After seven consecutive years of record new car sales in the UK Audi has started 2017 with a record three months of sales and a record new ‘17’ registration plate month of March. Having grown their model lines from 17 to 52 across 18 ranges in the last 16 years more new and revised models keep arriving. The latest arrivals are the A5/S5 … [Read more...]
Tradelines 12 April
McLaren Automotive is celebrating the beginning of full production of the new 720S supercar, with the completion of the ‘Job#1’ car. The move to full production marks the beginning of a new chapter in the McLaren Automotive story, as the second generation of the Super Series – codenamed ‘P14’ – replaces the first generation, ‘P11’ model family … [Read more...]
Newslines 7 April
The Western European passenger car market is said to have grown by 10.3% y/y during March, according to IHS Markit forecasts. The different timing of Easter between 2016 and 2017 has been a big driver to the growth during March, but other factors in key markets have also come into play and IHS Markit is forecasting a slowdown and a consolidation of … [Read more...]
Newslines 18 March
The first UK production of a class leading, state of the art, automotive hybrid transmission for prestige and high-performance vehicles will begin early in 2020. The initial £28M engineering program, part funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), has been running for nine months and is already entering the hardware test stage and hofer powertrain UK … [Read more...]
Newslines 18 February
Councils want part of the fuel duty ring-fenced to pay for pothole repairs, which they have blamed on the rise in larger lorries. The RAC has been campaigning for this for several years but disputes the LGA assumption the damage is due to bigger vehicles and says it's an historic problem and the alternative would be smaller but more lorries leading to … [Read more...]
Giving the Audi R8 a blast
Owners have always been able to make an impression with the Audi R8, but now they can also make their mark on one thanks to a new Audi-developed process for the partial matting of painted surfaces that enables virtually any lettering or graphics to be precisely ‘blasted’ into the painted surface of the car’s distinctive side-blades. A special powder … [Read more...]
Weekend review: 2016 in the mirror
The relentless rise of Sports Utility Vehicles seems to have dominated discussions among motoring writers, drivers and the industry during 2016 but it was a more familiar family-car which impressed just before the dawn of 2017. Looking back at our testing diary for the year and also the brief opportunities for some first drives in a host of cars, we … [Read more...]
Newslines 23 December
The wraps will come off an Audi Q8 concept at the Detroit motor show in January. The very wide and long coupe styled four-seater SUV has elements from a 1980s Audi concept but this new model will go into production against the forthcoming BMW X7 and it’s thought to share components with the sister-company Bentley SUV. Honda Motor has reached the 100 … [Read more...]
Best selling Audi A3 emissions probed
The latest best selling Audi A3 released excessive toxic diesel emissions in results from lab tests run by the European Commission and seen by Reuters, raising suspicions of wrongdoing at Volkswagen Group's luxury division. The results may embroil Audi, the main contributor to VW Group profit, further in the scandal that has engulfed the company since it … [Read more...]
“Right” & “wrong” cars curb house sales
If you're browsing the Sunday papers housing pages today, you could be a victim of a little appreciated fact that over a third of Brits would be put off a property by the cars parked outside. School catchment areas and transport links often come high on the list of factors when choosing a property, but new research shows that over a third (36%) of us … [Read more...]
