News - Page 2301

A GREATER understanding of local business requirements is expected to fuel an increase of more than 25% in SEAT fleet sales next year. More than half of the company's 110 dealers are now processing business sales and significantly higher numbers of dealer staff are due to attend special fleet programme courses in the next few months.

TOYOTA has joined the growing ranks of manufacturers taking steps to show both fleet and private buyers that their models meet European New Car Assessment Programme vehicle crash standards. The manufacturer invited journalists from across Europe to witness a 60kph offset frontal crash of its Carina E replacement, the Avensis, at the Motor Industry Research Association proving ground in Warwickshire.

MORE than 70% of motorists use their car to travel less than one mile, according to new research from Lease Plan. The company questioned a cross-section of 100 people - both private motorists and company car drivers - with 11% of those questioned saying journeys of under a mile by car were a daily occurrence.

A NEW company car tax system is likely to come into effect on April 6, 1999, it emerged this week as the fleet industry analysed the impact of Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-Budget statement. Despite national newspaper speculation that fleets were being specifically targeted by the Chancellor in the country's first pre-Budget statement, there was no mention of company cars.

FORD has announced that after almost 30 years the Escort name will be dropped from its lower-medium car range. Although Ford declined to reveal what the new range will be called, the Escort name will live on as an entry model and continue to be built at Halewood until 2000, when a rival to the Renault Scenic based on the new car will be built there.

AUDI has confirmed that it will build a supermini capable of returning almost 100mpg before the turn of the century. The new aluminium model will be built at Audi's Neckarsulm, Bavaria, factory, and production is set to start in 1999. Annual production capacity will be around 50,000 units, but the revolutionary new vehicle - dubbed the A2 - is unlikely to reach Britain before the millennium.

SAAB has made air conditioning standard on all but entry 900 models for a premium of £245. Previously a £1,075 option, factory fitted air conditioning is now standard on all 900S three and five-door derivatives while entry level models and the convertible now benefit from air conditioning as a £745 optional extra. The 900 SE and XS models already feature standard air con, and the enhancement means the 900S 2.0 five-door weighs in at £18,345 on the road.

DEMAND for Renault Scenics next year could reach 35,000 units, according to the manufacturer which has seen sales top 10,000 units in the UK since the model's launch six months ago. At launch Renault UK projected that 10% of Scenic sales would be for the top-of-the-range RXE 2.0 litre costing around £16,000.

THIS week's Fleet News - the print partner to Fleet NewsNet - has been redesigned and updated to ensure it remains the best publication in the industry. New features include Guest Opinion and a weekly diary column, called - appropriately enough - Fleet Street.

JOHN Lewis, executive director and deputy chairman of Dial Contracts and a director of Dial Holdings, has resigned after 10 years with the company. Lewis, who is now looking for a new position within the UK contract hire and leasing industry, officially left the company on November 30, although he has been on 'gardening leave'. He told Fleet NewsNet it was his decision to leave and added: 'It is time for fresh challenge.'

INTERNATIONAL property consultant Richard Ellis has awarded a 250-vehicle solus supply contract to Lease Plan. The contract will be funded and managed under Lease Plan's Open Calculation product and includes acquisition and disposals, accident management, daily rental vehicles and roadside recovery.

MAZDA has launched a three-month special offer contract hire deal with maintenance on the 626 2.0 LXi five-door. The 36-month deal costs £299 a month - a claimed £20 a month saving on the 626's principal competitors - and is based on a three-month deposit and 33 repayments. The offer ends on February 28.

THE Alfa Romeo 156 has beaten the Volkswagen Golf and controversial Mercedes-Benz A-class to win the 1998 European Car of the Year award. The new four-door rival to the BMW 3-series goes on sale in Britain next February powered by a choice of 1.8, 2.0 and 2.5-litre petrol engines and a 2.4 turbo diesel with prices ranging from £17,000 to £21,500.

BLACK Horse Agencies, the estate agency arm of Lloyds Bank, has taken delivery of its 1,000th vehicle on Leasecontracts' Fixed Cost Fleet Management scheme. Over the next 18 months 600 more vehicles are due for renewal and transfer to the scheme, which offers fixed service and maintenance costs with guaranteed residuals for self-funded vehicles.

THE South East Regional Crime Squad has acquired its first fleet management software system to help with the operation of its largely unmarked police car fleet. And the organisation's decision to acquire Car Fleet Control's Eurofleet system signals a further success for the company in the blue light fleet sector.

CAR Group, which operates the Car Supermarket used car retail chain, has confirmed that it is to open two new sites, in London and Manchester, during the next year. The company, which has revealed pre-tax profits of £4.8 million (1996: £4.6 million) for the year to August 31 with turnover of £161.5 million (1996: £137.9 million), has signed a joint venture development agreement with Black Country Properties to develop future sites.

GREATER choice and higher value are to spearhead a New Year drive by Honda to win more corporate sales for the British-built Accord saloon range. Two new models will join fresh derivatives to swell the upper-medium executive range from six to 10 manual cars, plus another five automatics - all equipped with air conditioning and alloy wheels as standard - in January.

MOTORISTS who heed the Government's calls to 'go green' could end up paying more tax for the privilege of forsaking four wheels in favour of two. The growing number of employees opting to conduct company business by bicycle rather than car could face higher tax bills by resorting to pedal power.

AUDI's new A6 Avant - due in Britain in late spring next year - is expected to carry a £1,500 premium over the saloon, putting the entry level 1.8T Avant at around £24,000. The newcomer is no longer than the saloon and weighs only 50kg extra, but offers 455 litres of loadspace - rising to 1,590 litres with the rear seats folded down - and a maximum trailer payload of 2,100kg.

DRIVERS who use mobile phones while on the move are being targeted by West Midlands Police in a new motorway crackdown. As concern continues to mount over the danger of drivers using mobile phones while on the move and the Government threatens to introduce new legislation if motorists don't take action themselves, West Midlands police say they are on full alert for the 'motorway menaces'.

NATIONAL Tyres and Autocare has set up the UK's largest network of tyre retailers after forging a strategic alliance with the Autostop Fleet chain of independent outlets. The new structure gives fleet customers a branch network of 850 outlets plus 80 mobile fitting vans and National's increasingly popular Call and Collect facility - and is expected to form the template for the introduction of a pan-European service in the future.

THE Government is putting the finishing touches to the composition of the new Cleaner Vehicles Task Force - announced last week. Chaired jointly by Transport Minister Gavin Strang and Ford of Britain chairman Ian McAllister, the Task Force's principal objective is to encourage the development and marketing of greener vehicles which will appeal to business and private users alike.

AXUS UK has secured a solus deal to supply new company Advente with a single-badge Mercedes fleet. The agreement sees Advente initially taking delivery of 26 S-, E- and C-class cars on a three-year lease deal with all maintenance covered by Axus UK, which changed its name from Hertz Leasing last month.

MANUFACTURERS have defended the progress made on fuel efficiency after Transport Minister Gavin Strang took a swipe at their track record at a conference organised by the Socialist Environmental Resources Association. The Transport Minister acknowledged the car makers' achievements in tackling vehicle emissions, but said fuel economy was worse than a decade ago.

VOLKSWAGEN, which emerged last week as a potential buyer of Rolls-Royce, is this week also claimed to be bidding for Volvo. A German magazine reported that Volkswagen was in the running to buy Volvo which in the past has succeeded in fighting off overtures from Renault.

DEALER group Evans Halshaw has unloaded its interests in fleet management to concentrate on car retailing and contract hire. Britain's fifth largest dealer group has sold its 50% share in Fleet Cost Management to its partner Harpur Group, which in turn will sell FCM to PHH Vehicle Management Services, for a consideration of £11.7 million.

HFS Incorporated, the United States-based parent company of PHH Vehicle Management Services, is to buy rival UK fleet management company Fleet Cost Management, accident management company Automanagement and the Overdrive and Dialcard fuel card businesses. The $186 million deal in cash, plus future payments of up $20 million over the next two years based on profit performance effectively sees HFS Incorporated buy Harpur UK - parent company of the four brand names - from HG Holdings, and is expected to be completed in January.

GENERAL Motors has signed what is believed to be the first global preferred vehicle supply deal with long-standing Vauxhall customer Honeywell Control Systems. The groundbreaking arrangement makes GM the preferred supplier of vehicles to Honeywell's 12,000-strong worldwide fleet, of which 1,200 are in Britain. Marques covered by the deal include Vauxhall in the UK, Opel in continental Europe, Saab in Scandinavia, Cadillac and Chevrolet in North America and Holden in Australia.

DRIVERS will not be 'crowbarred' out of their cars until there are safe, reliable and economic alternatives to cars. And, according to the Retail Motor Industry Federation's submission on the Government's integrated transport policy document, once alternatives are in place the need to introduce restraints on the use of cars will be minimal.

COMPANY car tax should be based on the private use of the vehicle and not the number of business miles clocked up, according to the Association of Car Fleet Operators. The organisation, in its submission to the Government's integrated transport policy consultation document, says it has long supported the notion that personal taxation for private use of an employer-provided vehicle should be based on a proportion of the private use.