Car Dealer Magazine: Issue 164

Issue 164 | November 2021 | CarDealerMag.co.uk | £6

INTERVIEW

ROBERT

FORRESTER

VERTU MOTORS BOSS THINKS NEW CAR SUPPLY PROBLEM IS A GOOD THING – AND MORE

NEWS

• MARSHALL BUYS MOTORLINE • CAZOO MAKES £102M LOSS • JACK TORDOFF DIES • GRENADIER PRICE REVEALED • GENEVA SHOW CANCELLED • FACELIFT FOR FORD FIESTA • SO LONG, MITSUBISHI...

FIRST DRIVE: ALL-NEW

BMW iX PLUS: WE TRY OUT THE ASTON MARTIN DBX AND TOYOTA YARIS CROSS

INVESTIGATION: HOW MUCH PROFIT IS THERE IN A NEW CAR?

AWARDS

THE SUPPLIERS & MANUFACTURERS YOU RATED AND SLATED THIS YEAR

FAST & CURIOUS: OUR MAN TAKES TO THE CIRCUIT TO LEARN THE SKILLS FOR SAFER TRACK DRIVING

The UK’s Best Used Car Warranty

02 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Blackball Media Units 1 - 2 Warrior Court 9-11 Mumby Road, Gosport, PO12 1BS T: (020) 8125 3880 W: CarDealerMag.co.uk

THE BOSS FOUNDER James Baggott

james@thebaize.com Twitter: @CarDealerEd

EDITORIAL CHIEF SUB-EDITOR John Bowman

john@blackballmedia.co.uk

HEAD OF CONTENT Jack Evans

jack@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @jackrober

MULTIMEDIA MANAGER Jon Reay jon@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @JonReay

HEAD OF DESIGN Graeme Windell

graeme@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @graemewindell

CONTRIBUTORS James Batchelor, Darren Cassey, Rebecca Chaplin, Nigel Swan, Ted Welford, Jack Williams

FINANCE FINANCE MANAGER Kate Gordon

kate@blackballmedia.co.uk

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Kevin Day

kev@blackballmedia.co.uk

ACCOUNT MANAGER Michelle Searle

michelle@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @cardealermich

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Awards

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WELCOME. P

eople keep asking me what I think will happen to the used car market and I’m going to take this opportunity to make a few predictions.

Used car prices are reaching record highs and continuing to climb. At first, people thought it was those rushing to the used market because they were avoiding public transport. That might have been partly true at the start of the pandemic but I don’t think that’s quite it now.

The next theory doing the rounds was that people had saved up lots of cash during lockdowns and were splashing out on treating themselves, especially as they couldn’t spend that cash on going on holiday.

The one that’s probably having the biggest impact of the lot, though, is the fact that people really aren’t very good at waiting for anything any more. You see, we live in an Amazon Prime time where you can order something today and get it tomorrow – or, if you’re really desperate, the same day.

I’m inclined to believe that actually it’s this that’s having the most impact on used car prices. Car manufacturers aren’t producing cars at the same pace as they used to as the semiconductor shortage causes headaches for factories all over the world.

This means many new cars have unusually long waiting lists. I chatted to one chap the other day who was waiting eight months for an Audi A3. Eight months!

While he seemed happy to wait, I’d bet my house on the fact he’s in the minority. Many new car buyers are walking into dealerships to be told there’s going to be a rather long wait for the new model they want. While people might think we Brits love a good old queue, the truth is we really can’t stand them.

Those new car buyers are instead turning to the used car market so they can get the car they want immediately – or at least one that’s pretty similar – and that’s causing the market to boil over. Predictions suggest the semiconductor issue won’t ease for some time yet and could impact on new car production well into 2022.

If that is the case, the prices of used cars are unlikely to taper off any time soon – and certainly won’t crash. It will be interesting to see if car manufacturers decide to ramp up production again to oversupply the market when the chips do become available (like they used to) or instead stick to this lower-volume, highermargin model they have now.

Car makers have been doing very well making fewer cars, so I can’t see them rushing back to flooding the market any time soon, especially as they plan agency sales models….

I wouldn’t be surprised if car manufacturers put up their prices at the same time. If they do that, it’ll keep the inflated price of used cars high for some time to come. What a strange time we’re living through in this industry – certainly not boring is it?

With all this talk of used cars, it’s only right to mention that our Used Car Awards nominations list has now been revealed (see p22). The 10 firms in each category will now go through to our rigorous mystery shopping phase and the shortlist will be announced on October 25.

We’re looking forward to getting everyone together once again and celebrating in style in London on November 29. Enjoy the issue.

While people might think we Brits love a good old queue, the truth is we really can’t stand them.

JAMES BAGGOTT Founder, Car Dealer CarDealerMag.co.uk | 03

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04 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

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IGNITION. ISSUE 164 | NOVEMBER 2021

12 CONTENTS

6

22

34

45

INTERVIEW

‘I think you’ll see the online operators becoming exactly the same as bricks and clicks.’

6

61

INVESTIGATION

‘Nobody is going to get a violin out for the firms involved, given the sizeable profits they can rack up.’

8

COMMENT

‘It’ll take many years and billions of pounds to position Genesis as a premium rival to the German trio.’

17

Interview: Robert Forrester Power 2021 results UCA 2021 nominations Car news round-up News digest Supplier news Feedback Business news Car Dealer Live Finance

6 12 22 26 28 44 46 48 52 54

COMMENT James Baggott Big Mike James Litton

17 18 21

FORECOURT Aston Martin DBX BMW iX Toyota Yaris Cross

34 36 38

INVESTIGATIONS Profit in a new car Semiconductor crisis

8 10

FEATURES Fast and curious Cool stuff to buy Hydrogen power

40 45 50

DATA FILE The Statistics LCV news Suppliers Guide Long-termers

56 58 60 61

REGISTRATIONS

‘Electric vehicle sales are perhaps the only positive the industry can currently look forward to.’

56 CarDealerMag.co.uk | 05

INTERVIEW

‘New car supply problems? The best thing for the motor retail sector in 50 years!’

Vertu Motors CEO Robert Forrester wasn’t exactly backward in coming forward during an in-depth chat with James Batchelor.

I

t goes without saying that to be the chief executive of a successful and hugely respected dealer group, you have to be tenacious.

Being outspoken and forthright aren’t a prerequisite, but that’s exactly how you could describe Robert Forrester. The 50-year-old chief executive of Vertu Motors plc – a company that includes the illustrious Bristol Street Motors business – has character with a capital ‘C’.

‘I’m fairly outspoken on this subject, but you have to give customers what they want,’ says Forrester. He’s speaking to me on the day when Vertu has issued a stunning interim trading update with record profits for the first half of 2021 (see panel), and the talk has turned to Cazoo, the purely online used car retailer.

‘I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard a Cazoo advert. They are clearly spending millions and millions and millions of pounds. I mean, you could almost name the football club they aren’t sponsoring and it would be a lot easier.

‘However, when you look at the economic reality, we have a conversion ratio in car sales of about 30 per cent – so we convert about 30 per cent of inquiries. Online e-commerce – these are their numbers and actually mirror our numbers – has a conversion ratio of point eight of one per cent.

‘So, if you go and spend millions on marketing and you get 100 customers at the top of the funnel, you will sell not one car – because you can’t sell point eight of a car, actually, so broadly let’s call it one. Now, you’ve got to spend a lot of money to sell one car. And that doesn’t look like a good business model to me.’

He adds: ‘I think we’re pretty good at pure online retailing. We’ve sold 681 out of 50,000 used cars. There is no point [Cazoo] having dealerships dotted around the country if they don’t like people to visit them and do test drives – that’s what the customers want. You can go down this online route all your life, but the bottom line is you’ve got to give what the customer wants. Customers want a test drive, particularly with a change of powertrain like electric cars.

‘I think the world’s going to be quite interesting, because I think we’ll see a complete conversion of the online experience and the offline experience – and we will make that completely transparent.

‘But I think you’ll see the online operators becoming exactly the same as bricks and clicks, test drives, you know – online/offline. I think it’s going to be very interesting – sit on 06 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

VERTU MOTORS Position: 2019 turnover: 2019 EBITDA: ROS:

6th £3bn £40.7m 0.6%

Click here to see the Car Dealer Top 100 list

Click here to watch the interview with Vertu boss Robert Forrester

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard a Cazoo advert. They are clearly spending millions and millions and millions of pounds. I mean, you could almost name the football club they aren’t sponsoring and it would be a lot easier. the sidelines, open your sandwich box and watch.’ Forrester also explained how he feels there are some real advantages to being a traditional franchise retailer – and that’s support.

‘We are backed by global brands,’ he said. ‘I was watching telly last night and an advert for a Mercedes EQ came on. Now this is a good thing, as it drives traffic into our Mercedes dealerships. We’ve got these massive global brands investing massive amounts of money in technology to build fantastic cars, and you can only buy new cars from dealerships, or online and then delivered to the dealership.’

He added: ‘This morning, Vertu Motors plc had over 8,000 used cars advertised online.

Motorpoint had 3,000, Cazoo also had 3,000 and Cinch had 5,000. There is an advantage to being a franchise retailer where you get access to a manufacturer’s supply of used vehicles.

‘A lot of the manufacturers, in fact I would say all the manufacturers, are going to adopt closed-loop retailing in the coming years. I’ve been saying it for a couple of years and no one really believes me.

‘They will do fleet business but they’ll do buybacks and they’ll recycle the cars back through the franchised dealerships – they will not sell it to independent retailers if they can absolutely avoid it.

‘They will want the retailer then to make a used car sale with a service plan to retain that customer, and then maybe upsell them into a new car later on and keep absolute control. I am really positive about that.’

Conversation soon moves on to the inevitable – new car supply and dwindling stocks of new metal coming through from factories to the showroom floors. With a network of 154 sales and aftersales outlets and representing some of the most desirable car brands in the business, this must be causing Forrester and his team sleepless nights, mustn’t it?

‘This has been the best thing that’s happened to the motor retail sector for 50 years. This is not a problem,’ he retorts.

‘We have been in a position of massive oversupply. I did some sums the other day and I think it has reduced our gross profit at a group level by two per cent – and you apply two per cent to £4bn and it’s a big number. The profitability you’re seeing now is because supply and demand are nicely in balance. People are willing to wait for a car and they’re willing to pay good prices for the cars, because if they don’t, they won’t get one.

‘I’m not saying it should be as extreme as this, but I think we need to learn as a wider sector. Certainly, some of the manufacturers are learning that actually producing one less car than the market actually wants is a good thing. Reverting back to massive oversupply and margin destruction destroys our profit and destroys the profit of the manufacturers.’

Despite admitting on ITV’s Undercover Big Boss that he’s never sold a new car to a customer, Forrester isn’t a CEO who sits behind a desk out of touch with the market.

Through his social media, he reveals he’s constantly out on the road visiting his network – and even when he’s not working, he’s buying the occasional used car.

‘I’ve bought two used cars off people in the past 10 days,’ he says. ‘I dropped my daughter off as a fresher at Durham University and I quickly discovered the chap who parked his car behind me had a new Hyundai Kona on order. So I bought his car while he was unloading it. And then I went to Burnley football club with my lad and the chap on the table having lunch with us was selling his Discovery, so I bought it off him.

‘We have to have everyone focused on buying used cars. If the chief executive can buy two used cars in 10 days, why can’t everybody else?’

Robert Forrester with Eagles Community Foundation CEO Sam Blake after Vertu bought the Eagles arena naming rights

INTERIMS

Half-year pre-tax profit of £51.8m smashes records VERTU’S interims for 2021 smashed all previous records.

It finished the half-year to August 31, 2021 with an adjusted profit before tax of £51.8m – up considerably from the £4.7m it made in the same half-year period in 2020 and the £16.9m that it made the year before.

Revenue for the company went up to £1.9bn – rising from £1.1bn in the same period last year. Meanwhile, gross margin was at 11.6 per cent.

Analysts at Zeus Capital have now revised Vertu’s full-year forecast from £50m-£55m to ‘at least’ £65m.

In our interview with Forrester, which you can watch on the Car Dealer YouTube channel, the chief executive said: ‘Vertu is a good business.

We’ve got good management, we work very hard and we’ve got good strategies.

‘But you have to accept that the sector has seen unprecedented tailwinds.’

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 07

INVESTIGATION

HOW MUCH PROFIT IS IN A NEW CAR? PROFIT

• AN EXCLUSIVE SURVEY FOR US BY WHAT CAR? REVEALS MORE THAN A QUARTER OF CONSUMERS THINK THERE’S UPWARDS OF 30 PER CENT PROFIT IN A NEW CAR • SOME OF THE PRESTIGE BRANDS ARE MAKING MORE THAN 20 PER CENT • BUT OTHERS ARE LUCKY TO SCRAPE ONE PER CENT OUT OF A HIGH-VOLUME MODEL

by James Baggott @CarDealerEd

M

ore than a fifth of car buyers think car manufacturers earn between 10 and 20 per cent on every new car they make.

In an exclusive survey for Car Dealer, What Car? asked 1,500 people what percentage of a new car sale they reckoned was profit.

Some 23 per cent of them said they believed that car manufacturers earned between 10 and 20 per cent, while 21.3 per cent thought it was around five to 10 per cent.

Of those surveyed, more than a quarter (25.8 per cent) thought car makers earned upwards of 30 per cent profit.

In cash terms, the majority of consumers (31.1 per cent) thought manufacturers take a £1,000 to £3,000 slice out of every new car they sell.

The reality is a somewhat mixed picture and varies by manufacturer and model.

While some lucky prestige models can earn the maker upwards of 20 per cent, other mainstream models generate the factory owners margins in the low single digits.

What Car? editorial director Jim Holder says that for the ‘vast majority’ of car manufacturers it is ‘not the licence to print money that many think it is’.

He said: ‘The bottom line is that car manufacturing and car retailing is ridiculously tough, with even best-in-class margins around 20 per cent, very healthy margins around 10 per cent and some operating in the low single-digit zone, after spending billions on research, development, infrastructure and more.

‘While nobody is going to get a violin out for the firms involved, given the sizeable profits they can and often do rack up off the back of the scale of the sales they make despite the margins, it’s worth remembering that many car makers and retailers, especially at the massmarket end, live a knife-edge existence, looking to scrape decent margins while scrapping for sales in an ultra-competitive market, all the while under pressure on material and labour costs, tightening legislation and more.’

Automotive analyst David Leggett, of GlobalData, said margins ‘vary enormously’ on new cars. He told Car Dealer: ‘It depends on what brand and what model you are talking about.

‘The premium brands tend to do very well indeed when you analyse margin per vehicle 08 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

5% Average profit margin for car manufacturers

Nobody is going to get a violin out for the firms involved, given the sizeable profits they can and often do rack up.

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‘There’s a reason why BMW and Mercedes 0% make big profits while the mass-market brands struggle.

‘Porsche is generally considered to be Source: What Car? a manufacturer with industry-leading margins – estimated at 20 per cent or more of the retail price.

‘The margins on high-volume cars are much lower, especially small cars such as the Ford Fiesta or Vauxhall Corsa.

‘They could be under one per cent which, while low, means the car manages to wash its face on volume.’

Of those surveyed by What Car?, 30.4 per cent believed car makers were coining £3,000£5,000 per car, while 16.7 per cent thought it was between £5,000 and £10,000.

Holder added: ‘It must be slightly galling to look at the amount of hard work that goes into producing and selling a car and think that so many customers think the rewards are so much greater than they really are.’

David Bailey, professor of industrial strategy at the Birmingham Business School, said the pandemic had actually seen profit margins increase for car manufacturers.

He said car manufacturers make an average profit margin of five per cent on new cars.

But this year that has improved, he added, thanks to a combination of discounts disappearing and a tendency to produce higher-margin models because of the semiconductor chip shortage.

‘Making fewer cars and not chasing volume has meant, perhaps oddly, that car industry margins in the first half of 2021 were among the highest in decades.

‘Costs have been trimmed in some cases by firms dropping features on some models.

‘Overall, profit margins ran at around 10 per cent in the first half of 2021 – almost double usual figures.’

He explained that a number of car firms – including Ford, Nissan, Stellantis and VW – had posted strong results in recent months and all were aiming to maintain higher margins.

He highlighted Ferrari as one of the industry’s most profitable car makers. In 2020, it sold around 10,000 cars and made a profit of £1.4bn – not a bad ratio…

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How much profit do car dealers make on new and used cars?

Click here CarDealerMag.co.uk | 09

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INVESTIGATION

SHORT CIRCUIT? September’s new car sales fell off a cliff thanks to the global semiconductor crisis – and the light at the end of the tunnel is still a fair distance away…

T

he UK has just seen its worst September for new car sales since the twice-yearly plate changes began in 1999. But while some of the slowdown in sales can be put down to economic uncertainty, the biggest factor affecting new car sales throughout the whole of 2021 has been availability – or rather, the lack thereof.

For the first time in September there wasn’t a Ford in the country’s top 10 seller list, as the Blue Oval suffered worse than many of its competitors from a crisis that is affecting more than 160 industries.

Among them, the global car industry is one of the hardest hit and is expected to lose over $210bn – circa £154bn – over a two-year period, according to US business news channel CNBC. As the supply of new cars dries up, it’s a far cry from a decade ago when airfields across the UK were full of unsold stock as a result of overproduction during the global economic crisis.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported a ‘desperately disappointing September’ as new car registrations tanked by more than a third (34.4 per cent) to just 215,312 – a worse result than last September when Britain was still feeling the hardest impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s the ongoing shortage of semiconductor microchips that continues to affect vehicle availability the most, according to SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes.

He said: ‘Despite strong demand for new vehicles over the summer, three successive months have been hit by stalled supply due to reduced semiconductor availability, especially from Asia.

‘Nevertheless, manufacturers are taking every measure possible to maintain deliveries and customers can expect attractive offers on a range of new vehicles.’

Although that strong consumer demand might be seen as a positive, the longer-term prognosis isn’t exactly pretty, with semiconductor supply issues projected to last until at least 2023, affected by further lockdown activity earlier this year in Malaysia, which supplies around 10 per cent of the world’s semiconductors – commonly found in car ECU, security and infotainment systems.

IT and systems research company Gartner has projected a best-case scenario that sees semiconductor availability returning to normal at the end of 2022’s second quarter, or potentially the end of the same year, depending on market forces and global production capacity.

‘The shortage will severely disrupt the supply chain and will constrain the production of many electronic equipment types in 2021 and beyond,’ said Kanishka Chauhan, principal 10 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Despite strong demand for new vehicles over the summer, three successive months have been hit by stalled supply due to reduced semiconductor availability, especially from Asia.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes

Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan have all warned of substantial losses as a result of the crisis

research analyst at Gartner. ‘Foundries are increasing wafer prices, and in turn, chip companies are increasing device prices.

‘There are capacity constraints and shortages for substrates, wire bonding, passives, materials, and testing, all of which are parts of the supply chain beyond chips.

‘These are highly commoditised industries with minimal flexibility or capacity to invest aggressively [at] short notice.’

In layman’s terms, what that means is that the semiconductors available will be sold to the highest bidder, and if carmakers’ contracts are due for renewal, it could also mean high prices for consumers in the future.

Global consulting firm AlixPartners is now forecasting that 7.7 million units of production will be lost in 2021 – nearly twice the 3.9 million figure in its May forecast – as the availability of semiconductors shows no signs of freeing up.

The biggest impact came between March and June this year, according to Dan Hearsch at AlixPartners.

‘The second quarter of [2021] is still the worst for chip shortages so far in terms of lost vehicles,’ he said.

‘But what’s changed is that the auto industry globally simply hasn’t recovered as quickly as we thought, due to unforeseen things like the rise of the Delta variant and Covid breakouts in Malaysia and other south-east Asian countries.’

Car manufacturers across the globe, including Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan, have warned of substantial losses as a result of the crisis, while dealers are having to sit and wait until production frees up.

It’s a torrid time all round, offset only by the resultant boom in used car sales, with values up 16 per cent so far in 2021, according to analysts Indicata UK – a silver lining for some to the semiconductor cloud hanging over others, and that cloud is staying firmly put for the time being...

The shortage will severely disrupt the supply chain and will constrain the production of many electronic equipment types in 2021 and beyond.

Kanishka Chauhan CarDealerMag.co.uk | 11

AWARDS

Simply the best! Dealers’ favourites are revealed Presented by James Baggott and James Batchelor, this year’s Car Dealer Power ceremony shone the digital spotlight once again on manufacturers and suppliers.

T

he Car Dealer Power awards are unique as they’re the only ones voted for by the motor trade. Dealers nationwide take part each year to say who they think are the best manufacturers and who are the best suppliers.

This year’s special awards video – which you can watch above – has named the best car manufacturer to represent in 2021, the car dealers’ Car of the Year, as well as the best suppliers in 20 categories.

Car Dealer editor-in-chief James Baggott said: ‘We’re delighted to be naming the best of the best in the car industry supplier world in our digital awards once again. Firms up and down the country have worked incredibly hard to ensure their partners’ businesses kept running smoothly during the pandemic.

‘We’ve heard some incredible stories from dealers of the lengths suppliers have gone to to keep their customers happy and we’re delighted to be naming the best in our Car Dealer Power awards.

‘A win or highly commended place is something to be very proud of, so all the firms named in our awards video should be very pleased indeed.’

The team also got behind the wheel of our top three Cars of the Year as voted for by dealers. The Skoda Enyaq iV was the outright winner, with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and refreshed Vauxhall Mokka being highly commended.

The electric Enyaq is a real departure for Skoda, and with a range of up to 256 miles there’s no charging anxiety.

Meanwhile, dealers said the new Mokka completely reshaped what they thought a Vauxhall could look and feel like, and the Ioniq impressed with the fact that 60 miles of range can be added in just five minutes.

You can read more about our winners and highly commended firms in the dedicated Car Dealer Power section on our website.

Click here to watch Car Dealer Power 2021

12 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

The Skoda Enyaq iV was voted Car of the Year, with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and refreshed Vauxhall Mokka being highly commended

James Baggott and James Batchelor present the digital Car Dealer Power awards

Kia Motors UK boss Paul Philpott

The winners

Click here to see the full coverage and all videos from this year’s event

MANUFACTURER Manufacturer of the Year

Kia

Car of the Year

Skoda Enyaq iV

SUPPLIERS

Cleaning Product of the Year

Autoglym

Recruitment Agency of the Year

Perfect Placement

Trade-to-Trade Remarketer of the Year

Trade to Trade Underwriting

Used Car Valuations Provider of the Year

G3 Vehicle Auctions

Trade Insurance Provider of the Year

Unicom

Consumer Lead Generation Site of the Year

Online Advertiser for Used Cars

Dealer Management System of the Year

Finance Provider of the Year (Sub-Prime)

Website Provider for Independent Dealers

Carwow

Auto Trader

First Response Finance

Finance Provider of the Year (Prime)

67 Degrees

Close Brothers Motor Finance

Website Provider for Franchised Dealers

Video Provider of the Year

Provenance Check Provider of the Year

Extra Mile Award

Warranty Provider of the Year

Product Innovation of the Year

GForces Cap HPI

Warrantywise

Highly commended

Auction House of the Year

Online Advertiser for New Cars

Click Dealer

G3 Vehicle Auctions sales director Nick Thompson

GardX

Cap HPI

Rapid RTC

Cap HPI head of retail Wendy Swaine

Paint Protection Provider of the Year

GardX B2See 67 Degrees Motorway

MANUFACTURER Car of the Year

Mercedes-Benz & BMW

SUPPLIERS

Recruitment Agency of the Year

WeRecruit Auto

Consumer Lead Generation Site of the Year

Auction House of the Year

Click Dealer

Manheim & Aston Barclay

Dealer Management System of the Year

Online Advertiser for Used Cars

Website Provider for Independent Dealers

Finance Provider of the Year (Sub-Prime)

Website Provider for Franchised Dealers

Finance Provider of the Year (Prime)

Warranty Provider of the Year

Video Provider of the Year

Keyloop

Click Dealer Autoweb

The WMS Group

eBay Motors Group Evolution Funding MotoNovo CitNOW

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 13

AWARDS

Manufacturers WHERE DID YOUR CAR MANUFACTURER RANK THIS YEAR? Position 2021

Manufacturer

Kia does the double and in style too as it tops our chart again

1

Kia

2

or the second year in a row, Kia aced our Car Dealer Power survey with a stellar set of scores from its dealers.

Our survey ranks manufacturers in 13 key areas, with their dealer partners rating them anonymously.

This year, Kia rose to the top once again with one of the highest scores ever achieved.

Its dealers ranked it over 90 per cent in every category, and it was more than 10 percentage points above the second-placed manufacturer.

Here are all the manufacturers that received the minimum number of responses to be included in the survey.

Among them, Subaru was a new entry, reaching the top 10.

Those that didn’t receive the minimum number (10) aren’t included.

Scores in each category are taken into account to give manufacturers their overall rating to one decimal point.

F

Kia 96.5% Overall score

14 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Position change to 2020

Overall score

–⊳

96.5

BMW

+8 ▲

85.7

3

Mercedes-Benz

+1 ▲

85.4

4

Toyota

+4 ▲

84.6

5

Suzuki

+4 ▲

84.0

6

Mazda

-1 ▼

83.5

7

Volkswagen

+5 ▲

82.5

8

Honda

+11 ▲

81.8

9

Hyundai

+7 ▲

80.1

10

Subaru

New entry

79.8

11

Skoda

+4 ▲

73.7

12

Ford

-1 ▼

73.2

13

Nissan

–⊳

68.6

14

Jaguar

+7 ▲

68.5

15

Audi

-8 ▼

64.6

16

Peugeot

-3 ▼

64.4

17

Land Rover

+3 ▲

64.2

18

Renault

-1 ▼

63.6

19

Seat

-12 ▼

62.7

20

Fiat

+2 ▲

58.9

21

Volvo

-18 ▼

57.5

22

Vauxhall

+2 ▲

53.5

23

MG

+3 ▲

51.8

24

Citroen

-1 ▼

50.9

FINANCE OFFERS

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 15

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16 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

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Genesis had its chance with me but there was still no epiphany

E

It’ll take many years and billions of pounds to position Genesis as a premium rival to the German trio.

Some of the Road Test of the Year team with the Genesis GV80

very now and then a new car brand emerges into the limelight and everyone takes a step back, scratches their chin and wonders why.

There have been plenty that have come and gone over the years, but the latest is making a return to these shores.

Genesis – the ‘luxury’ arm of Hyundai – is back once again for a second crack of the whip. You may remember it tried its hand a few years ago (rather unsuccessfully) at the UK market.

Maybe consumers weren’t ready for it back in 2015, but it didn’t help that it brought a big saloon that no one wanted to buy as its entry to the market. Now Genesis is back again and I can’t help thinking (for a second time) what’s the point?

I wanted to reserve judgment until I’d at least got behind the wheel of one of them, and now that I have, my opinion hasn’t changed.

For our Road Test of the Year – shot in Wales this month for a future issue – we had one along for the ride. Our snapper used it as his camera car and we mostly used it for warming ourselves up while the other cars had their moment in front of the lens.

It was during one of these hand-warming sessions that I realised I had absolutely no idea who would buy one.

The model in question was the GV80. It’s a perfectly acceptable, chunky SUV with a badge on it that looks like a Chrysler (but they no longer exist). A big silver grille and some jazzy lights at the front certainly make it stand out, while inside it’s perfectly pleasant. Driving it around, though, no one knew what it was. One passer-by asked if it was a new Bentley, so I suppose the looks are on point.

But when they find out that it’s actually a Hyundai, will they be as enthusiastic? I’m not quite sure.

Look at it this way. You’re about to splash out £50k-plus on a premium SUV. You’ve never bought a new car but you’re looking forward to getting your first. The consideration list includes a BMW, Mercedes and an Audi – Genesis isn’t even going to make the list, is it? Of course it isn’t. If anyone can explain to me who is going to buy one, I’m all ears. My team couldn’t, despite me asking.

Yes, Hyundai has deep pockets – but it’ll take many years and billions of pounds to position Genesis as a premium rival to the German trio.

Look at Lexus. Its cars and dealers please customers in all the major surveys, but even now – three decades after it arrived in the UK – it still only steals a tiny proportion of sales from the big three. And that’s because premium car buyers are snobs. They’re buying a premium car for a reason – and that reason is the badge. If they didn’t care about the brand they’d buy countless other – arguably better – alternatives that have been going far longer than Genesis.

They want their neighbours to know they’ve made it – and when they have to explain the car they’re driving, that simply won’t cut the mustard. Even if people don’t make the Hyundai connection to Genesis, buyers would still need to make a conscious decision to choose one over a BMW or a Mercedes. And they simply won’t.

If you want an example of that, rewind a few years to Nissan’s dabble with premium brands – Infiniti. I see no difference whatsoever to Genesis, and that brand quietly slipped away after no one bought them.

The uphill struggle Genesis has on its hands is very real. I’d have understood it a little more if it had arrived with the all-electric range it’s promising in 2025, but it hasn’t. It’s here with a diesel SUV and a saloon.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for new brands and wish (most) of them the best of luck. But some should never have made it out of the boardroom – and Genesis is one of them.

Speaking out

COMMENT

JAMES BAGGOTT

AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGMENT, WE LET THE CEO HAVE HIS SAY EACH MONTH James Baggott founded Car Dealer Magazine and is the chief executive officer of parent company @BaizeGroup, an automotive services provider. He now spends most of his time on Twitter @CarDealerEd and annoying the rest of us.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 17

Big Mike OUR MAN ON THE INSIDE SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON THE CAR BUSINESS

Who is Big Mike?

Well, that would be telling. What we can say is he’s had more than 40 years in the car trade so has probably forgotten more about it than we’re likely to know.

18 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

COMMENT

To be perfectly Frank... And that’s not my only big work mistake

B

ack in the days before our lives were dictated to by mobile phones and touchscreens everywhere we looked, those moments where you wish the ground would open up and swallow you were always pretty analogue experiences.

For example, back in my earlier years I worked for a fairly well-known dealer group in the West Midlands, and it was on a training event for one of our brands, at some awful hotel designed specifically with corporate training events in mind (right down to its multiple-choice condom machine) where I made the first of many faux pas that made me realise I was ultimately destined to be my own boss. That way, nobody would have either the ignominy or responsibility of having to employ me.

A colleague and I had arrived at the training centre fairly early in order to make sure that we could properly prepare for the following day’s manufacturer-hosted product ‘deep dive’.

Sadly, this didn’t involve oxygen tanks and scuba masks, but instead saw tedious grey men in tedious grey suits telling us stuff that we already knew via the medium of overhead projector. If you don’t know what one of those is, ask somebody over the age of 40, who will invariably have been taught by teachers with blue or green fingers earned as a result of operating one.

Anyway, I digress. At said manufacturer conference, my colleague Stella and I (Stella was a bloke – the nickname came from his fondness for Belgium’s finest fighting juice) decided to spend a bit of time together in the hotel bar preparing for the following day’s presentation. After all, we were both bright young things and our ability to instinctively know the difference between a GL and a GLS could well unlock the door to future promotions. Well, that’s what we each told our franchise managers, whereas in reality we wanted to get there early so we could get truly rat-arsed.

This was all well and good, but I had made a schoolboy error. In the excitement surrounding the prospect of a company-funded night on the lash, I hadn’t bothered to ask around and find out if anybody else from our dealership was attending the same event.

Imagine my horror, then, when I stumbled upon our dealer principal while not exactly sober. He, too, was at the bar of the hotel, and the situation could have been manageable were it not for the fact that we first became aware of each other’s presence while I was doing a fairly convincing impression of him, complete with a sofa cushion stuffed inside my shirt to make myself look fatter – itself, quite an achievement.

The killer moment, though, was my beautifully honed Geordie accent (quite a challenge for a born-and-bred Brummie) and the fact that I struggled up to the bar, left arm draped over Stella’s shoulder, shouting ‘My name is Frank and I’m a right ****.’

Strangely enough, my career with that dealer group didn’t last too much longer afterwards, although it wasn’t my last encounter with Frank. A few years later, I’d somehow managed to move on from the career-limiting behaviour of my youth and was working in a sales manager’s role at a Fiat main dealership, which brought me a reasonable amount of success and income right up until the point that I and two other sales managers at different sites became answerable to a new regional franchise manager.

Yes, it was Frank. And it was also the end of my career selling new Fiats, although longterm readers of this column may well recall that I left that particular role in a blaze of glory, having ordered nine identical solid beige base-model Fiat Cromas as new car stock the day before I handed in my notice.

They were still using them as courtesy cars at least two years later, as I found out to my

I left that particular role in a blaze of glory, having ordered nine identical solid beige base-model Fiat Cromas.

For a good seven months I’ve been trying to shift a 2002 Jaguar XJ8, which is at the back of my lot collecting bird poo samples.

delight when the good lady her indoors took her Uno in for a service.

Getting older, though, doesn’t necessarily mean getting any wiser.

And while I may have learnt that swaggering up to the bar in a homemade fat suit pretending to be your boss while he’s sitting in front of you is a fairly damaging move, sometimes all it takes is a slip of a finger to land you in hot water.

This happened to me just last week. For a good seven months I’ve been trying to shift a 2002 Jaguar XJ8, which is at the back of my lot collecting bird poo samples. I love an old Jag and I normally find them pretty easy to sell, but this one really wasn’t the best. I’d taken it in partex against a really nice one, which I suspect is now sporting the same cringeworthy chrome wheel arch embellishers and oversized, incongruous leaping cat bonnet mascot that adorn this one.

But I had an internet buyer on it and he was really keen. So keen, in fact, that within minutes of calling me to chat about the car he was on his way to Bristol Temple Meads railway station with two grand in cash tucked in his back pocket.

The problem was, I wasn’t there. I’d left the site in the capable hands of my parttime business partner Jason, so I rapidly tapped out a text message telling him what to do.

‘Got a bloke coming for the nasty green Jag,’ I typed. ‘Can you hose off all the bird sh*t and make sure the old knacker’s warmed up enough to not be smoking like my missus when she’s had a couple of gins. I doubt it’ll start so you might need to nick the battery off the Transit but jump it first to see if the old one comes back up.’

And then I pressed send.

Minutes later, my phone buzzed to alert me to a reply.

‘This is the bloke who WAS coming for the ‘‘nasty’’ green Jag,’ it said. ‘I’m getting off the train at the next station and heading back home.’

Class act, as ever. A part of me really hopes it was Frank!

The nickname came from his fondness for Belgium’s finest fighting juice.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 19

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Are the winds of change finally beginning to blow for Auto Trader?

A

Barely a day goes by without being bombarded

by Phillip Schofield urging me to sell cars to webuyanycar.

s a young teen with a father in the motor trade, I used to love getting the Auto Trader magazine and circling the cars that I wanted. XR3i, Mk2 Golf GTi, 205 GTi – no hot hatch went without a biro mark.

I would even highlight the odd XJ6 or Sovereign when I wanted to dream of executive motoring.

Private ads were plentiful and dealers would buy whole blocks of pages, with the centre pages reserved only for the most exotic of retailers.

For decades, Auto Trader was the destination for selling your car privately. As the internet gradually replaced the printed magazine, there were very few competitors for the private punters’ advertising pound.

Auto Trader also held a monopolistic position in the motor trade space – so much so that I wrote a scathing Car Dealer article almost a decade ago decrying its abuse of its monopoly and predicting its downfall once a competitor challenged its dominance.

Luckily, I didn’t commit to a timescale for its demise, and for the past 10 years Auto Trader has been the dominant force in used car advertising.

However, there are signs that my prophecy may finally be coming to pass.

When I first started buying cars from private sellers at the end of 2019, Auto Trader had more than 40,000 privately owned cars listed on its Dealer Auction software. At the time of writing, that number has dwindled to just 29,500.

So, what is behind this significant drop in revenue?

No negative business performance evaluation would be complete without a hand from the Covid card.

It is true that Covid and the knock-on effect in used car supply has meant a shrinkage of the overall market, and it is only natural that Auto Trader would suffer as a result.

However, it is my contention that the evolution of online retailers and buyers has dramatically affected the attitude of private sellers, particularly in a post-pandemic bull market.

There is also fierce competition from free or very low-cost sites such as Marketplace that appeal to cost-conscious advertisers.

When I asked my teacher wife if she would use Auto Trader to sell a car, she replied: ‘God no, it is a masculine thing. I wouldn’t look there or sell there.’

My wife feels comfortable selling things on Marketplace, and this is not exclusive to children’s toys or our broken white goods, and she is not alone.

Barely a day goes by without being bombarded by Phillip Schofield urging me to sell cars to webuyanycar, a Motorway ad telling me that it will get me £1,000 more for my car than anyone else, or Cazoo polluting the airwaves with its ear-splitting jingle.

This onslaught of marketing is having an effect, and I am not sure that many private sellers will come back to Auto Trader unless it changes its pricing model.

Trader Tales

COMMENT

JAMES LITTON

CASTING AN EXPERIENCED EYE ON THE WIDE AND CHALLENGING WORLD OF MOTOR SALES

James Litton is an automotive retail consultant who always has something to say about the industry he loves.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 21

Revealed: The Used Car Awards 2021 nominations list Thousands of entries have been whittled down – check here to see if you’re in the next round.

T

hese are the firms vying for success in the Used Car Awards 2021, sponsored

by Black Horse. The nominations list contains the names of those who will go through to the next phase.

Our judging panel – which includes event host Wheeler Dealer star Mike Brewer – has whittled down the thousands of nominations using a combination of online review scores and citations.

These businesses now go forward to the tough mystery shopping phase, where our panel assesses each firm to draw up the shortlist, which will be revealed on Monday, October 25. The shortlisted firms will find out who has won our coveted gongs at the awards night, to be held on Monday, November 29 at The Brewery in London.

Brewer said: ‘We’ve been overwhelmed with entries this year and our judges had a tough job whittling them down to this nominations list.

‘These dealers are the ones that will now face our mystery shoppers – which can happen remotely, on the phone or on your website, or even in person.

‘Make sure you and your teams are on top of your game because you never know when our mystery shoppers may be inquiring.’

It is also highly advisable to book your place at the event now as places are running out fast.

Car Dealer editor-in-chief James Baggott said: ‘This year, demand for a seat at our Used Car Awards has been bigger than ever.

‘We know the industry is desperate to get back together, and with used cars well and truly in the spotlight this year we know these awards will be more important than ever.’

For table bookings please email sales@blackballmedia.co.uk or call 020 8125 3880.

The event is black tie and includes a three-course dinner plus unlimited beer and wine. The pre-dinner drinks and after-dinner fun casino are being sponsored by eBay Motors Group, while GardX will be hosting the official after party, which is invite-only.

Click here to see Mike Brewer on the Used Car Awards Awards sponsors

22 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Service & Repair Outlet Sponsorship available ACC UK Anderson Clark Motor Repairs Ashbrow Garage Cleevely EV Harris Motor Company Just Nice Clean Cars Ltd Spencers MOT & Service Norwich Thatcham MOT Centre Uckfield Motor Services VW Audi Specialists Hitchin Used Car Product Sponsored by Händler Protect Auto Trader Cap HPI Cartotrade Carwow Close Brothers Motor Finance Dealer Auction GardX Paint Protection Lawgistics Compliance Portal Motorway Trade To Trade Underwriting

Nominations list

EVENT

Dealers’ Dealer Sponsored by GardX Jamie Caple, Car Quay Darren Edwards, Sytner Sam Evans, Beck Evans Daksh Gupta, Marshall Motor Group Robert Forrester, Vertu Motors Max Nicholson, The Car Buying Hub Umesh Samani, Specialist Cars Stoke/IMDA Peter Smyth, Swansway Peter Vardy, Peter Vardy Peter Waddell, Big Motoring World

Social Media User Sponsored by iVendi Acklam Car Centre Close Motor Company Emerald House of Cars Marshall Motor Group Pilote Classics Premier GT Romans International Specialist Cars Stoke Targa Florio Cars TrustFord Use of Video Sponsored by Carwow Acklam Car Centre Autopark UK George Kingsley Prestige and Performance JA Jarvis Nicholas Mee & Co Pilote Classics

Premier GT Prestige Diesels & Sports Redgate Lodge Targa Florio Cars Used Car Website Sponsored by CarGurus Classic Chrome Croyland Car Megastore Marshall Motor Group Premier GT Slaters Motor Group The Car Group Peter Vardy Wilsons Yeomans Your Car Supermarket Used Car Online Sales Experience Sponsored by Codeweavers Batchelors Motor Group Carzam Cazoo Cinch Hilton Garage Motorpoint Richmond Motor Group Swansway Vertu Motors Wilsons Specialist Used Car Dealership Sponsored by Blue Motor Finance Automotive Addiction Carrera Specialist Cars Hendy Performance Eastleigh Nicholas Mee & Co Pilote Classics Premier GT Quirks Car Company R Symons SuperMini UK Targa Florio Cars Used Car Sales Team Sponsored by Motorway Acklam Car Centre Beck Evans Car Quay Carshop Crompton Way Motors ESP Cars Hendy Ford Tunbridge Wells JRR Cars Plympton Car Centre Trade Price Cars Used Car Dealer Principal Sponsored by Aston Lark Jack Austin, Totally Trade Direct James Fackrell, Taunton VW Sean Gaul, Perrys High Wycombe

Spencer Gray, Spencers Car Sales Brian Herlihy, Taggarts Jaguar James Quigley, Acorn Kia Crewe Tim Smith, Mastercars Hitchin Mark Swindells, Croyland Car Megastore Craig Vladimirovs, Car Quay Shaun Young, Revento Motors Future Star Sponsored by Northridge Finance Jamie Burton, Croyland Car Megastore Shaun Fairbairn, Greendale Car Sales Jack Heywood, Car Quay Josh Lowry, MB Motors Ballymena Kieran Mattock, Norwich Van Centre Bailey McMinn, Plympton Car Centre Jack Oakes, Redburn Motor Company Craig Raine, Autopark UK Elliott Rosoman, Trade Price Cars Jessie Smith, Sidegate Motors Used Car Customer Care Sponsored by RAC Dealer Network Acklam Car Centre Angus MacKinnon Chequers Cars LWF Car Sales Motoroo Plympton Car Centre Prestige Diesels & Sports Spencers Car Sales The Car Company Bristol and Bath The Professional Car Agent Used Car Supermarket Sponsored by Autoguard Warranties Available Car Big Motoring World Carbase Cargiant Carshop Carz by Peter Vardy Croyland Car Megastore Hilton Garage Motorpoint Trade Centre Group Newcomer Dealership Sponsored by 1Link Trade Buyer Auto Sales North East Bedford Car Sales Car Brothers Ivanhurst Motor Company Rayner Smith Automotive Stephen’s Car Sales Top Car Inverness Top Gear Motors UK

Westlake Motor Company White Dove Suzuki Used Commercial Vehicle Dealer Sponsored by Close Brothers Motor Finance Addlestone Commercials Cotswold Van Centre eStar Truck & Van Hendy Van Store Ideal Commercials JL Vans Marshall Truck & Van (Fareham) Norwich Van Centre Vanbase Bristol Van Monster Used Car Dealership: Up To 50 Cars Sponsored by Black Horse ADG Sevenoaks Prestige & Sports Cars ASK Motors Car-Pod Crompton Way Motors Farmhouse Motors Prestige Diesels & Sports R Symons Thame Cars The Car Company Bristol & Bath The Premium Car Collection Used Car Dealership: 51-100 Cars Sponsored by Black Horse Acklam Car Centre Angus MacKinnon Emerald House of Cars Lighthouse Car Centre Martin Brothers Motor Company Motonet Motoroo Plympton Car Centre Tempest 4 Cars The Professional Car Agent Used Car Dealership: Over 100 Cars Sponsored by Black Horse ASK Motors Autopark UK Car Quay ESP Cars John Mulholland Motors MB Motors Ballymena Redgate Lodge Roadside Garages SUV Prestige Trade Price Cars Used Car Dealership Group Sponsored by Black Horse Acorn Motor Group

Close Motor Group Hendy Group Marshall Motor Group Peter Vardy Swansway Group Sytner TrustFord Vertu Motors Waylands Automotive Manufacturer Used Car Scheme Sponsorship available Audi BMW Hyundai Kia Mercedes Porsche Suzuki Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Days To Turn Sponsored by Auto Trader Nominations list to be published shortly Car categories All sponsored by City Auction Group Used Small Car Used Mid-Sized Car Used Executive Car Used Sports Car Used SUV Used AFV Used Car of the Year (from the above) Outstanding Achievement Sponsored by Trade To Trade Underwriting No nominations list Lifetime Achievement Sponsored by GardX No nominations list

Sponsorship The take-up for sponsorship packages for the Used Car Awards 2021 has been stronger than in previous years.

Any supplier interested in supporting the event is being encouraged to contact the Car Dealer team via sales@ blackballmedia.co.uk or on 020 8125 3880 as soon as possible.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 23

Whatever’s next, let’s do it together When the world changes quickly, it can feel hard to know what your next move is. That’s why our Account Managers take the time to really understand your business. With their knowledge of customer service and innovative solutions, they can help you simplify finance and keep your business moving forward.

Get up-to-date business support at blackhorse.co.uk/dealer/home/resource-hub 24 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Hyundai Ioniq tops desirability chart as more people turn to EVs and hybrids

4.7

4.7

4.9

4.7

5.0

4.9

5.0

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4 ston Barclay has revealed its used car desirability index for October, with an 3 electric car – the Hyundai Ioniq – the most 2 in demand across its physical and online auction channels.

1 The increasing desire for used EVs and 0 hybrids once again raised the bar in October.

This is the second month running that the index has featured a large number of low- and zeroemission vehicles, highlighting the shift towards a more sustainable fleet.

Toyota’s Prius was in second place, while the Kia Niro, Tesla Model 3 and Lexus NX also appeared in Aston Barclay’s list of the top 25 used cars, reinforcing how zero- and low-emission used cars are currently in high demand.

However, the demand for premium SUVs and saloon cars remains strong. The Range Rover Velar, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW X6 and Jaguar XF all feature in the month’s strong performers.

A number of other premium SUVs appeared in the list, reinforcing the continued year-round demand for more high-end off-road vehicles – a trend we’ve seen throughout 2021. The Audi Q5, BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLC and Jaguar F-Pace all featured in the top 25.

Taking into consideration the three key metrics of web views prior to sale, number of physical and online bids per sale, and the sale price achieved as a percentage of CAP average, Aston Barclay keeps buyers up to date by publishing its monthly index.

Martin Potter, Aston Barclay’s managing director – customer, said: ‘Our latest index highlights the desire for electric and hybrid vehicles in the used car market, as more consumers consider owning these types of cars for the first time. With the extended lead times currently facing the industry, consumers have maintained their focus on the premium used car market. Dealers continue to compete for the same stock to satisfy consumer demand, which is fuelling price rises in the market.’

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5

5.8

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A

Aston Barclay Used Car Desirability Index 5.9

Aston Barclay’s latest list of the 25 most popular used cars reflects shift towards vehicles that are kinder to the environment.

To find out more about Aston Barclay, go to astonbarclay.net Contact Martin Potter via salesteam@astonbarclay.net

Source: Aston Barclay

Our latest index highlights the desire for electric and hybrid vehicles in the used car market.

Martin Potter, Aston Barclay MD – customer CarDealerMag.co.uk | 25

DASHBOARD

CAR NEWS ROUND-UP Manufacturers have been busy refining existing models and producing new ones. We look at 10 of the results...

JEEP

Grand Cherokee goes hybrid with Trailhawk JEEP has revealed the fifth-generation Grand Cherokee, promising it’s the most technologically advanced and off-road-capable version yet.

The first electrified version of the model – called Trailhawk – has also been unveiled.

The latest model gets a completely new

look inside and out, but it’s the plug-in hybrid powertrain that perhaps constitutes the most interesting news.

Badged 4xe, it will have 370bhp and 673Nm of torque, as well as a 25-mile electric-only range plus 2.7-tonne towing capacity.

MG

ZS EV updated with more staying power

MAZDA

Order book opens for latest CX-5 MAZDA has opened orders for the new CX-5 ahead of deliveries beginning in January.

The stylish SUV has been given an exterior makeover, upgraded interior technology, new trim levels and a wide range of powertrains.

There are 20 variants in the UK, with five trim levels. For the first time, each will have its own styling tweaks.

SE-L is the entry point at £27,845, with a 163bhp petrol engine or 148bhp and 181bhp diesels. Newground is a new trim and only offered with the petrol, starting at £28,845.

26 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

FORD

Facelifted Fiesta given stealthier look plus LED lights as standard FORD has unveiled an updated version of its best-selling Fiesta, which sees the model gaining a bolder design and a raft of new technology.

The seventh-generation supermini hit showrooms in 2017, and although benefiting from the introduction of Ford’s EcoBoost Hybrid powertrains in 2020, the Fiesta now gets its first major update.

It will continue to be offered in three- and five-door bodystyles, with design changes including a higher bonnet line and the Ford ‘Blue Oval’ badge moving from the bonnet lip to the grille.

LED headlights are also now fitted as standard, while black surrounds for the rear lights aim to give the model a stealthier appearance.

MG has updated its ZS EV, increasing the electric car’s range while refreshing its exterior design.

The brand’s best-selling electric model gains a 72kWh battery pack enabling a range of up to 273 miles, versus 163 miles from the previous model. A 51kWh battery option with 198-mile range will be available next year.

Capable of charging at speeds of up to 76kW, the MG ZS can reach 100 per cent in as little as 42 minutes on a rapid charger.

GENESIS

GV60 to offer range of up to 280 miles INEOS

Grenadier to cost from £48,000 GENESIS has disclosed further details about its upcoming EV – the GV60.

A gallery of images was revealed in August but this is the first time Genesis has said what will power it.

An entry-level version will deliver 226bhp from a single rear motor, giving a range of 280 miles. There are then two twin-motor models with all-wheel drive and outputs of 314bhp and 429bhp, delivering respective ranges of 248 and 229 miles.

The range-topper will have a boost mode offering 0-60mph in under four seconds.

AUDI

R8 Performance RWD is given extra oomph for a top speed of 204mph AUDI has released an updated version of its R8 Performance RWD, bringing more power and performance to its rear-wheel-drive supercar.

It retains the same 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 engine but now pushes out 562bhp – a 30bhp boost on the previous model. Torque is up too, rising by 10Nm to 550Nm. Audi claims this helps the R8 RWD to go from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds before heading onwards to a 204mph top speed.

It’s available as a hard-top coupe and drop-top Spyder, with the former weighing in at 1,590kg and the latter 1,695kg.

Both benefit from the use of a lightweight aluminium body and a number of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic panels.

HONDA

2022 launch for new Civic Type R – but don’t expect any electrification HONDA has announced that its latest Civic Type R will arrive next year.

It’s the first time the company has confirmed the existence of a new model, although details are very limited.

In a small post, Honda revealed just two pictures showing it wearing heavy camouflage, along with the caption ‘Development of the best-performing Honda Civic Type R continues’.

The new Type R will now be put through performance testing at Germany’s Nurburgring. The ‘Green Hell’ has become the benchmark proving ground for performance models.

Although Honda has yet to announce further information about the new Type R’s powertrain, it’s believed it won’t have any form of electrification.

LOTUS

£76k tag for Emira V6 First Edition

LOTUS’S Emira V6 First Edition will cost £75,995.

It uses a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine with 397bhp, driven through a standard-fit six-speed manual gearbox or optional sixspeed automatic. The Emira is capable of going from 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds and on to 180mph. First Edition cars also boast a high level of standard equipment, including 20-inch forged alloy wheels with a diamond-cut finish and two-piece brake discs with branded calipers.

THE Ineos Grenadier will cost from £48,000 when it goes on sale in the UK. Ineos Automotive says it is working with retail and aftersales partners to open 200 sales and service points ahead of the 4×4 going on sale next July.

With Ineos being a new company, it doesn’t have any physical dealerships. Through these new partnerships, Ineos says it will have 23 retail sites open in time for the launch, with Bosch aftersales outlets used where required. Dealers that have already signed up include JT Hughes in Telford.

MILITEM

Anchors aweigh for the Ferox-T! A NEW extreme pick-up truck has been revealed, designed to be ‘the maximum evolution of the pick-up as we know it’ while providing SUV luxury.

Militem Ferox-T is based on the Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, giving it excellent off-road potential. The exterior has had a makeover via carbon-fibre wide-body wheel arches, a honeycomb black grille and 20-inch alloy wheels with chunky all-terrain tyres.

The Ferox-T is ideal for pulling a small boat, thanks to its 3.5-tonne towing capability.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 27

DASHBOARD RESEARCH

Nearly quarter of buyers may go EV

HERE ARE TASTERS OF STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

NEWS DIGEST CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR THE FULL STORY OBITUARY

JCT600 ‘legend’ Jack Tordoff dies NEARLY a quarter of petrol and diesel owners are now considering going electric as the ongoing fuel crisis continues, according to new research.

Data collected by What Car? found that 23 per cent of in-market buyers were thinking about an electrified vehicle.

The survey of 1,186 motorists was conducted amid a chaotic backdrop of the military being forced to assist with deliveries of fuel to petrol stations. September was a record month for batteryelectric vehicle sales at 32,721.

JCT600 chairman Jack Tordoff has died at the age of 86.

He passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 3 after a lengthy illness, his family said.

The company was founded by his father Edward in 1946, and Jack’s career spanned 71 years. Made an MBE in 2008 and awarded the OBE in 2018, he built JCT600 up from a single workshop and petrol station into one of the biggest dealer groups in the country, with 54 dealerships and a turnover of more than £1.3bn. It represents 25 of the world’s leading car marques and employs a team of 2,300 people from the north-east through Yorkshire and into Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

IMDA chairman Umesh Samani paid tribute, saying: ‘Sad news to hear of the passing of Jack Tordoff. A motor industry legend.’

GROWTH

City Motors on the move in Bristol

GENEVA

Organisers pull plug on 2022 show

FAMILY-RUN City Motors has opened a Renault and Dacia dealership in Bristol.

The new showroom in Pioneer Park is near where it used to be in Castle Court.

Robin Cook, City Motors’ managing director, said: ‘This is an exciting step in the company’s growth plans and really positive news against a background of the challenges we have all endured recently. I am excited for the new management team and absolutely delighted for our customers.’

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THE 2022 Geneva motor show is no longer going ahead because of ‘industry-wide issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic’, say organisers.

The event had been scheduled to take place in February, but concerns were raised about travel for attendees, manufacturer staff and journalists. There were also worries that the ongoing semiconductor crisis would make it too difficult for companies to build enough cars to meet demand.

SUPPORT

Premium car buyers are snobs. They’re buying a premium car for a reason – and that reason is the badge.

James Baggott p17

Crayford & Abbs helps foodbank

NISSAN dealership Crayford & Abbs supplied a second all-electric e-NV200 van to a busy foodbank in a bid to help it avoid the effects of the ongoing fuel crisis.

The Norfolk-based dealership supplied the EV to North Norfolk Foodbank, based in Cromer Methodist Church Hall. Pictured from left are sales operations director Rupert Fox, foodbank chairman Peter Wenham and foodbank project manager Tim Morton

Surprise used cars findings by Cap HPI. Supplier News: p44

‘It’s a car with a multitude of talents wrapped up in a good-looking and Forecourt: p34 well-made package.’

DEAL

Marshall in £64.5m buyout of Motorline

ACCOUNTS

Listers directors got £7m in pandemic

PENDRAGON

Ian Filby named as non-exec chairman

T S A C D PO Driven by

MARSHALL Motor Group has bought Motorline in a deal worth £64.5m.

The purchase of the dealer group – the biggest for Marshall since it acquired Ridgeway – will take it to a £3.2bn annual turnover.

Motorline is a 48-dealership group based in Canterbury, and the buyout will see some 1,500 employees join the Marshall team.

It will also add 19 Toyota and Lexus sites to the group – the first time that Marshall has represented the brand.

DIRECTORS at dealer group Listers pocketed £7.12m during the pandemic – despite the firm claiming more than £13m in furlough cash.

The group’s annual accounts to March 31, 2021, published via Companies House, also show it made £20.6m pre-tax profit versus £7.9m the year before, while turnover fell from £1.21bn to £1.02bn.

Bosses said the Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen divisions all contributed to the improved profits.

RALLY

Bangers4Ben takes to roads for charity

BANGERS4BEN drew to a close on October 12 after four days taking in some of the UK’s best driving roads.

The 890-mile charity rally – the 11th to be held – was back for 2021 after the pandemic forced last year’s event to be scrapped.

Organised by Automotion Events, it saw some 50 vehicles all wackily decked out – such as Lawgistics’ Zafira above – as they aimed to raise more than £50,000. Click on the image to find out how it all went.

PENDRAGON is to get a new nonexecutive chairman on November 1.

Ian Filby will replace Bill Berman, who has held the role on an interim basis since 2019 and stays as CEO. The 62-year-old has more than 40 years’ experience of the retail sector and is currently the non-executive chairman of premium lifestyle brand Joules. He said: ‘I am hugely excited to have the opportunity to chair Pendragon. I believe my extensive retail experience will be of significant benefit.’

OM R F M A E THE T EALER CAR DBOUT TALK ATEST THE LAAND NEWSVIEWS IN INTER EGULAR THIS R ST PODCA

SPECTRE

I left that particular role in a blaze of glory, having ordered nine identical solid beige base-model Ford Cromas.

Big Mike p18

Rolls-Royce to build its first electric car

E R E H K C CLI

ROLLS-ROYCE is to build its first EV. The model – called Spectre – is expected to go on sale in late 2023 and is likely to be a two-door coupe with a similar body shape to the current Wraith.

The move – announced with a teaser image – represents a significant step in the luxury brand’s pledge to phase out petrol and diesel by 2030.

Powertrain details have not yet been revealed.

PAST O T N E T S TO LI ES OF THE EPISODEALER CAR DASTS PODC Turn over page to catch up on more stories

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 29

DASHBOARD REOPENING

Flagship site to have new name

MERCEDES-BENZ Retail Group’s Brentford showroom is to reopen after a major redevelopment.

The flagship site on the A4 Great West Road will throw its doors open to the public on October 11.

A spokesman said: ‘Following a significant redevelopment, our Brentford dealership will reopen as Mercedes-Benz West London.

‘The new dealership will offer the very latest MercedesBenz experience including the convenience of a drive-in service lobby and valet parking,’

INVESTMENT

Volvo showroom starts taking shape

HERE ARE TASTERS OF STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

NEWS DIGEST CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR THE FULL STORY

CELEBRATION

Tribute paid to staff across the decades as Ford marks 90 years of vehicle production at Dagenham FORD’S Dagenham plant is celebrating 90 years of manufacturing.

The first Ford vehicle rolled off what was then Ford’s newest global production plant at 1.16pm on October 1, 1931. Since then, it has delivered nearly 11m cars, trucks and tractors as well as almost 50m engines. Debbie Dempsey, transport operations salaried representative at Dagenham, said: ‘It is awesome to look back at how Dagenham has diversified over the years, making varied world-leading products. All employees, past and present, should feel proud of what they have achieved.’

FIRST

Waylands adds MG franchise to portfolio

BUILDING work has begun on a state-of-the art Volvo showroom in Peterborough.

The multi-million-pound investment by Marshall Motor Group will result in a dealership focusing on selling EVs including the pure-electric XC40.

The Peterborough Telegraph reported Dominic Meacham, head of business at Marshall Volvo Peterborough, as saying: ‘We are delighted to see construction begin on our new home at Tyrrell Park. We cannot wait to welcome customers.’

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WAYLANDS has opened its seventh showroom and its first MG dealership in Oxford.

This makes the business one of 35 new dealers to join the brand in 2021. The new MG showroom is on the same site as Waylands’ Volvo business in Oxfordshire and becomes the third franchise for the group after it added Kia to its portfolio with a dealership in Reading earlier this year.

2

The number of hydrogenpowered cars currently on sale in the UK – but there are plans for more.

Feature p50

END OF ERA

Mitsubishi closes its head office doors

MITSUBISHI has officially withdrawn from selling new models in the UK. The Japanese manufacturer said in 2020 it would halt sales of new models here and the doors closed on its last sites – including the Cirencester head office – on September 30 after 47 years. Clive Messenger, general manager for fleet operations, said on LinkedIn: ‘The end of an era!’ Many exfranchised dealerships have now signed up with SsangYong.

‘Quote.’

Cool stuff: 2021 seems to be disappearing fast so take time out to savour these marvels. Feature: p45 RESULTS

Cazoo posts £102m loss for first half

ONLINE used car dealer Cazoo posted a loss of £102m for the first half of 2021 – widening a deficit of £31m in the same period last year.

Revenue surged from £40m to £248m and it managed to squeeze £315 of profit out of each retail car it sold versus a £355 loss in 2020.

In the first six months of this year it sold 20,454 cars versus 4,084 in the corresponding period last year.

Boss Alex Chesterman hailed the ‘record results’ and said it was still on track for some $1bn revenue.

NEW SERVICE

Feature: pXX

SNOWS

Barely a day goes by without being bombarded by Phillip Schofield urging me to sell cars to webuyanycar.

James Litton p21

PLATFORM

It’s a family affair for Katie in director role

KATIE Snow has been promoted to development director at the family business Snows Group.

She’s been at Snows since 2015 after nine years with John Lewis on the A-level management programme and has worked across all departments.

Now she will focus on developing employees to help them achieve their career goals.

‘I feel both honoured and excited to be taking on the role of development director,’ she said.

PARTNERSHIP

Hendy Group moves Renault buys stake Close Motor Co signs into car rental sector in Heycar parent firm up with SsangYong

HENDY Group has launched a rental service to meet a rise in demand.

Cars can be rented for the short or long term via Hendy Go, which is powered by Karzoom.

Commercial director Mark Busby said it had hundreds of vehicles for people to choose from.

The service is currently available from Hendy dealerships in Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Salisbury and Southampton, but there are plans to expand.

RENAULT Group has bought a stake in Heycar’s parent company, Mobility Trader Holding, with a view to launching the platform in France.

Renault, along with subsidiary RCI Bank and Services, confirmed the purchase and will now contribute to the development of the Heycar platform in France. Renault already owns Carizy – France’s leading start-up in customer-to-customer intermediation – and now plans to bring the two brands together.

CLOSE Motor Company has become the latest dealer group to sign up with SsangYong as the South Korean brand continues hoovering up former Mitsubishi partners.

The dealership chain said SsangYong ‘ticked all the boxes’ following Mitsubishi’s decision to withdraw the launch of new models from the UK. It has already opened its first SsangYong dealership – in Peterborough – with plans to expand over the coming months.

BITE-SIZE Click on the text box for the full story

LOSS: The ongoing semiconductor shortage is likely to cost the global automotive industry some £154bn in lost revenue. Consulting firm AlixPartners has nearly doubled its May estimate of the impact of the chip crisis on car makers.

U-TURN: Citroen has taken 1,130 UK reservations for its quirky Ami after initially only intending to sell the quadricycle in mainland Europe. It performed a U-turn, though, after more than 12,000 expressions of interest from possible British buyers.

JOB: Stellantis head of Americas Mike Manley is to take the CEO role at AutoNation in November.

It’s the US’s largest dealer group and will see Brit-born Manley head back to the top after the FCA merger with PSA saw him drop down the pecking order.

DENIED: A proposal for a car dealership in Ayr that didn’t have a sales building or customer parking has been rejected. A change of use was wanted for land on Prestwick Road’s eastern side, but various problems with the application led to its refusal.

SPONSOR: Cinch has agreed a six-year deal with Northampton Saints to become the Premiership rugby club’s main partner. The arrangement will see the online retailer’s branding take pride of place on the club’s green, gold and black jerseys.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 31

The UK’s only independent lender dedicated solely to high-end vehicle finance

Holistic underwriting process and personal service underpins everything we do, taking time to get the know our clients Dealers and Brokers have direct access to Credit Underwriters Lending from £25K For more information call 020 3355 0047 or visit jbrcapital.com Finance and terms subject to status. JBR Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number is 682493.

32 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

PARTNER

ADVERTISING FEATURE

How the FCA ban on discretionary commission models has affected the motor finance market F or most buyers, the purchase of a prestige vehicle is not a decision taken lightly. Once they’ve spent time tracking down the right car and then committed to considerable financial outlay, they want to feel that the finance deal arranged – often for a minimum of three years – is correct for them.

Over the past year, some considerable changes have been introduced aimed at giving customers a fair deal when it comes to finance. So what’s changed and has it had a positive outcome?

First the changes. On January 28, 2021, the FCA introduced new rules to prohibit the discretionary commission model for regulated credit agreements. This prevents credit brokers (including car dealers) from being incentivised to set higher interest rates in order to earn more commission. It also incentivises lenders and credit brokers to create and sell competitively priced loans – and to deliver appropriate and timely information on interest charges and commission, bringing transparency and clarity. Overall, the changes are designed to ensure customers receive a fair deal and have their costs reduced.

The new legislation has been one of the most significant changes the motor finance industry has seen in the past 20 years. It broke the link between the commission earned by a broker or dealer and the total interest charges. It was hoped that this would lead to better arrangements for customers, with deals focused more on product suitability.

For regulated credit agreements, credit brokers are now indifferent to factors such as length of term, setting of balloon payments, etc, as there is no link to remuneration. The side effect is that their earning capacity has been reduced per transaction – leading to brokers having to find ways to increase their volume of business to maintain a similar level of income as previously experienced. Has this resulted in a new, more competitively priced finance market then and are consumers getting a better deal?

Well, the new regulation has ensured significant customer benefits. Because the incentive for brokers to sell high interest rates has been removed, the focus is now on suitable loans. The ultimate aim of the FCA has been to see financing costs reduced, and while it is still up to lenders to determine what those commission levels are – rates, of course, vary across the market – customers are getting a deal that is a much fairer representation of their own financial circumstances and risk rating. It may not be the lowest rate but it is much fairer. For instance, those with a sound financial credit profile are getting a better rate than those who are seen as a higher risk to the lender.

For customers and JBR Capital, the new regulation really is good news. It builds on the core principal of TCF (treating customers fairly) and that’s a progressive step which is positive for the sector. It also removes that nagging doubt that you could have got a better deal, leaving you to enjoy your new car.

The new legislation has been one of the most significant changes the motor finance industry has seen in the past 20 years.

Darren Selig JBR Capital founder and chief commercial officer

For more information visit jbrcapital.com Finance and terms are subject to status. JBR Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number IS 682493.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 33

FORECOURT

ASTON MARTIN DBX Jack Evans gets to grips with Aston’s first SUV to see if it captures everything people want from the brand.

Under the bonnet

THE KNOWLEDGE

The DBX is powered by a turbocharged V8 that pumps out 542bhp and 700Nm of torque.

Aston Martin DBX Price: £158,000 Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 Power: 542bhp Torque: 700Nm Max speed: 181mph O-60mph: 4.3 seconds

MPG (combined): 19.8 Emissions: 323g/km CO2 (NEDC)

WHAT IS IT? When the firm announced its DBX – Aston’s first SUV – it raised a few eyebrows, but given that other companies that are usually focused on sports cars were also developing their own four-wheel-drives it was somewhat to be expected.

WHAT’S NEW? Pretty much everything. Designed to be as agile as possible on and off road, the DBX incorporates high-end technologies such as triple-volume air suspension and a 48-volt antiroll system to ensure it delivers the kind of driving experience that people expect from an Aston Martin.

WHAT’S UNDER THE BONNET? Aston Martin has leant on its partnership with AMG for the DBX’s power. It’s a twinturbocharged V8, bringing 542bhp and 700Nm of torque to all four wheels through a ninespeed automatic gearbox. Strong and brawny, it allows the DBX to go from 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds before heading to a 181mph top speed. It’ll probably come as little surprise that a large, powerful engine powering a big, heavy car isn’t the most economical, with Aston claiming 19.8mpg combined – although push the car harder and this will quickly dwindle.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DRIVE? Initially at least the DBX is a confusing prospect to get your head around. Is this an SUV focused on performance, or is it one with ride comfort at the forefront of its priorities?

Thankfully, as you progress, it soon becomes clear it’s been designed to bring a blend of both these attributes.

It’s why the steering has a decent weight to it which, when combined with the good body control, means you’re free to enjoy corners and long, sweeping bends. But then take the DBX on the motorway and it’s frankly sublime, cruising along while the cabin remains hushed quiet. The engine, when the car’s in GT mode, is barely audible when on the move, although crank through the settings and it really starts to make its presence known.

HOW DOES IT LOOK? It’s a big and imposing thing, but there are plenty of finessed touches to ensure that it’s not just size that makes this car striking. Aston’s trademark grille is present and correct, while at the rear of the car the eye-catching LED lights provide a suitable amount of drama for an Aston Martin car.

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TARGET BUYERS:

Those who want an SUV with a real focus on driver engagement.

The look It’s big and imposing but has many finessed touches.

THE RIVALS:

Rolls-Royce Cullinan Bentley Bentayga Lamborghini Urus

KEY SELLING POINTS: The cabin The classy interior is beautifully trimmed in leather, while the panoramic sunroof helps to brighten things.

All of the proportions are tied in well together, while the huge arches are filled by 22-inch wheels (on our test car). Even though they’re giant by ‘normal’ car proportions, these alloys still struggle to fully fill the space beneath the car – you wouldn’t want to go much smaller or it’d give the DBX a certain under-wheeled look.

1. Excellent build quality.

2. Stylish looks.

3. Punchy engine.

DEAL CLINCHER:

The DBX is a fitting encapsulation of what people want from an Aston but in an SUV.

WHAT’S IT LIKE INSIDE? There’s an undeniable sense of class to the DBX’s interior. Almost every area you touch is trimmed in leather. Although the door bins are quite small, there’s a useful area underneath the armrest for storage. In the back, the leather-trimmed opulence doesn’t stop, but it’s backed up by decent levels of legroom and loads of headspace. A full-length panoramic sunroof really helped brighten ‘our’ car’s otherwise quite dark interior, too.

When it comes to boot space, the DBX packs 632 litres of room. It’s a nicely square space, although the load height is particularly high, meaning some people may struggle when it comes to putting heavier items into the boot.

WHAT’S THE SPEC LIKE? There’s a 10.25-inch screen in the middle of the dashboard, backed by a 12.3-inch display ahead of the driver. While the main screen looks pleasant enough, it feels a little behind the times; it’s not a touchscreen, so using a rotary controller to select different menus is a bit clunkier than it needs to be.

The DBX comes with an impressive range of safety assistance equipment, including forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection and lane departure warning, to name but a few.

It’s a car with a multitude of talents wrapped up in a good-looking and well-made package.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? Top Gear said: ‘In a sector crying out for some difference, the DBX provides it.’ Auto Express said: ‘Its looks may divide opinion, but the DBX does all the things you’d want a luxury SUV to do, with added Aston Martin magic.’

WHAT DO WE THINK? It’s a car with a multitude of talents wrapped up in a good-looking and well-made package.

Sure, the main screen might be a little dated in its operation, but the DBX makes up for this by being both superb to drive and superb to live with, too.

Of course, with prices starting from just under £160,00 – and most models reaching close to £200,000 after options – the DBX is no budget off-roader, but as a luxurious and highquality SUV, it’s really hard to beat.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 35

FORECOURT

BMW iX

THE KNOWLEDGE BMW iX xDrive50 Price (as tested): £91,905 Engine: Twin electric motors Power: 516bhp Torque: 765Nm Max speed: 124mph O-60mph: 4.4 seconds Range: 341-391 miles Emissions: 0g/km CO2

Under the bonnet

Power comes from two electric motors producing 516bhp and 765Nm

BMW’s EV line-up is expanding and the iX will sit at the top.

Darren Cassey had a sneak preview of the SUV...

WHAT IS IT? The iX is BMW’s flagship electric SUV. It’s the one that showcases all of the technological advances and what we can expect from the firm’s future EVs. WHAT’S NEW? The BMW iX is new from the ground up, with a platform designed to be used solely by electric vehicles. This means it can be designed for optimal placement of the batteries and motors, which improves weight distribution and interior space.

It also uses a mix of materials to keep weight low while retaining strength and boasts hugely impressive technology, including advanced driver assistance.

WHAT’S UNDER THE BONNET? Power comes from two electric motors, one on each axle, which provide all-wheel drive.

There are two versions – xDrive40 and xDrive50. The former has 321bhp and 630Nm of torque, while the latter (which we’re testing) has 516bhp and 765Nm of torque.

It has big batteries with a huge range, too. The xDrive40 has a 76.6kWh battery with a range of 231 to 264 miles, while the xDrive50 has a massive 111.5kWh capacity providing a range of 341 to 391 miles. They can be charged at 150kW and 195kW respectively, giving a 10-80 per cent charge time of just over half an hour for both.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DRIVE? This is probably the best-riding EV on the market right now. Away from the magic carpet ride, the iX is a generally pleasant steer. There isn’t too much body roll in corners so it’s actually quite fun to drive down a twisting road, while the steering is light enough to make urban driving a breeze. It’s also surprisingly relaxing in heavy traffic thanks to the high driving position and plenty of glass that improves visibility.

HOW DOES IT LOOK? The iX’s styling is probably best described as challenging. If you’re looking at the photos and thinking hideous might be a better description you wouldn’t be alone, but the general consensus among those attending the launch in Munich is that it looks much better in person – and it actually grew on many of us over our two days with the cars.

Its best angle is at the rear, where the designers have been uncharacteristically

36 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

restrained. Here you can see its wide wheel arches, while the slim tail lights give it an ultramodern look. The front takes more getting used to, but its proportions are all in check, with the sharp lines giving it an aggressive look.

The side profile is less successful, with the rear section above the wheels in particular being an awkwardly large bulge of featureless metal.

WHAT’S IT LIKE INSIDE? The iX feels huge inside, owing to the flat-floor construction and tall sides. The dashboard also looks like it stretches out miles ahead of you behind the ultra-wide screens.

The materials are all of the highest quality and the driving position is absolutely spot on, with loads of steering wheel adjustment.

Those screens are the highlight, though. They debut the next generation of BMW’s iDrive infotainment system with improved touchscreen operation and voice control features.

WHAT’S THE SPEC LIKE? Prices for the iX start at £69,905 for the xDrive40 or £91,905 for the xDrive 50 in entry-level Sport trim. This gives you 21-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and rear lights, and gloss black exterior trim on the outside, as well as ambient lighting, four-zone air conditioning and heated front seats inside. All models get the twin curved display with a Harman Kardon surround sound system and wireless charging tray.

Step up to M Sport and prices start at £72,905 for the xDrive40 and £94,905 in xDrive50.

This includes Anthracite headlining, an M Sport exterior styling package, and air suspension front and rear for xDrive50 models (but only on the rear on xDrive40 models).

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? Auto Express said the iX ‘promises much, and it delivers’, while Car Magazine said it was ‘deeply impressive in nearly every area’.

WHAT DO WE THINK? BMW’s new flagship EV had lofty targets to hit but it’s fair to say it’s achieved every single one of them. Not only is it supremely comfortable but it’s also surprisingly fun on a winding road, while the xDrive50 provides exhilarating performance in particular.

TARGET BUYERS:

Wealthy families looking for a high-tech, eco-friendly SUV.

THE RIVALS:

Tesla Model X Audi e-tron Mercedes-Benz EQC

KEY SELLING POINTS: 1. High-quality interior.

2. Excellent tech.

3. Incredibly comfortable.

Inside The large interior benefits from ultra-wide display screens and the build is of the highest quality.

Looks

The styling may be challenging to some but iX looks much better in the metal and the design grew on us over the time of the road test.

DEAL CLINCHER:

It can travel long distances in comfort, with bundles of topof-the-range technology.

Not only is it supremely comfortable but it’s also surprisingly fun on a winding road.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 37

FORECOURT

TOYOTA YARIS CROSS

THE KNOWLEDGE Toyota Yaris Cross Dynamic

Toyota has created a crossover Yaris, so Darren Cassey slid behind the wheel to see if this is a winning combination.

WHAT IS IT? Toyota plans to further capitalise on the Yaris supermini’s success with this crossover, which brings smart styling and a hybrid powertrain to the mix.

WHAT’S NEW? It’s an all-new model built on the firm’s latest vehicle platform called TNGA. The powertrain has been updated to be more efficient, and it has an impressive equipment specification, excellent connectivity plus Toyota’s latest all-wheel-drive technology.

WHAT’S UNDER THE BONNET? The battery can regenerate twice the energy under braking and supply 50 per cent more power during acceleration than before. The result is a promised 62mpg. Incredibly, though, we achieved 74mpg on our three-hour route of city driving and country lanes.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DRIVE? The Yaris Cross is a curious blend of driving characteristics. You sit high, which makes visibility great, with the steering nicely weighted. It’s comfortable, too. However, at low speeds it rather crashes into potholes. The brakes are also difficult to modulate smoothly.

HOW DOES IT LOOK? Toyota says the Yaris Cross takes styling cues from the regular Yaris and Rav4 SUV, and you can spot the subtle nods. The combination brings its own unique, stylish appearance that looks great on the road. It’s tall like an SUV but narrow like a supermini.

Price (as tested): £26,465 Engine: 1.5-litre petrol-electric Power: 114bhp Torque: 120Nm Max speed: 106mph 0-60mph: 11 seconds MPG: 62 Emissions: 112-117g/km CO2

TARGET BUYERS:

Small families looking for a stylish, economical baby SUV.

THE RIVALS: Ford Puma Seat Arona Nissan Qashqai

KEY SELLING POINTS:

1. Incredibly economical powertrain.

2. Stylish exterior design.

3. Great value for money.

DEAL CLINCHER:

Toyota build quality, hybrid economy and fun exterior styling make for an enticing combination.

WHAT’S IT LIKE INSIDE? It feels spacious and impressively roomy from the driver’s seat, while rear passengers have an acceptable amount of legroom. There are also useful cubby holes.

WHAT’S THE SPEC LIKE? The Yaris Cross comes very well equipped, particularly with safety assistance. Prices start at £22,515 for the Icon trim. Design starts at £24,140, and this and the entry model get an eightinch infotainment screen, with the Design’s extras including LED projector headlights and a digital instrument binnacle. Trims above get a nine-inch infotainment screen. The Premiere Edition at the top starts at £28,185, with 18-inch alloys, black leather seats, a JBL premium sound system and more.

WHAT DO WE THINK? It looks great, has decent practicality, is comfortable to drive and has excellent equipment.

And if our testing is anything to go by, running costs should be incredibly low. It’s safe to say that Toyota has a winner on its hands here.

38 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Inside

The Yaris’s cabin feels very spacious with plenty of cubby holes, plus decent legroom for rear passengers.

Are you losing one in four customers?

At Startline, we’re able to offer motor finance to around one in four potential car buyers who have been turned down by prime lenders.

Some applicants are excellent credit risks but don’t quite fit normal lending conventions. The fast-moving pace of recent events mean that there are more of these individuals than ever before - and our belief is that they deserve products, service standards and terms comparable to any leading motor finance provider.

We have a flexible approach to lending that uses a combination of the best technology and human skills to meet their needs. At times when your prime lender steps back, we step in.

Shouldn’t you consider making Startline part of your lending panel?

enquiries@startlinemotorfinance.com www.startlinemotorfinance.com CarDealerMag.co.uk | 39

FEATURE

FAST & CURIOUS! Ted Welford spends a day with motor racing coach Mark Hales to learn the skills needed for safer track driving.

Even away from the car, Mark can teach how to gain speed

40 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

I

f you’ve spent any amount of time on the UK’s roads recently, you’ll probably also be thinking about how many different standards of driving you’ll see.

From those oblivious to what lane they’re in on the motorway to others glued to their phones as if there’s a magnetic field, there are plenty of areas for improvement.

This change in standard of driving is perhaps to be expected, though. As a result of lockdowns, many went from driving their car on a daily basis to only using it a handful of times in a month while also remaining local, and it’s only natural for a skill to get worse if not practised regularly.

Mark Hales is a racing driver-turned-journalist who now spends most of his days teaching people how to drive. But we’re not talking about those sticking L-plates on their car for the first time, rather how to drive quickly and safely. We’re on the test track today, but there is quite a lot of overlap between this and road driving, with a surprising amount of rules that should be applied to every journey.

Blyton Park is a lesser-known racetrack near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. It’s a relatively new circuit too, being repurposed from its original use as an airfield just a decade ago. That said, it’s played an important role in the development of some well-known racing drivers, not least current F1 driver Lando Norris.

Our wheels for the day are pretty good, too: Hales’s Mazda MX-5 that he uses as his everyday transport. With its combination of lightness, rear-wheel drive and manual gearbox, it’s the ideal choice to get to grips with track driving.

We actually start the day nowhere near the driving seat of the MX-5 but in a portable building at the back of the track. Think detention in secondary school and you’d get the picture. But it’s this ‘grounding’ that is key to learning the basics – I should point out that this is my first experience of driving on a track, so we’re very much at a novice level.

Hales kicks off the day with some stark advice: ‘You can’t know how to do this. Having a licence shows you how to operate a car and control it safely on roads, but you have to override your natural instinct as a matter of safety if you want to drive quickly.’ No pressure then.

As someone who’s driven everything from historic racers to modern hypercars on track – as well as almost priceless Ferrari 250 GTOs – Hales knows more than most, and he’s clear that we have to understand the science behind driving quickly. It’s why we spend part of the day learning about grip levels and understanding weight transfer by looking at Venn diagrams.

But the first bit of advice we learn is what needs to be applied to all driving, and it’s

The MX-5’s nimble handling is great for learning the track

Back in the classroom!

Below: Mark Hales instructs Ted on how to get the most from the MX-5

Hales isn’t always the most impressed by our driving style, especially as the words ‘It’s optional how much you mash the pedals’ are uttered quite loudly at one point.

something that’s surprisingly difficult to overcome. While we’re always told to look ahead, it’s all too easy to just focus on what’s directly in front of us. That’s the thing Hales immediately picks up on as soon as we head out on track.

‘Motorists tend to drive looking at the end of the bonnet, but where you look is the most important part of driving,’ Hales tells us in his remarkably calm and unflustered fashion.

‘Where you look is where you will go. You must look where you want to go. Any distraction is significant, and primarily the faster you go, the further up the road you will have to look.’ On track, it means that as soon as you’re coming out of one corner your eyes need to be focused on the next, and always think that one step ahead. It’s a really important rule, and one that seems especially true of driving on public roads.

After some time out on Blyton trying to get my head round this bit, the next part of the day is all about exploring grip levels. It’s something that’s all too easy to forget – although it is a part especially emphasised in snow and ice, for example.

Essentially, Hales is teaching us about reaction times. We’re not talking about our dimwitted responses but those of the car and, predominantly, the tyres. As a driver of any powerful rear-wheel-drive car will tell you, there’s only so much the tyres are capable of doing in terms of gripping the tarmac, and it essentially means you need to steer slightly before you actually want to. We’re talking just a quarter of a second, but the faster you go, the more it becomes apparent.

You also don’t want to ‘surprise’ a tyre, which is why smooth driving is so important rather than slamming a car into a corner, which is when you’re most likely to lose control.

It’s this part of the day that’s the most fun as it’s all about exploring the car’s limits, which – in the case of the MX-5 – is a rather long way. While agile and eager, these little Mazdas rarely feel unsettled and give you the confidence to keep pushing until you get to the ‘danger zone’. Hales calls this the ‘most exciting bit’, and while not something you can or should do on the road, it is hugely enjoyable at Blyton Park, where the combination of fast and flowing corners and sharp left-handers are great for putting what we’ve been taught into practice.

The other key thing we learn about is consistency, since especially during sustained track driving there’s little point being quick unless you can maintain it. As Hales explains, you want to spend the shortest length of of time driving slowly. It might sound pretty obvious, but it gets us into the mindset of not slamming the car into a corner too much because of the time it takes for the MX-5 to get back up to speed.

That said, Hales isn’t always the most impressed by our driving style, especially as the words ‘It’s optional how much you mash the pedals’ are uttered quite loudly at one point.

We take things back slightly after this…

But it’s all these little things plus so much more that forges some of the best racing drivers. Even at the age of 72, Hales is a force to be reckoned with. We swap seats on several occasions and the speed at which he can get something like the MX-5 round the track – its 181bhp figure is plenty, but not a lot by performance car standards – is astounding.

It’s clear we’re some way off having the ‘sixth sense’ the best racing drivers have, but it feels like we’re a long way ahead of where we were just a few hours earlier.

And with some of these rules applicable to our drive home and beyond, there’s plenty that time on track can teach you overall about driving. Hopefully, it won’t be long before we’re back on a circuit again…

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 41

IMAGINE REMOVING BIRD D E P O S I T E TC H I N G W I T H

BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN SUPPLIER OF CAR CARE PRODUCTS AUTOGLYM, LETCHWORTH, ENGLAND

BY APPOINTMENT TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES SUPPLIER OF CAR CARE PRODUCTS AUTOGLYM, LETCHWORTH, ENGLAND

NO WET SANDING NO BUFFING MACHINE N O H O LO G R A M S

REFLOW

NO SWIRL MARKS N O P I G TA I L S NO RISK

Reflow is a breakthrough treatment that permanently removes etching marks and dull spots, caused by bird deposits, from car paintwork*.

Developed by Autoglym, Reflow is an innovative solution to one of the most common problems in car care – paintwork damage caused by bird deposits. Reflow is safe, easy to use and requires no specialist tools and takes just 30 minutes to effectively heal vehicle paintwork, leaving a perfect finish once again.

W AT E R A C T I VAT I O N

THERMAL TRANSFER

PA I N T H E A L I N G

Cold water is added to pack to activate, pack is placed on affected area and left for 30 minutes.

Pack heats surface to optimum temperature allowing paintwork to reflow and fill imperfections.

As pack cools, paintwork sets effectively healing affected area, pack is removed − etching disappears.

*Important note: Reflow works best on new or nearly new vehicles, with clear coat, that are up to three years old. If paintwork is aged, Reflow will significantly improve the appearance of the etching but might not remove it completely.

autoglym reflow 42 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

FOCUS ON Autoglym

autoglym.com

o F r used cars as well as new S

eptember 2021 will be remembered in the car industry for all the wrong reasons after the semiconductor chip crisis, allied with underlying post-lockdown economic uncertainty and stricter lending criteria, delivered the perfect storm to a struggling new car market.

All of which makes selling new cars hard work – if, indeed, you can even get hold of them.

This is leading clever retailers towards stocking up their used car supply, against stiff competition from online resellers and car supermarkets.

The average price of a used car rose by £822 between June and September according to research by Motors. co.uk, with those priced between £10,000 and £15,000 the most in demand and the fastest to sell, which shows both an underlying level of demand in the market that new car availability simply cannot meet and a slightly more positive evaluation of the economy.

Dermot Kelleher, head of marketing and research at eBay Motors Group, which owns Motors.co.uk, said: ‘The used car market continues to experience an intense period of diverse market dynamics, with some strong price rises being driven by unsated buyer demand, combined with ongoing restrictions in stock supply.

‘On Motors.co.uk we’ve tracked a rise in retail prices since June and expect this to continue into Q4 and possibly beyond.’

Motors.co.uk identified the Ford Edge, MG ZS and Kia Sorento as its most in-demand and fastest-selling used cars, proving that SUVs remain popular with family customers and private motorists.

Meanwhile, according to car sales site Buy My Car, a well-cleaned and maintained car can achieve a sales price of up to 10 per cent more than average. At the start of 2021, the average used car price in the UK was £14,100, meaning a clean and well-presented car could be worth as much as £1,410 more on average.

But how do used car sales sites ensure that their stock stands out in an increasingly demand-driven market?

Paul Caller, CEO of Autoglym, said: ‘Never has cleaning or detailing used cars been more important, and at Autoglym we offer multiple ways of doing that.

‘The first step is to get your cars detailed and valeted with easy-to-apply, great-quality products from our Professional range, which deliver exceptional, instant and long-lasting results, covering all areas from bodywork and exterior trim to under the bonnet and – of course – inside the cabin. Used car buyers don’t always want to buy a used car, so the job of the valeter is to eradicate all traces of previous ownership.

‘When that’s done, LifeShine comes in – it’s not just for new cars. A lot of people assume that paint and interior protection products can only be applied to new models, but the truth is that used and nearly-new cars – and their owners – can enjoy the same benefits and the same lifetime guarantee, so a LifeShine application to protect that just-cleaned and detailed finish is a smart move.’

That’s great news for customers but also for dealers who previously may only have considered selling LifeShine to new car customers. It works just as well on a used car, and given the booming values of used cars in a highly competitive market, it makes a lot of sense to give sales staff something incentivised to help out as the car industry continues to face new challenges.

Finally, don’t forget under the bonnet – it’s as important as the exterior and interior – and a great set of photos that highlight how clean the car is. A clean car minimises the reasons why a customer might walk away or haggle on price.

Never has cleaning or detailing used cars been more important, and at Autoglym we offer multiple ways of doing that.

Paul Caller, CEO of Autoglym

To order or find out more, visit autoglym.com CarDealerMag.co.uk | 43

DASHBOARD

SUPPLIER NEWS

A ROUND-UP OF WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING ACROSS THE COUNTRY REMARKETING

Manheim agreement extended earlier

ROBINS & Day has extended its relationship with Manheim for another year, five months ahead of schedule.

Manheim, part of Cox Automotive, will continue to remarket a minimum of 6,000 vehicles a year through its auctions for the Stellantis-owned dealer group.

The group said it was because of the top service it had received during the past 18 months from the auction house.

PARTNERSHIP

TLA and Motorway ease selling and buying CUSTOMER acquisition partner TLA and digital car auction platform Motorway have announced a deal that aims to significantly simplify the buying and selling process for consumers.

People looking to buy a car on any of TLA’s websites will now be able to get an instant price on a vehicle they might be looking to sell. They can then easily start the process of selling it by heading straight to Motorway’s website. The partnership is now live on AskAPrice.com and will soon be added to Green.car and CarKeys.co.uk.

CAP HPI

Some used cars now costing more than new

RECORD demand, shortage of stock and a depressed new car supply is pushing some used car values above the advertised prices of their new equivalents, new data shows.

Cap HPI found nearly 50 sixmonth-old used cars with 5,000 on the clock fetching higher prices than the list prices of like-for-like new versions. Price hikes of over £10,000 or 20 per cent were common in the chart, which covered exotic sports cars, superminis and electrics.

44 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

IVENDI

Popping in for a chat with a tray of doughnuts is all well and good but doughnuts don’t sell cars!

Richard Pygott p55

BCA

Paul is appointed as senior vice-president

Classic Cosworth fetches record £61k

PAUL Bennett has been appointed to the new role of senior vice-president of international business and banking alliances, as part of iVendi’s plans to double its revenue within three years.

His automotive career spans more than 30 years, during which time he has invested in the auto finance tech sector. Bennett has also held board and senior leadership team roles with a number of major international data and systems providers.

BCA has sold a Ford Escort Cosworth for a record £61,000.

The 1995 classic N-reg Lux model sparked an online bidding war among enthusiasts desperate to get their hands on it.

Finished in white with black leather trim and sitting on its original 16-inch alloys with centre caps, the car had a full service history plus handbook and operating manual as well as a folder full of receipts and two sets of keys.

FEATURE.

COOL STUFF TO KEEP YOU ON THE MOVE Time is flying. The supermarkets are stocked up with Halloween costumes, fireworks and Christmas gifts, meaning it feels like we’re already saying goodbye to 2021. So take some time out to feast your eyes on this little lot of marvels...

Seat eScooter 125

£4,996

SEAT might be better known for its range of cars, but in recent times it has expanded into wider mobility with a series of electric scooters. Now, however, it’s going in at the deep end with a proper 125cc-equivalent electric eScooter.

It’s nippy enough, with a 0-31mph time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 59mph. It’ll also travel for up to 85 miles on a single charge, while the batteries themselves can be removed entirely and charged either at home or work.

Dropless waterless clean

Makka Polestar Edition

POA

SWEDISH electric motorcycle creator Cake has already created its Makka – an electric bicycle with a classically Scandinavian design.

Now it’s teamed up with Polestar to create a special-edition version.

Called the Makka Polestar Edition, it’s got some of the features you’d expect to find on a Polestar car such as Ohlins dampers and a white colour scheme. Plus, hook it up to the Polestar 2 and it can be charged while being carried on a custom bike rack.

Aston Martin DB5 Junior

from £22

£90,000

CAR washing uses a lot of water meaning a big impact on the environment. A way to combat this is through waterless cleaning, which uses a combination of nanochemicals and very clean cloths to get your car back to a sparkle.

Dropless offers just such a service – and it’s all done online. Fire up the app, book in a cleaning time slot and a Dropless technician will travel to wherever your car is and get it back to a factory finish.

EVERYONE’S going Bond-mad with the release of the latest instalment in the franchise, No Time To Die. If you fancy getting a slice of the big-screen action on a small scale, there’s the Aston Martin DB5 Junior.

At £90,000, it’s hardly a budget purchase, but the Junior features an incredible level of attention to detail.

It’s even got working gadgets and, because it’s been designed as a convertible, big kids can ride along in it as well.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 45

FEEDBACK TOP TWEETS

Umesh Samani from the IMDA asked if the fuel shortage had made anyone consider an EV – 63 per cent said yes.

Eco-cars.net @ecocars1

With my solar panels, in July I drove 700 miles for £26 and that cost heated and powered the house, too. Oh, and I live in Orkney, Scotland.

Are high used car prices the new norm or will they start tumbling?

What do we think will happen once the used car market settles down to the new norm?

Will there be a big crash resetting the prices to how they SHOULD be? Or will this be the new normal? For example, a car worth £16,000 in January 2021 is now worth £20,000. In a normal market, the car would be worth £15,000 now. Once the market settles, will the price come down from £20,000 to £15,000 or will £20,000 be the new price and normal depreciation start from there?

Asj09 It’s got to crash at some point. There’s going to come a time when Joe Public is simply going to find it cheaper to keep their current car running than pay these stupidly inflated prices of recent times.

As already said, it’s only due to supply and demand at the minute. As soon as new car production is back up to speed and new sales are back up, used stock will be fed back on to the market and the prices will come down. This is why I’m being very careful with what I buy. It feels very much like dealing with stocks and shares.

Lakeside

PICTURE OF THE MONTH

Jane Gilbert @msjanebond007

I am always considering an electric vehicle but am still very unclear atm about the actual difference in running costs compared to a petrol or diesel engine. I can’t afford an expensive vehicle.

Simon Lincolnshire @LincolnshireMan

Bought a 30kWh Leaf last Sept, best decision. Cost per mile (I have solar) just over 1.3p and done 16,000 miles. Not bad since it was bought as the runabout alongside our diesel, which has only done 5,000 miles in that time.

Your comments via email to editorial@blackballmedia.co.uk

LET’S hear it for 17-year-old Maisy Evans from Wales who became McLaren CEO for a day. She took over from Mike Flewitt to mark International Day of the Girl and as part of its partnership with children’s rights charity Plan International. The aim was to encourage youngsters – particularly young women – into science and engineering careers.

I think this scenario sums it up: Phoned a private seller with a Fiat 500, nice late model with 6k miles. He was asking £8,150. It was a bit over book but we need stock.

Car is still available, he says, but may not be for much longer. He had tried WBAC who bid him £8k then dropped to £7,800. However, since he had paid to advertise it on AT, they had upped their offer from £7,800 to £8,500. So the reality was that I couldn’t buy the car that was for sale at £8,150 in AT, even for the advertised price, let alone have a discussion on price.

CRW What the public don’t realise is they are feeding the market with expensive cars and the prices just climb.

Guy next to us bought two Transporters, £30k each brand new. Webuyanycar gave him £33k and because it’s trade to trade they will bypass the six months’ ownership.

David Horgan

Not all but the majority of the punters buying at the lower end are those whose car is knackered.

The inflated prices that have affected all levels can be more easily afforded higher up the food chain but are almost unaffordable by the lower-end buyers.

That is, until their current car goes bang and then they have little choice if they don’t fancy taking the bus! However, there is a limit, and plenty of these buyers simply can’t stretch themselves.

I’ve had £4k cars making easy sales at £5k, but adding £500 or more to the price of a banger is a much harder sell. Personally, I find the bottom-end bangers or part-ex cheapies hard work at the moment.

BHM What annoys me about the emperor’s new clothes is that all my experience of valuing cars is now worthless.

It’s me

More and more of our readers are joining the debate – and it couldn’t be 46 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Our website at CarDealerMag.co.uk

On Twitter: Follow @CarDealerMag

Forum: CarDealerMagazine.co.uk/forum

XXX

Anyone having E10 petrol trouble?

I use an older car, a VW transporter automatic 1995.

Haven’t used it for a week, and it took 15 goes to start. Had to put the super in at £7 a gallon.

Friar I had a customer with a non-start old N-reg 220 Merc that went from running great to not starting after a tank of E10.

Was flooded to b*gger and back, and even with the bores clear it isn’t easy to get going and would cut out under gearbox load.

Popped in some super fuel and it was as good as gold. Heard the same story on a 420SEC Merc I suspect the initial batches of this E10 stuff is weak and not agreeing with classic engines.

Jas

I’ve had a fair few cars here of all ages

We’ve teamed up with Car Sales Memes to bring you a few of their funniest captions and slogans each month. Enjoy!

running badly, hard starting, etc, and all down to E10. I think they’d have run better with 50 per cent diesel!

We tested it for ethanol content and it hardly had any. I think they are trying out some synthetic stuff in the fuel. Also Mercedes-Benz handbooks actually say their cars are OK with 15 per cent ethanol, so ethanol it is not… Unless of course the plan is a conspiracy to get more older cars scrapped.

Dave2302 We have no shares in Shell, but from bitter experience in times gone by with EMLs triggered by crap fuel, we strongly advise customers to avoid supermarket fuels and use Shell.

Thankfully, our customers take on board the advice so, no surprise, very few incidents of fuel triggering EML. Those we have are supermarket-fuelled. You get what you pay for, as they say.

Trade Survivor

Are Cazoo’s losses a wake-up call for others?

Cazoo’s business plan was to lose £70m in its first three years of trading. Latest results show £102m loss in first six months of 2021.

Majority of dealer groups showed a good rise in profits for last year’s trading, with some up over 40 per cent. Is this good news for traditional car dealers? Anyone think this will give new players like Cinch a wake-up call?

Rbs It’s all about grabbing market share with these companies. Cazoo is backed by a billionaire (Alex Chesterman) and the Daily

Mail (22 per cent). They don’t mind big losses for a few years if they can squeeze out the competition.

Halfpenny I think their business model is wrong. I posted on another forum, not motor trade, and 84 per cent said they wouldn’t buy a car without seeing it. The three-month warranty is also a joke.

Ultimately, they offer nothing new and nothing a conventional dealer doesn’t offer.

Petrol head

easier to get involved! Sign up to our forum at CarDealerMagazine.co.uk/forum

Search for Car Sales Memes on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and give them a follow!

Car Dealer reserves the right to edit comments CarDealerMag.co.uk | 47

DASHBOARD

BUSINESS NEWS

A ROUND-UP OF WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING ACROSS THE UK MONEY LAUNDERING

CHRISTMAS

Bank to be fined over £365m in deposits

NATWEST has admitted three counts of failing to properly monitor £365m that was deposited into a business customer’s account.

It’s the first time a financial institution has faced criminal prosecution under anti-money laundering laws in the UK. It now faces a fine of up to £240m and will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on or before December 8.

Shoppers are buying frozen turkeys early SHOPPERS are buying frozen turkeys early in a bid to avoid any potential disruption to their Christmas dinner, the boss of Tesco has said.

The supermarket giant said it was confident of good product availability for Christmas amid supply chain challenges affecting the sector. Chief executive Ken Murphy said: ‘We currently have a 10 per cent increase of turkeys and there is noticeably an elevated demand for frozen turkeys.

‘We have a resilient supply chain and really good availability levels.’ The retail boss also said the supermarket had reduced its range of certain items, highlighting pasta, in a bid to simplify its supply chain.

ENERGY

Food packaging and loo roll warning is given

WATCHDOG

BA and Ryanair Covid refunds probe is closed THE competition watchdog has closed its probe into whether Ryanair and British Airways broke consumer law by failing to offer refunds for flights people were unable to take during lockdown.

The Competition and Markets Authority said customers who couldn’t take flights should be offered full refunds, but the investigation would take too long and be too expensive for the taxpayer to be justified.

The regulator has now called for the law to be clarified to help passengers secure refunds.

TOILET paper and food packaging could be hit by soaring energy costs as firms restrict production to protect their finances, warn industry bosses.

Andrew Large, director-general of the Confederation of Paper Industries, called for a ‘temporary winter cost-containment measure’ to help with costs going ‘through the roof’ when he appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme.

WE HERE FOR FORYOU YOU WE ARE HERE 48 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

WARNING

Firms face collapse from pandemic lifeline loans

MORE THAN JUST A

FINANCE COMPANY MANY companies that took out emergency loans during the pandemic are now at risk of collapse because of them, the Bank of England has warned.

Some 1.7m firms that before Covid would have been turned down for loans were able to tap into three government-backed schemes during the crisis.

But many of them are now facing loan bills they might be unable to pay off. The Bank warned that higher borrowing had likely put more businesses at risk.

TALK TO US TODAY. 0115 946 6260 enquiries@frfl.co.uk frfl.co.uk/car

DELAY

£1.5bn support pot is yet to pay out A £1.5 BILLION support pot for businesses unable to get tax relief during the pandemic hasn’t paid out a penny despite being announced six months ago.

The funding package, which was expected to particularly help sectors such as office operators, remains blocked by parliamentary procedure.

It awaits a second reading at the House of Lords in October before further stages of approval.

just a phone call away.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 49

Are there any safety concerns with hydrogen power?

FEATURE

WHAT IS

HYDROGEN POWER

Hydrogen is seen by many people as the future of car propulsion. But what makes it tick? Jack Evans finds out.

AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Very few. In fact, during recent Euro NCAP safety tests, engineers paid particular attention to how the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai coped in a collision. They found that the hydrogen powertrain had no negative effect on the car’s overall safety and gave it a full five-star rating.

T

hough it’s clear to see that a lot of weight is being thrown behind battery-electric cars, hydrogen-electric power is seen by many as a real solution to many mobility problems. Just as clean as a regular electric car but somewhat quicker to ‘fill’, hydrogen could prove to be the ideal fuel for the future.

And although there are only two hydrogen-powered cars currently on sale in the UK – the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai’s Nexo – the fuel is rapidly gaining traction, with Hyundai recently pledging even more support for it, particularly in the future of commercial vehicles.

Let’s take a look at what else you need to know about hydrogen power...

50 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Toyota Mirai

What is the actual process?

Though it can feel like hydrogen power and conventional batteryelectric cars are like chalk and cheese, the reality is that the two powertrains are quite similar.

Both use an electric motor for propulsion and incorporate a battery, but in hydrogen cars the latter is much smaller.

The reason? Well, it’s hooked up to a hydrogen fuel cell and storage tank that provide the energy.

Hydrogen stored within the tank is fed into the fuel cell where it is mixed with oxygen and this then keeps the battery topped up. The emissions? Just water.

Is there a long time to wait when ‘filling’ a hydrogen car?

That’s one of the real benefits of hydrogen. Whereas you’ll spend a certain amount of time charging up an electric car – with even the very fastest chargers taking at least 25-30 minutes to take a car from five to 80 per cent – a full fill-up of hydrogen will take around the same time as a petrol or diesel car to top up.

Are there many hydrogen filling stations in the UK? At present, no. Currently, there are just 11 of them, with the bulk of these around London.

The only one in the north of England is in Sheffield, but between there and the southern-based stations there’s a large blank area.

However, more are planned to alleviate this problem.

Click here to find out more about the Toyota Mirai

Hyundai Nexo

Does filling up with hydrogen cost significantly more than petrol or diesel?

Not really. A full fill-up of Toyota’s Mirai will cost around £60, or about the same as an averagesized petrol car.

BMW iX5

Are there more hydrogen models going on sale soon?

It’s true that at present choice is limited when it comes to hydrogenpowered cars. With just the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai on sale, it could be thought that manufacturers aren’t confident in the fuel. However, that’s not the case as more models are due to enter the market soon.

BMW is currently developing a hydrogen-powered version of its X5 – badged iX5 – while newcomer Genesis has also stated that it’ll be bringing a hydrogen car to market.

And how many miles will you get from a fill-up?

Hydrogen-powered vehicles return a decent range on a full tank. The new secondgeneration Toyota Mirai, for instance, has a claimed driving range of between 300 and 400 miles.

However, a team in France recently set a new record by travelling 623 miles on a single tank of hydrogen. Set in a Toyota Mirai, it smashed the previous record by 72 miles.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 51

DASHBOARD

INDUSTRY VIEWS NEWS AND THOUGHTS FROM SOME OF OUR CAR DEALER LIVE GUESTS CAP HPI

Prices have gone crazy again during September!

Cap HPI’s Derren Martin

VALUATIONS experts are telling consumers now is the time to sell their used cars as prices continue to rocket.

In an exclusive video interview with Car Dealer, Cap HPI head of valuations Derren Martin revealed that in September alone prices had jumped by 5.9 per cent on August.

So far this year, prices across the board on used cars have risen by an incredible 26 per cent year on year.

In cash terms, that equates to as much as a £14,000 rise on vehicles such as the Mercedes V-Class.

The price rises have also led to some used cars costing more than their new equivalents as a squeeze on production of new cars sends people searching the used market instead.

Martin said: ‘It’s gone crazy again during September – it’s ramped up again. I hold my hands up. When I was on [Car Dealer Live] with James Batchelor I said it would go up by two per cent this month, so we’ve cut off our values today and it’s gone up by nearly six per cent – at 5.9 per cent.

‘It’s something like £860 on a three-year-old car in just a few weeks.’

Martin said he thinks the price rises are now being caused by a combination of factors, including a shortage of new cars.

Le Etta Pearce

I said it would go up by two per cent this month, so we’ve cut off our values today and it’s gone up by nearly six per cent.

Derren Martin Cap HPI 52 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Karolina EdwardsSmajda

DEALER AUCTION & AUTO TRADER

Demand is definitely outstripping supply now DEALER Auction’s Le Etta Pearce said: ‘Demand is definitely outstripping supply right now. We’re definitely seeing more dealers competing for less and less stock.

‘In a normalised ecosystem, we would expect to see vehicles flowing through from OEMs, fleets and rentals, and in turn this would obviously help stimulate more part-exchanges in older vehicles to feed the independent market.

‘But due to the impact of the pandemic and new

car supply issues, this flow has been disrupted and the volumes have subsequently decreased.’

Auto Trader’s Karolina Edwards-Smajda explained how the firm saw used car stock in August fall by three per cent year on year.

She added: ‘One really interesting trend that has come out of this is we are starting to see some evidence of a retailer market changing shape slightly, driven by the shift in stock and age profiles.’

The latest from our fleet.

Long-termers: p61

Watch our Car Dealer Live broadcasts as they go out or catch up on any that you’ve missed at: cardealermagazine.co.uk/live BIG MOTORING WORLD

Peter Waddell, left, with Anton Khan

Eyes on the £500m prize after boss makes SW Car Supermarket his own

We’ve decided to come together to create a formidable force.

Anton Khan

BIG Motoring World boss Peter Waddell announced that the company had bought SW Car Supermarket when he appeared with owner Anton Khan.

Khan said: ‘It’s been great getting to know Peter and I think he’s done a fantastic job in the industry for 37 hard years.

‘We’ve decided to come together to create a formidable force with plenty of experience and knowledge between the two of us to take this to another level.

‘I’ll be coming into the business as chief operating officer and the plan will be, in the coming months, for Peter to step down and take up the chairman’s role and for me to take on the role as CEO.’ He added: ‘We’re moving places. We’re in Peterborough and now we’re looking at Derby, Leeds, Birmingham and all the way up to Glasgow.

‘We want to take the company to half a billion pounds and more.’

Waddell, who launched Carzam last year, said: ‘SW was a company we have been after for about two years and we’ve been trying to amalgamate that company into Big. ‘It was an acquisition we wanted to do and we’ve found the right guy to fill my boots.

‘Big is going to grow as a brand.’

MIKE JONES

T S A C D PO Driven by

THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO MORE CAR DEALER PODCASTS

TOP CAR INVERNESS

Dealers’ agency fears come under spotlight

Starting showroom proved mindblowing

AUTOMOTIVE industry consultant Mike Jones talked on the Car Dealer Podcast about the changing role of dealers and agency sales.

He said: ‘Some of them are starting to get worried about it and are planning the business, almost trying to take the future into their own hands.

‘Some are just assuming they’ll be all right as long as the brand wants the retailers as a distribution channel or a buffer between them and the real customer.

‘Agency is a big issue but it’s not as far advanced as some people thought it was three to six months ago. The brands are still working their way around how they can make it work and we’re seeing some evolution of that.’

MANAGING director Craig Walker spoke about his experience of setting up a new car dealership during 2020.

‘Over the last 12 months we’ve sold 400 cars in the dealership and there’s only been me here. It’s been mindblowing really,’ he said.

‘We’re going through a massive change right now in the sector, bigger than I ever could have imagined. I’ve only been doing this a few years but I’ve never seen anything like it. Especially with the disruptors coming in like Cazoo.

‘The things I’m learning on a daily basis are huge. I’ve learnt so much in a short period of time. Who knows what the future holds?’

He added: ‘I’m very fortunate to be here and I’m loving every minute of it.’

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 53

DASHBOARD

FINANCE NEWS SUCCESS

JBR Capital enjoys record period with £100m in loans

by John Bowman john@blackballmedia.co.uk

A

utomotive finance provider JBR Capital says it has enjoyed its most successful business period to date. Driven by the post-pandemic pent-up demand for high-end vehicles, the London-based company has lent £100m since March 1, enabling customers to fund their passion for supercars and luxury vehicles.

Data from the past six months reveals Porsche to be the most in-demand marque, followed by Land Rover/Range Rover, with Mercedes-Benz in third place. In terms of the most popular individual models JBR Capital has financed, the Porsche 911 Carrera takes the top spot, with the Range Rover Sport, followed by the Lamborghini Huracán, pictured, completing the top three. The fourth most popular model is the Audi R8, while the Mercedes-Benz G Class AMG completes the top five.

Although JBR Capital provides funding from £25,000, the average advance over the past six months has been £81,000 funded on a hire purchase agreement with an average repayment term of 42 months. The most popular location for the provision of finance has been the south-east of England, followed by London and then the east of England.

Darren Selig, founder and chief commercial officer at JBR Capital, said: ‘At JBR Capital, we have always prided ourselves in our ability to create bespoke financial solutions for our customers and approve them quickly.

‘As the country began to emerge from lockdown in March and the demand for highperformance sports cars, supercars and prestige vehicles exploded to unprecedented levels, the ability to react quickly has proved even more crucial. We are delighted that by living up to our “Fund your passion” mantra, we were able to help so many enthusiasts get out on the open road in the car they’ve always promised themselves.’

Chief executive Nayan V Kisnadwala said: ‘We have increased our workforce by 50 per cent since the start of the year to ensure we continue providing the very best personalised service, as we foresee demand for today’s high-performance cars remaining exceptionally strong. Further growth will be fuelled by forthcoming models yet to be released. In the months ahead, JBR Capital will continue to help customers fund their automotive passion.’

CRITERIA

Near-prime providers ‘still being careful’ NEAR-PRIME motor finance providers are continuing to tread carefully in terms of pricing and underwriting – and may even be tightening their lending criteria further as the pandemic ebbs.

That’s according to Startline Motor Finance, whose CEO, Paul Burgess, said it noted a marked reduction in appetite for lending among several competitors near the beginning of the crisis and assumed it’d be relaxed over time, but this didn’t appear to be the case.

‘The near-prime sector as a whole has certainly shown a much reduced propensity for business, with several major providers choosing to tread very carefully as they have made their way through the pandemic. By now, with life returning to some kind of normality, we expected other providers to begin to adopt a less cautious approach, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, and indeed, there are some signs of a further tightening up.

‘This is quite a surprising development but we feel our underwriting approach has been very much vindicated by results.’

WE HERE FOR FORYOU YOU WE ARE HERE 54 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

TIME IS MONEY RICHARD PYGOTT

A MONTHLY LOOK AT THE WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE FINANCE AND MARKETING

Ever felt like a company just doesn’t want to talk to you?

R

Richard Pygott is digital marketer and LinkedIn outreach specialist for First Response.

Call him on 0115 946 6365 or email richard. pygott@frfl.co.uk

emember the last time you called a company that you work with, either professionally or personally, and having to explain your query several times to people from multiple departments? I am pretty sure that we have all been there before, and unfortunately a lot of us will experience this on a very frequent basis.

The issue sometimes starts before you even get chance to speak to someone: monotonous looping hold music with a voiceover pushing you to an FAQ section of a website, which can make you feel like they do not want to talk to you at all, when all you really want is to just talk to an actual person.

That is why here at First Response Finance, we have dedicated account managers that are our dealer partners’ primary point of contact. This means that you do not get passed around different people for the same query. We believe in developing long-term relationships with our dealer partners so we can get a much better insight into how our dealer network operates, and what we can do to assist them grow their business.

Our internal account managers are always just a phone call away when you need them – for updates on current applications, advice on how to use our dealer portal, guidance on how to increase your conversion rate, to discuss strategies on how to increase business levels, or even just for a friendly chat.

Our external account managers, who visit our dealer partners face to face, aren’t the typical ‘sales reps’ that many have become accustomed to. Popping in for a chat with a tray of doughnuts is all well and good but doughnuts don’t sell cars!

All our account managers have an advanced level of understanding of the difficulties that you face in the industry on a day-to-day basis and how to implement positive changes, thanks to their decades of experience in the finance and car industry.

While we are here to process your non-prime finance applications and to help you sell more cars, our internal and external account managers have the skills to assist you increase business levels, including advice on customer retention strategies, how to increase your dealership’s online visibility, implementing efficiency gains and costeffective strategies that can be achieved through streamlining processes, and much more that is tailored to what your business needs.

If you are one of our current dealer partners and weren’t aware of all the services your internal and external account manager can offer, please give us a call to discuss this further. If you’ve never worked with First Response Finance and would like to speak to us about getting on board, we can promise that you will get to speak to a person and not a robot – it could be the best phone call you make today! Call us on 0115 946 6260.

Popping in for a chat with a tray of doughnuts is all well and good but doughnuts don’t sell cars!

just a phone call away.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 55

DATA FILE

STATISTICS

THE LATEST REGISTRATION FIGURES DECLINE

New car sales figures suffer worst September this century

SMMT

SALES DATA

SEPTEMBER/YEAR TO DATE

TOP

CARS SOLD IN SEPTEMBER 2021

by Jack Williams @JournoJack25

N

ew car registrations plummeted by 34.4 per cent to reach a record low in September as the industry continues to battle devastating semiconductor shortages, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

Just 215,312 new cars were registered in what is traditionally a key month for the industry with new plates coming in.

The SMMT said the figure was the weakest September since 1998, ahead of the twiceyearly plate system for new cars being introduced in 1999.

It was a drop of 112,729 on September 2020 – which was itself a record low for the month.

Diesel cars saw the biggest slump, dropping to 10,658 registrations from 46,996 in the same month last year – a slide of 77.3 per cent.

Petrol cars were also hit hard, dropping by 46.6 per cent from 176,532 in September 2020 to 94,314 in 2021.

The slump in sales was attributed to the ongoing semiconductor crisis that has seen some production lines grind to a standstill.

The SMMT has warned that the shortage will ‘continue to plague the industry’ and cause an overall reduction of 100,000 in new vehicles being made in the UK. Among the few shreds of comfort from the findings is that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) soared to a record 32,721 in September. The figure – a 49.4 increase on September 2020 – is only marginally lower than the 37,850 BEVs sold throughout the whole of 2019.

Overall, there have now been 1,316,614 new cars registered throughout the year – a 5.9 per cent increase on the same point last year when there were 1,243,656.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: ‘While not the only factor at play, the impact of the semiconductor shortage on manufacturing cannot be overstated.

‘Job support schemes such as furlough have proved such a lifeline to automotive businesses, yet its cessation comes at the worst time, with the industry still facing Covidrelated stoppages which are damaging the sector and threatening the supply chain.’

Model

Regs

Tesla Model 3

6,879

Vauxhall Corsa

5,235

BMW 3 Series

4,788

Toyota Yaris

4,364

Nissan Qashqai

4,118

Kia Sportage

4,104

Volkswagen Polo

4,062

Toyota Aygo

3,857

Kia Niro

3,776

Volkswagen Golf

3,609

Tesla Model 3 named best-selling car of the month as EVs thrive THE Tesla Model 3 was September’s bestselling new car, new figures show.

And while new car registrations continued to struggle, sales of batteryelectric vehicles soared to a record 32,721.

The all-electric Tesla Model 3 was Britain’s best-selling new car with 6,879

units shifted. It was followed by the Vauxhall Corsa on 5,235, which remains the best-selling car overall in 2021. A total of 32,616 Corsas were sold over the first nine months of the year.

Jim Holder, What Car? editorial director, said: ‘Electric vehicle sales are perhaps the

only positive the industry can currently look forward to, with September seeing another extremely strong month for registrations.

‘With growing numbers of electric and plug-in vehicles on the road, it’s important the charging infrastructure keeps pace with the uptake from electric drivers.’

Click here to see our top 10 rolling sales chart for September 2020 to September 2021 56 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Gloom in the light van sector.

LCV news: p58

-55%

+129%

VOLVO

SUBARU

Figures supplied by SMMT

Marque

September 2021

September 2020

2021

2020

% market share

% market share

Year-to-date % change

2021

% market share

2020

% market share

% change

Abarth

306

0.14

578

0.18

-47.06

2,021

0.15

1,851

0.15

9.18

Alfa Romeo

253

0.12

331

0.10

-23.56

1,154

0.09

1,533

0.12

-24.72

23

0.01

10

0.00

130.00

144

0.01

83

0.01

73.49

12,325

5.72

21,893

6.67

-43.70

96,107

7.30

80,435

6.47

19.48

190

0.09

263

0.08

-27.76

972

0.07

1,010

0.08

-3.76

BMW

15,747

7.31

21,225

6.47

-25.81

93,361

7.09

84,611

6.80

10.34

Citroen

4,307

2.00

5,471

1.67

-21.28

24,262

1.84

22,107

1.78

9.75

Cupra

1,328

0.62

0

0.00

0.00

5,428

0.41

0

0.00

0.00

Dacia

3,867

1.80

5,263

1.60

-26.52

13,267

1.01

16,434

1.32

-19.27

DS

536

0.25

474

0.14

13.08

1,726

0.13

1,768

0.14

-2.38

Fiat

3,800

1.76

4,391

1.34

-13.46

16,059

1.22

15,745

1.27

1.99

Ford

10,786

5.01

28,252

8.61

-61.82

99,256

7.54

117,783

9.47

-15.73

Alpine Audi Bentley

Genesis

27

0.01

0

0.00

0.00

87

0.01

0

0.00

0.00

Honda

5,389

2.50

5,953

1.81

-9.47

22,548

1.71

22,458

1.81

0.40

Hyundai

12,256

5.69

11,645

3.55

5.25

52,931

4.02

37,847

3.04

39.86

Jaguar

1,844

0.86

4,006

1.22

-53.97

15,590

1.18

18,362

1.48

-15.10

893

0.41

843

0.26

5.93

3,839

0.29

3,348

0.27

14.67

Kia

16,661

7.74

14,896

4.54

11.85

74,096

5.63

57,155

4.60

29.64

Land Rover

5,352

2.49

11,444

3.49

-53.23

46,075

3.50

44,840

3.61

2.75

Lexus

2,941

1.37

3,693

1.13

-20.36

12,024

0.91

11,341

0.91

6.02

115

0.05

77

0.02

49.35

538

0.04

436

0.04

23.39

Mazda

4,500

2.09

6,117

1.86

-26.43

21,903

1.66

18,796

1.51

16.53

Mercedes-Benz

8,783

4.08

23,522

7.17

-62.66

78,252

5.94

84,693

6.81

-7.61

MG

5,452

2.53

3,668

1.12

48.64

22,951

1.74

14,236

1.14

61.22

Mini

4,118

1.91

9,095

2.77

-54.72

30,852

2.34

33,826

2.72

-8.79

40

0.02

1,242

0.38

-96.78

5,125

0.39

7,457

0.60

-31.27

Nissan

9,880

4.59

14,600

4.45

-32.33

52,265

3.97

53,905

4.33

-3.04

Peugeot

6,807

3.16

10,513

3.20

-35.25

46,263

3.51

41,875

3.37

10.48

Polestar

256

0.12

218

0.07

17.43

2,425

0.18

252

0.02

862.30

Porsche

752

0.35

1,576

0.48

-52.28

8,036

0.61

8,653

0.70

-7.13

Renault

5,291

2.46

10,454

3.19

-49.39

22,978

1.75

35,126

2.82

-34.58

Seat

4,982

2.31

7,138

2.18

-30.20

37,612

2.86

34,998

2.81

7.47

Skoda

5,939

2.76

10,892

3.32

-45.47

46,515

3.53

43,728

3.52

6.37

Smart

123

0.06

320

0.10

-61.56

1,094

0.08

1,030

0.08

6.21

SsangYong

373

0.17

391

0.12

-4.60

1,124

0.09

1,288

0.10

-12.73

Subaru

622

0.29

272

0.08

128.68

1,636

0.12

672

0.05

143.45

Suzuki

3,089

1.43

5,424

1.65

-43.05

17,915

1.36

16,509

1.33

8.52

Toyota

16,940

7.87

19,671

6.00

-13.88

83,128

6.31

73,067

5.88

13.77

Vauxhall

10,619

4.93

19,614

5.98

-45.86

72,241

5.49

72,036

5.79

0.28

Volkswagen

16,434

7.63

27,328

8.33

-39.86

121,286

9.21

110,668

8.90

9.59

Volvo

4,084

1.90

9,147

2.79

-55.35

36,421

2.77

32,184

2.59

13.16

255

0.12

308

0.09

-17.21

1,767

0.13

1,443

0.12

22.45

7,027

3.26

5,823

1.78

20.68

23,340

1.77

18,067

1.45

29.19

215,312

100

328,041

100

-34.36

1,316,614

100

1,243,656

100

5.87

Jeep

Maserati

Mitsubishi

Other British Other imports Total

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 57

DATA FILE

GOING DOWN

LCV NEWS

September sales were the lowest since 2009

by John Bowman john@blackballmedia.co.uk SEPTEMBER’S LCV market plummeted by 39.5 per cent versus 2020, latest figures show, with 31,535 vans registered according to the SMMT. It makes for even gloomier reading when compared with the pre-pandemic fiveyear September average of 54,207 – down 41.8 per cent and making them the lowest September figure since 2009, which was 28,382 and when the market was suffering from the recession.

Registrations dropped by double digits across all weight classes except 4x4s, with the number of vans weighing between two and 2.5 tonnes seeing the largest decline of 70.1 per cent.

REGISTRATIONS OF NEW COMMERCIAL VEHICLES LESS THAN 3.5 TONNES Marque

Figures supplied by SMMT

September 2021 2021

% market share

September 2020 2020

% market share

% change

Year-to-date

2021

% market share

2020

% market share

% change

Ford

11,896

37.72

18,697

35.89

-36.37

91,151

34.11

68,074

Mercedes Volkswagen Vauxhall Renault Peugeot Toyota Citroen Fiat Nissan Iveco Isuzu Maxus Land Rover MAN Renault Trucks Isuzu Trucks SsangYong Suzuki Mitsubishi

3,525

11.18

3,335

6.40

5.70

22,719

8.50

21,893

10.52

3.77

2,419 2,205 2,140 2,069 1,946 1,417 899 706 388 377 336 305 251 150 130 119 114 63 37 28 15 31,535

7.67 6.99 6.79 6.56 6.17 4.49 2.85 2.24 1.23 1.20 1.07 0.97 0.80 0.48 0.41 0.38 0.36 0.20 0.12 0.09 0.05 100.00

5,910 5,942 1,781 4,023 1,641 3,795 1,493 1,993 242 470 35 172 399 179 117 107 0 1,661 62 0 42 52,096

11.34 11.41 3.42 7.72 3.15 7.28 2.87 3.83 0.46 0.90 0.07 0.33 0.77 0.34 0.22 0.21 0.00 3.19 0.12 0.00 0.08 100.00

-59.07 -62.89 20.16 -48.57 18.59 -62.66 -39.79 -64.58 60.33 -19.79 860.00 77.33 -37.09 -16.20 11.11 11.21 0.00 -96.21 -40.32 0.00 -64.29 -39.47

28,318 24,913 12,913 21,019 10,902 18,995 7,030 9,391 3,455 2,988 1,499 2,830 2,256 1,769 891 413 314 3,068 112 134 156 267,236

10.60 9.32 4.83 7.87 4.08 7.11 2.63 3.51 1.29 1.12 0.56 1.06 0.84 0.66 0.33 0.15 0.12 1.15 0.04 0.05 0.06 100.00

22,200 20,853 7,502 18,307 6,316 15,929 5,670 7,560 1,689 2,558 35 934 1,630 930 676 312 0 4,137 720 0 155 208,080

10.67 10.02 3.61 8.80 3.04 7.66 2.72 3.63 0.81 1.23 0.02 0.45 0.78 0.45 0.32 0.15 0.00 1.99 0.35 0.00 0.07 100.00

27.56 19.47 72.13 14.81 72.61 19.25 23.99 24.22 104.56 16.81 4,182.86 203.00 38.40 90.22 31.80 32.37 0.00 -25.84 -84.44 0.00 0.65 28.43

LDV LEVC Fuso Total light CV

REGISTRATIONS OF NEW COMMERCIAL VEHICLES 3.5 TONNES TO 6.0 TONNES Marque

Mercedes Peugeot Fiat Ford Volkswagen Iveco Citroen MAN Renault Trucks Vauxhall Other imports

September 2021 2021

% market share

197 163 125 79 21 17 13 12 8 2 1

September 2020 2020

% market share

% change

% market share

30.83 25.51 19.56 12.36 3.29 2.66 2.03 1.88 1.25 0.31 0.16

129 36 242 276 29 17 1 7 0 4 0

17.32 4.83 32.48 37.05 3.89 2.28 0.13 0.94 0.00 0.54 0.00

52.71 352.78 -48.35 -71.38 -27.59 0.00 1,200.00 71.43 0.00 -50.00 0.00

1,087 934 1,227 565 206 207 90 83 111 7 27

33.90

Figures supplied by SMMT

Year-to-date

2021

32.72

2020

23.83 20.47 26.90 12.38 4.52 4.54 1.97 1.82 2.43 0.15 0.59

1,033 727 1,056 923 132 169 92 40 0 11 134

% market share

% change

23.85 16.79 24.38 21.31 3.05 3.90 2.12 0.92 0.00 0.25 3.09

5.23 28.47 16.19 -38.79 56.06 22.49 -2.17 107.50 0.00 -36.36 -79.85

Isuzu Trucks

1

0.16

3

0.40

-66.67

14

0.31

6

0.14

133.33

Renault

0

0.00

1

0.13

0.00

4

0.09

8

0.18

-50.00

639

100.00

745

100.00

-14.23

4,562

100.00

4,331

100.00

5.33

Total Heavy Cv

58 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 59

DATA FILE

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W: ivendi.com T: 0330 229 0028 E: tellmemore@ivendi.com Info: iVendi delivers a fully connected platform that engages consumers, converts buyers and manages transactions of vehicles online and in the showroom.

W: lawgistics.co.uk T: 01480 455500 E: sales@lawgistics.co.uk Info: The legal experts for the motor trade, giving advice and support to our industry for over 15 years. Not anti-consumer, just pro-trader.

W: ben.org.uk T: 0808 131 1333 Info: Ben is a not-for-profit organisation that partners with the automotive industry to provide support for life to its people and their families.

W: dealer360.co.uk T: 01270 780855 E: nicky.spratt@ukturntables.com Info: UK makers of photo booths incorporating our turntables for car, van and motorcycle dealers. Our software controls turntable and cameras – a onestop solution.

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Data

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DMS

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Autoprotect

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W: warrantywise.co.uk/dealer T: 0800 001 4551 E: dealers@warrantywise.co.uk Info: Warrantywise sells over 100,000 warranties per year.

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W: wmsgroup.co.uk T: 01844 293810 E: sales@wmsgroup.co.uk Info: Open 24/7, we offer award-winning warranty products for FCA- and non-FCA-registered dealerships.

Key Control

Oil & Lubricants

Warranty Providers

Website Design & Digital Marketing

Traka

Mobil™

Car Care Plan

Bluesky Interactive

Finance

Lead Management

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Warranty Providers

Website Design & Digital Marketing

Close Brothers Motor Finance

GardX AD-Vantage

WeRecruit Auto

Händler Protect

Haswent

Finance

Blue Motor Finance

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W: gardx.co.uk/gardx-ad-vantage T: 01243 376426 E: goforaspin@gardx.co.uk Info: The award-winning 360 service offers an engaging display of the vehicle while additionally presenting profitable F&I products to a consumer.

W: mobil.co.uk T: 0800 0857 420 Info: Whether using Mobil 1™ or Mobil Super™, Mobil™ engine oils meet or exceed the latest standards of the oil industry and vehicle manufacturers.

W: werecruitauto.co.uk T: 01603 550041 Info: Permanent recruitment – here to assist businesses within the automotive sector find the best fit for their company in terms of skillset, experience and culture.

W: carcareplan.com T: 0344 573 8000 Info: Car Care Plan is a leading provider of motor protection products, trusted around the world to deliver quality protection with integrity and a customer-oriented outlook.

W: handlerprotect.com T: 0800 088 7889 E: sales@handlerprotect.com Info: Händler Protect is an exclusive dealer warranty provider. Proud to partner and represent more than 1,000-plus ‘active’ independent motor dealers across the UK each month.

W: blueskyinteractive.co.uk T: 01926 651000 Info: Bluesky Interactive drive dealer websites and digital marketing forward thanks to game-changing innovation, the latest technology and our exceptional relationships with our clients.

W: haswent.com T: 020 3920 6164 E: hello@haswent.com Info: Composer is a next-gen automotive platform. You have extensive stock management options, and you’ll gain a brilliantly responsive new website.

To have your details included email sales@blackballmedia.co.uk and ask for Suppliers Guide listings 60 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

LONG-TERMERS

THE KNOWLEDGE

NISSAN JUKE We’ve been thankful for our economical crossover SUV as the fuel station queues increased. Dave Brown reports.

W

e’ve got the builders in – and, with apologies to our neighbours, it’s pretty noisy at home at the moment. So much so that I decided to decamp to my mum’s house 120 or so miles away to work for a few days while the ground floor of our place was being knocked about.

It sounded like a great idea – until the great fuel drama of 2021 began just before I was due to head off. Fortunately, however, I managed to fill our long-term Nissan Juke with unleaded shortly before news of the crisis broke and the queues had begun to form.

And so it was that I jumped into OU69 XDF and fired it up to be greeted with the news on the dash that there was a ‘range’ of 500+ miles – welcome information indeed. That would be more than enough to make the journey and return home without any worries. And surely by then, the problems would be over, right?

Well, as I write this, no-one seems to know when the craziness will subside, but what I can report is that our not-very-thirsty Nissan Juke is the ideal companion when forecourt fuel supplies are unreliable. (If you want total peace of mind, you can always go for an allelectric Leaf from the same manufacturer, of course.)

I don’t tend to pay a lot of attention to fuel economy stats but after the first leg of my 240mile journey, the fuel level indicator had barely moved to the left and it seemed as though the car had more than matched its quoted consumption figure of 47.9mpg (combined).

Positively parsimonious!

Aside from observing a few forecourt queues, my trip passed without incident and gave me the chance to appreciate the environment provided for the driver within the currentgeneration Juke.

Nissan describes the cockpit-like surroundings as spacious, airy and offering great visibility – and it’s hard to disagree. In addition, whether cruising along a motorway, tackling a twisty B-road or negotiating tight city streets packed with traffic-calming measures, it copes admirably and with no issues whatsoever.

As I’ve noted before, it looks the part from the outside, too. The first-generation car, launched in 2010, caused waves in the automotive world with its beach-buggy appearance.

Its quirkiness was toned down a bit when the updated version arrived but it still boasts bags of personality.

In other news, ‘our’ Juke is celebrating a birthday about now. Its 69 plate indicates it’s roughly two years old but you’d never know it judging by its appearance.

To be fair, while in our care it hasn’t really been put through its paces in terms of lugging kids, dogs or camping gear about… but I can confirm that it can swallow a week’s worth of supermarket shopping and a set of golf clubs without any fuss.

This Juke comes with a choice of standard, sport or eco drive modes. Standard is recommended for normal driving and is activated by default, while sport is suggested for enhanced performance.

Needless to say, however, and returning to the subject of the UK’s current fuel crisis, eco would seem to be the most sensible option right now. Let’s hope things return to normal at the pumps before too long – for all our sakes.

Nissan Juke N-Connecta

Price (as tested): £23,900 Engine: 1.0 DIG-T 117 Power: 115bhp Torque: 200Nm 0-60mph: 10 seconds Max speed: 112mph Emissions: 112g/km CO2 Economy (combined): 47.9mpg Mileage: 9,583

This month’s highlight:

Enjoying the Juke’s fuel economy – especially during the craziness of the fuel crisis.

OTHER CARS WE’RE DRIVING

Skoda Octavia vRS Mileage: 10,120 We’re looking forward to seeing if our new arrival is all the car that you need.

Audi Q5

Mileage: 5,210 Our video guy is enjoying the space offered to fit in all his filming equipment.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 61

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