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Ford gains ground in customer perception

The Ford brand gained ground in consumers' minds this year as Toyota slipped, though the Japanese juggernaut still leads the pack by a slight margin. Over the last two years, Ford climbed 35 percentage points while Toyota dropped 46 percentage points, according to the latest survey from Consumer Reports. During this time, Ford (144) moved within three points of Toyota (147).

Cautious welcome for fuel duty freeze

MOTORING groups have given a cautious welcome to Chancellor George Osborne's announcement of a freeze on fuel duty until May 2015. Both the AA and the RAC pointed out that Mr Osborne was already getting big sums from motorists in taxation. Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "Transport is the single biggest area of household expenditure bar none and our own research shows that 800,000 of the poorest households are in transport poverty, spending a quarter or more of their income on running a car.

UK electric car sales hit record high

While electric cars may not have taken off as quickly as the likes of Renault and Nissan had hoped, the latest figures from the government’s £5,000 electric car grant scheme show that sales have leapt 25% in the last quarter. A total of 1,149 electric cars were registered in Q3, not only a 25% improvement over Q2, but the most successful quarter since the government scheme began back in January 2011, indicating that consumers are starting to understand the technology and its limitations rather better. On Bing: see pictures of electric cars in the UK Find out how much an electric car costs on Auto Trader This news comes as the Renault-Nissan alliance has been forced to admit it is not going to reach its self-imposed target of 1.5 million electric car sales by 2016.