With the summer fast upon us (though you wouldn’t know it), Land Rover has created a range of season-friendly products including a guide to driving in Europe in preparation for 2012’s holiday season and vehicle health checks.
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Land Rover launches Europe driving guide
With the summer fast upon us (though you wouldn’t know it), Land Rover has created a range of season-friendly products including a guide to driving in Europe in preparation for 2012’s holiday season and vehicle health checks.
Lotus boss fired
Lotus boss Dany Bahar has been fired from his position as head of the Norfolk-based sports car firm.
In a statement released on Friday, Lotus confirmed that Bahar had been ‘terminated from his employment as Chief Executive Officer of Lotus with immediate effect’.
The move follows news of his suspension two weeks ago after Proton owners DRB-Hicom started an ‘investigation into a complaint about his conduct’. The details remain under wraps, but it was reported that the inquiry may have concerned expenses.
UK car sales – Land Rover is bigger than Renault
The latest official car registrations figures from the SMMT have been published.The overall market shows surprisingly strong growth of 2.6% so far this year – that is a lot better than the economy as a whole. However, the car market is currently running at an annual rate of 1.95 million registrations, which is still a long way below its 2007 level of 2.4 million.There are some big changes in manufacturer’s performance this year. The winners include Land Rover (up 28.4%), Kia (up 24.0%) and Skoda (up 18.2%). Of the three, the most surprising is Skoda, as it had no new models in this period. With the new Citigo going on sale now, its growth rate should accelerate even further.
Upgraded McLaren MP4-12C, with added drama
Another day, another upgraded supercar: hot on the heels of yesterday’s news of the >Mercedes SLS AMG GT comes news of more power for the McLaren MP4-12C. The 2013 Model Year car goes up from 600 PS to 625 PS from 3.8 litres. That means it is almost the same as the original McLaren F1, which had 627 PS from its 6.1 litre V12 – that is a measure of the increase in engine efficiency over the last 20 years (and the benefits of turbocharging).
Vauxhall announces prices for Mokka baby SUV
Vauxhall’s new rival for the Nissan Juke is available for ordering today, with first deliveries taking place in November. The Mokka is Vauxhall’s competitor in the growing segment for supermini/4×4 crossovers. The success of the Nissan Juke is leading all manufacturers to take a close look at this segment, but Vauxhall has done a good job of getting in ahead of most rivals (Ford is expected to launch a car like this soon).
