Editor’s Blog

The takeover of Vauxhall by the PSA Group won’t change anything for its dealers in the short term but it is likely that the Insignia Grand Sport will be the last completely new model to be built on a General Motors platform. Vauxhall dealers may regard that as a lucky break, as the Insignia is the flagship of its range, ...

The March plate-change was expected to be a record breaker for the month and Q1 and it was with over 562,000 cars registered in a single month for the first time ever. The market was powered by the changes to vehicle excise duty (VED) which were ushered in for all new cars registered after 1 April. Consequently dealers were expecting the ...

The new 17-plate got off to a flying start with the UK car bosses I spoke to at the Geneva International Motor Show all expecting a particularly strong March following last year’s record high. Andy Barratt, the managing director and chairman of Ford of Britain, was the most bullish as he expects it to hit a 30 year high for ...

America’s National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo rolled into New Orleans last week for what is one of the biggest fixtures in the international car industry calendar. The US trade body celebrated its 100th anniversary in fine style with the annual event it has run since its inception having only missed three years during the Second World War. The scale ...

As expected the 2016 new car market set a new record high with 2.69 million units registered over the course of the year, resulting in a 2.25% year on year rise. This is, of course, welcome news for the sector as the growth represents confidence against a backdrop of economic and political uncertainty following last year’s referendum vote and the ...

We’re delighted to reveal the names of the biggest UK franchised dealer groups in the latest edition of the Motor Trader Top 200. We’ve been publishing the Motor Trader Top 200 for over 20 years and as the biggest survey of its type it continues to track the ebb and flow of the car retailing sector. The latest survey reveals ...

Geely Auto pulled off quite a coup. The Chinese carmaker came close to launching into Europe back in 2012 and even showed a city car at that year’s Motor Trader Open Points Roadshow. However, its acquisition of Volvo from Ford and its subsequent purchase of the London Taxi Company, kept the brand busy elsewhere. That was until last month when ...

Online new car sales are set to receive a boost as a result of  Peugeot launching an e-commerce platform. Peugeot claims a first with the service it launches at the end of November which enables customers to get a trade-in value for their current car and then specify and finance their next new one. Furthermore, the system will allow them ...

As the second biggest and last major European motor show of the year, Paris holds an important place in the automotive calendar. Bigger than Geneva but dwarfed by Frankfurt, the show it alternates with, this year’s show one again showcased the next generation of cars heading for UK dealerships. Once again there was a distinct emphasis on EVs and crossovers, ...

With September now well under way, all the anecdotal evidence suggests a strong month with dealers reporting plenty of pent-up demand from retail customers keen to get their hands on the new 66-plate. But just how big can the September market be? Last year it reached a record high of 462,517 registrations; a year on year increase of 8.6% pushing ...