Car Dealer Magazine: Issue 76

TESTED: PORSCHE EARNS ITS STRIPES WITH NEW MACAN

CarDealerMag.co.uk | £3.50

Issue 76 | July 2014

INTERVIEW: WHY TOM HARTLEY JNR SPLIT WITH FATHER TO GO IT ALONE

first drive

pole

position

is this the return of the hot volvo estate?

world cup ROAD TRIP

how WE RE-CREATEd iconic 1966 pictures – WITH DEALERS!

By your side every step of the day Consistent, Reliable, Effficient.

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IGNITION.

EDITORIAL EDITOR James Batchelor

james.batchelor@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @JRRBatchelor

PRODUCTION EDITOR Dave Brown

dave@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerDave

head of design Graeme Windell

graeme@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @graemewindell

ADVERTISING ADVERTISING Manager Duncan Chappell

duncan@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerDunc

Advertising EXECUTIVE Cliff Culver

cliff@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerCliff

CREDIT CONTROL & ADMINISTRATOR Pippa Marsden

pippa@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerPip

SUITS MANAGING DIRECTOR James Baggott

james@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerEd

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Andy Entwistle

andy@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerAndy

Contributors Tim Naylor, Nick King, Mike Jones, Julian Rance, Jonathan Such, Mal Hay, Leon Poultney, Daljinder Nagra, Gareth Bethell, Diana Hargreaves, John Bowman, Becca Chaplin, Danielle Bagnall and Harry Boucher.

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aware I probably sound Welcome. I’M like a broken record. The

same old words written here month after month with references to ‘how different we are when it comes to trade magazines’.

However, this month I can confidently say, what you will find on pages 48 to 59 is something totally different. Even if you don’t like football, you’ll find it entertaining.

Like most hare-brained ideas at Car Dealer, our World Cup road trip feature began with just a few of us kicking (no pun intended) a few ideas around the office. And then it was suggested by Car Dealer Cliff that we try to re-create the England team squad photo and the iconic Wembley shot from the 1966 World Cup. Dave and I laughed... and then it dawned on us that we just had to do it. Just had to.

The massive task of finding the dealers who shared the same names as the England squad of ’66 fell to Dave while I tried to secure a suitable car. A phone call to Ford and their cherished MK2 Cortina was dusted off for our use.

Gosh, it was hard work. Travelling around the country is hard at the best of times, but even more so when you’re at the wheel of a 50-year-old car. But the welcomes we got from each dealership we turned up at made it worth it.

Right from the very start, Dave and I decided not to call ahead and explain our feature. Even if we had put on our most charming voices, the fact of the matter is we would have been told to go elsewhere. So, guerrilla-style it was and it worked magnificently.

I would like to say a massive thank-you to everyone who took part and apologies for getting you to strike the most ridiculous poses – hopefully you will now start to see what we were attempting to do.

I’d also like to thank our highly talented designer Graeme who almost got square eyes from creating the final photos (pictured bottom right). He had the very tricky task of cutting out all of the individual shots of the dealers and stitching them all together. Hopefully you’ll get as much pleasure from the photos as I do.

HERE COMES THE CONFERENCE AS I WRITE this, there are just a couple of weeks to go before the Car Dealer Conference at Rockingham Motor Speedway on June 20. It promises to be an absolutely fantastic day and it’s all designed to give you some thoughts on how you can make the most of future trends.

It’s FREE to attend, so if you fancy coming and still haven’t got your tickets, type bit.ly/CDCtickets into a web browser and we’ll see you there!

Enjoy the issue.

James Batchelor, editor

Winner: Best Business ‘This magazine brings its readers an insightful, engaging overview of their industry which Publication of the Year entertains as well as informs’ - award judges CarDealerMag.co.uk | 03

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INSIDE. ISSUE 76 I JULY 2014

Dashboard

Feedback

Car Dealer Club

48

Interview: Tom Hartley Jnr Around the World

World Cup Challenge

Car Dealer Power

Join James Batchelor and Dave Brown as they travel England in a 1960s Ford Cortina – but will they achieve their football-themed goal?

Finance Big Mike Baggott Real Deals

Forecourt

30

Get involved with Car Dealer Power – but time is running out!

40

Driven: Is Polestar V60 a return to form for Volvo?

22

‘‘

Volvo V60 Polestar

Nissan X-Trail & Juke Tom Hartley Jnr on setting up his own business

Porsche Macan

Features

World Cup Road Trip

Aston Martin needs cash. It also needs new chassis, new engines and more models.

37

Baggott

Trading Up Focus on: Motors.co.uk Focus on: Manheim

Data File The Statistics Taking Stock & Buyers’ Guide Auctions Trader Talk Money Matters Market Insight Suppliers’ Guide with Forrester Long-termers

CarDealer

New Nissan Juke, hailed as funkier, fresher and roomier. ButPOWER is it any good?

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OUR AWARDS...

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WINNER

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Customers should just be more honest!

Focusing on margins

s

Is stock turn more important?

‘It’s a competitive world in the used car sector, but despite the more positive news that the industry is predicted to grow this year, many dealers are still too focused on used car margins and aren’t paying enough attention to stock turn.’

Just read this article, not sure if everyone has seen it.

Interesting reading, but what do you think?

Umesh, Specialist Cars, Stoke-on-Trent

What’s your worst getaway ever?

We’ve all had them – the things a customer will say to get away from a deal. Had the worst one ever just now.

This girl has been emailing me about our very competitively priced Astra SRi sporthatch. Usual questions, when can I view, can’t get there straight away, can I finance it, can I drive it away, etc, to which I’ve tried everything to close her and get a deposit.

She turns up with her boyfriend and father in tow, yet stays in her father’s car. Father and boyfriend are in and out of the car, over it, under it, looking down the sides, touching the tyres. Didn’t even get to the drive-it stage when the father comes out with, ‘It’s too expensive, it’s been a lease car. Thanks anyway,’ and they walk off.

I’m left wondering, ‘Is it only me that gets these?’

Chris, Midlands We all get them. It would be nice if they just said a simple ‘nice car, but not really for us’. They have to find a reason to justify walking away. I had one the other day, he walks into the office and states: ‘Your CR-V is a bit expensive, bit over-priced.’ (It’s up for £11,450).

Me: ‘I don’t think so, given all the spec it’s got on it, sat-nav, leather etc.’ Him: ‘I use a map, prefer cloth and hate sunroofs.’ Me: ‘Well it’s not the car for you. So are you looking for a CR-V then?’ Him: ‘Yes, want to spend

£10k on a basic model, same age and mileage as that.’

Me: ‘So mine isn’t over-priced considering sat-nav and leather etc give about a £2k premium over a base model.’ Him: Blank look and a few muttered words.

Some people see us as the enemy and have to prove us wrong. Or a fair few people don’t have the social skills to communicate what they really want to say.

Gavin@Rousdon We do get them all - don’t we? Gavin, you’re right – some of them don’t have the social skills to communicate and the message comes over wrong!

We try to defend the attack – it’s in our nature! The strange thing with saying it’s not for me, the sellers don’t like it to their face! This week a company made an appointment for the sales rep to call in and see me.

I told the salesman that I’d told the girl I was not in the market but she obviously didn’t care and was just making appointments! The salesman was most put out.

Umesh I love the line one dealer told me he says to those who say they’d ‘be back’. ‘The be-back bus doesn’t stop here, love. You need to buy it now...’ Brilliant.

El Presidente (James Baggott)

Wealth creation Where are my Twitter friends?

Motor traders enjoyed a strong showing in the 2013 Sunday Times Rich List, the annual review of personal fortunes in the UK. This year’s survey identified 28 multi-millionaires from car sales and wholesaling among the top 1,000 richest people in Britain.

I’d like to know why none of my Twitter friends are on here! Come on guys – or do we need to stop tweeting and get selling!

Umesh I think you’ve answered your own question there, old boy!

Green Giant

Picture of the month

Twitter threads of the month Thanks so much to @CarDealerMag & @motorscouk for including the World Cup sweepstake in this month’s issue! We can’t wait to get started!

Via @RanieriComs

Booked onto @CarDealerMag national used car conference with @PaulBlanshard to continue giving #AutocarsUK customers industry-leading service.

Via @AutocarsHull

Great coverage of Paragon Car Finance in the latest edition of @CarDealerMag Via @PagPressTeam

Used Car Awards 1st December 2014 – will you be there!!??

Via @CarBuyingAdvisor

Think I may have to stay off @CarDealerMag forum – Looks like I’m starting too many topics! #GiveOthersAChance Via @specialistcars1

The only ‘data and systems’ us independent dealers need is ‘profit’. Sometime I think Glass’s Guide forgets its lifeblood is independent dealers who need to know prices of a range of cars. You watch main dealers at auction and ‘book’ goes out the window. If they are selling the same product week in week out it’s easy to know what’s the right stock and what to pay.

I read a lot of these editorial articles and rarely finish them because it seems to be a world away from the motor trade I know.

Gavin@Rousdon

Just reading this month’s @CarDealerMag. Nice story about DVLA by @jimreidvehicle at least u got something back Jim! Via @StanPalmerHonda

It’s 3am in Lancashire and a very tired Batch prepares to enter the lift at the Preston central Premier Inn. He was a key player in this month’s epic World Cup road trip feature and endured a couple of long days on the road. How did we get on with our football-themed challenge?

Find out on page 48.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 07

DASHBOARD.

Hot Infinitis could get Red Bull Racing treatment Vettel plays close hand in development of Eau Rouge Q50 performance car

I

nfiniti needs a performance version of every model in its range and a tuning arm to rival Mercedes AMG and BMW’s M Division – and what’s more, the maker hasn’t ruled out using the Red Bull Racing name on its cars either. At least that’s according to Andreas Sigl, the man in charge of the manufacturer’s tie-up with Formula One’s Red Bull Racing team.

Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer Magazine, Sigl said: ‘If you ask me, every Infiniti should have an element of performance in it. It should be throughout the range and the Eau Rouge Q50 we are developing is an important step towards that. We need an M Division rival, or an AMG rival.

‘We need to build that.’

The manufacturer is developing the Nissan GT-R powered Eau Rouge – named after the famous Spa corner – with its director of performance, four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel. The car has four-wheel drive and more than 550bhp.

‘When Seb became our director of performance he said “Where is my performance car?” and I told him the Eau Rouge was coming. He was very excited by it and is playing a close hand in its development,’ said Sigl. The Infiniti chief also admitted that the Eau

by JAMES BAGGOTT @CarDealerEd Rouge name may not stick. It’s currently the name of the development car, but Sigl was unsure if it would stay.

‘We haven’t ruled out using the Red Bull Racing name, or Sebastian’s name again, but our priority has to be to raise Infiniti’s profile at this moment in time.’

Infiniti Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner told us that he’d driven the Eau Rouge Q50 and found it ‘very impressive’.

Horner told Car Dealer Magazine: ‘We’re helping to develop the Eau Rouge version of the Q50 and it’s an exciting car and an exciting partnership. There is technology transfer between Red Bull and Infiniti, and there will be some Formula One DNA in that product.

‘I’ve driven it and thought it was amazing. It’s still quite raw in its development but it’s very impressive.

Vettel is doing a lot of work on it. I think Infiniti needs a halo car – the Q50 is a great car and the Eau Rouge version could be that head-turner.’

Sigl also hinted at future high-performance models entering the rest of the Infiniti range – including a knowing nod when we suggested the forthcoming Q30, set to be built in Sunderland from summer 2015, could get the Vettel touch. ‘We’re working on some very exciting stuff,’ hinted Sigl. ‘Look at what Mercedes did with the A45 AMG – that’s an exciting car, right? We need something similar…’

Johnsons Cars break through £200m barrier SALES at Redditch-based dealer group Johnsons Cars broke the £200m barrier during 2013. The company, which represents manufacturers including Honda, Lexus and Fiat, with dealerships in Oxford, Liverpool and Coventry among other locations, reported sales of £221m for the full year.

Up £30m on 2012, this represents a rise of eight per cent. Pre-tax profit is ahead slightly at £1.4m, up from £1.3m. Insider Media Ltd reported that the rise in turnover came from ‘a combination of 08 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

additional dealerships opening and acquisitions, as well as an overall increase in business at existing locations’. Retail new vehicle sales grew by 14 per cent and used car sales increased yearon-year by 18 per cent. In his review, finance director Richard Martin said that 2014 would prove to be an important year for the group, which has invested £10m to create three new dealerships on a four-acre site on the A34 in Solihull to represent Volkswagen, Mazda and Volvo.

Ford combines colleges

Investment at Daventry THE Blue Oval is creating a state-of-theart training facility on its site in Daventry, Northamptonshire, as part of a multi-millionpound investment.

The new site will merge the capabilities of two Ford colleges – the Technical Training Centre located separately in Daventry, and the Henry Ford College in Loughborough.

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DASHBOARD. FEATURE.

Ask Lawgistics Car Dealer Club lawyers at Lawgistics answer dealers’ legal questions. Join for £39.99 a year to get advice like this when you need it

Q

We recently sold a Porsche Boxster and now the purchaser is complaining of ‘bore-scoring’ and is demanding lots of money for it to be fixed, claiming it may need a new engine. Where do we stand?

A

We checked this online and research suggested that cylinder number 6 is particularly vulnerable to becoming ‘scored’ in certain Porsches, resulting in noise and a significant increase in oil usage.

It becomes a problem where warranty companies reject claims on the basis that it must have been ‘preexisting’ at the point of sale. Alternatively, the amount of contribution is significantly less than the cost of the overhaul required.

We advised that another of Lawgistics’ clients was recently sued for £7,000 for the alleged cost of a replacement engine in a Porsche that was suffering from the same problem. The consumer was arguing under the Sale of Goods Act whereas we wrote the defence partly based on this being a wear-and-tear issue and not a defect.

We pointed out that a high-performance vehicle should not be compared with a family saloon. We used the analogy of comparing a tyre being fitted to a Formula 1 car to a tyre on a family car, stating that each has a different function and lifespan. Accordingly, and as this is a common issue on certain Porsche models, we suggested ‘end-of-design lifespan’ rather than a breach of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended).

Mediation was unsuccessful so the case was heard by a district judge in a small claims hearing at the claimant’s local county court.

The court found in our client’s favour and dismissed the claim. HOWEVER, the question as to whether this issue is a defect or fair wear and tear remains unanswered as another part of the defence was that: n The car was still being driven n The quotation for repairs was handwritten on a compliments slip and, primarily, n The claimant was asking the court to order our client defendant to pay for repairs that hadn’t actually been undertaken.

In essence, they were asking our client for a windfall without the consumer claimant actually having incurred any financial loss.

We suggested that it would be inappropriate for the court to do this. After all, who could guarantee that the consumer wouldn’t simply blow it on a holiday or a new extension instead?

The judge agreed with this submission and refused the claim on these points alone.

Therefore, he did not have to consider whether borescoring is a defect under the Sale of Goods Act or simply wear and tear.

It did show, however, that consumers cannot have a ‘free go’ at trying to get money out of sellers.

Had the claimant taken the risk of paying a repair bill then this argument would not have been required.

But claimants simply cannot go to court without first incurring the very financial loss that they are asking a defendant to pay.

Clutch went six weeks after sale

Q

I sold a VW GTI with just over 95,000 miles to a young lad. Six weeks later he called to say the clutch had gone and what was I going to do about it? I suspected he had been slipping the clutch at high revs to give an impressive start. I had the car checked and the clutch showed signs of overheating through clutch slip. I agreed to pay for the replacement as a goodwill gesture. He went off happy but I suspect it won’t be the last I see of him.

.com

A

A clutch on such a vehicle can go at any time. It is important to have technical backup from your own or a third-party workshop to assess whether any failure is routine wear and tear. If it is then either send the customer away or get the repair done with a little discount. If someone abuses the car then the repair is not down to you.

Signed-off employee is going away on holiday

Q

A member of staff has been signed off by a doctor for a month with stress one week before a pre-booked period of annual leave.

The employee intends to go on their holiday despite being signed off from work. Where do I stand in

relation to paying the employee during this time?

It would be logical to pay the employee on annual leave then resume SSP after the annual leave. If only the law were as logical! As the employee has been signed off by a doctor for four weeks, unless the employee

ADVICE

A

specifically asks to use their annual leave, you must pay them for this period as sick leave and the employee will be allowed to take the annual leave days at a later date. The employee should not have to use their annual leave to recover from an illness, and annual leave should be for uninterrupted rest from work.

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WHY I JOINED car dealer club No need to put pen to paper... issues can be resolved over the phone, says Lincoln Car Sales

WANT TO UPGRADE YOUR MEMBERSHIP?

LINCOLN Car Sales Ltd is a long-standing Car Dealer Club member – and the team there have continued to reap the benefits of the service.

Owner Brendon Hennesy explained: ‘We’ve been members of Car Dealer Club for in excess of six or seven years.’

In that time it has received advice from motor trade law specialist Lawgistics, worth £195, for only £39.99 a month.

Recently, Hennesy needed to contact the Lawgistics team for support in connection with a customer issue.

He explained the situation to Car Dealer Magazine: ‘Our most recent issue was with a customer who had one or two issues with their vehicle, which we had done our utmost to deal with.

‘All we needed was a letter sent from Lawgistics to resolve the situation and they made it easy.’

Lincoln Car Sales Ltd is a family-run used car dealership. It is operated in conjunction with its other dealership, Waddington Car Sales, both of which are in Lincolnshire.

The used car dealer explained that by having the service it removed the worry when a legal issue arose. ‘We’ve used the

LAWGISTICS’ basic membership – which you receive as a member of Car Dealer Club – is a cracking deal, but what if you need something that has extra clout? Larger dealer groups or a dealer embroiled in a big legal battle may require some more firepower, and the good news is that Club members get discounts on Lawgistics’ other packages. You’ll receive a £100 discount off the small business package (normally £595) – perfect for sole traders, a partnership or a small dealer group – and £250 off the professional package (normally £1,295). This is ideal for franchises, a dealer group or a car supermarket and covers all areas of legal law and documentation. There’s a package for everyone with Lawgistics.

Lawgistics service before, not frequently, but it’s good to know they are there when we need some advice.

‘The whole process is so simple and straightforward. I can call them up and just explain the problem.

‘I don’t need to write anything down. I can just tell them over the phone.

‘For this issue they devised a letter and forwarded it to us to approve.

‘We then let them know that we were happy with it and they sorted the rest,’ recalled Hennesy.

‘I would definitely recommend it to other dealers. You don’t know when you will need the service until it’s too late.’

Hundreds of car dealers have joined Car Dealer Club and benefited from the services.

Members get a free telephone consultation worth £100 and Lawgistics basic membership worth £95.

That’s not all though! Members are also entitled to further exclusive offers from some of the motor trade’s best suppliers and a free subscription to Car Dealer Magazine. If you’d like to join and protect your business in the future, follow the simple steps on the right of this page.

EASY STEPS TO JOIN car dealer club

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DASHBOARD. FIGURES

Car production hits new high UK CAR production hit a two-year high in April, with a rise by 21.3 per cent to 133,437 units. This is the highest monthly increase in production since July 2012.

Year-to-date volumes increased 6.9 per cent and January-April exports rose by 8.7 per cent.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, commented: ‘The thriving nature of the UK car manufacturing industry was evident in April as output grew at its highest rate for almost two years.’

NEW JOB

Motorcodes’ Mason moves FISITA has appointed former Motor Codes MD Chris Mason as CEO. In his new role, Mason will also become a member of the board and serve as company secretary for FISITA (UK) Ltd – a nonprofit, non-governmental umbrella organisation for the national automotive engineering societies in 37 countries. Mason said: ‘I am thrilled and tremendously proud to have been asked to lead such an important organisation.’

PERRYS

Latest tech on car news site PERRYS has launched a new car news channel to its website that uses the latest fully-responsive technology.

The website now features a mixture of car news, reviews, buyers’ guides and more. Users will also find the latest car releases, concept cars and video reviews. The Car News channel also showcases Perrys staff and company achievements. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Can we cope with demand?

That’s our biggest challenge Nissan MD on a revitalised product range and network capacity

N

issan’s current product range is performing so strongly, and proving so popular with customers, that it’s almost as though the firm has an embarrassment of riches, according to UK MD James Wright.

And one of the main challenges the UK network faces during the rest of 2014 is ‘keeping all the balls bouncing’ so that demand can be met and customers aren’t left disappointed. Nissan has done much to refresh its product range this year, with Juke, X-Trail and Qashqai all relaunched. Coupled with an ever-strengthening economy, the new models have helped ensure the brand continues to do well.

Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, Wright said: ‘In terms of our product line-up and the way that it’s changing, it couldn’t have come at a better time. The retail market in 2013 really surprised us in a good way and I guess that if there was a negative in it, it was that we were running in and running out cars – with supply relatively constrained in both cases.

Hopefully we won’t have the same situation in 2014.

by DAVE BROWN @CarDealerDave

‘We’re looking to grow our retail share because we’ve got a full year of new Qashqai, a full year of Note, we’ll get eight months of X-Trail and nine months of new Juke.

‘When you put all these things together it seems perfectly feasible.

‘We need to make sure that we’re doing everything right because it’s almost like an embarrassment of riches having all these cars arrive at one time. So we need to make sure that we’re doing the right marketing actions, speaking to the right customers.

‘One of the things that we have been focusing on over the past few years, knowing that these cars are coming, is making sure that our network capacity – the size of the pipe if you like – is there to deliver all of this product that’s coming.

‘And I don’t just mean the size of the showroom or the workshop, I also mean the physical capacity.

‘Put simply, does each dealership have enough human beings? Are the

James Wright and, below, new Juke human beings trained to the right level? Is every dealer geared up to be able to deliver this volume?

‘It might sound crazy but that’s probably the biggest challenge in terms of keeping all of the balls bouncing. These kind of opportunities do not come along that often. We need to make sure we’re making the best of it.’

New X-Trail and Juke reviewed, pages 42-43

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DASHBOARD. ‘We’ve nailed it this time around – I’m confident of it’ VOLVO is about to enter a brand new chapter in its history with exciting products, a renewed focus and happier dealers, believes UK boss Nick Connor.

Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, Connor said that Volvo was finally putting 10 years of disappointing sales behind it and dealers were now starting to get fired up.

‘I think if we’ve been guilty of anything we’ve been far too modest about what it is we’re doing and how we’re going to succeed in the future,’ he told us. ‘We like to hide our light, which I think affects dealer confidence.

Other brands are better at shouting from the rooftops Nick about Connor product that is coming, even if it is a long way off.

We have deliberately avoided doing that but I think that you will see a significant improvement in dealer attitude. I think the fact that we will do 40,000 this year against 32,500 last year – that’s very significant.’

But Connor said that adding more dealers to the network was definitely not part of the strategy. ‘We’ve got 110 sales outlets and it’s our intention to stay at that,’ he explained.

‘Our intention is to keep the network stable in terms of absolute numbers. I think that for a couple of years we had too many dealers, but we are in a different place now where we’ve got some serious growth coming.’ Connor added he was brimming with confidence too, saying: ‘I’ve been at Volvo for 18 years so I look at our plans and I think that we have actually nailed it this time.’ ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Hot Volvo V40 Polestar ‘would be perfect for UK’ Volvo boss expresses his wish for Polestar to build a hot hatchback

V

olvo’s UK boss has expressed his wish for a V40 Polestar hot hatchback to take on Mercedes and BMW. Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, Nick Connor said that he and other Volvo managing directors around the world had told Polestar they wanted a tuned V40 hatchback to take on performance cars such as the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG and BMW 135i.

‘I think a V40 Polestar would be a perfect car for the UK market,’ he told us. ‘When Polestar created the C30 Polestar Concept Car, people were asking how can we buy one?

People were genuinely disappointed that it wasn’t going to be available as a production car.

by JAMES batchelor @JRRBatchelor

‘A Polestar V40 would have a lot of credibility,’ he added.

Connor’s comments come after Volvo’s recent opening of its order books for the new V60 Polestar.

Acting as Volvo’s official tuning partner, Polestar has reworked and retuned the V60 to create a limited edition model brimming with racy features. Only 125 are coming to the UK and Connor admitted that most had already been sold, despite the car not arriving for delivery until September.

‘I was lucky enough to take the car out for a few days last week and at the filling station people

came over and talked to me about it. People are genuinely excited by it because it harks back to the great British Touring Car Championship days of the ‘90s with the 850 T5-R estate – they loved that and they will love the V60 Polestar.

‘There was always going to be a limited run of these V60 Polestars but I think we could have definitely sold many times more than what we have taken,’ Connor said. ‘Once they have all sold out, there is no reason why we cannot revisit it over the coming years. I would like to see a wider range of Polestar products.’

Volvo V60 Polestar

tested, pages 40-41

Volvo V60 Polestar

Volvo V40

Connor: We won’t be ditching our S80 anytime soon VOLVO will not abandon the luxury saloon car market any time soon, according to Volvo UK boss Nick Connor.

Despite registering a paltry 514 units of its posh S80 saloon last year, Connor was adamant the Swedish car maker would not axe the model or abandon the luxury saloon car market over the coming years.

‘We will not stop selling the current S80 and it will still remain in production for the foreseeable future,’ Connor exclusively told us.

‘We don’t have much heritage in the large saloon market. However, people who own the car rate it very, very highly and actually we have a very strong and loyal customer base who like what it offers. But it is not a huge seller.’

Connor admitted that Volvo will need to change its direction when it comes to taking on rivals’ exec cars.

‘We will have a challenge when we eventually replace the S80 as we will need to go out and catch some more market share,’ he said. ‘Frankly, it hasn’t persuaded enough people to consider it.’

According to SMMT data, compared with the 514 S80 units Volvo sold last year, its nearest rival, BMW, registered 20,552 units of its 5 Series.

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DASHBOARD. It is I, Leclerc, new boss of Citroen and Linda Jackson’s replacement

PROSECUTION

Car dealer said he was a private seller, court told A CAR dealer from Middlesbrough has been fined for pretending to be a private seller. Joshua Trainor, 23, of Burlam Road, Linthorpe, advertised over 30 cars online and said many of them were family members’ vehicles. He even described one of them as being a ‘beloved’ car that was his aunt’s. Many of the sales were said to be ‘reluctant’.

However, the cars were actually obtained by him through auctions or exchanges. Despite this, though, it was claimed online that they had ‘never bothered me’ or ‘never lets me down’, reported GazetteLive.co.uk Trainor was prosecuted under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 by Middlesbrough Council’s Trading Standards department. The car dealer, who pleaded guilty at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, was fined £110 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £20 plus £500 costs.

After the case, Middlesbrough principal Trading Standards officer Jim McCluskey said: ‘Pretending to be a private seller when you are a business is deceptive and this practice is banned in law as it affects a person’s legal rights as a consumer.

‘We will investigate businesses which give a false impression about their trade.’

NISSAN

New aftersales package ready NISSAN has created a comprehensive new aftersales package called Nissan Service Care.

The new package incorporates fixed-price servicing and parts and is available at Nissan dealerships and service centres across the country.

Chris Marsh, Nissan aftersales director, said: ‘We have spent a great deal of time developing Nissan Service Care, consulting with customers and dealers.’ ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

CITROEN UK has appointed Arnaud Leclerc as its new managing director.

Arnaud, 39, left, took up the new role on June 1 and replaces Linda Jackson, who has been promoted to CEO of Citroen.

Prior to his appointment at Citroen UK, Arnaud was responsible for the Citroen brand in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, holding the position of managing director – Citroen Scandinavia since July 2011.

Arnaud also held a number of key roles earlier in his career, including managing director – Citroen Croatia and regional co-ordinator for the Citroen brand in Europe. He started his career in the motor industry in 1997 and joined PSA Peugeot Citroen in March 2001.

Arnaud said: ‘I am delighted to take up this new position following Linda Jackson’s promotion as CEO of the Citroen brand. This is a very exciting time for the brand globally and Citroen has already achieved real success in the UK. ‘I look forward to playing my part in this continuing success story as we work to implement the ‘Back in the Race’ strategy across the PSA Group.’

Revealed: Car dealers who are the wealthiest in the UK Sir Arnold Clark and Jack Tordoff among those in Sunday Times Rich List

T

he latest Sunday Times Rich List has been published – and, as in previous years, there is a strong showing by the wealthiest car dealers in the UK. The newspaper’s annual review of personal wealth reports that Sir Arnold Clark is the highest-rated dealer group boss.

He is positioned at number 148, based on a family fortune of £675 million, and has risen 24 places from number 172 in last year’s list.

The next automotive trade representative in the list is Lord Edmiston, the founder and owner of IM Group, the UK distributor of Subaru, Great Wall and Isuzu.

Edmiston’s fortune is estimated at £452 million and he is placed at number 228.

The list shows his fortune has risen by £12 million since 2013 when he was placed at number 209.

Jack Tordoff, chairman of West Yorkshire-based JCT600, and his family are rated at number 272 with a fortune of £353 million. The family

by DAVE BROWN @CarDealerDave

and company continue to thrive, with their fortune increasing by £23 million on 2013, when they were placed at number 261.

Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia, the founder of Euro Car Parts, is rated at 307 with an accumulated wealth of £300m. Last year he was placed 277th with the same monetary wealth.

Geoffrey Warren, of Car Giant, is placed at number 421 in the list, with a reported fortune of £220 million.

His monetary value is the same as last year but he has dropped 65 places in the list.

Tony Bramall, whose businesses have included CD Bramall and Bramall and Jones, is rated at 448, based on his fortune of £209m. Last year he was in 417th place with his fortune £17m less than it is this year.

The list places Sir Peter Vardy and his family at number 534 (down 30 places from 504 last year) with their fortune of £175 million (£155 million

in 2013). Vardy and his family sold the Reg Vardy business to Pendragon in 2005 in a £450 million deal.

Sharing the 534th slot are Keith Bradshaw and family (Listers), also with a recorded fortune of £175m (up £30 million and up 25 places).

The final three car dealers listed are as follows: n In 561st place (down from 473 last year): Sir Colin Giltrap, with a fortune of £167 million (down £2m on 2013) n In 751st place (a new entrant for 2014): Terry Lister and family (£120 million) n In 921st place (down from 956 last year): Douglas Park and family of Park’s Motor Group (£95 million, up £17 million on last year).

Publication of the list prompted a discussion thread in the Car Dealer Forum, with Umesh Samani, of Specialist Cars in Stoke-on-Trent, adding the light-hearted comment: ‘I’d like to know why none of my Twitter friends are on here! Come on guys – or do we need to stop tweeting and get selling!’

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DASHBOARD.

Mitsubishi staff team relocate Chelsea garden for children Sensory experience for special primary school pupils in Tottenham

A

team of staff from Mitsubishi dealerships in the south-east helped to transform a patch of land into a sensory garden for schoolchildren.

Staff from CCR Mitsubishi dealerships in Putney, Chertsey and Chessington gave a hand to the WellChild charity, which had a garden designed for the Chelsea Flower Show and then transported the whole thing to The Brook Special Primary School in Adams Road, Tottenham.

CCR Mitsubishi, which has 11 dealerships across the south of England, sponsors WellChild, a national charity that helps seriouslyill children and their families across the UK, and when staff heard about the project they were happy to help.

Peter Maddox, a fundraiser at WellChild, said: ‘We had the garden at the Chelsea Flower Show to help raise awareness about the work we do. To increase its positive impact we relocated it lock, stock and barrel to the school for them to enjoy as part of our Helping Hands projects.

‘We can’t do these sorts of projects without volunteers like the team from

Mitsubishi, so it’s great they have given us their time.’

Shane Sunkel, brand manager at Putney Mitsubishi, said: ‘When we heard about this, we all thought it was a great idea. It was hard work, with a lot of lifting and digging involved, but it’s really satisfying to see this muddy area transformed into an amazing garden for all the children to enjoy.’

Sunkel was joined by his master technician Chris Porter, Chertsey Mitsubishi brand manager Saul Hodder and Andrew Blanks, brand manager at Chessington Mitsubishi.

Garden designer Olivia Kirk said: ‘I think it’s brilliant that the garden has been relocated to the school. It’s lovely it will be there for children to enjoy.’

used car values

Supercars are top performers SUPERCAR values have outperformed all other used vehicles in the past 12 months, according to pricing experts CAP – but prices are still down.

Wealthy buyers happy to splash the cash on a Lamborghini or Ferrari are keeping the values of exclusive models higher than standard stock. Overall, used car values have fallen by 9.2 per cent, says CAP, while the supercar sector is down by only 2.2 per cent.

Clive Wilson of CAP said: ‘This is an extension of the economic trend that saw so many luxury goods and high-value properties weather the recession. These cars, and their customers, seem to be largely immune from pressures that see so many of us focusing ever more closely on the running costs of the cars we drive.’

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 21

INTERVIEW.

‘The most amicable separation ever . . .’

DANIELLE BAGNALL talks to a man who’s always been determined to succeed – and who’s now on the threshold of an exciting new venture

W

orking with friends and family is often a scenario that doesn’t work out too well. But for Tom Hartley Jnr, that was never a problem. And although he has now decided to go it alone and found his own company after 20 years spent working for the family business, there’s no hint of a disagreement.

It’s a decision he says is based solely on his passion and drive for classic and prestige cars.

Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer just days after the news was announced, he said: ‘It has been a privilege working alongside my father and brother for so long and the decision to branch out on my own to develop a new business has not been easy. Professionally speaking, this is the most amicable separation ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

you can imagine but the time is now right for me to put my considerable experience, reputation and energy into a new venture that I can develop in a very personal way. I’m looking forward to the incredibly exciting times ahead.’

Perhaps surprisingly too, there will be no rivalry in future from his father, Tom Hartley Snr, and brother, Carl. Tom Hartley Jnr’s new venture will focus on classic and very prestige vehicles, which should mean no conflict of interest between the two businesses.

They say you learn the most in your younger years, and Tom was thrown head-first into the deep end of the car market at the age of 11. As with many automotive people, his upbringing played a rather large part in how his life turned out – his father is well-known for his strong

work ethic and instilled this in Tom at a very young age. This passion and drive saw him become a fully-fledged partner of the family business at the tender age of 16.

From then on, his dedication to the family business and the effective way he combined the grown-up world of work while still pursuing his school career, showed a real determination to succeed.

Tom said: ‘I have worked very hard to be where I am today, but I always feel very privileged to have such a loyal client base.’

In contrast to some other specialist dealers, Tom Hartley Jnr. will purchase stock first, then look to find buyers. ‘We have quite a lot of stock, which is all physically owned and bought by us, that will be going live on the website on

JCT600 to restore Porsche 911 to former glory bit.ly/JCT911 Tom Hartley Jnr says he is looking forward to exciting times ahead

To have a client come to you and then come back is the biggest compliment anyone could have June 18,’ he said. ‘If it is shown to have been good enough for us to buy, then we hope that will make the end user more comfortable to invest.’

Naturally though, clients will still be able to make requests if the required car isn’t in stock.

The new website is tailored so that it fits to every screen and device, and is designed for ease of use, to make it simple for customers to shop for the car they want.

Targeting both national and international markets, the business, which will be based in Derbyshire, will focus on luxury, prestige and classic motors. However, the company will be prepared to diversify. If a customer requests something specific, and perhaps a little different, Tom will go out of his way to help.

His clients trust him implicitly and over the years, he has provided them with wide range of fabulous vehicles.

Tom’s love of cars doesn’t stop at work, though. He has a fantastic collection of his own, including a Lamborghini Miura, Porsche 911 2.7 RS and a Ferrari Daytona, to name but a few.

And would you believe that his daily motor, the car he drives from A to B, is a bog-standard Volkswagen Golf?

Tom’s aim, with this new business venture, is to help existing and prospective clients avoid making any costly mistakes when parting with their money.

The purchase of used cars in general can be a daunting task – whether it be not being aware of the car’s history, or perhaps simply not knowing

much about a particular model. The service that Tom provides is a hassle-free way of getting a dream car, and his knowledge and dedication to his clients ensures a smooth purchase without any potential pitfalls.

Tom understands that people buy from people, and when people do business at Tom Hartley Jnr. they become a friend. He says: ‘A level of trust is required when buying a car.

‘We sell cars that are up to 40-odd million dollars. When someone is spending that kind of money, they need to know that, one, they know what they’re doing and, two, that the company they’re dealing with is not going anywhere.

‘To have a client come to you and to come back to you is the biggest compliment anyone could have.’ [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 23

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DASHBOARD. CHARGES

Dealer sold 16 clocked cars, court is told A CAR dealer from Luton narrowly avoided going to jail after pleading guilty to 16 charges of selling clocked vehicles.

Mikhail Sturki, 28, of Pauls Road, was the junior partner at dealerships Lama Cars and Modern Cars in Luton, run by his brother-in-law, but admitted to Luton Crown Court he knew that the brother-in-law was selling clocked cars and still went along with it.

Sturki received a ninemonth suspended prison sentence and was told to complete 250 hours of community service.

Sentencing him, the judge commented that cases such as these were not only dangerous for victims but the reputations of legitimate car dealers, reported the Luton & Dunstable Express.

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Chief executive killed by lightning strike Freak accident happened during charity golf event

M

otor trade supplier White Clarke Group’s chief executive officer Dara Clarke has died after being struck by lightning.

The freak accident happened on May 22 while he was hosting a charity golf match in Watford. He died three days later.

In a statement, the company – which provides asset finance to the motor trade – said: ‘Bringing with him a larger-than-life personality, Dara Clarke’s professionalism and expertise wrought a massive influence in the European finance industry.’ Clarke and business partner Ed White launched the White

Clarke Group in 1992. They grew the company from start-up into a multinational technology solutions provider that operates in more than 30 countries worldwide with a staff of 500. He went on to become an active investor in many technological start-ups, automotive service companies and specialist financial service companies under the umbrella of the group.

The funeral will take place in Ireland and a memorial service will be held in Milton Keynes. Both dates had yet to be announced at the time of going to press. In lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to Broomfield Hospital (Burns Department) and Herts Air Ambulance.

FORD

Rebranding goes live ONE of the biggest rebranding exercises in Ford’s history has gone live as the manufacturer’s own dealer network is rebranded TrustFord. Formally known as the Ford Retail Group, the new brand comes with a raft of fresh free services.

These include New Driver, which lets customers book a tutorial with a technician who will take them through the basics of maintaining their car, and Technology Tutorials, which will see customers taught how to get the most out of their vehicles and free software updates.

Stuart Kerr, CEO of TrustFord, said: ‘These tutorials will help highlight our commitment to providing our customers with a transparent service across our entire network.’

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Forty years in the UK – and Mitsubishi is still flying high!

MD Lance Bradley was among those brave enough to go wingwalking at special event

I

t’s fair to say car manufacturer bosses are used to the luxuries of plane travel, but normally as a passenger – not sitting on top.

That’s not the case for Mitsubishi Motors in the UK managing director Lance Bradley. He, along with dealers and customers, have celebrated 40 years of the company in the UK in style with a special 120mile ‘Grand Tour’ of Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.

More than 60 Mitsubishi models through the decades took part and the celebrations were topped off with daring ‘wingwalks’ with the help of the Breitling Wingwalkers.

Bradley said: ‘It’s been absolutely fantastic. The turnout has been brilliant and the cars that people have brought are simply amazing.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the

by JAMES batchelor @JRRBatchelor

quality and the variety of the cars.

The day’s been all we could have hoped for. There’s everything from saloon cars like Lancers, Colts and Galants, through sports cars and coupés to 4×4 SUVs. We’ve even had Pentti Airikkala’s Starion rally car.’

Along with loyal customers and Mitisubishi fans, a large number of dealers took cars along too. One was Jeremy Griffiths, dealer principal of Nunns of Grimsby, who was driving a 1998 Galant 2.0-litre GLS estate with just 26,000 miles on the clock.

‘It was partexchanged for a brand-new ASX,’ he said.

‘All we had to

do was wash it. In fact, we probably did more miles in one day travelling down here than it’s ever done in one day in its life!’

Alister Scott, dealer principal at Adam Purves Mitsubishi in Galashiels, who won a trophy for best 4x4 with his 1990 Shogun MK1 SWB, said: ‘It’s been a superb day.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. A big thank-you to Mitsubishi UK and Lance Bradley and his team. They’ve done a fantastic, top job. I wish I could do this every weekend!’

Happy landing: Lance Bradley after his flight, main picture, and top, in the air

Young entrepreneur grabs award for business success A YOUNG entrepreneur who took control of his floundering family firm has won a national award.

Henry Williams, 29, took the helm of his family business Williams Automobiles three years ago and his turnaround strategy has earned him the title of Worldpay’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Williams Automobiles has been in Bristol for more than 100 years and since launching in 1911 the business has been passed down through four generations of the Williams family.

After building up the business as a regional, family-owned group representing brands such as Saab, Skoda, Suzuki, Subaru and Isuzu, the business has transformed from a

franchised dealer holding Morgan and Lotus franchises.

Williams said: ‘It was the recent recession that hit the business hard.

My father wanted to take a step back from the company so I took over the reins. My goal was to bring all the best practices from a larger business to a low-cost, but user-friendly retail environment.’

PLANS

VW showroom gets go-ahead PLANS for a 35,000sq ft Volkswagen dealership in Exeter have been given the green light.

Showcasing Volkswagen’s new ‘Retail Concept’, which focuses on clean, unfussy interiors and spaciousness, the design of the dealership will create a landmark entrance to the new Matford Green Business Park.

The dealership will be the first scheme to be built on the business park and will comprise a 22-car showroom and 15-bay workshop.

VAUXHALL

Commercial is banned by ASA A VAUXHALL advert for the Ampera has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading customers by comparing the car’s range with pure electric vehicles.

A complaint was made about a regional press advert that read: ‘Compared to other electric cars, the Ampera, with up to [a] 360mile range…’

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

LOOKERS

Healthy jump in new car sales LOOKERS has reported a 25 per cent increase in new car sales in quarter one, year-on-year.

According to its Interim Management Statement 2014, the company’s fleet and used car volumes had also increased, marking a great start to the year for the company. Aftersales business at Lookers also saw an increased turnover by nine per cent.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 27

DASHBOARD. most valuable

Toyota tops car brands list TOYOTA is the world’s most valuable car brand for the second year in a row, with its value increasing by 21 per cent to £17.6bn in 2014.

The second car company on the BrandZ list is BMW, whose value rose by seven per cent to £15.3bn.

Mercedes-Benz (£12.7bn) came in third and Honda (£8.3bn) was fourth. Ford saw the highest increase in the top 10 over the past year – its brand value increased by 56 per cent to £7bn.

In the past nine years Toyota has topped the table for car brands seven times.

Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ director at Millward Brown, said: ‘Toyota continues to be very clever about its brand and making it stand for quality and value.’ Google is the most valuable company overall, at £83.7 bn.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

New Rolls-Royce showroom opens for business in Essex P&A Wood marks 50 years as restoration leaders for heritage cars

M

ore than 2,000 people attended the opening of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ London Stansted (P&A Wood) new state-of-the-art showroom in Great Easton, near Great Dunmow, Essex.

The event marked 50 years of P&A Wood as one of the world’s most respected authorities on the restoration and maintenance of heritage Rolls-Royce cars. A cavalcade showcased Rolls-Royces through the decades and there were fly-pasts, craftsmanship displays and tours of P&A Wood’s pre-war and postwar car restoration workshops.

Broadcaster and P&A Wood customer Chris Evans shared ribboncutting honours with Paul and Andy Wood to mark the official opening of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London

Stansted showroom, which is next to the original site. The development represents a £2.5m investment by P&A Wood, with the exterior designed to mirror the original showroom.

The new showroom has a customer bespoke lounge to allow customers to create their personalised Rolls-Royce, and an accessories shop.

James Crichton, regional director,

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Europe, said: ‘The investment P&A Wood has made in this remarkable facility represents a new and exciting chapter for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London Stansted.

The new showroom and adjacent coachworks and restoration workshops are shining examples of our dealer’s commitment to providing an exceptional level of service to every Rolls-Royce customer.’

Georgina Wood, Rolls-Royce brand manager, P&A Wood, who is the daughter of founder Paul Wood, said: ‘My father and my uncle have achieved so much in 50 years and our new, exceptionally high quality premises not only showcase our move into the 21st century but they also separate the classic from the current.’

Around the world Dealer news from somewhere other than here

RUSSIA

Great Wall is to invest £310 million in a new car-manufacturing plant in Russia, according to CarNewsChina.com. The plant will be built in the town of Uzlovaya, roughly 120 miles south of Moscow. Able to churn out 150,000 cars per year, it will be Great Wall’s largest plant outside China. Construction will begin later this year, with manufacturing due to start in 2017.

NEW ZEALAND

USA

POLICE are hunting a thug who violently assaulted a car dealer at his Miami showroom. The attacker turned up with a friend and, during a dispute over a vehicle that one of them had bought from the dealership, punched the owner of the business, Ruben Mirelman, before turning on a member of his staff who tried to intervene. Local TV news reporter Jason Martinez said that the attack had left Mirelman ‘fearing for his life’.

BRAZIL

General Motors recalled 238,360 vehicles in Brazil in late May, shortly after it was announced that 2.4 million cars were being called back to dealerships in America. The Brazilian announcement takes the number of vehicles GM has recalled so far this year to more than 15 million, as the company continues to address safety concerns.

INDIA

A delivery of cars on its way to Christchurch failed to arrive on time after the truck transporting them hit a bridge when the driver misjudged its height. The cab of the vehicle squeezed under the structure, but the large trailer carrying five cars failed to do so. All three cars on the top deck suffered substantial damage. Two toppled off the trailer, while one teetered on the edge.

Unsurprisingly, the driver was said to be ‘embarrassed’.

The Indian Government is reportedly working on a new safety framework for its automotive industry. According to reports, cars would be required to undergo mandatory sideimpact and frontal crash tests. India has a pretty dreadful record when it comes to road safety – about 10 per cent of all fatal accidents in the world happen there, figures show.

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 29

E C N A H C T S A L R U YO SURVEY.

Don’t miss out – tell us what you really think Time’s running out! Don’t miss the June 30 deadline for this year’s Car Dealer Power Survey – and you could win one of a range of fabulous prizes just by completing the form

W

orld Cup fever might be upon us – but even though you’ll probably be enjoying the festival of football, don’t forget to get involved in this year’s Car Dealer Power survey!

The deadline for completed forms to be received is Monday, June 30 – just a couple of weeks away.

But that still gives you enough time to get involved – and we would urge you to do exactly that! Hundreds of dealers across the UK have already told us exactly what they think of the manufacturers and suppliers with whom they do business – and you could do the same. If you haven’t got involved yet, read on to discover why it’s worth taking part.

What is Car Dealer Power?

NOW in its fifth year, Car Dealer Power firmly puts you – the dealers – in the driving seat and gives you the chance to tell manufacturers and suppliers exactly what it’s like working with them.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

It’s your opportunity to recognise the very best companies that help you do business.

Car Dealer Power is the survey that aims to find the best car manufacturer in the UK to award by quizzing its dealers about how it performs on a variety of levels. Last year, Toyota just pipped Kia and Hyundai to the top gong.

Suppliers feature just as prominently as the manufacturers, and for 2014 you’ll see there’s ample opportunity to name the suppliers with whom you like to do business.

We’ve split a number of the categories to give the smaller firms more chance of recognition in these important awards, and this year we’ve added Tyre Provider of the Year, Motor Factor of the Year and Trade Insurance Provider of the Year to the line-up.

We want you to rate the firms you use in all areas of your business so we can celebrate the very best – and invite them to our special Car Dealer Power awards night to be held at Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower on July 31.

WHY SHOULD I FILL IT IN? WE know for a fact that manufacturers and suppliers take your views very seriously and have made changes on the back of your comments.

Don’t be worried about any repercussions, as Car Dealer Power is 100 per cent confidential – we don’t even ask for your name, only your mobile phone number so we can let you know if you’ve won a prize. We want to know the good and bad things about what it’s like to represent your car manufacturer, so please feel free to give your most honest opinions.

Filling in the Car Dealer Power survey shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes. You can do it by logging on to CarDealerPower.com – it’s very straightforward. And if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes, don’t forget to add your mobile number.

As we’ve said, the deadline for submitting your survey is June 30.

But remember – surveys need to be at least 50 per cent complete to count. Get voting! [CD]

Fill in the survey NOW by

The bribes: Fill in the survey and you could win . . .

Suzuki GoodIE bag

This latest rucksack from Suzuki is packed with goodies, all of which will keep you warm in the cold months.

WRC Rally Jacket

Why not turn up to work in style, with a Citroen rally jacket? It’s the perfect way to show your support – and it’s worth £100!

MINI GOODIES

As well as a cap, pen, notebook and T-shirt, this goodie bag comes with a limited edition Mini Plant Oxford book.

TV’s Mike Brewer book

The perfect gift for a fan of the Wheeler Dealers TV show. Mike talks you through buying and selling modern classics.

Mercedes NAIL KIT

Ladies, why not spruce up your nails with this fantastically glamorous nail polish set from Mercedes-Benz?

Wonder Wheels KIT

Whether it’s for your stock or your own set of wheels, this luxury kit will get your car’s wheels looking like a million dollars.

Car Plan Valet Pack

Are your cars looking a bit sorry for themselves in wet weather? Bring back the shine with Car Plan’s Auto Finish.

logging on to CarDealerPower.com

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 31

FINANCE. FIGURES

Continued optimism over motor finance FIGURES just released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show a growth of four per cent in consumer new car finance volumes during April, compared with the same month last year.

The used car finance market reported nine per cent growth in new business volumes over the same period.

The annual percentage of private new car sales financed by FLA members has been stable over the past ten months at around 75 per cent.

In the 12 months to April 2014, it was exactly 75 per cent, up slightly from 74.8 per cent in March.

Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist, said: ‘April was a quieter month for the car finance market following a strong performance in March.

Consumer car finance growth remained robust.

FLA motor finance providers are optimistic.

‘The Q2 2014 Retail Motor Finance Survey results showed that more than 60 per cent of respondents expected new business growth in excess of 10 per cent in each of the new car, used car and light commercial vehicle finance markets over the next year.’

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Finance applications now need to be treated with more sensitivity, says iVendi ‘Careful thought is needed to preserve relationships with long-term customers’

D

ealers could damage their long-term relationships with customers if they do not learn to handle the new FCA affordability test in a sensitive manner, warns iVendi.

The company says meeting the FCA’s requirements in this area is likely to involve asking for much more detailed information about a customer’s personal finances than existing motor finance applications, points out the online motor technology specialist.

Difficult areas covered are likely to include information about income and any possible future personal changes in circumstance – leading to potential discomfort on the part of customers unused to being asked these questions in a dealership.

CEO James Tew, pictured, said: ‘This type of detailed financial questioning is really a new area for dealers. It is unlikely that your motor finance provider has been using an application process that employs anything other than fairly blunt criteria designed to assess whether a potential customer can actually afford the car that they want. Filling in the average application form has generally taken a matter of minutes.

‘Under the new FCA regulations, the process will be more sophisticated and designed to assess whether the customer can sensibly afford the payments on the vehicle and finance product that they want.

‘This means building up a more complete picture of their finances and taking sales or F&I staff into areas that are probably new to them in terms of knowing how to deal with customers appropriately.’ Dealers needed to be aware of the potential pitfalls of this kind of customer handling and a much higher degree of sensitivity would be required, Tew added.

He said: ‘Dealers need to treat the process with more gravity than has been usual and perhaps have a room

set aside where information can be gathered in a calm atmosphere, rather than sitting at a desk on the showroom floor with people milling around. The manner of dealer staff also needs to be much more serious and sensitive than has been the case with motor finance applications up until now. It is a question of finding a tone that makes the customer comfortable about passing over detailed personal information.

‘Getting this right could be a key factor in ensuring that you do not damage long-term relationships with customers, and dealers and motor finance providers may want to look at whether training and detailed guidance are needed.’

MotoNovo scoops provider gong for third time at awards MOTONOVO Finance has been named Car Finance Provider of the Year at the Credit Today Awards.

The finance company, dedicated to the motor trade, has won the award

three times in the past five years.

The firm’s impressive financial results, staff development and vision sealed the deal for the judges.

Karl Werner, head of sales and

marketing, said: ‘MotoNovo Finance is all about embracing innovation and change. The value of this approach has seen MotoNovo’s growth in used car finance outperform the market.’

..in association with

DEALFINDER.

Latest finance deals on SPORTS CARS

incarnation of the MX-5 with no deposit and zero per cent APR. The company supplies a deposit contribution of £2,250 and the optional final payment is just £4,692. The contract runs over three years with monthly payments of £275 for the nippy rear-wheel-drive car.

That seems like an excellent deal but by increasing their deposit to £4,000 buyers could make their payments as low as £180.

This is based on the 1.8-litre petrol engine and a soft top but you can get the same deal for any model in the range.

The 2.0-litre coupe is just £100 extra a month. The on-the-road price for the latest MX-5 is just £18,495.

TOYOTA GT86 THE Toyota GT86 is a lightweight and affordable sports car known for its great handling. It has serious kerb appeal and certainly appears it will shift.

Although it doesn’t feel that powerful, it handles fantastically and is well-priced.

Toyota has made the GT86 look the part with chrome dual-exhausts, 17-inch alloy wheels and sports seats to accompany the equally sporty interior. Toyota is offering the GT86 with a £1,000 deposit contribution and the buyer needs only to match that. The latest 200bhp 2.0-litre GT86 is available for just 35 monthly payments of £425. There is an optional

final payment of £10,674 making the total amount payable £27,555.65. Interest in the GT86 is increasing as Cosworth has created a new tuning package and more versions are on the way later this year.

PORSCHE BOXSTER IT WOULD be impossible not to mention a Porsche in a line-up of sports cars. The Boxster has been a member of the Porsche family for 17 years.

The classic shape harks back to the

time is money

Transparency is crucial

MAZDA MX-5 THE Mazda MX-5 is the world’s bestselling two-seater sports car and not without good reason. It’s best known for being serious fun, possibly a little bit scary, and is a car that will stand the test of time.

Mazda is currently offering the latest

Meldrum

manufacturer’s curves of the 1950s with all the modern technology of today. To own a Boxster, customers will need a deposit of £8,000, but Porsche will sweeten the deal slightly, contributing £1,500.

There are 36 monthly payments and a final optional payment of £20,652.27.

The APR is high in comparison to some other deals at 7.5 per cent and the total amount payable by the customer is £43,399.67. If a buyer can afford the initial deposit, the monthly payments are relatively low at £418.64, as the amount held on credit is just £29,850.00.

D

o you consider the people in your organisation to be professional and adaptable to change or do they still hold on to old ways? By now, most of you will have received your FCA notification with dates of when to apply for authorization after the interim permissions period has expired.

There will be a lot of talk surrounding the need for ‘transparency’ and whilst a few might roll their eyes and have a good moan about over-zealous regulation designed to destroy the car industry it’s important to point out that this issue isn’t going away any time soon and the ‘we’ve always done it that way’ attitude doesn’t stack up any more.

Being ‘transparent’ is fast becoming one of the most over-used buzzwords in the finance industry so before you turn the page, please let me explain that I’m talking about a common-sense business standpoint – not just being compliant.

Maybe some answers are a mixture of ‘a deal’s a deal’ or maybe the misguided notion of ‘getting one over on the customer’ or even worse, thinking that the chances of getting caught are low.

As I see it, the advocates of these ‘old-school’ attitudes should realise that thanks to social media they signify a huge risk to their business.

Whereas, building an open and honest customer relationship leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction which in turn will motivate customers into referring their family and friends.

It’s probably worth mentioning that potential customers purchasing a car next weekend don’t have to visit your dealership so a good customer referral rather than a bad one could mean increasing sales whilst reducing advertising spend which all adds up to ‘transparently’ higher profits.

‘I’m talking about a common sense business standpoint.’

Who is Jim Meldrum?

Jim is regional sales manager for First Response Finance. Call him on 07917 460 111 or email Jimm@frfl.co.uk

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 33

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big mike.

All Big Mike’s columns are on our website. Enjoy here bit.ly/bigmike

Only first-time parents could ever think a cloth interior a good option M

y next door neighbours have just become parents. A fact that, no doubt, you’ll find a little tedious as you probably don’t know them, and even if you did, probably wouldn’t be especially excited about, other than to wish them well and keep out of their way for a while until such a time as the snotgobbler can control the disposal of its own waste.

For me, though, this was an exceptionally smug moment, for my neighbour, who we’ll call Tom, had single-handedly ignored every piece of my advice.

In that all-knowing way in which every soon-to-be new parent behaves, Tom had spent several months with his nose buried in tedious consumer-oriented car magazines trying to decide whether to sink his hard-earned into a finance package on a used European or new Korean tin box, with the same proportions as a food larder and equally dynamic performance.

After much soul-searching, Tom settled on a Volkswagen Touran and, knowing I ‘supposedly know a bit about cars’ (his words) decided to come round and tell me all about it.

It’s at this point that I should tell you that Tom is the kind of chap who tells you a bit about everything. He’s not unpleasant, per se, but is the kind of bloke you find a little nauseating from time to time – which is not helped by the fact his wife can be more than a little snooty.

He doesn’t even feel comfortable when he’s ‘telling you about’ stuff – it’s more that his wife has put him up to it so she can boast about what a good, hard-working, well-paid hubby she’s got. In his own way, I actually quite like Tom – he’s bright, he works hard and can afford a nice four-bed detached in Solihull in his early 30s, so he’s obviously not some kind of layabout.

When he told me he was going to buy the Touran, I pointed out every reason to him why he shouldn’t. First, he was giving up a BMW 3 Series Coupe and in no way whatsoever would the Touran make up for the things he was missing – German it may be, but it’s no sports car.

Secondly, with just the one rugrat, the extra seats in the Touran would be surplus to requirements as by the time another sprog arrived, it would already be knackered – that has no bearing at all, I hasten to add, on VW’s build quality but more reflects the destructive and evil nature of the world’s miniature people, who make it their sole purpose in life to mess with, bend, snap, stain or tear anything they come into contact with.

Third, he thought he could get away with a cloth interior.

Big Mike Our man on the inside spills the beans on the car business...

Only someone who has never been a parent before believes they can get away with a cloth interior.

Those of us in the know are aware that, whilst leather might actually be marketed as a luxury option, its real purpose in life is to exist as a surface from which sticky confectionery remnants, nappy leakages, crisps, pureed fruit and snot can be removed quickly and deftly with the use of a single wet wipe, because inevitably there’s only the one ever left in the packet.

I then went on to show Tom a ‘proper’ car for the owner of a new baby in the form of a 12-year-old Volvo V70 estate, which I took in PX a few months ago and which was living on my driveway ready for a school holiday visit from my eldest daughter, complete with a full complement of grandkids – three aged from five months to five years.

It had all of the things that Tom’s ‘dream’ Touran didn’t… an automatic gearbox, giving the harangued driver one less

‘He’d drawn a grand out of the bank and he bit my hand off’ thing to think about, pre-existing damage to both inner door cards, wipe clean leather seats, a self-adhesive Iggle Piggle activity sticker partially (and unsuccessfully) removed from the inside of the back window, one noisy and slow electric window with a mechanism infiltrated by dried-out Robinsons Fruit Shoot, an unidentifiable damp smell and some suspicious yellowy-brown stains on the headlining.

Or in other words, it was a normal family car.

Tom found all of this quite amusing, thinking it was more a display of my wry humour, and went off home to his wife and newborn son. Two weeks later, a brand new 2014 Volkswagen Touran appeared on their drive and for at least a week, I could see Tom clinging on to the wreckage, cleaning it, scrubbing the upholstery with wet wipes and getting more than a little stressed with his supposedly better half… This, remember, was well before the toddler days had even begun.

A week later, he was round my house admitting defeat.

The school holidays had been and gone, along with my daughter and her rabble, and the Volvo was surplus to requirements until the family descended in August. He’d drawn a grand out of the bank and bit my hand off…

Who is Big Mike?

Well, that would be telling. What we do know is he’s had 30 years in the car trade and picked up some terrific tales along the way.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 35

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bAGGOTT.

Have you got our FREE iPad app? Download here bit.ly/CDMiPad

Come on Mercedes, it’s time to make your move on Aston Martin

I

’ve come to the conclusion that it’s about time Mercedes shelled out and bought Aston Martin. And before you think that’s as mad as selling Big Ben to Vladimir Putin, hear me out – because the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

For starters, the two companies have already done a deal to share engines. And by share I mean Aston Martin will borrow and not give back… the best kind of sharing.

With this engine tie-up, Daimler takes a five per cent slice of the British car manufacturer pie. So they’re already dating.

But isn’t it time the two stopped flirting and just got down to business? And you know what, I actually think it’s Mercedes that needs to make the first move more urgently than Aston Martin.

Why? Well, the German manufacturer is beginning to lag behind its contemporaries when it comes to offerings for seriously premium customers.

And by premium I mean big fat gold-watch-wearing, don’t-look-at-the-bank-balance-because-they-don’t-care premium customers.

I was chatting to some American motoring hacks at an event recently and they said that in the States Mercedes is introducing the new GLA ­– a car that nannies employed by many wealthy businessmen will be driving.

He was concerned that these business leaders wouldn’t be seen dead driving the same brand of car as their nanny and would be turned off S Classes as a result. And he might have a point.

Mercedes seems intent on grabbing market share around the world in these lower-end market segments, but is this coming at the expense of its more premium models? The new S Class is a wonderful piece of kit but what about the market above that? Has the company got the product to fill that void?

Look at rivals BMW for a moment. They snapped up Rolls Royce in what can now only be described as a masterstroke. It was the step-up too-rich-for-7-Series buyers wanted and kept their oodles of cash flowing into BMW coffers. At the other end of the scale they added Mini – another genius piece of marketing – and one that’s been pretty damn successful, too. Even if the diversification of the Mini brand angers me hugely.

Mercedes on the other hand hasn’t been quite as successful. Exhibit A, your honour, comes in the shape of a giant S Class-a-like that looked too similar to their smaller, cheaper siblings yet cost vastly more. Yes, you

James Baggott *EDITOR’S NOTE: BLIMEY, A COLUMN THAT SEEmS TO MAKE SENSE FOR ONCE!

guessed it, the Maybach. That brand was never going to attract many buyers, was it?

And then there’s Smart. As much as I love those little things, the brand could hardly be described as the success that Mini has been for BMW could it?

And don’t get me into the Volkswagen Group. They have a brand to suit all tastes and it’s certainly worked pretty well for them. Audi for the premium buyers, Bugatti for the billionaires and Lamborghini for the mid-life crisis, hairy-chested bald men.

But what has Mercedes got to offer in these upper echelons of the motoring world? Okay, so there’s the SLS. A brilliant car, but one that urgently needs that difficult second series.

It seemed to be okay when there was the McLaren partnership – the SLR was a monster of a car and certainly had the price tag to suit, but that died a death when Big Ron from the Land of McLaren Perfection decided the

‘The British firm is ready for plucking and perfect for Mercedes’ three-pointed star had an odd number of points and it offended his OCD. Probably.

Which brings me to Aston Martin (eventually). It’s a brand that needs a massive injection of cash. It’s consistently listed as one of the coolest brands in the world – and we’re not just talking car brands here, we’re talking ALL brands.

It was beaten into second place by Apple but topped the likes of Rolex and Prada in the poll.

It makes some beautiful cars. Cars like the DB9, the new Vanquish and the amazing One-77. Okay, there’s the Cygnet, but they can’t get it right every time, can they?

Aston Martins don’t come with any of the baggage of similar supercars either. Drive one down the road and you’ll get more nods of appreciation than fingers of contempt. The problem is they’re old. The DB9 needed replacing five years ago. The tweaks they’ve made in recent years are only papering over the cracks.

Aston Martin needs cash – big, massive buckets of cash. It needs new chassis, new engines and more models. The British firm is ripe for plucking and an absolutely perfect match for Mercedes to nurture and grow into an automotive great.

What on earth are they waiting for?

Who is James Baggott?

He’s the founder of Car Dealer Magazine and managing director of parent company @BlackballMedia, an automotive services provider. He now spends most of his time on Twitter @CarDealerEd and annoying the rest of us.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 37

REAL DEALS.

..in association with

Marvellous Metro . . . with all hubcabs present!

Super little car is looking for a new owner who will appreciate its charms. Becca Chaplin reports

B

ack in 1990 there would be few people in the motor trade who would have predicted that the new Rover Metro rolling out of showrooms would ever become a sought-after classic.

However, fast-forward nearly 25 years and there’s a (strange) hardcore band of enthusiasts who love the boxy little supermini so much they’re willing to pay a premium for the privilege of owning one.

For these Rover anoraks the Holy Grail would be a one-owner, lovingly-kept example that a pensioner had purely used for trips to Waitrose (or any other generic posh supermarket outlet).

And for those Metro geeks, we have good news.

If ever there was an example to get them salivating it would be this prime example we’ve uncovered for this month’s Real Deals on Autotrade-mail.com.

Avondale Car Sales’ Alison Arthur, who is currently selling the car on the website, told us: ‘This car is almost 25 years old so it has a little bit of rust where you’d expect, but generally it’s a fantastic car. The best thing has got to be the colour – it looks great and has hardly aged.

‘The previous owner was a taxi driver who had only had it for a week and decided it wasn’t practical for him. He’d bought it from a 94-year-old who had only used it to drive to the shops and back. He’d really looked after it, always storing it in a garage.

‘The elderly gentleman had owned it from new.

He was moving into a home so needed to sell it.’

The car is in a very good condition and has a modest number of miles on the clock, as can be seen below

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

For a car that has been regularly used, this example is a real gem.

The Metro looks like it has just rolled out of the factory, apart from some slightly dull bumper plastics.

The interior appears spotless and the paintwork gleams. Shockingly, for a Metro of this age all the hubcaps are still present and damage-free and the car still has six months’ MOT remaining.

When Rover launched the revised Metro it was a real game-changer for the brand – so much so that the manufacturer even went so far as to brand it its ‘Metromorphosis’. Nice marketing babble… we approve. The little city car stood out from other vehicles in its segment because not only was it a looker (compared with the rivals at least) but it set new standards of quality, ride and refinement for the class. And they’re not our words, no, they’re the words of What Car? Magazine…

Rover put the supermini into production in May 1990, which means Avondale Car Sales’ Metro 1.1 C would have been

one

one of the first out of the factory door.

And if that wasn’t a killer selling point, the fact that it has less than 15,000 miles on the clock certainly will be.

Avondale Car Sales is a family business based in Strathaven, Scotland, and is hoping to move the Metro on soon.

Run by husband-and-wife team Craig and Alison Arthur, they pride themselves on being a friendly face in a small community.

‘We stock budget cars in a small town and try to make car buying accessible to everyone,’ Alison told us. Let’s hope the Metro finds a home with someone who’ll appreciate its charms… [CD] Visit autotrade-mail.com to start your free 14-day trial

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 39

forecourt.

Volvo V60 Polestar Nick Connor, Volvo UK managing director, chats to James Batchelor about his high hopes for the company and Polestar brand How has the past year been for Volvo?

We were happy with 2013. It was, in some respects, a year of preparation for this year and for next year with the new XC90. I think the volumes were fine but we always knew we could do a lot more this year with the facelifted products that came last year and particularly the new powertrains that have been really well received. Last year was fine but I always knew that we could do a hell of a lot more and we are demonstrating that now.

What are your expectations for this year?

Volume estimations is to break 40,000 this year. It will be the first time in 10 years that we’ve done that. I think it is absolutely achievable and that will give us circa 1.6 per cent market share.

How key do you think the V40 has been to 2013’s success?

V40 and V40 Cross Country are a very important part of our volume. We’ll do about 19,000 this year of V40 and V40 Cross Country. I think people are genuinely looking for something different in that segment. There is some very, very good product out there from our competitors but the V40 definitely stands a comparison with the best of those.

Is the primary aim of the V60 Polestar to build brand awareness of Polestar in the UK? Yes, that’s exactly why. It’s a bit of a brand-builder for Volvo and for Polestar, I think it highlights what Polestar could do with other products in the range. The software downloads available through our dealers are an important part of our business, and I think it provides a bit of a halo for those. The V60 Polestar has highlighted what we can do when we put our minds to it. We can make a car that really performs in quite an exceptional way on the road.

I have high hopes that we can show this on other cars in the coming years.

How surprised are you that the current XC90 still delivers strong sales numbers?

I look at the numbers for May and we are 132 per cent up in run-out, which is pretty much unheard of. I am surprised and I think it is amazing that a car that is over 10 years old can deliver that sort of sales success. It’s just evidence of the fact that we got that car completely right from day one. It was a huge success at launch, as it was fairly unique in that segment.

Do you have high expectations that the 125 units V60 Polestar will sell well?

Yes, the car doesn’t arrive in dealerships until September but we already have most of the production spaces taken actually.

on test Has Volvo finally produced a modern-day fast estate?

What is it?

What’s under the bonnet?

This is Volvo’s super-exclusive new V60 Polestar.

Limited to just 750 units around the world, only 125 are coming to the UK and represent the closest buyers can get to a Volvo racing car for the road. Polestar, Volvo’s tuning partner, has been applying its craft to the sensible Swedish firm’s motors since the mid1990s. The V60 Polestar is the first proper collaboration between the two companies, though – up until now, the closest buyers could get to a Polestar were power upgrades available at their local dealer for a small outlay.

Using Volvo’s throaty 3.0-litre straight-six T6 engine as a starting point, Polestar has replaced the already-more-than-capable turbocharger for a new twin-scroll unit and overhauled intercooler,

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

helping the car to throw out a more-than-healthy 345bhp. It means the estate car can get to 60mph in under five seconds.

What’s the spec like?

The Polestar comes with all of the standard goodies a V60 T6 AWD R-Design would feature – so there’s climate control, sat-nav and much more.

The Polestar adds carbon-fibre trim, racing seats, unique alloys and a bodykit – all for £49,775.

Deliveries begin in September.

What’s it like to drive?

The engine dominates the driving experience. The howling six-cylinder is a

ENGINE

Using Volvo’s mighty 3.0-litre straight-six as a start, Polestar has added a twin-scroll turbocharger and a new intercooler. It gives a total of 345bhp

the knowledge STYLING

INSIDE

Interior gets a light refresh with carbonfibre dashboard inserts, leather and nubuck seats and steering wheel, and there’s lashings of Polestar blue stitching

Polestar has beefed-up looks with a bespoke front bumper, side skirts and rear spoiler and diffuser. There’s also a set of unique 20-inch alloys

Model: Volvo V60 Polestar Price: £49,775 Engine: 3 .0-litre, turbocharged

straight six, petrol Power: 345bhp, 500Nm Max speed: 155mph 0-60mph: 4.8s MPG (comb’d): 27.7 Emissions: 237g/km Residual values (three years):

tbc

target buyers:

Volvo performance enthusiasts (yes, they do exist)

painful reminder that we won’t be seeing this engine for much longer, as Volvo has decided to downsize its engine range. The reworked engine is backed up by a stiffened chassis, adjustable Ohlins shock absorbers, a set of dampers that are shared with the Lamborghini Aventador and a new 2.5-inch stainless steel exhaust system. It makes a big difference: The Polestar is responsive and entertaining to drive – it still understeers like every other Volvo, but there’s a real verve to the way this Polestar drives.

What do the press think?

The Daily Telegraph said: ‘Nicely judged power and chassis upgrades give an admirable car a harder edge without sacrificing refinement and comfort.’

Auto Express concluded: ‘But if you’ve got the funds and fancy something different there is plenty to like.’

What do WE think?

Volvo and Polestar set out to build a performance estate car that could be ‘enjoyed 365 days of the year, not only on that perfect sunny Sunday’. There’s no doubt that they have managed that – it is a tremendously useable car and it gloriously harks back to fast Volvo estates of old. It is expensive though, and while there are only 125 units on offer, we can’t help but feel only hardcore Volvo fans will shell out £50k on one. The Polestar is also the last hurrah of Volvo producing large and characterful engines – something that saddens us.

the rivals:

Audi S4 Avant, BMW 335d Touring xDrive M Sport

Key Selling Points: 1. Stunning looks – topped off in daring Rebel Blue paint scheme 2. High level of standard kit 3. All-year capability

Deal Clincher: It’s exclusive – with only 125 units coming to the UK, it’s sure to be a collector’s item CarDealerMag.co.uk | 41

forecourt.

Nissan X-Trail The biggest of the three crossovers made by Nissan has been give a (somewhat overdue) facelift. Dave Brown put it through its paces.

TRANSMISSION

There is a choice of two gearboxes: a six-speed manual and a new XTronic automatic (which is available on twowheel-drive versions only).

DIMENSIONS

New X-Trail is 90kg lighter than the model it replaces. It’s 17mm longer and has a 76mm longer wheelbase, meaning there’s more space for everyone inside.

What is it?

What’s the spec like?

Well perhaps it’s over-simplifying things a bit to say it’s basically a bigger version of Nissan’s allconquering Qashqai, with seven seats rather than five, but if you haven’t got time to read on, that’s pretty much where we’re at. To play a quick round of carmaker bingo, it’s been redesigned ‘from the ground up’ and showcases Nissan’s new ‘design language’. What that means is that X-Trail’s lost its slightly boxy look and is a lot more sleek and streamlined.

Buyers will get a lot of bang for their buck bearing in mind prices start from a pretty reasonable £22,995. The car is available in four familiar grades – Visia, Acenta, n-tec and Tekna.

Entry-level Visia models sport stylish 17-inch alloy wheels and an eye-catching strip of LED daytime running lights. Features include Bluetooth connectivity, an MP3-compatible sound system,

What’s under the bonnet?

The car has been equipped with a cleaner and more economical 1.6-litre diesel engine, the only option for now. Don’t worry that it isn’t up to the job though. It is – and produces the same amount of torque as the 2.0-litre lump it replaces. X-Trail is a capable off-roader too in four-wheel-drive guise. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

air conditioning and heated door mirrors. Acenta (from £24,795) adds privacy glass, dual-zone climate control and a power sunroof. Customers choosing the n-tec (from £27,295) get a wealth of additional goodies such as DAB radio, power tailgate, Around View Monitor and the latest generation NissanConnect system.

What’s it like to drive?

It’s no surprise that it’s not exactly an exciting experience, but for such a chunky vehicle the X-Trail does handle very well. Having said that, we drove it with a single travelling companion.

With seven people on board plus bags and so on, it might be a slightly different story.

What do the press think?

Honest John said: ‘The X-Trail is not quite as practical as a traditional SUV, but it’s got more

Nissan Juke INSIDE

It’s all different, and much improved, over the old X-Trail. The raked seating layout is a clever touch, allowing everyone the best visibility possible.

the knowledge Model:

Nissan X-Trail 1.6-litre diesel (2WD) Price: £27,295 (as tested) Engine: 1.6-litre, turbocharged diesel Power: 129bhp, 320Nm Max speed: 117mph 0-60mph: 10.3s MPG (comb’d): 53.3-57.6 (com) Emissions: 129g/km Residual values (three years):

tbc

target buyers:

Large families, people who need off-road/towing ability.

the rivals:

Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford Kuga, Mitsubishi Outlander.

Key Selling Points: 1. A hatful of clever tech.

2. The pricing – it’s very competitive indeed.

3. It’s sleek now, not square.

Deal Clincher: It’s a properly stylish sevenseater and is far better allround than its predecessor.

style and should prove to be more capable.’

Auto Express said: ‘The handling feels a lot more comfort-focused than in the Qashqai.

There’s more body roll in the corners and a little less stability at speed as a result but comfort and refinement are both excellent.’

Brighter, bolder and with more storage space and tech, Juke has undergone its first major facelift What is it?

A new version of Nissan’s ‘Marmite’ B-segment crossover, which has been a storming success for the Japanese manufacturer since its introduction in 2010. It’s not to everyone’s taste, as we all know, but has helped Nissan attract plenty of new buyers to the brand. As many as 82 per cent of sales have been made to people who have never been behind the wheel of a Nissan before. With three new colours, a bigger boot, new engines and a new personalisation programme called ‘Nissan Design Studio’ the company is naturally hoping this new version will build on that success.

What’s under the bonnet?

A total of five engines are available. Three remain as before – the 93bhp 1.6, 115bhp 1.6 CVT and the recently introduced 108bhp dCi 1.5 diesel.

Then there are two brand-new petrol engines: A Renault/Nissan Alliance-developed 113bhp 1.2litre turbocharged DIG-T 115 petrol and a 187bhp 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol.

What’s the spec like?

Standard equipment on all models includes LED daytime running lamps, driver seat height adjustment, drive computer and tyre pressure monitor system. The Visia has 16-inch alloy wheels and manual air conditioning. Acenta models are enhanced with front fog lights, 17inch alloys, automatic air-con and rear privacy glass. Acenta Premium buyers will benefit from a colour reversing camera, DAB radio and Nissan’s new personalisation options. Tekna models add folding door mirrors, light and rain sensors.

What’s it like to drive?

There wasn’t much wrong with the way the ‘old’ Juke drove, and as a consequence Nissan

hasn’t messed around with this redesigned one too much. The 1.5-litre diesel is still the best all-rounder and offers plenty of get-up-and-go thanks to 108bhp and 260Nm of torque. A small wheelbase means the Juke handles well when it is thrown into twisty corners, but the top-spec Tekna’s 18-inch alloy wheels really spoil the otherwise floaty ride over poor road surfaces.

What do the press think?

Car Magazine said: ‘The Juke is one of Nissan’s success stories, and despite the competition, this facelift plays to its strengths.’ What Car? said: ‘The Juke is now a much better proposition than it was, mostly thanks to its new engine, but also because it’s now more practical and comfortable, and better equipped.’

What do WE think?

Some of the personalisation ideas are a bit garish for our conservative tastes perhaps but the newmodel Juke addresses some of the shortcomings of its predecessor, the main one being the size of the boot, which customers did grumble about. For this type of car, buyers couldn’t do much better than a Juke; it’s fun to drive and it’s built in the UK. It should do well.

the knowledge Model: Nissan Juke dCi 110 Tekna 2WD Price: £19,565 (as tested) Engine: 1.5-litre, turbocharged

diesel Power: 108bhp, 260Nm Max speed: 110mph 0-60mph: 11.0s MPG (comb’d): 70.6 Emissions: 104g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

What do WE think?

For those who regularly need to carry six other people around in comfort and safety, with a bit of off-roading thrown in, this will be ideal. For buyers with smaller families, but still keen on Nissan as a brand, the Qashqai is a better bet. Nissan sold around 1,500 examples of the old X-Trail annually – it is hoping to shift 10,000 a year from now on.

It’s more spacious, quieter, comfortable and cheaper to run. Overall, it’s better in every department over the outgoing model.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 43

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forecourt.

ENGINES

INSIDE

Three petrols and a diesel – the latter is, unsurprisingly, going to be the best-selling one in the UK, taking 60 per cent of sales

Fantastic build quality and follows the rest of the Porsche range in design. Macan features a 918-style steering wheel, too

LOOKS

Porsche Macan

Macan has a far more purposeful stance than the larger Cayenne, thanks to its swooping roof and more aggressive front-end styling

Porsche is set to bolster its premium SUV range with the launch of this new mid-sized Macan. James Batchelor reports What is it?

What’s the spec like?

Porsche will tell you at great length that the new Macan is not a downsized, shrunken version of the Cayenne SUV. It is, in fact, based loosely on the Audi Q5 and is a new entrant in the hugely profitable and popular compact SUV sector. It expands Porsche’s SUV range by 100 per cent and, judging by the larger Cayenne’s sales history, it will sell by the bucketload.

For now at least, the range is awfully simple. Both the petrol and diesel Macan S cost £43,300 and come reasonably well specified with an electric tailgate, part-leather, partalcantara upholstery, dual-zone climate control, MP3 connectivity and 18-inch alloys. The Turbo at £59,300 adds 19-inch wheels with red brake calipers, sat nav, Bose sound system, leather upholstery with electric front seats and alcantara roof lining.

What’s under the bonnet?

There’s the option of a 335bhp 3.0litre, twin-turbocharged petrol or a 254bhp 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel predicted to take 60 per cent of UK sales. The range is topped off with the 394bhp, 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged Turbo – it’s ludicrously fast, but doesn’t put the lower-powered V6s to shame as they are equally punchy.

There is, however, a fourth option: A 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder unit pushing out 234bhp. Badged just ‘Macan’ it’s order-only.

What’s it like to drive?

All that marketing hype about this being the first sports car compact SUV is true – it’s a fine-handling thing. The steering is as crisp as it probably could be, and thanks to 90 per cent of the car’s power being pushed to fat tyres at the rear, it’s well balanced, too. The Turbo is deeply impressive and will reach 60mph in just 4.6 seconds. But the Turbo is really for the downsizing Porsche enthusiast. There’s no doubt

the Macan will appeal to conquest customers and they’ll be more than happy with the Macan S in either petrol or diesel.

What do the press think of it?

Top Gear said: ‘This is the best-driving SUV in the world right now, feeling more mechanical than the Evoque and Range Rover Sport, more deeply engineered than anything from BMW, Audi or Merc. Not to mention faster than the lot. Yes, the Macan is more SUV than sports car, but it’s quite an SUV.’

What DO WE THINK OF IT? Its smaller dimensions make it far more agile on the road and it genuinely feels sporty to drive – think of an upscaled, four-wheel-drive Boxster. It’s even rather good looking in our eyes. There’s no reason why Porsche won’t have a ball with this car. In our opinion, you’re looking at Stuttgart’s new UK best seller.

the knowledge Model: Porsche Macan S

Diesel Price: £43,300 Engine: 3 .0-litre, turbocharged

V6 diesel Power: 254bhp, 580Nm Max speed: 143mph 0-60mph: 6.1s MPG (comb’d): 46.3 Emissions: 159g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Conquest buyers, styleconscious families, downsizing Cayenne owners

the rivals: Audi Q5, BMW X3, Range Rover Evoque

Key Selling Points: 1. It’s good looking 2. Porsche badge carries a lot of weight in this sector 3. Fantastic build quality

Deal Clincher: It’s the best-handling car in its class and far exceeds its rivals in the driving department CarDealerMag.co.uk | 45

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FEATURE.

THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER...

In this World Cup summer, the challenge from the boss was simple: Visit dealerships whose names match those of the triumphant England team of 1966 – and re-create the iconic pictures of the celebrations.

JAMES BATCHELOR and DAVE BROWN report on a challenge that was almost over before it had begun Batch: It was probably the worst place you could imagine breaking down. On a drizzly Wednesday in late May, mid-way through halfterm, Parliament Square was thick with tourists sheltering under Union Jack umbrellas. Taxis were jostling with foreign coaches for road space, and in the middle of the maelstrom was a Ford Cortina that had coughed its last breath. This was the second time that day that the old girl had decided to end it all without any glory – and there was so much more pain to follow. Thoughts naturally turned to ‘How on earth have I ended up here?’

lent us a 1967 Cortina Super. Resplendent in an interesting shade – ‘Saluki Bronze’ – it raised more than a titter from our colleagues. And so we arrived at 8am in Dagenham to pick up the keys to our road-trip companion.

We were delighted to meet Paul Harding, heritage fleet administrator, and Colin Gray, heritage specialist mechanic, who explained a bit about the car. A quick coffee, some instructions for Batch on the fuel additive needed to allow the car to run on unleaded petrol, and we hit the road to the first dealer: Cars Hunt of Ilford, in honour of winger Roger Hunt.

Dave: Well, my little quiff-haired companion, let me take you back to an editorial meeting in the spring. We were discussing ways of featuring this summer’s World Cup in the pages of Car Dealer and advertising rep Cliff Culver came up with a clever idea. He suggested we find dealerships whose names match those of the triumphant 1966 England squad and drop in with a camera – to re-create the iconic team pictures taken at the time, using a bit of computer wizardry back at the office.

Batch: And hit the road we did – in some style.

Well, I say style, it was more like anonymity. It seemed the residents of Becontree, Goodmayes and eventually Ilford gave the Cortina little regard – it was just another car to them. To us it was something far more special. However, it did cause

Batch: You’re quite right Dave, of course, I’d forgotten. To begin with, however, I thought the plan a little fanciful and felt a tad annoyed with Mr Culver. There was almost a Cliff/Quiff tiff.

But then I realised what a great idea it was and decided to add a twist of my own. Why not carry out the whole exercise in a car from that era?

Think of the 1960s and the Ford Cortina MK2 springs to mind. Its squared-off design oozes ’60s styling and there couldn’t be a better car for a World Cup-based road trip.

Dave: You got in touch with the fantastically helpful guys at the Ford Heritage Collection who ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Here we go, here we go – the duo think about tactics

PICTURES: STEPHEN HALL

Westminster woe as the Cortina runs into trouble

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 49

FEATURE.

Dave tried to convince Ford’s Colin and Paul that he knew the history of the Blue Oval in the UK... they weren’t convinced but played along for the cameras

First stop on our itinerary and it was all going so well... the ’tina outside Cars Hunt in Ilford

Cars Hunt was open for business, but there weren’t many people around, with most away at auctions

It’s a no from Dave – our troubles with the Cortina began on Southwark Bridge in central London

Amin Patel of Cars Hunt to put down his coffee and step out of his office on to the pavement.

‘What a car!’ he greeted us, casting an eye over the Saluki Bronze beauty. En route, Dave and I had discussed how we would introduce our feature to the dealers. We agreed a guerrilla-style approach was the best way and rehearsed our lines – but the garbled ramblings we actually came out with left Amin a bit bemused. Realising he was the only guy in the dealership (his colleagues were at auction buying more stock), he gamely agreed to have his picture taken. He told us he’d worked at Cars Hunt for a year and was finding business brisk – good news! Cars Hunt joins other car outlets on Ilford’s High Road, and the business jostles with others for East London customers.

Amin told us he wasn’t a football man, though – cricket is his game of choice.

made a great start and we were feeling pretty pleased with our progress. Now came a slightly trickier part of the adventure – a trip through the middle of London to Epsom in Surrey, the location of the second dealership on our list: Wilsons, who had earned a place in this feature courtesy of left-back Ray Wilson, the oldest member of Alf Ramsey’s World Cup-winning team. With Wilsons ticked off, we’d only have three more to do on the first day of our road trip and we’d be set fair for a two-day journey as planned. Sadly though, things didn’t go according to schedule....

was that snapper Steve would station himself in the middle of the road and take some panning shots of the Cortina. But with the drizzly weather calling for lights and the fan to be used and the Cortina’s reliance on a dynamo and its laughably small battery, the car just died on us.

Cue three blokes, two wearing England shirts, trying to bump-start the car up and down the road. It wasn’t very dignified. Abandoning me and the ‘tina in the bus lane, Dave and Steve popped to Halfords for a set of jump leads.

Now, the sight of a broken-down car, though unusual these days, doesn’t normally cause people to stop what they’re doing and strike up a conversation with the weeping owner, but this was a bronze Cortina after all.

‘Hey Sandra, what’s that?,’ a well-built American tourist asked behind me. ‘Hey man, is that a Ghia?’ he bellowed at me. Presuming he meant Ghia as a trim level rather than a make of car, I

Dave: A successful visit to Cars Hunt meant we’d ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Batch: Ford prep their heritage cars to the nth degree, but I always had the lingering fear the Cortina would let us down at some point.

And that doubt came to glorious fruition on Southwark Bridge. Stopping just shy of the bridge in those pay-by-phone parking bays, the plan

On the move in central London – but it’s fair to say the Cortina didn’t enjoy the stop-start conditions

Batch of the day... he and Dave line up for the camera with Amin Patel, the first participant in our feature

the car 1967 ford cortina MK2 1600 SUPER

Dave tries not to kill himself and thinks back to the ‘young mechanic’ badge he gained in the Scouts politely replied: ‘No, I’m afraid not, it’s a Super.’

‘A Super, eh? I’ve never heard of a Super before.

A Super what?’ Seeing that the chap had started to look really confused I added: ‘It’s a Ford.’

‘Can’t be,’ he said. ‘Jeez, that’s too small to be a Ford.’ ‘I promise you it is,’ I said. ‘It’s a Cortina.’

‘Noooo, really? A Cortina?’ Grabbing the Nikon still attached to his wife Sandra he took several snaps of the conked-out car. And then carried on his merry way muttering, ‘I didn’t know Ghia made Cortinas.’

Half an hour later and we were up and running again. Crossing into Stamford Street, an old man in a Kia Sedona shouted ‘Keep it going’. Round Waterloo and across Westminster Bridge.

And then disaster.

In queuing traffic around Parliament Square, the Cortina decided there of all places to let go again. With taxi drivers shouting all sorts of unrepeatable

BURIED down a side road in deepest, darkest Dagenham is Ford’s heritage collection. It’s not open to Joe Public but prides itself on having an example of virtually every Ford to have been sold in the UK. And one of those cars that is looked after with the utmost care is this 1967 Ford Cortina MK2 1600 Super. WEV 26F was the closest we could get to a car from 1966 and cost £810 including purchase tax when it was new.

It was a one-owner car before Ford acquired it in 1990.

Finished in Saluki Bronze, it’s in completely original condition and Ford keeps it that way – refusing point blank to fit radials when it needs a new set of boots, or cut large parts of the engine bay away to install a larger battery for modern convenience.

For a car from the 1960s, WEV drove well.

The 1600cc four-cylinder engine pulled well and easily cruised at 70mph on the motorway. It’s a real gem.

With the Cortina (and Batch) having a breakdown, Dave helps out by taking a picture for the mag slogans, a group of tourists helped Dave and me push the ‘tina down to Westminister Abbey. And we weren’t particularly welcome there either.

Dave: You could say that. At least this time we were prepared with jump leads so we got going again reasonably quickly. Frustration was starting to build somewhat because all these delays were impacting on our schedule. It was now lunchtime but we’d only visited one dealership.

We managed to get the car back on the road outside Westminster Abbey only to break down underneath Big Ben. But after a drive through south London and into the commuter belt, we arrived at Wilsons of Epsom, Surrey – quite an impressive place.

We were well behind schedule so we couldn’t hang around for a chat.

Perhaps that was just as well as everyone at the dealership – CarDealerMag.co.uk | 51

FEATURE. representing franchises such as Nissan, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat – seemed fairly tied up, too. We were introduced to 23-year-old Ross Pullen, a sales executive for Renault and Dacia.

In between posing for us, he dealt with a couple of customers while he was wearing our bright red England top, so we’re not sure what they made of that! Batch’s legendary parking skills came to the fore at Wilsons. He noted the time as 2.14pm when the announcement was made over the Tannoy: Would the owner of WEV 26F please move their car as it is causing an obstruction?

2.14pm? Good grief! We’d better head to our next stop, Stiles of Battle.

Batch: The drive to Battle in East Sussex went smoothly. We had settled in nicely to the Cortina and it lapped up the hour-and-20-minute trip. At the top of Battle’s historic high street sits Stiles Garage. It’s been in business since 1945 and is run

by John and Gloria Stiles. It was an agent for BSA motorbikes in its early years before becoming an Austin Rover dealer.

The company then turned its hand to selling Fords as a dealer and still specialises in cars from the Blue Oval, also selling Gulf petrol and GasGas motorbikes. Son Michael plays a full part in running the business and is keen to take part in our hare-brained feature as soon as he claps eyes on the classic Cortina.

He poses in the style of Nobby Stiles with ease.

With the clock ticking, we hot-foot it back to the Cortina with the challenge of driving to Preston to visit Ball & Hargreaves, in honour of Alan Ball, the youngest member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team.

Dave: Batch, you’ve forgotten a couple of key points here, old fruit. Point one: By the time we’d finished chatting to Michael at Stiles, we didn’t have enough time to get to our next scheduled stop, George Motors of Fareham in Hampshire.

So we made a decision. That dealership (and Michael Banks of Andover) would have to be visited on a third day of travelling.

For now, we knew we had to prioritise the route for the second day that would take in the wonderful English counties of Lancashire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. And so we headed up to Preston. We took our time and wended our way up to the north-west of England ready for an early start in the morning.

Check-in at our Premier Inn was all done by 3am, and we had a few hours’ kip before the second leg of our adventure.

Batch: A few hours’ kip Dave? Well, I suppose it’s easy for an old codger like you. I never sleep well in Premier Inns. Half through the fact the bathrooms always smell fusty, part through fear that Lenny Henry is going to wake up next to me. Just an hour and a half’s snooze I got. After a quick breakfast we were on the road again. Our destination was Ball & Hargreaves in Garstang, ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘I’ll have my picture taken but people will think I’m Stuart Pearce!’ Tim Ball chats to Dave and Batch

world cup CORTINAS cortina 1600e was car of choice for 1970 team AFTER England’s triumphant 1966 World Cup win, it is said the players were each given £1,000 and a white raincoat. But for 1970, the England World Cup squad were better treated and Ford awarded each player £1,000 and the loan of an Ermine White Ford Cortina 1600E for a year.

The fleet of 1600Es had personalised number plates which ranged from GWC 1H to GWC 30H (GWC stood for Great World Cup). Bobby Moore was handed GWC 1 while Bobby Charton received GWC 9 and Geoff Hurst GWC 10 as they matched the players’ shirts. However, the squad steered clear of GWC 13H, with the eventual recipient being Bob McNab of Arsenal, who won a place on the 1970 squad after Paul Madeley decided not to go to Mexico for the World Cup and McNab got his break.

It was late afternoon on the first day by the time we took this snap of Michael Stiles in East Sussex Preston. A family firm, it’s a BMW and Mercedes specialist and has been established since 1982.

We are met by Tim Ball, a partner in the business. After a brief explanation of why we had barged into their business at 9.20am, Tim replied: ‘I can’t possibly do it… your readers will think I’m Stuart Pearce!’ However, he donned the England shirt while recounting stories about watching Alan Ball in the 1970s.

The Ball brothers have a greater link to football though – their great-grandfather Walter Pomfret was the founder of Preston North End and rented the field that ended up becoming the site for the club’s Deepdale stadium.

A few snaps later and we were back on the road for the two-and-a-half-hour schlep to Worcester to see St Peter’s Peugeot, in commemoration of legendary midfielder Martin Peters. A quick scoot across country to avoid miles of tailbacks on the M6 and we were there.

Striking a pose... Dacia and Renault sales executive Ross Pullen was a good sport and gave us the image we needed for the cover and page 3 of this month’s edition

After a bit of a detour through the suburbs of Wolverhampton, we arrived at St Peter’s Peugeot

Ball & Hargreaves was the most northerly dealership we visited. A chance to refuel for the onward journey

Wilsons was an impressive place... sadly WEV 26F caused a bit of an obstruction during our time there!

Dave: We arrived at St Peter’s Peugeot in reasonably good time. Could it be that we were having a spell when things were going roughly according to plan? It surely could! Time was still tight so we adopted our usual guerrilla-style tactics and burst into the showroom in a way that made us seem far more important than we actually were. We quickly collared sales executive Lewis Payne, a former firefighter, who was happy to join the ‘fun’. He told us he had been working at the company for 14 months and was loving it – always good to hear.

And he had actually met Bobby Moore, telling us: ‘My auntie used to work at a pub in Evesham about 20 years ago. He came in one day with a few friends. I think he’d probably been doing a charity event nearby somewhere. I was about eight or nine at the time.’

Lewis went on: ‘I’m not really much of a football fan but I do support England and I’ll definitely be

watching the World Cup. You’ve just got to hope for the best, haven’t you?’ He reflected on his past life as a firefighter, adding: ‘I used to have to cut cars apart and destroy them, now I sell them!’

From Worcester it was a relatively short hop to Gloucestershire and Charlton Motors, between Gloucester and Tewkesbury, at Coombe Hill. This was a key visit as we needed to bag TWO pictures in honour of Bobby and Jackie Charlton. So we headed down the M5 with high hopes.

pre-arrange a photoshoot, we were involved in a very risky project. There was nothing for it – we had to leave with this part of the mission unaccomplished and waste no more time. We had to get round to dealers representing Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst – if we didn’t, this feature would bumble on to October.

Batch: Bad luck comes in fours doesn’t it? Or something like that. The next bout of trouble struck at Charlton Motor Company. As we pulled on to Charlton Motor Company’s pristine forecourt, there was disaster in the air. ‘Can I help you?’ asked the lady who looks after the books.

Unfortunately, it turned out she couldn’t. There wasn’t anyone around who we could ask to pose for a picture – a big setback. Without calling to

Dave: If Charlton Motors had been a disappointment, turning up at NB Moore Cars in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, gave us just the boost we needed. This was another important dealership for the feature as Bobby Moore is the player being held aloft when England celebrate their famous 4-2 victory over West Germany in 1966. A picture we had to get in the bag! Amusingly, too, the dealership, on the A420 between Swindon and Oxford, is also known as Nick Moore Cars (geddit?) and Nick himself seemed surprisingly pleased to see us.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 53

FEATURE. He was one of the few dealers we met on this escapade who was interested and active in the footballing world. He told us his brother had been the stadium manager at Oxford United. And Nick himself is the coach of an under-15s team representing the local villages of Shrivenham and Watchfield.

Nick has had quite a lot of famous customers over the years, including the footballer Mark Lawrenson and, from the world of horse-racing, a number of Grand National winners.

He told us: ‘In the early days, jockeys would get given a car for winning the Grand National. They would keep it for three months, bring it in and I’d sell it for them so they could buy something they really wanted.’

Nick told us: ‘I started valeting when I was 15 in Oxford. Many years ago there was an old chap, a very wealthy guy, Les Strickland, who owned a company called Highworth Motor Company. I got to know him in a local pub and one day he rang me up. He said he was selling up and could I help get rid of his cars.

‘I said, ‘‘I haven’t got the money Les. I clean a few cars and I’ve got a couple of bangers… but he said, you just take them, I trust you to handle the sales. It went from there.’

Nick said he wasn’t a fan of going to auctions, preferring to buy locally.

Batch: I can’t tell you the buzz in the Cortina as we rolled out on to the A420. We had only got Bobby Moore in the bag! High on exaltation, and not giving much thought as to how Dave talks to people, I suggested he phoned ahead to Hurst Motor Company (representing England striker Geoff Hurst) just to check they would be open. They were only an hour away but knowing that my back was about to freeze in the exact curvature of a 1967 Ford Cortina’s driver’s seat, I didn’t much fancy getting there only to find them shut.

Dave duly phoned ahead but despite me telling him to ‘act a little’ and ‘pretend to be a customer’, he ended up describing the whole feature on the phone. Understandably, he was met with an absolute refusal – exactly the reason why we had arrived at dealerships guerrilla-style for the past two days. Cue 20 minutes of arguing and spiteful, childish comments.

But we decided to go anyway and as we pulled up at Hurst Motor Company, the adrenalin was running high. A few ‘jokes with the lads’ saw us charm our way to getting Les Little to don our now slightly smelly England shirt.

After a few shots, Les was happy to chat about the business. It’s been established for the past 29 years and specialises in Peugeots. But Little and his partner Andy Howell aren’t football nuts though. A couple of handshakes later and we’re back on the road. This time round though, Dave isn’t allowed to touch the phone. Although we were talking again at this point.

Dave: That was it for the second day really. And ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

A sunny day in Faringdon – and Nick Moore of NB Moore Cars had plenty to tell us about his history in the motor trade and his connections to the world of sport. Dave and Batch could have stayed all day as we were fairly close to Car Dealer’s home turf of south Hampshire, we were able to spend a night in our own beds before making a plan for the third day – which would have to be the last day of travelling because (a) it was a Friday, (b) we really should get the Cortina back to Ford at some point and (c) there was the small matter of actually writing the wonderful words of purple prose you see before you today.

Friday dawned and we had four more pics to get in the bag, representing the players George Cohen, Gordon Banks and, of course, the Charlton brothers from the day before. At this point we ought to say another thank-you to the Ford heritage guys who kindly agreed that we could return the car to them the following Monday, giving us the whole of Friday to play with. Now, despite extensive Googling, and pursuing other avenues of research, we were unable to locate any motor dealer with the name

‘Cohen’ in the title. We can only apologise if you’re out there somewhere, and if you’d like to tweet us or give us a call, we’d like very much to come and say hello. But because of our lack of success in this regard, we were more than happy to drop into George Motors in Fareham, just up the road from Car Dealer Towers and a relatively recent addition to the automotive scene in sunny south Hampshire.

We had a good old chat with owner and MD George Sima, who told us he had relocated to the town from Croydon after becoming a bit fed up with the hassles of his urban premises.

‘We were there for five years,’ he told us. ‘But we had a few problems. For a start, we found ourselves in the middle of the 2011 riots and we suffered quite a bit of vandalism too, arriving in the morning to find cars scratched and that sort of thing. Also we’d get a lot of under-18-yearolds turning up with no driving licence, not to

With the crowded streets of the capital behind her, the Cortina felt much more at home on the open roads of southern England

Nick Moore worked as a valeter and got into dealing cars when an acquaintance decided to sell up

‘Hurry up, this cup’s getting heavy!’ A good gag from Nick as he re-creates the Bobby Moore pose

Hurst Cars proved tricky to find, but locate it we did, in the Berkshire village of the same name

mention their reckless driving when we went on test drives. We like our new location because we can attract customers from Portsmouth and Southampton – we’re pretty much in the middle.’

George sources his stock himself – and knows that if he makes bad choices they will come back to haunt him. ‘If I buy the wrong car, I have to sell the wrong car, so it’s all down to me.’

He finds French and German makes go well, and in common with so many dealers up and down the UK he also finds people are downsizing to smaller engines. Good to meet you George!

the Lord, a Charlton was there. Well, his name wasn’t Charlton but he worked at Charlton Motor Company and that was fine by us. David Morgan was more than happy to be involved. He’s been in the motor business all of his life and has been with his boss, Rob Newell, for 15 years. David was brimming with stories and opinions, the best of which was: ‘I’ve always said they should make a film or write a book about the people who walk into a used car dealership. Never mind how unscrupulous we’re supposed to be – you’d be surprised at the customers!’

But of course, as nice as this was, we needed two Charltons for our feature. Boss Rob was out and about on the road but David was so keen for us to succeed in our mad adventure he called the guv’nor and told him to hot-foot it back to base.

As we waited for MD Rob Newell to join us, David made us a cracking cup of coffee and we chatted about the upcoming World Cup.

‘I always think that the country that hosts it has a good chance of winning it. If Brazil can’t get somewhere near, there’s something wrong.

‘But then, the trouble with world-class footballers is that they’re all just spoilt and there is too much money involved. To deal with these players who are on £200,000 to £300,000 a week, you need to have a really tough manager.

‘It’s no good trying to be friends with them because it’s just a waste of time.’

And just as we finished our last slurps of coffee, Rob rocked up and agreed to take part. But as the clock was ticking, it was a case of taking some quick pictures and hitting the road to Oxfordshire.

At last the final whistle was within reach.

Batch: We had a difficult decision to make. Did we risk driving all the way back to Charlton Motor Company to get two shots or did we try to find another company that had Charlton in its name (which, as it goes, is a lot harder than you think)? We bit the bullet and drove the two hours 15 minutes to Coombe Hill and, praise

Dave: Too right Batch. And although I lived in Gloucester for nearly 30 years, there was no time to drop in and see me old mum for a cuppa. We had one last task to perform, and that was to grab CarDealerMag.co.uk | 55

Why YOU need to be at this year’s Used Car Awards The Car Dealer Used Car Awards celebrate every part of the used car industry. Hosted by Mike Brewer, they’ll be held on December 1 What’s the venue? The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London.

How do I enter? Entry is FREE and easy.

Simply type bit.ly/UsedNoms14 into your web browser and enter as many categories as you wish.

How can I sponsor an award? There are a number of sponsorship packages.

Contact us for details.

How can I book a table? Full tables cost £1,995. Contact us to book.

Scan the QR code to watch the video of last year’s event

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

For more information, contact the Car Dealer team on (023) 9252 2434 We are taking bookings now

FEATURE.

The final dealership we visited, Michael Banks Cars in Andover. Nearly home again!

George Sima of George Cars gets a bit up close and personal with Dave

IN THE PICTURE

A meeting of style icons as Batch tends to his quiff before dropping into a dealership A little stress-buster: Darren Moore is working on four MGs at the moment, in various states of repair

A dealership that does what it says on the tin. Well, banner. Michael Banks stocks a variety of makes

a picture of someone at Michael Banks Motors of Andover – again, fairly close to our homestamping ground on the south coast.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in Andover and at Michael Banks Cars, a family-run business that has been established for 40 years.

There to greet us was Darren Banks (the business was founded by his father, Michael) and with a little pitiful pleading from us (pleeeease take part, you’re the last person on our list) he was persuaded to don our rather slim-fitting yellow jersey to stand in tribute to England goalkeeper Gordon Banks, a key member of the 1966 World Cup-winning team.

Michael told us a bit about the history of the company, and when asked how business was going, said philosophically: ‘We have good weeks and not so good weeks but the main thing is, we’re still here.’ Fair enough really!

Batch took a keen interest in two MG sports cars

that were in a state of partial restoration on the premises. ‘They’re my little stress-busters,’ Darren told us. ‘I’ve actually got four of those. They’re all in different states but gradually they all come together. As a business, we don’t specialise in anything really. We try to have something for everybody so that if somebody comes on to our site we’ve got a good chance of selling them something.’ And his views on the World Cup? ‘I’ll be watching it with my kids. It’s a funny old game.’ And with that our work was done. Ten dealerships visited, 11 pictures in the bag and (hopefully) a reasonably entertaining piece for the readers of Car Dealer.

Batch and I ‘celebrated’ with a cup of tea and a pasty at the Andover branch of Tesco before heading home, tired, as they say, but happy.

We’d thought it was all over for this feature when we broke down in central London two days previously. It was now! [CD ]

Under wraps... The wonderful cars in Ford’s heritage collection get plenty of TLC

A super MX-5 takes Batch’s fancy during the visit to Ball & Hargreaves of Preston

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 57

FEATURE. STILES GARAGE

CARS HUNT

MICHAEL BANKS CARS

Michael Stiles, director.

Representing Nobby Stiles

Amin Patel, salesman.

Representing Roger Hunt

Darren Banks, sales director.

Representing Gordon Banks

CAR DEALER James Batchelor editor, Car Dealer Magazine.

Representing Harold Shepherdson

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

St Peters Peugeot

HURST MOTORS

Lewis Payne, sales executive.

Representing Martin Peters

Les Little, partner.

Representing Geoff Hurst

CHARLTON MOTOR CO

GEORGE CAR SALES

WILSONS

Rob Newell, owner.

Representing Jack Charlton

George Sima, owner.

Representing George Cohen

Ross Pullen, sales executive.

Representing Ray Wilson

CAR DEALER

Dave Brown, production editor.

Representing Sir Alf Ramsey

1966 england team NB MOORE CARS

BALL & HARGREAVES

CHARLTON MOTOR CO

Nick Moore, owner.

Representing Bobby Moore

Tim Ball, partner.

Representing Alan Ball

David Morgan, salesman.

Representing Bobby Charlton

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 59

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

FEATURE.

TRADING UP

It’s oh so quiet . . .

Let’s hope the phone starts ringing and we can make a bit more progress in our journey towards a supercar, says Andy Entwistle

Y

ou know the old stock market saying ‘Sell in May and go away’?

Well, I was beginning to wonder whether much of the motor trade had decided to disappear for the summer during a rather quiet month on the ‘Trading Up’ front.

Yes, things have stalled a little since we got the Jag back from Harwoods.

A busy schedule for me and some personnel changes at Auto Trader, our partners in this feature, delayed us somewhat when it came to actually advertising the car.

However, I’m pleased to report that the ad is now well and truly live so fingers crossed we’ll see some interest soon.

However, as I write, the phone isn’t exactly ringing off the hook.

I did note that former deputy prime minister John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott has put his XJS up for sale, which is identical in every way to ours. His is priced at £7,000, which makes ours look like something of a bargain. Anyway, to cut to the chase, if you have a customer who’s after a nice late XJS, you know where we are!

Of course, I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing in the meantime, and the Trading Up

STORY SO FAR...

Toyota Rav4 Paid: £2,000 Spent: £200 Sold: £3,000

Suzuki Vitara Paid: £1,500 Spent: £300 Sold: £1,950

fleet has been joined by a new member – a nice little Mazda MX-5. This is a late Mk1 UK car, having covered a shade over 80,000 miles, with a full service history and a very sound body.

I tried to get Car Dealer Dave interested as I know he’s a bit of a Mazda fan, but he tells me he’s got his eye on a CX-5 when he replaces his trusty 6 later this year.

The MX-5 came via a friend and has been in the same family for years. It’s been well looked after and has a mohair hood, nice alloys, a chromestyle bar and a smattering of other styling cues.

We’ve had it serviced and MOT’d and if it hadn’t been for the passenger mirror being snapped off by a passing cow (I kid you not,

the cows where I live in the New Forest have no respect for parked cars when they are eating grass) and a window disappearing into the door it would have been up for sale by now. You could say that silly cow has stopped me moo-ving it on!

Anyway, I have the parts to fix this, so hopefully by the next time you read this both the Jag and the MX-5 will be gone and I’ll be looking for the next car to trade on up in the hope of raising a decent amount of cash for Great Ormond Street Hospital. [CD] andy@blackballmedia.co.uk

Unicom Insurance Services Ltd Proud Sponsors of “Trading Up” Motor Trade Insurance Specialists Est. since 1992 • Motor Trade Road Risks

• Motor Trade Liability

020 8805 7799 or 0844 620 1000 www.unicominsurance.com

• Combined Insurance

• Uninsured Driver Cover CarDealerMag.co.uk | 61

focus on.

Motors.co.uk

A world of opportunity motors.co.uk

I

W: motors.co.uk T: 0845 265 6000

f you thought Motors.co.uk’s marketing activity so far this year has been brisk, you haven’t seen anything yet.

The used car classified website, owned by Manheim, the world’s leading provider of vehicle remarketing services, has invested millions of pounds in making the Motors.co.uk brand a household name. The company has done this by producing two memorable adverts showcasing how the website confronts the traditional problems of car searching thanks to its clever Smart Search functionality.

The two adverts ‘Carousel’ and ‘Chicken’ held prime spots on a variety of TV channels throughout the early part of this year and were supported by high-profile radio, outdoor, online and PR campaigns.

But the best is yet to come. The company has committed itself to another round of targeted promotion – and this time it chimes with the World Cup. Motors.co.uk will commit its largest TV spend this month with prime advertising spots on ITV1 throughout the World Cup and an extensive radio campaign on TalkSport. The ‘Carfuffle’ advertising creative was due to get rolling at the beginning of June and be seen throughout a number of England’s warm-up matches, before going international for the main event, which includes the quarter-final at the start of July.

Andy Coulthurst, Motors.co.uk’s managing

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

director, said: ‘The nation will be glued to their TV screens over the next six weeks and this presents a fantastic opportunity to expand the reach of the Motors.co.uk brand. We aim to capitalise on this for the benefit of our dealers. The June campaign will also see us introduce Motors. co.uk as a destination to sell your car without the “Carfuffle”, generating valuable trade-in leads for our customers with a new TV creative.

‘The marketing team has taken the smart approach to deliver what is sure to be our biggest month yet in terms of traffic and response, with good prominence across the upcoming England games, and then rolling into matches featuring Brazil, Germany, France, Portugal, Argentina, not forgetting Cameroon and a quarter-final that is drawing the office to the World Cup wall planner.’

But what’s the point of it all? Well, it’s to get the attention of football fans who are interested in changing their car of course.

‘We will win the attention of the England audience during the pre-tournament friendlies, before capitalising on this when the ‘‘serious business’’ begins on June 12,’ says Dermot Kelleher,

director of marketing and business intelligence at Motors.co.uk. ‘Our aim is to capture in-market England fans as they watch the warm-up games at home with their mobile and tablets by their sides, and then re-engage with them through advertising in many big games thereafter, where those watching feel they have the capacity to search for their ideal car on their handheld device whilst enjoying the tournament on the big screen.

‘Ultimately, we’ve seen substantial success for the “Carfuffle” campaign over the past months by targeting consumers who are dual-screening. By approaching the World Cup season in the same way, we hope to see significant numbers of inmarket car buyers engaging with their local dealer and walking away with a new car before the final on July 13.’

The World Cup campaign comes at the same time Motors.co.uk makes another exciting tie-up.

The company has added the CarSite Network of used car classified websites to its growing portfolio – enforcing its primary aim to better connect local buyers and sellers.

The new deal will see all Motors.co.uk customer stock advertised across CarSite.co.uk, AutoVillage. co.uk, CarVillage.co.uk, AutoOnline. co.uk, CarDealerLocator.co.uk and UsedCarsNearMe.co.uk, with all stock upgraded to premium gold listings. The CarSite Network joins more than 300 online

partner platforms, which now showcase Motors.co.uk’s dealers’ stock, complementing the Motors.co.uk ‘always on’ TV advertising strategy.

Customers of Motors.co.uk who are already advertising on CarSite will have their stock upgraded to premium gold listings at no extra cost from July as part of their existing Motors.co.uk advertising package.

Coulthurst said: ‘Whether working on product development, creating new partnerships or airing the fresh TV creative that plays out this month, the team here at Motors.co.uk refuses to stand still in the ultimate goal of helping our dealers sell more cars.

‘We believe our investment in this new partnership will generate even more sales for our dealers. With stock now published on more than 300 sites – including Parkers.co.uk, HonestJohn. co.uk, and DesperateSeller.co.uk to name just a few – we are now able to further extend visibility of our dealers’ cars and expose them to a huge audience of in-market car buyers.’

And there’s proof that all of this activity is working. Dealer group Wessex Garages reported a ‘hugely successful’ March thanks to Motors.co.uk generating 19 per cent of Wessex’s used car sales and eight per cent of its new car retail sales in the busy plate-change month. And Wessex bosses

say the website’s current television advertising campaign is playing a big part in helping the partnership between the two organisations work well. Keith Brock, Wessex Garages MD, says: ‘Our strategic partnership with Motors.co.uk is aligned with our ambition to better connect with local buyers digitally.

‘Their ongoing TV campaign is cutting through to in-market car buyers. It’s encouraging to see that so many customers made the intelligent choice and stepped up from their original used vehicle of interest to a brand-new car supported in turn by our attractive campaigns.’

Brock adds: ‘March was a huge success for Wessex Garages, marking another significant step up in Motors.co.uk-generated used car sales at almost 2.5 times the February figure

and a remarkable six times the level we saw in September last year.

‘Our new and used car sales as a group were up 24 per cent, which is ahead of the market.’

Coulthurst added: ‘We are already generating thousands of new car sales for our dealers, but this is largely by default, with the customer being upsold on new cars with attractive deals from what was originally a used car inquiry.

‘Our plan is to deliver a powerful, dedicated new search that will offer significant levels of additional sales to our dealers, providing a valuable tool for in-market car buyers.’

Check out the Motors.co.uk adverts running through the World Cup on ITV1. [CD]

by James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor)

‘‘

Our plan is to deliver a powerful, dedicated new search that will offer significant levels of additional sales to our dealers CarDealerMag.co.uk | 63

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here’s no doubt the past few years have been challenging for car dealers. As well as having to cope with difficult business conditions, they have had to get to grips with wave after wave of technical innovations.

It’s not surprising, perhaps, that some have been tempted to resist these changes – and there’s no doubt that some have held on to outdated ways of working when the reality is that in 2014 there really is no choice but to get up to date.

However, there genuinely is no need for dealers to be at all concerned here – harnessing the latest technologies that can really benefit your business is simple and straightforward with the experts from Manheim in your corner.

By getting to grips with simple web optimisation tricks and thinking like their customers, dealers could reap the rewards of increased business and gain a healthier bank balance – and Manheim Retail Services has top tips to do this.

‘My first point would be to wherever possible, ‘‘template’’ all web optimisation and digital marketing solutions,’ says Manheim’s head of search, Luke Carter. ‘Whatever you do on site A, the structure of it can be done on site B, site C, site D and site E. If you’re a dealer group with, for example, 15 Audi dealerships, your web optimisation should be standardised across all the sites. Why would you want to pay circa £1,000 with an agency for each website? You wouldn’t – it makes more sense to have a templated solution.’

Carter, who has been in the industry for 13 years, is brimming with ideas on the best ways for dealers to save money when it comes to online – and they are simple to implement too.

‘First position in the PPC rankings on a search engine doesn’t necessarily give you the best conversion rate,’ he says. ‘Between 2010 and early 2013, Manheim trialled a PPC campaign for 300 dealerships across the UK. ‘We set ourselves some very strict conditions on the structure of the PPC campaigns.

‘We knew that each dealership wouldn’t want to pay more than £150 per month on something that wasn’t proven. We were pretty confident we could get a commitment of £150 per month.

‘We got 300 dealerships to subscribe to the PPC trial at £100 per month and we set a daily budget of £3.20. Using affiliate marketing techniques essentially, we were able to deliver an average cost per click of no more than 25 pence and a cost per lead of between £4 and £8 – where a lead would

be classified as a unique call over 60 seconds or a completed vehicle inquiry form submitted.

Manheim did this in a combination of ways. ‘We made sure that Call Tracking telephone numbers were displayed in the PPC ads. We also ensured that we didn’t use keywords based around the car dealership brand,’ Carter explains. ‘Let’s say it was a PPC advert for a dealer group selling used Alfa Romeo cars in Birmingham – we didn’t use the dealership name. Why? Well, we discovered very quickly from lots of A/B testing that 60 per cent of the calls from UK buyers who searched for the dealership brand were looking for servicing or parts, not new or used cars.

‘Consequently, we only focused our PPC campaign structure on live inventory, model ranges and models by location and derivatives. So for example, “best deal on 2004 Alfa Romeo Mito” or “Alfa Romeo Mito Diesel in black”. We used very low competitive keywords.

‘My point is that from conversations I have with car dealer groups or dealerships, most don’t do this.

They tend to throw money at PPC and they don’t

understand there’s another way, there’s a clever way of doing it, it doesn’t take time and they can save themselves a lot of money. They don’t need to spend as much as they think they do to get the conversions that they need.’

Carter has a third simple way of saving money too – and there’s no surprise it’s all about PPC. ‘Because mobile and tablet make up so much of the search now, a lot of people will stand in dealership A, not find what they are looking for and then look on their mobile phone and go to dealership B. One of the things that we have been talking about and speaking to a very large dealer group now about is enhanced, advanced PPC campaigns.

‘What I mean by that is instead of running a PPC campaign that just focuses on 50 miles around your dealership, you could also run a mobile PPC campaign for people who are on the move.

‘Ultimately, making the sale is all about offering the right deal to the consumer in the right place at the right time and, increasingly, that place – at least for the initial information-gathering – is online.’ [CD]

by James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 65

DATA FILE.

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SMMT Sales Data

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Taking Stock

SMMT proudly declares best May in a decade New car market has grown for 27 consecutive months – an all-new record

N

ew car registrations were up 7.7 per cent in May to 194,032 units – the highest figure for the month since 2004, reports the SMMT. More than 194,000 cars were registered in May and helped total car registrations so far this year pass the one million mark, rising 11.6 per cent to 1,058,974 units.

The month of May was the 27th consecutive month of growth – breaking a record set in the late-1980s.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘The new car market has now grown in every month since March 2012 – the longest period of growth on record and a reflection of the UK’s everimproving economic conditions.

‘Over the past 27 months, increasingly confident consumers

have been drawn to some fantastic new products, attracted by innovative technologies, improved fuel economy and competitive deals helping make a new car more affordable.

‘With the SMMT forecasting an overall rise of around six per cent over the year, the coming months should see some levelling-off in growth rates as underlying demand stabilises.’

Richard Lowe, head of retail & wholesale at Barclays, said: ‘It’s great to see the longest period of growth on record – as well as improved consumer confidence, the two bank holiday weekends will have helped to fuel May’s increase, as consumers took advantage of the time off from work to visit car showrooms.

‘Looking ahead over the summer months it will be interesting to see if

this holds firm, or whether we will see the growth rate drop down a gear. If there is a slowdown, all eyes will be on manufacturers and the actions they take to try to drive the market forward.’

Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), said: ‘With private vehicle registrations outperforming volumes once again this month, it is evident that consumer confidence in buying cars is on track for a successful year.

‘The new products and services offered by dealers and manufacturers during 2014 have no doubt influenced many consumers to buy.

‘However, competitive pricing and strong incentives remain important if the sales trend is to continue throughout the year.’

Fiesta continues to lead the way as new stars emerge DESPITE experiencing a fall of 8.63 per cent in registrations in the month of May, Ford still leads the best-sellers list with its Fiesta.

The supermini recorded 9,450 registrations in May, followed by the Volkswagen Golf. The German hatchback surprisingly sneaked into second place by having 7,134 registrations to its name.

Vauxhall’s Corsa took third place with 6,536 cars, while the Fiesta’s larger brother, the Focus, finished fourth with 5,824 registrations. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

By recording 5,035 registrations in May, the Astra was fifth, the Nissan Qashqai was sixth with 4,144, while

the Audi A3 was in seventh thanks to registering 3,886 units.

Volkswagen’s Polo was placed in eighth with 3,607 registations to its name and, with 2,896 cars, the Fiat 500 finished in ninth.

The top 10 was rounded off by a new entrant – the Vauxhall Mokka. The crossover recorded 2,801 registrations in May. Year-to-date figures also see the Fiesta continuing to lead the way with 58,940 units. It’s followed by the Focus with 37,355 registrations.

SMMT sales data May/year to date

5

Top

Most-improved manufacturers in May MG

+1,754%

Jeep

+231%

Maserati

+223%

SsangYong +184% Subaru

+96%

5

Bottom

Worst-performing manufacturers in May Chevrolet

-93%

Perodua

-80%

Chrysler

-55%

Smart

-27%

Lotus

-23%

MG +1,754%

Ford -8.63% Figures supplied by SMMT

Marque Abarth Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi Bentley BMW Chevrolet Chrysler Citroen Dacia Fiat Ford Honda Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Jeep Kia Land Rover Lexus Lotus Maserati Mazda Mercedes-Benz MG Mia Mini Mitsubishi Nissan Perodua Peugeot Porsche Proton Renault Saab Seat Skoda Smart SsangYong Subaru Suzuki Toyota Vauxhall Volkswagen Volvo Other British Other imports Total

May 2014

2014

117 434 73 13,534 103 11,649 90 128 6,610 2,245 4,865 23,459 3,809 6,309 43 1,351 357 6,015 4,513 824 17 113 2,523 10,131 241 0 3,184 1,082 10,151 3 8,066 820 0 4,677 0 4,607 6,339 403 125 271 2,695 7,644 21,961 19,151 3,137 98 65 194,032

% market share 0.06 0.22 0.04 6.98 0.05 6.00 0.05 0.07 3.41 1.16 2.51 12.09 1.96 3.25 0.02 0.70 0.18 3.10 2.33 0.42 0.01 0.06 1.30 5.22 0.12 0.00 1.64 0.56 5.23 0.00 4.16 0.42 0.00 2.41 0.00 2.37 3.27 0.21 0.06 0.14 1.39 3.94 11.32 9.87 1.62 0.05 0.03

May 2013

2013

109 411 76 12,265 101 10,736 1,341 286 7,184 1,171 4,442 25,674 3,579 6,230 38 1,259 108 5,604 3,826 606 22 35 2,321 8,391 13 0 4,080 687 9,045 15 7,903 837 0 3,088 0 3,884 5,469 553 44 138 2,444 6,321 20,898 16,370 2,323 78 106 180,111

% market share 0.06 0.23 0.04 6.81 0.06 5.96 0.74 0.16 3.99 0.65 2.47 14.25 1.99 3.46 0.02 0.70 0.06 3.11 2.12 0.34 0.01 0.02 1.29 4.66 0.01 0.00 2.27 0.38 5.02 0.01 4.39 0.46 0.00 1.71 0.00 2.16 3.04 0.31 0.02 0.08 1.36 3.51 11.60 9.09 1.29 0.04 0.06

% change 7.34 5.60 -3.95 10.35 1.98 8.50 -93.29 -55.24 -7.99 91.72 9.52 -8.63 6.43 1.27 13.16 7.31 230.56 7.33 17.96 35.97 -22.73 222.86 8.70 20.74 1,753.85 0.00 -21.96 57.50 12.23 -80.00 2.06 -2.03 0.00 51.46 0.00 18.61 15.91 -27.12 184.09 96.38 10.27 20.93 5.09 16.99 35.04 25.64 -38.68 7.73

2014 651 2,387 388 70,258 683 60,070 2,736 872 36,816 11,045 28,407 144,178 25,117 35,534 181 8,034 1,276 33,589 25,992 4,555 73 430 17,187 52,666 1,008 5 15,943 4,734 57,405 19 47,744 3,874 1 25,787 1 22,267 32,699 2,060 638 1,070 16,408 42,214 113,305 92,012 15,935 370 350 1,058,974

Year to date (YTD) % market share 0.06 0.23 0.04 6.63 0.06 5.67 0.26 0.08 3.48 1.04 2.68 13.61 2.37 3.36 0.02 0.76 0.12 3.17 2.45 0.43 0.01 0.04 1.62 4.97 0.10 0.00 1.51 0.45 5.42 0.00 4.51 0.37 0.00 2.44 0.00 2.10 3.09 0.19 0.06 0.10 1.55 3.99 10.70 8.69 1.50 0.03 0.03

2013

588 2,342 433 61,350 480 50,924 5,465 1,148 35,898 5,165 23,713 132,199 24,765 31,988 226 7,317 755 30,436 26,074 3,376 80 139 13,164 45,024 107 0 19,364 4,618 51,059 137 46,366 3,232 15 15,874 3 18,324 26,023 2,419 255 925 14,081 38,886 107,770 81,726 13,653 365 415 948,666

% market share 0.06 0.25 0.05 6.47 0.05 5.37 0.58 0.12 3.78 0.54 2.50 13.94 2.61 3.37 0.02 0.77 0.08 3.21 2.75 0.36 0.01 0.01 1.39 4.75 0.01 0.00 2.04 0.49 5.38 0.01 4.89 0.34 0.00 1.67 0.00 1.93 2.74 0.25 0.03 0.10 1.48 4.10 11.36 8.61 1.44 0.04 0.04

% change 10.71 1.92 -10.39 14.52 42.29 17.96 -49.94 -24.04 2.56 113.84 19.80 9.06 1.42 11.09 -19.91 9.80 69.01 10.36 -0.31 34.92 -8.75 209.35 30.56 16.97 842.06 0.00 -17.67 2.51 12.43 -86.13 2.97 19.86 -93.33 62.45 -66.67 21.52 25.65 -14.84 150.20 15.68 16.53 8.56 5.14 12.59 16.71 1.37 -15.66 11.63

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 67

TAKING STOCK. Remarketing specialist BCA gives its thoughts on matters that are important to dealers for the months ahead. Here’s what it has to say . . .

Used car values are highest this year and close to the record as volumes pick up says Simon Henstock, BCA’s UK network operations director

A

pril was a great month for the used car market – the headline average value of a used car increased by £166 compared with March to £7,553 – the highest monthly value this year and the second highest on record, according to BCA’s latest Pulse report.

The average value for April 2014 bucked the trend of the past three years when significant falls were recorded during the month.

For the second month running there were value rises to record levels in the fleet & lease and dealer sectors and an improvement in nearly-new values.

Our data shows that average values improved in April by £166 (2.2 per cent) to £7,553, compared with the previous month. However, average performance against CAP Clean fell by two and a half points to 95.77 per cent.

Year-on-year, April 2014 was ahead by a significant £1,051 or 16.6 per cent, with average age down at 61 months and average mileage falling to 55,500. CAP Clean performance was up on a year ago by a point.

While average values continue to surge ahead, the market was much tougher in April than we have seen so far this year. Volumes rose and conversion rates came under pressure as a result.

As in previous months, demand remains strong for the best quality retail cars, but less attractive or poorly presented vehicles must be valued

Headline average value up

£166

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘The market was much tougher in April than we have seen so far this year’ competitively and in line with condition to attract buyers and sell first time. The premium and luxury end of the market remains very strong.

There are signs that sellers are being more pragmatic about values, as performance against CAP Clean declined noticeably compared with March. Dealer part-exchange vehicles saw performance fall over three points down to 93.3 per cent, with fleet/lease vehicles falling by a similar margin from 98.5 per cent to 95.6 per cent.

With Easter typically representing a watershed in terms of demand, the market is moving into a period when we expect values to remain relatively flat. Families are now thinking about paying for their summer holidays, and we still have the distractions of the Football World Cup to come.

Fleet & lease cars averaged £9,642 in April, a small rise of £52 or 0.5 per cent compared with

March, but enough to establish a new high point for the sector. Values were up by a significant £1,032 (12 per cent) year-on-year. CAP performance fell by nearly three points over the month to 95.67 per cent but was ahead year-on-year. Retained value against original MRP fell by nearly a point to 43.05 per cent compared with March and was up by one point, year-on-year.

Average dealer part-exchange values also rose to record levels, climbing by £76 (1.9 per cent) to £3,982 in April. Year-on-year, values were ahead by £387 (10.7 per cent) compared with April 2013, with average age rising and mileage falling over the year. CAP performance fell back by three points to 93.30 per cent in April.

Dealer vendors are always prepared to react quickly to changing market conditions and will appraise and value their stock accordingly to ensure it sells, preferably first time so funds get back to the company bottom line as soon as possible. Nearly-new values improved for the second month running, rising to £20,934, an increase of £619 over March. Volumes remain low and model mix remains the most significant price factor.

Average car sold at BCA

£7,553

Average mileage down to

55,500

Buyers’ guide

Nissan 350Z

’03-09

We help you choose the best stock for your forecourt. This month, the Nissan 350Z is the model in the spotlight What is it?

What CAN GO WRONG?

Nissan’s fifth instalment of its iconic Z-car sports car. Gone were the bloated aesthetic and turbocharged engine of the 300ZX, replaced with a rev-hungry naturally-aspirated 3.5-litre V6 and a handsome cab-back sports car design.

Arriving in UK showrooms in 2003, the 350Z became an instant hit. Its hairy-chested, physical driving experience and lairy rear-wheel-drive balance was the ultimate riposte to a sports car market increasingly erring towards refinement.

Entry-level models were for the enthusiasts, boasting super-cool ‘Rays’ alloys, that big engine and…that’s about it. GT models added leather upholstery, cruise control and a Bose sound system for a £2,500 premium. A convertible model joined the range in 2005. The V6 engine was continually updated throughout the 350Z’s life, rising in power from 276bhp to an eventual 309bhp. Later, more powerful versions are recognisable by their subtle bonnet bulge, required to house the slightly taller reworked motor.

The Zed has proved worthy of Nissan’s legendary reliability record. The body resists rust commendably and provided it has been serviced on schedule, the brawny motor is capable of huge mileages.

A common issue, particularly with early cars, is incorrect wheel alignment, which makes itself known by a grumbling noise at low speeds and feathering and uneven wear on the tyres.

A clicking noise emanating from the rear of the car indicates that the drive shafts need greasing. It’s worth tackling this job as a priority as replacement items can cost around £1,000.

The same is true for clutches, which should last around 40,000 miles in the hands of a considered and careful driver.

Owners have reported other minor issues, mostly regarding persistent squeaks from the rather plastic heavy interior. Windows have been known not to seal properly and boot-lid struts can fail, though these are easily fixed

THE PERFECT 350Z

GT models are most sought after by buyers, as are later cars with the upgrades

maladies. The water-based paint used on the model has also come in for some criticism for its susceptibility to stone chips.

What’s the perfect 350Z? With such a simple model line-up, it’s hard to go wrong when stocking a 350Z. The increased luxury offered by GT models ups the car’s showroom appeal, though buyers are just as likely to be interested in the mechanical updates and greater power offered by cars manufactured towards the end of the production run.

35th Anniversary models – otherwise known as the GT4 – are worth seeking out for their sheer rarity. Only 176 units were produced for the UK (all of which were black or yellow), and featured a raft of mechanical and interior updates that eventually filtered down into regular models. [CD]

UNDER THE BONNET

A raucous 3.5-litre V6 with 276bhp. Later in life, power jumped to 309bhp

PROBLEMS

It’s generally reliable, although look out for worn clutches, drive shafts and squeaks

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 69

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engage

convert

transact

auctions.

Buyers in different parts of the country demand different things bit.ly/regionbuyers

Regional micro-climate sees booming market

Henstock

Prices remain strong as south-east absorbs higher volumes of used cars

Bringing a local focus

R

T

he south-east of England is booming – and prices for used cars remain strong no matter how many vehicles there are in the marketplace.

That’s the view of the team at Shoreham Vehicle Auctions of West Sussex, who claim there is a ‘car micro-climate’ in the south-east where they are based.

In two sales for national finance companies, the company reports conversion rates of 93 per cent and 100 per cent. This is exceptional compared with reported conversion rates of 50-60 per cent in the UK generally.

The area covered by the ‘micro climate’ is fairly extensive, stretching between Chichester and Brighton on the south coast, across to Essex and north as far as Hertfordshire.

Highlights of the two recent successful auctions include strong bidding on cars such as the Citroen C1, Peugeot 3008, Vauxhall Zafira, VW Polo, Golf and Renault Grand Scenic, with all models making

strong money against CAP values.

Alex Wright, managing director of Shoreham Vehicle Auctions, explained: ‘Economically, this area is booming, and whatever used car volumes are thrown at it they seem to get swallowed up with prices remaining strong.

‘Franchised dealers and independents alike are reporting strong demand for used cars and buyers are keeping their forecourts fully stocked to take advantage of the market.

‘Our sales performance is keeping vendors happy and we believe that while the economy in the south-east continues to grow faster than the rest of the country, there will be a major imbalance in auction conversion rates and prices.’

BCA Preston sale celebrates 30 years on site A special sale was the first in a series of events celebrating three decades at BCA’s Preston site, which was opened on May 14, 1984 by Prince Michael of Kent. The Mayor of South Ribble, Councillor Dorothy Gardner, started the celebrations. Former BCA Preston managers and directors Peter Teale, Malcolm Riley, Graham Carbutt and Nigel Everett attended.

Car dealer A big turnoutcowboy ensuredads a busy28/8/13 day for

auction stations

the auctioneers. Nearly 300 vehicles were sold and turnover exceeded £1m.

Preston manager Chris Tinsley said: ‘We were delighted to kick off our 30th- anniversary celebrations in fine style and were pleased the mayor was able to attend.’ The purpose-built BCA Preston building has become Lancashire’s number one vehicle centre for remarketing, selling more than 15:49 vehicles Page a1 year.

25,000

No cowboys.

Just Just trade trade professionals. professionals.

etailers in the used car market should take account of local and regional variations in their marketing and promotional activities.

This used to happen automatically when small operations were the norm, but now with ever-increasing groups this is a factor highlighted in a new report for BCA by Professor Peter Cooke – The Closer View: A National and Regional Market Review.

The 40-page report examines macroeconomics and regional variations, new car sales and used car supply, regional influences on the car-buying decision and future prospects and needs of used car buyers.

As the retail motor industry has moved to ever-bigger groupings giving regional or national coverage, this report reminds us that car buyers have local needs and one size does not fit all. An awareness of these expectations and preferences can help retailers develop their used car business more effectively.

The report highlights how economic recovery is affecting different parts of the country in terms of inflation, earnings and unemployment. While escalating house prices may create a feeling of increasing wealth in London, they may have little impact in other regions. Retailers need to be aware of local and regional developments and be able to respond to them effectively.

Historically, used car retailers have operated within a tight geographical area and understood the dynamics of their local market. Buyers’ different expectations across the regions create marketing and promotional implications for used car retailers. The report is available free from the BCA website (bca.co.uk).

‘Car buyers have local needs and one size does not fit all.’

Who is Simon Henstock?

Simon is UK network operations director for BCA. Visit british-car-auctions.co.uk or call 0845 600 6644.

Strictly Trade only (VAT No. and verified bank details reqd).

Purpose built 12 acre auction complex .

Enclosed and heated auction halls.

Fleet Car Sales every Monday & Thursday.

Excellent variety of weekly stock from premium sources.

Collection of vehicles 24 hours a day.

Fixed cost buyer’s premium.

Excellent on-site restaurant.

Call now for account applications.

Brindley Road, Stephenson Industrial Estate, Coalville, Leicestershire LE67 3HG T: 01530 833535 email: info@fleetauctiongroup.com www.fleetauctiongroup.com

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 71

TRADER TALK.

Online data is biggest factor now for buyers

..in association with AutoTrader

Research is showing that the average number of visits to dealerships has fallen dramatically

I

t wasn’t so long ago that buyers would visit five or more dealers on the journey to buying their next car.

The road trip was an opportunity to compare and contrast potential models, but also to consider to which dealer they were willing to give hard-earned cash.

All that has changed. Auto Trader research consistently shows that the average number of dealer visits has fallen from five to just over one. That means, having researched extensively online, most buyers are pretty clear on which car they want to buy and from which dealer they intend to purchase before they make their journey from home to the forecourt.

But how do they decide that yours should be the dealer they visit to the exclusion of all others? Well, clearly having the right car is important! But that’s not enough; buyers need to trust your business, too.

Whatever we do online we look for businesses we can trust. So your task as a dealer must be to encourage trust by presenting the most professional public face of your business online.

How you achieve this was the subject of research I recently presented at Auto Trader’s annual Click Awards held at BAFTA, based on a poll of nearly 2,000 car buyers taken earlier this year. Let’s start with the basics. You are expected

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

to have your own website. Seventy-nine per cent of car buyers are more likely to purchase from a dealer if they have their own website.

You are more likely to be trusted by potential buyers if your website displays multiple contact methods, and 68 per cent trust more if you display both a landline and mobile number; conversely, 72 per cent trust you less if you only display a mobile number.

You can augment this figure by including an email address and live chat service, with greater trust engendered in 40 per cent and 24 per cent of respondents, respectively.

Three in four car buyers with smartphones use them to access dealer websites and 72 per cent of these expect your website to be mobileoptimised. Why is that important? Because two in five buyers say visiting a mobile-friendly website makes them more likely to buy from a dealer. But a well-presented, mobile-optimised website is not sufficient on its own for today’s tech-savvy car buyers.

Social media is increasingly used to gauge whether the actions you take mirror a professional online presentation.

One in five car buyers said it was important for dealers to have a social media presence. And those who use sites such as Facebook and

‘One in five car buyers say it is important to have a social media presence’ Twitter are increasingly doing so to read customer reviews.

So, 55 per cent use it to see what people are saying about a dealership online and 35 per cent to check that a dealer is a legitimate business. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two in three buyers say they are more likely to buy a car if comments about a dealer are positive, but nearly half – 44 per cent – say they are more likely to buy if negative comments have been promptly addressed.

These figures can only rise in the years ahead, as more smartphone and tablet users turn to a quick and easy way to verify the credibility of your dealership, its working practices and its staff.

Who is Nick King?

Nick is market research director of Auto Trader, the UK’s number one digital marketplace for new and used cars. Visit autotrader.co.uk

MONEY MATTERS.

..in association with Paragon

Putting all approved lenders and insurers under one roof Why forming a partnership with DealTrak is a significant development for Paragon

T

he adoption of integrated F&I (finance and insurance) platforms has been increasing steadily over the past ten years within motor finance brokers and car dealerships in the UK. This month, Paragon plugged into DealTrak, the UK’s longest-standing and leading F&I platform, bringing its products within easy reach of the 85 per cent of UK motor finance brokers and 2,000 car dealer sites already active on the DealTrak system.

As part of a new partnership between the two businesses, existing DealTrak users will gain direct access to Paragon’s products. In addition, dealers that sign with Paragon but do not currently subscribe to the DealTrak system will have the opportunity to subscribe to the platform on a cost-neutral basis.

Signing with DealTrak so soon after its reentry to the market is a significant development for Paragon. Not only does it extend Paragon’s potential product reach exponentially, it also highlights the technological capability of the business and its flexibility to tailor finance solutions to suit each introducer’s profile.

DealTrak’s owner, Frontline Solutions, estimates that one in five UK motor finance proposals were made over its system last year and it sees this increasing to one in three in the near future. For Frontline, the reason for this rapid growth is simple – a good, integrated F&I platform will improve the rate at which finance proposals convert to firm offers, boosting performance and productivity for finance introducers and lenders alike.

So how does the process work? The first thing a good system does is construct a customer

profile, ensuring that any affordability and credit constraints are taken into consideration up front. This means that the dealer can direct the proposal to the most suitable lender on its panel first time round, avoiding multiple applications to different lenders and – importantly for the applicant – multiple credit checks.

Frontline was the first to pioneer pre-credit screening using ‘soft search’, a credit inquiry protocol that allows credit scoring without leaving a footprint on the customer’s file.

Having selected the most appropriate lender, the introducer can then fill out the application and track progress online. The DealTrak system won’t let a partially-completed proposal be submitted to the lender, improving the quality of proposals and the likelihood of a rapid and affirmative response. The system will also file the document, ensuring that all relevant

paperwork is kept on record to assist with regulatory compliance.

Finally, not only can introducers access multiple lenders over the DealTrak system, insurance providers are also readily accessible, enabling the introducer to put together a comprehensive protection package for the customer if required.

For dealers, having all approved lenders and insurers under one roof can clearly make life easier, enabling them to increase their supplier base with relative ease and facilitating more integrated reporting.

And, most importantly for customers taking out finance, knowing that their application will be directed to the most appropriate lender without unnecessary delay and duplicate credit checks is surely an important protection and commitment to treating customers fairly.

Who is Julian Rance?

Julian is head of car finance at Paragon Bank. You can read his column here every month.

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MARKET INSIGHT.

..in association with ASE-global.com

How long can the good times last? The market is clearly showing signs of nervousness

Share prices have reverted to the position at which they entered 2014, despite positive news

O

n the one hand there has been a lot of activity from the listed motor retailers during the course of the past month.

We have seen bullish financial results and forecasts and a continuation of acquisition and disposal activity. On the other hand, there has been no significant impact of any of this upon share prices, which have remained stubbornly close to their positions at the start of the year.

Share price performance It can be seen from the table of share prices that we have seen a convergence of the listed motor retailers over the course of the past month as they have reverted towards the positions at which they entered 2014.

Given the positive news issued during the month with further growth in registrations, an upward revision of the SMMT forecast for the year and record profitability results published by ASE on our rolling 12-month tracker, this is clearly disappointing.

The market is clearly nervous over how long the current good times will last and is drawing breath, awaiting a significant move in either direction, in addition to some profit-taking on the back of strong momentum over the past year.

There has been a slight fallback among last month’s star performers Lookers and Cambria, alongside a rebound from Pendragon which, while still the only motor retailer standing below the price at which it entered the year, made gains during the month. As expected, the delisting of HR Owen completed during the month.

Share price movement from 1st January to 3rd April 2014

Share price movement from 1st January to 9th May 2014

Pendragon

88.3%

93.4%

Vertu

101.3%

101.3%

Lookers

122.2%

114.9%

Inchcape

109.0%

103.2%

Cambria

113.0%

107.0%

Caffyns

100.9%

100.9%

Financial performance Vertu delivered a strong performance in its final accounts, albeit in line with market expectations.

There was significant profitability growth, with underlying EBIT up 96.7 per cent year-on-year.

This was the result of both growth in its organic business and the impact of profit-enhancing acquisitions made – most noticeably Farnell Land Rover. Cambria’s results for the first half of its financial year continued the general theme, with increases in revenue driving a sizeable and encouraging increase in profit.

There was strong growth in both new and used cars, with Cambria managing to increase profit per unit. However, the performance of the parts department dragged down the overall aftersales result. Inchcape reported group revenue to be up by 2.5 per cent to £2.212bn, with like-for-like

revenue rising by 0.8 per cent. Demand for new cars was said to be ‘robust overall’.

Transactional activity Just prior to the release of its annual results, Vertu announced the acquisition of Hillendale Land Rover and Jaguar. This represented the company’s first Jaguar dealership and a Land Rover business in a neighbouring territory to the Farnell dealerships. Consideration of circa £8.2m included £6.4m of goodwill and included £2m of Vertu shares, with disposal restrictions over the course of the first 12 months.

Given management comments that the M&A pipeline was at a six-year high, we would expect to see further transactions in both the volume and prestige sector.

Cambria also repeated as part of its halfyear results announcement that it was ready to buy new dealerships and had a number of opportunities under review, so we can expect some movement from it during the rest of 2014.

Broker forecasts The brokers have continued their positive outlook on the sector, with Pendragon switched from a ‘hold’ to a ‘buy’ by Panmure Gordon during the month. Covering brokers see significant share price growth during the remainder of 2014.

However, this is yet to feed through to positive movements in the share prices.

The majority of the listed retail stocks have received upgrades in their expected profitability, both in the current year and moving forwards.

Who is Mike Jones?

He’s the chairman of dealer profitability specialist ASE plc. You can read ASE’s column here every month CarDealerMag.co.uk | 75

data file.

Forrester VIEW FROM THE TOP

Government isn’t on the right wavelength

W

ould you buy a second-hand car with an integral radio which didn’t work? A new poll from ICM for Vertu Motors concluded that 78 per cent would not.

The government needs to consider the full implications of that answer on the future value of second-hand vehicles if it carries out its long-stated policy of switching off FM & AM transmissions in favour of digitalonly radio. The policy is to switch off AM/FM transmissions in favour of digital-only when more than 50 per cent of all listening uses the new system.

However, the government’s own preliminary analysis paper published six months ago reveals that at present only 10 per cent of cars have digital radio.

The radio industry is pushing for digital switchover with every opportunity it gets. Digital is seen by the media as good; analogue bad. The government analysis assesses the costs and benefits of switching to digital radio; however, the costs only relate to the price of installing digital devices. The government admits in its report that ‘there are significant evidence gaps on the costs of listening digitally in vehicles’.

One massive gap is the drop in the residual value of any FM-only vehicle once digital switchover happens. If digital radio comes about they could stick around on forecourts and have a lower trade-in value as a result. This amounts to a legalised confiscation of part of the value of somebody’s asset.

Reduced residual values don’t just impact on car dealers.

Most people own their car and therefore it could devalue the vast majority of cars in the UK; the public will want to ask why. What is needed is urgent motor industry research into the future differential value of a second-hand vehicle with no integral digital radio compared with one with digital fitted.

This research needs to be submitted to the government to fill the gap that it has in its analysis. Our own ICM research indicates that customers take a simple view of matters – if the radio doesn’t work, the car is less appealing.

It cannot be right to ignore the future value of cars before taking such a big decision. The decision is being taken by a government department which seems to serve the media industry, based on patchy advice from the Department of Transport. But where is the Department for Business or the Treasury in all this? They need to speak up for the value of people’s assets. After their house, a motor vehicle is often the second-highest value asset many people own.

‘Digital is seen by the media as good; analogue bad.’

Who is Robert Forrester?

Forrester is boss of Vertu Motors, the UK‘s sixth-largest motor retailer, selling new and used cars, vans and bikes. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

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Auctions Manheim Remarketing

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CAR DEALER CLUB gives dealers of all sizes access to free legal advice worth £195 from our motor trade lawyers – all for a paltry £39.99 annual subscription!

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Type CarDealerClub.com into a web browser to find out more information and pay online.

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guide

Confessions

your real stories

the details of selected companies here Key tracking

Recruitment

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Online trading

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AutoProtect (MBI) Limited

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Supagard

National Car Cleaning Company

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W: supagard.co.uk T: 0141 633 5933 E: info@supagard.co.uk Info: Still the UK’s number one after 24 years and the preferred choice of the AM Top 100 and major vehicle manufacturers.

W: nationalcarclean.co.uk T: 01268 565050 E: sales@nationalcarclean.co.uk Info: With 30 years of excellence in vehicle valeting, we have an unparalleled reputation for quality on-site vehicle preparation.

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A nuisance customer and a sign of trouble

H

ave you ever really wanted to tell a particular customer what you honestly thought of them? Of course you have!

And so have I...

Let me tell you about ‘Mr Smith’. A man who thought his car was worth four times the trade-in, wanted 25 per cent off his new vehicle and took great pleasure in telling me how full of s*** car salesmen are.

On and on he went about how we all lie and that we all get paid way too much for what we do. Over the course of four weeks, he would come in regularly just to ‘check he was right about something’.

Eventually he actually bought a car from me. We lost money on the deal in the end but my boss was just glad to see the back of him.

Our former receptionist was a kindly young lady called Laura. She’d always offer to put out an A4 sign with the customer’s name on it for a handover. ‘Makes them feel special don’t it?’ she’d say in her native Essex accent.

Anyway, the day came for ‘Mr Smith’ to pick up his car. Laura rang me and said ‘Your man’s comin’ in today ain’t he? Give me his name and I’ll do a sign for ya.’ Trying to be funny, I said, ‘Ah thanks Laura, his name is Mr I Knowitall’. Before I could stop giggling, Laura gave a quick ‘all right, luv’ and hung up.

On the way over to the front desk to make sure she knew I was joking, I got a little waylaid with a pretty lady looking at a 4x4. There was an hour before ‘Mr Smith’ was due in so I wasn’t too worried and took my time explaining the benefits of the car to her.

I took her details and we went for a test drive.

She was very inquisitive about the car and I didn’t want to seem rude so the test drive took a little while longer than expected as we continued chatting.

Of course, by the time I got back, ‘Mr Smith’ had arrived and was standing in front of his shiny new car with a sign which read, ‘Here is your new car, Mr Knowitall’. Laura wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box and didn’t pick up on my comedy attempt with his name.

We didn’t see ‘Mr Smith’ at the dealership very often after that, as you can imagine.

‘Give me your customer’s name and I’ll do a sign for him.’

Tell us your story

Have you something to confess? We’d love to hear your tale of woe. Email the editor (you can find our details on page three) or post them on our new forum – simply type cardealermagazine.co.uk/forum into a web browser and get confessing!

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 77

workshops.

Want to be included in this section? Call (023) 9252 2434

First Saab-approved UK bodyshop gives guarantee to owners M&S Accident Repairs will make sure that cars are restored to tip-top condition by using genuine parts

S

aab Parts has appointed M & S Accident said: ‘M & S Accident Repairs are established Repairs as the first Saab-approved experts in their field, and as there are still a bodyshop in the UK. Located in Ashford, large number of Saabs on UK roads, particularly Middlesex, M & S Accident Repairs in the London area, we want to offer owners already holds a number of manufacturer approvals, a reassuring place to take their Saab in the and now Saab is being added to the list. unfortunate event of an accident.

Given their British Standard kitemark approval ‘M & S Accident Repairs takes the burden of what for business processes, workmanship and overall to do next away from the owner and ensure that quality, coupled with 33 years’ technical experience, their Saab is restored to fantastic condition with the M & S Accident Repairs is an ideal bodyshop use of genuine Saab parts.’ partner for Saab Parts to launch its new Working closely with the Saab regional hub Approved Bodyshop scheme. partner for West London (Now Motor Retailing), Announcing the appointment, David Leighton, M & S Accident Repairs can also access technical sales and marketing manager for Saab Parts UK, information and draw from the widest range of 

Only

Reach new heights... need apply!

Marshall Motor Group is part of a unique family owned group of companies with a turnover approaching £1bn (35% growth), with interests also in the aerospace and ground systems sectors. We celebrated our Centenary in 2009 and we are still growing in size.

At Marshall, wherever we work, we all play a big part in ensuring that our sales and profit targets are met, not least by providing our customers with a fantastic level of service which means identifying their needs, and responding to them quickly.

marshallweb.co.uk

With our strong customer centric and people focus it is not surprising that we have received some enviable accolades including "Dealer Group of the Year" and being shortlisted for "Employer of the Year" and we are committed to building on our achievements to date.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

crash parts inventory in the network, available for immediate delivery to enable prompt completion of any Saab accident repair.

Mark Stuart, business development manager at M & S Accident Repairs, added: ‘We are delighted to receive approved status from Saab Parts and be the first of a select number of accredited bodyshops in the country. We are committed to making this a positive change for Saab owners in the area and look forward to being able to demonstrate our professionalism in the near future.’

We are looking for talented automotive professionals to join our team. If this is you and you share our passion for being the best then you can look forward to a great benefits package, the chance to build on your skills and experience with ongoing training, plus all the encouragement and support you need to develop a rewarding, long-term career with us.

Please go to

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...with a career at Vertu Motors

Welcome to Vertu Motors PLC, the largest growing motor retailer in the UK Whether you’re starting your career or changing jobs, it is important that you apply to join a company that is right for you, one that shares your values, will appreciate your work ethic and reward your achievements.

It is not that different from buying a car.

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to find out more about the Group and see our current vacancies.

To apply or to explore all our exciting career opportunities, visit...

www.vertucareers.com

the fleet.

LATEST FROM THE FLEET . . .

New arrival:

MitsubishiL200

I

don’t live in the countryside, own anything that needs towing or have connections to the building trade. In fact, I live on a terraced street where the battle for parking spaces can be a nasty business.

All of which should probably mean the latest edition to the family, a Mitsubishi L200 is not the vehicle for me. But despite that, I love it.

Taking it home for the first time, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to park on my street, let alone outside my house, but after three weeks behind the wheel the fun of driving it has blown away any such trivial concerns.

I might be even less popular with the neighbours now but frankly I can live with that.

And if any of them have a problem, I can just drive over their little cars.

The L200 may have been around for years, with the first model arriving in the UK in 1987, but thanks to some heavy revisions it still looks good and I prefer the styling to that of the Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger or Isuzu D-Max. I particularly like the new front grille on this model.

The old ‘Barbarian’ door graphics have also been replaced with a chrome badge on each front

the knowledge Model: 2.5 DI-D Barbarian Double Cab Automatic (Diesel) Price: £28,798.80 (as tested) Engine: 2.5-litre diesel Power: 175bhp, 350Nm Max speed: 109mph 0-60mph: 13s Emissions: 233g/km Mileage this month: 1,205 This month’s highlight Taking the L200 for a day out on a farm door, which gives the vehicle a more quality feel.

It’s easy to see why the L200 been such a success for Mitsubishi, including being voted pickup of the year 15 out of 18 times by WhatVan? While you’re aware of the size of the vehicle the driving position is more comfortable and car-like than I expected and it’s got all the extras you’d want, including a DAB radio – perfect if you’re a fan of BBC 6 Music, heated seats, rain sensors, automatic headlights and cruise control.

The front suspension system – based on the Mitsubishi Shogun’s set-up of coil springs and independent double wishbones, adds to the

surprisingly car-like feel and it’s got a good turning circle for such a big vehicle.

Our L200 is the double cab model and being an automatic it’s a doddle to drive. It’s also more economical than I expected. I’ve managed to get the MPG up to around 32.

While the L200’s natural habitat might be a bit more rugged than the A34, the closest I’ve got to off-roading in it was a visit to a farm, where you pay for your kids to look at animals they could normally see just by looking over a fence and into a field somewhere.

But its off-road credentials are pretty well known and that’s a major reason why it’s sold so well over the years.

Gareth Bethell (@garethbethell)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 79

the fleet.

LATEST FROM THE FLEET . . .

Second report:

Third report:

SeatLeon Cupra 280 Peugeot3008

Sixth report:

VolvoXC70

Munching the motorway miles in comfort

Travelling to Devon four-up with aplomb and loads of stuff

Superb multi-media system comes up trumps on long trips

I’M CONVINCED there isn’t a more accomplished motorway cruiser on the Car Dealer fleet than the excellent Seat Leon Cupra 280. In fact, it’s a little bit too happy to munch the motorway miles.

The problem lies in the fact that the speedometer doesn’t feature a 70mph or 50mph marker, meaning motorway speed limits – including the pesky 50mph curfew imposed on much of the M25 – are very difficult to adhere to.

Add in the fact that the Cupra’s feisty 2.0-litre TFSI engine doesn’t particularly like cruising at any less than 80mph and you have a recipe for disaster – or more specifically, a scarred licence.

I soon worked out that the neat digital display behind the steering wheel could project funky speed readouts with the press of a few buttons, which has ensured the sparkling white Leon has avoided unwanted attention from the law… for now.

A separate minor quibble this month surrounds the infotainment system that is not only fiddly to use (especially while driving) thanks to its cramped touch screen but also lacks a USB slot for charging gadgets.

One member of staff was forced to part with £20 for a cigarette lighter iPhone charger from a service station during one desperate slog back from the north of England.

A shame, considering the official Seat USB Mitsumi Cable is only £25.

YOU know on Steve Wright’s Radio 2 show, when everyone who contacts the programme says ‘lovin’ the show, Steve?’ Well, that’s how I feel about the 3008. I’m thoroughly enjoying the car and have put it to the test on a couple of long trips. One was from Hampshire to Devon, for a weekend away with the family just across the River Dart from the village of Dittisham. Very picturesque. With the kids grown up, the 3008 had the job of transporting four adults there in comfort and safety, plus a rather large amount of clothing and clobber for a mere couple of nights away, and it did so with aplomb.

Our eldest, although nearly 21, is not the greatest fan of long journeys but had no complaints even on the final twisty stretches of the journey to the South-West. Everyone loved the panoramic glass roof which means that as well as being comfortable and spacious, the cabin is light and airy, too. Not so satisfactory is the satnav. Now, as Batch regularly points out, I’m not the youngest member of the Car Dealer team so occasionally struggle with technology but maybe it’s not the most intuitive of the car’s features.

And in perhaps the most trivial niggle a motoring journalist has ever reported, I keep going to adjust the radio volume via the central knob on the console, but end up changing the station instead! Very annoying when I’m trying to listen to the Big Show.

There is a gravitational field around the Volvo keys in the office. No matter how hard I try to choose something else from our fleet for long journeys, the keys to our XC70 always appear in my pocket. The thing is it’s such a good motorway car that when you’re staring at a satnav that says six hours to get home and 370 miles to cover, there’s few better cars in our fleet to take the strain. Yes, the steering is light, yes, the brakes need a decent prod, and yes it is a bit choppy in the corners, but in the outside lane of the M1 it’s utterly brilliant.

It’s quiet, the D5 engine is powerful and refined and the multimedia system is superb.

This month I’ve added around 1,000 miles to the odometer with trips to Newquay for a rally, Newcastle for a meeting and Heathrow for a business trip. There’s nothing like settling into those comfy heated leather seats and gently toasting your digits with the heated steering wheel to ease the pain of a 5am start.

It’s not all good news, though. Twice I’ve filled the boot with luggage and gifts to placate the family after yet another trip abroad, for the automatic boot to fail to shut properly. On both occasions I’ve pulled away to dump the entire contents on the road as I’ve either missed or there wasn’t a warning on the dash. In a world of annoying bonging cars, I would have welcomed one for once.

Leon Poultney (@blokesincars)

Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave)

James Baggott (@CarDealerEd)

the knowledge Model: Seat Leon Cupra 280 Price: £30,735 (as tested) Engine: 2.0-litre TSI Power: 276bhp, 350Nm Max speed: 155mph 0-60mph: 5.7s Emissions: 149g/km Mileage this month: 1,763 This month’s highlight Working out how to show speed readouts and so avoiding any nasty notices ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

the knowledge Model: Peugeot 3008 Allure HDi 115 Price: £23,095 (as tested) Engine: 1.6-litre, turbocharged diesel Power: 115bhp, 270Nm Max speed: 112mph 0-60mph: 13.4s Emissions: 127g/km Mileage this month: 782 This month’s highlight The panoramic glass roof made for a light and airy trip to Devon in a very full car

the knowledge Model: Volvo XC70 D5 AWD SE Lux Geartronic Price: £43,545 (as tested) Engine: 2.4-litre, five-cylinder diesel Power: 213bhp, 439Nm Max speed: 127mph 0-60mph: 7.8s Emissions: 169g/km Mileage this month: 1,987 This month’s highlight Steaming up the outside lane of the M1 enjoying the heated steering wheel and warm seat

longtermers

Seventh report:

Eighth report:

Ninth report:

RenaultZoe

NissanQashqai

KiaCarens

Looking forward to making the Maturing well – it is sharper most of the long evenings and quicker than ever

Lugging our video equipment across Spain is simple

NOW the nights are pushing out, the Zoe is getting more use. However, our use continues to be hampered by the charging network. The polar card inexplicably stopped working, leaving the car stranded at the office with less than 20 miles of charge and no way to get it home.

A call to Chargemaster didn’t help, they just suggested I download the app and put some cash on it. Thankfully Renault’s press office came to the rescue and we now have a new set of cards that should allow me to charge her at motorway service stations. This is a significant improvement and may help address the single biggest issue that we have faced with the little electric car.

As we speak, the car is in RA body shop in Sandhurst where my mate John Limes is sorting out the damage to the rear bumper suffered when someone hit the car while parked and did a runner. The return journey should test the range again as it’s a 70-mile trip and I know that there is only 15 miles of charge left. Let’s hope the motorway charging card works.

Perhaps this whole episode highlights a rather fundamental problem with electric cars... to be honest I sometimes long for something petrol or diesel powered just to avoid the unfortunate hassle I have been experiencing lately.

And let’s make the most of these long evenings, by the time you read this, the nights will be drawing in again!

OUR Nissan Qashqai 360 came of age this month, going into the workshop for its first service. Our trusty long-termer reached the 18,000 mark – its first service interval point – without so much as a cough or splutter.

And, despite living a hard life at the hands (and heavy right feet) of the Car Dealer team, the British-built model came through with flying colours. It didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who have spent the most time with Nissan’s big seller, though.

With thousands of miles under its metaphorical belt, the Qashqai has matured well and feels sharper, quicker and more responsive than ever.

It’s also every bit as economical to run as it’s ever been, averaging around 43 mpg even as it’s first trip to the Nissan service centre approached.

What’s more, the superb build quality for which Nissan’s Sunderland factory is renowned is still evident as the model has survived our nation’s potholed roads without developing a single creak, squeak, knock or rattle.

The 360 is now, of course, no longer in production – replaced by the fabulous all-new Qashqai earlier this year – and quality used examples tend to go with blink-and-you’ll-miss‘em speed. But if you do have the good fortune to find one, snap it up quick. They’re popular for good reason.

FOR those of you who follow the antics of the Blackball video team, you’ll know that no vehicle is too big when it comes to lugging our everyday kit around. Never has this been more the case than our recent commission, which took us to sunny Lisbon for three weeks, where we were filming a product launch event, swiftly followed by a week in Barcelona for another launch event.

The Kia has become an adopted member of the video team. At this rate, the guys back in the office may struggle to get the keys back.

Since the demise of the ginormous Sedona, the Carens is the largest MPV in the Kia line-up.

With all the seats folded flat it has 1,650 litres of boot space. Turning it from people carrier to load lugger is simple, thanks to some well-located handles on the back seats. On some rivals it’s fiddly and frustrating. So with all the filming kit, the luggage and essential trip sweeties loaded, we hit the road for the 600-mile trip across Spain.

The Carens was surprisingly comfortable to drive. The roads between Lisbon and Barcelona were pretty smooth to be fair, but the Kia ploughed along the motorway miles with ease.

An agile ride has been sacrificed in the interest of comfort, though, and when I found myself on a twisty road, I was pretty keen to get back on the straight stuff. It rolls, the steering doesn’t give much confidence in the bends and it’s slow to react. [CD]

Andy Entwistle (@CarDealerAndy)

Mal Hay (@MalcolmHay)

Nigel Swan (@motoringnut)

the knowledge Model: Renault Zoe Dynamique Intens Price: £19,393 (as tested) Engine: Electric motor Power: 88bhp, 219Nm Max speed: 84mph 0-60mph: 13.3s Emissions: 0g/km Mileage this month: 87 This month’s highlight Getting a new bunch of cards which hopefully will let me charge the car at motorway services

the knowledge Model: Nissan Qashqai 360 Price: £22,090 (as tested) Engine: 1.6-litre, turbocharged diesel Power: 128bhp, 320Nm Max speed: 118mph 0-60mph: 10.7s Emissions: 135g/km Mileage this month: 3,612 This month’s highlight Getting to its first service without so much as a cough or a splutter

the knowledge Model: Kia Carens ‘3’ 1.7 CRDi Price: £23,895 (as tested) Engine: 1.7-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged diesel Power: 134bhp, 330Nm Max speed: 119mph 0-60mph: 10s Emissions: 132g/km Mileage this month: 2,145 This month’s highlight Eating up the Spanish miles from Lisbon to Barcelona CarDealerMag.co.uk | 81

data fiLe.

Work out ways to turn a sporting summer to your advantage

A

s a keen football fan, there’s nothing worse than the final fixture being played in the month of May and the thought of a summer filled with empty Saturday and Sunday afternoons ahead. As the first few weekends of the close season arrive, the uncertainty and feeling of ‘not knowing what to do with yourself’ are dealt with internally (which can take a little time, I assure you), and attentions turn to other activities until the middle of August comes around.

The good news for all sports fans is that 2014 is very different. We have some major sporting events to look forward to, which will not only serve to satisfy sporting individuals like myself, but more importantly will, if thought about properly in terms of strategy and execution, have a positive impact on your business.

The World Cup and the Commonwealth Games are two huge events covering a large chunk of the summer, which will draw attention and audiences from all over the world to support their respective individuals, teams and nations in their quest for success.

The countries within the UK are little different to our counterparts, in that we enjoy the hype of expectation created in our own social groups and the media, seeing these events as ideal social-gathering opportunities, supporting whoever we are cheering for with the utmost enthusiasm, and moaning like mad when things don’t go according to plan (as they don’t all too often!).

Therefore, seeing these events as an opportunity for growth, as opposed to a hurdle in the way of performance, is an important decision to make in your own mind, as it

Jonathan

Such TIME IS MONEY

would be far too easy to adopt an attitude that customers will be focusing on other things rather than which car they are looking to purchase next.

You only have to look back two years to the 2012 London Olympic Games to see what I mean.

The feelgood factor surrounding the event had a hugely beneficial effect on our own economy, and we have exactly the same opportunity this year with Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games.

It isn’t too late to take some time to consider how to maximise your opportunities during a busy summer of sport, nor is it too late to ask for some help or assistance

‘Think back two years to 2012 – the Olympics had a positive effect’ from a national lender which prides itself on supporting its business partners.

First Response Finance are specialists in both the nearand sub-prime sector, with more than 16 years’ experience.

Therefore whatever your customers’ circumstances, we are more than able to cater for a variety of needs.

Not only are we proficient in how we treat and interact with our customers, we also place a huge amount of emphasis on paying you for the car quickly, freeing up unnecessary administration time and giving added value time for sales and explanations with your own customers.

If you want to be a winner this summer, I look forward to speaking to you soon.

Who is Jonathan Such?

Such is regional sales manager for First Response Finance. You can contact him on 07917 781608 or email jons@frfl.co.uk

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