Ford Mondeo

The Ford Mondeo was recognised as the Best Family and best Estate Car at the 2012 What Car? Awards. This is the second consecutive year that Ford has won these titles.

• The Ford Mondeo 1.6 TDCi 115PS Zetec won the Best Family award
• The Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 140PS Zetec was voted the best Estate Car

The Zetec range is one of Ford’s best sellers accounting for 38 per cent of sales in the UK and the cars come with a great list of standard specification.

This includes 16-inch alloy wheels, advanced Bluetooth hands-free and voice control system, cruise control, adjustable speed limiter, Quick Clear heated windscreen, leather trimmed steering wheel and gear knob, electronic stability programme with traction control and Emergency Brake Assist, Thatcham alarm and electrically operating and heated door mirrors.

The Ford Mondeo 1.6 TDCi engine with auto start-stop as standard also returns over 65mpg and emits only 114g/km of CO2. If you prefer a petrol engine then the turbocharged 1.6-litre EcoBoost delivers 41.5 mpg and emits 149g/km of CO2.

Chas Hallet, editor of What Car? said,”The Ford Mondeo has plenty of fresh rivals, but it’s such a strong package that it picks up two more awards this year, for best estate car and top family car. Ford has worked hard to keep the Mondeo refreshed and it has succeeded: this is still a great all-round package, either as a hatchback or an estate”.

Contract hire offer

The Ford Fiesta is the nation’s favourite seller and we have contract hire prices for business leasing on the site from only £119.93+VAT. This rate is for the Ford Fiesta 1.25 Studio 3-door hatchback and is based on a three-year contract, 10,000 miles per annum, non-maintained, with a six rentals in advance payment, followed by 23 subsequent payments. 

If you are looking for affordable motoring then the Ford Fiesta 1.25 Studio returns 51.4 combined mpg and emits 127g/km of CO2, so it’s not only tax efficient but economical too. Other terms are available from our car finance partner so fill out a Contact Form today for more information.

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.

New Ford Mondeo

Ford has revealed their new all-new Ford Fusion, in North America, which will be the new Ford Mondeo when launched in the Europe, in the first quarter of 2013. This important fleet company car will be the first saloon to offer petrol, hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains when launched, and will offer top fuel economy.

The new Mondeo features a sleek silhouette and fresh face and will include numerous Ford technologies including a Lane Keeping System, adapative cruise control, active park assist, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) and SYNC^® communications and entertainment system, which enables voice-activated communication through a driver’s mobile phone and interaction with the car’s audio system.

In addition the car features the latest version of MyFord Touch^®, allowing a driver to interact with other vehicle systems through voice control, a touch screen tap or a conventional button.

New Ford Mondeo

Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of Global Product Development, said,”We brought our global teams together around a blank slate with the charge to develop a midsize car with ground-breaking design and jaw-dropping fuel economy-one that featured technologies to help our customers safer and better drivers. This car is the result”.

Ford commercial vehicles

Ford’s centenary year has finished in style with the brand closing 2011 as the UK market leader, selling 265,894 cars, as final 2011 sales figures are released by the SMMT. Their top-selling vehicle range secured 15 per cent of the UK’s total 2011 market and there were also some other notable highlights in a tough trading year.

• They are the number one UK car brand for 35 successive years, with the Ford Fiesta the best seller for the third successive year, selling 96,112 vehicles.
• Ford commercial vehicles record sales increases compared to 2010 and the Transit remains the UK’s favourite van.
• The new Ford Focus (77,804 to 81,832 units) and C-MAX (8,357  to 18,925 units) ranges also recorded significant sales and share increases, when compared to 2010.
• The Ford Transit totalled 71,607 units, up from 62,308 in 2010. Ford Fiesta Van, Ford Transit Connect and Ford Ranger also saw sales increases.

Ford Fiesta

Mark Ovenden, Ford Britain managing director, said,”Ford’s 2011 sales performance benefitted from a combination of our best-ever range of vehicles, advanced technology engines, including the new low-CO2 EcoBoost engines, and the unrivalled strength of our dealer network”.

Mr Ovenden went on to say,”More  people choose Ford over any other vehicle brand in the UK and as we face economic uncertainty and intense competition in 2012 we will look to satisfy the needs of our private and business customers through the introduction of a number of new models and technologies, starting with the launch of the new Ford Ranger and the introduction of the 1.0-litre, three-cylinder EcoBoost engine in Ford Focus”.

The full range of Ford cars and vans are on the site now on Ford contract hire.

Click for more details

A Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi Zetec S 5-door diesel hatchback has just been loaded onto the site from only £204.31+VAT per month on Ford business car leasing. This quality Ford hatchback returns 67.3 combined mpg and emits only 109g/km so it is an ideal company car for any fleet driver and is highly fuel efficient.

The terms of the special offer offer are based on a 4-year term, 6 rentals in advance, non-maintained contract,10,000 miles per annum and other terms are available from our car finance partner on request. If you are interested in finding our more details just fill out the Contact Form.

Ford Fiesta

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has just announced the December 2011 and 2011 full year new car registration figures, with the market down 4.4% at 1.94 million units sold. This was ahead of the 1.92 million forecast number however.

The December numbers fell by 3.7% year-on-year, at 119,188 units, and diesel and alternatively fuelled cars took record market shares over the year, as motorists look for best fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions.

The average new car CO2 emissions figure fell to a new low of 138.1g/km, which is down 4.2% on the 2010 number of 144.2g/km of CO2 and 23.7% below the 2000 figure of 181.0g/km.

Other highlights;

• Fleet sales maintained the new car registrations levels with a 4.7% growth year on year, from 973,233 in 2010 to 1,019,126 in 2011.
• Private registrations fell by 14.1% for the year from 958,005 to 823,094.
• Business (sub-25 fleet) registrations were flat (99,608 in 2010 to 99,033 in 2011).
• Diesel volumes outsold petrol cars for the first time.
• The Ford Fiesta was the best selling car in 2011, with the Volkswagen Golf the best selling diesel model.

Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive, commented,”2011 proved to be a challenging year for the UK motor industry. Total new car registrations were slightly ahead of industry expectations at 1.94 million units, still down 4.4% on 2010. Weak economic growth will make trading conditions tough in 2012, but record numbers of new and updated models, significantly improved fuel efficiency and exciting new technologies will help to encourage consumers into showrooms. Business and consumer confidence will be the key to a successful year, so it will be important that government delivers on its growth strategy and helps to resolve instability in the Euro Zone”.

If you are looking to contract hire a new car in 2012 and want to find the best model for your money, with the lowest CO2 emissions and best fuel economy then do try our Vehicle Type Shopper. You can select how much you want to spend, your CO2 ranges and the best fuel efficient cars too.

Click for the personal contract hire offer

The Ford Fiesta is one of the UK’s best sellers and we have a Ford Fiesta 1.25 Studio 3-door hatchback personal contract hire with maintenance special offer on the site, from only £167.04 including VAT. That’s around £42 a week to drive a brand new Ford Fiesta for the New Year. Best of all its a fully maintained contract too, so all routine servicing, vehicle excise duty (RFL), mechanical repair, tyres , batteries and exhausts is covered by the contract as well.

The terms of the offer are based on a two year contract period, 6 rentals in advance, 10,000 miles per annum with full maintenance cover included. Other terms are available from our car finance partner. Combined mpg is 51.4 and CO2 emissions are just 127g/km so it’s pretty economical as well as affordable too.

Sat Nav with no visual impairment

Ford has joined forces with Cambridge University to gain a better understanding of visual impairment issues that come with an ageing society and to use various digital tools to better design vehicles for those drivers with vision problems. The special software enables Ford’s engineers to see instrument clusters through the eyes of someone with vision impairment

The World Health Organisation has reported that 285 million people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment. Of these, about 65 per cent are aged 50 and over, and with a rapidly ageing population, the number of visually impaired is expected to grow.

Sat Nav with Red Green Colour Blindness

As you get older, the ability to see fine details deteriorates, as does the ability to see in the dark. This means that many drivers can struggle to read the vehicle instrument cluster while driving, unless they have bifocal or varifocal glasses. Other eye conditions, such as glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are also prevalent among those at 50 years of age and older.

“Visual impairment is a natural part of ageing and affects many millions of people around the world,” said Angelika Engel, ergonomics attribute specialist at Ford of Europe. “But because it is such a gradual process, it can often go unnoticed for many years. We tend to subconsciously look around the problem until it reaches a point where it is so severe that it can no longer be ignored. Even conditions like AMD and glaucoma can come on very slowly.”

Ford concept sleigh design

Ford has created a concept sleigh design aimed at helping Santa Claus reduce his CO2 emissions this evening. The new concept sleigh would involve Santa retiring his reindeers for the evening and using Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, which Ford calculates would reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90 per cent. According to Ford, Santa’s reindeers create many tons of CO2, travelling some 200,237,360 km at Xmas.

Paul Wraith, Ford car designer, said,They may look cute, but Santa’s team of nine reindeer create a staggering 214,670 tons of CO2 equivalent CO2 emissions each year, so something had to be done to help him re-discover his greener roots”.

Santa Claus was not available for comment as he is busily preparing for this evening, however Mrs Santa Claus said,”I am not looking forward to telling Donner and Blizten the news, but the polar bears in the North Pole will certainly welcome the Ford Eco-Boost-powered sleigh”.

The redesigned Ford sleigh also incorporates other cutting edge Ford technologies. Highlights include:

• Active park assist: Clever technology that first checks if a parking space is big enough, then automatically steers your car/sleigh in. Useful for Santa Claus when making those tight reverse rooftop landings.
• Door edge protector: A simple, but ingenious addition to Ford doors, helping prevent dents, dings and scratches even in the tightest parking spot. Vital to help Santa stop scratching the door of his sleigh on all those chimneys.
• SYNC: A sophisticated in-car, voice-activated technology system, that can be easily personalised.  This will help Santa Claus keep in touch with the elves back at base, stay en route with GPS navigation and enable him to listen to and change, his favourite Christmas music.
• EcoMode: In-car software that provides useful advice for drivers on achieving better fuel economy tailored to their individual driving styles.  A specially modified version of the software will include an electronic Christmas tree image. The better Santa’s green driving performance, the more of the trees branch symbols will light-up.
• Active City Stop & Blind Spot Information System: Two driver assistance technologies, the first assists drivers in slow moving traffic by detecting if the car in front unexpectedly stops and braking automatically in response, whilst the second helps detect vehicles in blind spots during normal driving. Both will be useful to Santa, as he tries to avoid planes in our increasingly crowded skies.
• MyKey: Enabling car owners to encourage their teenagers (or elves) to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, with increased safety-belt usage, through a range of driver specific configurable features.
• 1 litre EcoBoost engine: As outlined, helping ensure the engine powering Santa’s sleigh is green, lean, mean and compact.