Tuesday, 1. November 2011
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It would seem that the motor industry is doing quite well over the pond in the US as their economy continues to grow mildly. Low interest rates and the need for many to replace cars that they have retained through the recession have been credited for the slight increase in sales over October last year. The sales of ‘light vehicles’ (cars) last month rose Read more
Wednesday, 26. October 2011
Have you noticed how windows in cars have become – skinny? Years ago the height of a rear window in a car was probably a couple of feet unless you were one of my dopy mates that cut the roof off their mini and dropped it by about 18”. In fact thinking back that may have been the inspiration behind the design of the modern car. Look at the new Read more
Tuesday, 27. September 2011
There are some encouraging signs coming from the Japanese manufacturers with regard to recovery following the tsunami. Toyota and Nissan are working close to capacity now to fulfil orders and to replenish inventory of cars and parts depleted as a result of the March 11th disaster. Whilst car production was ready to roll very quickly it was a Read more
Friday, 22. July 2011
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I am often asked how the lease rates on some cars can be so low compared to the cost of the car? Take for example the deal we had last year on the VW Passat CC (their new 4 door coupe). If you had taken the car on a 2 year lease you would have paid the equivalent of 26 payments x £229.99 + VAT. That’s a total of £7,175 on a car that cost around Read more
Tuesday, 17. May 2011
If you thought you were going to get a great deal on a Mercedes or a BMW you can pretty much forget it! Sales for both German manufacturers were up by more than 30% at the beginning of the year. Whilst most of this increase was into fleet buyers it has meant that the crazy deals that we saw in 2007/8 have not had to be repeated to increase sales. Read more
Thursday, 5. May 2011
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Whilst the debate continues as to whether the future for the car is electric or hydrogen Toyota have announced that their new family sized electric car to challenge the Nissan Leaf will make full use of many of the apps that are available via Microsoft as a result of a joint venture. The idea is to make the new cars ‘information terminals’ with new apps that Read more
Tuesday, 30. November 2010
Nissan ad execs must have been chuckling to themselves when they came up with the theme for their sports cars, the 370Z and the GT-R. They decided to take on the Germans, poking fun at their acceleration speeds, pointing out that the Z was faster than Audi, BMW and Porsche rivals. The posters read ‘Deutschland Deutschland Uber Rated’ while a blurred Read more
Tuesday, 23. November 2010
Recalls have been massive this year, we now have the biggest ever announced by Nissan. There are 2.1 million cars affected worldwide with 84,000 in the UK. Most of the cars affected are Micras built from 2004 – 06 with a few Pathfinders. The problem is a faulty relay in the engine control module which can cause the engine to stall. Nissan insist that this is simply precautionary and that no accidents have been caused by engines suddenly cutting out. Nissan are sending out notices to car owners Read more
Wednesday, 18. August 2010
Driving is becoming a more ‘comfy’ experience as more cars are fitted with increasing numbers of creature comforts, including ambient lighting, air conditioning, lumbar seat adjustment and so on. In some cases it’s a little like driving around in your lounge often with a better quality music system than you have at home as well as an onboard DVD player. But Nissan are about to surpass them all with its new ‘health Read more
Wednesday, 24. March 2010
This week I was going to open with an amazingly interesting piece about the Budget and the effect on the motorist and how we are going to have things a little easier than we had thought but that one was pretty much buggered 2 minutes after the Chancellor stood up. We’ve managed to get the fuel duty hike spread over the year and um er, that’s about it really. Oh no I think he mentioned something about Read more