More than 2,000 jobs in the North East were secured today after Nissan decided to build a pioneering electric car at its Sunderland plant.

A five-seater mainstream electric car called the Leaf will be built in Sunderland from 2013, on the back of a £420 million investment from Nissan.

More than half of the investment will come from the state, with the Department of Business granting £20.7 million towards the project and the European Investment Bank loaning £197.3 million.

“It’s a significant vote of confidence for Sunderland,” Paul Wilcox, the managing director of Nissan in the UK, said. Read more

For most motorists car insurance is not usually a laughing matter. Premiums can be very expensive, and it is not unusual for an annual policy to cost more than £1000.

According to the latest AA British Insurance Premium Index car insurance premiums increased by more than 7% in the last quarter of 2009, and unfortunately look set to rise further in 2010.

However, it is not all doom and gloom in the car insurance world. Occasionally, a car insurance claim story can be a source of great amusement and entertainment. We have rounded up ten of the crazier, more comical car insurance claims received by AA in recent years – some which should definitely raise a smile!

1. Taxi trouble

When bad weather caused havoc on the roads of Britain this winter, one AA customer thought it would be safer to call a taxi than drive his own car to the station in snowy conditions. However he probably wished he had not bothered as, ironically, when the taxi pulled up outside his house it skidded and crashed into his parked car.

2. A lovers tiff

One customer had a heated argument with his girlfriend about whether it was safe for her to drive to work in the snow. In the end she stormed off, went on her way and he followed a short while later. Unfortunately, as he approached a set of red traffic lights, he skidded and collided with the rear of the car in front, which in turn hit the car in front of that.

And who happened to be in the third car? None other than the very girlfriend he had advised not to drive earlier that morning. The details do not record whether the claim was settled amicably or not!

3. Good cop car

One customer was surprised to learn his car had helped the police prevent a robbery of a jewellery store in a town some miles away. The thieves had stolen his Land Rover to ram the roller shutter doors of a small shopping arcade where the jewellers was located.

However, not content to be an accessory in a robbery (and perhaps a cop car in a former life), the clever car ensured it got caught on the roller shutter, flipped itself onto its back end and wedged itself tightly in the entrance to the store. This meant the thieves were trapped like canned sardines and could do nothing but wait for the police to arrive.

4. Something rather sheepish

Another customer driving home from the pub with a friend had the fright of his life when there was an enormous thump on the roof of his car, which caved in bumping both companions on the head. The pair got out of the car just in time to see a sheep slide down the windscreen, spring on to the car bonnet and run off down the road. The sheep, it later transpired, had escaped from a transporter on the motorway that was involved in a collision.

5. Doggy drivers

When one customer stopped his van on the side of the road to pop into his local shop and buy a newspaper, he did not expect to come out seconds later and find both his van, and the dog inside it, gone without a trace. When he asked bystanders if they had seen anything, one man remarked that he had seen a “large dog driving a van down the road”.

Somehow the dog’s lead had wound itself around the gear lever and had released it. Fortunately, the van was stopped in its descent by another vehicle parked further down the hill.

6. Bad balance

One unlucky lady who was driving through woodland in her open soft-top car received a nasty shock when a squirrel suddenly fell out of a tree above and into her car. In its panic to escape, the squirrel scampered over her in the car causing her to run off the road into a tree. Unwilling to hang around and make a witness statement, the uncoordinated squirrel shot up a nearby tree and vanished.

7. Toilet trouble

One motorist was left rather red faced when, after stopping in the woods late one night to “relieve himself”, he emerged from behind a tree to find his car had gone. In a panic he called the police and his insurer to report the theft and his Dad who came to rescue him. But the night was not over yet!

During the short journey home with his Dad the car managed to break down, forcing them to call for assistance. Later, when father and son poured out the events of the night to the AA Patrolman, he became puzzled by the fact that although the chap was only about 20 feet from his car he did not hear it start up. Acting on a hunch, they all returned to the “scene of the crime” only to find wheel tracks disappearing down a grass bank where his car was waiting patiently at the bottom.

Oh, so that is what the handbrake is for…

8. You snooze, you lose

When one customer parked his camper van on the beach to enjoy the view and a nice nap, he certainly did not expect to wake up to find his feet wet and someone in a boat banging on the window to rescue him. The tide had come in while he was asleep, and although he was safely rescued, the van sank without a trace.

9. Off your trolley

Another unfortunate lady calmly informed AA that her bonnet had been badly damaged after “several airborne shopping trolleys came flying towards her”. The offending trolleys had apparently fallen off the back of a delivery lorry.

10. Two in one

This final story apparently had the AA call centre in stitches. Two drivers tried to turn into a parking space at the same time and got jammed against cars on either side. Stuck fast and unable to open the doors, the fire brigade had to rescue them – while an audience of about a hundred people stood around laughing at them.

Luckily they saw the funny side too!

Source : Yahoo News

Despite gloomy predictions for 2009 in the recruitment sector and many of the industry’s main players struggling, the Simply Jobs Boards have recorded their best year to date.

Simply Jobs Boards, who operate 15 niche jobs sites including SimplySalesJobs.co.uk, SimplyMarketingJobs.co.uk and AviationJobSearch.com, posted a profit level 24% up Y-O-Y

Ian Partington, managing director of Simply Jobs Boards, said: “Whilst many in the industry were preparing for the worst, we decided to remain positive and take the challenge head-on.

“Instead of shrinking the business, we actually grew it, with the acquisition of three niche aviation jobs boards – AircraftEngineers.com, AircraftPilots.com and CabinCrew.com.

“Whilst results across all sites exceeded our expectations, we saw particular growth in the areas of Travel, Law, Sales and Marketing.”

According to the online research body Hitwise, all of the sites increased their market share against the competitor jobs boards.

Ian continued: “Off the back of this success we have this year been able to increase our sales and marketing teams to ensure we maintain growth and we have some exciting new technical developments in the pipeline that will further improve our offerings. We are also looking to acquire jobs boards that will complement our current portfolio, and there are plans in place to launch new job boards in late spring”

Buying a car can be expensive. However, there is one way you could drive away a brand new car for no more than a few hundred pounds. Intrigued?

I don’t know just how passionate you are about your car. But I do know that, whether it be a Bentley or a banger, owning a car can also be stressful, especially when the poor dear is coming to the end of its life. If you buy a second-hand car thinking you’ve picked a bargain and it turns out to have a major problem, you could risk spending thousands of pounds only for it to end up as scrap metal.

So, if you want the assurance of a new car without the hassle, one often-overlooked alternative is to lease it. Read more

New car registrations were up by 26.4% in February, compared with the same month last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said.

The scrappage scheme appeared to have fuelled the eighth consecutive month of growth in new car sales, as it accounted for 19.6% of sales.

With the scheme coming to an end at the end of the month, the SMMT said new registrations were likely to decline in the second half of this year.

Although the February 2010 total of new registrations reached 68,686, this was 1.3% below the February 2008 figure and 12.2% below the average for the month of February from 1999 to 2009.

The top-selling models in February 2010 were:

1. Ford Fiesta
2. Ford Focus
3. Volkswagen Golf
4. Vauxhall Astra
5. Vauxhall Corsa
6. Hyundai i10
7. Volkswagen Polo
8. BMW 3 Series
9. Kia Picanto
10.Peugeot 207

Source : Sky News

UK car production saw a sharp increase in January, rising 64.8% from the same month the previous year.

That was the biggest year-on-year increase in monthly production since May 1976, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

Some 101,190 cars were produced in January, up from 85,316 in December.

Car production levels fell to a 25-year low in 2009, but the SMMT said it expected “modest growth” in the year ahead.

“Vehicle and engine production rose for a third successive month in January, demonstrating the continued success of global scrappage incentive schemes,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive.

But the UK scrappage incentive scheme that commenced in May last year comes to an end next month, having been extended in September.

The SMMT estimates the scheme – which offers a £2,000 incentive to scrap old cars and buy new ones – has been responsible for about a fifth of all new car registrations since its introduction.

Overall 2009 was a subdued year for automobile manufacturers following the collapse of the market in the wake of the credit crisis. Car production fell 30.9% from the previous year.

However, Mr Everitt said he expected the recent recovery to continue, despite the ending of the UK scheme.

“SMMT expects a modest recovery in 2010 output as economic growth, a competitive exchange rate and the introduction of innovative new models to UK plants help to lift manufacturing levels above those seen in 2009.”

Source : BBC News

Halfords has bought Nationwide Autocentres for £72.3 million in a deal that creates the UK’s largest car parts, servicing and repair group.

Halfords said today that the purchase of Nationwide, which services cars and carries out MoTs and repairs at its 224 outlets across the country, was a logical move.

Nationwide, which has been owned by Phoenix, the private equity group, since 2006, employs 900 mechanics and serves about 500,000 customers a year.

David Wild, the chief executive of Halfords, said that car maintenance was a large and highly attractive sector in which there was increasing demand from motorists.

The Nationwide business will be rebranded as Halfords Autocentres and the group said that it intended to open at least another 200 centres, creating more than 1,000 new jobs in the automotive industry.

Halfords added that it continued to trade in line with market expectations.

Andrew Wade, a retail analyst for Numis, said that the deal unlocked considerable growth potential, and was an excellent use of Halfords’ strong cash-generation and exactly the sort of acquisition that the business had talked about making.

Halfords, whose shares topped the FTSE 250 this morning, up 28.9p at 420.6p, has also recently been linked with potential bids for Blacks Leisure, the outdoor retailer, and Hobbycraft, which is privately owned.

Source : The Times

Sales of Jaguar Land Rover are rising, just as the Indian-owned British-based car manufacturer has been given a new boss.

Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover’s owner, appointed Carl-Peter Forster yesterday as its worldwide chief executive, given special responsibility for rehabilitating the great British car marques.

David Smith, the chief executive who had overseen Jaguar Land Rover during its $2.3 billion acquisition by Tata from Ford in 2008, left last month. The arrival of Mr Forster, the German former head of General Motors’ European operations, including Vauxhall, comes as Jaguar Land Rover’s fortunes appear to be turning. Tata reported that global sales of Range Rovers and Land Rovers had more than tripled in January from the same month last year to 13,295. Sales of Jaguar cars more than doubled to 2,974 over the same period. There are also high hopes for the introduction of new models, including the Jaguar XJ and the Range Rover LRX.

Much of those sales went to the export market. In Britain in January, sales from the Land Rover half of the business were 66 per cent higher at 2,518, while Jaguar sales were down marginally at 1,041.

The rises come after an awful 2009 for the car industry, when sales plummeted, especially in the early months. Even after a stronger last few months, Land Rover sales are down 16 per cent in Tata’s current financial year and Jaguar sales are off 30 per cent.

In the UK last year Land Rover and Range Rover sales fell by 10 per cent to 29,185 while Jaguar sales were down 10 per cent at 18,234.

Mr Forster, 55, quit GM last November after the company decided to retain its Opel/Vauxhall operations, rejecting his call for a sale to Magna, the Canadian automotive group. The one-time McKinsey management consultant had been with GM for eight years. Before that, he had spent 13 years with BMW, where his roles included management board responsibilities for manufacturing and a stint running BMW South Africa.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, said that Mr Forster’s arrival would help Tata to reach its ambition of “being a truly international company”.

Lord Bhattacharyya, Professor of Manufacturing at Warwick University and founder of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, said that Mr Forster’s international expertise would be vital to the future of Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors. “He has very good international experience and Tata Motors are very lucky to get hold of him,” he said. “The majority of Jaguar Land Rover sales are overseas and his experience of overseas markets is what it and Tata needs.”

Lord Bhattacharyya also believes that the arrival of Mr Forster will hasten the integration of Jaguar Land Rover into Tata Motors. The question mark hanging over Jaguar Land Rover is whether its Indian owners want to take production out of Britain to India — a suggestion that Tata Motors has always denied. However, the immediate tough decisions facing Mr Forster include the restructuring of Jaguar Land Rover’s operations in the Midlands, where workers — who are in dispute with the company over changes to terms and conditions — have been told that either the Solihull plant that makes the Range Rover or the Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich is to close.

Source : The Times

General Motors is to cut a further 154 administrative jobs from Vauxhall UK around the country on top of previously announced job cuts at its Luton plant.

Nick Reily, the chief executive of Vauxhall and its European counterpart Opel confirmed that 369 jobs will be cut at the Luton van making factory — while 154 car sales and admin roles will be axed across the country, including 15 at Luton.

No jobs will be lost at the Ellesmere Port factory on Merseyside.

The cuts are part of a plan unveiled today to axe 8,300 jobs across Vauxhall and Opel’s European operation to try to bring the brands to break even by 2011.

Mr Reilly said that the company would invest €11 billion (£9.7 billion) in its European operations by 2014 and added that the goal was to renew four fifths of its product line even as it shrinks to a profitable size.

“We now have a road map, we know where we are headed and we are working with all our partners so we can switch into high gear for a successful future,” he said.

Labour leaders and management have clashed over the project — the outline of which was unveiled in December — partly because it includes the controversial closure of Opel’s Antwerp plant in Belgium and 4,000 of the job cuts will be in Germany where half of its 48,000 staff are based.

Representatives of European engineering unions plan to meet in Brussels on February 23 to discuss the next steps at Opel.

GM wants €2.7 billion in state aid from countries hosting plants — including Britain, Germany, Spain and Poland — to help finance the Opel and Vauxhall revamp.

Mr Reilly said: “We have no time to waste. We need a plan that is going to be realistic about the tremendous economic pressures we face.”

Source : The Times.

Japanese carmaker Nissan has reported a return to profit for the last three months of 2009.

The company made a profit of 45bn yen ($500m, £320m) in the October to December period, compared with a loss of 83bn yen a year earlier.

It now says it expects to make a full-year profit of about 35bn yen, instead of the loss it previously predicted.

Nissan said scrappage schemes in major markets and sales growth in China had provided a boost to sales volumes.

The company sold 882,000 vehicles worldwide in the three-month period, a 20.6% increase on the previous year.

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Source : BBC News