Blogs

I generally try to vary the subject of my blogs each time both because it reflects the different discussions and experiences that I have in the course of every week but also to address the varying interests of readers from across the different parts of our industry. This week however I will make an exception by returning again to the ...

We are often told that the customer experience in dealerships has been transformed in recent years through more diverse recruitment practises and improved training, reinforced by ongoing customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shopping.  You would therefore expect to find this reflected in feedback from buyers.  We are also all too aware of the weak demand from retail customers for battery ...

The acquisition of ATG by Keyloop brings together two of the largest technology companies that support a large number of franchised and independent dealers across the UK. The question for the industry is whether the coming together of these two companies will benefit retailers. The news made headlines a few weeks ago, and the deal is set to transform the ...

The Tesla share price has dropped by 45% since the end of December on the back of a series of negative news stories and announcements.  In most listed companies this would be a source of huge concern, but despite the fall, the market capitalisation of the company remains over seven times greater than that of Toyota, and Elon Musk continues ...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigation into the sale of car finance has understandably garnered attention from the public regarding market practices. A significant area of concern for the investigation is a lack of transparency in disclosing interest rates and commission structures. There are existing solutions and services available, which can improve the customer experience and provide increased transparency. Providing ...

By Steve Young There are a number of automotive industry related stories running at the moment that are all predicting some extreme outcomes when the reality is probably rather different.  In a time when there are so many competing news channels and social media outlets, we perhaps shouldn’t be surprised that attention-grabbing headlines and ‘click-bait’ become the norm.  However that ...

This month in Motor Trader, in print and online, we feature two dealer groups who are doing well, Chapelhouse Motor Group has regularly appeared in the Motor Trader Top 200 Dealer Groups over the years with high return on sales. In this issue we interview MD Phil Clay, in the top job for just over a year. Also, in this ...

After a hectic couple weeks with our Members’ Spring Meeting in Berlin and some consulting deadlines, it’s back to the blogs.  I’m sure you will have managed without my random thoughts on the issues of the day… I feel like I talk about agency a lot, but I did check back on my previous blogs, and it’s actually been a ...

The growth of Chinese car brands in the European market has been in the headlines in the last week or so, so it seems an appropriate point to comment on the news stories but also launch a new initiative from ICDP, where we have extended the ‘fireside chats’ that we have had in some of our recent members’ meeting to ...

This year, ICDP reaches thirty years since the launch of the first European Research Programme, so we have been looking back in the archives in preparation for our Members’ Meeting in Berlin in two weeks where we will share some old material that includes some not-so-dated thinking. We think of our industry as fast-moving and talk about the scale of ...