Guest Blog

With the so-called Freedom Days looming large starting in England from July 19th across the UK, there can be no doubt that the impact of the pandemic will continue to shape people’s lives. Personal finances have been affected positively and negatively; it has implications for dealer finance. It will be increasingly difficult to operate with a fixed rate finance ‘one size ...

    Dealerships must act quickly to counter the effects of a huge shortage of new and used cars, says motor trade expert Fraser Brown. Sales teams are already coming to terms with delays of up to six months in new car deliveries, while the sector has seen its business cycle upended due to the long-term fall out from last ...

The shortage of new vehicle supply has pushed consumers and subsequently dealers towards used vehicles. This has had an obvious impact on the supply and demand dynamics that directly impact used vehicle values. Across the industry, we are seeing values increasing daily. This is great news for inventory owners who would traditionally be grimacing at sales values in May, which ...

Much has been said about the shortage of stock facing the sector, and just as dealerships begin to cover, they could well be hit with a crisis even worse than coronavirus itself. Vehicle manufacturers are facing raw material shortages on multiple fronts with semiconductors, rubber and aluminium all trading at a premium. This will further dent new vehicle production cycles ...

Used vehicle supply for the next few months has never been more widely debated or difficult to predict. The semiconductor and other component shortages are widely reported but the severity of the issues seem to change regularly. It is clear that they differ by brand, model and even derivative, but the vast majority of manufacturers are affected. For the remainder ...

The second half of 2021 will see some potential used car supply challenges driven mainly by shortages of new cars. If this happens, it will mean there will be restricted supply of late plate used stock that would normally have come from manufacturer employee car schemes and demonstrator programmes. This may not affect all manufacturers but it will, without doubt, ...

Last year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced the final ruling from its motor finance review, the ban on discretionary commission models and new requirements around commission disclosure. Retailers were given only six months to adapt their business processes, policies and custom-er documentation to implement the necessary changes. With the introduction of change naturally comes greater scrutiny. From September this ...

Managing financial performance is challenging at the best of times, but with seismic changes approaching the retail automotive sector the pressure to understand and interpret what your financial data says about your business is more important than ever. With the increasing amount of data available, on financial performance, customer journeys, connected and electric car sales, it is tough to make ...

It was a long winter for Britain’s dealers.  With showrooms closed due to lockdown restrictions, dealers had to adapt to remote selling, and many made the best of it. However, the situation was far from ideal. As lockdown started to lift, the industry has seen a big jump in orders. Across the country, dealers are managing a significant uplift in ...

The last 48 hours have seen two significant announcements relating to skills, training and apprenticeships. Firstly, the Queen’s Speech outlined the government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, to give everyone access to skills for life. But on the same day, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development released data that showed UK employers have lost £2bn over the past two years in ...