NEWS

DAVID Beckham’s old Bentley Arnage T has hit the used market.
The £170k motor was customised with £70k of extras by the England international – and is now selling for £99k on autotrader.co.uk. FSH and only 25k on the clock, too…
Beckham even used the car to collect his OBE, back in 2003; fittingly, this Bentley is [...]

BUYERS are opting for higher levels of warranty cover on used cars, according to evidence from RAC Warranty.
This is again driven by the credit crunch; motorists are looking to protect themselves from unexpected bills.
Over the past few months, sales of ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’ packages have gone up, in relation to the less comprehensive ‘Silver’ deal.
‘Silver’ [...]

INCENTIVES to scrap older vehicles could encourage motorists to shift into brand-new eco cars says, the RAC Foundation.
Such incentives have already been seen in France and Italy, usually taking the form of a cash discount financed by the Government.
Here, the RAC Foundation reckons incentivising cars aged 17 years and older would be the ideal. [...]

ONE in every three used car buyers will choose a smaller model as their next car, says a survey by Glass’s.
This is to offset rising fuel prices and the tightening of economic conditions.
Nearly 30 per cent of respondees to the survey on www.glass.co.uk also plan to swap from diesel to petrol, with an eye [...]

EVERYONE selling brand-new family hatchbacks, take note. Orderbooks for next January’s MkVI Volkswagen Golf are now open.
What’s more, the range opens with a headline starter price of £13,150 for the three-door 1.4-litre S.
Rivals, here’s what VW’s offering: an opening gambit of the S, with ABS, ESP, seven airbags (including a driver’s knee airbag), remote locking, [...]

It’s the same in any trade when you’re an apprentice – you find yourself the butt of everyone’s jokes, the first in line for all the crappy jobs and the worst paid person in an entire workforce.
 
Yet despite their gullibility when it comes to sourcing left-handed screwdrivers and paint rollers to match, I’ve a great [...]

We’ve driven the future… and it’s three-pin plug-shaped! In years to come, supercar owners won’t be zooming to the filling station, hob-knobbing with the hoi polloi as they sink yet another £150 of super unleaded into a bottomless tank.

They’ll be molly-coddling it in their garages, polishing and cosseting it like a baby – [...]

JAGUAR’S sleek XF has made its auction debut – with some success.
BCA Nottingham hosted the special Jaguar Closed sale, whose 93 lots drew in 67 dealer representatives. A further 20 bid online.
The results saw an 80 per cent conversion rate, generating over £1.3m.
XF went down well. Seven 0757 cars were entered: Premium models averaged 85.1 [...]

INCHCAPE has led a bad day on the stock exchange for car dealers.
The Plc was down well over 40 per cent at the time of writing, after issuing a profits warning, ominously announcing predicted earnings for next year will be ‘significantly’ down.
This is on top of forecasted profits for 2008, which the dealer group says [...]

DEALER principal for Browns Lane Garage, John Manning, doesn’t just live for work. The 74 year-old was also born there.
Daihatsu’s latest dealer recruit is a 10-staff-strong stand alone Daihatsu-exclusive site. It’s been open a month and has already sold 11 cars, while registering four demonstrators.
But it’s Manning’s unique claim that really pricks people’s ears up.
As [...]