News - Page 2265

DIXON Motors has extended its interests in two-wheeled transport with the purchase of Cosmopolitan Motors in London for £1.5 million.

VOLVO has poured cold water on speculation that it is in merger talks with the acquisitive Volkswagen Group.

FLEETS ordering towbars to be fitted to new cars from August 1 have been warned to check the equipment meets new safety standards.

BIDDING for up-for-sale Auto Windscreens could go right to the wire, with shareholders asked to choose between official and unofficial approaches to the company.

A MAJOR UK fleet is putting safety before cost-cutting and will instruct its drivers to comply with Peugeot's old service schedules, rather than the marque's new extended intervals.

FLEETS are being protected from plummeting residual values by manufacturers which stockpile their used car stock and the fleet industry should welcome it as a normal business practice, according Graham Johnstone, founder of fleet and finance remarketing specialist Cars Direct.

THE motor industry is gearing up for a record August, with the first month of the S-registration market forecast to reach 530,000 new car sales.

VOLKSWAGEN Fleet is promising fleets a free Golf loan car if it's more than two weeks late delivering a Passat.

TRANSPORT group Arriva encapsulated the themes of the Government's integrated transport white paper by displaying double-decker buses on its dealership forecourts on Saturday.

ABBEY National-owned First National Vehicle Holdings has bought Shrewsbury-based Fleet Management Services from dealership group Greenhous for an undisclosed sum.

FORD is recalling nearly 20,000 Escorts, Mondeos, Scorpios and Explorers in the UK to correct potential defects.

THE AA has marked a milestone in its pay-for-use fleet rescue service by answering its 1,000,000th callout.

THE UK fleet fuel card market is set to expand by about 300,000 cards in the next four years as companies become more cost-conscious and operators increasingly penetrate the small fleet market, according to a new report.

FORD has announced European earnings of $310 million, up from $153 million from a year ago for the second quarter of 1998 with first half earnings totalling $540 million, up from $278 million a year ago.

NATIONAL Grid is to renew a contract with Rover to supply 250 vehicles worth more than £5 million at showroom prices.

THE AA has challenged rival breakdown and recovery companies to publish their performance records to back up speed-of-response claims.

FLEET sales of Land Rover's best-selling Freelander model are set to increase as the initial one-year honeymoon period for the manufacturer's trend-setting model comes to an end.

THE bigger a fleet, the more frequently it reviews its funding policy, according to AT&T Automotive Services.

EARLY termination charges are the biggest bone of contention between fleets and their leasing suppliers.

CONTRACTS for the supply of up to 10,000 lease cars to NHS employees will be awarded by the National Health Service Transport Managers Association next month.

ALFA Romeo has launched new versions of the 145 and 146 hatchbacks, both called Junior 1.6 TS and replacing the 145 and 146 1.6 TS models.

GRADUATED vehicle excise duty to encourage the increased use of 'green' cars will either require colossal investment or be fundamentally flawed on scientific grounds, according to The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology's paper, 'A Clean Licence? Graduated Vehicle Excise Duty'.

Main points from the Integrated Transport white paper

AFTER months of hype and delay Britain's first integrated transport policy document for 20 years has left businesses across Britain wondering what all the fuss was about.

SHELL UK has given a massive boost to the liquefied petroleum gas market with the announcement that it is to invest £10 million to make LPG readily available to 80% of British motorists by 2001. The plan will see 200 new auto-LP Gas pumps on Shell forecourts throughout the UK, starting with the opening of a new facility at Dover South Services, and followed by a further 25 within the next five months.

MERCEDES-Benz will launch its new flagship S-class in the UK early next year.

VOLVO'S new S80 will feature new 'ozone eating' technology which converts the car radiator into a catalytic converter.

EMISSION levels have been radically reduced after a company's fleet more than doubled the amount of CityDiesel it was using over ordinary diesel.

SAINSBURY'S cleaner, low emission unleaded petrol will soon be available on 50 forecourts around the country.

HIGH fuel duty charges in the UK have forced one of the Government's own departments in Northern Ireland to fill up its fleet in the neighbouring Republic to save money.