unknown by many is the level of discount we currently enjoy when we lease our cars.

Some have discounts of up to 45% factored into the rental rates. So one could argue that with so much fat to play with, will we see any major change in the rentals? This brings me to the crucial question, If the rates aren’t where you would like them to be when changing your car now, should you extend your agreement in the hope that you will achieve a better deal in a year’s time?

This is pretty much an impossible question to answer. The real answer could lie in attitude! For years we have been the only European country to embrace leasing as an option to fund cars both personally and through businesses. This has resulted in a lot of ‘dumping’ of cars into the UK for them to be leased.

The beauty of leasing is that the price paid by the leasing companies for their cars don’t affect the price of used cars on dealership forecourts. So manufacturers have used this to move cars that are on run out and even, on occasions, new models that aren’t selling well to put more cars on the road to give the impression that the cars are popular.

As an example, I won’t give makes and models, but some £22,000 (retail cost) cars were offered to me at £11,750 prepared and delivered anywhere in the UK by a main dealer as long as they were only supplied on contract hire. This discount made the cars very cheap to rent on contract hire but the good news for dealers was that by supplying new cars on say £170 + VAT per month lease deals it didn’t affect 12-month-old used cars on their forecourt for £17,000. Imagine what would happen to their used cars if the new cars were offered for cash at £11,750?

So the fact is that we could do without the increase in costs due to no deal being struck. In addition, we are already seeing attempts by manufacturers and leasing companies to push their finance products throughout Europe which will divert extra discounts away from the UK, increasing the pain further as more European countries take on leasing as a product.

So whilst we are so unsure about the future my advice has to be to consider the worst case and if there is anything available that is on an attractive deal at the moment snap it up – even if the car isn’t your first choice. Mine and the feeling of the industry is that we will have to go through some pain, certainly in the short term, that could put the replacement cost of like for like cars well beyond their current rates.

Extend for 12 months and you may see rates through the roof but if you take out a new 3 year lease I’m hopeful that things would have stabilised by the end of the 3 year lease period. But what do I know?

When I was a kid if you saw a label or stamp on anything that said – Made In Japan you would assume that it was cheap and cheerful, not meant to last for much more than a day or two. Oh how times have changed, the country boasts car manufacturers such as the massive Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Suzuki. Electronics masters such as Sony and Panasonic and the highly regarded premium tyre manufacturer – Bridgestone – all made in Japan.

So could we see a similar change in attitude towards China? Currently European and car manufacturers from around the world cannot keep up with China’s demand for cars, last year 28.8 million new cars were sold there. So high has been demand that major manufacturers have actually built plants over there and now manufacture in China. In fact, 1 in 4 cars made globally were built in China but to meet internal demand.

However, this growth will eventually start to slow down leaving manufacturing capacity in the factories. With the relatively low cost of labour and raw materials VW is just one company that sees opportunities to manufacture European spec. cars in China and export around the world. They are even suggesting that other countries may be interested in buying Chinese spec. cars. Maybe India and Africa where safety rules are not so stringent.

Jaguar Landrover have similar views. They aren’t looking into this in the short term as the internal demand is so high but further down the line it is very feasible that China could be exporting cars around the world with a variety of badges on the front of the car.

So watch out – the Chinese could be coming sooner than you think! By Graham Hill

Whilst the Government appears to be concentrating on the big issues such as free trade, immigration, security etc. work is still being done on the detail. Auto Express has been asking experts about some of the areas that are worrying Brits travelling abroad.

The first area of concern is driving licences. Will we need a special licence to enable Brits to drive in the EU? Some leaked EU presentation slides suggested that UK licences would no longer be recognised across the EU Bloc. Lawyer, Laura Newton who specialises in motoring and transport, for Rothera Sharp said that this is unlikely.

She believes that the UK driving licence will continue to be acceptable across the EU without additional paperwork required. As she pointed out the UK driving licence is already acceptable outside the EU in Commonwealth countries such as Australia as well as China and the USA where you can use your UK licence for 6 months before it has to be re-issued.

With that system working perfectly well Laura believes that there is no reason why the scheme could not continue post-Brexit. Expecting every driver to apply for an International Driving Licence to permit drivers to drive in each EU country would simply not be desirable or make sense. Added to this is the fact that we will be embedding EU law into UK laws post-Brexit, as they are at the moment, even from a legal viewpoint there is no reason to introduce additional controls.

Even if the UK wants to change or introduce new laws it is estimated that it will take 10-15 years with any changes most likely to be technology related – say automated or driverless cars rather than changes to existing motoring laws. So it’s unlikely that there will be too many arguments against allowing us to use our GB licences in Europe.

The next issue was car safety, would being outside the EU have an effect on safety standards applied to new cars? Well according to the secretary general of the Global New Car Assesment Programme (Global NCAP), David Ward, it will render the UK a ‘Second-hand Dealer’ in car safety. I’m not sure what he meant by that but he went on to say that Brexit meant withdrawing from a complex eco-system of vehicle regulation’, with the UK’s influence in vehicle safety diminishing. Not sure about that either but it looks pretty bad!

On the other hand Matthew Avery who is director of research at Thatcham Research assured us by saying that Brexit won’t reduce vehicle safety because the UK is a signatory to the UN type approval agreement which is the main process governing vehicle safety. He explained to Auto Express, ‘It has almost identical test procedures to those in the EC.’ ‘So even when we leave, our vehicles will still be aligned to the rest of Europe.’

In purely practical terms it wouldn’t make sense to have our own set of safety standards with so many of our cars being sold in Europe and vice-versa. Future EC directives, such as the proposed mandatory fitment of new tech such as autonomous emergency braking are likely to be adopted by the UK anyway. It wouldn’t make sense to have different designs for different countries. Thatcham, at the forefront of safety in the UK, will continue to be a member of the voluntary programme, Euro NCAP whilst possibly setting the bar higher putting pressure on manufacturers to achieve a new UK five star rating.

As was pointed out we don’t have to be a member of the EC to be a member of Euro NCAP. So Brexit will have no effect. Although, not being a member state when safety is being discussed by the remaining members, means that we will no longer carry the same weight as we did as a leading safety member of the EU influencing decisions.

What will happen to car insurance? As it currently stands all UK motorists have basic insurance cover while driving through EC member countries. The question is will Brits have to pay for extra cover if they drive around various EU countries post Brexit? Initially, it was felt by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), that motorists would need to revert to the old ‘Green Card’ system, whereby they had to apply for and pay for a special cover note before travelling to the continent. However, Ben Howarth, ABI’s senior policy advisor, motor and liability, said the paperwork would not be necessary.

The Government has made it clear that it wants to keep us within the Motor Insurance ‘Free Circulation Zone’. He explained that this would mean that drivers and hauliers should not have to pay for Green Card documentation from insurers when they travel in EU member states after Brexit. Apparently, this is a significant development, and once the Commission has agreed it, which is expected, it means that drivers, haulage operators and insurers will not face the considerable administrative disruption associated with the issuing of Green cards and also avoid border checks.

The ABI advises that drivers check their policies post Brexit as they may not carry the same level of cover that they are forced to carry whilst part of the EU. What is it they say? The devil is in the detail – and so it is with Brexit! By Graham Hill