Mastretta MXT: Orders UP thanks to Top Gear

Mastretta MXT - orders UP since Top Gear 'Insult' You might reasonably have thougt that Top Gear’s recent Mexican stand-off would have had the butt of its joke – the Mastretta MXT – suffering a severe downturn in sales. After all, according to Mexican Ambassador to London -Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza – the Top Gear insults aimed at his country – and at Mastretta – were ‘Bigoted and Ignorant’. Which, if the comments had been anything other than a feeble attempt at a joke on national stereotypes, may have been an appropriate response.

Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK

We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their place as runarounds in urban areas, where their limited range isn’t really a factor. But taking your EV off for a weekend jaunt does pose logistical problems when the average range is probably no more than 80 miles, and something worth making the effort for a weekend away is almost always going to be further away than that. But a bit of smart marketing by Best Western Hotels – a group of 270 or so independently run hotels round the UK – means EV drivers will soon be able to plot their weekend away on the basis of Best Western Hotels en route, with Best Western planning on fitting EV charging points in their car parks, with half their hotels having free charging points by September.

Citizens Advice receives 84,000 used car complaints

With over seven million secondhand cars purchased in 2012, you’d expect one or two to develop a problem soon after purchase. But the Citizens Advice Bureau in fact received over 84,000 complaints about used cars during this period. Half of these faults developed within a month of purchase.