#UK

I may have mentioned before (or you may have read about it) that the UK is undergoing a huge austerity program. In order to balance the UK’s books, massive spending cuts are being implemented. But in order to secure votes, the Conservative government (along with the Liberal Democrats) pledged that the NHS would not suffer these cuts in budgets. Wow! A right wing government actually PROTECTING nationalized healthcare? Those crazy Europeans! So this means that other facets of government spending are going to be hit hard. Very hard. In particular, the police. Greater Manchester Police won’t be hiring any new recruits for 2 years in order to save money. That’s how hard we’re talking. So any opportunity to save money will be welcome. Enter a bunch of South Koreans…

I can’t speak for the US market, but in the UK car market there is one segment which I can never see dying. The small, luxury car segment (A.K.A The luxury entry level). This is the area reserved for your Audi A3’s, BMW 1 series’ and, to lesser extents, Volvo S40’s and Mercedes-Benz A-Classes. The reason I believe this segment is more robust than other is because it revolves around one factor which has been around for a very long time. Vanity. In the UK, you have many (and I mean “many”) mid-20’s to early 30 men, who’ve got a half-decent paying job and want to lash out on a car with a luxury make. Very few will go with cars like the Audi A4, BMW 3 series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, because they either scream “rep-mobile” or “old man”. They won’t go any higher up the ladder because that’ll be too costly. So the small, luxury car segment is perfect for them. The least amount of money for the most amount of badge-snobbery. This is why the BMW 1-series is so successful in the UK, despite being quite a poor car. “I can get a BMW for the price of a Golf? Sign me up!” Well, it seems a new boy is coming to the market. Only this one has a trick up his sleeve…

Remember that old saying, “What’s good for GM is good for America”? Well it seems that the UK is developing a similar ethos. “What’s good for Ford is good for the UK”. Now, this isn’t some arrogant Ford executive trying to brainwash the UK public that buying their cars is their public duty. There really is a good reason behind this. Honestly.

When I was a young whippersnapper and did advertising for Volkswagen, we had a rule of thumb: “Over the lifetime of the car, you’ll spend the purchase price again.” In gas, oil, taxes, insurance, repairs, parts, you name it. We kept that rule to ourselves. We didn‘t want to shock the prospective buyer. Now, Volkswagen changed their mind. They are going for full disclosure.

DNA India reports that Tata is making a concerted effort to source parts for Jaguar and Land Rover from low cost countries like China, India (duh!) and Poland. DNA’s source for this claim said: “Earlier, Ford used to procure 17 percent from low-cost countries like Poland, China and India, whereas Tata Motors is planning to increase it to 35 percent.” Tata has buys more than just cheap parts. They outsourced low-end design and development work to lower-wage countries. But before you start the “If you thought JLR reliability was bad now…” don’t get too carried away.

When you buy a car new, depreciation is a risk you have to take. So like with any risk, one tries to minimize it. That’s why Toyota and Honda are such perennial favourites. low depreciation. But what cars should you avoid if you don’t want to suffer depreciation that could make you depressed?

As I wrote a few days ago, European car sale figures aren’t looking too great. In fact, for want of a better phrase, they’re bloody awful. (Detailed numbers to follow at around Sept 15.) The reason behind this drop is the detox from the high of “Cash For Clunkers”. Now that the artificial boost has gone (or is slowly dissipating) the market is coming back down to where it should be. And where it should be isn’t good news for auto manufacturers. In the UK, it’s just as bad. The SMMT reported a drop of 17.5 percent in new car registrations compared to August of last year. This is in line with the SMMT’s prediction that the second half of the year would be tough, to put it mildly. “New car registrations were down 17.5 percent in August and conditions will remain challenging through the rest for the year,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive, “The industry enjoyed a better than expected first half of the year and despite the difficulties, SMMT is forecasting that new cars registrations will close just ahead of 2009 figures.” Shall we take at look at the winners and losers in the UK market for August 2010?

With the Mitsubishi i-miev electric car about to hit the British market, the BBC decided to break down the Pounds and tuppence behind the EV hype. And though…

Once a new car has reached 3 years of age in the UK, it has to undergo a yearly test to make sure the key components of a car are working, and that the car is safe. It’s called an MOT. This is not the drive-it-down-to-your-friendly-gas-station-and-get-a-sticker routine. It’s pretty rigorous. It is anticipated with apprehension. Anyway, the MOT is reaching its 50th birthday after the test became mandatory in 1960. So to celebrate the MOT’s 50th anniversary, Nationwide Autocentres, a garage group that performs many MOT’s around the UK, conducted a survey (how about taking the MOT out and drinking lager until your head spins? THAT’S a good way of celebrating your birthday!). The survey consisted of the top 10 best selling cars in the UK. Then they looked at their failure rates after 3 years (some people have far too much time on their hands). Shall we have a look at the results (via the Daily Mail)? Firstly, here are the contenders:

Ford Mondeo, Ford Ka, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Renault Megane, Vauxhall Corsa, VW Golf, Renault Clio and the BMW 3-series.

All of these cars were surveyed at their first MOT (i.e. three year old). What the surveys doesn’t take into account is how hard they’ve been driven (that pretty much equals out) and it doesen’t say what exactly has failed (it’s not a loose knob of the radio that fails the MOT, it’s usually something expensive …. T’s PASS or FAIL.)

So, who “won” this survey of the highest rate of failure at their first MOT? I’ll give you a clue. Nissan didn’t bring reliability to their alliance.

Thanks to one of the most popular Top Gear segments ever, the Peel P50 is now well-established in the minds and imaginations of the world’s automotive cognoscenti. After all, how often does Clarkson say that “if [car X] had a reverse gear, I would describe it as the absolute ultimate in personal mobility”? But now there’s another reason to pay attention to Peel: having been bought a few years back by Gary Hillman and Faizal Khan, the British microcar maker is set for a comeback that’s being funded by Sonny Coreleone himself, actor some British investor named James Caan (born Nazim Khan… cheers to colin42 for the British pop culture lesson, and apologies for unwittingly making the story better than it is).

Before the remnants of the British Leyland empire were sold off to various developing-world automakers (in an intriguing automotive inversion of colonialism)…

No, it’s not a Mel Gibson joke… Scientists at Edinburgh Napier University have developed a formula for making butanol biofuel out of byproducts of the Scottish whiskey industry, reports Sky News. Apparently researchers

combined so-called pot ale – the liquid from the copper stills distillery equipment – and the spent grains used to make whisky, also known as draff

to create Butanol, an ethanol-like biofuel. Unlike the corn juice, however, Butanol can run in any gas-powered engine and does not degrade components over time.

A bit more than a week ago, we reported that Geely might want to raise its stake in the London black cab builder Manganese Bronze from currently 20 percent to more than 51 percent. Ok, story, sit over there under the sign that says “Chinese stories, not happening.”

According to a poll released last week by the Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company, UK motorists drive more erratically in the presence of speed cameras. The firm, which insures 3.8 million in England and Wales, commissioned ICM Research to survey how the driving public responds when automated ticketing machines are present. The firm concluded that, since 2001, photo enforcement may have contributed to thousands of accidents that would not have otherwise occurred.

I’ve mentioned before that the UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) can be quite rabid when pursuing adverts with bold claims. Remember Renault’s run-in (nice alliteration) with the ASA about their claims for “zero emissions”? Or BMW, who tried to give the impression that their 3 litre, 6 cylinder hoonmobile, the Z4, was doing its bit for the environment (presumably by draining it of all that troublesome oil)? Well, the ASA is at it again.