7:24 am, May 25, 2020
- Here’s your motoring, business and news round-up for Monday, May 25
Jaguar Land Rover in talks over government loan
Car maker Jaguar Land Rover is reportedly in talks with the government for a loan of more than £1bn.
Reports in several newspapers and on the BBC website suggest the car manufacturer has been in discussions for weeks about a package that could be as much as £2bn, after sales have plummeted 30 per cent.
A spokeswoman said JLR is in ‘regular discussion with government on a whole range of matters’ and added: ‘The content of our private discussions remains confidential.’
Boris plots next stage of easing lockdown
Despite being distracted with calls for his top aide to be fired, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today hold a cabinet meeting to plot the next stage of easing the lockdown.
The PM confirmed at yesterday’s Downing Street press briefing that the phased reopening of England’s primary schools will begin on June 1.
Government sources also confirmed that the PM is set to reveal a plan to ease restrictions for some areas of the economy with non-essential retail allowed to reopen. It is hoped car dealers will be included in that first wave.
Pendragon CEO would have fought to save its American dealerships
Pendragon CEO Bill Berman would never have sold the dealer group’s US businesses if he’d been in charge at the time.
In an exclusive interview with Car Dealer Live, Berman said he would never have supported the sale of the US arm of Pendragon which attempted to raise much-needed cash for the troubled group.
Berman spoke to Car Dealer Magazine on Friday in a revealing interview about the group. Find out more here.
Ferrari written-off on the deserted London streets
Despite Central London’s almost deserted streets, one unlucky driver managed to write-off their £200,000 Ferarri after colliding with a bus yesterday.
The Italian sports car – a 488 GTB – was left a crumpled wreck after apparently ‘T-boning’ one of the capital’s double deckers on the streets of Westminster.
One eyewitness tweeted: ‘The remains of a Ferrari on Northumberland Avenue. Damaged bus in the background. All three emergency services in attendance along with Westminster’s cleaning team tidying up the mess.’
Crashing into parked cars most common lockdown smash
Drivers crashing into parked cars has become the most common road accident during the coronavirus pandemic, new figures indicate.
Insurer Admiral said 29 per cent of the claims it has received since the UK went into lockdown on March 23 involve someone hitting an unattended car. This is up from 19 per cent during the preceding six weeks.
It believes the increase is due to a combination of factors, including more parked cars as fewer journeys are made, drivers being out of practice and some motorists responding to the reduction in traffic by raising their speed.
UK drivers save £267m on fuel during lockdown
British drivers have saved more than £267m on fuel since lockdown measures were introduced in March, according to new figures.
With the restrictions causing many drivers to cancel their daily commute, millions of motorists have stayed at home rather than heading out onto the roads.
GoCompare worked out that Brits spend 58 minutes a day on average commuting by car and staying at home has contributed to the huge saving across the population.
One in 14 people aged 25 to 34 ‘want to end their relationship’
The number of 20 and 30-somethings who want to end their relationship has jumped during the lockdown, research suggests.
One in 14 (seven per cent) of people aged 25 to 34 said they wanted to end their relationship, a survey from Aviva carried out in May found.
Months spent living in close proximity to their partner in lockdown conditions, or perhaps apart if couples are not living together, may have been the last straw for some.
Euro NCAP rolls out huge changes
Car crash test procedures are being given their biggest overhaul in a decade to improve occupant protection and improve post-crash protection.
When the Euro NCAP changes are implemented later this year, they will include a new moving barrier in the moving car frontal crash test.
Other changes include evaluating the latest driver assistance systems and a post-crash safety rating, scoring the car on how easy it is to extract occupants after an accident.
[Euro NCAP video, 5:01]
UK must agree safe travel deals for flying
Travellers heading to the UK from countries with low coronavirus infections should be allowed to bypass the 14-day quarantine period, say airline industry leaders.
Business groups have written to Boris Johnson, saying a 14-day quarantine on all air passengers arriving in the UK will have ‘serious consequences’ for the economy.
Firms say the UK should relax the measure with low-risk countries with ‘air bridges’ – deals that would allow visitors from countries where coronavirus infection rates are low into the UK, without having to self-isolate for two weeks.
Young drivers ‘auto-isolate’ in their cars
Young drivers are seeking solitude in their cars during the coronavirus lockdown, a new survey suggests.
Some 30 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 have escaped their household by finding an excuse to go for a drive, an AA poll of 18,000 motorists indicated. This is compared with just eight per cent across all age groups.
Race team records clever stop motion drifting video
With the motorsport world on hold, racing drivers and engineers have been finding ways to keep themselves entertained.
The Papadakis Racing drift team decided to shoot a drift film that takes place in their workshop. It uses stop motion animation, which involves taking a series of photographs to make a stationary object appear to be moving.
The team built paper versions of their Toyota Supra competition car as the subject of the film and released it on YouTube.
[Stop motion video, 1:00]
Car Dealer Live this week
- Tuesday: Eden Motor Group CEO Graeme Potts
- Wednesday: Cap HPI valuations experts
- Thursday: Peter Waddell, Big Motoring World
- Friday: Stuart Foulds, Trust Ford, CEO and chairman; Julia Greenhough, marketing director
- Join our WhatsApp group to get updates sent straight to your phone. Email us via the website here to get a link to join.
- Download the latest digital edition of Car Dealer Magazine Issue 147 for free here
