Windscreen safety

THe Advanced Driver Assistance Systems safety features in today’s cars and vans rely on cameras mounted in the windscreen in order to operate effectively. If your car windscreen needs replacing, then these cameras have to be re-calibrated. Windscreen replacement specialist Mr Windscreen has opened a network of ADAS calibration centres, with the aim of achieving nationwide coverage within a few years.

Further dip in new car sales

New car registrations for September were down 17.9% (3,201) when compared to September 2017 (3,897), according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. Registrations for the year to date are down 4.2% (123,099) on last year (128,548). Registrations of light commercial vehicle registrations (LCV) were down 12.0% (1,285) on September 2017 (1,460), but are up 5.65% (23,788) for the year to date.

Toyota plans Corolla Hybrid

The new 2019 Corolla will be available as a hatchback, saloon and this Touring Sport model with a new hybrid drive option.

Corolla Hybrid will hit Irish shores in February, as the fourth model in the 2019 Toyota self-charging hybrid range. It will be powered by a 1.8 hybrid petrol engine. It will also be available with a 1.6 petrol engine, but Toyota Ireland predicts 90% of saloon sales in 2019 will be hybrid. The Auris will revert to being a Corolla hatchback so this new range will include saloon, hatchback and estate car or touring sport models.

Nissan drops Pulsar

Nissan is ceasing the sale of two compact cars in Ireland and across Europe as it claims that car buyers are moving towards SUVs and away from compact cars. Nissan has already stopped manufacturing the Pulsar model, which was launched in 2014 to compete against the likes of the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf. Sales of the Pulsar, which was manufactured in Spain, were well below Nissan’s expectations.