Vauxhall ecoFLEX

Vauxhall was voted the Fleet Manufacturer of the Year 2010 at the recently held Fleet News Awards. The award is one of the most prestigious in the vehicle fleet industry and is voted independently by fleet managers across the country.

Maurice Howkins, Fleet Sales Director for Vauxhall said,”We’re absolutely delighted to receive this recognition from our customers, especially in such testing times for the industry.We strive to provide our customers not only with a great choice of vehicles, including our award winning ecoFLEX range, but also with the best support network in the industry from our fleet sales and aftersales teams and our retailers”.

Vauxhall

Vauxhall has always been popular with the UK fleet industry and has a strong product line up including the new Astra, Insignia and Corsa. Vauxhall business car leasing prices on all their whole range are available on the site now.

Ice Skating Event

Vauxhall Motors has teamed up with a host of the UK’s hottest music, design and style gurus to host an ice skating extravaganza. The one-off event was held in Marylebone, London and the venue was transformed into a magical shadowy forest, with an ice skating rink.

Coco Sumner was spinning some disks, Mr Hudson played a set and then George Lamb finished off the party soundtrack. Ice Skating queen Suzanne Shaw also came along to perform a tripel axle and boy band VICE also hit the Vauxhall Ice Skate dance floor.

Vauxhall cars in attendance included the Astra encased in a snow globe, a “Car-aoke” Corsa and an icicle Agila. If you want to see more pictures visit www.vauxhalliceskate.co.uk

VW Polo

The new Volkswagen Polo has beaten six other finalists in the 2010 Car of The Year Award to scoop the top prize. The result was announced by Autocars’ Steve Cropley, who is one of the six UK based jurors and one of 59 senior car motoring experts from 23 European countries who make up the COTY jury.

The top 5 results are as follows;

1- Volkswagen Polo – 347 points.

2- Toyota iQ – 337 points.

3- Opel/Vauxhall Astra- 221 points.

4- Skoda Yeti – 158 points.

5- Mercedes-Benz E-Class - 155 points.

Contract hire prices are available on all the above makes and respective models now.

New Corsa

Fuel prices are on the up again and so it is great to see the latest Vauxhall Corsa range gain a 13% improvement in fuel economy. The changes to the engine powertrains will provide, on average, a 13.2% increase in fuel economy plus the chassis has also been improved to provide a better ride.

Five out ot the six engines on offer also emit less than 125gkm CO2 emissions. The star of the range is of course the 95PS diesel ecoFLEX model which achieves 76.3mpg on the combined fuel cycle and a 98g/km CO2 figure. Engine options in the range are a 1.0-litre, 1.2-litre,1.4-litre petrol and 1.3-litre and 1.7-litre  diesels.

The trim changes are as follows and now come in line with the Astra and Insignia.

Life becomes S

Club becomes Exclusiv

Design becomes SE

SXi and SRi remain unchanged.

The full vehicle specifications should be loaded shortly.

The SMMT has reported that new car registrations were up 11.4% in September to 367,929 units sold. The car scrappage scheme has continued to supply a stimulus to this growth and in particular registrations from private buyers and of small cars rose strongly.

The average car CO2 emissions continues to fall with a 4.9% reduction of the year to date position, to 150.2g/km.

SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt said,”New car registrations rose for the third time in a row in September. Market conditions remain challenging with demand being underpinned by the extremely successful scrappage incentive scheme. The extension of the scheme will help to sustain demand through the latter part of this year and into 2010″.

Top ten best sellers in September

1) Fiesta – 22,635

2) Corsa – 16,379

3) Focus – 13,622

4) Astra – 13,190,

5) Golf – 11,787

6) Peugeot 207 -9,161

7) MINI – 8,634

 8) BMW 3 Series – 7,465

9) Yaris – 6,896

10) BMW 1 Series – 6,671

All-new Astra

Vauxhall has released the full vehicle specification of their all-new Astra and is poised to raise the bar on compact cars sold in the UK.

The all-new Astra is on sale now and will be in UK showrooms from December 2009. The range starts at the 1.4-litre, 87PS Exclusiv model at a list price of £15,675 up to the luxurious 2.0CDTi 160PS Elite automatic.

The all-new Astra comes in a wide range of engines and has five trim levels but will only be initially available in five-door hatchback only.

Andy Gibson,Vauxhall’s Marketing Director said, “As with the Insignia, the Astra is an all-new car, continuing the transformation of the Vauxhall product range which started five years ago with the launch of the MK5 model”. Contract hire prices on the all-new Astra should be loaded shortly.

Vauxhall Astra- Technical data overview 

Vauxhall Astra hatchback – Performance Data

Police Astra

Vauxhall is gearing up for plenty of orders with the arrival of their new Astra car however they have also made sure the “police variation” will be available for major police forces, from launch.

The car is built at GM Millbrook and is offered as a single invoice, rather than being offered as a basic vehicle, plus a conversion afterwards. GM UK Special Vehicles engineers have ensured that the Astra meets all the demands that will be placed upon the vehicle, by police emergency services.

Over 900 police Astras were sold last year so getting the new model to market as quickly as possible is essential if Vauxhall are to maintain this success.

Three high visibility livery options are available, half, three-quarter or full to meet customers’ needs. The lightbars feature LED technology while all PTT (Push-to- talk) 999 and at scene functions have all been incorporated into the steering wheel set-up, to maximise safety. All police communications equipment can be installed before delivery and further information is available at www.gmukspecialvehicles.co.uk.

Vauxhall, has for the second time in three months, become the leading brand for new UK car registrations. In February they recorded a total of 9372 vehicles according to the SMMT  (The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders).

The Corsa was the most popular with the Astra, Insignia and Zafira all featuring in the UK’s Top Ten best selling cars. The new Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year, is also proving popular with over 15,000 orders received already by Vauxhall and 1,247 were registered in February alone. 

Andy Gibson, Vauxhall’s Marketing Director, said ” This is proof, if proof were needed, that the Vauxhall brand is as strong as ever in the British car market and we’re looking forward to a busy March now that the new “09″ plate is with us”

Vauxhall has reported they registered a total of 19,058 cars in December , only 5.3% down on last year. The total market, as reported by the SMMT, was down 21.2% in December so the smaller Vauxhall drop in registrations shows the strength in their product range.

During December, Vauxhall had four models in the UK’s top ten car registration chart namely the Corsa, Astra, Vectra and Zafira.

The SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) reports new car registrations fell 36.8% in November to 100,333 units. The year to date volume is down 10.7% to 2,023,104 units. The private market was down 45.1% in the month – a particularly weak result.

However the diesel market share achieved a record high of 47% in November proving how popular diesel models now are. Paul Everitt, the SMMT chief executive said ” November has been another difficult month for the motor industry and whilst some consumers may have delayed their purchases to take advantage of the recent VAT reductions, overall demand continues to fall”.

The new Ford Fiesta was the UK’s best selling model in November. Year to date the top 10 best sellers are as follows.

1) Ford Focus – 96,032 units

2) Vauxhall Corsa-93,252 units

3) Ford Fiesta- 87,785 units

4) Vauxhall Astra -85,636 units

5) Volkswagen Golf – 61,285 units

6) Peugeot 207 -51,564 units

7) BMW 3 Series – 46,755 units

8) Ford Mondeo -42,007 units

9) Vauxhall Zafira – 40,782 units

10) Vauxhall Vectra – 38,553 units

If you are thinking of financing your new car have you ever thought about contract hire?

Contract Hire is an effective way of financing a vehicle as it offers fixed cost and risk free motoring which is attractive in these uncertain times. Comparing prices is made easy by using www.comparecontracthire.com the UK’s first business and personal contract hire price comparison site. Quotations are available on line from up to 12 finance companies. There is also lots of information about a variety of motoring related subjects.