News - Page 2168

THE December fleet diesel market bucked the trend for the year by registering a 3.3% increase over the same month in 1998. This was due largely to a bumper month for the Ford Focus TD which increased its sales by 15,140% to 762 registrations, although it still lagged in third place behind the Peugeot 306 (1,119 sales) and the Peugeot 406 (916 sales).

THE fleet and business car markets remained the backbone of UK new car sales during a difficult 1999 for the motor industry. Together, these two sectors accounted for well over half of all registrations, even though fleet sales slipped 4%.

THE Government has thrown the Energy Saving Trust a £300,000 financial lifeline amid soaring demand for grants from its Powershift programme which threatened to throw the scheme into financial chaos. Since 1998 the Powershift programme has provided grants of between 25% and 75% towards the extra cost of acquiring or converting a new alternatively fuelled vehicle, but in the last few months it has been a victim of its own success.

GOVERNMENT advisers have concluded that restricting or reducing road traffic will not automatically damage the economy. Three years' research by the standing advisory committee on trunk road assessment (SACTRA) has led it to conclude that 'well targeted policies can reduce traffic levels without harming economic growth'.

THE Powershift programme will this year introduce a radical scheme of spot checks for alternatively-fuelled vehicles it has funded in a bid to police claims of improved emissions from converters and manufacturers. If the claims are not matched in the field, converters and manufacturers risk being banned from qualifying for grants.

FLEET driver training company Drive & Survive has compiled a list of hints that it claims can slash fuel costs by a quarter and reduce CO2 emissions. The list comes as pressure increases on fleet managers to make fuel economy a top priority among fleet drivers to cut down on damage to the environment that vehicles cause.

ROVER is planning a £40 million rail construction scheme at its Solihull manufacturing plant which would improve export potential and drastically reduce road traffic and transport costs. The BMW-owned firm has submitted joint plans with Railtrack for a 2.5-mile line and terminal facility linking the factory to the West Coast main line near Birmingham International station.

BRITISH Car Auctions is expanding its European network with a new purpose-built centre in Spain. Scheduled to open in the spring, BCA Autosubastas Espana will feature a 300-car undercover viewing area, purpose-built auction hall with tiered seating, cafeteria and function suites and a separate vehicle registration facility.

TOYOTA has improved its Auto Assured scheme to offer used car buyers the same package of benefits as new buyers.

THE importance of fleet and fuel cost control dwarfs all other issues facing fleet decision-makers in 2000. A Fleet News/Kwik-Fit Fleet Survey of 268 fleet managers rated the seriousness of 'keeping fuel prices and overall fleet costs down' at 9.2, out of a maximum 10.

PHARMACEUTICAL giant Pfizer Inc, best known for its Viagra drug, has signed a three-year global fleet agreement with General Motors. The contract will cover 12,000 Pfizer vehicles, both cars and commercial vehicles, driven by the company's worldwide sales force, including company cars in the UK.

AS the new millennium began, motoring experts at Fleet NewsNet's print sister publication Automotive Management voted the Mini the European car of the 20th century.

DEADLINE-day is looming for fleet managers and supply companies to submit their entries for this year's 2000 Fleet News Awards. The deadline is January 14.

SIXTY companies have to-date booked to exhibit at Fleet Show 2000 to be held at the NEC, Birmingham, from April 4-6. The latest companies include eight more manufacturers - Peugeot, Audi, Jaguar, Fiat, Daewoo, Mazda, Subaru and Isuzu - making a total of 15 manufacturers so far booked.

BRITAIN'S leading car manufacturers will not cut list prices as pressure mounts to reduce them just three weeks ahead of completion of the long-running Competition Commission investigation. Peugeot UK managing director Tod Evans has given an unequivocal reassurance that the media-hyped '10-15% cut in new car prices will not happen'.

MERCEDES-Benz has denied that it is planning to follow the moves by Audi on the A4, Volvo on the V70 and Mitsubishi across its range to cut prices or improve the specification at no extra cost. A Mercedes spokesman said 1999 was the manufacturer's most successful year in its 25-year history in the UK, breaking the 62,000 sales figure for the first time, and that the firm had no intention of changing its prices either upwards or downwards.

FLEET managers will have to rely on car manufacturers and the internet for information about individual cars' carbon dioxide emissions. From this month, the Vehicle Certification Agency's 'New Car Fuel Consumption and Emission Figures' booklet is expected to become 'indicative' rather than absolute.

THE Government should scrap plans to introduce graduated Vehicle Excise Duty in 'autumn 2000' to avoid plunging the fleet industry into a 'monumental muddle', it was claimed this week. The call for a delay to March 1, 2001 - to coincide with the launch of Y-registered cars - came from British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association director general Norman Donkin.

HONDA is set to enter the mainstream UK diesel car market late this year after signing a cross-supply engine arrangement with General Motors. Isuzu Motors, which is 49% owned by General Motors, will supply diesel engines to Honda for sale principally in Europe, but details of which powerplants are involved have yet to be announced.

AUTHORISED mileage rates for employees who use their own cars for business travel will remain unchanged in 2000/01 tax year, the Inland Revenue has announced. The authorised rate for pedal cycles, introduced in the March 1999 Budget, will also remain unchanged at 12p a mile from April 6, 2000.

NISSAN has withdrawn from fast-cycle daily rental business to improve the residual values of its new vehicles. The manufacturer wants to ensure competitive wholelife costs throughout its range as a base for launching a completely new model line-up over 30 months.

PROFITS at both Lex Vehicle Leasing and AutoMotive Strategy were adversely affected by the weakness of the used car markets during the last quarter of 1999. An end of year statement from Lex revealed the tough trading conditions, which compounded a difficult 12 months for the UK's largest contract hire company.

KWIK-FIT Fleet has appointed Penny Hadfield as its new sales and marketing director in succession to Simon Roper, who was promoted to managing director last year. Hadfield, who took up the post on Monday, joined from the RAC, where she spent 12 years, most recently as director of fleet with responsibility for fleet, accident management and driver training.

HONDA is celebrating its most successful year in the UK, with record sales for the seventh successive year and has launched the millennium with a new structure designed to increase business, particularly in the fleet sector. Total new car sales increased 6.3% year-on-year last year to top 65,000 units with fleet sales topping 25,000 units - 28% up on 1998's fleet business.

VAUXHALL chairman and managing director Nick Reilly received the CBE for services to the automotive industry in the New Year Honours List. Also receiving a CBE was Patricia Kingsmill, deputy chairman of the Competition Commission (previously the Monopolies and Mergers Commission) and presently leading the ongoing New Car Pricing Inquiry, for services to competition and competition law.

EUROPEAN Car of the Year 1999, the Ford Focus, has clocked up UK registrations of 100,000.

BUDGET UK raised £10,500 for former England cricketer turned television commentator Ian Botham's final walk in aid of the Leukaemia Research Fund. Besides providing seven support vehicles over the 1,000-mile route between John o' Groats and Lands End, all 143 UK Budget rental outlets helped raise cash.

RENAULT has launched a 2.0-litre 140bhp direct injection petrol engine in the Megane Coupe and Cabriolet.

THE Vauxhall Cavalier - the vehicle which put Vauxhall on the fleet map and challenged the dominance of Ford - was voted used car of the last decade of the millennium by a panel of judges from CAP Motor Research. It held off the challenge of both the Ford Fiesta (best small car) and BMW 3-series (best executive car).

BRITISH Telecom, which operates one of the UK's largest corporate fleets, is changing its branding and over the next five years will introduce the new colours on its 42,000 Ford Fiesta, Ford Escort and Ford Transit vans.