Monday, 1. August 2011
I have commented previously on the excuses made by the manufacturers about the drop in car availability and the increased prices as a result of the Japanese tsunami. This was pretty much backed up by Peugeot Citroen when they issued a profit warning which they put down to the tsunami and earthquake in Japan and problems with component Read more »
Thursday, 21. July 2011
Image via Wikipedia
The US is making a piece of technology a legal requirement by 2014 and yet there are very few cars fitted with it in the UK as standard or have it available as an option. The technology provides images picked up by reversing cameras to be displayed in your rear view mirror. Will it be the next big thing in the UK and become a legal requirement? Time will 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 »
Sunday, 8. May 2011
What car do you think drivers voted their number one in this years Auto Express Driver Power survey? Wrong! It’s the Skoda Superb. The poll ranks the findings of 23,000 readers. It takes the top 100 models revealing what drivers love and hate about their cars and ranks them in order. For the third year running Skoda has topped the manufacturers list Read more »
Thursday, 5. May 2011
Image via Wikipedia
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 »
Friday, 11. March 2011
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Even though we know the Government is hell bent on converting us to electric cars I’m still not convinced. When it was announced that the Government was going to put £5,000 across the bonnet of electric cars to encourage drivers to buy them and Boris was going to put a free electric charging point in every parking bay making it the world’s leading Read more »
Tuesday, 8. February 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Who wants to know the best selling cars of 2010? No-one? Well tough I’m going to tell you anyway! The Fiesta tops the chart for the second year but the Nissan Qashqai has popped into the top ten as a result of Nissan’s car sales hike from 77,924 in 2009 to 87,396 in 2010, a jump of 15%. This made Nissan the most popular Japanese car maker in the UK overtaking Toyota who suffered badly with its massive recall dropping sales by 15%. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) who 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 »