Wheels and Deals: Your motoring news round-up
Based on feedback from more than 49,000 owners reporting on 58,000 cars, a number of factors are considered to give each vehicle tested an overall reliability score. The survey is carried out online, open to both Which? members and the public.
This survey further underlines Honda’s enviable reputation for reliability, endorsed with a host of independent plaudits over the last decade.
In 2013, Honda topped the What Car? and Warranty Direct Reliability Survey for an incredible eighth successive year.
The CR-V retails from €31,995.
Seat is this week celebrating winning three awards at the Auto Express New Car Awards. The Seat Leon secured best compact family car of the year with the Seat Leon ST collecting the prize for best estate car. The Seat Leon Cupra completed the Spanish brand’s hat-trick of awards claiming top spot for the best hot hatch.
The success of the Seat Leon aligns with recent global sales figures released by Seat which outline a 62% increase in year on year sales for the compact car.
Seat Ireland recently announced an 11% increase in year on year sales for the first half of 2014 as well as 2.8% market share.
Figures just released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that Ford was the leading brand in the combined 142 July car and van market with 2,728 registrations, ahead of VW and Toyota (2,710 and 2,081 respectively).
The car market is up 61% on the July 2013 total: 11,620 vehicles registered versus 18,776 this year.
Ford had two entries in the top 5 selling car models for the month with Fiesta (657 units) and Focus (789 units).
“This is the highest car sales figure for the month of July in any past year in Ireland so it is clear that the ‘July plate’ is starting to establish itself in the mind of the ordinary motorist,” said Eddie Murphy, chairman and managing director of Ford Ireland.
Ford was the number one brand in the van market which saw a significant increase of 95% over July 2013. In all, there were 2,544 light van units registered, up from 1,310 for the same period last year. With 668 vans registered, Ford took pole position in the van market ahead of VW with 433 registrations.
Skoda Ireland has announced sales are up 25.7% from 2013 in the first half of 2014 (4,426 vs. 3,520), greater than the overall increase in the total car market (23.4%). Škoda currently sits in sixth position in the Irish car market with a market share of 6.75%, an increase from 6.62% in the same period in 2013.
Growth can be attributed to the addition of five new dealerships to Škoda.
