News - Page 2171

SAAB has launched a new Airflow model to its 9-3 range based on the existing entry-level and S-specification models and featuring sports styling, seven-spoke alloy wheels and leather steering wheel at prices starting from £18,125 on-the-road. The Airflow models are available with a choice of three or five-door body styles and 2.0-litre 154bhp turbo petrol or 115bhp 2.2-litre turbodiesel engines.

THE shadow cast by the new car pricing inquiry and consumer expectancy of reductions in the cost of new cars is hitting the retail market, but having less of an effect on fleet sales, which remain on course to exceed one million. With December sales continuing, fleet sales for the first 11 months of 1999 stand at 968,222, of which 77,116 units were sold in November (November 1998: 79,954).

THE inexorable slide in diesel sales continued last month, with not even the 'olive branch' from the Government in the form of a U-turn on its decision to penalise diesels in the new benefit-in-kind company car tax system set for introduction in 2002, succeeding in giving the market a boost. Diesel sales in November reached 22,137 units (November 1998: 22,670) with 14,245, or 64.3% going to fleets (November 1998: 14,094). The fleet slice of the diesel market increased 1.1% on November last year, although diesel sales overall were down 2.4%.

VAN sales received a healthy boost in November with sub-1.8 tonne sector registrations up 0.6% on November 1998 at 7,116 units from 7,076. Registrations in the 1.8-3.5-tonne sector wereup 20.8% from 10,659 in November 1998 to 12,871 units last month.

INSURANCE industry frustration at fleets' apathy over cutting accident rates has boiled over, with warnings of rocketing premiums unless they take action. The situation is so serious, the insurance industry says, it will no longer wait for fleets to introduce risk management programmes, but will pro-actively encourage fleets to think safety first.

A NEW on-line search service with a dedicated fleet site for motor insurance has been launched by Lloyd's. The website, entitled MotorView, contains information on all vehicle insurance products offered by 12 Lloyd's syndicates.

PEUGEOT has restructured its national fleet sales department into two sales territories, north and south. Gervaise McMahon has been appointed manager of fleet sales operations for the south, and Andy Hone appointed manager of fleet sales operations for the north.

DENNIS Custage has been appointed president, international, for ANC Rental Corporation - the new parent company of National Car Rental and Alamo - following its spin-off by USA car retailer AutoNation. Custage will be based in the UK and is currently president, international, where he directs the activities of Alamo and National outside the USA and Canada.

THE Government is expected to introduce its four-band carbon dioxide emission-based graduated Vehicle Excise Duty in October 2000, Fleet NewsNet can reveal. And there are now fleet industry fears that the change of date could spark 'monumental chaos and huge confusion' in the fleet industry, impacting dramatically on defleeting strategies and residual values as well as company car choice lists.

THE Kwik-Fit Group has announced the acquisition of Coventry-based automotive glass repairer and replacement firm Silver Shield Screens Ltd, a subsidiary of the Silver Shield Group. The purchase price is £6 million, plus a further £2 million dependent on 'the company's future performance'.

REAL-time data on a company's fleet is to be delivered by PHH Business Solutions to customers in the new year with the UK launch of PHH InterActive. The password protected internet site will signal the death of hard-copy reports and floppy disks detailing fleet information downloaded from PHH's database.

COMPANY car tax could increase to help pay for improvements in public transport ahead of the possible introduction of congestion and workplace parking charges. With Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's long-awaited but significantly 'watered down' Transport Bill pledging that 'public transport will be improved first, before charging starts', there are fears that Government will once again use the motorist, and company car drivers in particular, as a cash-cow.

THE centre-piece of the 258-page Transport Bill detailed by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, is 'better public transport' which will offer, 'more choice for motorists and everyone else'. Prescott said: 'Our Bill contains radical measures designed to deliver safe, modern and high quality transport this country needs and deserves. It is the most comprehensive piece of transport legislation for 30 years.

THE Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Treasury are at loggerheads as to how an essential element of the introduction of road tolls and workplace parking charges will be funded. The Transport Bill is not expected to become law until at least 2001 and before charges can be levied, authorities must have won the support of their communities - and carried out improvements in their public transport systems.

BUSINESSES in Nottingham will be charged up to £300 per car a year for using a workplace parking space if the authority gets Government approval to pilot a charging scheme. The charges would start at £100 in the first year - probably 2003 - and by the time the scheme was fully implemented five years later, every business would be paying £300 each for every one of more than 50,000 workplace spaces in the city.

BRISTOL City Council is one of the 27 authorities to have expressed an interest to the Government in piloting a congestion charging project estimated to raise £15 million profit in its first 15 years. The names of the other willing authorities are not due to be released until the middle of this month.

FLEET operators and company car drivers will regard themselves as a 'cash-cow to be milked at Government pleasure', Association of Car Fleet Operators' director Stewart Whyte has told Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. The comment is in a letter sent to Prescott by a furious Whyte after representatives of the fleet industry were not invited to last week's 'roads' summit'.

MITSUBISHI claims its vehicles will be cheaper to run for fleets and company car drivers after it slashed up to 15% off its new car list prices, increasing the furore over UK new car prices just days ahead of the December 16 publication of the long-awaited Competition Commission pricing inquiry report. The importer argues that its realignment will enhance rather than damage its residual values, saying that the UK's secondhand market has allowed for cuts in new car prices over the past 18 months.

VOLKSWAGEN Group is paying £128.3 million euros to become the sole owner of rental company Europcar after buying the remaining 50% of the firm from Paris-based services group Accor. The move is expected to herald major expansion for Europcar in a bid to overhaul market leader Avis Rent-a-Car as the largest European rental provider.

NISSAN has cut the price of its range-topping Terrano II by £430 and increased the specification level as part of a raft of changes to the 2000 model year line-up. The new 2.7TD SE+ five-door will cost £24,750 on-the-road when it goes on sale in January, less than the £25,180 SE Touring model which currently heads the range.

THE Competition Commission's long-awaited report on the new car pricing in the UK and on the continent will not be made public before the end of the year. The commission's New Cars Inquiry is due to pass its findings on to Stephen Byers, Trade and Industry Secretary on Thursday, December 16.

MANUFACTURERS are expected to publish easily comprehensible vehicle carbon dioxide emission data 'as soon as possible' and definitely before the March Budget, according to the Association of Car Fleet Operators. Seventeen manufacturers met with ACFO leaders and senior fleet managers as well as representatives of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Inland Revenue and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in London.

GOODE Durrant, the parent company of van hire group Northgate Motor Holdings, has been renamed Northgate, marking the final phase of a major company restructuring. The change is part of a five-year expansion for the company strategy for Northgate, announced in June 1998, which aims to double the size of the business.

THE Government's annual campaign against drink-driving has been launched. Using the millennium as a focus for the month-long television, radio and poster campaign, it urges people to 'make it a night to remember, not one to forget'.

FORD is to add a 1.4 litre 16v 75 PS Zetec-trim model to its Focus line-up early next year.

RENAULT says it will be 'months' before it finds out if there are to be closer links forged between its UK dealerships and Nissan's. Louis Schweitzer, Renault chairman, has revealed plans to reduce the number of dealerships in both brands and integrate back-office functions of the remainder as part of a restructuring process.

HYUNDAI has revealed the first pictures of its Amica five-door mini-car which will go on sale in the UK in February powered by 1.0 litre 55bhp engine mated to either a manual or automatic gearbox.

CAR repairers are at crisis point with many businesses facing closure and skilled workers abandoning the £5 billion industry and threatening service provision for fleets, according to leading industry figures. Ken Lane, managing director of Nationwide Crash Repair Centres, speaking at a Retail Motor Industry Federation accident repair specialists meeting, said car repairers in London were in dire straits, with business closures and job losses predicted, while poor labour rates were putting off potential recruits.

A SPATE of consolidation activity in the fast-growing European fast-fit market is shifting the balance of power towards car makers and changing the shape of service for fleets. Prior to a wave of consolidation in 1999, vehicle manufacturers controlled less than one fifth of fast-fit outlets in Europe.

THE countdown has started for fleet managers and fleet supply companies to enter the 2000 Fleet News Awards. Launched two weeks ago alongside the fleet manufacturer awards, the deadline for both fleet managers and companies to enter is January 14, 2000.