SYDNEY Honda dealership Larke Hoskins has again topped the nation in Honda sales, with 350 passenger-car sales for June. It also was the biggest Honda seller in 2015 and has been Honda’s national sales winner for eight years since 2007. Its sales of 350 for June exclude fleet and commercial buyers and beats its previous record of 328 set in 2009. Group sales manager Nick Karagiannis said the record was possible because of dedicated staff, including some in the pre-delivery area who work up to midnight to meet customer orders.

NISSAN has become the official automotive partner of the Melbourne City Football Club. It is the first sponsorship of its kind in Australia’s A-League and W-League and comes after Football Federation Australia’s regulations changed to allow clubs to sign with automotive companies. The partnership will deliver benefits to Nissan including strong brand presence at the club’s AAMI Park home ground. The club competes in the major Australian Hyundai A-League, women’s Westfield W-League and the Foxtel National Youth League.  The club is owned by a consortium called the City Football Group, which owns Manchester City FC and New York FC.

ALLIANZ  will now cover car owners engaged in ride-sharing businesses. It has expanded its private car insurance policy to cater for operators including Uber and Shofer, providing comprehensive third-party property and third-party fire and theft cover. It said eligible customers will be covered by confirming their ridesharing use to Allianz and those with an existing policy can be updated to include ridesharing activities.

JAGUAR Land Rover will put more than 100 autonomous research vehicles on the roads this year. It plans to start testing on public roads later this year. The company recently announced it had developed new road-reading technology designed to make off-roading easier for its 4WD range. The first tests on public roads will involve vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technology that will allow cars to talk to each other by reading road signs and traffic lights.

BMW Group has posted record sales for June with a 9.1 per cent increase on June 2015. The half-year results were also a record, up 5.8 per cent on the same period in 2015 and with 1.163 million vehicles sold. BMW-branded models were up 5.8 per cent for the first six months, with the biggest growth in 7 Series (up 92.6 per cent) and X1 (up 79.8 per cent). Mini was up 5.4 per cent YTD June and Rolls-Royce was down 4.8 per cent, though it had a record June with a 14.7 per cent rise.

By Neil Dowling