Renault Scenic

This question is often asked and is quite easy to explain if you know how a contract hire rental is made up. There are many factors that our leasing company partners consider when setting their contract hire rentals.

The number one factor is the residual value (re-sale value) they set for each vehicle. After that the other items considered is the amount they buy the car for, including volume bonuses (and this will vary), their monthly overhead in the rental, profit and interest, vehicle recovery (RAC cover) and maintenance cover, if you opt for full maintenance contract hire.

So don’t always assume that if a car costs more to buy that it may cost more to contract hire.

A great example of this are the following two MPVs, which we have shown contract hire rentals for on 3 years, non-maintained, 3+35 rentals and 10,000 miles annum i.e. like-for-like quotes.

The Renault Scenic has a manufacturer list price of £17,450 and The Citroen C3 Picasso a list price of £13,565 – a list price difference of £3,885.

Yet, the contract hire rental is the same for both cars at £209.00+VAT per month.

If you want to find out what other cars may cost less on contract hire , even though they may have higher prices to buy, try the Vehicle Type contract hire shopper, choose the type of car (i.e. MPVs), your monthly budget and then see what you can get for your money.

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).

Volvo S40 DRIVe

The cost of fuel continues to rise with another fuel rise expected in April 2011,so if you are looking for a new vehicle in 2011, looking at the fuel economy of a car (or van) will be critical in keeping your fleet costs down. One thing is for sure, fuel prices look set to rise, rather than fall.

For example, how many saloon cars offer a combined mpg of 60+ miles per gallon?

Well as at today’s date the answer is 48. And if you are looking for a 70+ combined mpg car then the Volvo S40 diesel saloon DRIVe (115) ES (SE and Lux trim too) 4-door saloon returns a remarkable 74.3 combined mpg.

How do we know?

Well, try the Vehicle Type Contract Hire Shopper, select your preferred body type, i.e. hatchback, saloon etc, tick “all manufacturers” and then from the Combined MPG button, select 60mpg and then leave the right hand button as “Upwards”. Then select the Business Contract Hire button at the bottom for your results to be displayed.

Here are some numbers for a few more 60+ combined mpg fuel efficient body styles……..

• Coupes = 40 models
• Estates = 198 models
• Hatchbacks= 600 models
• MPVs = 16 models
• Convertibles = 39 models
• Vans= 67 models

Continental tyres

Which? magazine has tested a total of 18 tyre brands and has voted Continental tyres as the best brand. The leading consumer magazine publication chose Continental tyres for their excellent dry grip and very good wet grip.

Which? said,”The Continental tyres we’ve tested cover eight sizes commonly used on popular superminis, medium cars, large cars and MPVs. All the Continental tyres we’ve tested offer balanced performance, have no major weaknesses and all make the Best Buy grade. In the dry, Continental tyres perform very well, and wet grip is balanced and safe in a stright line or in a bend”. Tyre safety is extremely important when driving your vehicle so choosing the right tyres and also keeping them at the right tyre pressure is essential.

Mumsnetters

Eight familes from Mumsnet, the influential parenting forum, where given several of the latest Ford MPVs and people carriers to test drive recently, with impressive results. Parents drove several Ford cars with the new smooth, economical, six-speed PowerShift automatic transmission. They also reviewed the Ford approved child seats using Ford’s integral ISOFIX fitting points.

Some of the comments on their blog were as follows;

• “I’ve driven a fair few people carriers in my time and have tried several of the newer ones on the market and frankly none of them compare to this. The Galaxy is the people carrier to beat now”.
• “As for the cabin, the kids were in heaven!”
• “We took out the 2.0 TDCi Titanium with the 163PS option. It was an auto with the new PowerShift transmission. It coped well with everything I threw at it, I could really appreciate the dual clutch- the changes were pretty much seamless”.
• “Engine was very responsive, with plenty of oomph when overtaking”.
• “I remembered my iPod so the kids could bop away to their playlists thanks to the connector in the glovebox”.

Mumsnetters love the Ford cabin area

Co-founder of Mumsnet, Carrie Longton said,”Ford are to be congratulated for realising that, more often than not, it’s mums who are driving the decision-making process on what family car to buy. Mumsnetters have been queuing up to take part in the test drives and are loving the opportunity to road test and offer feedback on these top-of-the-range Ford cars”. Ford business contract hire on the range is available now if you are a company car driver and are looking for a great family vehicle.

Moving Motor Show

This year’s 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed will now  have a one-day extension called the “Moving Motor Show” where new car buyers can preview a selection of models and even try them out, (strictly at the invitation of the car manufacturers attending). Most sectors of the new car market will be represented at the Moving Motor Show on Thursday the 1st July, from economy hatchbacks to MPVs, family saloons to SUVs and prestige limousines to supercars.

Manufacturers who have confirmed attendance include Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Jaguar, BMW, Abarth, Morgan, Volvo, Mazda, Rolls-Royce, Ford, Nissan and Alpina. The Festival of Speed attracts over 150,000 visitors every year over the three days and the cars from the manufacturers above will undertake hundreds of runs on a special evaluation route.