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A new report questions whether electric cars can effectively combat the motor industry’s dependence on oil. The report “Electric Vehicles: Energy, Infrastructure and the Mobility Market in the Real World” from Trend Tracker suggests that moving from oil to electricity will represent a huge challenge. “Yet little thinking to date makes sense of the enormous challenges ahead if electric vehicles

Values of nearly new cars plummeted in January down 18.8 per cent or a decline of over £4,000. The average price fell from £21,691 in December to £17,619 a month later as volumes going through auction doubled, according to the BCA Pulse report. But fleet values increased by 6.9 per cent to £7,739, to reach the highest monthly average value since April 2010...

Nissan customers facing a wait of three months or more for their new cars will be offered free loan cars as the company moves to address long lead times on its UK-built Juke, Qashqai and Qashqai+2 models. Customers ordering a new Juke will be offered the use of a Micra, while Qashqai and Qashqai+2 buyers will be offered the use of a Note.

Mazda has been voted the UK’s top brand for customer satisfaction in a survey of 26,000 consumers. The brand scored highest in the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index from the Institute of Customer Service with a score of 83.3 percent, well above the car industry average of 78.4 percent.

The Top 10 dealer groups continue to benefit from the ongoing consolidation taking place in the motor trade. Over the 11 years to 2008 their share of new sales increased from 15 per cent to 23 per cent, according to the Economies of Scale in the UK Franchised Retail Motor Industry report from Bryan Consulting. The top 20 dealers, those with annual sales of £250million or more in 2009 , enjoyed a consistent advantage associated with having higher sales.

Jaguar Land Rover is to double the number of Advanced Apprenticeship places available during 2011. The 1,500 new recruits currently joining the workforce at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood plant to build the new Range Rover Evoque will be trained up to an Intermediate Apprenticeship.

January got off to a positive start at auction with used car values up 4.2 per cent to £6,847 compared with the previous month, according to Manheim Remarketing. The fleet sector experienced an increase in average values of 6.7 per cent to £6,124, Dealer part exchange prices rose by 9.8 per cent to £2,491 and manufacturer stock average values rose ...

UK car dealers are returning today from the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention in San Francisco.

BCA has reported a “significant increase” in the values of 4x4 pick-ups in recent weeks. A selection of 20 4x4 Pick-Ups were offered and sold at BCA Blackbushe on behalf of the UK Car Group in late January.

Sales of new cars in Northern Ireland have got off to a poor start in 2011, down 16.8 per cent to 5,989 units in January compared to 7,196 in January 2010. The decline compares unfavourably with sales in England, which were down 11.1 per cent to 108,041 vehicles and in Scotland down 12.9 per cent to 9,694 units.