Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
After 16 years in charge – or even 17, depending on whom you ask! – Curtis Hutchinson has given up the reins at Motor Trader. I’d like to start by thanking him for his work on the title, from what I’ve seen and heard it has benefitted greatly from his experience and leadership.
That said, a change is as good as a feast and I’m looking forward to working with the team here to create refreshed and updated versions of the magazine and website, while also helping to deliver more top-class events.
Looking at the magazine, we’re planning to squeeze even more great content into our pages. I’m a firm believer that any magazine should give the readers what they want and we’ll look to do that with content that offers both insight and analysis.
As for the Motor Trader site, we’re looking to tighten up the online offering, with a cleaner layout, concise section breakdown and more video. In all, the changes will add up to evolution rather than a revolution, but that stands as testament to the good work already done.
I hope that our future coverage will help with managing day-to-day business and in planning for the longer term – you can probably guess where this is leading. It is almost impossible to overestimate the possible impact Brexit could have on our lives. As we approach that critical juncture in UK history, no single industry in the UK is likely to be more impacted than automotive.
To date, the government has been negotiating Brexit in isolation. Uncertainty related to the future relationship between the UK and Europe has prompted industry CEOs to reconsider business decisions in a new, more skeptical light. To put it bluntly, it’s absurd that a £77.5 billion industry which represents 814,000 jobs (in 2017, according to the SMMT) has been kept in the dark for this long,
After the silence of 2017, as 2018 advances we expect a far clearer picture to emerge of how future trade will be conducted with our European neighbours. As those plans are announced, the Motor Trader team will provide reports and analysis covering those decisions, with a focused look at what they could mean for dealers and the wider UK automotive industry. One thing remains clear; the future success of the industry is in the balance.
Julian Buckley, Editor, Motor Trader