WE take a festive five minute break by looking back at some of our best feature issues in 2011.

You could say the last 12 months has been Car Dealer’s best year yet – and we think you’d be right.

Car Dealer was the first trade publication to break the news of Tesco entering the used car market.

From trusted sources, we were the first to hear of the rumours way back in February, and we followed the story until April when the supermarket giant confirmed it had indeed entered the used car selling arena.

That business has gone from strength to strength with its website winning a Car Dealer Eward for best car supermarket website in 2011.

But Ewards wasn’t the only Car Dealer event of 2011. Car Dealer Power returned for the fourth year running to great success. For the first time it was hosted at Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower, and saw the manufacturers and suppliers car dealers like to do business with celebrated.

December saw the inaugural Car Dealer Profit Clinic – a unique event that showed the firms and services car dealers could be using to make more profit in 2012 – and we launched The Wheeler Dealer Awards powered by Car Dealer Magazine.

This event, which will take place in December 2012, will be unique for it focusses on the often overlooked used car sector, and will see Car Dealer teaming up with TV’s Mr. Wheeler Dealer, Mike Brewer.

2012 will also see Car Dealer partnering with the Green Apple Organisation to create the Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships. It’ll find and celebrate the greenest car dealers and cars in the UK.

Car Dealer Club was also relaunched boasting its own website, and 911 for 2011 came to a successful climax too.

After 15 months and us trading up from everything including a Terry’s Gold Ford Ka to a Hyundai i10 covered in astro turf, we finally bought our 911. It’s just been given some major TLC from Porsche GB and will be sold in early 2012.

Our two staple features – Road Test of the Year and Bangers4BEN – were even more successful than they ever have been, with Car Dealer reviewing more than £600k worth of machinery in Wales, and raising £25k for the automotive charity BEN.

In fact, our charity work came in for recognition in 2011. Bangers4BEN 2010 and our 911 for 2011 earned us the Trade Journal of the Year award from BEN, beating Automotive Management and Motor Finance. Headlineauto also named Car Dealer staff writer James Batchelor as Rising Star of the Year (business).

Below are our favourite cover features of 2011. Happy New Year and see you in 2012.

Issue 36 – MARCH

AFTER three years, Car Dealer’s design needed a bit of a face lift. Sounding a bit like Alan Partridge, evolution not revolution was the order of the day. Like the very best car facelifts, Issue 36 saw new features introduced and a freshened-up design, but it still looked familiar.

Issue 36 also saw us celebrating 20 years of Lexus – how Alan Partridge would have been proud – by visiting the smallest and the largest, and the newest and oldest Lexus dealers in the UK. We did the epic trip in a 1989-vintage LS 400 and the firm’s latest LS 600h.

The issue also included a report on the rumours surrounding Tesco Cars, an interview with Peter Vardy junior, a day in the life of car supermarket Motorpoint, we road-tested the brand new Ford Focus and Nissan Micra and interviewed Ford’s and Nissan’s MDs, and we drove the refreshed Volkswagen Passat.

Issue 39 – JUNE

THEY say you should never meet your heroes. But if Issue 39 was anything to go by, the man who came up with phrase was a bit of a pessimist.

For June’s Car Dealer the team popped in to Ford’s technical centre at Dunton, not for a bit of R&D relief but to have a play with Ford Heritage’s fleet. We selected the Sierra RS Cossie and Escort RS Cosworth, and mark I and II versions of the iconic Focus RS.

There was a serious point to the feature (we kept telling ourselves); Ford has built a reputation of being a blue-collared hero when it comes power for your pounds. And paramount in providing customers with great cars has been the dealers. The ‘RS’ feature included recollections from former RS salesmen on what it was like to sell these cars, and a now famous video…

Issue 39 also saw us revealing a shocking new clocking scam hitting the market, and we showcased the firms and services that could help drive business to dealers’ showrooms.

We interviewed Kia’s MD Michael Cole and drove the new Picanto, and chatted to Mini director Jochen Goller and had a drive of the new Cooper SD. Audi’s A7 and the Suzuki Kizashi were also reviewed, and our Citroen C4 Picasso was proving to be sticky purchase in our 911 for 2011 feature.

Issue 40 – JULY

ELECTRIC cars have been one of the most widely discussed issues in the industry in 2011. Could their high prices and short ranges really take the car to the next level?

We decided to find out by living with two of them for a week. Baggott lived with the Nissan Leaf while Batchelor had Peugeot’s iOn for a week, and we reported on the highs and lows on electric car motoring.

Issue 39 also saw us reporting on the revised Ford Mondeo and Peugeot 308. We had the chance to test the new BMW 1 Series M Coupe and chat to one of BMW’s product managers, and we also drove the new Audi RS3 and spoke to Audi UK’s then-MD Jeremy Hicks.

The companies who could help out with training and recruitment were showcased in Issue 39, and we dropped in on remarketing firm GRS to see how they do business.

Issue 39 also saw a special booklet – the guide to a better workshop – and we swapped our Citroen C4 Picasso for three cars in the form of a Skoda Fabia, Volvo 940, and a Renault Scenic in our 911 for 2011 challenge. The Skoda sold for a £400 profit and the Volvo barge netted a £175 profit for BEN.

Issue 41 – AUGUST

ROAD trips don’t come much better than Issue 41’s. We piloted a fuel-sipping Volvo V50 DRIVe from the firm’s Swedish home in Gothenburg all the way to Car Dealer’s office in Gosport.

More than 1,000 miles and many, many countries were covered in our road trip tale, but not before we extensively reported on Volvo’s base in Gothenburg.

We dropped in to the Swedish firm’s renowned safety centre and found out about everything from seat belts (see the video below) to how engineers prepare a car for crash testing.

We also had a trip to the factory and managed to grab a nosey around Polestar – the tuning firm who’s responsible for the performance modifications available in Volvo’s UK showrooms.

But Issue 41 wasn’t all about the Volvo journey. Car Dealer managed to have a chat with Citroen boss Linda Jackson and drove the new DS4, and reviewed the updated Volvo XC70, Ford Focus Estate and Fiat’s 500C TwinAir.

Our slightly beige Scenic was sold to a Reverend, meaning a further £200 profit was added to the BEN fund.

Issue 43 – OCTOBER

IT could be argued that the Sportage has been the most perception-changing car Kia has ever made. The Korean firm is rapidly changing from a car maker regarded by UK buyers as undesirable, to a company who builds fine cars that command premium prices.

To tell the story of this we travelled to Slovakia to watch the 7,000th Kia Sportage for the UK built. We also spoke to Kia’s boss Michael Cole on what it’s like to be selling a car like the Sportage, and to a dealer on how Kia’s new products are changing his business.

Issue 43 also saw us to trek to Dagenham Ford’s Barking dealership and stay up all night to watch the handover of brand new Fords bearing the new ’61’ reg.

We jumped into the driving seats of the Hyundai i40 and Toyota Yaris and spoke to Hyundai’s and Toyota’s managing directors, and reported on the Infiniti M35h, revised Vauxhall Insignia, Volkswagen Jetta, and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Issue 44 – NOVEMBER

ISSUE 44 was where we could let our hair down and revel in our passion for cars. Road Test of the Year is our opportunity to pitch the year’s most exciting cars head to head to find out which is best; and RTOTY’11 lived up to expectations.

On some of North Wales’ most challenging roads we had Porsche’s latest GTS cabriolet, Aston’s brand new Virage Volante, BMW’s glorious 1M, the new Audi RS3, Caterham’s mad R400 Superlight (see the infamous video further down), and Mini’s new Cooper SD. We also managed to bag ourselves a Ferrari 458 meaning we had the best RTOTY we’ve ever had.

Apart from the frolics in Wales, Issue 44 also saw us launching the Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships, and full reports on the new Chrysler Ypsilon and Mini Coupe, and Nissan’s new Micra DIG-S and the Audi A6 Avant.

But Issue 44 was special for another reason – we finally bought our Porsche marking the end of our 911 for 2011 feature. The 1997 911 has since been fettled by Porsche GB, and will be sold in 2012.

Issue 45 – DECEMBER

BANGERS4BEN has become a staple feature for Car Dealer, and one which earned us BEN’s Trade Journal of the Year award. But 2011’s event surpassed all previous B4Bs for drama, enjoyment, and, more importantly, the money we and the teams raised.

B4B ’11 saw 31 teams trek across France to the home of Ferrari in Maranello and saw everything from a Fiat Seicento (Michael Schumacher edition, no less) to a black cab compete. Car Dealer entered a Volvo S80 made to look like the Ark Royal – but we won’t go there. The event saw just shy of £25k raised for BEN; money which will help assist its important work.

The issue also saw Car Dealer’s editor being the only UK motoring journalist invited to America to visit the Mobil 1 oil factory, and we interviewed TV personality Robert Llewellyn – the face of the Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships.

Car Dealer also attended the special launch of the 2012 Nissan GT-R, and reviewed the new Vauxhall Astra GTC, and Audi’s latest crossover the Q3.

Car Dealer’s iPhone app became free of charge – search for ‘Car Dealer Magazine’ in iTunes – and Issue 45 included the Guide to Saving Money too. Our new Top Tips feature compiled by sub editor Dave Brown also launched.

Issue 46 – JANUARY

‘I’VE always wanted to have my work on a front cover of a magazine,’ says Ian Cook aka Popbang Colour. Now Cook’s wish has been fulfilled as Issue 46 featured a very, very special cover.

Cook turned his skills and radio-controlled cars to our front cover and used Chevy’s Corvette and Volt as the inspiration.

Issue 46 was a Chevy special featuring a road-trip of the cover cars, an interview with Chevrolet UK boss Mark Terry, plus a feature on how our cover was made (we also did a video; see below).

The issue also revealed the best automotive websites in the UK in 2011. Ewards ’11 was perhaps the most highly fought ever with dealers, car manufacturers, car supermarkets, and automotive personalities doing battle. But our Ewards judges’ decisions were final and saw some interesting winners revealed.

12 for 2012 – the 12 firms and services dealers should be using in 2012 – also appeared in Issue 46, as did reviews of Ford Focus Zetec S and SsangYong’s first all-new car for a good few years, the Korando. We also interviewed BMW MD Tim Abbott and drove his new car, the M5, and spoke to Seat president James Muir and reported on the Spanish firm’s new Mii.

Top tips on showroom presentation capped off a spectacular issue – well, we thought it was great!

That was 2011; here’s to the next twelve months. Stay with Car Dealer for the ride.