Author Archive

The new Audi A4 and S4 range was given its international launch in Portugal last week. A select number of the UK’s top motoring journalists were invited to put the ranges through their paces on bespoke routes in the winter sunshine, in and around Lisbon.

Journalists were able to fully examine the new Audi A4 Saloon, Audi A4 Avant, Audi A4 allroad and the stand out Audi S4 Saloon with its feisty 333PS, 3.0 TFSI engine.

Feedback from the launch so far has been exciting. Autocar magazine gave the S4 four out of five stars, with reviewer Gavin Conway saying: “The latest S4 is a beautifully made piece that isn’t too ‘shouty’ about its performance… It feels, in the end, like a grown-up’s hot rod. And that’s a good thing.”

Conway calls the S4 ‘very classy’ and adds: “The S4’s interior remains a terrific place to spend time, with fabulously supportive seats and a deep sense of quality.”

And Conway is just as impressed with the car’s performance. “This car is still a totally convincing driver’s tool… the performance on offer is utterly addictive,” he writes. The car’s handling comes in for praise, too: “You can get the S4 to flow beautifully on a twisting stretch of mountain road, and steering feedback is particularly good.”

The Tokyo Motor Show was the chosen venue for Volkswagen to showcase its concept SUV of the future – the Cross Coupé. This was a big clue as to the future direction for Volkswagen’s SUV styling and all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid engine may indicate Volkswagen’s future direction to produce more and more fuel efficient vehicles. 

It also defines a new stage in Volkswagen engineering design, being the first model based on the company’s new ‘modular transverse matrix’ – or MQB – to be shown publicly.

At 4,345 mm, the concept car being shown in Tokyo is longer than a Golf and shorter than a Tiguan. The width of 1,868 mm and height of 1,523 mm also come exactly in between these two bestsellers, meaning that the Cross Coupé’s dimensions place it at the heart of the globally in-demand A segment.

The design of the car – penned by a team led by Volkswagen Group Chief Designer Walter de Silva and Brand Design Chief, Klaus Bischoff – features the characteristic horizontal lines of the Volkswagen ‘face’ at the front while linking to the future with a completely new light and grille treatment. The rear is dominated by steeply sloping angles and new distinctive light clusters which are combined with SUV-like chunky bumpers and twin tailpipes.

If this first concept is a nod to the future of Volkswagen’s engineering design then we cannot wait to see it translated in to a UK production car.

Business Car magazine decided to take a ŠKODA Superb estate GreenLine II for a long-term test drive. Now that they have completed over 9000 miles of testing, what was the verdict?

Tristan Young, a journalist for the Business Car website summarised their findings with this statement: “At £24,000, I don’t know why it isn’t the default option for more fleets and drivers… you won’t find better for less,”

He then went on to say: “We set out to see if one of the more capacious estate cars on the market could also be one of the most fuel-efficient, and the Superb estate didn’t disappoint,” added Tristan. “We saw a high of 68mpg for one tank of fuel, which is well above the official combined figure of 64.2mpg, and the average for our 9000-plus miles was 59mpg. The overall figure may be a touch shy of the official (and from a personal point of view I’m annoyed with myself for not cracking 60mpg) but it is still seriously impressive.”

The report adds that you need to drive “like a saint” to get such remarkable fuel economy, but acknowledges how even on a seriously testing run across Scotland, with the car loaded to the gunnels, the driver couldn’t get fuel consumption below 51mpg.

“Best of all, though, was the fact you can have this ultra-efficiency without any sacrifices. We’ve already said how big the car is, but in Elegance trim the Superb is a luxurious place to spend your miles,” concludes the report.

The prestigious International Green Apple Environment Awards were held recently which serves to highlight the benefits and profits that can be achieved by adopting environmental best practice in a host of industries.

The awards are produced by an independent group call The Green Organisation which is dedicated to promoting great environmental behaviours. New cars were recognised for the first time at this years ceremony, with the Yeti E 2.0 TDI CR taking the top accolade in its ‘Smaller SUV and 4×4’ category.

The award was judged by members of the Midland Group of Motoring Writers, who commented that “It does everything you need a car to do and you get a lot of car for the money. This is actually that rare beast – an SUV with luggage space,”

ŠKODA UK Product Marketing Manager Chris Horrell was delighted with the prize: “The Yeti has been a game-changing car for ŠKODA, and to win an award based around its environmental credentials is fantastic. That we’re the first winner of this honour makes it doubly special.”

Our Audi centres in Bristol and Cardiff made a real effort for Children in Need this year, with staff at both locations dressing up for the day and encouraging customers to get involved with the fundraising too.

Bristol Audi and the Mon Motors Accident Repair Centre at St Vincent’s raised over £700 which was a significant improvement on the £450 raised last year. As you can see, staff from all departments of the business got in to the spirit of the day and dressed up in a variety of costumes and donated to the cause.

Food donated by staff and local business was also brought in for the day which was then given to people in exchange for donations to Children in Need.

A special mention for James Gravenor who is a Sales Executive at Bristol Audi because he decided to have his head shaved for Children in Need, which raised £124 in its own right.

Staff at Cardiff Audi came to work in fancy dress too and had a number of other activities going on through the day which all helped raise a grand total of £1343 for Children in Need.

Local hairdresser and beauty expert Hollie Bowen was on hand for the day and offered staff and customers the chance to get a trim in exchange for a donation to Children in Need. Hollie is the daughter of Julie Purser-Stephens who works in the Café at Cardiff Audi.

An exercise bike was donated for the day by FitnessFirst so that staff and customers could take part in the biking challenge that was pedalled continuously from 9.00am until 6.30pm.

An auction, raffle and buffet also helped encourage staff and customers alike to give so generously to the cause.

Both centres are already planning what they can do next time to make the fundraising for Children in Need even more successful in 2012.

On 1 November Audi broke its all-time record for annual sales in the UK, passing the mark previously set in 2008 of 101,522.

This fantastic figure illustrates just what a superb year it’s been for Audi in the UK. This is not only a record in terms of volume, but also represents a record market share for the brand of six per cent, compared to 5.2 per cent in 2010.

Audi’s performance in the UK for the ten months to the end of October is all the more impressive when set against the backdrop of a difficult UK car market and economic challenges. The brand has achieved growth of 17 per cent in retail sales this year, while the UK car market has contracted by 12 per cent, compared to 2010. We have also outperformed the fleet market, with Audi fleet sales growing 10.5 per cent against four per cent growth in the market overall.

What’s more, Audi has outperformed its main rivals in the premium sector in terms of sales in 2011 October year-to-date. This is the first year ever that Audi has been ahead of BMW after September, and the brand is currently 29,000 units ahead of Mercedes.

Most importantly, our accomplishments so far this year are testament to the incredible job done by everyone involved the Brand – you have all played your part in our success so far, and we are confident that, with your continued support, we can go on to achieve our full year ambition.

The all-new Ford Ranger has achieved a motoring milestone, by becoming the first ever pick-up to be awarded the maximum five star rating from the Euro NCAP crash test protocol.

By achieving an overall score of 89 percent, the all-new Ford Ranger became the highest scoring pick-up ever and also one of the highest scores ever awarded for any type of vehicle. In addition to that, the all-new Ranger achieved the highest rating of any vehicle ever tested by Euro NCAP for pedestrian protection (eighty one percent).

“Vehicle safety is a core value at Ford Motor Company and these independent test results confirm that not only is Ranger the highest rated vehicle in its class, it is also one of the highest rated vehicles ever assessed by Euro NCAP,” said Stephen Odell, chairman and CEO, Ford of Europe. “No one wants to be involved in an accident but if the worst were to happen, the new Ranger is proven to provide outstanding protection to occupants of all ages as well as pedestrians.”

Established in 1997 and backed by several governments, motoring, consumer and insurance organisations, Euro NCAP is the largest and most respected independent authority on crash testing in Europe.

Its assessors described Ranger’s test results as “remarkable,” with “impressive” scores in all areas.

Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP secretary general, said: “With such good pedestrian protection, the Ford Ranger is undoubtedly raising the bar of safety in the category of pick-up trucks, which had until now not proven to be the safest.”

Every member of staff across the Mon Motors Group endeavours to delivery an exceptional level of service to every customer that they deal with. Our commitment to customer service has been recognised at Cardiff Audi this week where the Aftersales Customer Facing team have been recognised by Audi customers as the Best Audi Centre in Wales and the South West for Customer Service.

The team, who are managed by Nick Measures and Adrian Williams are tasked with looking after over 8000 customers every year at the Cardiff Audi centre, which is located just of Junction 30 of the M4 on Cardiff Gate Business Park.

The team (pictured Left to Right: Liz Newton, Jannine Griffiths, Claire Smith, Ben Fife and Sarah Shiels) have been rewarded for their commitment to customers with brand new company cars. John Spriggs, Head of Business at Cardiff Audi commented: “The cars represent a reward to the team for regularly maintaining such high standards of customer service, in what is a difficult market place.”

This is the first official glimpse of what SKODA’s new compact city car, the Citigo will look like. It is the first car in the SKODA range to profile the brands new design style, which will be shared by all new models, including the first use of the new badge. The Citigo will be available in both 3 and 5 door derivatives and will be launched in the Czech Republic towards the end of 2011 and is expected to arrive in the UK at some point during the summer of 2012.

The dimensions of the Citigo are just 3.56 metres long, 1.65 metres wide and 1.48 metres high, making it an incredibly agile car to drive around town. As with all cars from SKODA, the Citigo will also be packed with ‘Simply Clever’ touches that will widen the cars appeal from the urban to jungle to the wide open spaces of the countryside too.

It will offer a generous amount of interior space, thanks to its 2.42 metre-long wheel base, to provide enough comfort for four passengers even on long trips. The boot volume will be a sizeable 251 litres with the rear seats up, or 951 litres with the seats folded down.

The interior will have numerous storage compartments, cup holders and multi-media systems, as well as storage pockets on the sides of the front seats. A bag hook on the glovebox handle and a photograph holder on the central console are two more clever interior features.

One more clever touch is a portable navigation system – a first for any SKODA car. The device can be fitted to the dashboard and then removed easily for use on the go. The system is an integral part of the vehicle’s onboard electronics, providing not only navigation, but also hands-free calling with built-in Bluetooth and onboard infotainment. The driver can also view information about the car, such as warnings from parking sensors etc, on the device’s five-inch touch screen.

For the second year in succession, the SKODA Superb Estate Elegance 2.0 TDI DSG has scooped the top prize in the £25,000 to £32,000 category at the 2012 Caravan Club Towcar of the Year Awards.

The judges, made up of experienced motoring journalists and seasoned caravanning experts, were bowled over by the SKODA, describing it as “the best on hill starts by a mile”, “effortless to drive and tow with”, “confidence-inspiring” and “a very pleasant environment to be in”.

SKODA UK Director Robert Hazelwood said: “Winning any honour once is great, but to do it again is testament to the engineering excellence of the SKODA range. We know the caravanning community is an enthusiastic supporter of the Superb Elegance Estate. Its powerful 2.0-litre diesel engine and efficient DSG transmission create a refined and stable base for stress-free long-distance towing.”