Double-digit growth in demand for British-built cars last month helped deliver the biggest February for UK car production in 17 years, said the SMMT. UK production lines turned out one car every 16 seconds in the month, with total output of 153,041 up 8.0%, as exports grew 13.4% to 118,898 units. The performance helped to drive overall year-to-date … [Read more...]
Tradelines 8 March
The next Corsa has been delayed and is likely to be based on the forthcoming baby Peugeot/ Citroen models. It could be the first model produced under the new PSA ownership of Vauxhall and Opel in 2020. The MINI does not have to be built in Britain to make it a success, said boss Peter Schwarzenbauer. He was speaking at the Geneva motor show and said … [Read more...]
Women don’t like men with a Mini, or BMW
It’s no secret that studies often find that women consider men who drive expensive cars more attractive, but what about the cars they find least attractive? New research revealed that the Mini topped the list with just 5% of women saying that they found men driving Mini’s attractive. The survey, conducted by OSV Ltd, the UK's … [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...]
Tradelines 15 February
Mitsubishi has named its all-new SUV “Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross” before it appears next month at the Geneva motor show. As befits its sharp, coupé-like contours, the Eclipse Cross name references the Eclipse sports car which amassed more than 1.4 million sales, mainly in North America between 1989 and 2012, while also referring to the cross-functional SUV … [Read more...]
Newslines 3 February
Germany's auto industry is losing hope that trade tariffs with the UK can be avoided, several executives have told Reuters, despite warnings from British Prime Minister Theresa May that an overly tough stance on post-Brexit commerce would seriously harm the country's EU partners. " Merkel may force us to walk away from UK profits for the sake of … [Read more...]
BMW & Toyota plans for plants
BMW will build its X1 SUV at a Dutch contract manufacturer that also produces some of the automaker's Mini models. The new X1 production will begin in August at the VDL Nedcar plant in Born, Netherlands, and global markets will be served from here and Regensburg, German plant. Meanwhile, Toyota will add 400 jobs to build more SUVs at one of its US … [Read more...]
Car market is thermometer of UK economy
It has been a year of ups and downs for the economy. The first half of 2016 was dominated by uncertainty in the lead up to the EU Referendum, which caused many businesses to halt investing and hiring until the result of the vote was known. Once the result for Brexit was confirmed, this understandably shook the economy and caused several industries to … [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...]
“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...]
