Advice & tips

With all my plans evaporating into thin air this year, I thought I’d give myself a special gift for Christmas. After all, it is the season of giving, and who deserves it more than me? I’ve been saving up for a new car for some time now,…

The checklist of things you ought to be aware of when buying a used car isn’t quite the terror inducing catalogue it once was. Improved reliability, better manufacturing practises and, of course, huge improvements in records for insurance…

Any car that is being used or parked on a public highway is required by law to have road tax, commonly called Road Fund Licence or Vehicle Excise Duty. If you aren’t using the car for a while and are storing it off the road somewhere, such…

If you're an admirer of sports cars or 4x4s, then there's a possibility you might have heard of the limited-slip differential. This piece of kit, called an LSD for short, is part of a car's drive system, and it's designed to help the engine…

Back in the bad old days, some cars might have rusted by the time they were due their first service. That's no longer the case, but that doesn’t mean modern cars don’t corrode.  In fact, look in any scrapyard and you will see a surprising…

When you drop your car off to be serviced at a main dealership, it will involve significantly more than just a quick oil change. There are plenty of other bits of work that’ll be carried out, including dozens of checks to ensure your car is…

Pass Plus is a Government road safety initiative designed to increase the confidence and safety of newly qualified drivers. Instructors in Pass Plus offer additional training in aspects of driving that haven’t been specifically covered by…

The sad day when the cost of fixing a car turns out to be more than it is actually worth inevitably comes to most vehicle owners. At this point the pragmatic motorist generally have to take a deep breath and say ‘goodbye old friend’ to…

According to motor industry figures, in excess of 12,000 vehicles are sold at motor auctions in the UK each week. It’s also reckoned a significant chunk of those – around 10 per cent – are snapped up by private buyers eager for an auction…

A flat battery can be a massive inconvenience, especially on those dark winter nights. However, a flat battery can be avoided by regularly maintaining it, as you would with many other standard car components. A flat battery means that no…

We've all seen those extra fuel pumps they have at the petrol station. Next to the nozzles for regular unleaded and diesel, you'll find additional pumps supplying higher octane (and usually more expensive) fuel. It will be branded things…

In the not-too-distant past if you were in the market for a new car you would have been faced with two choices when it came to the gearbox – manual, or automatic. These days though there’s another choice of transmission to be considered,…

You’ve probably seen containers of AdBlue stacked up for sale at your local petrol station, but unless you’ve owned a diesel powered car or van fitted with SCR – or Selective Catalytic Reduction – you’ve probably not had cause to buy or use…

Torque is a word freely bandied about by car manufacturers, advertisers and reviewers, and it's every bit as important as the other headline figures you'll come across suce as horsepower. The advertisement of torque wasn't always a given,…

The latest batch of double-cab 4x4 pick-ups is larger and tougher than it has has ever been before, making them ideal workhorses for tradesmen and those professionals who genuinely need off-road capability. But the latest batch of…