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.

Mazda MX-5

The Mazda MX-5 has been voted the highest sports car by owners in the 2011 J.D power & Associates vehicle ownership survey, as it was last year. The Mazda MX-5 is the world’s best selling roadster and over 17,000 drivers were interviewed about their respective cars, with the two-seater MX-5 being highly rated for its driving dynamics, handling, low ownership costs, mechanical reliability and interior quality.

The Mazda MX-5 has a range of 10 models and two new special edition “Kendo” were also added this year. The car scored 82.4 per cent in the survey and beat other rivals like the the Volkswagen Scirocco, Audi TT and Mercedes-Benz CLK and SLK.

Peter Allibon, Sales Director, Mazda Motors UK, said,”Today the Mazda MX-5 remains unrivalled as a rewarding sportscar that can also be used for everyday motoring all year round. The MX-5 soft-top continues to offer the purest, fun-to-drive thrills, while the Roadster Coupe’s folding hard top provides a more refined experience, with that same exhilarating drive”. If you are interested we have Mazda contract hire leasing prices on the site now.

Audi NSU range

Audi has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its famous “Vorsprung Durch Technik” brand which advertising agency BBH brought to life back in 1971. It translates as “advancement through technology” and this perfectly encapsulates what the Audi brand stands for now, just as it did 40 years ago.

The Audi NSU range with its rear-engined air-cooled NSU 2-and 4-cylinder cars, the iconic Audi Quattro, the Audi 100 and the NSU RO80 rotary engined car are just some examples of the brand in action.

Today Audi has 32 models in its line-up with innovations like their TFSI engines, lightweight Audi TT (aluminium and steel hybrid bodied) all-LED lighting, head-up displays, Google mapping functionality plus the all-aluminium R8 as examples of Vorsprung Durch Technik. If you are interested, we have Audi contract hire prices on all 32 models on the site now from Sportbacks to SUVs or Hatchbacks to Avants .

Mazda MX-5

The iconic Mazda MX-5 has been rated the “Best Sports car” in the 2010 JD Power vehicle satisfaction survey, notching up a score of 82.3% and beating competition from the Mercedes-Benz SLK, Volkswagen Eos and Audi TT. Over 17,000 drivers took part in the survey and Mazda MX-5 drivers gave the two-seater sportscar top scores for appearance, exterior and interior quality and mechanical reliability, performance, running costs and also for dealer service.

Mark Cameron, Sales Director, Mazda UK said,” Today, the Mazda MX-5 remains unrivalled as a rewarding sportscar that can also be used for everyday motoring all year round.The MX-5 soft top continues to offer the purest, fun-to-drive thrills, while the Roadster Coupe adds to those thrills with an even more premium experience, together with that same exhilarating drive”.

Audi A3 diesel Sportback

The visitors to Comparecontracthire.com complete Contact Forms which are then forwarded to our car leasing partners ,who then follow these up directly. There are many makes and models that are popular on the site but the top 20 models are listed below.

Interestingly out of the top twenty, seventeen are diesel models, showing that diesel engine cars are still the popular choice for small to medium sized business owners and Company Directors. German cars are also popular, featuring in nine out of the top ten choices.

1. Audi A3 diesel Sportback
2. Audi A4 diesel saloon
3. Volkswagen Golf diesel hatchback
4. Volkswagen Scirocco coupe
5. Volkswagen Scirocco diesel coupe
6. BMW 1 Series diesel hatchback
7. BMW 3 Series diesel saloon
8. Volkswagen Golf petrol hatchback
9. Audi A3 diesel hatchback
10. Mazda6 diesel hatchback
11. Mercedes-Benz C Class diesel saloon
12. Honda Civic diesel hatchback
13. Honda Civic hatchback
14. BMW 5 Series diesel saloon
15. Audi A5 diesel coupe
16. Jaguar XF diesel saloon
17. Audi Q5 diesel
18. Fiat 500 hatchback
19. BMW 3 Series diesel tourer
20. Nissan Navara diesel/Audi TT diesel coupe   

Audi A1

Audi scooped the “Reader Award- Most Exciting Car” for the forthcoming compact Audi A1. The new prodution-ready A1 will be officially launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2010 with UK deliveries expected towards the end of 2010.

Steve Fowler, editor of What Car? said,”A new, small Audi sounds like an enticing proposition and our readers seem to agree,voting it the most exciting new car to be launched this year. Although we haven’t seen the finished car yet, a funky small car with an Audi badge on the nose and aimed directly at the MINI can’t fail to succeed. It should be a strong contender for our Car of the Year in 2011!”

The Audi TT 2.0 TFSI was also voted “Best Coupe”  for the fourth successive year and the Audi R8 won “Best Performance Car”. Audi car leasing on all models are available now.

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The superb Audi TT coupe is a real driver’s car and we have an amazing Audi TT business contract hire offer on the site from £315+VAT per month. The model is the diesel Audi TT Quattro 2.0-litre 2-door offering 53.3 mpg on the combined fuel cycle and only 139g/km CO2.

The Audi TT diesel business contract hire terms are based on the following;

 - Non-maintained business contract hire over a three year term at 10,000 miles per annum.

- 3 rentals in advance followed by thirty-five subsequent rentals.

- “With maintenance”, metallic paint and other vehicle options can be added at an extra cost.

- The image shown may not represent the exact model.

Audi A3 Sportback

Every month, thousands of customers use the live contract hire quote engines on Comparecontracthire.com, to get the latest car or van pricing available from the main FN50 UK car leasing companies. These are the actual finance houses who fund the vehicle leases, making the site unique.

The most favourite models in order of popularity, where a customer has completed a “contact form” for further information, are as follows.