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OUR annual Driver Power poll is one of the UK’s most important customer satisfaction surveys. It gives car buyers an honest opinion on their potential purchases from people who should know a thing or two about their cars: owners. And with this year’s Driver Power survey about to close, now’s your chance to inform others about the good and bad points of the car (or cars) you live with every day. But it’s not only potential owners who are listening. Driver Power gives manufacturers the perfect opportunity to find out what customers really think about their cars. It’s an opportunity for them to act – and improve – that they can’t afford to miss. Unsurprisingly, it’s those who listen to their customers that do best in our Driver Power tables.…

▪ Our first drive of Veyron-replacing 1,479bhp W16 powerhouse ▪ Technological tour de force improves on predecessor in every way WHERE to begin with Bugatti’s Chiron? Billed as “the world’s most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive production sports car”, it’s perhaps best to start with the Top Trumps facts. Price? Just over £2million. Maximum speed? Limited to 261mph. The engine? A highly evolved version of the Veyron’s 8.0- litre, quad-turbo W16 with 1,479bhp and 1,600Nm of torque. Only 500 will be built. Perhaps the most remarkable fact is that Bugatti has taken firm deposits for 250 of those – all from customers yet to drive the car. That says as much for the buying habits of the super-rich as it does the power of the brand. Still, there’s…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan SEAT has officially confirmed that its SUV range will expand to include an all-new seven-seat model. To be positioned above the Ateca and upcoming Arona, the Kia Sorento rival could be called Formentor when it arrives in mid-2018. President and CEO Luca de Meo made the announcement at SEAT’s annual press conference last week, where the brand also confirmed an operating profit of €143m (£124m) for 2016 – the highest in its history and first full year of profitability since 2008. During the conference, images of the upcoming flagship SUV were displayed, and they indicated that the model will have similar dimensions to Skoda’s seven-seater, the Kodiaq. Also evident from the images is a rear-end design heavily influenced by the Ateca, and a nose with a prominent SEAT…

Joe Finnerty Joe_Finnerty@dennis.co.uk @AE_Consumer MOTORISTS will shell out almost £1billion in extra vehicle excise duty (VED) over the next three years before seeing it reinvested into improving UK roads. The new VED rates that kick in from 1 April will see new car owners pay higher first-year rates (excluding zero-emission vehicles), plus a flat rate of £140 per year thereafter. HM Treasury forecasts it’ll net an extra £175million this year alone. And before 2020, when the National Roads Fund starts to ring-fence VED for motoring projects, the Government will rake in an extra £895m without diverting it back to support motorists. The Treasury already collects almost £6billion a year from VED, but Auto Express research has revealed just a fraction of this has been ploughed back into road maintenance projects…

THE BMW Group is undergoing its most aggressive new model roll-out as the company aims to introduce more than 40 new models across its three brands – BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce – by the end of 2018. Spearheading the expansion from each brand will be a new BMW X2 crossover, an all-electric version of the MINI and a new-generation Rolls-Royce Phantom. The main focus elsewhere will be on a renewal of BMW’s SUV portfolio, as the company looks to reclaim the global luxury car sales crown from Mercedes. Chief executive Harald Kruger made the announcement at BMW’s annual press conference in Munich, where he confirmed that the group sold 2,367,603 vehicles last year – a 5.3 per cent increase over 2015. “We intend to launch more than 40 new and…

Citroen’s E-Berlingo joins the space race CITROEN has revealed the E-Berlingo Multispace (above), an all-electric MPV that will go on sale in the UK in autumn. The E-Berlingo Multispace borrows its powertrain from the van version of the Berlingo, which uses a 66bhp, 200Nm electric motor. Citroen claims the EV has an all-electric range of 106 miles. It comes with smartphone-operated remote controls, allowing the driver to pre-heat the cabin or check the charge. Financial incentive to beat price fixing WHISTLE-blowers are being offered up to £1,000 for information as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launches a campaign to crack down on motor-trade cartels. The CMA is targeting illegal groups of businesses in the automotive industry that cheat customers by agreeing not to compete, keeping prices high when buying…