THE Royal Bank of Scotland's £110 million acquisition of Dixon Motors will boost the dealer group's fleet activities.

SOME added extras will retain their value at resale time, while others will prove a financial disaster. But which options should fleets allow on their cars and which should they discourage?

REGULATION in the motor industry is the best way of restoring trust and enticing buyers to showrooms and forecourts, according to Fleet Auction Group.

BCA Belle Vue hosted a sale of specially adapted Motability vehicles. The sale offered a range of car-derived and panel vans, specially adapted for wheelchair access with ramps, lifts and bespoke interiors.

AUCTION activity is picking up following a slump caused by the Jubilee holiday and the football World Cup – and the outlook is set to improve in the autumn, according to Manheim Auctions.

'THE negative equity trap is all too evident at the moment within the trade. Although this has been flagged up as a problem in the past, it does seem to be causing many problems just now.' Martin Ward, CAP national research manager.

KIA Motors Corporation has completed the takeover of sales, marketing and distribution of its cars in the UK from the MCL Group, a move which has led to the surprise departure of Mark Quinn, managing director of Kia Cars (UK).

THE fleet responsible for driving cabinet ministers around the country is analysing the merits of a diesel-powered car fitted with a particulate filter as an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas-powered cars.

TWO rival utility firms, Scottish Power and United Utilities, have worked together to conduct a reverse auction via the internet that saw manufacturers bid by cutting their prices.

FLEETS will have to implement schemes for paying central London congestion charges after the High Court ruled in favour of Ken Livingstone's controversial scheme, paving the way for its launch next February.

BT, one of Britain's biggest fleets, is to put 55,000 drivers through an online risk assessment as part of a safety programme.

THE Government has announced ambitious plans to ensure that one in 10 cars are 'low carbon' within the next 10 years, and aims to achieve it through taxation that benefits cleaner cars, such as company car tax.

RENAULT has promised higher value and lower running costs from its new Megane, due for an autumn launch, with prices starting from £10,500 on-the-road.

AUTOMOTIVE services group Inchape has announced a jump in pre-tax profits, despite a 'disappointing' performance from its leasing division.

BRITISH business could face tough limits on the number of hours van drivers can work in a week, after a German MEP lobbied the European Parliament to restrict van drivers to a maximum 45-hour working week.

BMW is recalling nearly 2,000 X5 models in the UK to correct a potential brake pedal problem, while 24,000 MINIs are also involved in a 'service campaign' with the cars being checked at their next service for a possible transmission fault.

VENTURE capital firm CVC Capital is in pole position to purchase Kwik-Fit. As part of the purchase, CVC is set to bring in the skills of a leading motoring services executive to lead the venture capital firm and manage its acquisitions.

VIRGIN tycoon Sir Richard Branson is planning to launch a national network of car supermarkets to make the most of changes to European new car sales rules.

TELECOMMUNICATION installation firm ICEE has signed up to an all-inclusive contract hire agreement from Arma, which includes all fuel costs and insurance.

NORTHERN Electric and Yorkshire Electricity Distribution has awarded a three-year accident management contract with RAC Accident Services.

TYNESIDE rental firms Caledonian Self Drive and NTR Vehicle Rental have merged.

MORE than 7,000 company car drivers had to call out the RAC last year after filling up their car with the wrong type of fuel.

BUDGET Group has become the second international rental giant to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in less than a year.

HYUNDAI Car UK has announced a five-year/unlimited mileage warranty across its range in order to attract fleets to its products and boost their residual values.

FLASH floods across Britain could spark a multi-million pound series of damage claims from fleets.

HONDA'S automatic version of the Jazz supermini has gone on sale, offering a continuously variable transmission with a seven-speed manual shift facility.

THE long-awaited high performance Ford Focus RS is to go on sale in October – two years after it appeared as a concept at the British International Motor Show.

THE new car market rose 13.1% last month to a best-ever July total of 195,637 units registered. This compares to the July 2001 total of 173,038 units.

FORD has sharply improved the emissions of the liquefied petroleum gas-powered Transit so that the van qualifies for a higher subsidy and will avoid future congestion charges in London.

BRITISH business could face tough limits on the number of hours van drivers can work in a week, after a German MEP lobbied the European Parliament to restrict van drivers to a maximum 45-hour working week.