MEGANE’S THE EURO-CHOICE
Friday, December 9th, 2011THE NEW Renault Megane has scooped the coveted European Car of the Year Award, coming top of a list of 30 new cars voted on by a panel of motoring writers from 22 countries.
But it was a close-run thing with the contoversially-styled Megane finishing a mere 20 points ahead of the second-placed Mazda6 with the Citroen C3 in a distant third place.
The Megane polled 322 points, but the new Mazda turned out to be the surprise package of this year’s awards, notching up an impressive 302 points. The C3 could only muster 214 points from the 58 European jurors while its arch-rival in the supermini marketplace, the latest Ford Fiesta, trailed in fifth place – behind the innovative Honda Jazz – with a mere 161 points.
But if that was disappointing for Ford, Vauxhall chiefs must be even more disheartened by the relatively poor showing of the latest Vectra which polled only 151 points in sixth place.
Meanwhile there were honours for the MG Rover Group in the 2002 Autocar Awards when the company was presented with the award for Outstanding Achievement and its head designer, Peter Stevens – designer of MG’s new SV supercar – was named Designer of the Year.
AA HELPS NEW DRIVERS
THE AA has launched a new book designed to help new drivers pass their Theory Test.
AA Driving Test: Theory and the Highway Code provides the full selection of 833 possible official questions and links them to appropriate pages of the Highway Code. Priced at £9.99 it also includes a section on the new hazard perception element of the Theory Test.
VW LEADS DIESEL CHARGE
VOLKSWAGEN is predicting another big rise in diesel car sales next year and believes that the UK diesel market will rise to 27 per cent of total sales. Sales of diesels so far this year are 40 per cent up on 2001 with VW’s Golf now the nation’s favourite diesel model.
NEW MOTORS FOR MONDEO
TWO further engine options are now available for the Ford Mondeo range, including a new version of the popular common-rail TDCi diesel.
Already responsible for a 45 per cent increase in Mondeo UK diesel sales, the 2.0-litre, 130PS TDCi is to be joined by an 115PS version offering a 5mpg improvement in fuel consumption in what Ford calls “real world driving”. The new TDCi 115 replaces the 2.0-litre TDDi and will cost from £15,645 on-the-road.
There’s also a new engine choice for Mondeo Zetec-S, with the addition of the 2.0-litre 16-valve petrol engine at prices starting from £17,245 on-the-road.