Around the industry with Michael McAleer
NEW PRIUS: A new version of the Toyota's hybrid Prius will be launched next year, according to Dave Shannon of Toyota Ireland, who said the new design will be more in keeping with the styling of the rest of the range. The Prius is Toyota's first mass production hybrid cars and about 105,000 have been sold so far. However, only 30 Prius cars a year are sold in Ireland, largely due to its high price. This is in spite of a Government tax rebate of 50 per cent of VRT. Shannon said that the difficulty is that while the cleaner technology is still something that everyone 'aspires to' they are not prepared to pay extra for.
TOYOTA'S BID FOR AMERICAN BANK LICENCE: Toyota Motor Corp has applied for a US banking licence . If granted, the world's third-largest automaker would become the first Japanese carmaker to gain a US banking licence, allowing Toyota to offer banking operations including accepting and investing deposits, cash management services for dealers, providing consumer loans and issuing credit cards.
FRENCH BUY HERTZ LEASE: French bank Societe Generale has bought car leasing and fleet management firm Hertz Lease from Ford to become Europe's number two in the sector behind ABN Amro's Lease Plan. The acquisition will bring the number of cars on long-term leases operated by SocGen to 277,000.
EUROPEAN MARKET TO CONTRACT: BMW chairman Helmut Panke expects the European car market to contract by 1 or 2 per cent next year. "We'll probably have to prepare ourselves for a contraction of one to two percent in the European and German markets," he says. "The US market will remain stable, while the market of the future will be Asia."
PRICE RAGE: Consumers are complaining about the seemingly endless spiral of price increases which they believe are caused both by inflation and the changeover to the euro. However, Fiat Auto Ireland now has some very good news for those buying new cars. As part of its Open Book policy, the company has set out its recommended on-the-road prices for 2003, and some of its most popular models are virtually unchanged from the prices of four years ago.
CITROËN DEAL: Further discounts are available from Citroën, which has introduced its "Drive a Better Deal Today" promotional offer. Buyers of new cars can avail of cash savings of up to €2,500. The offer is available for a limited time only.
TIPPERARY LEADS: Cashel Motor Works, the Citroën main dealers in the Co Tipperary town has been voted the 2002 Citroën Dealer of the Year. The award was given to managing director David Wallace and his team at Cashel for outstanding performance in sales and increased levels of customer service.