Editor’s Choice

JCB Group has acquired Ashford Orbital and its Kia, Mazda dealerships on a 2.5 acre site in Ashford for an undisclosed sum. The move follows hard on the phrchgase of Tunbridge Wells Volkswagen in December. JCB is ranked 79 in the Motor Trader Top 200 Dealer Groups with annual turnover of £192.5m. Ashford Orbital deliverd pre tax profits of £694,000 ...

Group 1 UK is set to cut jobs by 10% in the first quarter of 2024 in a drive to reduce costs. The company confirmed the move as it announced fully ear results for the US parent and UK subsidiary. It said the U.K. delivered record current year revenues of $3.1b, driven by all lines of service and record gross ...

Helensburgh Toyota co-owners Gary Mulvaney and Ernie Cowan have sold the business to a newly formed employee trust. The company has held the Toyota franchise for over 45 years and is recognised as one of the franchise’s top performers for customer care in the UK. Mulvaney and Cowan who will remain in their current roles until March 2024 as part ...

This year has had its own challenges, used car values increased, substantially, in many cases and a shortage of good used cars made it difficult to restock. EV values have been hit hard and we decided to reduce the number of EV stock until the market volatility has been understood more fully. Full electric new car sales seem to be ...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to investigate historical cases of motor finance companies not paying out compensation to customers for discretionary commission arrangements. In 2021, the FCA banned discretionary commission, removing the incentive for brokers to increase the interest rate that a customer pays for their motor finance. The FCA asked finance houses to review their practices and, where ...

Last year saw sales of Tesla cars decline 9.3% to 49,571 units in an overall market up 17.9% despite a series of price cuts during the year to stimulate sales. The brand’s market share fell to 2.6% for the year compared to 3.4% in 2022. Some Stellantis brands continue to struggle with Abarth down 42.6% to 886 units, DS down ...

Snows Motor Group has appointed Richard Morgan as head of its Toyota and Lexus division. He was formerly the company’s franchise operations manager, will now oversee the running of Snows’ trio of Lexus dealerships in Exeter, Hedge End and Bournemouth and a total of 11 Toyota businesses across the South of England. Morgan joined Snows in February, implementing the launch ...

Dealers have been warned to prepare for a  higher level of scrutiny from regulators as motor finance complaints rise. The Financial Ombudsman Service reported that complaints increased by 115% to 4,622 in the third quarter of 2023, saying they were increasingly hearing from people worried about whether they can pay their motor finance deals. Richard Tavernor, COO at iVendi, said ...

Complaints about motor finance more than doubled in the three months to September. New figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service reveal complains surged 115% to 4,622 in the period. Vehicle-related complaints were responsible for a quarter of all the cases received by the Financial Ombudsman Service in the second quarter of this financial year. These increasing complaint levels have arisen ...

Penske Automotive Group has agreed to acquire Rybrook Group’s 15 premium dealerships in the UK. Rybrook has four BMW dealerships, four MINI dealerships, four Volvo dealerships, two Land Rover dealerships and one Porsche dealership.  Additionally, three of the BMW locations also retail BMW Motorrad motorcycles. Darren Edwards, CEO of Sytner Group, which is owned by Penske, said, “We are delighted ...