NEW-CAR CO2 UP

Not surprisingly, thanks to the totally incompetent performance of the Government and its transport policy, the average emissions of new cars has reached its highest point since July 2013. In September, the average emissions of new cars sold was 128.3g/km of Co2. That compares with 119.2g/km in August 2016.

The reason for the increase is quite simple: buyers have been put off buying diesel cars and are going for petrol instead, which generally emit higher levels of Co2.

Several manufacturers have dropped diesel models from their ranges – Porsche has stopped production of its current diesel models and Fiat has said it will abandon diesel models altogether by the year 2022.

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Aston Martin’s St Athan factory near Cardiff is nearing completion. At the moment there are 100 employees on site but that’ll rise to 200 early next year when prototypes of Aston’s DBX SUV are being built. The car itself will be launched at the end of the year and go into full production at the start of 2020 when the workforce will be 700 strong. It’s all great news for the area.

Last week, we gave you details of BMW’s new 8-Series convertible. This week, it’s the hottest version of the 8-Series.

The new M8, which will be both a coupe and a convertible, will go on sale at some point next year.

The car will have “more than 600bhp” delivered by its twinturbo V8 engine (the same motor used in the M5 saloon) and will feature four-wheel drive. The drive system will have a bias towards the rear wheels and there’ll also be a 2wd mode that can be selected. No word on price yet but expect close to six figures.