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Regular readers know that I’m rarely controversial but it really gets my back up when people take statistics and draw cow poo conclusions from them. Last year there was a huge drop in the number of miles that motorists drove, technology has meant that salesmen and engineers, those most commonly involved in road incidents, have been on Read more »

This year has been a bit of a struggle for many industry sectors but not so much for the motor industry. Following the scrappage scheme it was expected that the motor industry would contract and dealerships close, something I personally didn’t think would happen. In anticipation of a potential downturn the manufacturers started to scale down production in 2008/9, some would say too far, as virtually every new car drifted out to long delivery lead times as demand remained relatively high. This Read more »

I have had a number of clients put back their lease decisions until later next year which is of course their prerogative. However, as I’ve been pointing out, doing this is a huge gamble. First of all it’s important to point out that we will never return to the good old days of lots of cars sitting around in dealerships and import centres waiting for manufacturers to Read more »

I was talking to a client recently after he had been to a dealer for a test drive. Whilst there, he was shown a ‘pre-registered’ car that had just 10 miles on the clock and was £3,000 less than the list price. He was interested in the car and asked my advice and as this is quite a common occurrence I thought I would share the facts with readers of my blog. First of all there is no such thing as a pre-registered car with respect to dealers. This was made illegal by Stephen Byers at the time he was Trade & Read more »

I don’t know why but every time someone starts to explain how wonderful the scrappage scheme was the hairs on the back of my neck start to bristle. The latest is Graham Hope, deputy editor of Auto Express. He says that whist not everyone was in favour of the scrappage scheme it brought ‘some benefits, not least its condemnation of thousands of death traps’. His comments are an introduction to an article about the Read more »

Sales of new cars surged by 19% last month over sales for March last year according to latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It sounds like a large increase but the sales last year were abysmal but hey we’ll take any glint of light that indicates things are moving in the right direction. Having said that, the sales in March were the highest monthly sales for 2 years, so it’s Read more »

According to reports by trade valuation guides, Glass’s Guide and CAP, the setting of residual values will become more difficult this year due to future uncertainties. Last year values increased as a result of the scrappage scheme, which removed cars from the system, fewer new cars were registered and more lease cars had their leases extended forcing up used car values in the middle of a recession because supply fell Read more »

Government figures show that up to 1 million scrapped cars are still being driven on the road. Whilst 2 million motorists told the DVLA that their cars were being destroyed only half were issued with a Certificate of Destruction, the proof that a car has been destroyed. Dodgy dismantlers have been exploiting a legislation loophole whereby the DVLA doesn’t need to see the Certificate before it registers a car as Read more »

It would seem that companies are more environmentally aware than private motorists. According to statistics issued last year, as part of Fleet News Intelligence Report, and more recently backed up by information from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), average CO2 emissions from cars put onto fleet leases dropped from 149.9g/km to 144 g/km following a drop of 9 percentage Read more »

My view, over the last few weeks, that we will see some return to the fleet market by manufacturers, now struggling with sales, following the end of the scrappage scheme, seems to be substantiated as Skoda, Chevrolet and Renault have all stated in one week that they are aiming at the fleet market. Renault aims to increase its market share from 3.17% to 5% this year whilst Chevrolet launches an independent fleet sales Read more »