HERE ARE the most interesting and talked-about stories over the past five days, collated and summarised by us.

Tuesday, May 8

VAUXHALL announces it is to call it’s high-end, premium small hatchback designed to compete against the Mini, Adam.

ASTON Martin Works has opened a state-of-the-art dealership at the company’s historic home – Newport Pagnell. Read more

THE BMW Group saw an increase of 6.1 per cent in sales in April. A total of 145,505 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce cars were sold.

DELIVERIES by the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in the first four months of the year increased by 9.4 per cent to 1.81m vehicles.

Wednesday, May 9

DEALER group Ridgeway has acquired BMW and Mini dealerships in Bournemouth, Salisbury and Odiham from Wood Group Limited. Read more

VAUXHALL’S new Astra VXR will deliver 279bhp and a class-leading 400Nm of torque, giving it a 0-60mph time of 5.9 seconds when it arrives in the UK this July.

THURLOW Nunn Vauxhall, a division of the Thurlow Nunn Group, has announced it’s sponsoring the Eastern Counties Football League. Read more

PEUGEOT is extending its unique Just Add Fuel scheme to include drivers from 21 years of age.

Thursday, May 10

THE first visual of Citroen’s crowdsourced C1 Connexion special edition has been revealed on Citroen UK’s Facebook page.

SALES of the Ford Focus reach 1,500,000 this week as Essex batsman Jaik Mickleburgh takes delivery of the landmark car. Read more

USED LCV values improved across the board in April by £44 (one per cent) to reach £4,271, says BCA’s latest commercial pulse report.

HYUNDAI has let the baboons of Knowsley Safari Park loose on its new i30 hatchback. The exercise was designed to test the car’s durability.

 

Friday, May 11

SHAREHOLDERS in Pendragon have forced the company to scrap a planned new pay structure for the company’s top executives. Read more

FORD is planning to more than triple the production of its vehicles equipped with its EcoBoost petrol engines to approximately 480,000 a year by 2015.

SAAB Parts UK has secured the sale of the last remaining 26 right-hand drive MY12 Saab 9-3 convertibles for UK customers. Read more

A NEW accessories website, containing equipment and gift ideas for Jeep owners, has just been launched by the four-wheel-drive brand.