The Kia Sportage is blazing a trail as the latest recruit to join Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. Covering nearly 12,000 square kilometers - almost two-thirds of Wales it is served by 58 stations across six counties and MAWWFRS attends around 255 incidents weekly on average. The five Kia Sportage PHEV ‘GT-Line’ in eye-catching infra-red paint, were bought from business specialist … [Read more...]
KIA is king say dealers but PSA are pitiful
Kia is the highest rated marque by dealers in their annual showroom and business survey while PSA Group companies were among the lowest. The all-important question ‘how would you rate your manufacturer overall on a scale of 1 to 10?’ returned an average of 6.5, on par with six months ago. Kia (9.3), Lexus (9.2), and Mini (8.8) were the top performers whilst Vauxhall (3.7), Jaguar (3.7), and … [Read more...]
Newslines 3 March
Owners of the latest Kia models can now benefit from the latest infotainment features more quickly and easily, thanks to new over-the-air functionality. Available for all Kia models equipped with Kia Connect from MY22 onwards, OTA capability ensures the customer’s satellite navigation unit can wirelessly receive map and related software updates. Bus services will see a £150M support scheme from … [Read more...]
Newcomers 24 February
The Suzuki Swace estate car has been comprehensively revised and given new equipment grades. Produced in conjunction with Toyota’s revised Corolla, the Suzuki Swace Motion and Ultra models now begin at £28,999 and £30,799 respectively from the end of March. The 97hp 1.8 petrol engine is boosted by a stronger electric motor producing 43hp, a 15% rise in combined power over the previous … [Read more...]
Newslines 7 February: Nissan’s 17K miles pole to pole ev
Set amongst Arctic-like conditions, the Pole-to-Pole expedition team and Nissan unveiled an adventure-ready version of the new Ariya electric SUV, which will undertake a 17,000-mile trip from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole, starting in March. During this epic adventure, the Ariya will need to cope with breath-taking but extreme terrains and environments, including ice fields, deep … [Read more...]
Welsh family car dealership’ profits soar
West Wales family garage group Gravell’s saw its profits rise to almost £5m in 2021, accounts have shown. Documents in Companies House show its turnover rose by almost £20m to reach an impressive £96.3m compared to £76.5m in the previous year. Some £85.8m came from vehicle sales with parts and service sales adding £6.6m while a further £3.9m came from other sales such as finance … [Read more...]
Newslines 17 October
Kia UK has partnered with Project EDWARD again as vehicle partner in 2022, providing three all-electric EV6 GT-Line S models for the team to use on their nationwide road trip from 17-21 October including two schools in Wales. First run in 2016, Project EDWARD is the UK’s biggest platform for showcasing best practice in road safety. It promotes an evidence-led, ‘safe system’ approach – the … [Read more...]
Welsh car sales falling back
Wales saw a fall in new car registrations last month, the only part of Britain suffering as the cost of living rose. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported 8,342 new cars were registered by Welsh dealerships last month compared with 8,637 a year ago. That’s a decline of 3.42% on the year to date. The top ten models sold in Wales in September were: Nissan Qashqai, Ford Puma, … [Read more...]
Stellantis struggling in showrooms
Franchised car dealers have been rating their manufacturers in the annual survey. An analysis of the ‘overall average score’ across all questions of the survey (6.4) put Lexus at the top with 9.2 points out of 10, followed by Mercedes (8.4) and Kia (8.4). The bottom of the table saw Fiat (3.7), Abarth (4.4), and Alfa Romeo (4.7), which is bad news for the parent Stellantis group. Sue Robinson, … [Read more...]
Chinese cars hit top safety marks
Euro NCAP published its fifth round of safety ratings this week and Chinese newcomers hit top scores. The highly anticipated Tesla Model Y did not disappoint and shoots to the top of recently published five-star cars, while the new electric Genesis GV60 continues the 5-star success of the GV70 and GV80 models tested last year. Euro NCAP also tested two newcomers from China’s Great Wall Motor … [Read more...]