News - Page 1346

In a remarkable development, Pendragon has made an offer to buy Lookers <i>and</i> Reg Vardy.

Westover Group has acquired Olympian Motor Group’s dealerships at Bournemouth, New Milton, Salisbury and Blandford.

Asgard, the Midlands based motor retail group, has gone into administration, putting 100 jobs at risk.

Fiat’s new Grande Punto will be priced from £7,594 on-the-road when it reaches showrooms on February 11.

Ford of Britain will appoint Roelant de Waard as its new chairman and managing director on February 1.

Nick Lancaster, the HR Owen chief executive, says carmakers have begun to address the problem of crippling overheads in metropolitan areas by making decisions to slim down dealer networks.

Peugeot’s UK retailers will be flown to Seville in Spain at the end of February for the European dealer launch of the carmaker’s most important new model of the year – the 207.

Strong fleet, business and commercial vehicle sales helped push Patterson Motor Group to a new record in 2005.

BCA will be rolling out its Inventory Management System (IMS) to franchised dealers during the second half of the year.

The latest Audi A4 3.0 TDI quattro is available to order now and has had a power upgrade to 231bhp from 202bhp.

Nissan has introduced a new Urbis trim to its Micra range, priced at £7,995 which puts it below the 1.2 S priced at £8,730.

The results for the <a href="http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB224WV3REVEX" target="_blank">AM and HPI Litmus Test</a> results will be published on February 10, so there isn't much time left to take part in the business confidence survey.

Mitsubishi may expand its co-operation with Malaysian manufacturer, Proton, beyond providing automotive components.

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will raised prices across its entire range by an average of 1.4%.

Mazda’s fastest saloon, the Mazda6 MPS, goes on sale before the end of this month.

Austin Healey sports cars could soon be back in production after the Healey family sold the rights to build its cars.

Volvo's new C70 coupe-convertible will come with a free three-year/60,000-mile service plan for fleet customers.

Olympian Automotive has gone into administrative receivership.

Waters Peugeot of Hatfield is relieved to announce it is open for business after six World War II bombs were discovered and disposed of behind the dealership yesterday.

Skoda will present its new Roomster, its fourth model line, at the Geneva Motor Show on February 28.

Kia’s Picanto model depreciated less than any other car in the UK last year, according to Parker’s Car Price Guide, sister-title to AM-online.

BMW UK has announced final specification and pricing of the forthcoming BMW Z4 3.0si Coupé and the new BMW Z4 M Coupe.

Gareth Stewart, distribution manager at Walon UK’s Toyota import centre in Bristol, has climbed the highest mountain in Antarctica, raising £20,000 for the automotive charity, BEN.

The Office of Fair Trading has decided not to take action against TVR after it received complaints it was not supplying independent repairers with spare parts.

Peugeot has set out to support independent motor traders by launching a trade parts club through its Trade Association Dealers, which will be inplace by the end of the month.

DaimlerChrysler will cut 6,000 administrative jobs by 2008, following the introduction of a new management model.

The western European new car market fell in December by 2.5% to 1.05 million units. However, the total market for 2005 was only 0.2% (29,780 units) lower than 2004’s annual total of 14,854,554 units.

Nearly a third of drivers have not worn a seatbelt while in a moving car at some time in the last year.

Almost 11,000 students have now signed up for the Institute of the Motor Industry’s (IMI) training vocational qualifications.

Seat has released the first images of its revised Ibiza, which will reach showrooms in April.