The fleet effect is fairly evident when you look at the Top Ten new car models sold in 2011.

Ford Fiesta
Ford Focus
Vauxhall Corsa
VW Golf
Vauxhall Astra
Vauxhall Insignia
VW Polo
BMW 3 series
Nissan’s Qashqai
Mini

The cars are smaller, cheaper and greener than they used to be.

Cost is clearly an influencer and fleet cars are smaller eg BMW 3 series and the Golf, other than the Insignia.

In terms of new car sales in general Ford, Vauxhall, VAG, BMW and Nissan have done well in 2011. Of the big brands, Toyota, Honda, Fiat, Mazda and Renault haven’t.

There are very few cars in this list that aren’t popular with women drivers so I’m pleased to see that our influence and preferences are being felt in the fleet as well as the personal car market.

FOXY Steph

Who needs Flash games like Pacman in their car? Not me.

The more complicated in car entertainment gets, the less I use it. Yes I rely on TomTom to get me from A to B and I can also claim to have Bluetooth in my car via a radio device… but I haven’t got the hang of that yet and maybe I never will.

Is it just me that wonders if I REALLY need my car to do more than my smartphone can already? Or that all this acts as a distraction to drivers?

In a recent survey by KPMG about future trends, more than a third (37%) of the 200 car executives sampled believe “infotainment” in cars is nearly as important as car safety. Sounds like a male-dominated sample to me?

In this context ‘infotainment’ seems to mean speech recognition and internet connections using wi-fi and 3G, whatever the outcome of all this might produce. Yet surely too much ‘infotainment’ is bad for car safety when we should be concentrating on our driving?

We are told that car manufacturers will soon be joining forces with music, telecoms and IT companies to provide in-car gadgets working with the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft and LG, among others.

John Leech from KPMG says some car manufacturers are already making the sort of “connected” cars the survey is referring to.

“The recent collaboration between Toyota and Intel was announced at the end of last year with Intel claiming that the connected car is the third-fastest growing technological device, following smartphones and tablets.”

Apparently Audi has developed built-in 3G wireless in its A7 and will extend this to other new models. What do you need this for guys? That you can’t do otherwise…

Good to hear that hybrid cars will be getting a lot of investment over the next five years according to 53% of the car executives surveyed; let’s hope this makes for more competition here, lower purchase prices and better fuel economies.

And good to know that the majority (61%) also believe that there is much scope for developments in normal petrol and diesel engines so consumers benefit from greater efficiency and CO2 reduction. That sounds like me and a more familiar status quo world…

Speaking personally I’d like my business car to be a haven for thought in between meetings rather than an office in its own right.

But enough about me, what do you use yours for?

A foxy lady driver who expected her high-tech hybrid to do what it said on the tin expects car maker Honda to pay for not delivering the 50mpg it promised, albeit after some 5 years of ownership.

Heather Peters has taken her fight to the small claims court in laid back Los Angeles because experts think she has a better chance of winning her case in a court with more relaxed standards and could get a payout many times higher than she’d get otherwise.

If others follow her lead, she estimates Honda could be forced to pay as much as $2bn (£1.3bn) in damages estimated as 200,000 cars and drivers each negotiating $10,000.

And then there’d be all the other manufacturers cars that fail to perform as well as promised…

Heather is a state employee and ex-lawyer who seems to have a grievance here, whether it’s legitimate or not is another matter. She argues that the Japanese manufacturer knew her 2006 Civic Hybrid would not achieve the 50mpg as advertised. As the vehicle’s battery deteriorated over time, it barely achieved 30mpg, she said. Had she known this she’d never have bought the car apparently.

“The sales people said 50 miles per gallon, but they didn’t say if you run your air conditioning and you remain in stop-and-go traffic, you’re going to get 29 to 30 miles per gallon” she said. “If they did, I would have gotten [sic] the regular Civic.”

On their part, Honda said that Heather had never contacted the company to complain or express any concern about her vehicle’s fuel economy until she sent a letter in late November and then filed her suit shortly afterwards.

“Once the suit was filed, Honda immediately offered to inspect her vehicle and work with her on the findings, but those offers were rejected,” the company said in a statement.

The company also said it did not believe Heather was deceived.

“The window sticker that was attached to her vehicle (as required by federal law) clearly indicated that her mileage would vary depending on driving conditions, options, vehicle condition and other factors,” the statement said.

It’ll be interesting to see the court’s definition of ‘reasonable’ in terms of the variation between the 50mpg suggested and the 30mph obtained. That and bearing in mind the allegation that Heather hadn’t contacted Honda before last November.

Watch this space; especially other disgruntled car buyers who feel the same as Heather.

FOXY Steph

A survey that’s unlikely to encourage many foxy lady drivers to take a financial risk at car auctions confirms that close on a third of buyers regretted buying an unreliable car.

And wouldn’t have if they’d known this of course.

Unreliability and breakdowns soon after purchase are the biggest regrets mentioned in a recent survey by Manheim Auctions.

Nearly a third of all respondents mentioned that their biggest regret was buying an unreliable car and 24% claimed their car broke down soon after they bought it. Nearly 15% of motorists regretted buying a car because they found it to be too expensive to run while 11% admitted that they paid too much for their car.

Only 3% of motorists did not like the colour of the car they had bought ‘proving that colour choice is a key buying decision factor’ [sic]. I’d have thought the opposite; that colour wouldn’t matter to those who were buying for price reasons. And unsurprising for the same reasons and to be expected in a recession, only 2% were concerned that the car they bought was not as environmentally friendly as they had thought at the time. Even though this would cost them more in running costs…

Andy Cullwick at Manheim Auctions explains
“Research is key to buying any car, as is buying from a reputable source whether it is an auction, car supermarket or dealer.  The internet is great for information gathering and for researching running costs including insurance, fuel consumption as well as service and repair costs. Don’t necessarily avoid high mileage cars; these tend to be ex fleet cars that have been well maintained and regularly serviced and may still have the remainder the original warranty in place.”

I’m not an expert of course but I seem to remember that it’s largely a male dominated and ‘caveat emptor’ environment where this sort of dissonance can be expected. Perhaps Manheim bucks the trend here by providing more support services for customers than others at their physical and online auctions?

But for the very reason this survey spells out, I’d steer clear of live auctions unless you know what you’re doing. Avoid ‘sold as seen’ cars unless you’re prepared to take a big risk and where in doubt ask for an Engineer’s report (for a fee) if you want a second opinion about the mechanical state of the car in question.

Prior to the bidding process, it also makes sense to check out the car’s value online, its performance in the reliability index, its safety performance at NCAP, the car’s servicing record, VED and insurance ratings before taking the plunge. Because you have little comeback in law if you buy a lemon as the following statistics confirm.

Regrets some 3000 motorists had after buying a car at an auction.
It wasn’t very reliable      30.3%
It broke down soon after I bought it     24.3%
It was expensive to run       14.8%
I paid too much for it     10.7%
I didn’t like the colour        3.3%
It wasn’t as ‘green’ as I thought     2.3%

FOXY Steph

Members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club can count on a handholding and advisory service when they come to buy a new or used car. Heaven forbid they end up with a lemon but if they do we help them sort it out and, if all routes are then exhausted, we can at least tell other ladies inside the Club about their experiences so they don’t have the same problem.

I’ve driven two Audis to date, an Audi 80 in the 80s and a very stylish S2 coupe in the early 90s when my corporate career justified this. And I continue to very nearly buy an Audi TT and I probably will one day.

So you can see I have a soft spot for the brand and know from past experience that Audis make ideal company cars.

Particularly for high mileage female business executives looking for that all important combination of safety, economy and motoring style as they ply our busy motorways today.

Looking to see what the most popular compact executive models are on sale today, I see many second hand Audi A4 cars alongside prestige BMW, Mercedes and Lexus models.

The best Audi engines are always diesels where high mileage is involved and whilst the SE trim is likely to be more saleable than the basic entry level I can’t really justify spending more than that (for me) unless you need 4 wheel drive of course. I mention this because there are some 47 models, including saloon/hatchback/estate and cabriolet variations of which 21 were petrol and 26 diesel when I last looked…

Yes it’s true that you may have to pay extra for cruise control (if you insist…) but you do get 6 airbags and stability control as standard features and the interior is stylish and uber-comfortable as you might expect from a manufacturer from the Volkswagen stable of car manufacturers.

Looking at other car review websites I see that an oldish evecars.com mention picks up on ‘fiddly buttons to navigate’ and ‘watch out for the bumpy ride’ on their negative list but that JD Power’s most recent survey points out its low depreciation (which is good news when you come to sell or trade it in), a bigger than average boot and impressive running costs to balance the debate.

Either way, we’d happily recommend Audi’s A4 to women drivers for business use in particular, pointing out the reasonable 13% benefits in kind employee contribution tax involved.

FOXY Steph

Inevitably this is a brief and not very comprehensive review of the Audi A4. Being a naturally foxy lady you will do your own and very detailed new car shopping homework well in advance  to determine the practicality and required features for your next new car.

If you’d welcome a second and independent opinion of your shortlist, where to go to buy it, or some handholding through the entire car buying process, why not join FOXY Lady Drivers Club to benefit from our motoring support services and some helpful female feedback here?

Most of us know that women are THE gender spenders who influence c80% of  all household purchases and are described as ‘instigators-in-chief’ when it comes to c60% of car sales (and presumably their garage care afterwards). We’re professional shoppers, we do our homework in advance, we know what we want and we’re not afraid of going somewhere else if we don’t get it.

But when it comes to comparing male and female shopping behaviour we know that men can do the job in hand quicker whereas we want to compare and contrast value and features before making our (better) informed decision. Take shopping for a pair of trousers for example. Casual or formal. He is more likely to buy the same style and the same colour as the last time and from the same shop before retiring to the pub for a liquid reward; happy because the job has been done efficiently and as painlessly as possible…

Whereas she might spend ages looking at what everybody else is wearing, comparing this season’s colour choices and then shopping online and on the High Street for the best deal… This has been known to take weeks in our household .

But it’s very important to take your time when it’s a big ticket item like a car or financing the deal for that matter. I’m sure we can all remember unhappy purchases we made in a hurry or when we’ve been seduced by a low price, only to experience the steep learning curve borne out of realising we’ve bought a lemon, wasted money and that we should have bought a different brand or product…

A recent survey from BMW Financial Services has been looking at men and women’s attitudes towards financing a car which reflect precisely these differences in our gender genes. Whilst the economy is struggling it seems that more of us are turning to dealer finance to fund the purchase of our dream cars than was the case in 2010.

This is probably because the car finance market is very competitive today and it’s so much more convenient to sort out the finance transaction alongside their new car and any part exchange paperwork.

According to BMW’s research, many males admitted rushing into an ill-judged car finance decision within just two hours whereas one third of women drivers take at least two days to make the choice. That’s the foxy way…

But apparently some consumers gave about as much thought to purchasing a car as they did to purchasing a sofa; not thinking through the implications of a longer finance deal for the more expensive vehicle transaction. Very costly I imagine.

BMW’s survey also confirmed that women are prepared to compromise when it comes to making joint decisions about which car or car finance package to buy whereas men prefer to choose entirely independently. Or put another way (assuming a gsoh)…
He thinks “This is motoring – this is a MAN’s department.”
She thinks “Oh for an easy life – let him think this is his decision but I’ll make sure he makes the right choice…”

This is in stark contrast to shopping for a new kitchen apparently which is more likely to be a joint decision. Or put another way (assuming the same gsoh)…
He thinks “ With a bit of luck she’ll be spending more time in it (cooking for me) than me so she really should have one she’s happy in (cooking for me…).
She thinks “If I am expected to do more cooking, washing, ironing and cleaning in the kitchen (than him) the least I expect is one that suits me best.”

Certainly attitudes to car ownership seem to have changed with women in particular spotting that buying a new or used car using car finance carries a number of advantages.

In fact Joe Pattinson at BMW Financial Services has detected a growing trend for women to sign up to ‘rent to own’ finance deals as he explains…
“Finance is the car purchasing model for women in future and we see this as a long term purchasing trend that is here to stay. A quarter of women (surveyed) say they are cutting back on all spending and changing their lifestyle considerably, and as these attitudes are applied to the concept of car ownership, (staggered car) finance will become the norm in the not too distant future.”

Joe continues: “Sadly many drivers are making greater compromises on the make, model and specification of their vehicle than they need to.”

Women need to know their foxy car finance choices perhaps?

FOXY Steph

I have been curious about hybrid cars for as long as they’ve been around but I had never driven one so a recent invitation from Lexus to test drive their 2011 CT 200h seemed the perfect opportunity to put this right.

Their invitation arrived via Twitter which I use to keep in touch with members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and to help spread FOXY Choice’s female friendly message within the UK motor industry. Lexus  had evidently spotted this and tweeted us about their #socialtestdrive service because they wanted as many women drivers to know about this as possible. And how better to test this on behalf of foxy lady drivers everywhere, than to take one of their Social Test Drives myself, which is exactly what I did and why I am now recommending this service to others!

If I’m honest, I didn’t know too much about Lexus either, other than it being a luxury car brand and one that always seemed to appear at the top of customer satisfaction surveys; a long way ahead of the everyday car brand names I was more familiar with. I had unwittingly assumed that this meant that their cars would be very expensive but the list price of the Lexus CT200h hybrid I test drove is just £22,740. When you factor in the savings this means in terms of fuel economy and not having to pay any road tax or  London congestion charge this starts to make it a very attractive proposition indeed.

Test driving a new car
I know from our Club research that many women drivers are nervous about taking a test drive at dealerships and perhaps my feelings are typical of some of theirs.

Whereas my husband seems able to jump in any car and drive it to its limits, I don’t have that kind of instant confidence. I need time to get the feel of any new car before I drive it, spending time adjusting the driving seat and mirrors to my total satisfaction. If I’m to test drive this alone I’ll even flick through the vehicle handbook first (looking for a section titled ‘Important information when test driving this car’ in vain…) just in case. And when I do set out, I’ll always start slowly to familiarise myself with the width and length of the car, its clutch, acceleration and braking style before I can truly relax.

So the thought of taking a test drive with what might be a smug and patronising male salesman (sorry guys but this is in many female minds…) who expects me to just get in and drive, can be daunting. Which may well be why many women take a man with them of course; so the guys can swap technical banter and not bother the driver .

Fortunately Lexus seems to understand all this and is keen to make the car shopping experience as enjoyable as possible for us. I imagine that their test drive arrangements vary across the UK (they’ll tell you this if you tweet #socialtestdrives) but if you head into a Lexus car dealership first you are likely to meet a ‘host’ who’ll do as much or as little for you as you want. If you prefer to browse on your own that’s fine but if you want to know more, your ‘host’ will then involve a sales person. And if you decide to take a test drive you can always ask for a female member of staff to accompany you, wherever this is possible.

So the prospect of test driving the Lexus CT 200h 1.8 SE-I 5dr CVT Auto Hatchback at a time to suit me, from my home base as it turned out, was the perfect scenario. I was able to drive it on rural roads in Sussex before heading into central London to attend Radio 2′s Pop Festival in Hyde Park. The fact I was able to do this almost straightaway, on a combination of wet and dry roads as well, tells you just how easy I found this car to drive.

First impressions
I’m sure you’ve seen the Lexus CT 200h in the adverts fronted by Kylie Minogue. The CT means Compact Tourer by the way and it’s a 1.8 hybrid engine which was launched in the UK in January 2011. It looked just as stylish sitting on my drive and as good luck would have it, if I had been asked to specify a colour, I’d have gone for the Cerulean Blue metallic paint I was looking at, with its stylish black leather seats, spacious interior, reassuringly big wing mirrors and impressively roomy boot.

I was able to take my time, to feel comfortable in the driving seat and to appreciate that the ‘engine’ is really the battery when you first turn it on; so it’s virtually silent. The dashboard lights come on so you know something is happening but you don’t hear the customary vroom which is odd to begin with.

It’s also a semi automatic which I liked; you floor the brake pedal before selecting Drive or Reverse and as soon as you lift your foot the car glides into motion. That’s very smooth but please don’t think it’s a slow mover by any means; it can accelerate from 0 to 62 in 10.3 seconds if you need it to.

As it happened, my husband wasn’t able to come with me that day so I took my 6ft tall 18 year old son instead. This meant I had a self declared expert with me to test out all the onboard gadgets. This required a thorough ‘play’ with them all first of course, after which I got the thumbs up for the music system, the Bluetooth gizmos, SatNav and a very helpful visual reversing screen. It was good to be able to concentrate on the drive of course but I’m confident that even I could have coped with the central menu screen with its radio, music, satnav and cabin heating controls…

Helped by the foolproof SatNav system we travelled smoothly through Croydon and South London suburbs, up a busy Park Lane and into a Marble Arch car park with the minimum of stress. Quickly enough for us to fit in an excellent Sunday lunch at the Cumberland Hotel’s (Gary) Rhodes Brasserie before strolling across the road and into Hyde Park in plenty of time to catch the opening act of the afternoon – Jools Holland.

In more detail
In simple terms (for me that is) the hybrid engine and the battery take it in turns to drive the car as and when this makes best and most economic driving sense. You’d be wrong to imagine that this makes it a sluggish performer though; we really enjoyed the Sport driving mode for a firmer and more zipply drive through the country lanes on our journey home. You don’t have to do anything to recharge the battery of course, it tops itself up from the engine so you don’t need to worry about recharging points – one of the downsides of electric cars as things stand.

This hybrid relationship makes for an impressive 68.9mpg for a combination of urban and rural road driving conditions, like our journey to and from Hyde Park. Band A emissions of 94g/km means that no VED road tax is payable or the London congestion  charge which is a big bonus. And of course you get the three year Lexus warranty, knowing their dealers have a reputation other manufacturers covet when it comes to customer service!

All in all, the basic price for the Lexus CT 200h SE-1 is £18,950 plus VAT bringing it to a very reasonable list price of £22,740 with a 10% Benefits in Kind (BIK) tax rating for business users. You can then add optional features to suit, like parking assist sensors, metallic paint colours and various packages to include cruise control, a back guide reversing monitor and other navigation aids.

Overall I was very impressed and see this as a hard bargain to beat. It’s an impressive package and I’m confident that the Lexus CT 200h will soon become a very foxy car for stylish women drivers who realise that they can get this sort of value for money, the next time they are shopping for a new car.

To take a Lexus Social Test Drive in your area
If you’d like to test drive a Lexus just tweet your requirements to #socialtestdrive. Lexus tells me that they’ll then do all they can to come up with an experience to give you time to bond with their car. This can be an accompanied drive or not. Ordinarily this could take as little as 2 hours to as much as a whole day to suit you.

You can request any model (including the CT200h) and depending on the location they’ll do their best to make sure you get to drive the model of your choice.

So if you’re as curious as I was, why not have a test drive and see for yourself?

FOXY Steph

Land Rover’s brand ambassador Zara Phillips is the first person to take delivery of a new Range Rover Evoque whilst she was competing at the Burghley Horse Trials. Zara is one of the UK’s leading equestrian figures.

Her 5-Door Range Rover Evoque is in Stornaway Grey, with a 2.2 litre Diesel engine, 6-speed automatic transmission, panoramic sunroof and features including park assist, blind spot monitoring and a surround camera system.

On receiving the keys to her new car, Zara said: “I’ve grown up around Land Rovers and have been an ambassador for the brand for several years – I am really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of my new Evoque. It looks absolutely fantastic and I am delighted to be the first person in the UK to take delivery of one.”

The Range Rover Evoque enters UK showrooms this week after more than 20,000 advance orders worldwide with 6,000 of these for UK buyers. Special Evoque launch events are taking place at UK Land Rover dealerships this Thursday (8 September) with customers taking delivery of their vehicles from Friday onwards.

FOXY Steph

If you are shopping for a cheap new super-mini this September Perodua must have one of the lowest prices on offer for a new car and it comes with remarkable value for money features as standard too.

After deducting Perodua’s current £1,000 retail incentive offer¹ their Myvi costs from just £6,999² with free remote central locking and a new Bluetooth kit offer. Terms apply.

The Bluetooth deal is for a Nexxus Drive Sleek Pro hands-free Bluetooth kit which can be secured to the driver’s sun visor to allow them to make calls safely in their new Myvi.

You need to complete a voucher which you get from Perodua UK via perodua@peroduauk.com, by phone on 01491 415230 or by visiting Perodua’s UK website www.peroduauk.com. You simply present the voucher to the Perodua dealer at the time of finalising your purchase – it’s as simple as that!

As things stand, the Myvi includes value for money features air conditioning, four electric windows, electric door mirrors, power steering and an integrated radio/CD player all as standard.

¹ Retail incentive offer valid until 30th September 2011
² On the road price includes £1,000 retail incentive, 6 months road fund licence and first registration fee. Price is for standard SXI (manual)
³ Free remote central locking offer is valid for one remote per customer for vehicles registered until 30th September 2011. Saving is based on recommended retail price of £166.56 (inc. VAT)

Well worth a look and if you drive a fairly new Myvi we’d like to know what you think about it via FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

FOXY Steph

Ford's Active CityStop braking technology

Nearly half of all women surveyed by Ford believe they are safer behind the wheel.

This is a sentiment shared by just one in five men surveyed – plus FOXY Lady Drivers Club of course and Adrian Walsh, director of motoring safety partnership RoadSafe.

As Adrian is better placed to explain this to disbelieving men we’ll let him spell out the gender truth…

“Women are generally much safer drivers than men; every piece of substantial research done on this subject reveals that. Fundamentally it’s because they take fewer risks. Whereas males aged 17 to 24 are high risk drivers involved in proportionately many more accidents.”

When asked about today’s driving test two out of three drivers lacked the confidence that they could pass it rising to a surprising 73 per cent of 17 to 24 year olds.

Ford’s survey then probed responses to new technologies such as the car automatically dialling emergency services after an accident and inflatable rear seats belts.
Both of which technologies are coming to a Ford car near you soon…

When asked which features and new technologies make drivers feel safest now, respondents ranked airbags first (32 per cent), automatic braking aka Active CityStop (19 per cent) and voice control (11 per cent).

Which just happens to coincide with the availability of their Active CityStop technology on the new Ford Focus in the photo (to apply brakes when needed and no safe driver response) and voice control systems to change radio channels and music tracks, adjust climate control settings or make a phone call without taking one’s eyes off the road.

Finally motorists admitted to hazardous activities such as texting at the wheel including posting messages on social networks using a handheld phone. The most common and distracting activities are apparently changing the CD or radio station (by 60 per cent of drivers), followed by driving with one hand (40 per cent), eating and drinking on the move (30 per cent), driving when tired (20 per cent) and talking on a handheld phone (10 per cent).

It’s good to see that Ford is leading the way with so many of these safety features all of which are high on the new car shopping list for women drivers on behalf of their family.

FOXY Steph