Suzuki GB has become the first vehicle manufacturer to pledge support for the 2008 Tyre Safety Month campaign. As part of its commitment to the TyreSafe initiative, until the end of October Suzuki is offering free tyre safety checks at participating dealers in the automaker’s franchised network in the UK.
Sadly, some garages are still patronising in their treatment of the ‘fairer sex’, and greeting female customers with a leer before steering them towards an expensive and unnecessary purchase is not always just an occurrence from back in the bad old days. Businesses where this sort of behaviour is considered acceptable, however, won’t be recommended by one particular new website. The site, foxychoice.com, has been launched with the aim of helping motorists do their garage buying homework for MOT’s and car servicing, and in particular identifying the best female friendly garages and dealerships in the area. Answers to important everyday questions are answered within the site, and motorists looking for female friendly local garages can search to suit the work required then compare qualify features and facilities before making their final choice.
Powerflow has now been in the UK for eight years, offering customers a comprehensive range of silencers and tailpipe options. During this time the company has developed a network of close on 80 authorised and fully trained dealers throughout the UK and Ireland, all of whom, says Powerflow, benefit from the company’s drive and determination to develop and support their businesses. Keen to maintain its market position, Powerflow says it is constantly looking at ways to make it offering to retailers even more attractive, and the company’s latest website design is a stride in the right direction.
The International Tyre Club (ITC), founded in 2001 to provide an annual business forum for industry professionals to meet together regularly and cost-effectively, says it has already received much interest in its 2009 Club Summit. According to the ITC, traders and wholesalers from a dozen countries are already lined up to attend the Club’s ITC 2009 event, one of the very first in next year’s business calendar.
A new software module developed by Cam Systems for its MIDaS program is designed to help retailers improve the efficiency and accuracy of their online sales. The MIDaS tyre retail and wholesale stock management system now handles somewhere in the region of £140 million worth of product transactions, equating to more than 3 million tyre each year. Using the same system, Cam says it has responded to growing market demand by developing a B2C (business to consumer) solution for website stock, pricing and order processing functions.
Typically, website stock and pricing details are entered manually using a spreadsheet system, which is extremely time intensive, prone to inaccuracies and needs to be repeated on a regular basis as pricing and stock details constantly change. The MIDaS B2C module makes that process redundant as it is fully integrated with the Cameo operating system, which allows it to set up and export product and price data direct to the website. This is a vastly more efficient and accurate process than a paper-based system and gives retailers complete control of data which appears online.
As recent statistics released by TyreSafe testify, many motorists are ignoring their own safety and that of other road users by not checking the condition of the tyres on their vehicle. To help reverse this dangerous situation, in support of Tyre Safety Month all 31 Protyre outlets in the UK will be offering motorists a free five-point tyre safety check. This free offer can be taken advantage of during the entire campaign, which runs until October 31.
Michelin is reportedly attracting increasing levels of traffic to its website (Michelin.co.uk) after launching a brand new, more customer focused version. The new site recognises the changes that Michelin has been through in the last few years, but also the trends in design and presentation of content. The increased popularity of widescreen monitors for example has allowed Michelin a bigger canvas to offer more content throughout the site.
When Scorpion brought the first T304 stainless steel performance exhaust system to the market back in 1992, it caused a stir, to say the least. From this solid start the company has rapidly grown to become one of the world’s largest exhaust manufacturers, with distributors in every continent and products available in over 30 countries. Scorpion has achieved this by working closely with some of the most respected names in the industry, including Citroen and Peugeot Motorsport, Subaru, Toyota and Prodrive. The company also closely values its ties with smaller tuning concerns and independent retailers as an invaluable source of technical feedback and market information. Over 95 per cent of all production is still handled in the UK, much of it by precision hand fabrication.
Delticom has been busy of late. Not only has the company introduced all-inclusive services through its UK portal mytyres.com, the online tyre specialist has redesigned the website for its online presence in Ireland. The Irish site, eiretyres.com, has been totally refreshed with the aim of making it more customer-oriented and easier to navigate.
In addition to a clean, new design, much thought has gone into making the site’s function more user friendly and online purchasing a simpler task. An optimised, clear display of product searches helps customers find the desired product faster, and the various sorting functions help customers choose the right tyre. A leaner order process also shortens ordering times. Compact help functions support the online purchaser and provide answers to the most frequently asked questions as well as offering competent tyre advices.
Michelin North America has appeared in the US based non-governmental organisation AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) 2008 list of best employers for workers over 50. Ranked number 43, the tyre major – 35 per cent of whose workforce is aged 50 years or older – is praised for its treatment of older workers in a number of areas.
Two Michelin policies especially highlighted by the AARP are company pre-retirement seminars to prepare and educate employees and their spouses who are nearing retirement, and a phased-retirement programme that permits employees aged 55 or over with ten or more years of service the option of working a reduced schedule (up to 35 hours per week) while maintaining their benefits.
Sealey has got into the Christmas spirit early with its Christmas promotion, which offers over 400 exciting deals and more than 50 new products, promising something for everyone, whatever their area of interest and expertise. The promotion, which is valid until 31st December, offers up to 69 per cent discount and products include Sealey’s ever-popular Topchest Combo deals including free tools, trolley jacks, compressors, car starter/chargers and too many hand tools to mention.
To get your hands on the 56-page bumper catalogue, contact your local Sealey distributor, call the company direct or visit their website and make it a Happy Christmas for your workshop.
The launch of the latest Golf 6 generated a good amount of interest throughout the motor industry. Nevertheless, its elder sibling, the Golf 5, still has plenty of fight left in it. And Cobra Suspension says it can give the Golf 5 the cornering prowess to run rings round the new upstart.
The new Cobra kit drops the Golf Gti (3 door or 5 door) by 20mm, and even lower on the smaller engine variants. By lowering the car’s centre of gravity, both turn and traction mid corner are reported to be greatly improved, whilst driver feedback and enjoyment are considerably heightened.
A computerised tyre management system developed in the US by BAT RF is now being launched in the UK market. The system brings together a series of active RF (radio frequency) components to provide truck and bus fleets with real-time data for tyre inflation, fuel consumption and asset identification. All data can be viewed in real time through the BAT RF website or integrated into existing fleet management software.
A survey carried out in mid-July by BAT RF UK with a large UK fleet operator found that 44 per cent of all tyres were under inflated by more than five per cent, which has a significant detrimental effect on tyre life and fuel consumption. The survey also found that 64 per cent of dual tyres on tractor units were more than five per cent out of balance. This results in one tyre running hotter than the other on the same axle and eventually failing. Initial indications are that many UK truck and bus fleets are facing similar challenges in monitoring and managing tyre pressures cost effectively.
In response to market changes, a tighter regulatory environment and pressure on costs, exhaust and after-treatment system suppliers face both opportunities and challenges in the next five years. This growth will occur in part due to the overall increase in the world market for passenger cars, which is expected to grow in volume by 34 per cent from 66 million units in 2006 to around 85 million by 2014. This will create increased demand for more exhaust and after-treatment systems. But on top of this organic increase in sales, other factors will create additional growth, taking exhaust and after-treatment system supplier revenues to an even higher level.
It was an idea worthy of Tonto; what could enhance the American driving experience more than grooves cut into the tarmac that produce a vague approximation of the “Cavalry Charge” from Rossini’s William Tell Overture (otherwise known as the theme from The Lone Ranger) when tyres roll over them?
On a stretch of road near Lancaster, California advertisers made this scheme a reality – one that local residents have been living with ever since. The sound is produced using an analogous method to that of a vinyl record-player’s stylus, but the amplification has proved too much for people living in the area, who have successfully requested that the grooves be removed in a resurfacing operation.
The sound of “A fiery horse with the speed of light,” can be sampled on the BBC’s website before “a cloud of dust, and a hearty ‘Hi-yo, Silver, away!”” from road-workers sees the audio spectacle trot over the Western horizon into the setting sun one last time.
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