One of the manufacturing sections of the Fuji Heavy Industries Group in Japan is Subaru, well known all over the world for its wide variety of top quality cars. Presently, all models of Subaru cars are being offered for leasing and contract hire. One can choose from the available Subaru cars for leasing at the most competitive rates in the UK.

Subaru’s wide selection of car models offers something for everyone. Models include the Subaru Forester, Subaru Legacy, Subaru Impreza, Subaru Justy, Subaru Outback, Subaru Legacy Estate, and Subaru Tribeca.

Subaru car leasing or contract hire is similar to long-term rental, which includes maintenance and service, replacement car and breakdown cover. The monthly charges are inclusive of VAT but can be retrieved 50% for personal vehicles and 100% for commercial cars. The calculation of the car’s monthly rental is based on the term of the contract and the miles driven. At the end of the term, the car is returned back to the leasing company, which is treated as an “off balance sheet funding” in the accounts of the company. Aside from a no-risk car package, leasing is less expensive than outright buying due to the supports and extra discounts granted by the manufactures. Subaru car leasing is cost effective, and VAT efficient with low advance payment and monthly installments.

Prices of Subaru car leasing for personal and business contract hire are the best in the UK. All cars are delivered directly from the franchise dealers of Subaru with a complete warranty. Leasing a Subaru car can help a person save lots of money.

Cadillac’s BLS chassis offers a cunning disguise for the Saab 9-3 beneath it, but it is certainly no less of a car for that. A little quirky in appearance or strikingly designed, depending on your tastes, the BLS is General Motors’ first foray into the UK market. Whilst leg-room is ample in the front and better than adequate in the back, a slight element of discomfort arises for rear passengers from the sloping roof. If the latter aren’t very tall, they’ll be OK; but every extra inch of height may bring a small increment of neck strain, especially on a longish journey.

Cutting to the chase, we Europeans are inclined to be somewhat sceptical about the design quality of American cars, but the Cadillac BLS is built to European standards by Saab and is exceptionally reliable. Performance-wise, the range’s top dog is undoubtedly the impressive 2.8 litre V6: with 255 bhp, it’ll catapult you from 0-62 mph in 6.7 seconds – not bad for a small saloon. The 1.9 litre diesel delivers a respectable 150 bhp, but it doesn’t feel quite as highly-torqued as the best German counterparts.

Whilst the handling is not in the ‘Award with Distinction’ category, it is more than adequate and you’ll experience a creditable comfort factor in your drive. Boot size is relatively generous at 425 litres and is has a sensibly designed shape, too. The diesel models manage to yield around 45 mpg and the petrol models a not-to-be-scoffed-at 37 mpg .

As, with many other 17 year olds, you want to get a provisional licence and learn to drive there are a few things you should do to keep you safe and legal. You can apply for your provisional driving licence three months before your 17th birthday or 16 if you are disabled and receiving mobility allowance. You will not be able to drive legally on public roads in the UK till you are 17, even if you receive your provisional licence before then. You can however start practising on private land as long as the site has a gate and is away from public roads.

Another good thing to check before you book your driving lessons is your eyes. You must make sure that you can read a number plate from about 5 car lengths away; if you cannot read it then you will need your eyes tested by an optician before learning to drive. If you already wear glasses or contact lenses you must wear them at all times when driving even if you do not need to wear them all the time.

When you are practicing driving in a car that is not a driving instructors you will need to display ‘L’ plates on the front and back of the vehicle (Wales requires ‘D’ plates instead); you must ensure that they can be seen by other drivers and pedestrians easily. The ‘L’ plates must be taken off or covered up if a fully qualified driver takes the wheel.

Once you have sorted these things out you can be safe in the knowledge that you are legal and safe to drive and start booking your driving lessons with a driving school in Newcastle, a driving school in Sunderland or one that’s local to you.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) must be notified immediately whenever you sell a vehicle.  They must be notified of the exact date that the sale and transfer were completed by using the car registration certificate or document (V5C Registration Certificate).  Both the purchaser and you need to follow all procedures accurately and correctly because you will be the one who is still liable for the vehicle until the DVLA has updated their records about the vehicle.

The DVLA needs to be notified immediately and the appropriate section on the V5C needs to be filled out accurately and correctly.  Depending on the type of car registration certificate or document that you are holding, this will mandate which section of the form  is filled out.  Make sure that you keep a separate document with the purchaser’s name, address, and any other pertinent personal information that may apply.

In order to determine the sections of the car registration certificate or document which will need to be filled out when selling your vehicle, you will need to determine which one of these DVLA registrations are in your possession at the time of the sale.  There are normally three different forms so you need to determine which one you have.  They are:

- 2-part V5 registration document
- 3-part V5 registration document
- V5C Registration Certificate

More information is available at the DVLA website regarding the procedures you need to follow.  However, we will be covering all three in ensuing articles.

Before you can book your driving lessons to learn to drive you must have a valid provisional driving licence. You must also make sure that any other vehicle you drive, other than the driving instructors is road worthy and properly taxed and insured.

Major cities have seen an increase of driving instructors over the past few years with driving schools in Birmingham showing a 30% increase in students wanting to drive. Driving instructors have also sprung up in more rural areas as demand has grown.

If you don’t want to learn how to drive with a driving school, you must make sure that you are accompanied by another driver who is over 21 years old and has held a driving licence for 3 years. A learner’s plate must also be positioned on the front and rear of the car.

So if you’re learning to drive with a driving school in Birmingham or doing it with an accompanying driver, remember to practice, practice, practice!

Along with the new number plate system that started in 2001, the DVLA also revised regulations on how car numbers plates should look, and the way in which they should be displayed. The revised regulations apply not only to plates registered from 2001 onwards, but also apply to replacement plates for cars registered before 2001.

The number one requirement for number plates is the typeface. Since 2001 all number plates must display a very simple sans serif typeface, which is easy to read for humans, and for electronic recognition systems such as traffic cameras. This requirement is somewhat of a frustration for individuals who like personalised number plates, but is a legal requirement since non-compliance could involve heavy fines. One decorative effect allowed is a 3D version of the mandatory typeface.

Colours and reflectivity of number plates are also regulated and there is a British standard (BS AU 145d) for the physical characteristics for number plates, including visibility, strength and reflectivity. Interestingly, front plates must have black letters on a white background, while rear plates must have black letters on a yellow background.

Other options for customisation are limited to the text next to the plate and the flag display, which can be  an English Flag (St George Cross) with ‘ENG’ on the plate, a Scottish Flag (St Andrew Cross) with ‘SCO’ on the plate or Welsh Flag (green dragon on green/white field) with ‘Cymru’ or ‘Wales’ on the plate. A popular design is the Euro Flag (circle of stars) combined with GB. This saves the driver from having to put a separate sticker on the car’s window that spells ‘GB’.

 If you’re the sort of person who is drawn to comfort rather than appearance — more happy, say, with a Primark tee-shirt than an FCUK fashion statement, or supermarket sunglasses rather than RayBans – you won’t be unduly put off by the absence of glitz and elegance in this rather chunky, rather plain series.

The Epica does offer a good deal of comfort, though, providing ample leg room both front and rear, and delivering a pleasingly soft ride. There’s plenty of boot-space, too. As a saloon built in Korea, it features distinctly better quality materials in its interior than many other Korean makes and whilst the exterior design lines are not positively ugly they might be considered just a little dull and underwhelming.

The Chevrolet Epica comes in a 2.0 litre turbodiesel and a 2.0 litre straight six petrol version. It has to be said that the diesel comes with a bit more ‘oomph’ and power than the latter, and also gets you a creditable 46 mpg in comparison with the petrol engine’s less impressive 35 mpg. The Epica is intended to be a budget alternative to the Accord or the Mondeo and it doesn’t do a bad job in meeting this description.

When looking into learning to drive many people choose to be taught by a professional driving instructor to help them successfully pass their driving test. There are many driving schools in Cardiff which offer a range of driving instructors, you can either take weekly lesson or take an intensive course which can have you driving after a week.

Many people prefer to have a professional teach them to drive rather than a family member, driving instructors are used to all calibres of driver no matter what experience you have and will not shout at you or get annoyed with you when you make a mistake unlike family members. So if you wish to successfully and competently learn how to drive go to your nearest driving school in Cardiff.

A recent survey has shown that private number plates are increasingly being given as gifts for every occasion. Interestingly most men are more likely than women to give a car number plate as a gift, perhaps because men have a bigger interest in cars than women do. Christmas is the most popular occasion for giving car number plates, which confounds researchers, as men tend not to plan ahead when it comes to gift-giving, shopping for Christmas gifts is usually a last minute affair for men.

Transferring a number plate can take up to three weeks, so it is a gift that needs to be planned for well in advance. The DVLA has issued over 30 million number plates over the past few decades, and it is very likely that you will be able to find a plate that offers a degree of personalisation, without being too expensive. Mother’s day is one of the easier occasions for which you can find personalised plates, because the suffix ‘MUM’ is readily available. It is a common plate and is usually not too expensive to purchase.

Having a unique plate with a meaningful connation is a great reminder of the relationship that exists between the giver and the recipient, since personalised number plates are gifts that ‘keep on giving’. Ownership of the plate can be transferred from one car to the next, so ‘MUM’ will always be remembered, assuming she enjoys driving her car, of course.

The new ’10’ series number plates have recently been released and this puts a whole new range of cherished number plates on the market, some of which will be virtually priceless. Top sellers are likely to include BE10 VED (Beloved), for those buying a car for that special someone, and LL10 YDS (Lloyds) which would suit the director of any company which has Lloyds in its name, of which there are many.

‘10’ series plates went on sale in December 2009, even though they are for cars registered from March 2010 onwards, as the DVLA attempts to maximise revenue from the new series. Strangely, a survey shows that even though the new plate series was introduced in 2001, few know how the date recognition system really works. The poll conducted by DVLA Personalised Registrations showed that only 17% of people polled, correctly identified that the 09 and 59 plates will be followed by the 10 and 60 plates. The current style consists of two letters, a figure age identifier, a space and three letters.

The confidence of the Swansea based authority is substantiated by the incredible demand from individuals who would like to own a cherished number plate. Retaining a popular number plate can also be an investment, as interest is likely to build over a period of time, since not everyone interested in buying a particular plate will be at the DVLA auction.