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.

Nicola Roberts in her Twingo

Renault has enlisted the creative talents of four European artists, including Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud, to create a series of bespoke city cars to celebrate the launch of their new Renault Twingo. The new Twingo gains a softer, front end, plus the new Renault visual brand identify and looks set to be as popular as the original Twingo

Renault offered four ‘artists’ of varying nationality and cultural discipline – fashion, music, design and cooking – the opportunity to express their own vision of a ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’ by creating their own bespoke Twingo interior. The results of the style project reflect their view of the world.

The line up features:

• Twingo Goes Pop by Nicola Roberts – UK singer
• Twingo 55 FBG by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac – Franch fashion designer
• Twingo Reading Room by Nils Holger Moormann – German designer
• Scabin Pasta Twingo by Davide Scabin – Italian chef

Fiat 500 TwinAir

The Fiat 500 TwinAir has just won the 2011 GreenFleet Awards City Car Manufacturer of the Year. The TwinAir range has a sporty and assertive appearance but with its 0.9-litre engine unit, it offers superb CO2 emissions of just 95g/km, a combined mpg performance of 68.9 and has a 0-62mph time of 11 seconds.

The car has black alloy wheels, burnished metal effects on the dashboard and front and rear mouldings, spoiler, chrome exhaust pipe and sports seats, plus this two-cylinder car continues to scoop the industry’s top awards as it is the current International Engine of the Year too.

Colin Boynton, GreenFleet Marketing Manager, said,”Although a closely fought category again this year, the Fiat 500 TwinAir, with its low consumption, two-cylinder, clean petrol engine, was the resounding choice for the City Car Manufacturer of the Year Award. Even though it is already an extremely popular choice out there, I know we will be seeing many more take to the roads over the next year, as businesses look for a maximum return on their fleet investment. Well done Fiat, worthy winners”.

If you are interested in Fiat 500 TwinAir car leasing UK then we have the full range on the site now.

SEAT Mii city car

SEAT has just released the details of their new Mii city car which is a perfect vehicle for city driving due to its size, fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions. The Mii will be launched in Spain first and then the rest of Europe by the end Spring of 2012.

The new SEAT Mii is 3.33 metres in length and will be available in three-door and five door variations with a one-litre engine offering 60PS or 75PS outputs. There will be two Ecomotive versions of the Mii which thanks to their start/stop system, brake energy recuperation and other fuel saving technology offer CO2 emissions of 97g/km and use 4.2 litres of fuel per 100km (62 miles). Depending on the cost of a litre of petrol, let’s say £1.33 for example, that’s £5.59 for travelling 62 miles (£1.33 x 4.2 litres), or about 9 pence per mile, which is pretty impressive.

The Mii is also packed with other innovative technology, for example its City Safety Assist which warns a driver in case of any danger ahead (at speeds less than 18mph) and even brakes if the driver does not react. The Mii also has SEAT’s Portable System which brings together entertainment, navigation, phone and vehicle functions in an entriely different way.

All-new Kia Rio

Kia is planning to show off its all-new Kia Rio at the forthcoming EcoVelocity Low Carbon Motor Festival which is being held at Battersea Power Station, in London, from the 8th to the 11th September.

The new Kia EcoDynamics models will be available to test drive and the Kia Rio 1.1 CDRi “1″ model offers a remarkable 85g/km of CO2 and 88.3mpg, so if you are looking for a low CO2 and fuel efficient car this is definitely one to consider. It has an extremely efficient three-cylinder diesel engine with longer gearing, a stop-start system, low rolling resistance tyres and various aerodynamic tweaks to reduce drag.

In addition to the all-new Kia Rio, Kia will also have the new Picanto city-car on show plus other low-emission versions of the c’eed family hatchback and the Sportage crossover for test drives as well. The newly launched Picanto is now available in three-door as well as five-door for the first time and with its 1.0-litre engine it emits only 99g/km of CO2. If you opt for the 1.25-litre engine combined with Kia’s “Intelligent Stop and Go” stop-start system the CO2 emissions are 100g/km.

The Kia Sportage crossover low-emission model is the 1.7-litre CRDi EcoDynamics turbodiesel which emits 135g/km of CO2 and the c’eed hatchback is the 1.6-litre CRDi turbodiesel (103g/km of CO2) which is also on display. Kia contract hire is available on the site for current models.

New Fiat Panda

Fiat is taking its new Fiat Panda to the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September and this new Panda is the third generation of this highly successful A-segment car. The new Fiat Panda will go on sale in the UK in the spring of 2012 and offers city-car driving in comfort, space, reliability, with low running costs too.

The compact new Fiat Panda has “grown” a little and is now 365cm long, has a width of 164cm and a height of 155cm, yet it can still seat five adults in comfort and has one of the largest luggage compartments in the segment. The new Panda has a much rounder and elegant exterior with an all-new flexible interior and when launched will be available in several engine options.

You can choose from two TwinAir twin cylinder engines, the 85bhp TwinAir Turbo or the brand new 65bhp naturally aspirated TwinAir, both equipped with Start and Stop as standard. There is also the revised 69bhp 1.2-litre Fire engine completing the petrol engine range, plus a 75bhp 1.3-litre MultiJet 2 turbodiesel as well, also with Start and Stop. In addition the new Panda also offers a Gearshift Indicator to tell you the optimum time to change gear, to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions.

There will only be front-wheel drive versions available at launch but as with the current Panda range, a four-wheel drive version is planned.  There are also plenty of safety features in the new Panda including ABS anti-locking brakes with brake assist, four airbags, front seat belts with pre-tensioners and load limiters, Isofix attachments for child seats, anti-whiplash front head restraints, rear headrests and Daytime Running Lights, which are all standard vehicle options.

Volkswagen up!

Volkswagen has released some images of their new up! city car ahead of its official launch at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. This new small car has a completely new design and is ideally suited for city driving. There are three different versions with “take up!” being the entry car, “move up!” the comfort oriented model and “high up!” the top-of-the-range version.

Volkswagen up! city car

Also making its debut in the new up! is a new generation of three-cylinder petrol engines with outputs of 60PS and 75PS and there are plans for an up! with electric drive as well.

The up!  has a cost option called City Emergency Braking which is automatically active at speeds of under 18mph. This system can initiate automatic braking depending on speed and situation and the up! is the first car in this vehicle segment to offer this.

The up! is 3.54 metres in length, 1.64 metres in width and 1.48 metres in height and is one of the smallest four-seater cars available. It has a 251-litre boot capacity and when the rear seats are folded this increases to 951 litres. The interior of the up! is spacious and colourful with either decor paint or body colour used and this theme carries on to the dashboard fascia as well.

Hyundai i10

Hyundai was awarded two gongs at the Auto Express 2011 New Car awards the i10 winning Best City Car and the ix20 winning Best Supermini MPV. The Hyundai i10 fought off competition from the Kia Picanto and the Ford Ka, while the ix20 was named above the Citroen C3 Picasso, Kia Venga and Nissan Note.

Graham Hope, Auto Express Acting editor, commented,”Competition in the city car sector is hotter than ever- and that makes Hyundai’s second consecutive victory in this category even more impressive. The i10 has the feel of a big car inside, while the composed driving dynamics mean it’s as home on the open road as on congested city streets”.

Mr Hope continued,”The ix20 shot straight to the top of the sector when it hit showrooms last year, and it fully deserves its class-leading status. Not only does this practical model look great, but it brings new levels of cabin quality and comfort to the supermini-MPV sector”. We have Hyundai contract hire available now on all models if you are interested.

Aston Martin Cygnet

Aston Martin has entered two Cygnets into the fifth annual Bridgestone Eco-Rally which starts tomorrow at Broad Street in London at 10.00 A.M. and finishes at 14.30 P.M. The rally showcases the world’s best eco-friendly vehicles and the hand-crafted Cygnet is a bespoke, exclusive Aston Martin in small package, offering CO2 emissions of 116g/km and fuel economy of 56.5mpg. 

One the Cygnets is in Seychelles Blue which is the paint colour of the Aston Martin DB6 Mark II Volante recently driven by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their wedding day. In addition to the two formal entries there will also be a third Cygnet supporting the two entrants, which is in eye-catching “Flouro Orange”. Darren Martin from Aston Martin, said,”I have been a fan of Cygnet from the start. It’s a great city car, easy to manoeuvre and park and a lof ot fun to drive”.

Peugeot 107 Experience

Peugeot has launched a special YouTube channel which will broadcast targeted videos of the Peugeot 107 city car at young-minded people on the Internet. The worldwide campaign uses personalised, entertaining and interactice content and it is designed to introduce the values of the 107 to this targeted audience.

Four videos have been commissioned with Continental Productions, with one video available in two versions to cater for both specific male and female viewers. Users can share from four universes: VIP, SHARE, GLAM or FUN with a different story to each, and you can upload your picture to the video, your name and then share it on Facebook , Twitter or E-mail with your friends.

The site can be found at www.youtube.com/107experience