Demand from business customers, according to the society of Motor Manufacturers and traders. But sales are expected to fall sharply this year, as our industry correspondent john moylan reports once, new cars were the preserve of the privileged few. Not any more. These days, we buy cars like mobile phones. The reason were all buying so many new cars is because the industry makes it so easy for us. In fact, the vast majority of customers are now effectively leasing new vehicles for an affordable monthly payment, rather than worrying about the overall sticker price. Ivan foreman used to buy cars second hand. Now he doesnt have to. All of the options are now available with leasing and financing. I can now pay less overall on a monthly basis but still go home with a brand new car. You can probably now have a car like that for £10 a month more than your golf. This shift in how we buy cars is also changing the type of car were buying, too. Theres a real trend for people to buy more upmarket cars, because the Monthly Payments are usually not that much greater than buying a more Mainstream Vehicle and people are very badge conscious and they want the latest technology and thats what these premium manufacturers are offering. Last year, total sales hit almost 2. 7 million cars. That was up 2. 3 on the previous year, which was also a record high. But the industry now expects sales to fall by more than 5 in the coming year. Thats because Consumer Demand has been falling. It could get worse, amid the Economic Uncertainty ahead. Whats more, higher prices are coming to forecourts. The pressure that comes from a lower value pound, to a certain extent does help exporters but the converse is it makes imports more expensive. Around six out of seven cars we sell here are imported, so the pressure of that depreciation in sterling will undoubtedly flow through into price rises. The rising price of fuel wont help either. Petrol and diesel have hit an 18 month high. After five years of growth, the car market could be in for a bumpy ride. Now on bbc news, rajan datar is in botswana for the travel show. It has gone from being one of the poorest countries in the world to relative prosperity today, and has a reputation as a beacon of responsible tourism. The republic of botswana has been on quite a journey in its 50 years of independence. And i am on a personal mission to explore how people here have shared this land with such a diversity of wildlife for millennia. And if tourism can help maintain that delicate balance. The big day, the 50th anniversary, draws ever nearer, and rehearsals are well underway. Half a century of independence is a big dealfor the people of botswana, who have seen their country overcome some major hurdles. We had few schools. The only schools that were there were run by missionaries. It has been a journey where one could say we were starting from nothing. And there have been some serious crises. At one point, the country had the worlds highest rate of hiv infection. But sensible treatment and prevention programmes mean that the worst is over. When one talks of the 50th celebrations of this country, and when one looks back, you just say, you know, there is a lot that as a nation we really need to celebrate. Inside the barracks, the Military Band are feeling their way through a traditional favourite. But lets see how they cope with a more cavalier interpretation. Do you want to have a go . Yeah lets try. I am just waving my hands in the air, and look at what is happening. Music the power is going to my head. I have got a sneaking suspicion they are actually ignoring my inspired baton gesturing. But hey, happily for them, i wont be in charge on the big day. With just a few hundred thousand residents, the capital, gabarone, in the south eastern of the country, does not really fit the stereotype of a bustling noisy african city. Can i try your hat . What do you think . Beautiful. But right now, the market is doing a good trade in bot50 paraphernalia. In fact, for some people, the party has started early. As an International Trader, diamonds have been botswanas best friend throughout most of its independence. Huge discoveries propelled it to becoming the Worlds Largest supplier, and its the industrys global hub today. Botswana has come a long way in 50 years. And thanks to the wealth accrued through diamond reserves, they have got free education, free health care, it is even classed as a middle income country. But in botswana, diamonds are not for ever. And tourism is trying to fill the gap. Botswana is about the size of france. Yet with only around 2 million people, its one of the worlds most sparsely populated countries, on a par with australia and mongolia. And the truth is, you dont really come to botswana for the urban vibe. I am keen to explore the countrys world renowned wildlife, so across the Tropic Of Capricorn i drive, north. Botswana boasts more african elephants per square mile than any other country in the world. And its a glorious sight. But there is another big beast that has had a much rougher passage in the last few decades. The rhinoceros. At one point, thanks to poaching, there were only four rhinos left in the entire country. Khama is a sanctuary dedicated to ensuring their future survival. With nine rhinos brought in from south africa in the late 1980s, a Breeding Programme began, and we are now tracking one of the Success Stories of that programme. So the wind is blowing that side, so we have to go downwind. Rhinos have got a good sense of smell, that is how they detect whatever is around them in the environment. We have two be downwind so that they dont smell us. Its fascinating because he has explained to me that you can tell the rhinos dont feel threatened because they are moving quite slowly. You can tell they are moving slowly by their footprints, and there is one rhino here, and one rhino over there. That offers us some luck that we will get close to them because they dont feel threatened. Lets cross our fingers. Weve just spotted them. Yes wow. 0k, we are going to take a bit of a risk. My guide has been as close as ten metres to a rhino before, without them sensing that hes there, so lets try that now. It may be best if only mike comes. Its hard to grasp that one of this planets great survivors, such a dignified, shy beast is under threat because of mans vanity. 200 rhinos have been successfully bred here, and today around 75 reside in the khama sanctuary. But this is not the end of the story. Other neighbouring countries are now sending rhino into botswana as a protected haven from poachers. I travelled northwest to Chiefs Island to see how successful this project is, in the company of the most committed advocate of Wildlife Conservation i have ever met. Beautiful creature. Beautiful, beautiful creature. Of course im biased it looks to me, and i need a better view, there are thorns in the way here, but we are looking at a mother and a calf. That calf was born in botswana. The mother has met a bull here and she has bred that calf. So that in itself is a success. That excites me, that should excite anyone who is interested in conservation. Today, rhino horns are highly valued for their supposed medicinal and ornamental properties, especially in asia. The latest round of poaching is a massive threat because of technologies, gps units, Satellite Telephones that are being used by the modern syndicates, you know . So the modern guys are a distinct threat for us. Between the two rhinos in front of us, he estimates there is a market value of 120,000 us dollars worth of illegal rhino horn. It is an international effort, but the threat comes from continents away. They use neighbouring states as sort of clearing stations, so this effort to look after these rhinos, prevent poaching, has to be international by description. It is not an effort that can be carried out in botswana alone. And conservation is botswanas main focus these days. The mantra for tourism is high quality, low impact. In other words, Discouraging Mass Tourism in favour of more expensive, but also more responsible camps. The latest trend in that is mobile safari essentially pop up sites that prevent local wildlife becoming too habituated to human presence. Ok, so the first thing we are going to do is to build my bedroom. En suite, no less and it is all in that box . Yes, lets go and make it. Friends of mine will tell you i am not a natural camper, and i think i am about to prove them right. What am i doing wrong . Here we go. Argh i am feeling a bit dizzy. 0ops the whole thing has collapsed again. But out of chaos comes comfort. Do you know what . I have never been in this situation before, with Wildlife Roaming free. In fact, i can hear a lionjust over there. No rangers, no guns, no wi fi coverage, no mobile phone coverage, and im just about to go to bed in a tent by myself. Lion roars ok, it is about 3. 00am, and i havejust woken up. I was woken up by something, a noise outside. Until then, i slept quite well, but now my mind is beginning to race, and im thinking that maybe if i put my head through the entrance of the tent, there will be like a lion or an elephant just there. Up until then, though, i slept pretty well. Its a really nice little setup. The only real stirrings i have heard, loud stirrings, have been the sounds of the night coming from my colleague who is in the tent just down there. Snoring sunrise, and a spectacularjourney across the mighty kalahari. A desert which covers some 80 of the country. Now, this is what i really imagine when i think desert. Vast, stark, dry, Flat Stretches of landscape, and so dusty when a car or the wind whips up the sand. And there are perils to driving through this terrain. So here we have the hazards of driving a Two Wheel Drive car in the middle of this really heavy, thick sand. This car is stuck, and we are going to try and help rescue her. Do you want to push there . Will that help . Probably not i dont know if this makes any difference, but anyway. Handbrake on, handbrake on i am not quite sure what is happening now. Are you going to pull this by yourself now . This is africas strongest man. Yes, im very confident. Oh, he has done it i think we are talking success yes 50 years actually makes botswana quite a young country, but what this anniversary conceals is that here in the kalahari desert, you have got one of the oldest communities on the planet, maintaining the same traditions for Tens Of Thousands of years. And this is where it all began. The Tsodilo Hills in the far north west of the country are the spiritual and Ancestral Home to many communities of bush or san people, and they left a quite remarkable legacy. This area has been occupied by people continuously for 100,000 years. People have left their artistic expressions in the form of rock art. People believe that these is peoples soul and spirit. That is why this site is very important. Today it is also on the World Heritage list today. By their very lifestyle, the nomadic sand tribes have touched many parts of what is botswana today. I am interested in finding out how they are coping in a contemporary world, where they are not allowed to hunt, and have lost land and access to natural resources. So, onwards to the outskirts of the town of ganzi in western botswana, close to the namibian border. Settlements like these were created as part of a controversial government relocation programme, designed to integrate the san people into mainstream society. People like this. Can you show me your hut . This is where you live and sleep, yeah . This is a far cry from the nomadic Hunting And Gathering lifestyle of her forefathers. Four times a year they moved to different areas, and then when the seasons changed, they also moved in another direction. So they were very sensitive to the movement of animals. The Living Conditions here are a good illustration of the sometimes uneasy mix of the traditional with the contemporary. You can see the traditional pots here. In the olden days, our forefathers were using traditional sticks for making fire. And now we buy matches from the shops. Instead of plates they were using the Ostrich Eggshell as the plate. There were also using it for Storing Water and medicinal use. For many people, the transition to this way of life has been hard, but bolanda has forged a career for herself as a beader, using indigenous skills. My business has grown tremendously, and i have been invited to attend International Trade fairs in different countries. I have travelled to america, to europe. I think the San Community simply need to change their lifestyle. Relocation has meant that many of the ancient san traditions, language and culture have come under threat, and notjust in botswana. Bolanda took me to an annual festival, held just outside the town. It is an old language, but i think it is dying, really, not a lot of people speak it, is that right . Yes, it is. Teach me. Makes clicking sound at this festival, different tribes from all over Southern Africa gather to promote and celebrate endangered cultural practices. Later in the evening, a Spiritual Healing Dance is performed. In the olden days, it was only performed when somebody was sick. When they were moving around, dancing. They talked to the traditional gods to take the evil spirit away. The whole event is under the banner of celebrating botswanas 50th birthday, but bolanda is sceptical about it having any real meaning for her community. It doesnt make sense to me. Because the san people have not changed for 50 years. Their lives are just going down, down, down every day. There is a lot of poverty, a lot of unemployment. This is not really one where we can celebrate. The san people do only represent a small minority of the botswana population, but they are highly symbolic. It may need more than a healing ritual like this to remedy this issue. One solution is to involve more san people in tourism. That has been successfully achieved by other communities in locally run schemes in the delta in the north. These traditional canoes, or mokoros, used to be carved from tree trunks, but for ecological reasons are now fashioned from fibreglass. We are off. Nice and smooth. At the moment, no sign of any crocodiles. Which is good news. Richard first learned this technique at the age of nine from his father, but the tradition goes back centuries. In the olden days, theyd go out using mokoros for hunting, fishing, and gathering wild berries. In the olden days, there were several small villages, they lived in islands. When they visited each other, theyd use mokoro as their transport. Do you think you will always stay here . I will say yes because it is where i originate. All my friends, i have to ask them to come to visit me in this paradise. The boat is wonderfully smooth. I have not felt the least bit threatened. I would do, if i felt a hippo or crocodile was coming this way. But so far so good. It has been an epicjourney crisscrossing botswana. Eight plane trips and some hard slogs, driving more than 3000 kilometres on rough terrain. It is not necessarily a cheap place to travel in, and in fact sometimes it feels a bit exclusive, but the truth is, the future of botswana for the next 50 years and beyond lies in all its inhabitants, peacefully sharing in the unique resources of this extraordinary land. Hello there, good morning. Yesterday morning we saw the lowest temperature so far in england this winter. We got to 8. 1 in rural oxfordshire. This morning, the frost is nowhere near as widespread. Therell be some across the south eastern quarter of the uk, but the further west you go, a lot more cloud, and that cloud is bringing at least some rain with it. But its also helping to keep the temperatures up, seven or eight degrees to start the day in glasgow and belfast. But itll be quite widespread in the western side of scotland. The eastern side faring a little bit better. Still cloudy, and its quite wet in Northern Ireland first thing this morning. Some Rain Fringing into the western side of england and wales. Not quite into cornwall and devon at this stage, so its largely dry here. Head further east and its not just cold and frosty, therell be some patches of fog, and some of the fog will be slow to clear. It could be quite dense in places, so do bear that in mind if youre heading out on the roads. Some fog in east anglia. Itll be a chilly old start here. Chilly here across northern england, but a fair bit of cloud and Just A Little Bit of rain first thing. Now, our main area of rain will topple its way further southwards and eastwards through the day, so itll eventually get down to the midlands. Some light and patchy rain here into the afternoon, but it never really gets to east anglia and the south east. Here itll stay fairly cloudy into the afternoon, but therell some breaks, but its also where we see the lowest temperatures. Further west, mild air coming from the atlantic, could get into double figures. And that milder air, the less cold air, comes in from the atlantic on the westerly breeze, pushing a little bit of patchy rain across some parts first thing on saturday but, actually, into the weekend a lot less cold than what weve seen recently, but a lot of cloud across most places through the weekend and a little bit of patchy rain and drizzle, but certainly not a wash out, just pretty grey skies. So, we do see a lot of cloud on saturday, a little bit of rain here and there, maybe a few breaks in the cloud, with top temperatures around about ten or 11 degrees. So something a lot less cold coming into the united kingdom, but weve got this cold northerly wind down across central and eastern parts of europe, and it really will be a very cold weekend through the balkans. It could go as low as 10, and thatll be daytime temperatures, so a big contrast across europe this weekend. Second part of the weekend, back on our shores, looks like the first part of the weekend, a lot of cloud, not much rain, but there will be some, and temperatures peaking at around about nine or 10 degrees. And then on into the early part of the coming week we start to see something a bit more unsettled developing, a Weather Front making its Way South And East across the uk, and note on our isobars on the chart, itll be quite windy, with the Rain Starting In Scotland and Northern Ireland and then a steady Progress South and eastwards across the rest of the uk. A very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. My names mike embley. Our top stories americas top intelligence chief says theres no doubt russian Cyber Hackers tried to interfere in novembers president ial election. 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