New BMW X6

The BMW X6 is the world’s first ever Sports Activity Coupe and has now been updated for 2012. The new model combines the elegant lines of a coupe with the prestige of a BMW X model, with powerful petrol and diesel engines, fitted with BMW TwinPower Turbo Technology and the intelligent all-wheel-drive system xDrive, including Dynamic Performance Control.

The new BMW X6 gets a new front end with the standard fog lights now set in matt finish surrounds in the upper area of the outer air inlets. The striking three-dimensional modelling of the frame and newly designed bars, angled in the lower section, make the BMW kidney grille stand out even more, especially conspicuously within the vehicle front section.

Front headlights

The new BMW X6 is also the first vehicle in its segment to be fitted optionally with adaptive LED headlamps. Their bright white light ensures optimum visibility, while their high-quality visual appearance represents a new interpretation of the BMW brand’s hallmark twin circular headlamps. While in the new BMW X6 M, adaptive LED headlights are fitted as standard.

The external paint finishes for the new BMW X6 consists of two non-metallic and eight metallic colours, including Marrakech Brown metallic, Orion Silver metallic and Midnight Blue metallic. The standard equipment range also includes 19-inch light alloy wheels, and in the 8-cylinder model BMW X6 xDrive 50i, these now feature a new double spoke design in bi-colour. 

The standard interior leather trim Nevada is also available in the colour Vermilion Red and the exclusive nappa leather option with extended features now includes a choice between the colours Black and Ebony White. A three-seater rear bench is optionally available instead of the standard four seats and the luggage compartment volume is 570 litres and can be extended to up to 1,450 litres by folding down the rear backrests.

The petrol and diesel engines with BMW TwinPower Turbo Technology available for the BMW X6 deliver impressive pulling power and impressive low fuel consumption figures. The V8 engine of the BMW X6 xDrive50i delivers 407 bhp, while in the BMW X6 xDrive35i an in-line 6-cylinder petrol engine with 306 bhp ensures a smooth, powerful, performance.

The in-line 6-cylinder diesel engines of the models BMW X6 xDrive40d and BMW X6 xDrive30d offer 306 bhp and 245 bhp respectively. Both engines offer not only impressively sporty power delivery but also low emission figures. The BMW X6 xDrive30d can also be fitted with optional BMW BluePerformance Technology as of spring 2012. 

BMW is also launching the BMW M Performance Automobile BMW X6 M50d and this car sets a new benchmark for pulling power and efficiency with a newly developed 381 bhp in-line 6-cylinder diesel engine. It offers unique triple turbocharging and provides the world’s most powerful standard in-line 6-cylinder diesel engine. This powerful diesel model has an acceleration rate of 5.3 seconds for the sprint from zero to 62mph.

One million cars from Kia

The Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia has just built its 1,000,000^th car – a white, diesel-engined cee’d SW. The car was handed over to a Slovakian children’s charity, the Red Nose Clowndoctors. The cee’d is also the 600,000th version of the Zilina factory’s first car, plus the factory now produces the Sportage and Venga as well.

“Kia Motors Slovakia has achieved an important milestone in its history with the production of the millionth car. We decided to donate it to an organisation which will bring pleasure to children during their stay in hospitals,” said Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia.

Some of the unusual vehicle registrations at the forthcoming DVLA Personalised Registrations sale includes that old British favourite of “fish and chips”– CH11 PPY.

CH11 PPY, along with MA11 ORY, is just one of the unique 11-series registrations being listed among the 1,500 registration plates which will go under the hammer during the DVLA‘s first three-day sale of 2012 at Stratford Manor Hotel near Stratford-upon-Avon, commencing on Wednesday, February 1.

Or is you fancy something to remind you of the hit TV show The Only Way Is Essex – or TOWIE as it has become known – TOW 111E is another example of some of the fun-plates that motorists can purchase. Or with Mother’s and Father’s Days coming up soon, how about H15 MUM and H15 DAD, both with reserves of £900?

Jody Davies, DVLA Personalised Registrations’ Events Manager, said: “We always manage to come up with an incredible array of personalised registrations to suit all tastes and, with reserves starting from as little as £250, this auction is no exception.”

You can fit a personalised plate if you lease a vehicle however you will need to get permission from your relevant leasing company, as they own the vehicle.

Here are some of the plates on sale with reserve prices in brackets;

• AL51 NGH (reserve -  £900)
• ALF 4W (£450)
• APE 80Y (£400)
• CAR 70Y (£400)
• CH11 PPY (£1,500)
• COP 80Y (£400)
• DRU 111D (£400)
• EL11 NOR (£1,000)
• FE11 OWS (£1,500)
• FUN 80B (£450)
• H15 DAD (£900)
• H15 MUM (£900)
• JAB 80Y (£400)
• MA11 ORY (£1,000)
• 55 O (£8,000)
• OBT 41N (£400)
• 12 OOO (£4,000)
• SA11 MON (£3,000)
• TOW 111E (£400)
• USA 848E (£400)
• VO11 LVO (£1,500)
• YE11 OUT (£900)
• YES 848Y (450)
• YOU 105T (£400).

Skoda MissionL

SKODA’s is attending the 2012 Qatar Motor Show where it will be showcasing their MissionL concept saloon. This car is a close-to-production concept and reveals the future design direction for the SKODA brand. The visit to the Qatar Motor Show also demonstrates their future international growth strategy plans.

The new compact MissionL saloon will be launched in late 2012 and will extend the model range of the brand in a new segment between the Fabia and Octavia models. The MissionL is destined for Qatar as well and SKODA aims to substantially increase their global sales of all car models to at least 1.5 million units per year, by 2018. In addition to the MissionL, SKODA is also displaying the latest Fabia, Octavia, Yeti and Superb models at the show.

The MissionL concept saloon impresses with its clear and precise lines with the front showing SKODA’s new brand design. The revised and freshened-up SKODA logo is now prominently positioned on the bonnet’s rounded front end and the grille sports a chrome frame and is made of vertical plate fins. There is also a black transparent glass roof that spans across the car’s interior with the cockpit conveying its spaciousness thanks to its horizontal arrangement.  

If you are interested in leasing a brand new Skoda car then we have the full Skoda model range on the site on contract hire.

up! five-door

Volkswagen’s award-winning up! city car is now easier than ever to get into with the introduction of the new five-door model. The new five-door up! has a 2.42 m long wheelbase that offers you impressive interior space, a large 251-litre boot, an efficient three-cylinder engine, new-to-the-class safety features plus an innovative infotainment system. 

Rear passengers in the five-door up! will benefit from exactly the same space as those in the three-door model, with 947 mm of headroom (versus 993 mm in the front) and 789 mm of legroom.  The rear seat base is also set a little bit higher than that in the front, at 378 mm (versus 306 mm) giving rear passengers a clearer view of the road ahead.

the up! five-foor comes front and side airbags, ABS with Hydraulic Brake Assist, Isofix child seat preparation in the rear and standard ESP (on all but the entry level Take up! model). It can also be ordered with an optional City Emergency Braking system.  The innovative City Braking System uses sensors to scan the space ahead of the vehicle, applying the brakes automatically if it detects that the car is about to hit an object in front. The up! has a five-star Euro NCAP rating and also the Advanced Award from the European New Car Assessment Programme as well.

Thr first UK deliveries of the five-door Volkswagen up! are expected to start in the second half of the year with prices yet to be confirmed. Volkswagen contract hire prices for the three-door up! are on the site now.

Continental GTC

Bentley Motors will unveil their new Continental GTC for the first time in Qatar at the Qatar International Motor Show, Doha. The all-new Bentley GTC Convertible features an even more spacious and sumptuous hand-crafted cabin, with soft-touch leather hides, plus an extensive range of wood veneers, cool-touch metals and deep-pile carpets. It now comes with a more powerful 575PS 6.0 litre, twin-turbocharged W12 engine, as well as a new QuickShift transmission, enabling faster gear changes than ever before.

Alasdair Stewart, Member of the Board for Sales and Marketing, Bentley Motors, said:

“We are delighted to be here in Qatar with the new GTC. It has always been the most emotional model in the Continental range and a showcase for Bentley design. With its tailored soft top, the GTC is a pure British convertible true to those classic Bentleys of the past. However, the technology, performance and overall design excellence invested in this model means that we are now writing a new chapter for the Bentley convertible driver.”

Mulsanne

The other Bentley featured car at the Qatar Motor Show is the Bentley Mulsanne, which continues to do exceptionally well in the Middle East. The new Mulsanne flagship is an elegant car, yet distinctly sporting in character and delivers effortless performance from the classic 6.75 litre V8 engine. It still represents the pinnacle of British luxury motoring which continues to attract substantial interest in the Middle East with the market now accounting for 15% of global sales.

Toyota iQ Pulse

The Toyota iQ has always been a popular city car and you can now add colourful decal designs and new leather seat upholsteries to the specification of your brand new vehicle, to really personalise it to your requirements. There are literally hundreds of possible permutations, allowing you to put your personal stamp on your new car.

The Toyota iQ delivers a four-seater in a body in car that is less than three metres long, so is an ideal car for city driving. There are now eight external paint colours, six leather combinations and six roof and body decals with hundreds of possible variations, with some unique designs on offer.

Decals

The decals extend from a classic monochrome Check to a psychedelic multicolour Swirl, with other options such as Box (a scattering of colourful quadrilaterals), Bloom (retro daisies), Pulse (a swoosh of grey strokes) and Aqua (a flow of bubbles). Each decal design can be specified separately for the roof and sides of your new car.

Customised leather

Leathers

The six leather options match Nappa leather upholstery for all four seats with toning – or contrasting – stitching and fillet inserts around the shoulder area. The combinations are as follows:

• Black leather with platinum fillets and stitching
• Platinum leather with black fillets and stitching
• Red leather with platinum fillets and stitching
• Black leather with Electric Blue fillets and stitching, plus iQ logo on headrest
• Black leather with Burnt Orange fillets and stitching, plus iQ logo on headrest
• Black leather with red fillets and stitching, plus iQ logo on headrest

Prices

The new vehicle options are available now and can be specified for all versions of iQ, with the leathers priced £775, side decals £200 and roof decals £180, all inclusive of VAT. The customisation is only available for new vehicles i.e. you can’t “retro-fit” to an existing Toyota iQ. Contract hire prices for the Toyota iQ range are on the site now.

The driver training specialist IAM Drive & Survive is offering motoring tips to drivers from its head of training, Simon Elstow (which we have been featuring) and this week he is advising on how to avoid getting whiplash:

• Make sure you keep a good distance in front of you so that you can slow down gently if required.
• Always look in the mirror before braking, except in an emergeny. Knowing what the  vehicle behind you is doing is always the best way to avoid getting hit from behind.
• Make sure you have a properly adjusted head restraint in your vehicle. The top of the head restraint should be level with the top of your head for maximum road safety.
• Do anticipate the road traffic ahead and drive smoothly to avoid stopping as often. Slowing down earlier gives the driver behind more time to react as well.
• Try and signal early for oncoming junctions to give time for the traffic behind you to react, if you are turning.
• Keep your foot lightly on the footbrake as traffic approaches from behind to show your brake lights as a warning, until you are sure it is stopping.

Elstow said: “The rise in whiplash compensation claims is driving up car insurance. Avoid injury and a hit to your insurance premium by following the above advice.”

New Twingo

The New Twingo city car has just gone on sale in UK, with the Dynamique 1.2 16V 75, priced from just £10,350 on-the-road. The New Twingo has improved styling at the front (with new Renault design DNA identity), plus a revised bumper, tailgate and new rear lights. Yet it is the ‘eyelids’ of the headlights that really contribute to new Twingo’s distinctive looks.

There are also a wide range of cost options on offer, including climate control, electric panoramic sunroof (fabric version available from April), two Option Packs and long list of accessories, for you to really personalise your new car. It is available with new colours called Fuchsia and Bermuda Blue, which are added to the seven existing body colours, plus there are eight different alloy wheel options.

In the UK, the New Twingo will be powered by the 1.2 16V 75 engine, boasting 55.4 mpg in the combined cycle with CO₂ emissions of 119g/km, resulting in nil road fund licence for the first year (and £30 from year two), if you are buying/owning the car. Don’t forget with contract hire, the road fund licence is included in the rental you pay each month. 

The new audio system is improved with Bluetooth functionality, together with audio streaming with USB connectivity as standard (from March). This makes it really easy for you to play digital music and the audio system can also be used as a docking station for the latest-generation iPhone and iPod Touch®.

Inside the car it has separate, independently sliding, 50/50-split rear seats, with the boot capacity extending from 230 to 959 dm³. In addition, there are numerous storage spaces, making this city car ideal for town driving.

Renault is also planning to have a new microsite to demonstrate the customisation programme and this will be available via www.renault.co.uk from February and will be divided into four sections: stickers, door mirror housings, spoilers, alloy wheels. Details for New Twingo Renaultsport 133 will be released closer to launch, in April 2012

ContiSportContact3

Continental has just won a coveted tyre test from the UK’s monthly car magazine, evo. The ContiSportContact3 took top spot in this year’s performance tyre test which will be announced in the February edition of evo magazine .

The evo performance tyre test highlights exceptional product performance across areas such as wet and dry handling, aquaplaning and braking. Fitted across a wide range of car models throughout the market, evo tested the Continental 235/40 R18 from a range of competitor tyre brands. The title praised the Continental’s abilities across areas such as wet handling and braking, taking top spot in both of these categories.

On commenting on the Continental ContiSportContact3 an evo spokesperson, said ; “‘Masterful’, we said of the Continental. There were some great performances on the wet circuit but the Conti still stood out, setting the fastest lap time, recording the highest lateral G, and scoring the highest subjective mark, too-it wasn’t bettered. Especially impressive was its stability-It barely acknowledged puddles that were registered by its closest rivals, and its traction was superb. ‘Amazingly surefooted and grippy; the limit is your nerve.’”

If you want more information on the Continental product range, visit www.conti-online.co.uk/passenger.