Magnaflow Performance Exhaust 14805 Street Performance; Stainless Steel Muffler on 2040-parts.com

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.

New Skoda Rapid: Beijing 2012

Skoda Rapid debuts in Beijing The new Skoda Rapid – a new Skoda to sit between the Fabia and Octavia – has been previewed at the Beijing Motor Show. Skoda revealed the MissionL Concept at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show which neatly filled a gap in the Skoda range between the Fabia and the Octavia. And now it’s turning in to a production model – the Skoda Rapid.

Saab funding from China likely delayed. Gets loan from North Street Capital

Saab gets funds from North Street Capital Last week we had Saab and their Chinese ‘backers’ getting in a bit of a muddle over funding. Which is what we’ve come to expect. Saab were adamant that the quote attributed to the Pangda Chairman that the Saab deal was no longer valid was a ‘misunderstanding’.