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I mentioned in recent items the move in the industry from 3 rentals in advance to 6 rentals when contract hiring vehicles, suggesting that this could be as a result of  lenders requiring more security by taking larger upfront payments. It has now come to light that this is more likely to be the case and 6 advanced rentals likely to become Read more »

Unless you work in the finance industry you may not fully understand the term ‘credit crunch’. It is simply the running out of money to lend, hence the reason why the Government is having to step in to inject more money into the economy and provide money for the banks to lend – in theory. Of course all they are doing is using the money to bolster their balance sheet making the ‘cash in bank’ look a little healthier. The problem for you and me is the ability to borrow money, Read more »

It has been reported this week that many people do not see the distinction between credit crunch and recession. For those that lived through the last recession, as I did, you will know how hard things got before we turned the corner and things started to dramatically improve. And this was all down to a recession, which was pretty much left to run its course by the Government. Whilst it seemed pretty harsh at the time it was a way of streamlining business in the UK and weeding out the good from the bad. Sadly, Read more »

Whilst there appears to be a great deal of doom and gloom about, the latest new car sale figures issued by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) to the end of June shows a modest drop of just 1.6% over the same period in 2007. A lot of that was due to the sharp action of the manufacturers to discount cars into Read more »

On the subject of scams there is a lot of evidence of  an old favourite amongst the more unscrupulous brokers returning. It was used a lot in the last recession and will no doubt be used even more as we have the added ‘bonus’ of a credit crunch as we move in the direction of another recession. It’s based on the deal that doesn’t exist, the sort of thing that dealers used to do a lot in the past by advertising a really cheap car to undercut all the local competition then telling the customer Read more »

As the credit crunch continues to have an effect more brokers are reporting difficulties with underwriting. As many of my readers know I have a column with Motor Finance – the journal of the motor finance industry and many brokers that contact me, as a result of my column, have reported that lease enquiries are still running high but finance declines are running higher than ever as funders become more selective as they prepare for the anticipated recession. Read more »