As the UK enters a third national lockdown, Kwik Fit is encouraging drivers to include some key car care measures into their lockdown routine to save their vehicles from damage. In normal years, the fact that cars make fewer journeys over the Christmas holidays always leads to a spike in battery problems in the first weeks of January, helping to make battery problems the number cause of … [Read more...]
Brexit deal “unanswered questions” is concerning, says trade
The new, “thin” Brexit deal that is now in effect leaves many unanswered questions that could have serious implications for the UK motor industry, warns the Vehicle Remarketing Association. The trade organisation says that several key points surrounding the future of manufacturing and cross-border movement of vehicles remain vague or undefined. Sam Watkins (right), chair at the VRA, said, “Let’s … [Read more...]
BEVs boosted to over 200,000 on UK roads
It has been a landmark 12 months for electric cars, says the RAC. Despite the wider car industry suffering badly from the effects of the pandemic, 2020 was a landmark when it came to sales of battery electric vehicles with twice as many sold last year compared to the year before, and a total of more than 200,000 registered since 2010, shows analysis of SMMT figures by the RAC. December alone saw … [Read more...]
Vauxhall Corsa is most popular car in Wales
Welsh motorists drove off in 59,594 new cars last year, a 24.72% drop on 2019. It was the smallest decline of the home nations, which returned their worst total in 28 years and the steepest decline since WW2, said the SMMT. In the UK last year 1,627,124 new cars were registered and over 1.4 M of those were in England, but even so it saw the steepest drop in business with a decline of … [Read more...]
EVs on charge in collapsed UK market
The UK new car market fell almost a third last year with registrations dropping 29.4% to 1,631,064 units, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders today. A -10.9% decline in December wrapped up a turbulent year, which saw demand fall by 680,076 units over 12-months to the lowest level of registrations since 1992. Against a backdrop of Covid restrictions, an acceleration of … [Read more...]
Five myths about road gritting are busted.
The onset of winter sees the return of gritting lorries on roads across the UK. In addition to clearing snow and ice, specialist operators The Gritting Company is keen to dispel five myths about road gritting: Myth 1: “The winter wagons contain grit.” Untrue. It’s not grit, it’s salt. The small stones that make up grit can leave a sticky residue with the risk of a slippery road … [Read more...]
Supermarkets cashing in on motorists, says RAC
Three of four supermarket retailers increase their prices by 3p a litre despite wholesale price only rising by just over a penny a litre. The price of fuel rose by 2p a litre in December as a result of three of the UK’s major supermarkets putting up their prices well above the increase seen on the wholesale market, data from RAC Fuel Watch shows. The average price of petrol went up from 114.39p … [Read more...]
EV drivers pull plugs on diesel and petrol engines
A new poll of Zap-Map’s community of electric vehicle drivers has revealed more than 90% of drivers will not be replacing their current EV with a petrol and diesel vehicle. The results are strong evidence of the fundamental shift in consumer attitudes in favour of environmentally friendly cars. In the poll, which was carried out in November 2020 with over 2,000 respondents, 91% said “no thanks” … [Read more...]
When a car is not enough
The Ford Transit van entered the best-selling used car list for the first time in 2020, in a year in which online deliveries grew substantially, says AA Cars, the AA’s used car website. The Ford Transit was the ninth best-selling used vehicle of 2020, as a growing number of people who had lost work or been made redundant turned to delivery driving to bolster their income. With millions of … [Read more...]
Newslines 5 January
Revolution Campervans, which produces campers on new or used VW Transporters, has witnessed a noticeable trend in 2020 of customers buying them as somewhere to work from home and as a mobile office – then doubling as a base for camping adventures and staycations. One customer was Chris Edge (above), the operations director of a house building company near Swansea, bought his Revolution VW camper … [Read more...]