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Press Centre > CAPtivate > CAP Blog
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Author: |
Martin Ward |
Created: |
Friday, March 07, 2008 |
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Welcome to Martin's Blog |
By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
28th January 2009 - This weeks manufacturer news
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By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
We drove an early build car at the Prodrive test facility near Kenilworth and whilst it was a very short test, it did give us an idea on how the new Insight performs and a good look at its build quality.
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By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
We went over to the import centre near Grimsby to have a look at the first Kia Soul model to arrive into the UK. The cars we saw were not cleaned and still had plastic on the seats, carpets and protection on the roof and bonnet. It was an early chance to have a good inspection of the new car; to look, touch and get a general overview of its quality. The fit and finish all appeared to be very good; another example of how the Koreans have improved in quality in the past couple of years and are really taking it seriously.
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By Martin Ward on
Thursday, January 22, 2009
21st January 2009 - This weeks manufacturer news
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By Martin Ward on
Thursday, January 22, 2009
This was a very early drive of the all new Mazda 3 and the short event was described by Mazda as a ‘sneak peek’. Mazda had brought over to Europe some of their most senior people who have been involved in the new 3 project and all were available to answer questions and many gave presentations about their input into the new car.
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By Martin Ward on
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Qubo is aimed at families or those wanting a small car with plenty of space at a reasonable price. It is based on the Fiorino van which is a shortened Grande Punto platform so it has been tried and tested. We tested the Qubo on a variety of roads in the Southampton area and found it to be comfortable and fairly solid on the road; it is good for a car that has not been designed to be a sports car but a people carrier.
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By Martin Ward on
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The all new Megane is literally all new as no body panels have been used from the previous model. Renault took a gamble when they launched the previous model as they expected that everybody would have doubts about its design initially but would soon grow to like it. They didn’t and sales worldwide suffered because of its styling. The large boot just didn’t work and they even tried using its excessive proportions in TV ads to help sell it and try and make it look normal. None of this worked and so it was back to the drawing board. Renault didn’t try and re-style the old car; they simply started again. Expensive but it had to be done.
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By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Pierre Louis told me that 2008 has been a very difficult year for most manufacturers including Peugeot. It started like any other but since June it has turned into an extremely difficult year for the industry as a whole. He said they, like others, have seen a shift from people buying larger cars into smaller lower Co2 models. Most are downsizing and they cannot supply their small cars such as 107 and 207 as quickly as they would like. They have reduced the amount of vehicles supplied into the rental market from 21,000 in 2007 to less than 14,000 this year and further reductions are to take place next year. This should help confidence and residual values. He sees the new car market in 2009 being under two million.
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By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Oberusel is a thirty minute drive from Frankfurt and is the European research and development centre for Mazda. It has been open for many years, primarily designing and developing vehicles for the European markets.
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By Martin Ward on
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
10th September 2008 - This weeks manufacturer news
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