Monthly Archives: November 2013

New car sales up for the 20th consecutive month

October’s 4% year-on-year increase in new car sales continued the resurgence in the automobile market, leading the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) to firmly project 2013 will achieve a six-year high. In fact new car sales this year compared to the same period last year (Jan-Oct) is over 10% higher – with 1.95million new registrations so far in 2013.

Interestingly there has been a shift t to smaller cars rather than family models. The Ford Fiesta remains the best-seller with a considerable lead over the Focus and Vauxhall Corsa.

The most popular new cars so far in 2013 have been:

1. Ford Fiesta (104,621)

2. Ford Focus (76,493)

3. Vauxhall Corsa (72,903)

4. Vauxhall Astra (57,756)

5. Volkswagen Golf (56,357)

6. Nissan Qashqai (44,649)

7. BMW 3 Series (37,066)

8. BMW 1 Series (36,529)

9. Volkswagen Polo (36,362)

10. Peugeot 208 (34,253)

Source: SMMT

Coupe MPGs tested by What Car

With a huge spotlight eternally being cast over fuel prices, and fuel consumption being scrutinised heavily with manufacturers, it was interesting to read on What Car’s website that they recently assessed the ‘real’ miles per gallon for 5 two-door coupes against the official figures which  are attained under lab conditions. For the purposes of the exercise they used 4 diesel and 1 petrol and a mix of manual and automatic gearboxes.

The What Car results of the coupes tested in this exercise were:

BMW 420d SE (officially 60.1mpg, True MPG 52.5mpg)

Mercedes E220 CDI Coupe AMG Sport (officially 58.9mpg, True MPG 49.7mpg)

BMW 640d Coupe M Sport (officially 51.4mpg, True MPG 45.2mpg)

Vauxhall Astra GTC – 1.7 CDTi SRi – (officially 65.7mpg, True MPG 44.5mpg)

Mini Coupe 1.6 Cooper S (officially 48.7mpg, True MPG 40.2mpg)

What Car were suitably impressed that all vehicles passed 40mpg with the BMW passing 50.

 

Peugeot 308 means business

According to Quentin Wilson’s report in the Mirror the Peugeot 308 is going to give the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf a run for their money.

Serene, bump-smoothing and sweet-handling are just some of the adjectives used.

The final verdict according to Quentin Wilson is “if you want a family hatch that feels and looks genuinely ­separate and distinctive, this car should be at the top of your list.”