Thinking CAP - Martin Ward, CAP's manufacturer relationships manager, scours the globe for the week's insider fleet news

Monday

Over to Manchester for a meeting with Land Rover. Managing director John Edwards was there, as were dealers and a collection of fleet and leasing companies.

The idea was to get together to understand what is happening in the market, sparked by Land Rover fleet sales dropping by more than 40% so far this year, and residuals also slipping as a result of some serious discounting when the recession kicked in.

With fewer new models being sold, dealers are worrying about a shortage in supply of used cars, not only now but looking up to three years ahead.

Tuesday

Up to the Croft race circuit in Yorkshire to the Mercedes-Benz Corporate driving day where 100 fleet guests were invited to drive a selection of cars on the track and on local roads.

The main reason to get so many people there was to show the new E-Class saloon and Coupé.

These cars proved to be more than adequate on the track while being thrown around by The Stig.

But it is on the road where they really belong, and the E-Class proves itself to be a very comfortable car that will be a great long-distance cruiser.

Thursday

Over to the Skoda plant in Mlada Boleslav, near Prague, to drive the new Yeti – a car caught in between a number of sectors: is it a lower-medium car, an SUV, a crossover, or just a very practical, unique looking car?

Well, after driving it, I can answer that – it’s all of them.

Skoda has hit on a growing sector (spearheaded by the Nissan Qashqai), but it will sell in lower numbers – around 3,000 per year.

We drove some pre-production cars on some awful roads close to the factory and found the suspension to be a bit on the hard side – let’s just hope it suits our roads better than those in the Czech Republic.

The Yeti will be available in either front or four-wheel drive, with Skoda estimating 25% will be four-wheel drive, which I think is a bit optimistic.

There will be three models: S (19% of sales), SE (53%) and Elegance (28%), with a choice of two petrol and three diesel engines.