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Customers often send me letters, I have 1524 in total! It keeps the postman busy. These letters are all hard copies, and none are invented. This one is from Steve Hill

Steve says…
“Hi Ling

Just a note to add to your collection from satisfied customers.

We have just taken delivery of our new (cheap!! – Ling) Skoda Fabia – it’s fantastic, no hitches or problems, thanks. It is refreshing to deal with someone who is on the customer’s side for once in the car industry. I know you have really earned your money on this deal – what with all our enquiries – but it really is appreciated and we WILL be back.”

Steve Hill
Appleby
CA16 ***

Editor Note: Yes, Stephen, you changed your mind about fourteen times, but I FORGIVE YOU. You were actually a very pleasant customer and you have previous experience of dealing inside the motor trade. There are some terrible practices going on, I do my best not to be bullied or beaten up by them. With support of customers like you, I know I will win. At the moment I am having dirty tricks played on me by a BIG player in this industry. One day I will give them bloody nose, revenge best cold, eh? Hope you and Susan enjoy damn cheap Skoda Fabia – Ling

CO2 affects fuel consumption directly. Less CO2 means less fuel burnt. So, I’m reporting this change on the Mercedes C Class Coupe Petrol Automatic. Have a look at the new figures.

Your car belongs to the finance company on whose documents you agreed to the contract. Many different wear and tear agreements are issued, but it is safe to say that they all are similar to the industry standard issued by the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association). I have condensed the advice into an easy to read PDF file. If you have things to fix, I recommend 1st call to people like Dent Devils, mobile Glass Repair, etc. Cheap and often works. They usually come to you, in van. Easy. Treat this car like your own car and you will not go far wrong. If you sold a 2-year-old car privately, you would fix exact same problems. Common sense helps!

Christopher Macgowan, Chief Executive of the SMMT wrote to me and said “Ling, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity at SMMT to look at the impact of the (environmental) label in a different media from the car showroom. We have always been aware that like the “white goods” label on which the car label is based, that its merits extend beyond the car showroom. In addition we know that the earlier in the buying process the purchaser thinks about low CO2 emissions the more consideration it will be given in the buying process. The industry is committed to seeing the environmental credentials of cars being widely publicised and the SMMT will continue to provide leadership in this area; as with all new initiatives in a huge industry like ours, it takes a bit of time to become widespread and universally available but please be in no doubt that the SMMT and I personally are determined to see the widespread use of the new label.”

For this brand new Mercedes C Class Coupe Petrol Automatic, the latest CO2 figure is just 140g/km. When I chose this trim, it was because I have a few of these available. Different trims will have different CO2.

My Mercedes C Class Coupe 1.5 C200 AMG Line 16v (198bhp) (4 seats) Coupe 2dr 1497cc Petrol 9G-Tronic (9 Speed) Petrol Automatic gearbox is only £346.68 inc VAT per month with 6 months initial payment, followed by 35 payments on direct debit. Business customers, make sure you deduct the VAT, when making decisions. As I can’t tell what type of customer you are (business or private), I can’t display the price any other way but to show VAT seperately (sorry!).

This price on my Mercedes C Class Coupe includes full road tax for the length of the contract, on all of my cars and vans! Free delivery to your home or work and free collection from you at the end! £346.68 inc VAT per month is based on you driving 10,000 miles per annum, but higher mileages are usually available at a small extra cost. If you go over the allocated miles, you can pay a small excess mileage charge, usually between 3p and 15p per mile.

The comparative or “fridge” label, is compulsory in car showrooms – except you’ve got to DRIVE there to see it! I won an industry award for displaying it electronically for all website visitors. I am the proud winner of the 2008 Best Environmentalist 2008 Automotive Management Award. Like me, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair talks straight about cars versus planes. “The usual horseshit”, he says. One day, every car will be as Green as my Jolly Green Nuclear Missile Truck “Calm down dear!” – it’s only done 1,000 miles since 1970.

Do not compromise safety but be aware that the use of onboard electrical devices increases fuel consumption.

I have so many of these website comments, they are overflowing on my desk!

What a great site.
Stuart Benzie, Peterhead, AB42 4RA
stuartbenzie_@yahoo.co.uk

In 1993 exhaust emission limits, (generally referred to as the Euro 1 standards) were introduced for new cars which resulted in the adoption of advanced emission control techniques, e.g. catalysts. More stringent emission limits came into effect in 1997 (Euro 2) and 2001 (Euro 3) and 1st January 2005 (Euro 4). Euro 4 came fully into force on 1st January 2007 and now covers most new cars on sale.

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New cars are like new toys to most of my customers. They get really excited. Just like Sarah Jarrett. I delivered this Peugeot 308 to Cumbria then I got this very nice letter back…

Sarah says…
Found LINGsCARS after recommendation from family and expected the service to be compromised because the price of my new Peugeot 308 was so much lower than anywhere else I had looked. This wasn’t the case and I couldn’t have been treated any better – despite the remote location of my house. I would and have recommended Ling to everyone I know.

Sarah Jarrett
Cumbria
CA14 ***

Editor Note: Hahahaha, price of the car has nothing to do with service, Sarah. I treat all customers the same, from Matiz to BMW M3. No difference to me. I generate the lowest prices possible, and demand top service from suppliers. Lovely letter from wild and windy (and wet) Cumbria, thanks so much! – Ling

If you are interested in CO2 stuff, then read this. I have a new figure for the Hyundai Tucson Estate 1.6 GDi 2WD SE Nav 16v (132bhp) Estate 5dr 1591cc Petrol Manual (6 Speed) Petrol Manual and I am updating it on my website now.

Oh, I get very mad about this, but I cannot say this in my advertising or some big leasing companies complain to me that I slag them off… The industry standard for contract hire is a 1x rental-initial-payment or (more usually) a 3x rental-initial-payment. That’s it. If everyone advertised this, you could easily compare the rental figures as the football field we are playing on would be flat.

I have researched this environmental subject widely. I have corresponded with the Department for Transport, have been in discussions with the VCA (the VCA is the designated UK approval authority which compiles the UK vehicle environmental data) and the SMMT (the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders). Sir Nicholas Stern would not return my calls 🙂

I have taken a typical model of this car from my website – the Hyundai Tucson Estate Petrol Manual. For this car, the CO2 is now just 162g/km. Other trim levels might differ slightly.

My Hyundai Tucson Estate 1.6 GDi 2WD SE Nav 16v (132bhp) Estate 5dr 1591cc Petrol Manual (6 Speed) Petrol Manual gearbox is only £244.42 inc VAT per month with 3 months initial payment, followed by 35 payments on direct debit. Business customers, make sure you deduct the VAT, when making decisions. As I can’t tell what type of customer you are (business or private), I can’t display the price any other way but to show VAT seperately (sorry!).

This price on my Hyundai Tucson Estate includes full road tax for the length of the contract, on all of my cars and vans! Free delivery to your home or work and free collection from you at the end! £244.42 inc VAT per month is based on you driving 10,000 miles per annum, but higher mileages are usually available at a small extra cost. If you go over the allocated miles, you can pay a small excess mileage charge, usually between 3p and 15p per mile.

One of my best awards was the 2008 best non-franchise environmentalist, awarded by Automotive Management. The web is fickle, I have noticed LINGsCARS.com is the ONLY new car supplier to display and promote environmental info for ALL new cars, on the web! My website won “BEST non-franchised WEBSITE 2007” in the Automotive Management Awards.

Drive smoothly and efficiently – harsh acceleration and heavy braking have a very significant effect on fuel consumption, driving more smoothly saves fuel.

LINGsCARS.com gets loads of comments. Here’s one (email address changed):

I think it’s a very clever way of getting people to visit your excellent site and am truly in stitches! Hope the business goes well and well done on an excellent site!
Tom Yates, Manchester, M20 2LW
tom_@orchardhosting.com

The external noise emitted by passenger cars has been controlled since 1929 when the Motor Cars (Excessive Noise) regulations were introduced. New cars are now required to meet Europe-wide noise limits. These have been progressively reduced from 82 decibels (dB(A)) in 1978 to the current limit of 74 dB(A) established in 1996. This means it would take 7 new vehicles to make the same amount of noise as a vehicle that just meets the pre-1978 limits.

The impact of CO2 is important. I always compare my figures with the Government data, so when it changes, like on this Mazda 6 Estate Petrol Manual, I note it here in my blog.

Have you ever rented a self-drive car for a day or a week? Well, Contract Hire is exactly the same, just for a longer period. Easy, isn’t it? It’s available for businesses or for private individuals. You may have seen me turning down investment on Dragon’s Den! Read on to understand how it works. Occasionally, I can supply PCP, leasing and lease hire (but not often). If you’re reading this because you are unsure if you should use LINGsCARS.com, have a look at my 900+ customer letters.

The VCA (the VCA is the Government designated UK approval authority) wrote to me, saying “I can appreciate the efforts you are making to improve environmental awareness amongst your customers and I’m sure that your approach will be of help to them when deciding on a new car. At this time there is no legal requirement for dealers to display this information on their websites.” Why not? I think there should be! The VCA continued, “Your comments and in depth suggestions on how we might improve the output of the data will be considered alongside any other proposals for change.”

Working it out from the tables, the CO2 is just 144g/km for the Mazda 6 Estate Petrol Manual. There are a few cars in this range, so different specs will give slightly different CO2 values.

My Mazda 6 Estate 2.0 SE-L Nav+ 16v (145bhp) Estate 5dr 1998cc Petrol Manual (6 Speed) Petrol Manual gearbox is only £245.34 inc VAT per month with 3 months initial payment, followed by 23 payments on direct debit. Business customers, make sure you deduct the VAT, when making decisions. As I can’t tell what type of customer you are (business or private), I can’t display the price any other way but to show VAT seperately (sorry!).

This price on my Mazda 6 Estate includes full road tax for the length of the contract, on all of my cars and vans! Free delivery to your home or work and free collection from you at the end! £245.34 inc VAT per month is based on you driving 10,000 miles per annum, but higher mileages are usually available at a small extra cost. If you go over the allocated miles, you can pay a small excess mileage charge, usually between 3p and 15p per mile.

One of my best awards was the 2008 best non-franchise environmentalist, awarded by Automotive Management. The web is fickle, I have noticed LINGsCARS.com is the ONLY new car supplier to display and promote environmental info for ALL new cars, on the web! My website won “BEST non-franchised WEBSITE 2007” in the Automotive Management Awards.

Cold starts – drive off as soon as possible after starting.

A lot of people write comments. I get them all the time. This is one of the silliest:

Wicked!!! Your site is great and you are hilarious!!! Worth visiting for the humour.
Marie Balchin, Ceredigion, SA48 8BY
mariebalchin_@hotmail.com

Dealers are also required to display a poster � in paper or as an electronic display, in a prominent position, showing the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for all new passenger car models displayed, or offered for sale through that particular showroom. In addition to the above, the directive also requires manufacturers to include fuel consumption and CO2 emissions data in all brochures and printed advertisements, provided that the literature relates to a specific model of car. These requirements were implemented into UK law by The Passenger Car (Fuel Consumption and CO2 emissions Information) Regulations 2001, which came into force on the 21st of November 2001.

Visit my full letters page click here

Getting letters in the post is really nice. It makes a lovely change from getting email. This one was sent by Peter Hawkins from Stockton on Tees. Amazingly, the postman didn’t steal it!

Peter says…
The only problem with leasing a vehicle via Lingscars is that you have to write one of these testimonials. There only so many times you can praise her!! And the service received. 🙂 Nissan Qashqai delivered 1st thing – for a change. Good delivery.

Peter Hawkins
Stockton on Tees
TS18 ***

Editor Note: Peter, you have had so many cars from me I have lost count! I always nag you to tell me how things went for you and this time I asked for more than 5 words 🙂 You obliged – just, hahahaha! What a fantastic customer! Delivery time depends on how far away the supplier is, and most places far away from Stockton which is somewhere close to the end of the earth… Hehehe. – Ling

If you are interested in CO2 stuff, then read this. I have a new figure for the Volvo XC90 Estate 2.0 T5 Gtron Momentum 16v (250bhp) (7 seats) Estate 5dr 1969cc Petrol AWD Automatic (8 Speed) Petrol Automatic and I am updating it on my website now.

These days, in UK identity theft is common (not problem in China; we all look same, heheh), money laundering is common, and so is fraud. To proctect themselves, and you, against these problems the finance companies like lots of ID. There are many protecting regulations. Photographic and signature proving (new driving licence or passport), and address proving (recent 90 day or less old utility bill showing your name and address). A company may want to submit a VAT return (proof of trading) or latest signed accounts, and anyone can supply a current bank statement (you can blot out the figures if you are sensitive).

I also took the decision to code into HTML and make available for printing the “Comparative Labels” or the “fridge” type labels you see at Comet and Curry’s on new fridges and washing machines. No other UK website bothers (or wants) to give their customers this information. One day they will be forced to do this. I have made my code freely available for any dealer who wants to use it, and published a tutorial on how to include this in their websites. This was published on the Automotive Management forum on 26th October 2006. To date, no dealer has contacted me to use my code.

I am pleased to say that the CO2 for the Volvo XC90 Estate Petrol Automatic is now 184g/km. If you chose a different trim level, the CO2 would change, but not by much.

My Volvo XC90 Estate 2.0 T5 Gtron Momentum 16v (250bhp) (7 seats) Estate 5dr 1969cc Petrol AWD Automatic (8 Speed) Petrol Automatic gearbox is only £487.60 inc VAT per month with 3 months initial payment, followed by 35 payments on direct debit. Business customers, make sure you deduct the VAT, when making decisions. As I can’t tell what type of customer you are (business or private), I can’t display the price any other way but to show VAT seperately (sorry!).

This price on my Volvo XC90 Estate includes full road tax for the length of the contract, on all of my cars and vans! Free delivery to your home or work and free collection from you at the end! £487.60 inc VAT per month is based on you driving 10,000 miles per annum, but higher mileages are usually available at a small extra cost. If you go over the allocated miles, you can pay a small excess mileage charge, usually between 3p and 15p per mile.

One of my best awards was the 2008 best non-franchise environmentalist, awarded by Automotive Management. The web is fickle, I have noticed LINGsCARS.com is the ONLY new car supplier to display and promote environmental info for ALL new cars, on the web! My website won “BEST non-franchised WEBSITE 2007” in the Automotive Management Awards.

Use higher gears, as soon as traffic conditions allow.

This comment is great:

Quality website! Certainly had me chuckling! A breath of fresh air!
Stefan Rose, Durham, DH1 4LR
phoenixxx_85_@hotmail.com

Climate Change is recognised as one of the greatest environmental threats facing the World today and it has long been appreciated by Governments, that reducing the impact of the motor vehicle has an important part to play in addressing this threat.

Visit my full letters page click here

I have 1524 customer letters! This one was sent by Elizabeth Moden after they had been driving around a few weeks in their new Ford Fiesta

Elizabeth says…
LingsCars is a unique service ‒ efficient, reliable, but fun to deal with. There is an evident focus on customer care. In my experience the proposed delivery was cut by two weeks for my convenience. This was only possible because of the hard work of the staff at Ling’s company. Many, many thanks ‒ I love my car. Excellent delivery, prompt, friendly and straight forward.

Elizabeth Moden
Wokingham
RG40 ***

Editor Note: Yes, we pulled out the stops for you, not always possible I must say. There is a limit to what I can do, unless the cars are physical in the UK when the paperwork is done. Glad you are happy bunny, Liz. Nice cars, these new Fiestas! – Ling

Making your car greener is important, so it is nice when you can do it just by looking at the new Renault Clio 0.9 TCE Iconic 12v (90bhp) Hatchback 5dr 898cc Petrol Manual (5 Speed) Petrol Manual. The CO2 values have changed, making it more attractive.

Oh, I get very mad about this, but I cannot say this in my advertising or some big leasing companies complain to me that I slag them off… The industry standard for contract hire is a 1x rental-initial-payment or (more usually) a 3x rental-initial-payment. That’s it. If everyone advertised this, you could easily compare the rental figures as the football field we are playing on would be flat.

Mercedes-Benz told me “Mercedes-Benz dealerships have a limited amount of space available in which to advertise. However, all of the dealership’s websites do include a link to the main site Mercedes-Benz.com where anyone in the world with an interest in obtaining specific environmental information about any Mercedes-Benz vehicle can easily find it. Environmental information is also available in brochures that can be obtained at any dealership.” Well, perhaps Head Office at Mercedes-Benz restricts the amount of web space available to each dealer? It’s amazing that they use “space” as an argument for not displaying this info online on each dealer’s site. Web-space is virtually unlimited! A customer should not need to go to World Headquaters to find it (and even then it is not comparative)!

For this brand new Renault Clio Petrol Manual, the latest CO2 figure is just 114g/km. When I chose this trim, it was because I have a few of these available. Different trims will have different CO2.

My Renault Clio 0.9 TCE Iconic 12v (90bhp) Hatchback 5dr 898cc Petrol Manual (5 Speed) Petrol Manual gearbox is only £151.03 inc VAT per month with 6 months initial payment, followed by 35 payments on direct debit. Business customers, make sure you deduct the VAT, when making decisions. As I can’t tell what type of customer you are (business or private), I can’t display the price any other way but to show VAT seperately (sorry!).

This price on my Renault Clio includes full road tax for the length of the contract, on all of my cars and vans! Free delivery to your home or work and free collection from you at the end! £151.03 inc VAT per month is based on you driving 10,000 miles per annum, but higher mileages are usually available at a small extra cost. If you go over the allocated miles, you can pay a small excess mileage charge, usually between 3p and 15p per mile.

Remember I won the best non-franchise environmentalist 2008 in the Automotive Industry Awards. Don’t let these manufacturers fool you; LINGsCARS.com is the ONLY new car supplier to display and promote environmental info for ALL new cars, on the web! I have a Master’s Degree in Environmental Quality from Bournemouth Univeristy in 2000, plus a BSc in Applied Chemistry from Jinan University, Guanzhou in 1997.

Slow down – driving at high speeds significantly increases fuel consumption.

Here is a comment about my website (I have disguised the email address)

Great site, nicely designed and funny comments…. Contract prices looking good…
Richard Walker, Goring-by-Sea, N12 6HU
rwalker_@c-b-s.co.uk

The external noise emitted by passenger cars has been controlled since 1929 when the Motor Cars (Excessive Noise) regulations were introduced. New cars are now required to meet Europe-wide noise limits. These have been progressively reduced from 82 decibels (dB(A)) in 1978 to the current limit of 74 dB(A) established in 1996. This means it would take 7 new vehicles to make the same amount of noise as a vehicle that just meets the pre-1978 limits.

Visit my full letters page click here

Gotta laugh at some of these letters! It’s amazing how much time some customers put into writing them. Often it can take me up to 10 seconds to read them. Just like this letter from Jon Owen that I got a while ago:

Jon says…
Great service, pleasure to do business with you, Ling :). Excellent delivery, my new Nissan Qashqai was delivered on time!

Jon Owen
Malpas
SY14 ***

Editor Note: Jon, happy to see you happy, hehehe. Great car, great price, great delivery. What more do you want??? You are a wonderful customer. Enjoy the Quashqai. – Ling