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AUDI

Happy birthday Daihatsu!...

Happy birthday Daihatsu! The Japanese firm is 100 years old, and to celebrate it is releasing limited-edition versions of the Sirion supermini and Terios small SUV. Badged Centenary, they are based on S-trimmed cars, but come with extra kit. The Sirion version (pictured) costs ?7,395 and gets silver paint, alloys, electric mirrors and a height-adjustable driver’s seat. The Terios Centenary is priced at ?12,695 and comes with a leather steering wheel, foglamps and roof rails. The anniversary models go on sale from September, and are limited to only 100 examples of each.



High-quality insulation...

High-quality insulation will mean that, with the roof up, the SLK will offer the refinement of a coupé.


News of the day
Taking your driving...

Taking your driving test this Friday? If so, don’t be surprised if your examiner doesn’t turn up!

Shares Salons

Industry analysts say...

Industry analysts say franchised garages are making significant improvements to their used vehicle operations to combat the threat posed by low-cost car supermarkets.

That could see extended warranty packages and the kind of low-rate finance offers employed to promote new models make an appearance on used car forecourts.

Franchised operations often charge a premium for second-hand motors purchased through their approved used schemes, but many drivers are unwilling to fork out extra money because they consider nearly new cars to be a relatively safe purchase. Robert Macnab, director of published research at Trend Tracker, explained: “Thanks to the increasing reliability of cars, used mod­els are becoming more of a commodity. And main dealers’ current programmes scarcely add enough value to justify a premium. Mak­ers’ approved used car schemes are virtually identical, and need to be reinvigorated.” Only last week, we reported how franchised garages are losing out to online and high street lenders (Used News, Issue 937).

Research from Trend Tracker claims car manufacturers need to help their dealers by providing subsidised finance rates, so zero per cent finance terms and low interest rate deals look set to reach second-hand buyers.




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