Mercedes-Benz sells 1000,000 cars in a year in the UK for the first time

Mercedes Bristol hands over the 100,000th Mercedes old in the UK in 2013 It looks like Mercedes move in to a more convincing compact car with the new A-Class is already paying dividends, with Mercedes announcing it has already broken the 100,000 car sales in the UK for this year with a full month still to go. The 100,000th car is, appropriately, a white Mercedes  A 180 CDI Sport – perhaps the best-selling A-Class – which has been collected by its new owner from Mercedes-Benz of Bristol. This is the first full year the new A-Class has been on sale (although the first customer cars didn’t start arriving until well in to the new year) and augers well for sales numbers in 2014.

Apple iWatch illegal to use while driving

The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that any driver caught using Apple’s new iWatch wearable technology behind the wheel will receive the same penalty as if they were using a mobile phone. The new “smartwatch” was announced this week and allows wearers to read text messages, make phone calls and browse the internet on the device. On Bing: see pictures of the Apple iWatch Apple to launch app that finds your car The wristwatch is wirelessly linked to the user’s mobile phone, which supplies the data connection to surf the web and make and receive calls.

BMW, Daimler experiment with upscale rent-by-the-ride

Two European luxury brands are tiptoeing into car sharing, a radical move for carmakers whose business for the past 100 years has been selling to individuals. German archrivals Daimler AG and BMW AG have launched sharing programs. The automakers say the move was prompted by changing attitudes about car ownership, especially among young buyers, and increased urban congestion.