Surveys

MotoNovo is pushing ahead with plans for its new FindAndFundMyCar website, which is due for launch in January 2018. Heading up the operation is Philip Morgan, a specialist in business to consumer website campaigns who was previously chief finance and operating officer at GoCompare, the insurance price comparison site. Morgan joined GoCompare initially as head of finance and risk and ...

The newly published Motor Trader Top 50 Independent Dealers survey tracks a sector in good health with combined turnover up 20% to £4.4bn. Turnover of the 43 companies in both the 2016 and 2017 MT Top 50s increased 17.2% and the entry point for the MT Top 50 rose from £10m to £17.5m. The MT Top 50’s average pre-tax profit ...

Auction houses are using their finance subsidiaries to help more dealers buy more vehicles at auction. The two leading remarketing companies in the UK are Cox Automotive and BCA Marketplace which compete head to head. Finance is a growing sector for both. Cox Automotive has its NextGear Capital wholesale funding arm and BCA Marketplace its BCA Partner Finance business. BCA ...

New car registrations fell -9.3% during the September plate-change to 426,170 units. This marked the sixth consecutive monthly fall and was the first time the all-important September market dropped since 2011, according to the SMMT. Year to date registrations were down -3.9% from 2,150,495 to 2,066,411 units as the levelling-off gathers pace. Retail registrations fell -8.8% in September to 223,777 ...

It’s been a great time in used car sales. At the retail end the big dealer groups, including Pendragon, Inchcape, Lookers, Vertu and Marshall – have reported excellent used car sales with profits on the rise. The large dealer groups’ used car operations are benefiting from their scale and spending power. They have made big investments in their websites and ...

Last month the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority told banks and carmaker finance arms to stress-test their businesses and ask what would happen if the value of used cars on PCPs fell by 30%. It wants to know that they are lending conservatively amid fears that some of the Guaranteed Minimum Future Values that underpin PCPs are too optimistic. ...

The Citroen retailer network has been through a tough time recently with dealers giving it the lowest possible desirability rating in last summer’s NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey. The root cause of the dissatisfaction was the hiving off of the premium DS brand to a select number of dealers. The move did not go down well with dealers not invited to ...

Two decades ago Volkswagen made a clear distinction between its car and van businesses when it separated its passenger car and light commercial dealer networks. The move proved successful for the brand which is now the second biggest seller of new vans in the UK after Ford. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles now has a dedicated network of 72 Van Centres and ...

The van market has been on a high with record sales for the past four years. Last year saw 375,687 vehicles registered as fleets and SMEs kicked Brexit fears into touch and took advantage of the ultra- competitive deals on offer. And behind these sales, finance has played a pivotal role. True, after these record performances the market has taken ...

The 2017 Motor Trader Top 60 Movers & Shakers, sponsored by Motors, reveals the key personalities in UK car retailing, those individuals who have influenced the motor retail sector over the past year and are set to make their presence felt over the course of 2017. This year there are 13 new entrants, the most prominent being ex-Stratstone boss James ...