MINI owners in Dorking and surrounding areas can now receive more affordable specialist vehicle servicing and repairs for their cars, as Station View Garage has joined the growing number of XPart AutoService centres to offer specialist MINI servicing. The new service is designed to provide owners with a high-quality, value-for-money alternative to the main dealer facilities currently offered by the manufacturer.

Following the success of the XPart All-Makes range at John Grose Ipswich, the dealer group has extended the scheme to its Lowestoft branch

One of East Anglia’s largest dealer groups, John Grose, has extended its All-Makes offering to a second site following the initial success at its Ipswich branch. The XPart All-Makes parts distribution programme provides franchise dealer groups with an opportunity to increase their profits on parts sales by selling a wide range of high quality, OE parts to existing customers, as well as attracting new business from other local independent garages.

Following last year’s launch of Diesel Point, the first module for Delphi’s Service Centre concept, Delphi has appointed Graham Borley as global training manager for its diesel aftermarket business. With sophisticated Common Rail diesel systems becoming increasingly popular, the appointment will help ensure that Delphi continues to deliver consistent, leading training and development programmes for the growing number of vehicle technicians working with its systems.

Issues as trivial as lack of packaging risk €1million / hour fines, new survey shows

Delays at the supplier’s facilities now account for almost twice as many late deliveries as failures in logistics processes, according to a new survey of European vehicle manufacturers and first tier suppliers. Automotive supply chains may reach increasingly deep into lower cost regions, but simple issues like the unavailability of packaging are still a significant cause of supply chain failure. The cost of late deliveries has escalated to as much as €1 million an hour in penalties imposed by vehicle manufacturers if production lines have to be stopped.

3M’s VHB Structural Glazing Tape offers easier application and faster handling times without the price premium

VHB Structural Glazing Tape from 3M, the diversified technology company, has proven its off-site capabilities in a recent construction project for The Big Yellow Self Storage Company.

Dealership establishes parts factoring operation in Bury St Edmunds

Established franchise dealerships are still finding opportunities to grow their business, despite the current challenges faced by the motor trade. Forward-looking Cecil and Larter has established a new All-Makes parts service to generate additional sales and business growth. The dealership’s All-Makes parts factoring operation will cater for garages in and around Bury St Edmunds. The scheme, which is managed by XPart, gives Cecil and Larter access to more than 35,000 high quality parts for all makes of vehicle.

TyreSafe helps motorists understand the value of tyre safety with a set of new online tyre safety lessons

Motorists now have access to a set of ten easy-to-follow, digitally animated tyre safety lessons, via the TyreSafe website. With independent research conducted by a leading tyre manufacturer and TyreSafe member revealing that almost 80 percent of cars on British roads are running with incorrect tyre pressures, TyreSafe has added the visual guide to its website in order to help motorists avoid the problems associated with poorly maintained or neglected tyres, such as premature wear, increased stopping distances or additional fuel costs.

New air tool range provides impressive all-round performance thanks to perfect synergy between user, tool and wide range of 3M consumables

Three new air-powered metal finishing tools from 3M, the diversified technology company, provide unprecedented levels of performance thanks to an in-depth, back-to-basics design approach that has resulted in optimum user/tool/consumable synergy.

3M is the only UK supplier of box-sealing tapes to achieve the 'Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials'

3M, the diversified technology company, has announced that its manufacturing plant in Grassobbio, Italy has successfully passed the certification audit according to the BRC IOP Global Standard for Food Packaging (Issue 2, 2004).

Cost-effective and durable solution provides tyre information to driver and engineer for touring and GT3/GT4 cars

A cost-effective tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) for touring cars has been developed by industry leaders BERU f1systems. Specifically for closed- wheel, road car-derived saloons and sports cars, the system provides accurate tyre pressure and temperature information for drivers and engineers to optimise tyre pressures and wear, as well as offering puncture detection. A new feature, which is highly relevant to the touring car application, is the ability to switch wheel positions on the car without having to manually re-assign wheels sensors to different corners of the car. The turnkey system available from August 2008, is permitted for race and test in WTCC and dependent on regulations, other national series such as the BTCC (only testing, not race).