Down Payment Assistance Loans

Fiat's in-car system built to assist motorists with fuel economy, thereby reducing CO2 emissions, is about to make a big splash in the van world, and ultimately for Fiat's van lease market. The eco:Drive system is like a satellite navigation system, and helps the owner to become more efficient with their driving patterns.

The new eco:Drive system has proved popular for Fiat, attracting positive interest from approximately 34,000 motorists, who were able to provide information for over four million journeys. The information has beeen gathered and processed over a period of time, with the results stored in a large computer. The system has the ability to manage the mileage and fuel consumption retrospectively, and as a consequence, is able to offer suggestions on how to improve sustainable driving behavior for fleet van drivers.

This new feature is designed to be compatible with all Fiat commercial vehicles which use the Blue&Me platform, including the Grande Punto and Doblo Cargo vans.

Fiat designed the system in 2008, with the aim of helping motorists understand the impact their driving habits had on the environment, particularly in relation to fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. With the intelligence that can be gathered, the intention of the company was to help customers to refine their bad driving habits. Fiat have claimed resounding success with this system, and estimate an approximate CO2 saving of 2,600 tonnes since its introduction to the market.

Andrew Humberstone, managing director of Fiat Group Automobiles UK and Ireland, said: "Individual drivers making small savings can have a positive effect in reducing the overall fleet carbon footprint and generate significant costs savings across the business, and eco:Drive can help with this goal."

To find out more, see how we can benefit your business with our unique commercial van leasing offers. Fiat van leasing and Mercedes Van Leasing are just some of the options out there to choose from.

For some people who take out a car lease contract, they really are not fully aware of the whole process and can be quite confused by it all. Many people don't really know the difference between car leasing and renting or hire purchase. But there are some noteworthy differences between the three. We will discuss these differences here.

The most important thing to mention with car leasing is that you will never own the car. This is what makes it different from hire purchase or getting finance. With car leasing you are actually consenting to pay a fixed amount each month for a fixed period in exchange for the use of the car.

There is usually an agreed upon millage as well. The average lease tends to be for about three years and after this you just give the car back. It is then up to you whether you want to take out another car lease contract. Although you can actually take out a lease on a used car, most people prefer to lease a brand new model. It usually works out a lot cheaper to lease a car then it would be to pay back a loan if you were to get financing to purchase one.

Hiring a car is dearer than choosing to lease one. If you were to hire a car for a few years you would end up spending a lot of money. This is why people who hire cars are likely to only do this for a few days or weeks. Hired cars will be driven by quite a few drivers during its life.

Most leased cars are new when you get them and if you do hire a used one it will not be more than five years old. Apart from the people who have driven the car to test it etc, you will more than likely be the first driver of a leased car. A leased car brings all the benefits of having a new car except that you don't actually own it.

When you have to search for different car leasing, having a look at all the different models available for selection is the best thing you can do. At the end of the day, you may end up with skoda car leasing or even suzuki car leasing options.

Ferdinand Porsche was the founder of Volkswagen.

It is said that he was indeed a technical genius and was employed by a great number of companies eg Austro-Daimler, Mercedes, Daimler-Benz to name but a few.

In 1930 he opened his own design company. In 1931 he asked his team of staff to start designing a car with a water cooled 3 cylinder engine. This should have independent suspension and be able to accommodate 4 adults. The main aim was to keep the expenditure as low as possible to make it affordable to the masses.

In 1932 he made Zundapp a partner. Originally 3 prototypes were produced using his original design which was equipped with a new engine. Unfortunately the engine turned out to have a severe cooling problem and melted after ten minutes of running. Zundapp decided to opt out of the project.

NSU a motor cycle manufacturer decided to join forces and a new cooled 4 cylinder engine was built. The engine was placed at the back to avoid the traditional transmission with a separate gear box, drive shaft and rear axle. Unfortunately due to the economical climate in Germany at the time NSU decided to withdraw and Porche was again on his own.

In 1933 at the Berlin Motor Show Adolf Hitler announced his plan to produce a smaller car for the people of Germany. Porche and  Hitler were to join forces and a contract was signed in 1934. The prototypes were intended to be built by RDA, which was the German Auto Manufacturers Association. RDA were soon to realise that this project had a chance to be successful and this they certainly did not want. They purposely delayed the project which made Porsche miss the deadline and thus made him lose his contract. However Hitler realised this and placed the entire project under government supervision. The three prototypes were delivered in October 1936.

To this day the volkswagen has remained almost identical in design. It has a reputation for being a highly reliable car and indeed Volkswagen van leasing is a very popular choice as they have such a solid history behind them.

van lease