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The UK Government has asserted that its new Windsor Framework to refine post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland will “protect” the country’s second-hand car market.

Back in January 2021 it reinstated the VAT margin scheme for cars imported and resold by car retailers in Northern Ireland after lobbying from retailers including Lookers, TrustFord and Sytner about a post-Brexit tax oversight which resulted in a 20% price hike on stock sourced from the UK mainland.

But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has suggested that changes to VAT arrangements on vehicles heading across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland under the new Winsor Framework deal could remedy the issue for good.

“It protects Northern Ireland’s second-hand car market into the future with a new scheme to take effect from 1 May 2023, ending two years of uncertainty for traders and consumers,” Sunak stated in a speech delivered in Parliament.

Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that a new deal has be struck between the UK and the EU over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Trade Deal yesterday.

The Framework creates a new “green lane” for imports from the UK into Northern Ireland that are not destined for the EU Common Market, dramatically reducing the volume of checks required.

The UK Government claims that the new deal will reduce the volume of EU laws applicable in NI by around 1,700 pages.

In a speech delivered in the Houses of Parliament, the Prime Minister said that EU VAT and excise rules will also be removed under the deal, ensuring that NI applies the same VAT and alcohol taxes as those that apply in the rest of the UK as part of a move that would “restore the integrity of the UK internal market and UK VAT and excise area”.

As part of this Government can bring forward legislation to ensure that NI will be able to apply zero rates of VAT to the installation of energy-saving materials such as heat pumps and solar panels.

It also exempts NI businesses from a range of “bureaucratic EU rules”, Sunak said, saving 2,000 businesses from needing to register for VAT under a 2025 EU Directive, avoiding a range of other new burdens on SMEs and divergence with Great Britain.

The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has said it will be scrutinising the deal in detail to ascertain the full repercussions of the deal on the car retail sector.

Chief executive Sue Robinson said: “We are encouraged to see that the government of the United Kingdom and the European Union have made a breakthrough regarding the Brexit impasse in Northern Ireland.

“This is obviously particularly important for NFDA NI members and in the coming weeks we will be looking into the details of the Windsor Framework to understand the full implications.

“NFDA NI will continue to support franchised dealers in Northern Ireland, liaising with the UK government and the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure that our members are able to conduct trade effectively between the Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the European Union.”

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New minivans with four driven wheels began to appear on American roads in quantity during the early 1990s, after Toyota and Volkswagen managed to move some four-wheel-drive TownAces and Vanagon Syncros here during the 1980s. GM offered the all-wheel-drive Chevy Astro/GMC Safari starting in the 1990 model year, while Ford and Chrysler were right there with AWD-equipped Aerostars and Voyagers at the same time. The Mazda MPV 4WD beat the Detroit-built AWD minivans to showrooms by a year, and I’ve managed to find one of those rare early vans in a self-service yard in Reno, Nevada.

The MPV was based on the big Mazda Luce platform (known as the 929 in North America), and so the base models had rear-wheel-drive like the Astro and Aerostar.

The term “all-wheel-drive” wasn’t in widespread usage when this van was new (Subaru fudged by using a character that could be read as either an A or a 4 on badging during that company’s transition from 4WD to AWD vehicles), so some AWD machines came with 4WD emblems in the early 1990s. The first-generation MPVs got an old-fashioned four-wheel-drive system, which required the driver to chose between modes and would tear up the tires (or worse) if driven for long periods on dry pavement with 4WD engaged.

By Japanese standards of the time, this was a big, roomy van. It was designed with North America in mind, so home-market buyers got hit with the high registration fees Japan applies to larger vehicles.

Not even 100,000 miles on the odometer.

Something broke and couldn’t get fixed cheaply and/or easily enough.

This being bone-dry Nevada, where road salt is seldom used, there’s no significant rust on this van.

The audio system isn’t quite as snazzy as what went into the MPV’s 929 cousins, but it’s still very nice for a 1990 minivan.

Mazda continued selling the MPV in Asia through 2016, but the final U.S.-market ones hit showrooms during the 2006 model year. Recognizing that Americans wanted truck-shaped family haulers by that time, Mazda replaced the MPV here with the CX-9 for 2007.

The MPV got good press, 32 years ago.

When you laid out the furniture in your home, you used the same kind of kansei engineering deployed by Mazda engineers in the MPV.

Fit eight members of your Japanese wedding party in your MPV!

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Moving forward in its plans for an electric future — and further abandoning its stalwart models like the Fiesta and Focus — Ford is teasing a bit more information on a “medium-sized” crossover due to be launched next year in Europe.

No naming official details as yet on what the German-made model might be called, but it is fairly clear that the machine will be constructed on Volkswagen’s MEB platform that also underpins VW’s ID.4 EV.

The shadowy shape posted on Twitter by Peter Zillig, chief of marketing for Ford of Europe, has an upright front end, a slab-sided profile and a lowered roofline compared to the Volkswagen. Range after a single charge is expected to be a bit more than 300 miles.

In an announcement Thursday, Zillig said Ford overseas will promote a new “adventurous spirit” marketing mantra to support its fleet of up to seven new electrics planned for production by 2024.

The Medium model is scheduled to slot above Ford’s planned electric version of the Puma, and below another new SUV, referred to as “Sports Crossover,” and to be based on VW’s ID.5. It will follow the smaller version in 2024, Ford executives said.

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Car buyers of all sorts have had a bumpy ride over the last couple of years, but things are starting to look up – at least for used car shoppers. Earlier this week, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November 2022, which showed a slight but promising decline in used car prices.

The BLS found that while the overall CPI climbed by more than 7 percent in November from the same time a year before, used car prices fell by 3.3 percent from 2021. This news comes after reports that wholesale prices for used cars dropped 15.6 percent from January, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. That drop should have driven a subsequent decline in used car retail prices, but the fall is unsurprisingly slow. Dealers still have plenty of inventory purchased at higher prices, so it will still take time for used prices to come back to earth.

Unfortunately, for new car buyers, the story is not the same for factory-fresh vehicles. In late October, the average transaction price for a new car reached $48,000, and new models of all types are still selling for thousands more than before the pandemic. New car inventory has shown signs of improving, but again, we’re talking about incremental changes that will take time to make an impact.

All of this turbulence is terrible news for used car retailers. Carvana’s stock has tanked, leading many to speculate that bankruptcy or another significant move is coming. CarMax is selling fewer cars, reporting almost 15,000 fewer vehicle sales this year compared to 2021. The trickle-down effects of the current market impact several other industries, including rental cars and small businesses that rely on fleet vehicles. Many can’t find or buy the new cars they need, leading to delays in business operations and fewer rental options for travelers. And, of course, everything costs more.

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A recent report explores how delivery drivers in various countries view their jobs and finds that 71% of drivers report a big increase in the number of deliveries their company has to make compared to five years ago.

Volume of deliveries is a significant issue for U.S. drivers. When drivers were asked whether deliveries “had increased a lot” at their company, the U.S. came in sixth out of 11 countries, with 33% saying that was indeed the case, according to the report from Scandit.

A big increase in workload — coupled with other pressures such as an expectation to work faster — could potentially lead to driver safety concerns ranging from stress behind the wheel to the temptation to speed in order to get the job done.

Consider, for example, that 67% of global respondents said they now have to complete deliveries to different types of drop-off points, 66% are now expected to work faster, and the same amount (66%) reported an increase in new tasks like identity verification at the door. As it concerns U.S. delivery drivers specifically, approximately 62% said they now have to complete deliveries to different types of drop-off points — indicating another pressure that fleet operators need to keep in mind as it could impact safety.

Driver shortages are another key challenge for the industry as e-commerce continues its long-term rise. On average across fields, people aged 24-34 change jobs once every 2.4 years. But according to the Scandit research, drivers are more likely to move. The research notes a substantial upheaval and expansion in delivery driver recruitment over the last two years. This is both in terms of new drivers coming in, as well as existing drivers switching roles.

And the problem is worse in the U.S. While 50% of global respondents said staff shortages have increased during the last five years, in the U.S., 55% noted staff shortages. Here again, there are potential safety implications as fleet operators must onboard new drivers quickly — but still ensure that they get proper training, take all correct safety precautions, and abide by the rules of the road.

The report covers three types of delivery companies — courier companies, retailers, and postal services, and ultimately paints a picture of a complex role for today’s drivers with key pressures such as higher delivery volumes, more drop-off and pickup-up points, an expectation to work faster, and rapid turnover. With that as a backdrop, the safety implications for delivery drivers are many — from drowsy driving for those who are overworked, to possible violations like speeding, to high anxiety, which may even lead to road rage.

Fleet operators need to reinforce best practices with their delivery drivers. It’s also a good idea to remind them of some stark facts. For example, drowsy driving killed some 633 people in 2020 alone — so urge your busy delivery drivers to get seven to eight hours sleep nightly. And remind them to avoid rushing to meet demanding delivery schedules. Sadly, some 11,258 people lost their lives in speeding-related collisions in 2020 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Speeding is never justified. No delivery is worth someone dying.

Scandit, along with research company Opinium, randomly sampled and spoke to over 1,200 drivers from 11 countries for its report. The countries involved in the study include Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S.A.

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Three states recently teamed up to bring more attention to enforcement of driving violations on I-94 with the ultimate goal of reducing collisions, reports ClickOnDetroit.com.

The “Eyes on 94” initiative, which ran from Nov. 28 through Dec. 2, was a coordinated effort of Michigan State Police, Indiana State Police, and Illinois State Police. The objective was to increase driver awareness through high-visibility enforcement on the I-94 freeway of moving violations such as speeding and distracted driving.

Both speeding and distracted driving remain two of the nation’s most hazardous roadway problems. Speeding endangers everyone on the road — not only other drivers and motor vehicle passengers, but also pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users.

In 2020, speeding took the lives of some 11,258 people nationwide according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Moreover, that same year, speeding was a contributing factor in 29% of all U.S. traffic fatalities.

Distracted driving is an equally concerning risky driving behavior. In 2020 alone, distracted driving claimed the lives of 3,142 people in the U.S., notes NHTSA. Texting is the most alarming distraction. Sending or reading a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for five seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.

During the recent “Eyes in 94” initiative, officers also focused on ticketing drivers who were tailgating, or those who engaged in improper passing, improper lane use, and failure to slow down or move over.

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Honda has officially opened its order books for the new Civic Type R hot hatch – with prices starting from £46,995.

The latest iteration of the Japanese carmaker’s performance flagship is its most powerful to date, delivering 320PS, yet claims to offer the same high levels of comfort, practicality, and refinement as the all-new 11th-generation Civic recently reviewed by AM.

Order books open today (November 30), with first deliveries of the car expected to commence in January, Honda said.

The brand’s representative PCP finance deal for the new Type R features £499 per month payments on a 8.9% APR agreement based on a 37-month term with a total amount payable of £55,256.

Honda said: “The latest generation is the fastest and most capable Civic Type R ever, which builds on the capabilities of the previous model, and the exceptional platform of the all-new standard Civic.

“Only one engine option is available in the Type R, the strongest, most powerful VTEC Turbo ever produced by Honda.”

Only the front doors and rear tailgate are retained from the previous generation of Civic Type R.

Among the new features are an updated rear spoiler, lightweight 19-inch matt black alloy wheels and bespoke compound Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.

Inside, the Civic Type R’s cabin features Honda’s classic Type R crimson red trim and a fully customisable digital instrument binnacle.

For the first time the Type R also serves up a range of pre-defined drive modes.

Among these is a fully programmable ‘Individual Mode’ which offers drivers the autonomy to tailor suspension, throttle response, steering, display read out, engine noise and more.

Honda LogR, meanwhile, offers the driver a view of the G-forces, tyre forces, as well as vital temperatures and pressures being generated by the car.

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