Sell My Car Berkshire

Four collectors edition Mercedes sold for a whopping £2 million at auction not so long ago in a sign that there are certainly some who are not feeling the credit crunch pinch.  The priciest of the four cars was a 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster, which sold for a huge  £616,000.  In second place, a 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Coupe which went for £522,500.  The cars were being sold as part of the annual RM Auctions ‘Automobiles of London’ event held at the Battersea Evolution Centre in southwest London. Not every car being auctioned went for the big bucks expected though – a classic, mint condition 1963 ATS 2500 GT was sold, not for the projected auction price of  £1,000,000 but a ‘mere’ £280,000.

In some sad news, its seems that after 35 years of faithful sales service the VW MK1 Golf has finally been laid to rest.  Production of the compact car was halted at the South African manufacturing plant this autumn. VW’s Port Elizabeth factory has been the manufacturer of the car since 1984, with more than half a million cars exported to developing countries at a cost, in today’s rates, of around £7,000.  One of the main reasons the car is being scrapped is because it doesn’t live up to today’s exacting safety standards in some pretty critical areas.  And so we bid a sad farewell to the iconic car of boy racers and grandmas.

I’m not entirely sure why but it would seem that four (possibly slightly mad) Irishmen have crossed the Irish Sea in a Renault Laguna! Amazingly, £100 saloon carried them across the 23-mile journey safe and sound and in only seven hours. And mad as it sounds, this is actually not the first time the four friends have attempted such a crossing but the second as their first attempt back in 2007 was quite a stupendous failure and sank within four minutes of setting off. The 2009 version didn’t have to rely on its own engine a la Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to power them across as they had an outboard motor on the back. The reason behind the mad dash was to raise money for charity which they managed to the tune of £3,000.

It seems that the benefits of the government’s scrappage scheme continue to be felt around with country, this time with the Sunderland plant of carmaker Nissan reporting a 40% rise in production of the Nissan Micra. Approximately 11,000 Nissan Micras made their way through the production line at the plant last month and with September sales across Europe increased 4% on last year the supermini car is now Nissan’s second best selling model. As an additional autumn bonus for the carmaker, sales of the Nissan Qashqai are up as well, 15 % year on year this time with a strong customer order bank that continues to surprise.

Just in case you happen to be in the market for a REALLY fast car, I would suggest you investigate the Ferrari Enzo.  One of the fastest and most powerful models to date, the car was of course name after the company’s founder Enzo Ferrari and is one of the world’s most powerful vehicles.  If you don’t already have your name on the list though you may find yourself disappointed as this gorgeous supercar, designed by Pininfarina, was originally limited to a run of 349 with all of them sold out before production even began following a mail out of a prospectus to existing customers.  Apparently the carmaker has decided to build another 50 models so you might just get in there if you’re quick..

Adverts for the website UlsterTrader.com have triggered 44 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and resulted in the advert being banned.  The advert featured a woman in her bra with the strapline “Nice headlamps. What do you look for in a car?…”  Hmmmm not exactly the most intelligent choice of campaign.  Apparently most of the complaints centred around people feeling that the advert objectified and degraded women, was sexist and implied that women, like cars, were commodities to be bought and sold.  The ASA said the advert “was likely to be seen to objectify and degrade women by linking attributes of a woman and her cleavage to attributes of a car, namely the headlamps, in a way that would be seen to imply a woman, like a car, was to be selected for those attributes.”

Although the recent announcement that the pool of cash available to the government’s scrappage scheme was met with yelps of joy and a sigh of relief across the automotive industry, many point out that the scheme will continue long enough to take the industry past a potentially damaging VAT rise set for January next year but what after that?  Among other worrying signs, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers showed that production in the UK fell back to a 31.5pc year-on-year fall in August. This followed four consecutive months of scrappage-induced improvement from 56.5pc to 23.7pc.  There may also be some evidence that the take up of the scrappage scheme is slowing and that the extra £100,000 being pumped into it may even go unused.  Over to you Mr Mandleson.

The display at the Frankfurt Motor Show of two new concept cars for MINI – the two-seater coupe and convertible roadster – was actually a lot more of a statement than many may have realised.  The extension of the range with these two new models is apparently intended to reach a whole new market.  They also have a slightly different design, with lower roof lines and a lower centre of gravity than previous Minis, indicating that MINI and it’s parent company BMW are really focussing a lot of energy on diversifying the line.  The range may also be expanded to include the MINI-E, a two-seater driven by a battery.

Hurrah!  At last someone is stepping in to do something about the blatantly ill timed, badly thought through roadworks that plague road users up and down the country on a daily basis.  Transport minister Sadiq Khan is getting tough, demanding councils and utility companies take ‘a joined-up approach and co-ordinate work so that disruption is kept to an absolute minimum,’  This will be enforced via a new permit scheme which will also test the contractors every five years to ensure the repairs being carried out are of sufficient quality and that their skills are up-to-date.  If contractors go ahead without a permit they will be liable to a £5,000 fine.

The Frankfurt Motorshow has seen a whole range of anticipated unveilings, one of the most exciting of which is the new Madza MX-5, a brand new sporty, unpretentious version of the brand’s roadster The superlight concept has been put together especially for Frankfurt and shows Mazda’s concept of an affordable two-seater roadster.  The vehicle is an update of the original MX-5 produced back in 1989 which was the company’s first attempt at an open top sports car that wouldn’t entirely break the budget and require selling a kidney to pay for it.  The new concept car has the engine at the front, rear wheel drive and, rather unusually, dispenses with the windscreen.