New Car Sales 2012: Big winners – and big losers

Car sales in the UK hit a four year high in 2012 with over 2 million registrations. But which were the big winners and losers? Despite the Eurozone being on the verge of imploding – and the economic outlook on the gloomy side just about everywhere – 2012 has turned in to the best year for new car registrations in the UK since 2008.

Maybach Exelero for sale – ish

A Swiss Company is offering replica Maybach Exeleros We’re not huge fans of the Maybach here at Cars UK, as you’ll know if you’ve been here before. It’s just so ill-conceived it beggars belief that a company as savvy and successful as Mercedes can’t see it. Mind you, we’re convinced they’ve just about given up on Maybach – even though they deny it – and the 100 Maybach Coupes being built by Xenatec are a swansong to the marque, which we’re convinced will go the same way it did in its previous life by simply stopping production.

Lexus IS 300h promises unrivalled ownership costs

The new Lexus IS - launched at Detroit in January and costing from £26,495 for the IS 250 in the UK – actually offers ownership costs that eclipse diesel offerings from the likes of Jaguar, BMW, Audi and Mercedes, say Lexus. Despite the logical assumption that the complex hybrid powerplant in the IS 300h would cost more to maintain, Lexus say the opposite is true. Because it has no clutch and the starter motor and alternator are integrated they require no servicing or replacement and Lexus has fitted a timing chain instead of a timing belt, so it won’t need regular replacement either.