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Hi,

Is there some indication as to how many of the total sales were, as you say surprisingly numerous 'new' cars, made in the UK? The idea being, if I recall correctly, that it would boost UK car manufacturing. So the split would be UK made (per company) or Imported (per company)

Regards

Dealers have still not made any great effort to reduce prices, when the scrappage scheme came in the list price went up to match. There is still way too much mark up on a new car in spite of what the dealers claim, (check prices on the internet sites )main high street dealers can be several thousand pounds dearer than the internet dealers. As for the low emission cars, the price on these is proportionately higher than other models, though I suspect they cost the same to produce but the makers hope the punter will be conned into paying more for something supposedly less polluting.

BTW before people laugh at 35mpg, let's translate it into Imperial gallons - 43mpg. Which is pretty reasonable. Why don't the ´óÏó´«Ã½ do this?

Sorry i'm new here and a bit puzzled i used to be a petrol head but am having trouble trying to understand what your point is? 1st para ? prices go up, prices go down , how much ? sorry no idea

2nd para, nope

3rd equally muddled

concluding 4 th?

well there's insight, do you drive, do you wave at cars, do you get paid for this?

Hi Just checking this blog was open, what has Nick Robinson done to be closed down so quickly ?

A quick look at the oil price shows Brent Crude up from $54 a barrel a year ago to $84 today.

Listen to Richard Branson whose Virgin group are part of the UK Industry Task Force on Peak Oil and Energy Security ( which "finds that oil shortages, insecurity of supply and price volatility will destabilise economic, political and social activity within five years".

Or listen to Sir David King, the Government's former chief scientist whose recent academic paper pointed to exaggerated oil reserves and a peak in production in the 2010 - 2015 time frame (Nick A. Owen, Oliver R. Inderwildia and David A. King; "The status of conventional world oil reserves—Hype or cause for concern?", Energy Policy, 2010).

As North Sea oil production declines, the UK becomes more and more dependent on imported oil - just like the USA. Major oil exporting countries in the middle east - the countries with most of the reserves - have rapidly growing internal demand for oil, production entering decline and crucially for oil importers like us, declining exports at a time when demand is increasing from countries like India and China. The only middle eastern country with significant scope for increased production of cheap, easy oil is Iraq.

I would bet that, by the end of this decade, the number of oil fueled vehicles on our roads will have declined dramatically - not because of tax - but because of a lack of available oil.

Ever wondered why Nissan are to start producing electric cars in Sunderland from 2013?

5. DevilsAdvocate
Try Blether with Brian(Scotland/Politics) if you want to see heavy handed moderators at work. They have advised that that particular blog will, generally, only stay open for 24 hours.

Overly complicated money sink holes.
Nothing new from the auto motive industry then. Dead loss. Expect more jobs to go.
Raise fuel tax and get it over with soon. We need better vehicles.

Send all children to the nearest school that should reduce carbon and traffic and best of all ensure education standards are increased overnight.
Because we wouldn't have anything less right?

It never ceases to amaze me that whilst Scotland produces almost as much as the UK consumes that oil prices hence petrol and derv prices are so high, but of course Westminster has seen that fuel prices in the UK are amongst the highest in developed countries.
Why we have set such high targets for carbon reductions is beyond me, noble and right as it may be, do you see the like of the US and China two of the largest consumers on earth backing down on their consumption ? no , so our wee bit is hardly going to help, although I would agree to cutting down in a sensible fashion.
the main reason for these carbon targets is not because it helps the environment, its so that Wall Street and London can extract even more money out of the economy trading carbon contracts, it list like a a who's who the companies that are involved, and because it is such an emotive subject, saying something must be done because its kind to the environment is like using the ah but it says it in the bible argument, ie you can't argue against it.

The costs to Scotland alone are worrying with the introduction of bio derv and ethanol petrol. The ethanol petrol has a short shelf like( so rural sites who would have a tank of fuel being sold slowly over the winter) will suffer, the ethanol acts as a detergent causing damage to engines as the tank debris is sucked through the system. Where does the bio plants come from ? they must be transported from somewhere, the process of manufacturing ethanol is a big energy consumer.

Water in fuel tanks is a common problem, up till now it just sits on the bottom of the tank separate from the fuel, but ethanol has a natural bond with the water which has and will cause whole tanks of fuel to go "off spec" and useless to use. Where are they putting the burden of this problem onto ?
yes the filling stations, many of the sites in the rural Highlands, that have managed to hang on despite the Supermarkets moving in and using the fuel as a loss leader until they put most of the competition out of business.

Its a terrible idea, there will be more engineer visits to clean the filters on the pumps thus more fuel consumed, the ethanol petrol cannot be transported by ship so that rules out the depots at Portree, Inverness and Scrabster, Stornoway and Kirkwall which are sea fed, which mean that assuming they can work out who will be running Grangemouth given the financial mess it is in through its new owners, that all the ethanol based fuel will be shipped from there or the Clydebank Ethanol plant throughout Scotland, meaning more road trips for the lorries.
Who ever took this decision on behalf of Scotland wants to rethink their ideas