Range Rover Evoque

Stuff Magazine has just voted the Range Rover Evoque as “Car of the Year” in the technology award ceremony held at the Globe Theatre in London. The Evoque fought off stiff competition from other cars like the Ford Focus, Ferrari FF, Renault Twizy, Nissan LEAF and Mini Coupe and was judged on technology, design and style.

The Range Rover Evoque scored top honours in the car of the year category for some of its innovative technology, including Terrain Response (providing all weather/all terrain capability) and Adaptive Dynamics with Magnaride (giving an ever compliant ride). Other technical features praised were the Dual Screen technology that permits the driver and passenger to see two different images on the same screen (at the same time) and the 825W Meridian audio system.

Will Findlater, Stuff Magazine Editor, said,”For combining the off-road capabilities of a Range Rover and leading technology with the desirability of a Blade Runner space car, the Range Rover Evoque just had to win it for us”. The full Range Rover Evoque car range is available on car leasing, off the site quote engines.

CLICK for the lease contact details

The new Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi 115bhp Zetec 5-door diesel hatchback is currently available off the site from only £178.97+VAT per month on Ford business car lease. This superb car offers you 67.3 combined mpg, emits 109g/km of CO2 and would make an ideal company car for any small business.

The terms of the offer are based on a 4-year contract, 6 rentals in advance followed by 47 payments, non maintained business car lease, 10,000 miles per annum, plus free metallic paint. Other terms are available so fill out a Contact Form today.

Range Rover Evoque

The Range Rover Evoque has been awarded the top motoring accolade at the 2011 Scottish Car of Year Awards, winning the overall title of ”Scottish Car of the Year”. The Range Rover Evoque first had to win its own category (SUV/Crossover), then beating off rivals from 11 other category winners in a final vote. The BMW X3 came in at second position in the SUV/Crossover category.

Other notable winners in the 2011 SCOTY awards were the Kia Picanto (Small Car), Ford Focus (Family), Seat Alhambra (MPV), Hyundai i40 (Estate), Audi A7 (Executive), Peugeot iON (Electric), Jaguar XKR-S (Sporting), Jaguar XF 2.2d (Diesel), VW Golf (Drop Top), Seat Ibiza Ecomotive (Eco) and of course the Evoque in the SUV/Crossover category.

John Murdoch, President of the Association of Scottish Motor Writers, said,”One car stood out from all the others with its stylish good looks, sound packaging, fine driving dynamics and desirability and the Range Rover Evoque is a worthy winner of the Scottish Car of the Year title. With 18,000 advanced orders already in the bag it will provide job security for hundreds of people and generate huge exports for the British economy”.

We have the full rage of Range Rover Evoque cars on the site now on car leasing if you are interested.

Ford all-digital car entertainment

Ford is moving towards all-digital in-car entertainment as the sales of CDs continue to fall in the UK by 35% (between 2006-2010), while the number of digital album sales increased by more than seven-fold. Every new Ford Focus is now equipped with an auxiliary input socket for connecting MP3 devices and Bluetooth for wireless connection.

Ford is now extending the availability of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio to UK customers (already standard on C-MAX, Grand C-MAX and all-new Focus models), while Ford SYNC will deliver customers a completely new level of connectivity in future models from 2012.

Ralf Brosig, multimedia manager,Ford of Europe, said,”Ford will obviously continue to offer CD players while there is a demand. However over time we expect customer preferences will lead us quickly into an all-digital approach to in-car audio entertainment”.

The new Ford SYNC with MyFord Touch system (due in 2012) will cater for the demands of tech-savvy customers with a sophisticated multimedia infotainment hub providing connectivity options including multiple USB inputs, SD card ports, RCA inputs and Bluetooth connectivity. The system also acts as a wireless hotspot (password-protected) for up to five devices providing connectivity through USB or mobile phone broadband modems, allowing access in the future to “cloud computing” services.

Ford Model Y

Ford has been releasing a series of photographs on a weekly basis to celebrate their centenary and one that catches the eye this week is when Ford advertised a four-seater car for just £100. The £100 Model Y is credited with helping to turn round the fortunes of Ford’s Dagenham plant which opened in 1931 and this advert shows the simplicity of adverts at that time.

Moving swiftly on to the launch of the 2008 Focus which was the UK’s best-selling car at the time, and the traditional advertising was complimented with an orchestra playing instruments from genuine Ford components.

Ford parts

Now however with the growth of the internet and social media everything seems to be going online and the recent Ford Explorer has been launched via Facebook and Doug, the Ford spokespuppet. If you want to look at Doug you can find him at -

www.youtube.com/focusdoug

Ford Focus testing on potholes

The Government has recently confirmed an extra £100 million for fixing the potholes in Britain’s roads, however Ford is confident that its rigourous suspension testing will ensure its cars continue to cope well with hazardous UK roads. Ford engineers test and develop chassis and suspension systems at Dunton Technical Centre and at the Lommel Proving Ground in Belguim.

Ford cars and vans undergo a series of “real-world” running tests on 50 miles of test tracks, including many miles designed to put the suspension systems through the toughest of road surface trials. Simon Mooney, test engineer, Dunton Technical Centre, explains,”The challenge for the suspension system comes when it exits the pothole - it can be like hitting a kerbstone. We test all the wheel and tyre sizes that are fitted to production cars so we know they can cope”.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has released the data on new car registrations for February 2011. The numbers fell less than expected due to strong demand from fleet customers, however overall the market dropped 7.7% to 63,424 units. Registrations over the first two months of 2011 were down by 10.2% to 192,235 units.

Fleet volumes recovered in February by 8.6% but private registrations continued to decline to 22,584, a fall of 26.7%. Demand for the mini and supermini segment cars also continued to fall, but registrations of executive, luxury saloon, sports cars and MPVs showed a double digit growth in the month. Diesel market share was 50% in the month, rising by 8.9% and the Volkswagen Golf was the best seller, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa (2nd) and Ford Focus (3rd).

New Vauxhall models

Vauxhall is expecting strong sales for the new 61 vehicle registration plate, with a batch of new models on offer – the Antara, Corsa MCE, Astra ES Tech and VXR8, with all cars benefiting from Vauxhall’s 100,000 mile Lifetime Warranty.

The Vauxhall Antara SUV comes with an updated diesel engine range and has been refreshed both inside and out with prices reduced, compared to the outgoing model. The Corsa range has eight sub-100g/km models that are eligible for London’s new Greener Vehicle Discount and there is also an exciting new colour palette available, which includes Lime Green pearlescent, Chilli Orange metallic and Guacamole.

Vauxhall Antara

The new value-for-money Astra ES Tech is taking on the new Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf and even the entry level Astra ES Tech model comes with CD500 Satnav system, Bluetooth, DAB radio, 17-inch alloys and aircon as standard options.

If you fancy something with more power then perhaps the 431PS VRX8 rear-drive saloon may be on your shopping list. Either way we have Vauxhall business contract hire leasing pricing on the site now on all Vauxhall models.

New car registrations fell by 11.5% in January to 128,811 units which was in line with the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturer’s and Traders) expectations. Interestingly the market share for cars with a CO2 figure of less than 100g/km increased again by 65% . Average new car CO2 emissions were 141.5g/km which compares favourably to the figure in 2010, which was 144.2g/km.

Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive commented,”New car registrations fell by 11.5% in January. This is in line with SMMT forecasts and marks the beginning of a challenging year for the UK motor industry. Consumer confidence is low and it is important that government uses the March budget to help relieve some of the financial pressure on motorists by freezing fuel duty,while providing stability and certainty on motoring taxes. Despite the challenging conditions, the demand for low CO2 emitting and highly fuel efficient cars continues to grow”.

Some other interesting facts;

• In terms of market sector, Private Registrations were down by 20.8% to 51,570, Fleet (25+fleets) is down by 3.1% to 70,448 and the Business sector (under 25 fleets) fell by 11.1% to  6,793.
• Diesel new car registrations continued to grow with 65,079 vehicles registered, an increase of 8.3% year on year.
• Petrol cars fell by 25.9% (61,932 units) and AFVs (alternatively fuelled vehicles) by 2.4% (1,800 vehicles).
• The top selling car in the UK was the Ford Focus, followed by the Ford Fiesta and then the Vauxhall Astra.
• Demand for the mini and supermini segments fell (following the loss of the Scrappage Incentive Scheme) however demand for executive, luxury, MPV and dual purpose segments cars recovered strongly.

Further details can be found at the SMMT website.

The SMMT has released the data on new car registrations which fell by 11.5% in November to 139,875 units. This was ahead of the forecast and new car market registrations remain up by 3.4% over the first 11 months of the year, at 1,907,029 units. The final 2010 year figure is expected to be around the 2.03 million unit mark, up by 2% on the 2009 figure. The SMMT also forecasts that the market will fall in 2011 by 5% to 1.93 million units as consumers and businesses alike react to the impact of the Government’s austerity measures and the squeeze on spending.

The market is still trying to adjust to the removal of the Car Scrappage Incentive Scheme, however the better than expected performance was due to an improvement in the fleet volume sector (25+ vehicles), which was up by 10.7% over the year to date numbers.

Diesel car volumes also rose sharply to 53% in November, plus alternatively fuelled cars jumped by 83.5% in the month to gain an overall market share of 1.3% of the November car registrations. The Ford Fiesta was once again the top seller in the month, followed by the Ford Focus and the Volkswagen Golf. Year-to-date the top three sellers are the Ford Fiesta (98,453 units), Vauxhall Astra (75,276) and Ford Focus (73,973).

Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive, said,”New car registrations fell by less than expected in November with demand from the fleet sector helping to offset the market rebalancing following the end of the Scrappage Incentive Scheme. Registrations are expected to fall next month, but demand may benefit from motorists looking to avoid the January VAT rise. This factor, coupled with the strength of the first half of 2010, means year-end volumes are expected to lift to over 2.03 million units, 2% up from last year. Next year will continue to be challenging as consumer spending tightens and government’s austerity measures take effect”.