NEWS

CAR owners face a £300 million hit in car repair costs as 1 million motors come out of their warranty period.
A 2007 boom in new car sales – 2.4 million new cars were sold – means the 3 year warranty period will be ending for many.
Warranty provider Warrantywise estimates these owners risk a spike in [...]

SMMT latest figures show the number of cars built in the UK has suffered an 8.9 percent drop.
This is the first fall since October 2009 and comes as European markets phase out scrappage incentive schemes.
Exports for July were down over 10 percent, accounting for 73 percent of homegrown cars. UK car consumption was also down, [...]

CHEVROLET was a surprise faller in official SMMT new car sales figures with a 66 percent decline.
But MD Mark Terry has told Car Dealer Magazine it’s actually nothing to worry about – because the figures tell a misleading story.
Terry told us that it’s actually because of Chevrolet’s new 5 Year Promise deal, which has just [...]

FORD has REGAINED its number one in the UK car sales chart, new figures from the SMMT confirm.
According to figures released last week by the SMMT, Ford topped the July sales chart with 18,442 registrations and totaled 176,792 cars registered this year.
July also showed the company increasing its retail car market share to 12.1 [...]

SMMT July new car sales show a big FALL for the first time in a year with registrations down over 13 percent.
Figures just released by the SMMT reveal the market declined 13.2 percent in July 2010 - although the year-to-date total is still up 15.1 percent.
Further falls are expected over the rest of the year, [...]

GREATER awareness of DAB digital radio is being called for by one leading trade association.
The SMMT is urging digital radio broadcasters to improve their digital offerings and boost consumer awareness of the benefits of DAB radio.
The move comes after JATO released figures revealing that the number of cars fitted with digital radio as standard or [...]

GREEN car gains in the short and medium term will mainly be driven by current engine tech say experts.
Dave Greenwood, project director at Ricardo UK, said it would be several decades before EV and fuel cell technology made significant impacts on overall transport CO2 emissions.
’90 percent of the CO2 reduction in the next decade will [...]

FORD has revealed it cut short-cycle rental business in June in order to improve the brand’s residual values.
This tallies with the consolidation of Ford sales, that has seen the previous best-selling Fiesta slip to third place in the UK sales charts.
However, thanks to early-year success, the Fiesta remains the UK’s best seller year-to-date, with its [...]

JAGUAR has taken overall luxury car sector honours in its first full month of retailing the new XJ at car dealers.
By close of play last month, it had outsold the Mercedes S-Class by 38 percent.
Even more impressively, sales were 70 percent ahead of the BMW 7 Series!
It equates to 295 Jaguar XJ sales in [...]

FLEET sales are indeed seeing big rises, say industry experts epyx, confirming sales analysis stats published by the SMMT.
However, dealers should be warned the business of company car sales is highly erratic on a day to day basis.
Orders are up 50 percent on last year, said head of business development Ken Trinder. That’s still [...]