General Motors Europe has signed a deal worth more than £4bn with Avis Europe to supply the rental company with more than 350,000 vehicles over the next five years.
Leading industry figures are calling on the Bank of England to keep interest rate rises to a minimum following last week's increase, the first for nearly four years.
Toyota has reduced the number of franchise partners and retail sites after streamlining its UK retail network.
BMW has opened a new purpose- built performance centre at Rock-ingham, Northamptonshire to cater for in-house and external driving activities.
Fiat Auto's operating losses improved to £196mn in the third quarter of 2003, compared to £233m last year, but were worse than anticipated.
Mileage discrepancies now affect almost 10 per cent of popular second hand vehicles, according to HPI.
Reg Vardy has opened a new showroom in Glasgow for used Mercedes-Benz cars.
GM Daewoo moved a step closer to completing its retail network with the appointment of eight new dealers, taking the total network to 80.
Credit card fraud cost the motor industry £4.2m over the past 12 months, according to a new report published by the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS).
Renault opened a £2m training centre this week to help the automotive industry fight the crippling skills shortage. The facility at Ruddington, in Nottingham, is part of Renault's commitment to developing school leavers' skills through the Modern Apprenticeship Programme.
A new hi-tech training course is being launched to help dealers meet tough new rules covering the sale of motor insurance products.
Dealers could be forced to review their demonstrator fleets following the publication of new Health and Safety Executive guidelines.
Tony Blair officially opened Ford Motor Company's advanced Diesel Centre in Dagenham this week. Ford president and chief operating officer, Sir Nick Scheele, joined the Prime Minister on a tour of the state-of-the-art facility.
The Scottish Motor Show has this week come under fire from two senior retailers, who question whether it has a future.
Ford moved rapidly this week to deny rumours it was planning to offload its £84m turnover Warranty Holdings subsidiary.
American retailers are facing similar attacks on the franchise system as their European counterparts. One US analyst believes multi-franchised retailers will be a common sight within a few years.
Probably the most important Land Rover ever, The all-new Discovery, which goes on sale mid-2004, will underpin both the product strategy and financial health of the world's only specialist four-wheel drive manufacturer for the rest of the decade.
Ford, the UK's biggest-selling carmaker, is to help thousands of independent garages become authorised repairers with the launch of a new website. The site, which goes live later this year, will enable garages that want to apply for Ford approved status to download information and application forms.
Luxury and safety are increasingly standard features in today's new cars, with even air conditioning now automatically included on 47 per cent of today's available models.
The EU Environment Council has agreed the EC's proposed new limits for the emissions of volatile organic compounds in paints, varnishes and vehicle refinishing products.
Motorists will face an average repair bill of £353.87 this winter, according to winter breakdown claims analysed by Warranty Direct.
The latest EurotaxGlass's Fleet index shows signs of a recovery in residual values. Although average values were 0.1 % lower than 12 months ago this is significantly better than the previous quarter (0.8%). The index measures 3-year trade values for approximately 40 benchmark models, which are important for the fleet market. In the UK the annualised decline improved to -2.2%.
Businesses in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside are being targeted by the Environment Agency in a campaign to reduce the number of tyres that are fly-tipped in the area
Removing restrictions on the number of licensed taxis on Britain's roads would be good for the public says the OFT in a report published today, which could signal a boost in demand for cabs and minicabs.
Lotus has reported group earnings before interest and tax of £2.7 million for the year ended March 2003 on turnover of £154m, which compares with a loss of £16.6m in 2002 and a loss of £42.2m in 2001.
New car sales in Scotland bucked the national trend last month as they had done in September, when they were up 4.85% year on year. Scottish new registrations were up 7.5% on October 2002 at over 16,000 units, in contrast to Britain's overall 1.39% decline last month, though the Central Region saw a decline.
”The Bank of England's 0.25% increase in interest rates will be a cause for concern in retail motor sector businesses across the country,'” says Matthew Carrington, chief executive of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI).
Maranello Sales Ltd, the importer-owned Ferrari and Maserati dealer, has completed the acquisition of a Maserati dealership in St. Albans, Herts from HR Owen plc, and purchased a second showroom site in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Used lightweight vans have been selling well at auction sites across the UK, boosted by the anticipated need for extra parcel deliveries in the run up to Christmas, reports Glass's Information Services.
Evolution Funding, a new finance company founded by four former managers from First National Motor Finance, is looking to help dealers, “starved of choice in the finance market following years of consolidation”, improve their F&I profit and volumes.
