Monthly Archives: October 2012

Peugeot Supports BBC Children In Need

Peugeot has launched an online game designed to raise over £150,000 for BBC Children in Need.

 

Thousands of children, along with all the family, will be able to let their imaginations run wild and enjoy Pudsey’s Dream Wheels, styling their own cars from a wide range of fun options at www.pudseysdreamwheels.co.uk

 

A total of 13 categories from bumpers to bonnets, wheels and paints will offer endless options, appealing to every style and taste. Each one of Pudsey’s Dream Wheels’ designs will be accompanied by a short description allowing every player the chance to highlight their design ideas. There is also the option to share your design with friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and an online voting mechanism will decide who makes Pudsey’s top ten with a carefully selected judging panel announcing the winner on the 8th December.

 

Everybody can play for free, but for a charge of just £3 you can enter your design into a competition to win a brand new Peugeot 208 in time for Christmas. All of the money goes directly to BBC Children in Need.

Jaguar Land Rover digital vehicle showroom

Jaguar Land Rover has created a new virtual showroom, enabling interaction with an almost 1:1 scale representation of any Jaguar or Land Rover model.

 

The showroom offers customers virtual “hands-on” access to its model ranges, which solves the problem of limited displays in conventional showrooms. Using a touchpad device, customers can select different models, features and preferences. The customer can also make natural and intuitive movements or gestures to explore all aspects of the vehicle.

 

The ‘Virtual Experience’ system was demonstrated publicly for the first time at the reveal of the all new Range Rover in September. In the future Jaguar Land Rover plans to invest further in the technology to enable its customers to design and save their vehicle on a mobile device at home which can be presented to the Virtual Experience to start the process.

 

Nathan Summers, Jaguar Land Rover Business Relationship Director, commented: “Jaguar Land Rover offers customers an exceptional breadth of choice to tailor their vehicle. Virtual Experience presents customers with the opportunity to experience their personally designed vehicle in a very real environment.”

Boots launches Jamie Oliver food range

The first ever range of lunch food by Jamie Oliver has been launched exclusively to Boots stores.

 

The ‘Jamie Does Lunch’ range includes sandwiches, wraps, salads and dips and promises everything from “British classics to modern twists” on international cuisine. Oliver claims his latest food launch will “rid the nation of lunch lethargy” after 35% of the UK admits eating lunches that are ”so uninspiring they’re easily forgotten.”

 

The Jamie Does Lunch range will also be available as part of the Boots Meal Deal selection. Boots also hopes to add different variations to their lunch time options which are available, after research showed that 34% of people rotate between three different lunchtime choices.

 

Jamie Oliver explains: “Lunch isn’t just about refueling after a busy morning – it should be something to look forward to and enjoy. I wanted to make lunchtimes really exciting, so my range takes inspiration from all over the world.”

 

The new range is available now, in 100 of Boots high street stores.

Rolls-Royce new London showroom

An exclusive event held in Berkeley Square, London, saw Rolls-Royce Motor cars launching the company’s newly refurbished showroom.

 

The evening was hosted by Chief Executive, Torsten Muller-Otvos and many customers and VIPs attended. The Rolls-Royce London dealership is one of the company’s most successful, having held its place in the top five global dealers ranking, since the Phantom launched in 2003.

 

Speaking at the event, Torsten Müller-Ötvös commented, “I am delighted to host this special event to mark the launch of the new Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London showroom.” He continued, “This significant investment underlines our commitment to one of our leading dealerships and to our home market.”

 

The Phantom Coupe Aviator was unveiled during the evening, which is the first time the car would have been seen in public in the UK. The car was hand-built in Goodwood at the Home of Rolls-Royce using traditional skills and fine materials. Just 35 examples of the Phantom Coupé Aviator will be produced and the suite of exclusive design concepts, colour combinations and new materials will undoubtedly surprise and delight their owners.

The UK’s largest free Motor Show

The UK’s largest free motor show is set to wow crowds next month with a host of modern and classic cars on display.

 

The Regent Street Motor Show, hosted by the Royal Automobile Club, will take place in London on November 3rd from 10.30am to 4pm. It’s the third year the event will be held and coincides with the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run and the RAC Future Car Challenge.

 

London’s Regent Street will be closed for the day, with shops remaining open until 10pm. The main attraction will be a display of iconic vehicles to celebrate the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries of motoring, while low energy use vehicles will be arriving from Brighton having completed the RAC Future Car Challenge.

 

There will also be a display of stunning cars owned by Royal Automobile Club members including Bentleys, Aston Martins and Lotuses, along with a new manufacturer zone, where the latest models will be presented by Vauxhall and Renault. As well as passenger rides in futuristic cars, members of the public can challenge the former Stig (from the BBC series Top Gear) in an inter-active quiz on the British Gas stand.

 

The main stage will be packed with celebrity interviews and entertainment and hosted by TV presenter, Louise Goodman, which will include Red Dwarf actor and green car ambassador Robert Llewellyn, Smooth Radio DJ Mark Goodier and TV presenter and motoring expert Quentin Willson, among others.

Ducati celebrates 20 years of Monsters

Ducati UK are celebrating the 20 year anniversary of one of the most iconic bikes, the Monster.

 

The celebration is due to take place at Motorcycle Live at the NEC Birmingham, where there will be a special display of up to ten models which will act as a timeline of the Monster’s history. The stand will feature a ‘Monster Tales’ wall showing images sent in by owners of the bikes along with stories and poems.

 

To collect and host these images prior to Motorcycle Live, Ducati have set up a special ‘Ducati UK Monster 20th anniversary’ Facebook page where Monster fans and owners past and present will be able to upload their images and share experiences.

 

Everyone who uploads photos will receive a 20th anniversary key ring and also go into a prize draw for the chance to have a Monster from Ducati on loan for up to three months. People who have their image and or story posted on the ‘Monster Tales’ wall and visit the Ducati stand during the show will receive a complimentary Ducati umbrella.

 

To upload your ‘Monster Tales’ images and stories visit:

 

www.facebook.com/MonsterUK20th  or to follow them on twitter @MonsterUK20th #MonsterUK20th

Double delight for Ford

There was a double reason to celebrate for Ford after two of its models scooped coveted awards.

 

 

Announced in The Sunday Times Top 100 Cars list, Ford was one of only two brands winning multiple classes in the round-up — the other being Ferrari.

 

The popular Ford Fiesta ranked first in the newspaper’s Supermini class, with judges selecting the 1.25-litre 82PS as the pick of the range. The honour follows the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic’s victory in the 2012 MPG Marathon when it averaged an incredible 108.78mpg over the 370-mile course.

 

Ford’s second category win was in the MPV category, where the S-MAX took the top spot. The stylish seven-seater was described by the newspaper as the ‘everyman Multi-Purpose Vehicle,’ and described the vehicle’s cabin as ‘flexible, spacious and airy.’

 

The Ford Galaxy was also in the MPV class making Ford the only company with two entries among the top 10 MPVs. Further praise was given to the Mondeo in the Family Cars and Estate section.

 

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company Douglas Stafford has been working alongside Ford in partnership with the Company for over 8 years. Douglas Stafford has been providing clients with performance improvement programmes for over 23 years, building a wealth of expertise in this specialist field that continually provides benefits to all of its clients.

Victories for Volkswagen

What Car? has named Volkswagen the winner in two separate categories at the Used Car of the Year Awards.

 

The Passat Estate won the Estate car category, while the Golf hatchback claimed the Small Family used car award. The panel of judges included experts from all different parts of the motoring industry including car dealerships, auction houses and What Car? itself.

 

Volkswagen’s Passat Estate has triumphed in the Estate car category for the second consecutive year. The winning model was the 2008 Volkswagen Passat 2.0-litre TDI SE whilst the Polo, Golf GTI, Tiguan, Touran and Passat were also named runners-up in their respective categories.

 

What Car? editor, John McIlroy, commented: “The Volkswagen Golf has numerous What Car? awards – both as new and used. As a used car in 2012, no other small family car can match the Golf for financial reasons, practicality, fun and comfort. It’s a great all round package.”

 

The judging panel also commented: “The Golf had to fight off a strong challenge from the Ford Focus this year, which drives brilliantly and has the space and practicality to match its German rival. However, the Golf’s superior build quality and better residual values mean it’s worth investing the extra; you’ll certainly appreciate your choice of car when you come to sell it.”

 

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company Douglas Stafford work alongside Volkswagen in partnership with the company. The key services provided by Douglas Stafford include performance improvement through mystery shopping, customer research, performance coaching and improving business performance through tele-marketing.

Top Gear Live

This year’s Top Gear Live event at Birmingham’s NEC is set to feature a host of TV celebrities — with Johnny Vegas the latest addition to the bill.
The comedian and actor will compete in a live version of a ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’, which is sure to be full of thrills and spills.

 

Each of the nine action-packed Track Performance shows staged over the four days (25, 26, 27 and 28 October), will include a well-known personality. They will race against the clock from behind the wheel of Top Gear’s reasonably priced Kia Cee’d hatchback with their individual lap times added to a leader board.

 

The Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is just one of several highlights that will excite fans at this month’s event, hosted by the BBC programme’s three presenters — Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

 

Stars competing against Vegas include Otis Deley from the Gadget Show, Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon, celebrity chef Paul Hollywood and broadcaster Johnny Vaughan, as well as Olympic medallists Anthony Joshua and Max Whitlock. The Stig, the show’s tame racing driver, will also be on centre stage along with a range of supercars, stunts and a series of head-to-head grudge match showdowns on a specially constructed indoor racetrack.

 

Other highlights include a special film marking the tenth anniversary of the Top Gear TV show in its current format, a fitting tribute to 50 years of James Bond plus a dramatic new version of Top Gear Lives’ world record Deadly 720 stunt.

smart Festival Huge Success

The smart festival 2012 has proved a huge success with a record-breaking 5,212 attendees.

 

Held at the Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey, the event had many activities including; Street themed sports, live music and of course a collection of smart cars – 1,500 of the vehicles in total gathered for the event.

 

Over 600 show-goers jumped at the chance to test drive the latest smarts, including the new 3rd generation smart fortwo electric drive and smart electric bike. Revellers also had a go at ‘smart sweep’ – a new attraction where participants experienced the amazing space in a smart car by going against the clock to collect a list of goodies from a fantasy High Street.

 

David George, Marketing Director Passenger Cars, Mercedes-Benz UK, said: “You can always rely on smart to put on a spectacular show and this year’s festival was on another level. The record-breaking numbers underline the sheer and ever-increasing appeal of smart and festival-goers were thrilled to get in on the action, relishing the opportunity to try innovative activities that epitomise the gutsy and non-conformist nature of smart.”

 

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company Douglas Stafford have been working alongside Mercedes-Benz and have established a close working relationship with their team. Douglas Stafford has been providing clients with performance improvement programmes for over 23 years. They have built up a wealth of expertise in this specialist field that continually provides benefits to all of its clients.