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UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013

UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013 The car market in Europe may have been a painful place in 2013, but that hasn’t stopped UK car manufacturing continuing to grow, with 2013 delivering a total of 1,509,762 cars – the highest total since 2007 and up 3.1 per cent on 2012. That impressive total is made up from a wide variety of car manufacturers, from the volume producers like Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and MINI to smaller sales volume from supercar makers Aston Martin. In fact the rate of growth and investment is so strong – moire than £2.5 billion in investment announcements in 2013 – that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) are reporting that analysts believe the UK’s car manufacturing could break all-time records in the next four years.

BMW set to go front-wheel drive

BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that the German carmaker will introduce a new front-wheel-drive entry-level model positioned and priced below the existing 1-series as part of plans to help increase part sharing and to bolster the potential for production savings between the BMW and Mini brands, thus bringing an end to the era of rear- and four-wheel-drive-only BMW models. Speaking to AutoWeek at the Geneva motor show, Reithofer said internal BMW studies revealed that despite the downturn in the world's economy, there was continued demand for what he described as "premium vehicles" in the small-car class, before officially acknowledging plans that will see BMW produce a rival to the recently unveiled Audi A1 and a new Smart Forfour presently under development at Mercedes-Benz. "We will be extending the BMW and Mini brands into the small-car segment with new models and variants," he said.

'Drivers determine cycling safety'

HIGH-VIS clothing on cyclists does not deter drivers from performing the "most dangerous" overtakes, scientists say. Between 1% and 2% of drivers pass "dangerously close" to cyclists when overtaking, regardless of what they are wearing, a study found. The average gap left by a driver overtaking a cyclist has shrunk over the past few decades from 179cm in 1979 to 118cm in 2013.