BMW 1 Series

The new BMW 1-series has just been voted the “2012 Business Car of the Year”, after the readers of BusinessCar magazine and www.businesscar.co.uk chose it as the best product that meets the needs of a company and their drivers alike. 

BMW had a successful awards ceremony, with the German brand also collecting the Manufacturer of the Year prize, plus the Green Model of the Year for the ultra-efficient 320d ED model. There there were also sector wins for the BMW 3-series, BMW 7-series and BMW X5, as well as the BMW-owned Mini hatchback.

“BMW’s impressive and class-leading combination of desirability, efficiency and driving pleasure has again shown itself with this haul of awards, decided by the readers of BusinessCar, proving that the brand is at the forefront of the company car market,” said BusinessCar Editor Paul Barker. “Across the range there is a model for every level of employee, each one offering low tax bills, good running costs and the premium BMW badge. The people running these vehicles and giving them to their staff obviously appreciate the job BMW is doing.”

The BusinessCar Awards are awarded with votes entirely by the readers of the publication and their website, so therefore the BMW range was recognised by the very people that are likely to use the cars on a daily basis. We have the full range of BMW 1 Series models on BMW contract hire on the site now.

For the full list of winners see http://www.businesscar.co.uk/awards

City Emergency Braking on the up!

The Volkswagen up! is not even on UK roads yet, but it has just been awarded the title of What Car? Car of the Year 2012, as well as Best City Car, at the What Car? Awards.

Volkswagen had a successful night at the motor industry’s annual ‘Oscars’, which was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The Golf was voted the top Small Family Car category for the sixth time overall and fourth consecutive year, and Volkswagen also won the coveted Safety Award.

Commenting on the awards, What Car? editor-in-chief Chas Hallett said: ‘The Volkswagen up! sets new standards for a car at £10,000.  It’s a city car that can seat four adults, while offering new levels of refinement, quality and maturity at this price; none of its rivals feels quite so grown-up.  Buyers will be looking for even more for their money than ever in 2012, so the up! is a worthy winner of the What Car? Car of the Year.’

Meanwhile the Safety Award was in large part the result of the availability of Volkswagen’s new City Emergency Braking system on the up!.  The What Car? judges were impressed by this particular example of ‘big car’ technology filtering down to a smaller model and the system uses sensors to scan the space ahead. It then applies the brakes automatically if it detects that the car is about to hit an object in front. 

Director of Volkswagen UK, Chris Craft, said: ‘We are absolutely delighted with the awards we have received from What Car? this year.  The magazine continues to be one of the most thorough and important sources of new car buying information for UK customers and winning the overall Car of the Year accolade gives our new city car, the up!, the best introduction to the UK market that we could have hoped for”.

First models should arrive in UK showrooms in March and Volkswagen contract hire on the up! range is on the site now.

The full list of category winners at the What Car? Awards 2012 is below.

New Cars of the World

A new monthly guide, called New Cars of the World, has just been launched by Worldcarinfo.com (The World of Cars) and this new monthly format presents the latest new cars introduced from around the world.

The first edition covers September-October 2011 and features the new BMW 3-Series, Isuzu D-Max, Hyundai, i30, Mia Electric, Honda Civic, Peugeot 308 Sedan, Volkswagen up! and many more new car models.

It covers all the key motoring markets of Europe, USA, China, South America, India and Russia and is easy to use with clear and concise descriptions, with many pictures and illustrations. The guide collates its data from the hundreds of auto websites from around the world and the PDF format can be e-mailed to your e-mail inbox on the 5th of every month (subscription fee applies).

The November 2011 Edition will be out on the 5th of December and will feature all the new cars launched at the Los Angeles, Guangzhou and Tokyo Motor Shows and if you want to get the first copy FREE then visit their website @

www.worldcarinfo.com

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has just released the new car registrations data for September 2011 which saw 332,476 new cars registered, down 0.8% on last year. The main growth in the new car sector came from “Fleet” registrations (companies who have a fleet of vehicles greater than 25 vehicles) which grew by 7.3%, while private registrations were down by 9.3%. 

Business (sub-25 fleets) also reported a 13.4% growth year-on-year from 18,266 units in 2010, to 20,707 in 2011. The SMMT expects the full new year car market to end 5.3% lower than 2010, at around 1.92 million units. Average new car CO2 emissions also fell by 4.0% to 138.5g/km and the top car models sold in September were as follows;

1. Fiesta – 15,647
2. Focus – 14,754
3. Corsa – 14,339
4. Golf – 10,628
5. Astra – 10,462
6. Polo – 8,607
7. Insignia – 7,323
8. MINI – 6,903
9. 3 Series – 6,352
10. Qashqai – 6,068

BMW London 2012 Performance Edition models

BMW is celebrating its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by introducing two new Performance Edition models based on the popular BMW 1 Series and BMW 3 Series.

The BMW 1 Series Performance Edition gets M aerodynamic bodystyling, dark chrome 18-inch M light alloy wheels, High-gloss Shadowline exterior trim, dark chrome exhaust tailpipe and dark line rear lights. In addition you also get M Sport Suspension, sports seats with Royal Blue stitching, M Sport multi-function leather steering wheel and gearshift lever, floor mats with Royal Blue piping and London 2012 exterior badges completing the sporty looks.The 1 Series Performance Edition is available on the 116i, 116d, 118d three- and five-door models.

If you opt for the BMW 3 Series Performance Edition (available on the 318i and 318d) you get the M areodynamic body kit, M sport multi-function leather steering wheel, sports seats, floor mats with blue piping, 18-inch light alloy wheels, chrome exhaust finisher and London 2012 exterior badges as well.

BMW London 2012 Performance Editions are available in a choice of four colours; Alpine White, Titanium Silver, Bluewater and Black Sapphire and we should have BMW car leasing prices on the new models loaded shortly.

New BMW 5 Series

BMW has announced some changes to its 5 Series executive model with an expansion of the range to eleven, plus the eagerly awaited BMW 520d EfficientDynamics model.  This is bound to be very popular with company car drivers as it offers similar performance to the 320d EfficientDynamics.

The 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine offers a combined mpg 62.8, CO2 emissions of  just 119g/km, yet still accelerates the car from 0-62mph in just 8.2 seconds. The car also comes with BMW‘s new ECO-PRO Mode  which offers economical and comfortable driving at low speeds, Auto Start-Stop, Optimum Gearshift Indicator, Brake Energy Regeneration and Active Aerodynamics.

There are also new petrol engines in the rest of the new 5 Series 11-car range and the arrival of the BMW 520i and BMW 528i. Extensive modifications have also been made to the diesel engines in the BMW 530d and BMW 535d, increasing power and fuel efficiency. All the new BMW 5 Series range comes with Drive Performance Control as standard, which allows you to fine tune the ride by selecting Comfort, Sport or Sport+. The new range is detailed below and we should have BMW car leasing on the new models loaded shortly.

* Electronically limited    ** Automatic only

 Other changes to BMW models

In addition to the BMW 5 Series range changes, BMW has also announced the following information and enhancements about other models;

BMW 6 Series diesel

• There are new four-cylinder engines for the BMW Z4.
• The BMW X1 xDrive20d adds an Efficient Dynamics model with CO2 at 119g/km and combined mpg at 62.8.
• A new BMW 3 Series Coupe and Convertible Sport Plus Edition is being launched building on the M Sport trim.
• The new BMW 6 Series now gets a diesel added to the Coupe and Convertible range and an M Sport Specification.
• The 640d Coupe returns 51.4 combined mpg and has CO2 emissions of 144g/km.
• The 640d Convertible returns 50.4 combined mpg and emits 148g/km of CO2.
• There is new equipment to the BMW 7 Series which gets a new version of Night Vision. 

CLICK for the offer

Our Partners have just refreshed their pricing and having a look through the site we came across these BMW diesel car leasing offers. All the deals shown are based on 4 years, 10,000 miles per annum, non-maintained business car leasing on a three month initial rental followed by 47 payments. Other terms are available on request from our car leasing Partners. Just click on the Partner name below to get straight to the offer. BMW Corporate Finance also offer metallilc paint free of charge (terms and conditions apply) and you can also ask for other contract terms on request i.e. 3 years etc.

1. BMW 1 Series 116d ES 3-door hatchback from £219.04+VAT per month – BMW Corporate Finance
2. BMW 3 Series 316d ES 4-door saloon manual from £286.61+VAT per month - BMW Corporate Finance
3. BMW 3 Series 320d EfficientDynamics saloon manual from £295.10+VAT per month – BMW Corporate Finance
4. BMW 3 Series 318d ES 5-door Touring from £308.36+VAT per month – BMW Corporate Finance
5. BMW 5 Series 520d SE 4-door Step Auto from £378.00+VAT per month – BMW Corporate Finance

The BMW Group in the UK (which combines BMW and MINI) has reported that sales grew in the month of November by 12.3% from 11,644 to 13,079 vehicles compared to the same month last year. This figure is quite remarkable as total UK car registrations in November fell by 11.5%.

The BMW Group also reported that sales over the first 11 months of the year has also risen to 141,165, a rise of 11.3% from the 126,824 vehicles sold in the same period in 2009. Tim Abbott, Managing Director of BMW Group UK, commented “Both the BMW and MINI brands have outperformed the market year to date and this is being driven by the 3 Series which became the UK’s best sixth best-selling car in November and the 5 Series saloon models. The MINI Countryman is also sold out until next spring and demand is already looking very high for the newly-launched 5 Series Touring and BMW X3″.

The BMW 3 Series saloon diesel is also the most popular car on Comparecontracthire.com and demonstrates how small businesses value brand, performance and value for money. The top model BMW 3 Series contract hire is also on the site, however as always with BMW and MINI, vehicle lead times may be long so it is recommended that you order soon.

M Sport Package

Both the BMW 5 Series Saloon and Touring models will be available in M Sport guise this coming September, when this popular vehicle specification goes on sale. The M Sport package adds M Sport Suspension, M aerodynamics package and 18-inch M light alloy wheels featuring a double spoke design, special Sports Seats,  M leather steering wheel,  M gear lever knob, anthracite roof lining and M aluminium hexagon interior trim strips.

BMW Z4

In addition, other September model changes are headlined below.

• The BMW 535d Saloon gets a new 299 bhp engine.
• There are also new engines for the BMW 5 Series Touring.
• The BMW X1 xDrive23d gets a new gearbox.
• There is a  Design Pure Impulse equipment package for the BMW Z4.
• BMW 3 Series Saloon and Touring Exclusive Edition and Sport Plus Edition available too.

These new models will be loaded onto the site shortly with BMW business contract hire pricing.

BMW 5 Series Saloon

BMW has had seven awards given to them by BusinessCar, on the of the UK’s fleet news publications, mainly due to its EfficientDynamics programme. They picked up “Manufacturer of the Year”,”Environmental Award of the Year” plus five other product specific awards as follows.

1. MINI was awarded “Supermini of the Year”.
2. The three and five door BMW 1 Series models won “Lower Medium Car of the Year”.
3. The BMW 3 Series Saloon and Touring models took the “Medium Car of the Year”.
4. The BMW 5 Series Saloon and Touring was jointly honoured with “Executive Car of the Year”.
5. Finally the BMW X5 picked up “Large 4×4 of the Year”.

Sean Green, Sales Director of BMW UK, said:”The corporate customer is an extremely important one for BMW which is why it’s fantastic to be honoured by BusinessCar in so many categories. But with 166 BMW and MINI models emitting 160g/km of CO2 or less it is hard not to see why our products are so popular”.