Car sales rose by nearly 30 per cent in January, as buyers hurried to benefit from the Government’s car scrappage scheme, which has been extended for an extra month.

The scheme, which began last May, was due to end in February or when funding ran out.

However, yesterday the Department for Business, Skills and Innovation (BSI) said it would allow buyers until the end of March to take advantage of the scheme, which offers consumers a £2,000 discount, half from the industry and half from the Government, to trade in vehicles that are more than ten years old.

According to BSI estimates, there is £70 million left of scheme funding. Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said: “Against the background of the economic downturn the scrappage scheme has proved a great success, driving UK car sales, protecting jobs and supporting the supply chain for car manufacture at a time when this sector needed it most.

“If you’re considering buying a new car, you should place your order as soon as possible to avoid disappointment, because the budget is strictly limited.”

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the scheme accounted for 17.8 per cent of sales in January — the seventh increase in a row — despite the return to 17.5 per cent in VAT at the beginning of the year.

Paul Everitt, the SMMT chief executive, said: “The 29.8 per cent increase in January new car registrations provides a better than expected start to 2010 for the UK motor industry.

“Scrappage continues to lift demand successfully and today’s announcement of a continuation of the scheme to the end of March will allow the maximum number of people to benefit from the budget that’s still available.”

However, the SMMT warned that the outlook for 2010 was still constrained, with demand expected to fall by nine per cent to 1.82 million units for whole of the year — the lowest level since 1993.

In 2009, car production fell by 31 per cent year-on-year, the SMMT reported last month.

Mr Everitt added: “Industry expects another difficult year with the availability of finance, consumer confidence and sustaining demand post-scrappage, key to performacnce in the second half of the year, but signs of recovery in the fleet and business sectors are enoucouraging.”

The most popular car in January was the Ford Fiesta – which was also the bestseller of 2009. Toyota, which is currently embroiled in controversy about its handling of a global recall following an accelerator defect in several of its models, did not appear in the top ten.

Source : The Times.

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Toyota drivers in Britain will be forced to wait another week before the company begins repairs on cars with faulty accelerator pedals, as part of a $2 billion (£1.26 billion) recall that has forced the Japanese carmaker to suspend delivery of thousands of new cars in the UK.

Toyota revealed last night that up to 180,865 vehicles could be affected in the UK, as well as 1.8 million in total across Europe and millions more in the US and Japan. It has identified eight models as potentially at risk of the defect, which can cause the accelerator to stick, but has stressed that very few are actually faulty.

The models affected are the IQ, Aygo, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Avensis and Verso. The parts needed will not arrive in the UK until next week, with the first repairs scheduled for 10 February.

Toyota confirmed that it has stopped delivering new vehicles of affected models to British customers. The vehicles will not be released until they have been fitted with a new part, which could take weeks until the backlog is cleared.

More than 10,000 Britons have jammed the Toyota switchboards in the last few days, wanting to know whether to continue driving their cars. Angry customers are also demanding to know why recall notices have only just been issued when Toyota has known of the accelerator defect since last winter.

It has also emerged that Toyota may be considering an additional recall of the latest models of its Prius hybrid cars, amid a widening probe of brake faults that have dogged its flaghship “green” vehicles in the US and Japan.

On the orders of the Japanese Government, Toyota is currently investigating 85 complaints relating to incidents where the Prius brakes have intermittently stopped working. The problem has risen in frequency over winter months and is thought to be linked to occasions where the car was driven over snow or ice.

Toyota admitted that there were design snags with the way that the two braking systems used in hybrid cars are linked. The company also said that it was looking into whether the fault applied to other vehicles in its hybrid range.

There are suspicions that Toyota may have attempted to keep the problem with its Prius brakes out of the public eye. An investigation into the alleged brake faults has been going on since August. It then redesigned the brake system for all Prius models sold since January but had not yet deemed it necessary to inform existing customers of the problem.

Hiroyuki Yokoyama, a Toyota managing officer in charge of quality control, said today: “We, as a maker, want to take some sort of measures to explain to our customers and are studying it now. We’ll make an announcement before long.

“This is a problem where you can stop your car safely if you push the brake pedal strongly.”

Rather than admit that there was an outright defect with the Prius, Mr Yokoyama described the temporary brake failures as a “phenomenon”, with the main effect being that drivers have felt uncomfortable at the temporary sensation that the brakes are not deploying.

The Japanese Government, traditionally a supporter of its largest company, demanded that Toyota “firmly investigate” the brake problems with the Prius. The consumer affairs minister, the trade minister and the transport minister have all held emergency meetings with senior Toyota staff over the past 24 hours. The US Transport secretary, Ray LaHood, has also demanded a conversation with Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, to discuss the handling of the US accelerator-related recalls.

Mr LaHood said that his department’s investigation of the accelerator pedals would be expanded.

He warned: “We are not finished with Toyota yet.” He caused a furore earlier in the day by telling Toyota owners: “My advice is . . . stop driving it. Take it to the dealer.” Toyota shares dropped sharply on the New York Stock Exchange until he retracted the remarks.

Despite having been dogged by similar problems for several months, including recalls of eight million vehicles, Toyota today announced a net profit of $1.7 billion (£1.06 billion) for the three months to December — its strongest profit in six quarters.

However, today’s results do not include the impact of the global recall which Toyota said will cost the company $2 billion. Despite the financial impact of the recall, the Japanese carmaker still expects to make a net profit of $879 million for the year to March 2010.

Toyota shares plunged 3.5 per cent in Tokyo trading today and are now at lows seen during the depths of the financial crisis.

Toyota’s ongoing struggle to restore its reputation came against a backdrop of surprisingly strong financial performance. The world’s largest automaker said that it now expected that the current fiscal year ending on March 31 would see the company return to profit. Its previous forecast was for a loss of Y200 billion, but net income is now expected to be Y80 billion. A year previously, the company made its first full-year loss since it began making cars.

Much of the impetus behind Toyota’s return to form came from the US — the very market in which it will now have to fight hardest to regain consumer confidence. Analysts in Tokyo said that there remained a “huge” possibility that the company would miss its forecasts because of spiralling recall costs and unexpectedly heavy damage to its brand.

View InAutomotives latest Parts Jobs.

Source : The Times

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Car maker Nissan is to create 400 jobs at its Sunderland plant to meet demand for the Qashqai model.

The fixed-term manufacturing posts are needed for a night-shift production line due to begin in May. Up to 160 temporary staff will also be retained.

Last year the company cut 1,200 of 4,300 jobs at the plant amid falling overall sales.

Trevor Mann, senior vice president for manufacturing in Europe, said the Qashqai was bucking market trends.

He said: “Qashqai continues to buck the trend of a generally depressed market, and we have now identified the need for an additional shift to cover a high volume request in the first half of the 2010 financial year.”

Demand for the car is now out-stripping supply and the firm expects another sales boost in March when an updated version goes on sale in Europe.

Nissan said the market would dictate how long the night shift would remain in operation, adding that it expected it to be for six months.

Source : BBC News

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Scrappage schemes sent car sales soaring towards the end of 2009, not just in the UK but across Europe.

In the UK, a late rush sparked a 38.9% rise in sales in December when compared with the same month in 2008, further building on months of strong sales since May when the scrappage scheme came into effect.

Since its introduction, the scrappage scheme has accounted for over a fifth of all new car registrations, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

But the UK scheme, which offers new car buyers a £2,000 discount if they scrap a car older than 10 years, failed to make up for last year’s dire performance, so for the year as a whole new registrations fell 6.4% from 2008 to less than two million cars.

And the year ahead may well be tough, warns Paul Everitt, chief executive of the SMMT.

“The crisis-limiting measures taken by governments have been highly successful, while they lasted, but some in the automotive industry must now brace themselves for a year of difficult conditions as incentives disappears,” automotive forecasting body JD Power says.

David Raistrick, UK manufacturing leader at consultants Deloitte, agrees.

“2010 figures will be affected by the impending end of scrappage, the increase in value added tax and the rising input costs resulting from the fall in sterling,” he reasons.

European impact

Scrappage schemes similar to the UK one have boosted sales in other European countries too.

In Germany, Europe’s largest car market, sales rose 23% during the year, according to the motor industry federation VDA.

This was “the biggest jump since reunification in 1990″, observes Timo Klein, automotive industry analyst with IHS Global Insight.

In France, car sales leapt 10.7% last year, the biggest rise in a single year since 1990, according to the French motor industry body CCFA. French carmakers gained market share in the process.

Spain’s scrappage scheme also sent sales higher in recent months. In December, sales rose 25% compared with the same month a year earlier in spite of a fall in sales to companies with a notable 56% drop in sales to car rental firms. This was made up for by a near 48% rise in sales to individuals.

However, strong sales towards the end of the year failed to make up for serious weakness earlier in 2009, so for the year as a whole Spain recorded a near 18% fall in sales to less than a million cars – the weakest result since 1995. Sales to car rental firms fell 26% during the year.

New scheme

Countries that did not offer scrappage incentives fared badly in 2009. In Ireland, sales fell 62% during the year, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).

“However, help could be on the way in the shape of a scrappage scheme that is to be put in place by the government,” says Ian Fletcher, automotive analyst, IHS Global Insight.

The Irish scheme will have a greater focus on environmental performance by only offering scrappage incentives to those who buy cars emitting less than 140g/km.

“Dealers across the country are reporting increased footfall in their showrooms and very strong interest in the scheme,” SIMI director Alan Nolan says.

Tough year ahead

But Irish hopes aside, the year ahead is set to be incredibly tough for European carmakers.

In Europe, sales are set to fall 10.5% to about 12.2 million this year from about 13.5 million in 2009, JD Power forecasts.

This is partly because the various scrappage schemes encouraged people who had no plans to buy new cars this year to do so anyway.

Countries that did not offer scrappage incentives fared badly in 2009
Many of them will have been recruited from this year’s pool of car buyers, leaving fewer potential customers for 2010.

Another consequence of this is that the carmakers that gained the most from the scrappage scheme last year are likely to be the ones that will suffer the greatest falls in sales this year – so makers of small cars may well be outperformed by firms making large or luxury cars in 2010.

Similarly, countries that saw the greatest upswing in sales following the introduction of scrappage may well see the sharpest fall this year. It may well be a story of the higher they climbed the harder they will fall.

According to plan

So the situation in Germany could prove particularly difficult this year, with new car registrations set to tumble from 3.8 million in 2009 to 2.8 million in 2010, IHS Global Insight predicts.

Carmakers who gained most from the scheme may suffer most this year
But that is not to say we should feel sorry for German carmakers, Mr Klein explains.

The German scrappage scheme helped them through a difficult period, so although weakness in their home market will be painful it may well be offset by a recovery in export markets.

“This strongly suggests that, with an eye on car production in Germany, the bridging function of the scrappage subsidy has worked exactly as intended,” Mr Klein says.

“German car production may well increase in 2010 despite the drop in domestic demand.”

Company cars

Elsewhere, with consumers expected to steer clear of the car market this year, carmakers are relying on companies to come back into the market as the economic recovery gains momentum.

“Sustaining the progress made in the latter part of 2009 will require stronger demand from fleet and business buyers,” according to Mr Everitt.

And fleet buyers are ready to fill the void, according to John Lewis, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association.

“Companies have been putting off their buying decisions and running their existing fleets for longer before replacing them, so 2009 saw a real slump in the business car market, which saw its share of new car registrations fall below 50% for the first time in 16 years,” Mr Lewis says.

“These vehicles will need to be replaced soon and with an economic recovery underway, we expect fleet car sales to pass the million mark in 2010, providing a vital shot in the arm for manufacturers.”

Source : BBC

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Clay modellers working at automaker Ford have created a scale model of the winning design in Autocar’s Hot Hatch 2020 competition.

Coventry transport design student Minwoo Hwang won the Hot Hatch 2020 Design Competition and his creation has been turned from drawings into a physical design by modellers at Ford over the last several weeks.

Paul Wraith, an experienced Ford designer who worked with Minwoo on the project, commented that images which may look good on paper or a computer screen will not necessarily look good when they are turned into a scale or full-size model.

“Minwoo has had to make compromises, but the design changes are intelligent ones and he’s offering an interesting take on how hot hatch design may evolve,” he added.

Earlier this week, Ford unveiled its new S-MAX and Galaxy models for 2010 at the Brussels Motorshow.

The new cars feature Ford’s new high-efficiency EcoBoost four cylinder advanced turbocharged petrol direct injection engines.

Source : IMI

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It’s the time of year that many motorists dread. But it seems some should be more worried than others.

Official figures have revealed that some of the country’s most popular cars and vans are more likely to fail their first MoT test than others.

A Ford Transit Connect and its larger brother the Transit — a favourite mode of transport for White Van Man — had two of the three highest failure rates at 30.5 per cent and 26.3 per cent.

Separating them was the Renault Megane at 28.1 per cent. The best performer was the Toyota Corolla, which had a failure rate of 11.2 per cent.
The league tables were published by the Vehicle and Standards Agency, following a Freedom of Information request by the BBC. The agency had initially refused to publish the figures, claiming they could breach commercial confidentiality.
However, the Information Commissioner watchdog overruled its decision and ordered that the statistics be released.

John Glynn, of Glass’s Guide, the industry’s manual on used car prices, welcomed their publication.

‘It’s an amazing collection of facts and figures,’ he said. ‘But I’m not sure it portrays the correct position because of the high number of small items that can lead to an MOT failure.’

He pointed out that annual MoT tests, compulsory for every car over three years old, take into account a number of factors including whether steering, suspension and tyres work.

Even if a vehicle fails one aspect of the test, no matter how trivial, it cannot pass its MoT.

Kieren Puffett, editor of Parker’s Car Guide, said the figures were a good ‘cross-reference’ to the reputation of cars’ reliability.

‘This shows the importance of MoTs picking up if cars have faults and problems,’ he added. ‘They provide a safety net to see if cars are up to the job.’

He said further details about the reasons for failures would prove useful to motorists.

A spokesman for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said a vehicle’s roadworthiness was influenced by how its driver treated it and that MoT failure was not a reliable indication of a model’s quality.

The detailed table, which runs to 1,200 pages, shows the performance of all models of car manufactured before 2004 and tested up until 2007. Results for 2008 and 2009 are to be published later this year.

A Vauxhall spokesman said: ‘Many of the failed items highlighted in this report, such as brakes, driver’s view of the road, registration plates and tyres, are directly attributable to vehicles that have covered above average mileages”.

Source : Daily Mail.

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The long-term unemployed are finding it easier to find work for the first time in months, a charity revealed today.

According to Career Development Group (CDG), around seven per cent more people, who have been unemployed for six months or more, were placed into positions in October 2009 than in January 2008.

The figures are proof that the jobs market is improving, the welfare to work charity say.

It comes as the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s (REC) ‘Report on Jobs’ revealed the sharpest rise in the number of permanent placements since July 2007.

Roy O’Shaughnessy, chief executive of the CDG, said:  ”Our figures reflect those announced by the REC, but more significantly relate to those unemployed for longer than six months, for whom finding work has proved a significant challenge.

”Last year we supported more than 26,000 people on their journey towards sustainable employment, which, considering the current climate, is a figure we feel proud of.

”We hope to see a knock-on effect in employer confidence and that these promising figures can stimulate the market on a wider scale in 2010.”

Recruiter

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Graduates looking for work in Britain will find it harder to get a job than their counterparts in Australia or South Africa, a new report published today has revealed.

Around 49 job seekers currently go for every vacancy in the UK, compared to 43 in Australia and 40 in South Africa.

The report, published by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) also found that the average number of vacancies per employer in the UK stands at 20, compared to 10 in Hong Kong, 13 in Australia, 24 in South Africa and 108 in the US.

The average UK graduate salary currently stands at £25,000 which is lower than Australia, Canada, America and Hong Kong.

The Ingrada (International Network of Graduate Recruitment and Development Associations) Global Graduate survey is based on the results of surveys and market knowledge from six countries, covering offer acceptance, vacancy and application rates, graduate figures of hiring costs, acceptance and retention rates.

The survey stretches across the globe covering the UK, Hong Kong, Canada, America, South Africa, Australia and Canada.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of AGR, said: ‘The political, economic and cultural environment in which organisations recruit and develop graduates is becoming increasingly global.

“We believe that the international partnerships we have forged through Ingrada will benefit our growing membership’.’

Press Association

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A rise in the number of people working part-time is buoying the job market and masking true unemployment figures, employers’ bodies have warned.

Although experts had predicted that unemployment would top three million before the end of 2009, latest figures have revealed that around 2.5 million people are currently out of work.

The data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed there had been a rise of 21,000 jobless in the three months to October – the smallest increase in the number of unemployed people since May 2008 .

But employers’ bodies warned that company measures to stave off redundancies – such as shorter working weeks and part-time hours – were clouding true jobless figures.

ONS research showed that there were just over one million employees and self-employed people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job.

This is the highest figure since records began in 1992, and is up 34,000 on the quarter.

John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) warned that private sector employment was still falling, with signs of improvement confined to the retail and hospitality sectors, which were generating only part-time jobs.

“The number of people working full-time is still shrinking at a fairly rapid pace, with the number working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job now officially above one million,” Mr Philpott said.

“The emergence of ‘part-time Britain’ is good insofar as it helps to keep the lid on headline unemployment, but is an underlying sign of the pain still being inflicted on the UK workforce by the recession.”

A spokesman for manufacturers body the EEF told Personnel Today: “Clearly there’s been a partnership between employees, employers and trade unions to ensure that employees have taken what could have previously been considered unpalatable measures to retain jobs such as reducing hours and taking pay cuts.

“It just shows the scale of problem we faced in a short period of time. Almost all those factors have meant we haven’t perhaps seen the apocalyptic levels of unemployment that some people were predicting at start of recession.”

Personnel Today

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A secretary provides clerical and administrative support, either as a team or individually. They are often also responsible for specific projects, as well as co-ordinating and implementing office procedures. In some cases, they will oversee junior staff.

The Secretarial Job has changed significantly over the years, and the role varies greatly depending on sector, the size of the employer and levels of responsibility. Most work involves communication and word processing skills, and within specialist fields such as law, many secretaries are required to have relevant, high-level qualifications.

The role also overlaps with that of personal assistant.

Typical work activities
Most secretaries will undertake typical work tasks: general word processing, dealing with telephone and email enquiries, creating and maintaining filing systems, keeping diaries and taking appointments for staff.

Depending on the sector, the role could also include any of the following:

■using a variety of software packages to produce correspondence and documents, and maintain presentations, spreadsheets and databases;
■devising and maintaining office systems;
■booking rooms;
■using content management systems to maintain and update websites and internal databases;
■arranging meetings, taking minutes and keeping notes;
■invoicing;
■looking after budgets;
■liaising with members of staff in other departments or external contacts;
■ordering and maintaining stationery and equipment supplies;
■using shorthand and audio tapes or copytyping to produce letters;
■organising and storing paperwork, documents and computer-based information.
Other duties may include:

■recruiting and training junior staff, and delegating work as required;
■manipulating complex statistical data;
■travelling with the team or manager to take notes at meetings, take dictation and provide general assistance with presentations;
■arranging travel and accommodation;
■arranging both in-house and external events.

View our latest Secretarial Jobs.

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