New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

Volkswagen OKs production of the Bugatti 16C Galibier, report says

Volkswagen AG has agreed to fund production of the Bugatti 16C Galibier sedan, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing two unnamed sources that had knowledge of the project. The 16C Galibier would join the Veyron sports car in Bugatti's lineup. But Galibier production may not start for two to three years while Bugatti retools its boutique manufacturing plant in Molsheim, France.

Vauxhall Insignia VXR SuperSport – under £30k

Vauxhall is replacing the Insignia VXR with the Insignia VXR SuperSport, with a 170mph top speed and costing just £29,995. But don’t run away with the ieda that the VXR SuperSport ios some sort of new, super-powerful version of the old VXR without the SuperSport badge, because it’s not. Vauxhall has simply taken the limiter off the old VXR – and in the process upped the top speed to 170mph – and actually dropped the price to £29,995.