News - Page 2322

THE age old battle of the sexes over who makes a better driver is still wide open. While women drivers are involved in more accidents, the damage they create is cheaper to repair than the aftermath of an accident involving a male driver.

VAUXHALL is aiming to make its mark on August sales with the launch of new limited edition vehicles, including spiced up Vectra and Corsa models. With the aim of giving the 143 mph Vectra SRi V6 a sports car style facelift, the Vectra Sport V6 has been unveiled costing £16,650 for hatchback and saloon models and £17,400 for the estate - the same price as the 2.0i SRi.

NATIONAL Tyres and Autocare has unveiled a new livery for its first Mercedes service vehicles. The vans are at the forefront of a £1 million investment in National's mobile service, which expects to have 50 new vehicles by the end of the year.

PRICES for Ford's satellite navigation system, which is now available as an option on various trim levels of the 2.0 Mondeo range, have been released. It costs £1,950 on GLX, Si and Ghia versions and £1,600 on the Ghia X. In all cases the system replaces the existing in car entertainment system with an optional CD autochanger, also available at £350.

VAUXHALL is to install Trafficmaster as standard on all Vectra models from 1998 model year cars, which will start appearing in showrooms next month. The Trafficmaster traffic information system, currently fitted as standard on GLS models and above, and LS models ordered by fleets, will become standard on all LS and entry-level Envoy models. The system is likely to become a standard feature on Omega models, too.

RESIDUAL values on the Audi A4 have reached record levels as fleet demand for the model hits an all-time high. Latest figures from CAP Monitor Future Residual Values for cars first registered between August and December 1997 reveal a strengthening across the A4 range of between three and eight percentage points based on three years/60,000 miles.

A FLEET of 16 Volvo S40 turbo diesels has been delivered to Kent-based facilities management company Axis Europe by Knights Volvo, also based in the county. The cars will be driven by staff from maintenance engineers to the sales force and were selected following a lengthy search for 'the right type of vehicle'.

A NEW device has been developed to provide fleet managers with a trail of the routes their vehicles have taken. Minorplanet's AEM 100 tracks vehicles via satellite, and then maps this information to provide data on the location and speed of vehicles at any point in the day, and records the distance they travelled.

LEX Vehicle Leasing has strengthened its relationship with credit hire and credit repair services business Helphire with the supply of 97 R-registered Vauxhall Corsas on contract hire. The new deal complements the 62 new vehicles which Lex Vehicle Leasing has already supplied to the Bath-based company.

ROYAL Doulton has outsourced management of its 220-car fleet to Fleet Management Services. The manufacturer of ceramic tableware and giftware previously handled the fleet in-house. The move follows a recent review of fleet operating costs.

TWO companies operating almost 500 vehicles between them have revealed outsourcing agreements designed to save time and money. A single outsourcing deal involving 260 vehicles has been won by Fleet Cost Management which replaces individual fleet arrangements at the eight different businesses which make up the UK arm of the Lilleshall group. The fleet is composed of around 130 commercial vehicles, mainly Ford Transits, and 130 cars from a range of manufacturers.

TWO-THIRDS of company cars are involved in an insurance incident annually, and the figure rises to over 77% if glass damage is taken into account. Theft of vehicle remains the most expensive cost to bear, at £4,458 per claim, leading VELO in its latest fleet insurance report to issue a reminder to fleets to maintain measures to minimise the risk of theft, including driver awareness campaigns and the fitting of anti-theft devices.

BRITAIN'S two leading used car price guides have warned against the continuation of current 'bullish' used car prices as thousands of ex-fleet cars reach the secondhand market. CAP Black Book said it remained to be seen whether the present values would last, and Glass's Guide said it expected September to be the last month where values remained fairly buoyant along with strong retail demand.

A NEW service launched by PHH aims to help fleets cut fuel bills to below pre-Budget levels by encouraging drivers to drive economically. MPG Improvement Reporting monitors drivers' progress against pre-arranged individual or company monthly targets through transactions on the AllStar fuel card.

FORD is predicting sales of around 490,000 - the second highest on record - for what it hopes will be the last annual August plate change. Sales director Paddy Byrne is expecting sales to top last year's 479,400, but still be a few thousand short of the 1989 record of 500,000. He hopes next year will see the introduction of twice-yearly registrations in March and September.

HONDA is gearing up to sell cars to Britain's police forces for the first time and at least three forces have already bought Swindon-built vehicles. The Japanese manufacturer is the number one police motorcycle supplier and police forces are now evaluating Hondas for covert applications with 44 Accord four-door saloons and 36 five-door Civics, including 139mph VTi models, being tested by 44 of Britain's 52 police forces. Three Honda cars have been sold as a result.

SKODA is bringing its fleet sales operation up to speed in a bid to get the marque established in the corporate sector prior to the launch of the important Octavia next spring. The company has appointed specialist fleet sales managers Adrian Millar and Derek Fallows to look after the north and south of the country respectively.

LEASE Plan is calling for better routine maintenance of company cars after a survey revealed that the majority of fleet drivers regularly compromise their own safety and that of other road-users. The call comes after research showed that more than half of Britain's company car drivers fail to stop for rest breaks on long-distance journeys, almost two thirds don't check their tyre pressures frequently enough, and almost a half don't check their oil regularly.

BULLISH residual value predictions have been thrown into question by the latest edition of CAP Monitor, which predicts a steep downturn in the economy during the first two quarters of 2001. This downturn will have an impact on four-year contracts written this year, but there have been few signs over recent months of contract hire companies reigning in their used car price predictions.

PRIME Minister Tony Blair's Ford Galaxy is being converted to run on liquid petroleum gas. Environment minister Michael Meacher made the announcement, at the launch this week of the UK's largest municipal fleet of natural gas powered vehicles run by the London Borough of Merton.

GODFREY Davis Contract Hire has won the contract to supply vehicles and manage Sewell Construction's 60-vehicle fleet. The Hull-based company previously purchased outright using outside funding, but under the new arrangements, Godfrey Davis will shoulder the financial risk as well as managing the fleet on a day-to-day basis.

FIAT has retained its top spot as the cheapest make of car to repair following an accident, according to the latest VELO Fleet Insurance Report. The Italian marque has led the manufacturer league table since the reports started more than a year ago, and its average cost per repair of £412 over the last quarter beat the closest competition by £26.

THE Government's decision to scrap two of the country's most eagerly-awaited road-building schemes and put five more on hold has been slammed as a blow to businesses. The RAC, AA and the Retail Motor Industry Federation were unanimous in their criticism of transport minister Gavin Strang's announcement on Monday that only five out of 12 high profile roads programme schemes had been given the green light.

THE Metropolitan Police Service is to contract out the equipping, maintenance and repair of its non-covert fleet of around 3,500 vehicles. The deal, one of the largest fleet management tenders to be announced this year, covers cars, motorcycles, vans and larger commercial vehicles operating mostly within the M25.

FORMER winners of Britain's Safest Fleet Competition have taken initiatives to restrict or ban the use of mobile phones by their company car drivers while on the road. The moves come in the light of a proliferation of evidence and warnings over the dangers of keeping in touch while driving.

NATIONWIDE Autoglazing is to merge with Canadian company TCG International Inc. Essex-based Nationwide currently has a network of 74 corporate and franchised operations spanning the UK. Managing director Tom Hales said there were no immediate plans to expand that coverage. The company is, however, hoping to increase its fleet business which currently accounts for around 45% of its work.

FAST-GROWING dealer group Dixon Motors has picked up its first Fiat and Alfa Romeo franchises with the purchase of two dealerships in Yorkshire. The company acquired Fiat dealership Whitehead and Hinch of Horsforth and JCT 600's Fiat and Alfa site in Leeds for a total of £1.37 million, increasing the total number of franchises represented to 16.

BRADFORD-based Vauxhall dealer JCT 600 has taken gold in AT&T Automotive Services' first dealer awards programme. The dealer came top after consistently providing good service when delivering vehicles to the Manchester-based leasing and contract hire specialist's clients.

LAND ROVER is to build its most luxurious Range Rover to date in response to customer demand for an even higher specification version of the off-roader. Based on the current top-of-the range 4.6 HSE automatic, the Limited Edition will be finished in exclusive metallic British Racing Green and features matching components, alloy wheels and hand-finished leather interior.

JAGUAR fleet operations is offering a series of chauffeuring courses in response to increasing demand from the executive end of the market. Operated in conjunction with Jaguar's dealer training division and Elite Chauffeur Training, the courses will run at various locations between August 11 to 21 inclusive.