News - Page 2162

CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is expected to relax the Government's inteprepation of what are 'clean' and dirty' cars so as not to scare company car drivers out of their vehicles when he announces details of the new carbon dioxide-based benefit-in-kind tax system in next month's Budget.

THE new four-band graduated Vehicle Excise Duty system to come into effect in the autumn looks set to be more complicated than first expected, Fleet NewsNet learned this week. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is expected to relax the Government's interpretation of 'clean' and 'dirty' cars when he announces details of its long-awaited graduated VED scheme in next month's Budget.

THE European Parliament's decision to make car makers pay to recycle every car they have produced threatens the future of the UK and all Western European countries' positions as centres of automotive manufacturing. It also raises doubts about the financial standing of the biggest names in the industry and puts thousands of jobs at risk.

FLEET managers must consider abandoning 'traditional' replacement cycles and instead allow demand in the used car market to dictate when cars should be de-fleeted. A radical shift away from the traditional three-year/60,000-mile benchmark to sub-one-year replacement cycles could also pay huge dividends, according to vehicle remarketing specialist T2 Logistics.

BCH Vehicle Management has replaced Interleasing as the UK representative within the pan-European alliance of leasing and fleet management companies known as Interleasing Europa.

A MORE powerful, more carbon dioxide efficient 3.0-litre petrol engine has been introduced to the Peugeot 406 range. The six-cylinder unit will also be offered in Peugeot's executive challenger the 607, due to be launched in June.

THE Consumers' Association, which has styled itself as the new car buyers' champion in its 'Great British Rip-Off' campaign against what it sees as exorbitant new car prices in the UK, has still to launch its internet-based car imports service unveiled three months ago. At last year's London Motor Show, the association launched its own non-profit-making internet-based service to help motorists import foreign cars - but about 18,000 are still waiting for action.

SHOP stewards representing Ford engineers, designers and IT and clerical staff were due to meet today to vote on industrial action after pay talks broke down. MSF and T&G union members have rejected an 11% rise over three years and are demanding a 15% pay increase to give them parity with hourly-paid Ford production workers.

SHADOW Transport and Environment Secretary John Redwood has been sacked by Conservative Party leader William Hague.

SIX major road building schemes due to start in 2001/02 are to start next year as the Government accelerates its £1.4 billion road improvements.

NEW car prices in Britain remain the highest in the Europe, according to a new report from the European Commission. Based on November 1, 1999 figures, the report claims that 70 out of 77 best-selling models cost more in the UK than anywhere else in Europe with differentials as high as 35%.

VAUXHALL has won British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association supermini and lower medium security awards for the second year in succession, taking its tally to eight BVRLA volume car awards in the 13 years they have been run. BMW was also a consecutive winner in the luxury/executive category, while Saab scored a first in the 2000 awards by taking the upper medium security title.

CAR rental company Europcar has added 350 Rover 75s to its fleet on a one-year lease deal.

BRISTOL-based Peugeot dealer Templegate has signed a three-year contract hire deal to supply a fleet of 40 406 HDi saloons to local company Cowlin Construction.

BLACK Horse Vehicle Management (BHVM) has awarded Kwik-Fit and FTM Tyrefit a new two-year deal to continue supplying tyre services and vehicle maintenance to its 38,000-vehicle fleet.

AVIS Rent-a-Car has added 150 Fiat Multipla mini-MPVs to its daily rental fleet in a bid to offer customers 'something different'.

AUDI UK's head of operations, Ian Holmes, has taken over as head of corporate sales following the departure of head of sales Alan Maloney over a difference of agreement on policy.

CAP Motor Research has appointed John Watts as editor of its Commercial Vehicle Monitor.

CAR rental company Europcar has appointed Michael Edmonds as national sales manager and Michael McInerney as UK fleet operations manager.

NISSAN is promising its revamped and renamed Maxima QX executive will be 'extremely competitively priced'. The top model will undercut the current version when the range goes on sale in the UK in June.

CITROEN has effectively cut prices across its Synergie MPV range - on some models by £1,420. Air conditioning, which was an £800 option on LX trim five-seaters and seven-seaters, is standard on all petrol and diesel derivatives.

MITSUBISHI will take the wraps off the all-new Shogun model at the Geneva Motor Show. It will go on sale in the UK in May at expected prices of between £25,000 and £40,000./

BMW has confirmed the new Mini will make its full world debut at this year's International Motor Show, which runs from October 19-29 at the NEC, Birmingham.

AGILA, Vauxhall's city car, is to make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show on March 2 and go on sale in June. The five-door mini-MPV is being built at General Motors' Polish plant, which has been producing Suzuki's equivalent, the Wagon R+, since 1997.

DAY-TO-DAY running of General Motors passes from chairman and chief executive officer Jack Smith to president and chief operating officer Rick Wagoner on June 1.

A 16-valve engine appears in SEAT's supermicro Arosa for the first time, hot on the heels of a quick Lupo from stablemate Volkswagen.

VEHICLE leasing company Axus International and all its national Axus subsidiaries have been rebranded as Hertz Lease throughout most of Europe and the Pacific. Its name change follows an agreement between Axus, wholly owned by Ford Motor Credit, and the Hertz Corporation, in which Ford holds a majority stake.

THE Motorists' Forum has been slammed as a 'joke' by fleet chiefs, angered that they have been excluded from the new body. The aim of the forum is to represent the 'voice of the motorist' to the Government in order to influence decisions on all road transport policies.

FORD, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Honda and BMW - among the top 10 fleet manufacturers - began the new century buoyantly with all reporting year-on-year sales increases of more than 23%. Ford was the number one fleet manufacturer in January with a 23.5% rise in sales to 23,295 (1999: 18,855) and in the Focus it had the best-selling fleet car.

FLEET sales took a record share of the January 2000 new car market as private buyers continued to boycott showrooms in a protest against perceived rip-off prices. Fleets bought 96,237 new cars in the first month of the year - a 52% share of January's 185,040-car market, which was 1.8% up on last year's 181,842.