Editor’s Choice

The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has been given permission to intervene in the motor finance case taking place in the Supreme Court. It emerged yesterday that the Treasury had not been given permission to intervene and will now have to watch events from the sidelines. Last month Chancellor Rachel Reeves  sought permission to intervene a bid to protect banks ...

West Yorkshire based car dealership, Cars 2, has been sold by its Shareholders to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). The deal was advised on by Castle Square Corporate Finance and Freeths, with funding from Barclays. The company had a turnover of more than £191m in its last reported annual accounts and this has grown to a reported £220m in 2024. ...

Leapmotor has made its debut in the UK electric vehicle market with the launch of two new models: the T03 small electric vehicle and the C10 midsize SUV. The T03 is pitched as an affordable offer, with a starting price of £15,995, making it the second cheapest electric car in the UK, surpassed only by the Dacia Spring by a ...

Toyota and Lexus dealer group Steven Eagell is improving its employee benefits package, increasing basic salaries to £30,000 for the first 12 months for all sales and aftersales roles. Additionally, maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay have been enhanced. The Ggoup also increased its annual leave allowance, ensuring a better work-life balance for its colleagues. The group has also launched an ...

US dealer giant Group 1 is pushing ahead with the five-phase restructuring of its UK business and the integration of Inchcape which it bought last year. Last year, in phases one and two, it cut costs by £15m with a reduction of over 200 jobs achieved through cuts made in the executive team and senior franchise oversight functions, the elimination ...

Chinese car brand Xpeng plans to have 20 dealerships in the UK by year-end. The company has teamed up with distributor International Motors to drive UK sales. The first car to come to the UK is the all-electric mid-size SUV Xpeng G6, with prices starting at £39,990 and deliveries beginning March 2025. Xpeng kicked off its European expansion entering Norway in ...

Group 1’s US and UK operations turned in a strong performance in 2024 with turnover up 11.5% to $19.9bn (£16bn) and gross profit up 7.3% to $3.2bn. In the UK turnover turnover and profitability surged on the back of its acquisition of the Inchcape UK arm with turnover up 36% to $4.16bn and gross profits up 36.6% to $560.1m. The ...

Stoneacre profits took a hit in 2024 as the group grappled with a tough used car market with values on the slide. Pre-tax profits fell 23.5% to £24.4m on turnover up 2.5% to of £1.039bn. In the year to April 2024, the group sold 26,601 new retail units, an increase on the 24,581 sold in the prior year while used ...

Ford terminated more than 50 retail dealers in January as part of its restructuring of the network. All but three of the dealers have retained their authorised repairer status, Ford told Motor Trader. Back in 2020 Ford announced that it was going to reduce its network of sales outlets in half over the next five years. In2020 had 395 car ...

Carmakers need to “get their head around that retail is important” to deliver on customer experience. That’s the view of Andy Goss, Vertu chair in Vision 2040, a look at the next five years from recruitment consultancy Ennis & Co. “Service and Parts are going to get very difficult moving forward because there’s not much to replace on EVs apart ...