News - Page 2117

THE Volkswagen Passat has been voted Fleet Car of the Year in the annual Association of Car Fleet Operators' Fleet Vehicles of the Year Awards. Passat's triumph follows last year's equal first position with the Vauxhall Vectra. It beat 27 other vehicles which were nominated by ACFO members in the organisation's largest ever poll.

VAUXHALL has announced prices and insurance levels for its new Corsa, which went on sale on Tuesday following its unveiling at the British International Motor Show. All models come with free insurance and a new customer care package, including three year/ 60,000 miles warranty and a mobility pledge which guarantees AA breakdown assistance for the full three-year warranty period, along with a free loan car if the vehicle is off the road for more than 24 hours.

Trafficmaster announced deals at the British International Motor Show to provide live traffic information on Land Rover models and the new Citroen C5.

HONDA launched a major new driver training initiative to promote safer driving and cut accidents in the UK at the British International Motor Show on Tuesday. Aimed at both the corporate and the retail markets, the Honda Motor Appreciation Course is modelled on a similar course for motorcyclists which was launched in 1998 and has so far attracted more than 15,000 bikers.

NISSAN'S new flagship Maxima QX went on sale on Tuesday with improved specification compared with the model it replaces and with on-the-road prices down by as much as £4,000. The entry level 2.0-litre V6 SE is listed at £20,700 and the range-topping 200bhp 3.0 V6 SE+ is priced at £25,900.

BI-FUEL Volvos, with space-saving gas tanks integrated into the floor, were unveiled at the British International Motor Show on Tuesday. Production of factory-built 1.8-litre petrol/LPG S40 and V40 models is due to begin in November, with deliveries to UK fleets from January.

PEUGEOT'S 607 executive saloon went on sale this week costing from £22,995 to £31,995 on-the-road. Standard equipment includes rain sensing windscreen wipers, tyre pressure sensor and a particulate filter trap on HDi models.

SUBARU has launched price reductions of up to 10.3%. From Wednesday, November 1, the firm will introduce new, higher standards of specification and cut prices on the Justy, Forester and Legacy.

TOYOTA has expanded its common rail diesel technology to the Corolla and Land Cruiser Colorado ranges. The 2.0-litre D-4D, first seen in the Avensis, is available in the Corolla for the first time and develops 90bhp at 4,000rpm with a maximum torque of 159lb-ft at 2,400rpm.

FORD exhibited its new Maverick SUV at the show ahead of its May 2001 UK launch. The 4x4 is now on sale in the US as the Ford Escape, and will be available in Europe just before its UK launch.

DAIHATSU is introducing a revised Sirion range and has tried to inject some sporty appeal with a new high-revving 1.3-litre engine. Previously only available as a 1.0-litre, the new version uses a 1.3 engine based on the unit used in the Toyota Yaris, but with power boosted from 83bhp to 98bhp at a heady 7,000rpm.

LEX Vehicle Leasing is to increase three year/60,000 mile contract hire rentals by an average of £12 a month/3% across the board - a move which is likely to trigger similar rises across the industry.

FURTHER consolidation in the contract hire industry is guaranteed over the next year after debis Car Fleet Management revealed plans for acquisitions to more than double its size in three years. The firm intends to have a fleet of 63,700 vehicles by 2003 as part of its ambition to be a top five player while it has also revealed plans to become one of the first total mobility providers in the contract hire market.

THE Inland Revenue has published a new leaflet (IR 176) to help companies which are developing their own travel plans. Called 'Tax, National Insurance contributions and Green Travel' , the leaflet outlines the tax reliefs Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown introduced in the 1999 Finance Act for corporate 'green' travel.

THE inaugural Fleet News 'FN50' dinner on Tuesday, October 31 to mark the launch of this year's comprehensive analysis of Britain's contract hire and leasing industry is a sell-out.

LEX Service is to pull out of the used car business but the company is adamant that it will expand both its business-to-business and consumer brands to provide a 'cradle to grave' service to both fleet and retail motorists.

TOYOTA - ninth in the fleet sales top 10 for year-to-date and September - has cut its recommended retail prices by up to 15% on certain models. The move, which averages out at about 8% across the board, follows major reductions by Ford and MG Rover and has led to renewed speculation that Vauxhall, Peugeot and Renault will follow.

MORE than 3,000 Citroen Xsaras and Xsara Picassos are being recalled to check for faulty suspension joints. The problem affects 3,648 cars produced between July and September 2000, with the possibility that the suspension ball joint could disengage due to incorrect machining.

MODEL changes and a hugely competitive pricing environment contributed to third quarter losses at General Motors Europe, which includes Vauxhall.

THE European Commission is to publish proposals for harmonising vehicle taxation across the European Union next year, Frits Bolkestein, the Commissioner in charge of the internal market and taxation, has said.

CONTRACT hire rates are set to rise following Ford's decision to slash recommended retail prices by up to 13.1%. Lex Vehicle Leasing claims it will have to pay an average of £250 more for a Ford car following the price cuts.

TOYOTA is to supply 2,000 vehicles to credit hire and accident management company Ellen Group in a £20 million deal that is claimed to be an industry first. Ellen Group will own the vehicles, but will use Toyota's 214 franchised dealers as a base to provide vehicles to all Toyota

GOODWOOD Fleet Management has bought Orange Rent-a-Car. Tony Donnelly, managing director of Goodwood, which operates almost 3,500 vehicles, said the acquisition of Orange Rent-a-Car, which has a turnover of £1million a year, was a natural progression and would provide a springboard for growth.

FLEET managers are offered a guide through the details of carbon dioxide-based company car tax in the latest version of Tolley's Tax and the Business Car. The heavily-revised guide takes account of this year's Budget announcements on company car tax and provides detailed examples of how fleet car drivers might be affected when the CO2-based tax is introduced on April 6, 2002.

MG Rover has slashed its recommended retail prices by 19% - the second major cut this year - in a desperate bid to claw back business. September registrations show that for the first time in its history, the manufacturer dropped out of the month's fleet top 10 to number 13 after suffering a 44.35% total sales slump at 13,005 units compared with 1999 (23,369) and 6.29% down for the year to the end of last month (Sept 2000 total: 85,274; Sept 1999 total: 91,002).

A CAMPAIGN aimed at winning a reprieve for thousands of high-mileage job-need company car drivers faced with paying hundreds of pounds more in benefit-in-kind tax from April 2002 is to be launched. Jon Walden, managing director of Lex Vehicle Leasing, one of the UK's largest contract hire companies with more than 93,000 vehicles, is to spearhead the move, which comes just 18 months before the new tax regime based on a combination of vehicle list price and carbon dioxide emissions is introduced.

FLEET sales slumped almost 20,000 units last month as the fleet industry was hit by continued uncertainty over price cuts, as manufacturers began to give in to pressure to lower list prices. Total new car sales were down around 8.7%, creating an unexpected final total of 353,494, with a drop in retail sales blamed on the fuel crisis.

COMPANY car sales are expected to increase rapidly in the next two years to record levels as businesses and employees adjust to the Government's new environmentally-friendly benefit-in-kind tax regime. The claim comes in 'The Lex Vehicle Leasing 2000 Report on Company Motoring' and confounds predictions made previously by fleet industry commentators, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, which believes the tax moves will lead to a contraction of the fleet market.

ROAD tolls in London will lead to a dramatic change in company car drivers' travel habits, according to the Lex Vehicle Leasing 2000 Report on Company Motoring. London mayor Ken Livingstone plans to introduce a £5 toll in central London and the report suggests that 36% of company car drivers would change their travel habits if the idea became a reality.

A REVOLUTION in contract hire, leasing and fleet management company services will see them transformed into mobility traders within three years. The outsourcing of routine day-to-day fleet activities will also be the springboard for a transformation of fleet managers into personal mobility managers.