Nissan Qashqai 1.6 Visia

The Nissan Qashqai has just been awarded the title of “What Car? Used Car of the Year 2011” with the British built car being praised for its styling, price, family-friendly cabin, Euro NCAP 5-star safety rating, low running costs, comfortable ride and dependability.

In addition, the Jaguar XF won the award for the best used car in the Executive and Luxury class, beating off rivals from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The winners in their respective sectors are listed below and the seven-strong What Car? judging panel was made up from all areas of the motor industry, including car dealerships, British Car Auctions, Warranty Direct, Lex Autolease and experts from What Car?

They looked at a number of factors when considering buying a used car including running costs, reliability, driveability, quality, longevity, safety features and desirability. Don’t forget if you are thinking of buying a used car to also consider the new MoT rules that come into effect on the 1st January 2012, as items like ESC (Electronic Stability Control) will now form part of the MoT test and repair costs for used cars may become more costly with these features.

What Car? Used Car Winners

• Supermini – Ford Fiesta 1.25i Style+ 5-door
• Small family car – Nissan Qasqhai 1.6 Visia
• Family car – Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Zetec 5-door
• Estate – Volkswagen Passat 1.9 TDI SE
• MPV – Ford S-Max 2.0 TDCi Zetec
• SUV – Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 CRTD CDX 7-seater
• Executive and luxury – Jaguar 2.7D V6
• Sports car – Porsche Boxster 2.7
• Green car – Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI SE 5-door

Overall winner- Nissan Qashqai 1.6 Visia.

If you are a small business and may be looking at buying a used Nissan Qashqai, you might also be interested in leasing a brand new one? We have the Nissan Qashqai 1.5dCi Acenta 110bhp 5-door on the site now on Nissan Qashqai car leasing from only £185.59+VAT per month. This is based on a 2-year contract, 6 rentals in advance, 10,000 miles per annum and non-maintained car leasing.

VW Scirocco

Volkswagen has just announced that the Scirocco coupe and Passat CC will see BlueMotion models added to the range, offering even better fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions.

VW Passat CC

The entry level Scirocco and GT trim now feature BlueMotion technology using the 2.0-litre 140 PS diesel TDI engine with Stop/Start and battery regeneration now on offer.

The new models will be available in either a six-speed manual tranmission or optional DSG six-speed gearbox. In addition improvements have been made to the 2.0-litre TDI 170PS engine fitted to the Scirocco GT as well, with performance data on the range below.

The Passat CC line-up has also been updated with BlueMotion technology and Volkswagen car leasing on all the new models should be loaded shortly.

Bosch Start/Stop technology

Bosch has announced that Start/Stop technology, which is usually only available on manual cars, is now available for automatic vehicles. They have sold over 1.5 million Start/Stop systems since 2007 and the technology has now been adapted and is already available in cars like the Volkswagen Passat, the Porsche Panamera (with dual clutch transmission), the Fiat 500 (in combination with automated manual transmission) and in the Audi A8 with a torque converter clutch.

In vehicles with automatic transmission the start/stop function is really easy to use. When the driver steps on the brake pedal (and as soon as the car stops), the engine stops automatically and then starts again when the brake pedal is released. This sounds really simple but for the Bosch engineers it was a real challenge to make the start process faster and more dynamic.

CLICK TO QUOTE

The BlueMOTION Volkswagen Passat is ideal for any company car driver with its low CO2 emissions. Our Volkswagen Passat 2.0D Diesel BlueMOTION 2 TDI CR DPF 110 4-door saloon business contract hire offer starts from only £269+VAT per month. This Volkswagen saloon offers you 57.6mpg and only 128g/km CO2 so is ideal if you are looking for a quality, economical, German saloon.

The Volkswagen business contract hire terms are based on the following;

- Non-maintained business contract hire over a three year term at 10,000 miles per annum.

- 3 rentals in advance followed by thirty-five subsequent rentals (38 payments in total)

- “With maintenance”, metallic paint and other vehicle options can be added at an extra cost.

- The image shown may not represent the exact model.