Traditional mechanical parking brakes are slackening their appeal and dying out as car manufacturers ditch them in favour of electronic parking brakes, according to CarGurus.It found that just 24% of new cars on sale in the UK today come with a manually operated handbrake, falling even further from 30% recorded last year.Some popular models, including the BMW 1 series and 3 … [Read more...]
Newslines 7 September
Dacia unveils the All-New Sandero, All-New Sandero Stepway and All-New Logan, third generation models with completely new, reinvented designs at the end of this month. They new series based on a modern Renault platform will be more striking in appearance and offer new equipment and trim. Vauxhall Motors’ famous Heritage Collection is selling 11 of its vehicles due to space constraints, prior to … [Read more...]
Newslines 4 September
Volta Trucks unveiled on Thursday its Volta Zero, a 16-tonne electric truck, with plans to start production in 2022 in the United Kingdom. Trials will start next year with parcel delivery companies such as DPDgroup in the UK and other firms in Europe and Volta aims to put 500 vehicles on the road by 2022, CEO Rob Fowler told Reuters. Honda and General Motors will make a range of vehicles in … [Read more...]
Vauxhall Corsa tops in Wales while MGZS is best Crossover
New car sales figures released yesterday show Welsh dealers suffered slightly more than their UK colleagues. The national sales downturn was 35%, those in Wales dipped 38.07% as totals slipped from 7,754 in June 2019 to 4,802 this year and best seller in Wales was once again the Vauxhall Corsa (right). Second and third were the Toyota Yaris and Ford Fiesta, which has been the best seller in … [Read more...]
Tradelines 17 June
Over 1,000 temporary contractor jobs are going at JLR as the executive car maker struggles to control losses as a result of the global pandemic hitting sales and it saw a downturn of £501 Million in the first quarter of the year. It has raised its cost cutting target by £1 Billion as it seeks to save £5 Billion by March including slashing capital spending by £500 Million. There were more … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: On the road and in the news 7 June
Although the lockdown measures have eased with some people already back at work, or they should be working from home, some schools in England open for some age groups, most car dealerships ready for business with some car manufacturing plants already producing vehicles even if in limited amounts and sporting events happening again under restrictive measures, we are slowly easing back into working … [Read more...]
Welsh car dealers doing better than expected
New car sales have faired better in Wales than the rest of the country this year. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show sales so far this year in Wales amounted to 19,042, some 45.5% below the same five months in 2019 but a smaller dip than England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, however only 685 cars were registered last month about tenth of the number in May 2019. The top ten in … [Read more...]
Newslines 4 June
Volkswagen has resurrected the name ‘shooting brake’ for an estate version of its heavily revised Arteon model, alongside a new four-door coupe which will both be unveiled on 24 June.VW say they will have new high-technology powertrains and intelligent comfort and driver assistance systems.A new-look KIA Picanato is in Britain later this year.Refreshed GT-Line and X-Line petrol models … [Read more...]
Virus spreads to car sales in Wales
Coronavirus chaos hit the Welsh new car market with devastating effect last month. The traditional leaders and also rans have been swept away and replaced by many unexpected models. The successes included supercars in the sales chart compiled by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Dealers who managed to take advance orders for new models and get them registered in the first two … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: On the road and in the news 26 April
As the COVID-19 lock-down continues for another three weeks at least the motoring world needs to carry on, as does our service to supply interesting news items you may have overlooked. Here are a few I have selected for this week’s news briefing.Still ‘Moving the Metal’ via on-line virtual showrooms Numerous car brands are now operating virtual on-line tours and dialogues with potential … [Read more...]
