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.

Royal College of Art exhibition

The RAC Future Car Challenge starts on Saturday the 5th November and requires cars with different powertrains (hybrid, diesel, petrol, etc) to drive a 60-mile route from Brighton to London, using the least amount of energy. To compliment the current RAC challenge , the students at the Royal College of Art (RCA) have been asked to design their vision of what cars might look like in the year 2021.

The Vehicle Design centre at the RCA is the world’s leading centre for vehicle design, education and research and the exhibition will be on display until the end of November in the Hanging Room. Many of the UK’s top car designers studied at the RAC, which offers a dedicated postgraduate course in vehicle design. These include Ian Callum (Design Director, Jaguar), Ken Melville (Renault Design) and Simon Cox (Advanced Design- General Motors), to name just a few.

Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club Motoring Committee, commented “The Royal Automobile Club is very keen to support and encourage the talented designers in motor vehicle technology necessary for a sustainable future”.

New Twingo

Renault has released the first official image of its new Twingo which is the first mass production vehicle which will showcase the new brand identity of Renault. The front end has been completely changed while on the bonnet, the Renault logo has been enlarged and is in a more central, vertical position.

The new Twingo will be offically unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show on the 13th September, by their Chief Operating Officer, Carlos Tavares and we should load new Twingo Renault contract hire prices thereafter.

EcoVelocity Show 2011

The EcoVelocity UK eco motor show is being held at Battersea Power Station in London from Thursday the 8th to Sunday the 11th September. There will be a number of green low-CO2 cars, electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids on show, with manufacturers being represented including Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, SEAT, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.

EcoVelocity is going to be a fun interactive day out for all the family with the “SEAT youngs driver programme (11-16 year olds), Honda introducing motorcycling to young children, a Green Supercar paddock and also an Eco-Lab which delves into the science behind eco-motoring.

Gile Brown, Event Founder, commented,”In the absence of the British Motor Show in 2011, EcoVelocity will be the most important and definitely not to be missed motoring event of the year, showcasing the best real-world cars for real-world motorists at a single location”. If you are also thinking of leasing a low CO2 car try the Vehicle Type leasing shopper for a range of the latest models available.

Cobra is continuing its partnership with Volkswagen by providing Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles with a range of standard fit and optional accessories for the new Amarok pick-up. Every Amarok will come with the Thatcham approved Cobra 4405 alarm as standard.

In addition, Cobra has designed rear parking sensors that are standard on the Amarok Highline and as a cost option on other trim levels, to help drivers park in those tight spaces and avoid bumping or scratching their new pick-up.

Managing Director of Cobra UK, said,”We have worked with Volkswagen in the UK for 17 years and are very pleased to have been asked to help add some finishing touches to an already impressive vehicle”. 

Cobra is one of the leaders in security and safety solutions for the automotive industry and supplies services to Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Infiniti, Lamborghini, Maserati, Mitsubishi, Nissan,Porsche, Renault and Tesia. Vehicle leasing prices on these manufacturers can be found on the site now.

Renault Most Improved Fleet Manufacturer"

Renault has just won the title of “Most Improved Fleet Manufacturer” at the  2011 Fleet News Awards. They saw off competition from five other manufacturers, including BMW and Vauxhall, to claim the award.

The judges at Fleet News took into account the number of improvements that Renault had made to its fleet line-up, praising the manufacturer for its level of service, the quality of its range and reductions in the cost of ownership.

Fleet News commented,”Renault’s efforts in listening to what fleet operators want and going the extra mile to deliver it has resulted in a transformation of how it is now perceived in the industry. It launched the Renault Business Promise, aiming to improve the service for fleet operators, as well as implementing ways of driving down their costs. Although there was some tough competition this year, Renault has done the most to improve”. Renault contract hire leasing prices are available now on all cars and vans.

The ACEA economic report has announced that European total vehicle production in the EU rose by 15% in the first nine months of 2010, when compared to the same period in 2009. Car production rose by 13%, with vans expanding in all segments, in all three quarters as well.

The ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) was founded in 1991 and represents the interests of the sixteen European car, van, truck and bus manufacturers across Europe. The Association members include some of the major manufacturers, including the BMW Group, FIAT Group, Ford of Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group and Volvo Cars to name just a few.

These figures and other data can be found in the latest ACEA Economic Report published on the ACEA website.

Very Good Trip

Renault  is offering 16 lucky candidates the opportunity to drive across Europe in either a Wind Coupe-Roadster or a Renault Megane Coupe-Cabriolet in a free competition called the “Very Good Trip”. This reality TV adventure follows two teams from eight European countries, including the UK, driving across Europe with a TV crew capturing everything.

The competition is being held between the 14th June to the 9th July 2010 and finishes in Paris with the winners being presented two cars at L’Atelier Renault, on the Champs Elysees, Paris plus one year’s free fuel and insurance. All the contestants will also be supplied with a digital camera, laptop and 3G key so they can update their progress on Facebook, Twitter, Renault TV, Flick’r and YouTube .

To take part each pair of entrants must upload a video of themeselves lasting no more than 60 seconds onto www.renault.co.uk/verygoodtrip to tell Renault why you should be chosen for this trip of a lifetime. The site opens on Wednesday the 7th April at 13.00 BST and closes on the 14th May at 23.00.

Used Car Expert, the leading used car magazine, has undertaken an analysis of the depreciation of small family hatchbacks (1.6-litre petrol or comparable engine) and has discovered some interesting results. They looked at the resale value of three year old values against their new price, with 30,000 miles on the clock.

They found that many new car buyers will have lost up to 50% of their money in this time. Depreciation is never on most people’s minds when they buy a new car and this is why business car leasing is becoming more popular with many small businesses, as the risk around depreciation is with the vehicle leasing company.

• New car prices are an approximate guide price of the price paid for a new car 3 years ago

JATO Dynamics, a leading vehicle information provider, has revealed how small cars are driving down CO2 emissions across Europe. Volume weighted average CO2 emissions across all models and segments fell by 7.9g/km last year, with the three lowest bands increasing market share.

In particular, car manufacturers producing vehicles in the 101-120g/km segment experienced a market share increase of 8.9%, moving from 16.7% to 25.6%. This market trend has been guided by the popularity of small cars in the various car scrappage schemes operated by many European countries.

The most improved brand for reducing CO2 emissions is Ferrari, reducing volume weighted CO2 emissions by 53.6g/km with Porsche coming in at second reducing by 27.5g/km (mainly due to the Cayenne Diesel).

However Fiat remains top of the lowest overall brand for CO2 topping the league with an average 127.8k/km. In second place is Toyota at 130.1g/km with Peugeot in third place at 133.6g/km.

Interestingly in the volume weighted average CO2 emissons league table, Audi is a new entrant at ninth, mainly due to the strong sales of the Audi A3 and reducing CO2 emissions across the range particularly on the high volume A4 2.0-litre TDI. The full league table is below and if you are looking for a low CO2 car try the Super Shopper where you can select by manufacturers and CO2 ranges.