August 2025

August bank holiday,  the A3 southbound is bumper-to-bumper with families heading to the New Forest and the coast, while the northbound lanes are full of people coming home from Goodwood Revival in their classics. It’s the busiest time of the year for us here at Lodge Automotive in Liphook, and this summer everyone seems to be talking about one headline: a new study showing that the German Autobahn now has an average speed of 93 mph on unrestricted sections.

Germany has over 1,300 km of motorway with no fixed limit, yet their fatal accident rate per mile travelled is lower than ours. How? Superb road surfaces, rigorous driver training, and a culture where you move over or get flashed (and fined). It’s made us think hard about the stretch of the A3 that runs right past our workshop, a road we all know well, with its sweeping bends and sudden slowdowns at the Hindhead Tunnel.

We might only have a 70 mph limit, but the way some people drive you’d think they were auditioning for the Autobahn. Tailgating, late braking and middle-lane hogging cause far more danger here than pure speed ever does in Germany. And when the surface is wet or there’s debris after a lorry shed its load, the results can be horrible.

The German example shows that freedom and safety can co-exist, but only with discipline and properly maintained cars. That’s why we’re offering free brake, tyre and light checks throughout August, no appointment needed if you’re passing the garage, because whether you’re doing 70 on the A3 or dreaming of 150 on the Autobahn, you need to be able to stop and be seen.

July 2025

July in Liphook is proper summer: the rec is full of cricket, the steam railway is packed, and we’re rushed off our feet with air-con regas jobs. But the biggest change we’ve noticed this year is how many customers are purchasing electric or hybrid cars, and how often they’re smiling about finding a charge point when they need one.

The latest Zapmap figures show that public charging devices across the UK have increased by over 33% in the last 18 months, and Hampshire hasn’t been left behind. Since the start of 2024 we’ve gained new rapid chargers at Midhurst Road Services just outside Petersfield, a 22 kW pod at Liphook Services on the A3, and a whole bank of 50 kW units at the new Waitrose in Haslemere. Even Gracious Street in Selborne now has two on-street chargers. For anyone living in Bramshott, Headley or Greatham, the days of proper “range anxiety” are fading fast.

As a garage that’s been servicing EVs since the first Nissan Leafs rolled into Liphook a decade ago, I can tell you the difference is night and day. Customers who were once nervous about driving to Southampton or Portsmouth now do it without a second thought. And because many of the new points are 50 kW or faster, you can top up enough for the journey home while you grab a coffee. So with the infrastructure finally catching up, would you ever consider an electric or hybrid car? 

June 2025

Here at Lodge Automotive, June is when we see the A3 really come alive, commuters heading to Guildford and London, families off to the South Coast, and plenty of classic cars heading to Goodwood Festival of Speed. This year, though, the conversation in our waiting room has been dominated by one thing: the new AI road-safety cameras that started appearing on Hampshire roads and are set to go nationwide from August.

We’ve spent the last few weeks digging into the data, because if something is going to affect the way our customers drive, we want to know whether it’s genuinely making the roads safer or just another way to catch people out.

The results are actually impressive. Trials in Devon & Cornwall, Durham and Greater Manchester have shown that where these AI cameras have been operating, seatbelt use has gone up and mobile-phone offences have dropped by a third in the first twelve months.

Hampshire Police and the Safer Roads Partnership have confirmed that similar “Heads Up” systems will be monitoring the A3, A272 and A325 corridors from late summer 2025. The cameras use artificial intelligence to spot phone use and seatbelt offences, but every single image is checked by two human beings before any action is taken, so the stories you might have heard about being fined for holding a satsuma are, thankfully, urban myths.

From our point of view in the workshop, anything that reduces distracted driving on the stretch of the A3 that runs right past us has to be a good thing. We still see the aftermath of far too many rear-end shunts and single-vehicle accidents caused by people being distracted. If a camera makes even one driver put their phone in the boot before they leave, we’re all for it.

Of course, some customers are worried about privacy, and that’s fair. But the cameras delete images within seconds unless an offence is confirmed, and the early evidence shows behaviour really does change for the better over time.

So, while you’re enjoying the longer evenings and the run up to Goodwood, why not pop in for our free summer safety check? We’ll make sure your tyres, brakes and lights are spot-on – because even with AI watching the roads, the best safety feature is still a well-maintained car. Safe travels from all of us here in Liphook.

July 2023

The ULEZ scheme was first introduced in a bid to improve air quality in and around London and reduce the number of deaths due to air pollution. From August, the scheme is due to expand to all London boroughs and will mean drivers will need to pay a daily charge (£12.50) to enter Greater London and the city border up to Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey. According to TfL (Transport for London), most vehicles in the capital are ULEZ compliant but the Mayor of London is worried about low-income families. Therefore, anyone receiving child benefit and small businesses will now be able to apply for financial support. To find out more about ULEZ and check if your car is compliant, please visit https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/cars.