Chevrolet will launch a new mini car called the Spark at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2009.
GM’s North American President Troy Clarke said ” The Spark will add great style, roominess and versatility to the segment of extremely fuel efficient small cars”.
Production on the Spark will start in Korea from late 2009 and it will go on sale in the UK in early 2010.
Ford reported today that its share of the retail (non fleet) market grew by 1.9 percentage points to 17.4% , year on year, in December 2008. The Ford Focus was the overall best selling car for the 10th successive year.
Ford has always been one of the nation’s best sellers and has introduced a new Ford Focus, Kuga, Fiesta and Ka in 2008. The Ford Focus also appeared with James Bond in the “Quantum of Solace”.
Nigel Sharp, MD of Ford of Britain said ” Ford’s range of stylish, high tech models, offering value and fuel efficiency, continues to attract customers to our showrooms in these difficult times”.
Citroen announced today that their super efficient City car the Citroen C1 gets a new smart new look for 2009. It has a new restyled front end, new body colours and trims plus better fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions.
The entry level 1.0 litre model Citroen C1 VT has a CO2 figure of only 106 g/km and up to 62.8 combined MPG whilst the diesel 1.4 HDi achieves 68.9 mpg.
Comparecontracthire.com has reported today that the top 5 favourite manufacturers quoted on this contract hire price comparison site are as follows.
1) Audi
2) Volkswagen
3) BMW
4) Fiat
5) Mercedes
Small businesses obviously have a greater flexibility when choosing their car, than larger fleets, where a more structured car policy is usually in place. Robert Wastell, Managing Director of Comparecontracthire.com said ” The beauty of contract hire is that it provides fixed cost motoring for any small business. Running your own business gives you the flexibility to drive the vehicle of your choice and clearly SME’s have voted with their fingertips. It was also great to see one of our current finance partners, Fiat, appearing at number four in the league of favourite manufacturers”.
Comparecontracthire.com is the UK’s first business and personal contract hire price comparison site and compares prices from a panel of twelve FN50 contract hire suppliers. Live contract hire pricing is available free of charge and the site also aims to inform motorists about a wide variety of other motoring related subjects.
The UK’s leader in real time traffic information, Trafficmaster, has launched a Digital Broadcast Service in partnership with Digital One. Digital One is the world’s largest digital radio network operator.
The combination of Trafficmaster’s real time traffic information which covers 95% of the UK’s motorways and trunk roads and advanced DAB tachnology, will enable their navigation devices to receive even more detailed road and traffic data.
Trafficmaster’s Digital Traffic Brodcast will compliment the existing range of channels which include: RDS,TMC & XML. Traffic data will also be used in the Trafficmaster Smartnav system.
BMW has launched a new 116d with a combined fuel consumption of 64.2 mpg and a CO2 emissions figure of 118 g/km. The new car is available in both 3 and 5 door guises and is powered by a four cylinder diesel engine producing 116 hp.
The 1995 cc engine is capable of hitting 10.2 seconds at zero to 62 mph for the 3 door and 10.3 for the five door.
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 Daily Mail has reported today that thousands of motorists are in “negative equity” on their car loans.
Many “car purchase” schemes structure their payments on a series of monthly instalments followed by a final payment at the end of the contract. You have to pay the final payment before you own the vehicle. But these final payments estimates, which were based on the future value of the vehicle, have been highly inaccurate compared to actual used car prices today.
The Daily Mail has estimated that the total shortfall could be as much as £272 million.
Comparecontracthire.com recommends that small businesses and private buyers look at contract hire before acquiring their next vehicle. With contract hire you never own the vehicle as all you do is pay a fixed monthly rental for an agreed period and mileage. The risk regarding the re-sale value of the vehicle rests entirely with the contract hire leasing company.
You can also build a payment into your monthly rental to cover all maintenance and servicing costs if you are worried about future unplanned bills.
During these tough economic times it is great to report that Kia has ended the year with a new car sales figure of 31,323, an increase of more than six per cent on 2007.
This is in a market where overall car registrations have fallen 11.3 % to 2.13 million vehicles. Kia’s winning package of modern, attractive and excellent value for money vehicles, appeal to motorists looking for a perfect package to suit their requirements in these tough times.
The Kia c’eed range leads the way with a remarkable seven year warranty.
Manheim Auctions has reported that the average wholesale values of used cars have plummeted by 21% during 2008.
Mike Pilkington, Managing Director of Manheim Auctions said ” We all know how tough 2008 has been, particularly in the second half, but we continue to sell cars in a market where there is still reasonable demand. This is good news for the market overall but we must recognise that prices are likely to remain at the current low levels for some time to come”.
Comparecontracthire.com recommends that before you buy your next car, think about how much money you will lose in three years or four years time when you come to sell it. Why take the risk of plummeting values when you can contract hire lease your next vehicle?
Contract hire provides provides fixed cost motoring and protection as you never own the vehicle.