If you’ve parked in a multi story car park in Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham or London then chances are you’ll have parked in a NCP car park. I know I have numerous times, and they’ve always been well maintained and very clean, with a slightly larger parking bay than usual.

A survey conducted by NCP, found out that one third of drivers won’t use their car parks because of the smell. Apparently the stairwells have the worst smell of urine. So in the same survey they asked people what smells they would like and the most popular where flowers, mint, cut grass and freshly baked bread.
So now NCP are going to use technology to make their car parks smell like flowers or other pleasant fragrances to entice the lost customer back in to their car parks

A NCP Executive Mr Potter said ‘We are committed to offering our customers a pleasant and positive experience in our car parks, and we fully recognise that unpleasant smells could drive customers away.
‘By introducing pleasant smells, we are following through on our commitment to improving the customer experience and providing greater value for money.’

Multi Story Car Park

The DSA ( Driving Standards Agency) has decided to increase the driving test fees for 2009/2010, as if learning to drive and your 1st year of motoring isn’t expensive enough.

Ok the Theory tests for both bikes and cars have only risen by £1 each making them £31, but your car practical test will now cost £62 which is a rise of £5.50 and the motorcycle test which is a shocking £90.50 which has risen £10.50 and this will be implemented in October, so you better get your bike test booked ASAP.

The rises have been blamed on increases to cover general running costs and make sure that the test are always been developed.

The cost of updating or replacing your lost driving licence will also increase to £20.

Ford stated at the begin of this month that it has started looking at buyers for the Volvo brand which ford has been feeding of rather nicely for the past few years for high powered engines that have been put in the Focus ST and the highly awaited New Focus RS.
Selling Volvo would be a good financial move for ford in these hard times especially after racking up $23.5 billion worth of credit in 2006.

Rumours have been floating around that a few Chinese firms namely Chery Automobile, Dongfeng Motor Group, Geely Automobile and Chongqing Chang’an Automobile are the ones showing the most interest in the Volvo Brand.

Selling Volvo will leave ford more able to focus on the US market which at the moment is stalling badly under the weight of the economic down turn. Ford still made a loss in 2008 even after selling both Land Rover and Jaguar to the Indian manufacturer Tata in a combined deal for around £1.65 Billion, which is a lot but compared to the credit they, racked up in 2006 doesn’t concede too much.

Volvo Logo

Buying a car on finance is fairly straight forward and pretty much any one can do it. All you need to do is make you mind up on a car you like, walk into the relevant dealership and find a salesman (although they can be like hawks and they’ll usually find you), they usually sit down with you go through some prices and after a few credit checks you could be driving your new car within a week.

If you’re not great at maths it’s very easy to get baffled with all the numbers that the sales rep might give you, so don’t sign anything there and then always get a partner or friend to check over the prices for you. So make sure you get it all written down and dodnt be told that they cant do this and that if they want to sell a car they’ll help you.
If you go in to a dealership, it’s very easy to walk in there with horse blinkers on, and sign for a very bad financial deal that in the long run might not benefit you at all.

If you go into your dealership at the end of a month when a new registration is due to come out your likely to get a good deal on the older registration as they will be wanting to sell older stock to make way for the newer registrations coming in.

Always do your research and check out APR rates on deals as high APR means the more money you’ll pay back. Some Dealers will offer interest free credit over a 3 year period which is sometimes a good deal if you can get the vehicle paid off within that time.
Just because one dealership offer lower monthly repayments don’t be fooled as you might end up paying more back in the long run.

There are a number of different factors that will alter your car leasing contract, items such as a high depreciation rate on the vehicle and only having a one year lease on a certain car will usually result in high repayments to cover the cost of the depreciation. Whereas a car with a low depreciation rate, where all the other factors stay the same will more than likely result in a lower monthly repayment.

High mileage will also play a part on your monthly repayments so if you’re wanting a low monthly repayment on your lease car then keeping to the statistic average for the UK of 12,000 miles a year will also pay dividends in keeping your monthly repayments down.

Your repayments are worked out by the leasing company or a car dealer, and it’s pretty simple to understand. They take the value of the car when its new and the value of the car when the car lease contract is up, and the difference is what your repayments will be. Often if your heart is set on a car and the repayments are high you might be better extending the lease contract on it so that the repayments are slightly lower to cover a high depreciation rate or a higher mileage.

Most major car dealerships will have a leasing department that you can speak to about leasing your new car, here you can often pick up a very good deal but you could easy spend a month’s worth of free weekend time visiting various dealerships trying to find the car you want or the best deal that you can get.

Using the internet will really save a lot of your time, as most car leasing websites will have the majority of manufacturers and within minutes you will be able to work out what range of cars are in your monthly budget.

There are some great advantages of leasing a car over buying outright or even getting the car on finance from your local car dealer.

The majority of cars are all within reach of the average motorist as long as they can keep up with the monthly repayments. With leasing you’re not tied to one manufacturer such as Ford but you can choose from a wide range of manufactures such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes, and then set your monthly repayment budget which will then in turn give you a list of car models that are within your budget.

Your lease agreement will usually be quite flexible in terms of length, but you normally find that a 12 month lease contract is the most common but they can go up to 48 months. Most motorists will keep their car for a 36 month / 3 year period where as people who tend to do high miles will only get a 12 month contract.

Most leasing companies will ask you for a fixed amount of annual mileage, 12,000 or 15,000 are ample for most people but take into consideration that you may be charged if you go over this limit, so it would be slightly better to overestimate.

The key factor for your monthly repayments is the value of your leased car at the end of your contract. Taking a quick look at car deprecation charts will give you a good clue as to what cars you should avoid or that will have a higher monthly payment such as Alfa Romeos which are notoriously bad at deprecation and can drop as much as 10k in their first year on the road.

If you’ve done your research you will know that Audis hold their market value very well, so choosing an Audi car leasing plan might be a very wise financial decision. You may think that with the Audi name comes a high price tag which to an extent is true but leasing a car is a lot more affordable than the other traditional methods of payment that you may be more familiar with.

A full collection of Audi’s are generally available on car lease, from the Audi A3 which has many great petrol and diesel engines to the original Audi Quattro 4 wheel drive. If you need something a little bit bigger or more family orientated then the Audi A4 is for you, with its graceful looks the A4 really is a head turner and also comes as a soft top. The Audi S4 Advant also has bags of performance in a family sized car, packing a 3.0 supercharged engine wrapped in the traditional ‘s’ style and comfort inside.

The BMW 5 series best watch out, as the new Audi A5 was uncovered at this year’s Geneva motor show and will be a major rival for the familiar sight of the BMW 5 series.

If none of these appeal to you then don’t forget the best roadster that money can buy the famous Audi TT that has been at the top of its game since its release back in 2003. The TTS is the most powerful Audi TT yet with 270BHP.

Should you choose to lease an Audi car then you can have both performance and style at a price you can afford with low monthly repayments, and with short contracts leases from as little as 3 months this really is your opportunity to own a Audi.

Cars on Contract aims to help you to understand the different choices that you have when it comes to leasing a car or getting a car on contract. Car Leasing has many advantages, especially for businesses and sole traders. With a car leasing agreement it allows for a fixed budget to be set for the cost of a car, on a fixed term. The payments are also often cheaper than they would be with a traditional car loan.

A car leasing agreement is set up at the start of the term and there are different lease agreements available that will give a business some flexibility in terms of the length the vehicle is kept for and the cost per month that needs to be paid. The term of a lease agreement can be from 12 to 60 months, and it is normal that the vehicle is kept for the whole term. There may also be an agreement within the car leasing contract that states how many miles are allowed per year of the lease. There may be an extra charge if the mileage exceeds the agreed amount in the contract, so this is something to watch out for.