Car Dealer Magazine: Issue 77

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Issue 77 | August 2014

hy INTERVIEW: w cing ra Perrys is emb social media

on why N O S K C A J A D EO LIN we chat to C for citroen er g an h c game new car is a CarDealer

e c n e r e f n o c r e l est a e d r a C end our bigg E t t a of dealers S INSID PICTURE hundreds D N A S T R O P E R eXPO ever –

CONFERENCE 2014

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EDITORIAL EDITOR James Batchelor

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IGNITION.

Kia UK president and CEO Paul Philpott kicked off this year’s Conference. He was a major draw

PRODUCTION EDITOR Dave Brown

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head of design Graeme Windell

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ADVERTISING ADVERTISING Manager Duncan Chappell

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Advertising EXECUTIVE Cliff Culver

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CREDIT CONTROL & ADMINISTRATOR Pippa Marsden

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SUITS MANAGING DIRECTOR James Baggott

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OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Andy Entwistle

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Contributors Tim Naylor, Nick King, Mike Jones, Jonathan Such, Mal Hay, Leon Poultney, Daljinder Nagra, Gareth Bethell, Diana Hargreaves, John Bowman, Becca Chaplin, Danielle Bagnall and Shazmeen Begum

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love a good conference.

Welcome. We They’re a brilliant way

of getting some of the industry’s best minds together and to meet and catch up with our readers. And there’s normally some great food on offer too.

Right at the beginning of this year, we made plans for our boldest, biggest and most ambitious conference ever. As you can see just by looking at the ‘flannel panel’ to the left of this column, we are a fairly small team at Car Dealer – but I am proud to say we delivered an outstanding event.

The 2020 Vision conference was designed to focus on the future and highlight the issues dealers should be thinking about over the next six years. And the expo was going to be the largest of its kind in the UK. The venue was set, the speakers were organised and, most importantly of all, the menu had been agreed upon.

We also embarked on a publicity campaign the scale of which we had never attempted before. And it worked – a little too well, if I’m honest.

With five weeks to go, we had too many dealers signed up, making it impossible to host the event at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon. So we had to make the tricky decision of either trimming back the number of expo exhibitors (never an option) or moving venue. And it was the latter we had to plump for.

It was Car Dealer Andy’s biggest headache yet – to move an event 53 miles north and keep everyone happy. And I’m pleased to report the Car Dealer team pulled together and delivered our best show yet.

More than 300 dealers turned up at the door at 8.30am on conference day. We knew that many people were

coming but we were still taken aback by the sight of 320odd suited and booted dealers hammering on the door to get in. And apart from a couple of tiny technical issues and a suit that seemed to have grown in size (mine – I must have lost weight since January), dealers said the event was a roaring success. You only have to look at the Car Dealer Forum, or turn to page 7, to see that. In fact, our hashtag for the day – #CDC14 – was actually trending on Twitter!

On behalf of Car Dealer, I’d like to thank everyone who came. Whether you’re a dealer, an exhibitor or one of our fantastic speakers, you made it a truly special event. As you can well imagine, plans are now under way for next year.

That’s always the problem – you put on a good show one year and the expectations for the next one triple.

I hope to see you at next year’s Car Dealer Conference – but in the meantime, turn to p48 for our full report and pictures from the day.

LINDA CHATS TO CAR DEALER FRESH from her promotion from UK managing director to CEO at Citroen, Linda Jackson chatted to Car Dealer at the launch of the new C4 Cactus. We hope to have a much more in-depth interview with her in the not-too-distant future, but in the meantime, her comments are well worth a read. Turn to p36 to see what she has to say.

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 77 I AUGUST 2014

Dashboard

Feedback

Car Dealer Club

36

Interview: Ken Savage Bangers4BEN

Crucial Citroen

Big Mike

New CEO Linda Jackson speaks to Car Dealer about her plans for the brand and why the new C4 Cactus is a vision of Citroen’s bright future

Forecourt Citroen C4 Cactus Mercedes-Benz C-Class BMW M4 Toyota Aygo

20 38

Perrys chairman chats social media, motor sport and business

Can Mercedes finally topple the BMW 3 Series off its perch?

39

‘‘

Citroen C1 Alfa Romeo Guilietta QV BMW gives its 4 Series the ‘M treatment’ and creates M4

Jeep Cherokee

Features

We are a little disappointed that we have lost a bit of our market share

12

Toyota interview

Mitsubishi on the up

Car Dealer Conference 2014 Trading up Focus on: Gemini Focus on: Spectrum Focus on: Online advertising

Data File The Statistics Taking Stock & Buyers’ Guide Auctions Trader Talk Suppliers’ Guide with Litton Long-termers

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What a cracking conference!

s

Modern cars Name the most vital feature . . .

Well-organised and welcoming! Nothing beats a Car Dealer event FOR those of you who didn’t manage to attend this year’s 2020 Car Dealer Conference at Rockingham Motor Speedway, you missed a FANTASTIC event.

For me, it was a chance to meet up with some long-term tweeters (and Twitter Car Dealer forum members) that I had never managed to meet faceto-face before (It’s always great to put a face to a Twitter name). It was also a chance to experience some of the latest forward-thinking technology that is already on the market and was presented on some of the stands at the expo hall.

We were treated to breakfast, lunch and some very digestible presentations from some very impressive and well-known names in the industry.

My sales manager (and now son-in-law) Phil and I travelled down from Aberdeenshire for this event and we both came away in the knowledge that we would certainly attend another Car Dealer event, as we had both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would just like to sign off by saying to the two Jameses and Andy and the rest of the Car Dealer team that you should all be very proud of what you achieved. Not only was it very well organised but there is also this very welcoming feeling that you receive from all your team. Having been in the

trade now for 28 years you can imagine that I have attended my fair share of launches, test drives and motor trade events, but nothing beats a Car Dealer Mag-organised event.

You have this great way of putting everyone at ease and making them feel welcome, which is a breath of fresh air compared with some other intimidating events run by pompous individuals who know nothing about the motor trade!

Well done guys! Roll on next year.

Jim Jim Reid Vehicle Sales Aberdeenshire Fantastic day! Thoroughly enjoyed it, very informative and good to meet so many others that I’ve been tweeting with! Thanks for a great event and well done to all the team too! Very professional.

Umesh Samani Specialist Cars, Stoke-on-Trent Quick thanks to you and the rest of Blackball Media for another excellent conference.

Richard Netherwood DrivenData, Guildford

Good day today at #CDC2014. Lots of great presentations. #worthit @CarDealerMag @ChrisLearmouth Some great presentations so far. @PhilipN_CAP @CarDealerMag. Interesting insights. @DewsMotorGroup

Fuel and tax is the one for me as I only live a mile or so from work. Just moved house and my neighbour actually asked me the other day what I do for a living ‘as there’s always a different car outside!’.

Chris I agree on Bluetooth – an absolute must. And iPhone music integration is vital these days.

Anything to stave off Steve Wright.

James Baggott I know it is a feature on most cars now but Isofix car seat compatibility, to families, is a real selling point.

Agreed with the Bluetooth comment too.

MAldridge

Bangers4BEN 2014 Who’s signed up so far?

Can’t wait!

William Blackshaw Just trying to persuade a couple of mates to do it. Done the Nurburgring a few times but always fancied something like this!

Chris

Picture of the month

Twitter thread of the month Well done to @CarDealerMag team for putting on a cracking morning of thoughtprovoking speakers for #CDC14. Not just your average conference. @MikeH_CAP

Thinking back to selling cars 20 years ago, ‘power steering’ was a major selling point (I remember everyone throwing their arms through the driver’s window at auctions to rock the steering!).

Modern cars seem crammed with features – sat nav, heated seats, cruise control, air con, etc.

For me, the most essential feature today is Bluetooth phone connection – if I’m driving without it, my phone never stops ringing – followed by DAB digital radio. Sat nav never bothers me because I have no intention of getting lost (but normally do!).

Gavin@Rousdon

Incredibly well turned out event with a massive amount of exhibitors too. @CarDealerEd #CDC14 @ChrisCarsGreen Wow. What a great day we had at #CDC2014 – thanks for having us. #inchcape @InchcapeUsedCar Woohoo!! We’re back in #York from a fantastic #CDC14 after being stuck in extremely slowmoving traffic but well worth it. @SwannAutomotive

Oops! Our conference had been a hugely successful event – but it ended with a bit of a mishap when Car Dealer production editor Dave Brown arrived home.

Obviously he should have taken a bit more care packing this Peugeot 3008 for the journey. Still, it gave the team in the office a bit of a giggle...

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 07

DASHBOARD. AUDI

Robot helps to identify repairs AUDI is launching a new communications robot to help its technicians in the US quickly diagnose and troubleshoot repair issues.

The innovative Audi Robotic Telepresence (ART) provides a oneon-one virtual link that connects dealers with expert technicians at Audi of America. This telepresence allows those technicians to inspect and help service vehicles as if they were standing alongside the local technicians.

FORD

Edge will head Euro SUV range DUE to arrive in the UK next summer, this is the Ford Edge, a new SUV from the Blue Oval. Priced from about £30,000, the Edge will head up Ford’s European range of SUVs, which includes the Kuga crossover and the recently-launched EcoSport.

Ford is introducing the previously US-market-only Edge to Europe because of increased demand for utility vehicles, and is preparing to take on the likes of the Audi Q5 and BMW X3 in the compact SUV market.

European supercars ‘meat’ their match in Nissan’s GT-R bit.ly/supercarpics

We’ll use Airbump tech on more cars in future – Citroen Innovative C4 Cactus stands ready to repel rogue shopping trolleys

C

itroen’s innovative Airbump technology, as seen on the new C4 Cactus, will definitely be used again on future models, according to the French manufacturer.

The clever tech, which sees thermoplastic polyurethane panels added to the side doors and underneath the headlights, is the sort of concept car fodder nobody predicted would see the light of day, but the French marque proved otherwise.

‘The technology took us over three years to develop,’ explains Arnaud Leclerc, Citroen’s new managing director in the UK. ‘It was expensive and required a lot of brainpower, so I think it is fair to say we will use this technology again on future models. But the model has to be right,’ he added.

Airbump is designed to alleviate those annoying bangs and scrapes that one often returns to after a shopping trip to the local supermarket. The rubbery panels feature little pockets of air that can soak up a direct hit from a shopping trolley, according to Citroen.

‘The Citroen C4 Cactus is unlike anything else on the market at the moment,’ says Leclerc.

But when quizzed on whether the Cactus designation would become Citroen’s version of Volkswagen’s Alltrack or Audi’s Allroad, Leclerc disagrees.

‘Although I can see Airbump technology working on other cars, Cactus will remain specifically for this C4 model. It is a model in its own right and not a special range.’

The tough yet stylish appearance of the C4 Cactus will certainly appeal to many customers, especially those used to the rough and tumble of busy city driving, so could we

by LEON POULTNEY @Blokesincars

be seeing a smaller, more urban-friendly Airbump model in the future?

‘I agree, the Airbump technology works best in busy places, and I can see that you could easily make the jump to C1, but we will have to see how customers react to the C4 Cactus first,’ reveals Leclerc. ‘If it is a success, which I think it will be, you can rest assured we will see more models rolled out.’

Citroen C4 Cactus tested, pages 36-37

BMW

Work begins on new retail centre WORK has begun on a state-of-the-art BMW retail centre in Reading that is due to open in the spring of 2015. The development, by Cooper BMW, demonstrates a major investment in both the manufacturer and the local region and will feature the latest in technological innovation, with the aim of providing customers with a ‘truly outstanding’ retail experience.

08 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

Motorpoint offers its customers savings on hybrids MOTORPOINT is hoping to power demand for electric cars by offering savings on a whole range of plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The UK’s largest car supermarket is offering its customers savings against new of more than £18,000 on the Chevrolet Volt. It is currently selling the Chevrolet Volt [Auto] five-door

with sat-nav for £18,799. The ecofriendly hatchback features 17-inch alloys, climate control, cruise control, parking sensors and perforated leather seating. It also returns 234mpg and it’s exempt from both road tax and the congestion charge.

Also likely to create a surge in demand for electric vehicles is the

Vauxhall Ampera Positiv five-door auto. The Electric Car of the Year for 2012 is on offer at Motorpoint for £17,999, with more than £16,000worth of savings against new.

Motorpoint also has the Toyota Prius 1.8 VVTi Plug-in 5dr CTV Auto [Leather] for £19,999 – a saving of more than £15,000 against new.

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car finance CarDealerMag.co.uk | 09

DASHBOARD. FEATURE.

Ask Lawgistics

Appeal case sorts lease car dispute

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

A firm of solicitors has written to me to say that unless I pay their customer £7,000 for a defective car, they will take me to court – where legal costs will be added. I thought the rule was that no legal costs are payable by a losing party if the case is determined in the small claims track of the county court?

A

Generally speaking, for contractual disputes under £10,000, each party bears their own legal costs regardless of whether they win or lose. This is because such disputes are almost certainly allocated to the small claims track where this is the rule.

For contractual disputes over £10,000, the general rule is that the ‘loser pays the winner’s legal costs’ as well as their own.

Legal costs include the charges incurred by the ‘winner’ in paying for his legal representative to write letters, make telephone calls and to attend court on their behalf. The amount of money at risk for litigants in these types of disputes can therefore be massive.

The writer has experienced the loser having to pay £16,000 for his opponents’ legal costs. But had the judge awarded just a few hundred pounds extra in compensation then the ‘loser’ would have been the ‘winner’ and instead of having to pay out £16,000 they would have had to pay nothing and would have had their own equivalent legal costs paid for as well.

Q

I have been approached by solicitors acting for a finance company claiming I owe them money arising from a customer, some years ago, selling a car on a lease purchase agreement. They claim he didn’t settle the lease purchase agreement and the car belongs to them. Is this the case?

However, there are some important cost implications in small claims track cases too.

A claimant who asks his legal representative to complete a claim form for him is entitled to receive up to £100 of the cost of their doing so, should he win.

The actual amount a winning claimant can receive depends on the amount of the claim. And so, if the claim is valued at £3,000, a claimant can add to the claim form: ‘Solicitor’s costs £80’. Even if his legal representative charges more for writing the claim than £80, the amount he can expect back if he wins is capped at that amount.

There is no equivalent provision for a defendant to recover the legal cost of a legal representative drafting his defence in small claims, however.

It is also worthwhile remembering that a judge has the discretion to award legal costs against any party in a small claims action in accordance with Rule 27.14(2)(g) of the Civil Procedure Rules.

This allows for an order for legal costs to be made against a party who has ‘behaved unreasonably’.

One’s conduct has to be considered throughout. It may be that a party has failed to observe a pre-action protocol or has unreasonably refused mediation or has unreasonably rejected an offer to settle.

Those who do everything they possibly can to simply ‘get their day in court’ may ultimately end up regretting it. It is a useful warning we send to our clients’ customers when they are litigating in a wholly belligerent manner.

A

Your scenario is similar to an appeal case – Michael Gerson (Leasing) Ltd v Wilkinson and Another (2000). Customers can buy a car and sell it to a finance company who lease it back often with more manageable monthly payments and a balloon payment at the end. In this appeal case the customer ‘sold’ the car again to refinance plant and machinery with another finance company. It looks as though any subsequent buyer would be subject to a claim for ‘conversion of title’ in that they did not get title to the goods. But the Sale of Goods Act Section 24 states that if a person sells goods, eg, a car, and keeps the car in his or her possession, the delivery or transfer to another, in good faith, can pass good title. In the appeal case the first finance company lost any claim for conversion and this is what you can argue.

.com

Greater flexibility is available for your employees

Q A

I have heard that flexible working is now available to all staff.

Yes, the Government has amended the right to flexible working under the Flexible Working Regulations 2014. The regulations came into effect on June 30 and in summary change the following:

n The provision that this right is only available to parents/carers of children under 17, or 19 if the child is disabled, is removed n Any employee can make a request for flexible working n The only applicable criteria will be that employees must have obtained 26 weeks’ continuous

ADVICE

employment before making a request n Rules as to how requests are made will remain unchanged n Minimum compensation for breach of procedure is now eight weeks’ pay The criteria for rejecting claims have not changed. It is important to consider all applications thoroughly before making a decision.

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WHY I JOINED car dealer club What do you do when a customer wants a £55k deposit returned? Turn to the experts at Lawgistics

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THIS month we focus on UK Sports & Prestige Cars, which had a customer pull out of a deal, despite putting down a large sum of money, leaving the business out of pocket. As a Car Dealer Club member, director Ashley Allen was able to contact motor trade law specialist Lawgistics, which resolved the situation.

‘We had an issue with a deposit that a customer wanted refunded,’ explained Allen, pictured. ‘We agreed a deal for a Porsche and the customer had sent us £55,000 on the Friday. However, on the Monday they decided they didn’t want the car any more because they believed it had been in an accident and that they would like a full refund.

‘To cut a long story short, the car hadn’t been in an accident and they were looking for an excuse.

‘We contacted Lawgistics to find out where we stood legally because I already had costs attached to this sale – cleaning and preparing the car, plus telling people the car was sold all cost money and I needed to know if I was within my rights to withhold a certain amount of money.’

Lawgistics was able to turn the situation around, making it easy for Allen to retain part of the deposit with minimal effort.

Allen continued: ‘It turned out that I was within my rights to hold a reasonable amount, and in this case it was £5,000. Lawgistics were able to write letters to the gentleman and his solicitor. It took the pressure off me because to write a letter you’ve got to be in the right mindset. Our

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.

phones are ringing and people are walking through the door, it’s a nightmare. So to have Lawgistics write it all in a professional manner was a perfect solution.

‘They were even able to find loopholes, such as consumer regulations, information you wouldn’t necessarily know.’

Allen’s dealership has recently relocated to a new showroom in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. He added: ‘We have a small showroom with around 10 of the best cars in it and we put them to market.

‘We also offer a service where if a customer comes to us we’ll offer a brokerage fee or I can car-source for them if there’s something in particular a customer wants.’

When asked if he felt the Car Dealer Club legal advice was worthwhile for his business, Allen said: ‘I would recommend the service to other dealers massively. It’s a really, really good service and excellent value for money.’

You can become a member of Car Dealer Club and make use of the Lawgistics services too for just £39.99 a month. Full details appear on this page.

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DASHBOARD.

European car market grows for ninth month bit.ly/euro-growth

Disappointed? A little, but the rest of 2014 will be much better With new Aygo already launched and Yaris on the way, Toyota dealers have reason to feel optimistic

T

oyota is hoping for a brighter second half of 2014 after feeling ‘a little disappointed’ by its performance so far.

Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, UK marketing director Chris Hayes said the arrival of all-new Aygo, coupled with the upcoming launch of new Yaris, would definitely see a turnaround in the manufacturer’s fortunes.

Toyota’s sales figures paint something of a mixed picture. The company’s market share is currently running at 3.99 per cent (SMMT, May 2014) with sales overall around eight per cent up year-on-year. Just over 42,200 Toyotas have been sold in the UK so far in 2014.

Twelve months ago however, the market share number was higher – 4.1 per cent. But whatever spin that observers might put on the statistics, there’s no doubt Hayes is in confident mood.

‘The market is, of course, very challenging,’ he told us. ‘In terms of our product introduction schedule, we’re eagerly anticipating the arrival of all-new Aygo and new Yaris later in the summer.

We’re looking forward to some very strong results in the second half of the year. We are a little disappointed that we have lost a bit of our market share but we’re very confident that we’ll pick that up in the second half of 2014.

‘That process really starts with all-new Aygo. We recently had a retailer launch event in Manchester at

by DAVE BROWN @CarDealerDave

which we took all of the sales executives and management teams of the dealerships and immersed them in the world of allnew Aygo. The second half of the year will be very different.’

Hayes was quick to pay tribute to the Toyota dealer network.

He told us: ‘It’s a very wellestablished and mature network and it consistently out-performs some of the networks of our competitors. We have a very capable dealer network.

‘I think that’s one of the strengths of the brand, actually, our customer-first ethos. The dealers work really well with us. We’ve got a superb relationship with them.

‘Our ethos is very much customer first, dealer second, manufacturer third.

Through our governance structures with the dealers we manage our relationship very, very well.

It’s incredibly positive, very constructive and they’re a huge asset to the brand.’

With new Aygo about to hit UK roads, priced from just £7,995 and with a wealth of new personalisation options, what’s Hayes’s favourite feature of the car? ‘I love the dramatic X,’ he told us. ‘I think it’s great. It’s dramatic, bold, distinctive and a little bit edgy – quite unique in today’s market.’

Aygo tested, page 40

AUDI

New head of sales named CIAN O’BRIEN is to join Audi UK as its new head of sales operations on September 1.

The 36-year-old succeeds Paul Sansom, who has been promoted to the role of MD of Audi South Africa. Cian moves to his new Milton Keynes-based role from his current position as director of Seat Ireland. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

The market is certainly challenging, says Chris Hayes

Mitsubishi network continues its expansion THE Mitsubishi Motors dealership network continues to grow, with three new dealers taking on the franchise. Midgley Motor Cars of Skipton and Belmont Edinburgh have just opened their doors, while Lings Mitsubishi in Lowestoft is set to open later this month.

The latest additions mean eight new dealers have joined Mitsubishi Motors in the UK since the

start of 2014. The new Edinburgh site becomes the second dealership in the Belmont Group to join Mitsubishi, after Belmont Wallyford took on the franchise last year.

Paul Barkshire, a director at Lings, which opens on July 28, said: ‘Lings and Mitsubishi is a natural fit. We’re very enthusiastic about the future.’

Leading the charge, page 45

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 13

DASHBOARD.

Renault’s magnificent seven win customer service praise Top-performing outlets fully deserve recognition, says MD Ken Ramirez

S

even top-performing Renault dealers have shown they provide outstanding levels of customer care after being named ‘Dealers of Excellence’ by global market research experts JD Power for servicing Renault vehicles.

Seward Renault Portsmouth; Smiths of Peterborough; and Renault Wirral, Slough, Orpington, Romford and Enfield were all presented with the coveted award by Renault UK managing director Ken Ramirez and Dr Axel Sprenger, JD Power European head of operations, at the French brand’s dealer event in Nuneaton.

Ken Ramirez, Renault UK managing director, said: ‘The seven dealers receiving the Dealer of Excellence Marsh_142x190mmAdvert_AW.pdf Award really have gone the extra mile

and fully deserve this recognition and accolade for delivering what customers rightly demand most – outstanding service experience.’

The honour was bestowed after each of the seven dealerships successfully completed the certification process for its Renault service operations through a two-part 1 18/12/2013 12:32 evaluation process, consisting of a

customer satisfaction survey and an extensive on-site audit.

Renault had commissioned JD Power in January to measure the performance of its dealers as part of its bid to climb into the top-10 vehicle manufacturer list of independent UK quality surveys by 2017.

The launch of the JD Power Dealer of Excellence Award Programme, the first of its kind in Europe, is to give high-performing dealers enhanced status compared to competitors, and demonstrate a commitment to customer servicing satisfaction irrespective of their brand.

JD Power has been capturing and analysing the voice of the customer across more than a dozen industries globally for more than 45 years.

MANUFACTURING

Car production figures drop UK CAR production fell almost 10 per cent in May, figures just released reveal.

The precise figure was 9.8 per cent with a total of 116,655 units built during the month. Production time was lost to spring shutdowns at some plants. The year-todate picture is still positive however, with 654,895 cars produced so far in 2014 – a 3.5 per cent growth rate.

Demand for new cars in the EU continues to increase, with May marking nine consecutive monthly rises. Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘UK car manufacturing fell 9.8 per cent in May, as some plants instigated spring shutdowns. The prospects for the coming months and years, however, are still bright; new UK-built models will benefit from growing demand across Europe.’

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7,300,000 The number of daily readers* reached by The Sun.

151,000 The number of cars advertised on Sunmotors.co.uk*.

2,760 The number of dealer sites on Sunmotors.co.uk*.

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NRS Figures, Stock & Dealer Figures Rounded Down From Lowest Volume On-Site On 2nd July 2014

DASHBOARD.

Royal Highland Show proves a big success for Mitsubishi dealerships bit.ly/show-success

It’s a fantastic festival!

How dealers benefit from manufacturer activity at a massive automotive gathering

M

ore than 200,000 members of the public visited the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex this year.

And while the event was once again a not-to-be-missed opportunity for members of the public to get behind the wheel of the car they’re thinking of buying, or getting up close and personal with iconic racing cars from the past 100 years, the Festival of Speed is also an incredibly important event for manufacturers and their dealers.

The Moving Motor Show (held on the Thursday before the three-day festival) attracted some 20 car manufacturers, while the grounds opposite Goodwood House catered for another 15 manufacturer stands. These impressive Motor Show-like structures – dubbed ‘pavilions’ by some car brands – showed off world debuts, concept cars and entire model line-ups.

One manufacturer has conistently used the West Sussex event as a way of exposing its brand to the public since the Festival of Speed started more than two decades ago – Citroen.

‘We’re proud of the fact that we’ve been at every Festival of Speed since it began 21 years ago in 1993,’ Citroen’s recently-appointed new UK and Ireland managing director, Arnaud Leclerc, told Car Dealer. ‘And it’s been a very important part of our national events and experiential programme in recent years.

‘Since the Moving Motor Show was introduced a few years ago, we’ve also had the opportunity to showcase Citroen and DS product to members of the public on the famous Goodwood hillclimb.

by JAMES batchelor @JRRBatchelor

This year we completed 97 test drives on the Thursday, including runs in DS3 Cabrio Racing and new C1.’

Apart from test drives, the event is important for dealers too, says Leclerc. ‘We don’t take actual orders at Goodwood, but we do sell cars to customers who visit our stands. This year we captured close to 2,000 leads including information and test-drive requests. These are all followed up by our dealer partners and it’s important to point out that it’s not just dealers in the south that benefit. Goodwood attracts visitors from all over the country.’

This year, the French brand used Goodwood as a way of debuting new models that had, up until now, only been driven abroad by UK journalists. ‘We had the UK premieres of two important new Citroen models – new C1 and C4 Cactus. Both were exceptionally well received.

‘What better place to launch these great cars to almost 200,000 visitors?’ says Leclerc.

But why is Goodwood such a good venue for customers and manufacturers? ‘It’s a completely different atmosphere to a motor show and the reasons visitors go are very different,’ says Leclerc. ‘That means they have time to relax and to choose what to look at.’

Another manufacturer that used Goodwood as a means to interact with its customers

this year was Ford. The Blue Oval was the main sponsor in 2003 and used the event to celebrate its centenary, while this year it chose Goodwood as the venue for the UK debut of the forthcoming Mustang and the global reveal of the new Ford Focus ST. It used the environment to stage a race up the famous hillclimb between a video gamer driving a virtual Ford Focus ST and the real car driven by Ben Collins.

‘Our association with the Goodwood Festival of Speed dates back to when it started, more than 20 years ago,’ Mark Ovenden, Ford of Britain chairman and managing director, told us. ‘Goodwood provides unique opportunities for the dynamic presentation of vehicles, which this year also included the Ford Mustang and the new Ford Fiesta Red/Black editions.’

Peugeot’s new managing director, Stéphane Le Guevel, told Car Dealer: ‘It was a great opportunity to celebrate the our product development in its 125th year, showcase new product and to give confidence and direction of the brand’s journey upmarket.’

Danny Wall, operations manager at Lookers Notingham, believes the key to success is the different atmosphere. ‘Goodwood has very much taken the place of the old British motor show,’ he told us. ‘It particularly benefits car makers which have a motorsport heritage – like Peugeot – as customers can associate this history with new products.’ [CD]

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 17

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 19

INTERVIEW. Ken Savage believes 2014 is a good year for the motor trade

I

f there’s one dealer in the UK which has grasped the concept of social media, it’s Perrys.

The dealer group has had a presence on a variety of social media outlets over the past few years, but its profile has risen dramatically of late. So much so, the company’s activity on Twitter saw it top our Top 100 Most Influential Car Dealers list earlier this year. And the man driving Perrys forward is chairman Ken Savage.

‘We’ve taken social media very seriously,’ he tells me. ‘We recognised we were behind the game compared to other dealers, so I recruited an additional manager to look after our social accounts and drive them forward. He’s just taken us to a whole new level.’

The man Savage is referring to is Perrys’ digital marketing manager Lee Manning (you can see him collecting an award from us on p54), and Savage admits he had to take the leap into properly embracing social media because it’s so important to car sales these days.

‘I’m not sure whether social media is selling us that many cars right now, but I think it could do in the future,’ he says.

‘Social media at the present is very similar to websites. If you look back to around 2001 when we were looking at websites, it was such a small part of our business that I remember thinking then it won’t sell us many cars – but look at it now. I’ve taken the same view with social media – you’ve got to be in it to win it and you need to involved early on to really find your feet and ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘Social media?

You’ve got to be in it to win it’ JAMES BATCHELOR talks to Perrys’ chairman Ken Savage about Twitter, Facebook, racing and business

learn it.’ Savage believes social media is great in attracting customers – they may not be ready to buy for another three, four or five years, but social subconsciously ‘catches’ them now.

‘Even for people who are not aware of Perrys, it reaffirms the name as a substantial and household name, and I think the other thing is that it opens our doors to say Perrys is not just a logo but there’s actually people working for Perrys. We certainly try to get that last point over with our Facebook pages.’

Savage regularly updates Perrys’ Facebook presence with photos of his latest acquisition – a 1987 Ford Capri Brooklands 280 with only 27,000 miles on the clock.

‘I bought it on a whim. I woke up one morning and just went and bought it. In that era, I remember buying myself an XR2 but I still hankered after a Capri.’

Savage also updates Facebook followers with news of his activities on the race track in the Lotus Cup UK with his Lotus Two Eleven.

‘This is my seventh season now and I’ve got the bug really badly. My son and I race together and it’s great fun – although he is really irritated by the fact that I’m still quicker than him!’

But, like most dealer group bosses, Savage finds it difficult to disassociate his personal life from his business life. For instance, if there’s a call from the office while he is racing, he’ll take it.

‘When you’re running a business, you’ve got to be accessible. So, whether you’re on holiday or at a race track you’ve got to deal with those

Perrys has franchises for 14 brands – getting such a large business’s message across on social media is no mean feat

calls,’ he says. Savage joined Perrys in June 2000 specifically to handle the management buy-out that was completed in March 2001. Before this, he was at Quicks Group for about 10 years in a series of finance roles. Therefore he’s a man who has an eye for numbers, so it’s no surprise that he has hauled the business out of the recession and into the big time.

‘The recession for us, wasn’t any worse or any better than for anyone else,’ he remarks. ‘We really hit the wall in August 2008 – and it was red across the page in terms of profitability.

‘We had to take the actions and look really hard at our cost base. The workforce was the biggest part of that cost base and we had to trim things back to make sure the business was viable going forward.

‘We did that and I remember 2009 was actually a good year; 2010 was a bit harder – the recession was a bit of a bumpy ride and we were in it and then out of it. But 2013 was a really strong year for us and this year is proving to be even stronger.’

And on that point – what are Savage’s expectations this year? ‘Everyone I speak to is having a good time. What we do as management is put the business in a position that takes advantage of the market – and there’s definitely a market there. Certainly the first quarter of this year was very strong; it seems to have gone a little lighter in the second quarter but we are still looking pretty good. Once companies are on a roll, they continue to be on a roll.’ [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 21

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DASHBOARD.

Nissan Leaf fan Gareth notches up his 200th sale bit.ly/leaf-gareth

Marshall expands as new Land Rover and Volvo outlets join firm’s portfolio Another pair of dealerships join 50+ new businesses acquired over past six years

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amily-owned dealer group Marshall is continuing to expand. It recently announced the acquisition of a Volvo business in Bishop’s Stortford and a Land Rover outlet in Halesworth.

The Volvo acquisition – from Regent Automotive – will bring the number of such businesses in the Marshall portfolio to seven, making it the largest partner for the Swedish manufacturer in the UK. The new business is joining a strong Volvo division within Marshall, with the six existing Marshall Volvo businesses having generated a return on sales in excess of two per cent in 2013 and a return on capital employed of 18.9 per cent.

Daksh Gupta, right, chief executive of Marshall, said: ‘We are delighted to have completed this acquisition and to be welcoming our new colleagues to Marshall.

‘This acquisition is in line with our clear strategy to build strength through the depth of representation with our core brand partners, like Volvo, with whom we have an exceptionally strong relationship.’

The Land Rover dealership was

by JAMES batchelor @JRRBatchelor

Brian Leighton closes its doors BRIAN Leighton Garages, in Howden, East Yorkshire, has called in the administrators and closed its doors after 48 years in business.

Established in 1966, the company was a main dealer for Nissan, Isuzu and SsangYong as well as being an approved Land Rover service centre and bodyshop. Around 65 people are understood to have lost their jobs after the firm was hit by cashflow problems.

MINI acquired from Hammonds. Marshall has represented Land Rover for 40 years and its territory now covers most of the east of England from the M1 to the coast.

Hammonds Group has represented Land Rover in Halesworth for 23 years, along with five other manufacturers, as part of a portfolio of businesses that has been trading for more than 50 years.

Meanwhile, Marshall has also appointed Michael Hunt as head of aftersales development.

Hunt joins Marshall after spending the past six years as head of aftersales for Evans Halshaw.

Gupta said: ‘Michael is a true aftersales professional and will be completely focused on developing and delivering customer retention and operational efficiency strategies for our business. Over the past six years, Marshall has acquired more than 50 new businesses, bringing together 12 different cultures into one company. We are delighted that Michael is joining our senior team.’

Personalisation made easier MINI has launched an online store on eBay to make it easier for customers to personalise their cars.

The eBay store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has more than 1,300 items already available – from wing mirror covers and cleaning products to alloy wheels and interior trim items. Along with accessories for cars, the store stocks official Mini merchandise too.

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England’s World Cup woe even affected car buyers!

POOR performances on the pitch by England in the World Cup even seemed to infect used car buyers with the summertime blues, CAP has revealed.

The company crunched the numbers on consumer visits to its car valuation and motoring costs website during England’s short-lived campaign.

It wanted to see if England’s endeavours had any more impact on people’s plans to spend money than they did on Italy, Uruguay or Costa

JOBS LOST

Rica’s chances of going through.

The results surprised even CAP’s analysts, when car valuation requests at cap.co.uk slumped by almost 60 per cent during England’s 2-1 defeat to Uruguay – and didn’t recover for more than 24 hours.

In contrast, the goalless match with Costa Rica had no discernible impact at all on searches for used car prices.

CAP’s Mike Hind said: ‘We did the analysis partly for a bit of fun

but also because used car dealers often complain that big international sporting events tend to bring a reduction in trade. Of course, there were a lot more people glued to the first and second matches than looking at car values on the internet but the real surprise came on the morning after England v Uruguay.

‘Fewer than half as many people as normal seemed to have any appetite for looking up car prices.’

BRITISH manufacturer McLaren Automotive has appointed a new dealer – McLaren Ascot.

The state-of-the-art facility will become the brand’s largest retailer in the UK and marks McLaren’s 20th European location.

The newly-built McLaren Ascot facility will include an eight-car showroom, a dedicated service centre and the largest selection of McLaren Qualified preowned models in the world.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 23

DASHBOARD. HANDOVER

Dacia reaches sales milestone BRISTOL Street Motors in Derby has just handed the keys to the 25,000th UK motorist to buy a Dacia.

Alison Beirne, a customer service executive, received the keys from the dealership’s sales manager, Andrew Peacock.

And Andrew had a couple of surprises up his sleeve too to mark the milestone – a bouquet of flowers and the gift of a year’s gym membership for his happy customer.

In just 18 months, Dacia has blazed quite a trail in the UK. The ‘shockingly affordable’ brand is setting an impressive pace and is sitting on an order bank of a further 3,500 vehicles.

Mrs Beirne splashed out ÂŁ9,995 on her new Sandero Stepway Laureate TCe 90 and chose the colour white.

Mercedes dealership puts its art into special charity project More than ÂŁ800 raised for deserving causes

A

Manchester Mercedes-Benz dealership has helped some students with an unusual art project.

Dronsfields, the largest independent Mercedes- Benz specialist in the UK, donated car parts to art students at Manchester Metropolitan University for a ‘scrapyard sculpture’ exhibition.

The family-run business usually breaks cars to sell on but got the opportunity to give them a whole new lease of life with the help of MMU. The car parts were worked into original pieces of art, ranging from abstract sculptures to functional tables and chairs. After the exhibition, they were

auctioned online. A total of ÂŁ831 was raised for charity.

Angela Dronsfield, owner of Dronfields, said: ‘We are delighted to have raised so much. ‘None of this would have been possible without the help of Manchester Metropolitan University and the talented art students who participated in the project. ‘We hope to do more charity events in the future.’ The proceeds will be divided evenly between a number of deserving causes in the Manchester area: Joining Jack, Groundwork, Forever Manchester, The Christie at Oldham, Francis House and Kingfisher Community Special School.

Amy Hilton, from the

charity Joining Jack, said: ‘We were thrilled to be chosen as one of the charities involved in the scrapyard sculpture exhibition. ‘It was a really innovative way to raise funds and awareness.’ The pieces were created by Chris Thorpe, Amy Field, Jodie Cheung, Sue Rowlands, Kieren March, Robin Broadley, Abigail Harris, Joe Brotherton, Chloe Herbert and Alex Barker.

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European directive gives customers more rights bit.ly/euro-rule

Get a bloomin’ move on Just a few spaces left on Italian Job-themed charity run Bangers4BEN

THE PLAN

T

en teams have signed up for this year’s Car Dealer Magazine charity rally Bangers4BEN so far – and with a limited number of places on offer there’s no time to lose if you want to take part!

Enrolment for this year’s event – the seventh of its kind – got under way at the recent Car Dealer Conference, held at Rockingham Motor Speedway (see p48).

For 2014, our charity run takes on a classic caper theme – The Italian Job. We’ve always tried to make it as enjoyable as possible and this year we’ve worked doubly hard to make sure you have a fabulous time. There’s a liberal dose of fun and frolics but a huge dollop of car stuff as well.

Bangers4BEN will take in instantly-recognisable locations from the much-loved 1969 big-screen hit.

A four-day event, it starts in Dover on Saturday, October 11, with our final destination being the Fiat factory in Turin before heading home on Tuesday, October 14.

En route, we’ll be travelling along one of the world’s best driving roads, the Stelvio Pass, and dropping by Lake Como. Once the rally has ended, the car you made the trip in will be sold at a special auction at BCA, with all the proceeds handed over to BEN.

This year, there’s a hike in the car budget. You have £750 to spend on your banger, but as BEN makes its money from the sale of these cars, spending a trifle more than that doesn’t really break the rules — it all goes to helping BEN raise more money!

As in previous years, the entry fee is £500 for a team of two — a small price to pay for such a large amount of fun.

That sum covers hotel rooms, evening meals, breakfast and your ferry crossings. You’ll have to pay for fuel, tolls and the overpriced food you find in continental service stations.

Once again the AA is kindly providing two patrol vans just in case anyone breaks down, and we aim to have three Minis as pace cars – all decked out in red, white and blue livery, naturally.

Kelly Neal, events manager at BEN, said: ‘The Car Dealer Conference was a great way to launch Bangers4BEN 2014. It allowed us to promote the work of BEN and remind our industry colleagues that they have a support system if they, their families or fellow colleagues find themselves in a time of need.’

We hope to see you on October 11.

Day one, October 11

The teams will meet in Dover to catch the ferry across to France. We’ll then be heading to Mulhouse, eastern France, which lies next to the Swiss and German borders. Total mileage is around 450 miles.

Day two, October 12

We’ll make the 200-mile schlep to Lake Como via Switzerland and one of the world’s best driving roads – the Stelvio Pass. Our night stop will be at the picturesque Lake Como.

Day three, October 13

If day two wasn’t impressive enough we’ll really be reliving The Italian Job today, as day three will see us travel 125 miles to Turin – and not just to Turin but the Fiat factory: the place where the classic roof-top chase happened.

We’ll then be driving back to Mulhouse – 280 miles north.

Day four, October 14

We pack our bags and point our bangers in the direction of home... and hopefully reach the UK.

to register, EMAIL BEN DIRECTLY: kelly.neal@ben.org.uk CarDealerMag.co.uk | 25

DASHBOARD. New owners for luxury car dealership MOTOR industry entrepreneur Hugh McMahon has bought Murray Motor Group’s RollsRoyce and Aston Martin business in Edinburgh.

Partnered by son Chris, the former Lomond Audi owner has taken over the luxury car dealership in a buy-out worth more than £3 million. The deal was funded by Barclays’ Scottish corporate banking team.

Hugh McMahon sold the Lomond Audi business in July 2012 and has been looking for a suitable enterprise since.

The Sighthill outlet is the sole authorised dealership for the luxury car brands in Scotland.

The business currently turns over £20m annually and the father-and-son team have plans to grow this to £30m in the medium term.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Could your dealership use a little help from Mary?

New TV series is set to offer help

B

usiness expert Mary Portas – best known for her work attempting to revive struggling high streets across the UK – is back with a new TV series offering to help car dealerships.

The producers of the show are currently looking for car sales outlets that could benefit from Mary’s help.

They’re keen to hear from any business owners or managers who would like to be given some fresh ideas to get more customers through the door and put some extra money in the till.

Portas, right, will offer her unique insight, ideas and expertise on the customer experience.

The show is being made by Optomen Television, the Bafta-winning TV production company behind such shows as The Great British Menu and Heston Blumenthal’s Feast.

If you feel your dealership could benefit then please email mary@optomen.com or call 020 3227 5987.

LANDMARK

1,000th dealer joins Gumtree GUMTREE.com, the UK’s no. 1 classifieds website, has signed up the 1,000th dealer to its Motors division.

The company says: ‘Gumtree Motors remains the clear no. 1 website for private car sellers by offering dealers the option to load their inventory in bulk as part of its new, tailored professional package.’

Gumtree Motors was set up in October 2013. The company says one of the key priorities for its motors business has been working to ensure that car dealers can get their cars on to Gumtree quickly and easily.

A total of 13,000 cars and 2,600 motorbikes are posted on Gumtree in a day and the Motors category has more than two million monthly unique visitors.

One step ahead, p70

Cost of a mechanic’s time hits a new high bit.ly/time-cost

Around the world

CHINA

Ford opened 88 new dealerships in China on just one day, June 19, bringing the total number of Blue Oval outlets there to 750. The majority of the openings are in on-the-up cities. ‘With the growth momentum we have going right now, we expect to exceed 800 dealer points in China by the end of 2014,’ said Ford’s Marin Burela.

Dealer news from somewhere other than here

AUSTRALIA

South Korean brand Hyundai is to focus on the servicing side of its business in Australia, with a target of over 100,000 units this year. There are 165 Hyundai dealerships currently in Australia so there is plenty of growth capability but ‘the service capacity is probably a current issue for us going forward,’ said Hyundai Australia’s chief operating officer John Elsworth.

MEXICO

A total of 300,000 compact Infiniti and Mercedes vehicles are to be built each year at a new factory in Mexico from 2017. Daimler AG and the Renault-Nissan Alliance are investing ÂŁ794m in the site where they will co-develop a family of new luxury models, to be sold across the globe. The first vehicles will go to Infiniti in 2017. Mercedes will receive models from 2018.

NORTH AMERICA

Chrysler Group is investing ÂŁ36.8m on upgrading its LLC plant in Warren, Michigan, after a tax break was agreed with local government. A ‘highspeed tandem press’ will join the existing 15 press lines where 80m parts are created every year. The new press line, due to open by December 2015, will make 3.6 million parts a year.

INDIA

The most dramatic decline in sales since 1976 in the Indian passenger vehicle market has sent car dealers reeling. The industry has seen a drop in sales of more than 10 per cent in the last three years with only a tiny proportion of dealers likely to post a profit margin of three per cent or more, according to industry sources.

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 27

FINANCE. PARTNERSHIP

Agreement ‘gives rewards to all parties’ A RELATIONSHIP between RateSetter and Frontline Solutions is providing a range of benefits to dealers and brokers.

RateSetter’s unsecured loans are being made available at the point of sale through Frontline’s showroom system, DealTrak and its xml gateway, Rosetta.

The ultimate result of the partnership benefits the retail lending sector as a whole, by allowing dealers and brokers to meet the needs of more customers.

Frontline and RateSetter interact to provide dealers and brokers with a service that is less likely to encounter issues with negative equity, as the products are personal loan-based and not HPbased. Consequently, the customer, rather than the asset, is underwritten.

Peter Behrens, COO and founder of RateSetter, said: ‘RateSetter and Frontline are bringing innovative solutions to the market. Together, we are able to put the customer first and ensure that a compliant approach yields rewards for all parties.’

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Finance firm supports sports star instead of sports cars!

KNARESBOROUGH-based Oracle Finance is used to funding some of the most luxurious sports cars in the world – but now the firm has turned its attention to an altogether different sporting proposition.

The luxury finance firm has recently donated £7,000 to the F&I Foundation, which helps support British triathlete Jessica Learmouth, 26, from Leeds.

‘This money will go a long way towards the expenses I clock up on events around the world,’ said Learmouth. ‘I’m very grateful for the donation.’

Learmouth finished first female in the Clumber Duathlon, Nottinghamshire, in March and secured a podium position at La Rochelle, France, finishing third.

Oracle Finance managing director Peter Brook said: ‘We are over the moon to be able to help athletes like Jessica with donations like this. Talented youngsters like her make Britain great and it makes a nice change for us to be funding sports, rather than sports cars!’

The money donated by Oracle Finance was part of a special fundraising event that raised £20,000 in total for young athletes.

Delight at news that largest 10 dealers are SAF-approved Finance and Leasing Association reaches an important milestone

T

he UK’s 10 largest dealer groups are now SAFapproved, says the Finance and Leasing Association.

Specialist Automotive Finance (SAF) was introduced by the FLA in 2007 to raise the professional standards of individual staff involved in selling motor finance in dealerships.

Approved status was introduced two years later to recognise the commitment of dealerships where all employees involved in the sale of finance have passed the SAF competence test and have agreed to be retested once a year to keep their

technical knowledge up to date.

The SAF network now has more than 2,500 showrooms across the UK, meaning that more customers than ever are benefiting from better information.

Sytner was the dealer group that completed the top-10 line-up when it was awarded SAF-approved status at the end of May. Financing Your Car, the FLA’s impartial guide to car finance, includes a search engine to help people find their nearest SAFapproved showroom using their postcode, preferred dealer or brand.

Paul Harrison, head of motor finance at the FLA, said: ‘The SAF scheme is designed and supported by the motor finance industry.

‘It invests in the training of dealership staff to ensure high standards of expertise when selling motor finance.

‘We have now reached an important milestone, as the top 10 UK dealerships have all now achieved approved status.

‘With motor finance now supporting 75 per cent of private new car sales, SAF knowledge is essential for any showroom team.’

..in association with

DEALFINDER.

Latest finance deals on HOT HATCHES

And to take advantage of the high levels of consumer interest, Seat is currently offering Leon Cupra SC 2.0 TSI 265PS – the lower-powered Cupra model in the range – on a cracking deal at 4.6 per cent APR. To start the deal, the customer needs a deposit of £6,351.26, but Seat helps the process with a £1,000 deposit contribution.

There’s also a £125 acceptance fee and an excess mileage charge of 7.2p per mile should the customer exceed the 10,000 miles per annum. Thirty-five monthly payments of £285 follow, and at the end of the deal there’s an optional final payment of £10,393.07. The total amount payable by the customer is £27,904.33.

FORD FOCUS ST-2 FORD is gearing up to launch the new 2014 Ford Focus ST, and along with a facelift a diesel engine will be on offer for the first time.

Ahead of the launch, Ford is now offering the current Focus ST-2 – complete with a 248bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, partial leather and colour-coded Recaro seats – on a 4.2 per cent APR deal.

Customers need to put down a deposit of £5,767.36 to start the deal, while Ford will contribute £1,950.

The contract involves 23 monthly payments of £249 – apart from the first month where an extra £10 is charged,

called a Finance Facility Fee. An excess mileage charge is set at 12p per mile.

At the end of the deal there’s an optional final payment of £11,820, making the total amount payable by the customer £23,583.36.

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI IT’S hard to feature hot hatches without mentioning the Golf GTI. We all know the story behind the car, but while newer cars have come along with more power and punch, few have

time is money

Follow the 80/20 rule

SEAT LEON CUPRA THE latest addition to the current wave of super-hot hatchbacks is the Seat Leon Cupra. Available in three- and five-door variants, the car is receiving high praise from motoring journalists all around the world – not least from Car Dealer. See p88 for our latest long-term report.

Garside

quite the panache of the GTI. And to allow more people to experience the car, Volkswagen is allowing customers to get behind the wheel of the classic with a seven per cent APR deal.

Customers put down a deposit of £7,844.79 to start the deal and this is followed by 35 monthly payments of £249. There is an optional final payment of £13,035.96, bringing the total amount payable to £29,522.73.

Volkswagen dealers will also sell customers a three-year or 30,000-mile servicing pack for £199.

A

friend recently asked me for some advice regarding the strategy of his business’s Facebook page. Although my friend’s trade is retailing high-end clothing, the approach when using social media is the same for any company, including motor dealers.

Firstly, you need to decide what your objectives are.

Far too many people think this is how many likes or followers they want to achieve, but that is just a goal or a target and it means nothing to the audience.

As the business owner or content writer, you need to set out clear objectives regarding the audience you are trying to attract and how you will use Facebook to interact with them.

Only you will know the audience you would like to interact with. Some options that people may be interested in are cars, local news, food, sport, etc.

All that matters is that the audience you want to interact with are linked to the products you are selling and you feel comfortable writing and sharing that content. Social media is not about spamming, or selling to your audience. However, if you are going to use social media to sell, the 80/20 rule needs to come into play.

Eighty per cent of the time, you should use Facebook to interact, request feedback, engage with past customers or share and discuss external interests. Only 20 per cent of your comments/posts should be discussing your products for sale.

Some good friends of mine in the motor trade do this very well. They do not try to sell cars, they talk about their customers picking up their vehicles, or external interests such as sports and competitions.

This has led them to grow significantly not only in size of followers on all social media platforms, but also in business written because of the following they have built.

‘You need to set out objectives about your target audience.’

Who is Ben Garside?

Ben is marketing manager for First Response Finance. Call him on 07817 518739 or email ben.garside@frfl.co.uk

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 29

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big mike.

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

Dodgy Tony upsets my plan to make a fortune on ‘barn-find’ Golf

I

have a friend called Dodgy Tony. It’s unfair really, as he isn’t in the slightest bit dodgy.

He just has that look about him…

The reason I mention this is because Tony is a mechanic and one of those blokes who is extremely useful to know. Whatever fault you find on a car, no matter how difficult it may appear to be to diagnose, Tony will not only fix it but will also find a cheap way out. And given how tight margins in the motor trade are at the moment, that makes him a very useful bloke to know. All you need is cash, his mobile number, and no need for a receipt…

Anyway, I digress. I mention him because for the past four years he has been the custodian of a 1991 H-registered VW Golf GTI which I gave £500 for in part-exchange back in 2010. It has the wrong number of doors and wrong number of valves to be the nadir of GTI ownership (five of the former, eight of the latter, as opposed to three and 16).

The car came from a city-based musician who had used it for the past decade to transport his double bass around the country. Reliability was key, so he’d had it over-serviced and collected and saved every single receipt, leaving it with a service history big enough to fill a bin liner – right down to the original bill of sale showing that the first owner had chopped in a five-year-old Audi 80 in order to buy it. In classic car circles, this stuff is known as provenance…

Alas, the musician had also caused untold havoc to the interior trim, boot carpet, rear tailgate and closing panel with his chuffing great string instrument, and in order to compound matters the lacquer was peeling off the bonnet and roof, making the thing look far worse than it actually was. It’s well known in the trade that I like a modern classic, and in this GTI I saw the potential, so I gave Tony a ring and foolishly suggested it might be one for him to tidy up ‘between jobs’.

I should have known better, as ‘between jobs’ in Tonyspeak meant the poor old Golf spent the next four years slowly being swallowed by the undergrowth in his back garden. One thing that did happen in that four-year period, though, was the phenomenon of the ‘barn find’.

Previously, a barn find was a classic car discovered in a barn or outbuilding, and usually one that would seriously excite the collector market. I remember, for example, an AC Cobra turning up in component form out the back of an old farm, and subsequently selling at some collector auction or other for a sum close to seven figures – now that’s a LOT of money for an Airfix kit, especially one with advanced

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

corrosion. A few months later, a similar story developed around a lightweight Jaguar E-Type – it didn’t fetch quite the same amount of money, but you could certainly have taken a mortgage-free trip to the estate agents on the proceeds.

Then came the dawn of social media. Today, there’s a ‘barn-find’ group on Facebook, and its members get stupidly excited about all sorts of ordinary rubbish. I recently witnessed a ‘barn-find’ Talbot Samba, which had been uncovered in the garage of a 1950s semi, selling on eBay for a couple of grand. And that, dear readers, is even more ridiculous than the Cobra – would you really pay good money for a crap mass-produced French hatchback that has spent the past 12 years having its brake hoses nibbled by rodents? Nor would I. Regardless, I joined the group, and watched with interest some of the cars they uncovered.

A Cavalier masquerading as a privet hedge, but with a warranted 17,000 miles on the clock? Good money. A

‘My mechanic has gone and started to restore the bloody thing’ Volvo 240 Estate that had spent two-thirds of its life parked up with a knackered clutch down the side of a house in Brighton, where it served as a store for the owners’ garden tools? It went for over a grand. An MG BGT that had been holed up in the back of an underwear warehouse for three decades? Let’s just say I’ve seen taxed, MoT’d and reasonably well-restored examples go for less.

The ‘barn find’, it seems, is an incredible way of making money out of unroadworthy old rubbish.

My interest peaked when a blue Mk 2 Golf GTI not dissimilar to my own was found in a garden, peeping out from behind some weeds. When it sold for three grand I got quite excited and jumped straight on the phone to Tony….

‘Mate, it’s about my Golf…’

‘How bizarre you should suddenly mention it,’ came the reply. ‘It’s in the workshop having a coat of primer. Figured I should finally get round to doing something about it after all this time, and the MoT’s booked for next Tuesday….’

‘Noooooo…!’ There I was, in possession of premium barn-find real estate, and my mechanic has only gone and started to restore the bloody thing. It’ll probably be worth less when it’s finished...

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 | 31

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bAGGOTT.

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

Dealers experience the scary scale of PR disasters in a viral age

A

s PR disasters go this was a monumental one. But it wasn’t the fact this happened that should scare you. No, it was the way it escalated so quickly, so virally and so easily that should send shivers down the spine of every car dealership boss out there. Because it could so easily happen to you.

A salesman, angry and bitter that he missed out on commission because a customer complained about him, spots said punter on a friend’s Facebook feed.

He decides to send her a private message, branding her a ‘moaning little c***’ (and more). The customer takes offence (obviously) and tweets a picture of the conversation.

‘I bought a car from Croydon @Vauxhall last year. Today I get this message in my inbox from salesman who served me. Disgusting.’ The text is followed by a screen grab of the message from Gary Brown, the salesman.

It reads: ‘I thought I recognised you. The complaining little slag!’

‘Excuse me? I don’t even know you?’ replies Natalie James, the offended customer.

‘Oh yes you do. It was me that sold you the black Corsa, but then you complained about me for no reason at all and said that you didn’t want to speak to me. I ended up losing the commission I had earned for selling the car. All because you’re a moaning little c***.’

Ouch. As her followers, and followers of her followers, and then what appears to be the rest of Twitter saw the message, they retweeted it to their friends. The brown stuff was heading for the fan.

I was notified quite early on to her tweet by followers on Twitter. When I saw the message, the tweet had been reposted more than 300 times.

By the time the Daily Mail ran a story on it, that had risen to nearly 800. When James removed her Twitter profile from public view it was in the thousands.

The manufacturer was called to account by furious Twitter users, apologies were made and the salesman tracked down and forced to issue a grovelling plea for forgiveness.

But what should really worry you isn’t the fact it happened at all, but the fact that Gary Brown wasn’t even a salesman for the Vauxhall dealership any more – he’d left a long time ago.

James Baggott *EDITOR’S NOTE: I will certainly watch my step when I move on

So how does that work legally? What could the dealership bosses and Vauxhall do about a former salesman’s rant when he doesn’t even work for them?

How do you fire someone for sullying your name on the interweb when they don’t even work for you?

Tricky one.

Intrigued by this legal conundrum (and not just because it involved our griffin-badged friends), I gave our Car Dealer Club lawyers a call on Vauxhall’s behalf (because I’m nice like that and know that Vauxhall would definitely do the same for me. Ahem!).

Their response was rather interesting.

‘The law in this area has not yet been developed to keep up with the rapid increase in use of social media,’ Natalie Porter, of Car Dealer Club legal firm Lawgistics, told me.

But she said that by planning now for problems like the PR disaster that befell our friends in Luton, you can ensure you will be able to tackle social media meltdowns

‘The Luton massive could well have a case for compensation’ quickly and robustly when they happen.

And they will happen.

Porter explained that dealerships should have clear social media policies in place contractually that explain when and how using sites such as Twitter and Facebook for company business was acceptable.

Crucially, she adds, it’s vital to lay down the law (in writing) about your company reserving the right to pursue legal action if any posts made as an employee or ex-employee are detrimental to business.

Clearly, calling a customer a ‘c***’ could be classified as such – and one would assume Luton had an aforementioned robust social media policy in place that could be called upon to bash Brown into submission and issue an apology. Whether or not the firm will seek compensation for the damage Brown caused is unknown, but if our legal adviser’s say-so is anything to go by, the Luton massive could well have a case.

I have a feeling, though, that they’re still more concerned with tweaking their plan to beat Ford in the sales charts by 2016…

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 | 33

REAL DEALS.

Lesser-known Lancia will be a sound investment...

Just seven of these cars are still around. Becca Chaplin reports

A

sk someone to name a Lancia and chances are the first thing that’ll come out of their mouths is the word ‘Delta’, quickly followed by the word ‘Integrale’.

We’d certainly bet our mortgages on the fact it absolutely, categorically, without a shadow of a doubt will not be a Delta HPE. Don’t be too ashamed, though, if you’re wondering why your car knowledge has failed you.

Ours let us down miserably too. That’s because the HPE wasn’t exactly what we’d call a blockbuster in the UK (in Italy, on the other hand, they were absolutely everywhere).

Rumoured to be one of only seven left on the roads, this rare example hasn’t been ravaged by the tin worm – which is quite amazing, considering it’s done 90,000 miles – and can be found looking for a new owner at Helford Car Sales in Cornwall.

‘I buy and sell the sort of cars I’m interested in,’ said owner Sam Hellinikakis who came across the HPE at an auction. ‘When this came up I had to buy it. I’ve been told it’s one of only seven in the UK and you don’t see them very often.’

Apart from the basics, this car, priced at £4,500, is a bit of a mystery. Hellinikakis told us that it has done just over 90,000 miles and was imported to the

This car is a stunner – but a bit of a mystery too ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

UK from Switzerland in March. ‘I have some details on the car, but unfortunately it’s all in a foreign language, so I can’t understand it!’ he explained to us. The Lancia Delta HPE is 15 years old but still in fantastic condition. It’s the second generation of the renowned Delta, of which the Integrale model found fame on the world’s rally stages in the late-1980s.

This example is the more desirable three-door and the highest-powered 190hp model. Fortunately, a lot of the service history is present, even if it is in a different language, and the car has been well maintained since hitting our shores.

Hellinikakis added: ‘I do have the original handbooks and the service book, which has been stamped when it was serviced in Switzerland.

Before I bought it, it was serviced and MOT’d. It’s had a new cambelt and water pump since it was imported too.’

Critically, this sale also includes the red key – a lifesaver if you ever need to reprogram a new one.

However, it was when we moved on to what the Delta is like to drive that Hellinikakis really began to get animated. ‘It’s a fantastic car to drive,’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s great fun and really smooth.’

The Helford Car Sales owner is also convinced

the lesser-known Lancia will be a sound investment. With interest in the more common Integrale peaking and values steadily rising, the car dealer boss is convinced it’s only a matter of time before the HPE rockets too. In fact, judging by our chat, it sounds like Hellinikakis is going to want to tuck this one away in his showroom and keep it for himself. [CD]

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

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

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 35

forecourt.

Citroen C4 Cactus New Citroen CEO Linda Jackson tells Leon Poultney why she’s so sure this ground-breaking new car will be a big hit with British buyers You’re a Brit going into a very French company. Do you see that as a challenge?

I see it as an opportunity. I’ve been asked that question a lot of times and it’s normally linked with being British and being a woman, but I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever. The company has changed dramatically over the 10 years I have worked for Citroen; it has become a lot more international. I could never have imagined a British person, let alone a woman, being in charge 10 years ago but we have changed dramatically. Don’t get me wrong, I think my appointment will bring changes, because AngloSaxon people have a slightly different way of approaching things – the French are very creative and are very good at coming up with ideas but the Anglo-Saxon influence adds a bit more direction and decision-making. Hopefully I can bring that feeling to the role.

The French hold Citroen very close to their hearts. Do you think there will be pressure from the public now a British person has stepped in?

I hope not. I hope they will see it purely for the fact that I do a good job. Like I said, I’ve been with Citroen for 10 years. Cut me in half and I have the chevrons running through me like a stick of rock! I hope that they see that the renewal of Citroen is something very positive.

What changes do you plan to implement?

First of all, we want to get Citroen back to what it is good at, which is producing great cars with great design. Look at the new C4 Cactus – it is a design that stands out and it’s something we’ve

been very good at doing. But at the same time, we want cars that are comfortable, affordable and not cluttered with loads of technology the drivers will never use. For me, it will be about setting these values and making sure they run through everything we do in the future.

What is your short-term plan?

We really have to bed in the Citroen C4 Cactus and the new Citroen C4 to make sure they are successful and well received. The philosophy behind these two vehicles will form the basis of everything to come, so it is very important they go down well with customers and the media.

Do you think the C4 Cactus could be a game-changer for Citroen?

I hope so, and if you read some of the articles written about this car and the feedback we’ve had, it is all so positive. It has been lauded for standing out and being a bit different. It isn’t the same as other cars on the market. I’m certain the C4 Cactus will be a success in the UK. Will the new car signal a shake-up at dealer level?

No, definitely not. We had a dealer conference earlier in the year and I made it very clear that we have a solid network plan. We stated that we want to have 200 dealers and we already have 189, so there’s no desire at all to change it. We have excellent coverage and great sales people already and we have just introduced our new corporate identity that’s clean and modern. The new product will only add to the buyer’s experience by injecting even more colour and vibrancy.

INSIDE

Sparse, chic and incredibly close to the original concept.

Refreshingly different from Citroen.

on test

Can the C4 Cactus really solve a lot of the problems that modern life throws up?

What is it?

Think of this as the C4’s urban cousin: a roughand-ready city cruiser that has been hardened from years on the ‘streets’ yet manages to pull off boundary-pushing style without looking like a complete buffoon. It’s Citroen’s answer to the Nissan Juke – a funky, urban crossover with a number of unique gimmicks that attempt to solve the many problems life throws at the modern vehicle owner.

What’s under the bonnet?

A 1.2-litre petrol engine in three states of tune (75bhp, 82bhp, 110bhp) and a new BlueHDi diesel unit in two states of tune – 92bhp and ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

100bhp – will be available at launch, both offering impressive fuel economy figures, with the diesel dropping below the 90g/km CO2 emissions level.

Not surprisingly, the diesel looks set to be the UK’s biggest seller and customers can choose from either a five-speed manual gearbox or Citroen’s ETG auto.

What’s the spec like?

The C4 Cactus is very competitively priced so expect base Touch models (starting at £12,990) to spare the niceties. There’s no air-con and alloy wheels to make way for financial savings, but the ace seven-inch touchscreen display and innovative Airbump technology remain as

standard. Spend around £14,500 for a Feel model and you get air-con, alloy wheels and a much larger array of colour and personalisation options.

Go wild and splash out £17,190 on a Flair model and you get a reversing camera, sat-nav, improved

the knowledge

STYLING

There’s quite simply nothing else like it on the market but it could prove a little ‘Marmite’ for many

ENGINE

Simple range of petrol and diesels that are competent, quiet and efficient. We were very impressed

Model: Citroen C4 Cactus

Pure Tech 110 Price: £17,190 Engine: 1.2, three-cylinder

turbo petrol Power: 110bhp, 205Nm Max speed: 118mph 0-60mph: 9.3s MPG (comb’d): 60.1 Emissions: 107g/km Residual values (three years):

tbc

target buyers:

New families and young folk looking for a funky alternative

infotainment functionality, mood lighting inside and larger wheels. Massive panoramic roofs with built-in UV protection and park assist are further optional extras, as well as leather interiors and personal exterior flourishes.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK?

What’s it like to drive?

WHAT DO WE THINK?

This car really doesn’t try to be anything other than a comfortable everyday cruiser. There is some body roll when thrown into a corner but not enough to cause alarm, the engines aren’t particularly punchy but they will happily overtake slower moving traffic when needed and the steering is geared towards practicality rather than ‘fun’. It’s an extremely easy car to live with and perfectly comfortable over distances.

MSN Cars said: ‘The Citroen C4 Cactus is a real blast of fresh air.’ Top Gear said: ‘An immense amount of thought-power has gone into making it a car to relax and soothe you.’

Funky, urban crossovers can be a little irritating but there’s something quite charming about the C4 Cactus.

Its styling will certainly prove divisive but the brilliantly uncluttered interior, comfortable sofa-style seating, intuitive touch-screen infotainment system and familyfriendly useability will likely attract customers to the French marque. The fact that it drives pretty well and doesn’t cost a fortune will only help matters.

the rivals:

Nissan Juke, Ford B-Max, Skoda Yeti

Key Selling Points: 1. Original and affordable 2. Easy-to-use interior tech 3. A plethora of personalisation opportunities

Deal Clincher: It’s priced almost identically to the Juke yet offers something even wackier CarDealerMag.co.uk | 37

forecourt. inside

looks

This is where the C-Class draws ahead of the competition, as it has luxury and refinement in spades

In typical C-Class fashion, the new model apes the look of the larger S-Class. Easily one of the most stylish in the sector

engines

Mercedes C-Class

Just two diesels and a petrol make up the launch line-up. The larger-powered diesel is the best choice though, but all feel strained

Can Mercedes-Benz finally lead the compact exec sector with its new C-Class? Daljinder Nagra tries it for size What is it?

The entry point into Merc’s saloon car range and one of the firm’s most popular models. This being the case, the German brand has taken no chances with the new one, making it both sportier and more luxurious, closing the dynamic gap between the benchmark BMW 3 Series.

What’s the spec like?

There are three trim levels to choose from, of which the range-topping AMG Line (from £30,345) is set to be the most popular, thanks to its beefy exterior design highlights, big wheels and lowered suspension. Buyers won’t feel like they’re slumming it in basic SE models (from £26,855), though, as all come as standard with Bluetooth, What’s under rear view camera, sat nav, digital the bonnet? radio, auto wipers, cruise control and Efficiency and cleanliness is the name artificial leather upholstery. Midof the game with the introductory range Sport trim (from £28,850) adds range, with the diesels dominating. some choice extras, including LED Buyers will have just two to choose headlamps, heated front seats and from for now: both are 2.1-litre active park assist. turbocharged units developing 168bhp in the C220 BlueTEC and What’s it like 201bhp in the C250 BlueTEC. to drive?

Currently, there is just the one petrol Because it apes the stately look of its engine: a 181bhp unit-badged C200. bigger brother S-Class, you approach It’s unlikely to prove popular, as it the new C expecting it to have the offers no real performance advantage same slightly barge-like approach. over the diesels. Further engines, The reality couldn’t be further from including hybrids and a hot 4.4-litre the truth. There is a new-found sense V8 AMG version, will join the line-up of athleticism and light-footedness, next year. which, mated to the accurate steering, ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

makes the C-Class an entertaining car on a cross-country dash. Ultimately, it doesn’t feel as tied down as the 3 Series, with noticeable roll in some corners. The one fly in the ointment, though, is the engine range, which feels strained.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? Autocar said: ‘The overall impression of this particular new C-Class is that it is a brilliant car powered by a so-so engine. With a couple more cylinders beneath the bonnet, though, I’m sure the genius within will be revealed.’

WHAT DO WE THINK? The new model boasts both a hugely upmarket cabin and has been pitched in just the right way to appeal to both the existing Mercedes drivers and younger newcomers to the brand. The perennial thorn in its side, the BMW 3 Series, is still the leader dynamically, but the C-Class may just be enough to win over the 3 Series faithful.

the knowledge Model: Mercedes-Benz C220 BlueTEC AMG Line Automatic Price: £34,355 Engine: 2.1-litre, four-cylinder,

turbodiesel Power: 168bhp, 400Nm Max speed: 145mph 0-60mph: 7.2s MPG (comb’d): 65.7 Emissions: 117g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Junior executives and families looking for smart transport that will get them noticed

the rivals: BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, Volvo S60, Lexus IS

Key Selling Points: 1. Luxurious interior ambience 2. Engaging driving experience 3. Impressive economy and CO2 emissions

Deal Clincher: The best bits from the S-Class wrapped up in a cheaper and easier-to-park package.

ENGINES

INSIDE

The naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V8 of the previous M3 Coupe has gone and instead there’s a twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six

The same high-quality interior as you’d find in a 4 Series Coupe but with added character, thanks to lashings of carbon fibre

LOOKS

M4 gets flared arches and more aggressive styling over the shapely 4 Series Coupe.

It’s still a looker, though

BMW M4

It’s got a new name but the M4 carries on from the M3 Coupe.

Does it keep to the same recipe? Daljinder Nagra finds out What is it?

What’s the spec like?

Forget the tedious commuting hell that its name might conjure up, the M4 is BMW’s rich Motorsport pedigree brought to the road. The new car has proved somewhat controversial among fans of the range, as it introduces turbocharging for the first time, and will sell in huge numbers equipped with a sevenspeed dual-clutch auto ’box.

There are no trim levels to choose from in this flagship model. Instead, there’s a well-specified cabin, which is largely a verbatim copy of the regular 4 Series Coupe. But everything has been given an extra flourish to make it feel more special. There’s racy carbon fibre, sports seats, and the conventional steering wheel and dials have also been changed for more dynamic-looking numbers. Prices start at £56,650.

What’s under the bonnet?

BMW simply couldn’t get away with offering a new car with the decadent naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V8 of the outgoing M3 Coupe. Instead, the M4 is fitted with a turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder unit. Far from being a backwards step, the new engine develops 425bhp (11 more than before), making it faster not only in the benchmark 0-60mph sprint – now 3.9 seconds with the auto, 4.3 seconds without – but also in real-world driving conditions, as fuel consumption is now 30-plus mpg.

What’s it like to drive?

Quite simply incredible. Driven on a day-to-day basis, the M4 is no more taxing than any other BMW. Thumb the adjustable engine, steering and suspension settings out of their default comfort mode and into sport and the M4’s whole attitude changes.

It becomes a hard-charging beast, but one that suffers fools gladly. We’ve yet to come across a car that is this precise and devastating but also so easy to drive quickly. Get it on a good

road and customers will feel like heroes, no matter what their ability behind the wheel is.

What DO THE PRESS THINK? Pistonheads said: ‘The M4 is a stirring return to form for an M division we’d feared had lost the plot a little. You get the sense the engineers have really dug deep on this one and gone all out to deliver a good’n. The happy news is it seems they truly have.’

WHAT DO WE THINK? The M3 Coupe had long been the benchmark driver’s car in its class, and we’re delighted to report that the new M4 upholds its honour. While it has been criticised for moving away from its core driver-focused roots with its new turbo engine, BMW has used the technology to great effect, subtly enhancing every aspect of the car’s performance and creating a more rounded daily proposition. That it offers seating for four and a large boot is just the icing on the cake.

the knowledge Model: BMW M4 Coupe Price: £56,650 Engine: 3.0-litre, six-cylinder,

twin turbo Power: 425bhp, 550Nm Max speed: 155mph 0-60mph: 4.1s MPG (comb’d): 32.1 Emissions: 204g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Sports car enthusiasts wanting generous performance without compromising practicality

the rivals: Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Coupe Audi RS4, Porsche Cayman

Key Selling Points: 1. More power than ever before 2. Vastly improved economy and emissions 3. High levels of technology

Deal Clincher: Quite possibly the most involving and exciting five-seat car currently available CarDealerMag.co.uk | 39

forecourt. engines

inside

A revised version of the 1.0-litre, threecylinder petrol used in the last Aygo.

There’s more power but it’s still noisy

It’s funky inside, especially in models with the seven-inch touchscreen multimedia system, but the quality is lacking

looks

Toyota Aygo

The X-shaped nose is the car’s most distinctive styling attribute, which can be specified in an assortment of colours

Sister car to the C1, opposite, the new Aygo sees Toyota reinvigorating its city car proposition. Dave Brown reports What is it?

What’s the spec like?

It’s a small car with character.

Whether that character appeals to you is, of course, your decision, but we feel Toyota deserves credit for livening up the cityscape with a car that’s anything but ‘vanilla’. The manufacturer is hoping the car will prove a force to be reckoned with in the increasingly busy A-segment. The company’s target is to shift 24,000 examples by 2015, which would mean it would grab a nine per cent market share of the segment.

The line-up consists of three grades: x, x-play and x-pression – plus x-cite and x-clusiv special edition models.

Cars in the x bracket are priced from £8,595 and come with LED lights, 14-inch steel wheels, front power windows and remote locking. The x-play cars (from £9,795) add a glossy black front X, air-con and Bluetooth, while x-pression (from £10,995) adds front fog lamps, partial leather seats and the x-touch multimedia system, with reversing camera. The two special editions feature a number of added specific styling and equipment elements.

What’s under the bonnet?

around town, with a dinky turning circle, and as such a doddle to park in the tightest spots.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? What Car? said: ‘The Aygo brings a distinctive style and low emissions to the supermini class, but there are rivals out there that are quieter and more spacious.’ Auto Express said: ‘No other city car drips with so much sheer attitude.’

WHAT DO WE THINK?

When the Aygo was launched in 2005, it didn’t have too much New Aygo features a comprehensively competition in the city car segment. revised version of Toyota’s threeWhat’s it like Now the situation is very different, cylinder 1.0-litre engine. There’s more to drive? with a crowded marketplace and power and torque: 69bhp at 6,000rpm We liked it. The dashboard layout is far more choice for buyers in this and 95Nm at 4,300rpm; 85Nm of intuitive, visibility is pretty good all particular market. However, with its torque is available from as low as round and the car handles well. The mixture of technology, personality, 2,000rpm. Toyota says the engine is pedals need the lightest of touches, and competitive pricing, it should still very ‘sprightly’ – but is that really and although we know the level of do well and deliver Toyota the the right word? Sprightly to us conjures engine noise has attracted criticism sales figures it’s after. The X-shaped up an image of a 90-year-old who still in the past, the distinctive sporty note grille, its most distinctive feature, is likes to do a spot of line-dancing. is not unappealing. The car is nimble definitely a Marmite touch, though. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

the knowledge Model:

Toyota Aygo x-play (five-door) Price: £10,195 Engine: 1.0-litre, threecylinder petrol Power: 69bhp, 95Nm Max speed: 99mph 0-60mph: 14.2s MPG (comb’d): 68.9 Emissions: 95g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Youngsters after a city car with character; those seeking personality as well as practicality

the rivals: Hyundai i10, Skoda Citigo, VW Up, Seat Mii, Kia Picanto.

Key Selling Points: 1. Japanese reliability 2. Clever tech and plenty of safety features 3. Sensible pricing

Deal Clincher: We’ll go for the X Factor – it really makes the car stand out from its competitors.

ENGINES

The tiny 69bhp unit is fine for city cruising but the larger 82bhp engine is far better for longer journeys and speedy thrills

INSIDE

A complete overhaul of the cabin sees improved tech and more ‘premium’ feel fabrics and surfaces

Chassis

Citroen C1

New underpinnings usher in a new era of ride comfort, which we found to be far superior to the previous iteration

Can this revamped city car see off the threat from rival siblings spawned by Toyota and Peugeot? Leon Poultney reports What is it?

What’s the spec like?

In short, it’s a complete overhaul of Citroen’s popular C1 model. Revised chassis and suspension settings will be welcome news for those used to the jarring ride of the previous model, as will the improved infotainment system that now packs some seriously useful technology.

In an uncharacteristically French move, the trim levels are fairly easy to navigate and the majority of equipment comes as standard. Hill Assist, which automatically holds the car on inclines over three per cent, is gratis, as is the eco-friendly gearchange indicator. Customers should splash a little cash on the seven-inch touch tablet, as it not only looks fantastic it also packs ‘Mirror Screen’ that allows drivers to access a number of smartphone apps while driving.

The sound system is fantastic and the plethora of interior personalisation options will ensure every C1 is pretty much bespoke to the buyer.

What’s under the bonnet?

Just two engines will be available from launch and they both drink from the green pump. The 1.0-litre, three-cylinder VTi unit packs 69bhp and comes mated to either a fivespeed manual or Citroen’s slightly clunky ETG auto ’box. It can also be specified with fuel-saving Start/Stop technology. A more potent 1.2-litre, three-cylinder unit boasting 82bhp is also on offer, and because it powers such a tiny car actually makes for quite a sprightly drive. Don’t expect the Aygo to keep up, as the Japanese marque has opted not to stock this powerplant, incidentally.

What’s it like to drive?

power steering makes navigating the city streets a doddle. Even the cracked and cobbled roads of Amsterdam were no match for the plucky C1. It sucked up the imperfections like they were going out of fashion – which, as we Brits know only too well, are not.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? Auto Express said: ‘The soft suspension and numb steering mean body control is fairly loose in corners, but then parking is especially easy.’

AutoTrader said: ‘The engine gives a very decent performance, and the car gives a comfortable ride.’

WHAT DO WE THINK?

The latest C1 is a vast improvement over the old model. Interiors are still basic but perfectly acceptable.

The list of improvements over the Choosing a C1 over its Peugeot previous model is longer than the and Toyota siblings will likely be a redux edition of Apocalypse Now. decision based on personal taste, but A lighter rear axle, new suspension we can safely say that the revvy 1.2springs, enhanced shock absorbers litre engine in such a tiny frame and a new anti-roll bar equate to a much improved ride, and new electric is bags of fun.

the knowledge Model: Citroen C1 Pure Tech 82 Price: £11,095 Engine: 1.2-litre,

three-cylinder petrol Power: 82bhp, 116Nm Max speed: 117mph 0-60mph: 11s MPG (comb’d): 65.7 Emissions: 99g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Urban folk looking for an affordable yet stylish runaround

the rivals:

Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108, VW Up!

Key Selling Points:

1. Far better ride and steering 2. Touchscreen smartphone tech comes cheap 3. 1.2-litre petrol engine is nice and pokey

Deal Clincher: Better in every way when compared with the previous generation and still cheap.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 41

forecourt. inside

Lots of leather and a set of very comfortable, very stylish front chairs, but the infotainment system needs updating

engines

Just one, and it’s been lifted straight from the 4C sports car. It’s potent, noisy and very responsive

looks

Alfa Giulietta QV

Quintessentially Italian and head-turning, thanks to the extra performance additions such as side skirts and black door mirrors

Italian firm has given its hot hatch an extra dose of fun with a new engine from the 4C sports car. Leon Poultney reports What is it?

What’s the spec like?

The spiciest ‘meat-a-ball’ (sorry, we couldn’t resist) in the Italian marque’s line-up of hatchbacks.

Boasting the engine and drivetrain from the almighty 4C sports car, the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde (QV) certainly means business. Despite its performance intentions, it remains an altogether classy proposition, marking it out from the bustling hatchback crowd.

This is a range-topping £28k Alfa, so there are figure-hugging leather and alcantara sports seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel and a number of sporty exterior styling highlights (sideskirts, Brembo brake calipers, glossy mirror caps). The infotainment element consists of the typical Alfa 6.5-inch Uconnect multimedia system that’s both clunky to use and slightly cheap-looking.

What’s under the bonnet?

What’s it like to drive?

The same direct-injection 1,742cc turbo petrol aluminium block unit that’s found in the 4C. And it develops the same horsepower output too. But because the QV still has to serve as a weekly shopping mule, it doesn’t quite boast the same impressive figures as the 4C. The 0-60mph dash is dispatched in under six seconds, and clever engine fettling sees around 40mpg returned on the combined cycle and CO2 emissions reduced to a Euro 6-friendly 162g/km.

It’s quick, but despite Alfa’s constant reminder that it shares underpinnings with the 4C, it doesn’t offer the same level of driver interaction. Regardless, steering is direct when the DNA driving mode selector toggle is flipped to ‘Dynamic’ and throttle response is sharp. Niggles include the gearbox that, when in full auto setting, tries to instantly kick you up to the highest and most economical gear possible, even in ‘Dynamic’ mode. An engine

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

note actuator has also been employed for the first time, meaning that luscious, rich Alfa exhaust note is piped directly into the cabin. It’s just a shame it’s synthesised and passers-by aren’t treated to the same levels of aural enjoyment.

WHAT DO THE PRESS THINK? Car Magazine said: ‘Beauty is subjective, but the Giulietta has style that perhaps no other hatch can match. Yet it’s outgunned in terms of equipment, speed, running costs and even emotion.’

WHAT DO we THINK? It certainly looks exotic but it’s difficult to see it stealing sales from quicker, more fundamentally sound hot hatches currently available. Its premium approach will certainly attract those wanting to shy away from the ‘hooligan’ image of a hot hatch, but the £30k-tickling price tag puts it in the ring with some very heavy hitters.

the knowledge Model: Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Quadrifoglio Verde Price: £28,120 Engine: 1.7-litre, four-cylinder

turbo petrol Power: 236bhp, 340Nm Max speed: 161mph 0-60mph: 5.8s MPG (comb’d): 40 Emissions: 162g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Mature hot hatch fans wanting to move away from the boy-racer image

the rivals: Volkswagen Golf R, Seat Leon Cupra, BMW M135i

Key Selling Points: 1. Badge steeped in history 2. Nice interior touches 3. Scintillating engine note and sporty drive

Deal Clincher: It’s an undeniably pretty machine – probably the bestlooking in its class

inside

Very much improved with a great level of luxury throughout. The cluster digital display is very clear and user-friendly.

engines

Two-litre diesel engines with a choice of FWD with 138bhp or the 4x4 option with 168bhp.

looks

Jeep Cherokee

We prefer it from the back but overall the appearance is much improved over its big brother.

Is this the model to put Jeep on the map in the UK? Danielle Bagnall is certainly impressed by its looks and level of luxury What is it?

What’s the spec like?

We all know Jeep for its ‘off-road’ credentials but it has never really been a front-running brand in the UK. Jeep aims to change all that with the release of this, the new Cherokee.

This is not any old off-roader, it is more refined than any previous model of Jeep and a very well-puttogether SUV. It features the new ZF gearbox – first introduced on the Grand Cherokee last year.

Three specification levels are available to choose from: Longitude, Longitude+ and Limited. Based on the 2.0-litre 140 (138bhp) manual FWD model, the Longitude and Longitude+ are pretty similar in spec, so if you can cope with a couple of inches off your display and fewer speakers it may be worth saving yourself some cash. Longitude comes in at £25,495 and Longitude+ is £27,695. Limited is the ‘crème de la crème’ of the Cherokee specs, featuring an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, electrical driver’s seat, and Uconnect media centre with 8.4-inch display (also featured in the Maserati Quattroporte), all for £31,195.

What’s under the bonnet?

The new Cherokee will come with three different engine options, all of which are four-cylinder turbodiesel units. There is the 2.0-litre 138bhp front-wheel-drive option, the 2.0-litre engine 138bhp 4x4 and the 2.0litre 168bhp 4x4 with nine-speed automatic gearbox, a first in its class, to choose from. For off-roading, or getting up a steep hill, the manual is best – just pop it into first gear and tackle that incline – but the manual box is heavy to operate and notchy.

What’s it like to drive?

There is very little body roll through corners for a car of its nature and size.

We were a little put off by the fact that the brake pedal doesn’t appear to move – it is responsive, but the fact that there is no travel is a little

distracting to the driver. The different driver settings – auto, snow, sport and sand/mud – mean that you can practically tackle any road situation, even in the UK.

What do the press think of it?

AutoExpress said: ‘It only takes a few minutes perched behind the wheel of the new Cherokee to realise this is a car aimed at being as comfortable as possible.’ Autocar said: ‘It feels bodily robust, but hilldescent control really ought to be standard on a vehicle badged ‘‘Jeep’’.’

What dO WE think of it?

We found it to be extremely refined and even more so when you compare it with previous Jeep models. The revolutionary charge pad for your mobile phone is also a massive technical advancement. The way it felt on the road is testament to the journey that Jeep has taken since being acquired by the Fiat Group.

the knowledge Model: Jeep Cherokee

2.0 170 4x4 AD1 Price: £30,615 Engine: 2.0-litre, 16v MultiJet

turbocharged diesel Power: 168bhp, 350Nm Max speed: 119mph 0-60mph: 10.3s MPG (comb’d): 48.7 Emissions: 154g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Families and those who are looking for off-road capability/towing.

the rivals: BMW X3, Toyota Rav 4 Audi Q5.

Key Selling Points: 1. A lot of high-tech gadgets.

2. Price is competitive.

3. Luxurious touches we definitely liked

Deal Clincher: Well-built all-rounder with rather tough off-road capability and a luxurious, expensive feel.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 43

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

FEATURE.

Leading the charge Mitsubishi Motors in the UK is riding high and looking for more dealerships.

James Batchelor spoke to MD Lance Bradley.

IF MITSUBISHI’S dealers thought last year was a good time to be in the network, 2014 is shaping up to be even better.

New products, a reinvigorated brand and a range of eye-catching advertisements are helping Mitsubishi dealers bask in increased profitability and sales.

And the company isn’t resting on its laurels.

It wants to expand its dealer network and allow more partners to share in the success.

This year sees Mitsubishi riding high and becoming one of the fastest-growing brands.

That’s on top of being in a similar position last year. ‘I am delighted by this,’ says Mitsubishi Motors in the UK’s managing director Lance Bradley. ‘2014 sees us continuing to be one of the fastest-growing car brands in the UK. This is amazing – to do it one year is fantastic but to do it for a second year running is remarkable.’

Bradley knows that this position hasn’t come about by good luck, but by sheer hard work and a company that is in arguably its most optimistic mood ever.

‘The strength of the current line-up and the quality and expansion of our dealer network are responsible for this,’ says Bradley. ‘The new Outlander PHEV is not the only car to have helped this – we only started to deliver customers’ cars a month ago – but the rest of the range as well. We haven’t got all our eggs in one basket with Outlander PHEV – all of our range is up and performing well.

‘Our activity on TV, in the cinema and on billboards and radio has been massive for us.

We have seen inquiries increase by more than fivefold – and we can measure that as all of our marketing drives people to our website. And the exciting thing about this is the level of spend for marketing continues for the foreseeable future.

Some dealers have been asking me if it’s been a great initial peak – but I can assure you it’s not. This is what it is going to be like from now on.’

As Bradley says, the Outlander PHEV is proving to be a massive success story.

Lance Bradley is realigning his sales expectations for this year

This mid-sized SUV costs from £28,249 (after the £5k Government subsidy) and delivers 148mpg and CO2 emissions of 44g/km. Yet despite all of this, it costs the same as the diesel-powered Outlander. And dealers are experiencing so much demand, Mitsubishi has given them more demonstrators. Not surprisingly, Bradley is realigning his sales expectations for the car.

‘When we first announced our plans for the year, we thought we’d do 1,500 PHEVs this year,’ he explains. ‘When you bear in mind the total market for plug-in hybrids last year was 981 units, planning at 1,500 cars and consequently taking two-thirds of the market is a big task.

‘Our latest plan is 7,500 but I actually think we will do 10,000 – we can get as many as we want from the factory. So, how surprised am I to have gone from 1,500 to 10,000? Er… quite surprised!’

And the third reason for that success has been the growth of a dealer network that delivers excellent customer service.

‘The quality of our network is one of our key strengths,’ says Bradley. ‘We started on the philosophy of excellent service five years ago and we deliberately called it “excellent service” because nobody talks about good service – you expect good service, but you don’t expect

excellent service. We did this because we looked at how we could differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We are not the cheapest – and I don’t ever want to be – we could be the best value but that is hard to measure. Sometimes we have the best products – such as the Outlander PHEV – but there are times when we won’t have the best products, so you can’t use that as a strategy.

Having excellent service you can do forever – and it is really hard for anyone to copy.’

The network is currently heading towards 120 – but Bradley doesn’t want it to stand still for the remaining half of the year.

‘I think we probably need circa 130,’ he explains. ‘And there are no hard and fast rules – we think 130 is a good number. In the case of some of the smaller territories we are not planning to fill, if we found a great operator in a small territory it may be more than 130.

‘We are looking for another 10-15 extra dealers in places where we don’t currently have any representation. There are a couple of big cities that we need to be in: Manchester – we have appointed a dealer in north Manchester but we are looking for great representation in other parts of the city – and Liverpool.

‘But really, if a dealer is reading this and is wondering “Is Mitsubishi looking for somebody in my area?” – if the nearest Mitsubishi dealer is 30 or so miles away from you, then yes we want to speak to you.’ [CD]

To find out more about becoming a Mitsubishi dealer, contact the Network Development Team on 01285 647714 CarDealerMag.co.uk | 45

WE’VE BEEN MAKING HISTORY. JOIN OUR DEALER NETWORK AND SHARE THE SUCCESS. For forty years Mitsubishi have been making history in the UK and in 2013 we were the fastest growing car brand in the UK. Which is why we’re looking for new dealers to share in our success and help us continue to make history. It’s not exactly a tough decision. Sales of our new plug-in hybrid electric car are as impressive as the car itself.

Backed by a high profile cross media campaign the new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has already exceeded sales targets.

With more models in our range joining the plug-in hybrid revolution next year and an exciting portfolio of new concept models ahead, the future is looking bright.

To become part of one of the UK’s fastest growing car brands call our Network Development team on 01285 647714 ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

MitsubishiUK

MitsubishiUK

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 47

FEATURE.

CONFERENCE THAT ROCKED ROCKINGHAM! This year’s Car Dealer Conference – branded 2020 Vision, as it looked forward to the next six years – was a huge success. Dave Brown reports PICTURES: Peter Spinney IT WAS the conference that had everything. A stunning expo, an incredible line-up of speakers from the very top tier of the UK automotive industry, and a sensational setting. Rockingham Motor Speedway was the venue for Car Dealer Magazine’s most ambitious and impressive conference yet.

Moved from its original venue of the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, to cope with the level of demand, the event was a resounding success.

We have been deluged with positive feedback from those lucky enough to have been there.

On the morning of the conference, branded ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

2020 Vision with the aim of looking ahead over the next six years, delegates started arriving as soon as the doors opened, guided to the expo hall by the eye-catching Car Dealer banners.

There was a chance for people to inspect the 40plus stands, gathered together to form the biggest motor trade expo in the UK. A huge range of companies and organisations were represented, such as iVendi, Road Angel, Traka, BEN, Trafficmaster and Manheim.

Newspress, AA Cars, Dragon2000 and GForces were among other exhibitors, with many of those occupying stands in the expo hall taking speaker slots as well.

Our headline speaker was Paul Philpott, president and CEO of Kia. Once delegates had had the chance to tour the expo stands and sample the excellent breakfast supplied by our caterers, it was a short stroll to the conference room with its floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows providing a stunning view of the Rockingham track. More than one delegate was spotted snapping a cheeky selfie with the action outside in the background!

For anyone unaware of the recent (and very impressive) change in Kia’s fortunes in the UK, Philpott provided a fascinating snapshot of life behind the scenes at the manufacturer.

CarDealer Scott Sinclair from Google

CONFERENCE 2014 Kia’s Paul Philpott addresses delegates

Trafficmaster’s Andy Morrison delivered a ‘hot slot’ speech

Steve Hargreaves of Glenside Finance takes the stand

‘We changed the whole of our product range’ Paul Philpott, president and CEO, Kia

The company is currently in its 70th year, although it didn’t start producing cars until 1974, making it a relative youngster in the automotive industry. What’s more, Kia didn’t exist in the UK until 1991. Philpott said: ‘A major turning point for our company came in 1998 when we went bankrupt and were bought by the Hyundai group to form the Hyundai-Kia Motor Corporation.

‘In 2006, the company opened a new car plant as part of a programme of inward investment into Europe and launched its first truly European car, the Cee’d.’

When Philpott joined the company, it was not in a good place – losing staff, dealerships

and money. He said: ‘I was asking myself, how do I create any sort of a relationship between the manufacturer and dealers? The fact that we have managed to do that has been central to our turnaround over the last seven years.

‘The years 2007 and 2008 were very much the years of building the foundations; sorting out our problems. We were under pressure from Korea to sell more cars but we had to take our time. We had to address the foundations of our business before moving on.’

Then came a bit of luck for Kia – as well as other manufacturers too, of course. Philpott said: ‘Dear old Mr Darling announced a scrappage

scheme in 2009 and we were net beneficiaries, selling around 32,000 cars on the scrappage scheme over a 12-month period. That put more Kias on the road but, more importantly, more profit and more revenue into our dealerships.

‘Since scrappage went in the summer of 2010, we have grown and grown. In the first six months of this year we have sold 40,000 units; in the first six months of 2011 we sold just 31,000.’

So how did Kia achieve such a great level of success? Philpott said there was a range of factors that led to the turnaround – no ‘magic bullet’.

‘First and foremost, if a car brand CarDealerMag.co.uk | 49

FEATURE. doesn’t have great products, it’s never going to achieve success,’ he said. ‘Our engineers and product development teams have done a great job and over the years from mid-2009 to mid-2012 we changed the whole of our product range and that has transformed our on-the-road presence. It’s been absolutely fundamental to our turnaround.’

If Philpott’s speech provided a fascinating insight into how a huge company can carve out a positive future for itself, David Combes, the managing director of motor trade legal firm Lawgistics, had his audience in the palm of his hand for a very different reason.

His expertise and detailed knowledge of changes to legislation affecting motor dealers were hugely impressive. And there were a few concerned looks from delegates as he outlined the new measures!

He began with a very telling observation about Britain’s place in Europe. ‘David Cameron has offered us a referendum on the EU – whether we should stay in or not,’ he said. ‘I can tell you now that the EU has so integrated itself into our laws that we can’t pull out. Politically, we may wish to do so, but the law is now so embedded that we’ve actually lost, since 1972, our own legislation.’

He went on to discuss the Consumer Rights Bill, which is being brought out to consolidate the Sale of Goods Act and is likely to come into effect next year.

‘It deals with three areas of contracts that you get involved in,’ he said. ‘Goods, digital content and services.

‘At the moment, the law says, under the Sale of Goods Act, that when you sell a car the customer takes it home and he has a reasonable time to inspect it and decide whether he likes it or not. That “reasonable time” is usually two to three days, not much more. Under the new Bill of Rights, that is no longer a reasonable time – we’re looking at a reasonable person’s expectations. In this case, the reasonable person is the customer.

‘They will have an opportunity to reject that car within 30 days without really having any good reason to do so. They can ask for a full refund. Yes, you can deduct a little bit for their use of it, but they will be entitled to that. They may also be entitled to six months when they can also reject that car if there are two faults with the vehicle in that time.’

The new bill stretches out into servicing with implications for dealers there too, said Combes.

Parts of the bill – known as the Consumer Contract Regulations – are already in force and came into being on June 13, said Combes.

These affect distance selling, and he went on to explain about changes in the regulations here, with the need for ‘key information’ – such as a ‘pay now’ button and details of cancellation rights – for consumers.

Thought-provoking stuff indeed.

Another main speaker slot was taken by ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

the expo A great atmosphere in which to do business... friendly and welcoming... tasty refreshments: our expo had it all !

CarDealer

CONFERENCE 2014

exhibitors iVendi Pioneer Business Systems Road Angel Traka Key Tracker Money Penny BEN Lawgistics Car Delivery Network Trafficmaster CAP Manheim Powerflow Ltd Dragon2000 FLA Sun Motors WhoCanFixMyCar Newspress AA Cars Gemini Systems HPI Vii Networks CarTakeBack CDL Drive Development The Prospect Factory Ltd Wraptition National Car Cleaning Company InAutomotive Jewel Ultra Bluesky Glenside Finance GForces GoldSand Digital Marketing Delivery Fourmative Training CitNow House of Flags Loop Fobs CarDealerMag.co.uk | 51

FEATURE. Lawgistics MD David Combes speaks

2014

Ian Webber, head of automotive at Microsoft, speaks

Soren Koch from Google had some useful advice for our future leaders

Paul Harrison from the FLA in full flow at the special session

It’s looking good for our future leaders THIS year’s conference differed from previous such events organised by Car Dealer Magazine in that there were two exciting breakout sessions for special groups of delegates.

One of these was for the ‘future leaders’ of the automotive industry and, again, we had a great line-up of speakers who addressed some younger members of the audience who were looking forward to promising careers ahead.

Our future leaders speakers were James Tew, director of iVendi, Paul Harrison, head of motor finance at the FLA, Soren Koch, industry manager at Google, and Ian Webber, head of automotive at Microsoft.

Webber told his audience: ‘Our view at Microsoft is that technology is enhancing the car-buying experience. Fifty-four per cent of the population now own a smartphone. Thirtyeight per cent of the population own a tablet.

‘And when you think that 75 per cent of laptops that are being bought now are touchscreen, it give you an idea of how people nowadays expect to engage with the carbuying process.’

Tew was next on stage and he focused on the use of data during his presentation.

‘We believe that the sales process is going to ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

be more web-enabled,’ he said. ‘If a customer wants to look at a car, they don’t have to go to a showroom. They can be sent a video of the car. And customers can actually get valuations online now – so as an industry, we are changing.

‘The big problem for the trade is control.

We’ve all been taught that we need to have the customer in front of us to control the sale.

If data is knowledge and knowledge is power then data is power. Data is control. If you want that control, then use data more smartly.’

Soren Koch from Google also highlighted the value of video in the sales process. ‘Needs are changing,’ he said. ‘But the web around us is also changing. Forty-six per cent of car buyers are using video in the path to conversion and making a decision about a car. But in the future, 78 per cent plan to watch a car video.’

Paul Harrison of the Finance and Leasing Association referred to the new regime with regard to car finance in connection with the advent of the Financial Conduct Authority.

He also discussed the rise in popularity of PCP agreements, saying: ‘PCP is, of course, here to stay. And although it’s a type of finance agreement, in the eyes of manufacturers it is more of a customer retention tool.’

Editor James Batchelor chats to Andy Francis

Philip Nothard, from CAP. Nothard, Black Book editor and retail consumer specialist, provided a bit of background about his own career, informing his audience that he had been in the automotive industry for 26 years, learning a lot about stock management along the way and running his own business.

He detailed a lot of the challenges that exist for anyone running a car dealership and told his audience: ‘It’s all about profit; it’s all about individual cars – do you retail a particular car?

Do you trade it? Will it go over-age? Will I make enough money?

CarDealer

CONFERENCE 2014

Jim Murray-Jones from News UK Automotive gets his point across

CAP’s Philip Nothard addresses delegates

Alistair Jeff from CitNOW was a ‘hot slot’ speaker

Andy Francis from Performance Communications in full flow

‘Your prospect customers are no longer local, they might be 300 miles away.’

Philip Nothard, CAP

‘Today we are looking at the consumer market a lot more than we used to. We are spending a lot more time valuing cars; finding out where that value sits. We check individual prices to find out whether we are competitive.

‘We look at the internet where consumers are getting a lot more of this information. Your prospect customers are no longer local, they’re national. They might be 300 miles away.

‘The retail market is changing and that’s having a direct impact on the wholesale market. This is all threatening margins. You’re competing against each other on retail yet still paying the same prices at trade in many cases.

‘The old way of doing things used to involve you buying a car and simply adding in the margin that you wanted in order to set the retail price.

‘Consumers are becoming a lot more knowledgeable than they previously were. I see it personally – and I believe CAP do – that it’s no longer about the single value. It’s more about the intelligence behind that value.’

Nothard said that some research had recently been carried out to see what car dealers required in terms of data. ‘The level of variety in what is required is increasing and we as data providers have got to give this to you. This research, carried out in the first quarter of this year, was carried

out both online and face-to-face across a range of different types of dealer. In brief, we found that dealers wanted a comprehensive view of the market. You certainly don’t want to be told how to sell cars!’ he said.

Jim Murray-Jones, general manager of News UK Automotive, was the next speaker at the event, drawing attention to the modern-day complexity of the car-buying process. He mentioned the many different fuel types that are currently available as well as the ‘explosion’ in derivatives and body styles.

We’ll keep the report of Jim’s speech relatively brief here as he has plenty to CarDealerMag.co.uk | 53

FEATURE. INFLUENTIAL DEALERS ON As part of our Twitter breakout session, we handed out some awards to dealerships that have thoroughly embraced the micro-blogging site and are using it to its best advantage. You can see who won what below, with Car Dealer editor James

Special session tweets with approval WHEN we compiled the second version of our top 100 Twitter influencers list, published in the magazine earlier this year, it once again led to a huge wave of interest and reaction.

So much so that we thought it was worth holding a special invitation-only session at the Car Dealer conference just for those who had been included. With a couple of high-quality speakers, the stage was set for an interesting and successful afternoon.

Scott Sinclair of Google, who had already spoken at our main conference event, kindly agreed to deliver another speech, during which he emphasised that consumers were prepared to spend longer amounts of time watching video content if that content was engaging enough. In fact, he said the quality of content was key when it came to the task of building an online community.

He advised: ‘Create great content. You can do it on big-budget stuff or you can go lowbudget. Attract the attention of your followers, of your consumers and build that community.

‘Understand the value of your social consumers. Each customer that you guys have on social media matters to your business.

‘Build converging media plans. Recognise the importance of social when doing your advertising, when you’re doing your marketing and when you’re managing your sales.’

The other speaker was Guy Howland, digital

marketing strategist at GForces, who took a great selfie of himself (obviously!) addressing the Twitter audience.

Posted online, it had received 24 retweets by the time Howland had finished speaking.

Howland said that modern-day consumers expected dealers to have social media profiles and were keen for car dealers to engage with them online.

The UK is one of the top three multiscreening nations, with an average of 1.3 devices per adult, he said. And when it comes to buying online, the UK is the global number one. ‘To reach your customers you need to be present across all devices. You need to ensure that your websites can achieve coverage across multiple devices.’

Howland also touched on the concept of reputation management and stressed that the advent of social media had made it more convenient for members of the public to speak to large corporations.

‘People just used to talk amongst themselves if they had had a good experience or a bad experience with a particular brand. These people are now on social media.

‘They’re speaking about your business. And nowadays you can actually interact with them and take control.’ n Check out our list of the 100 most influential dealers on Twitter at bit.ly/twitter-inf

Guy Howland from GForces took a great selfie at the Twitter session

Scott Sinclair from Google entertained the Twitter troops ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Brett Ward from Harwoods Group collects the picture tweet of the day gong

John Tustin from Mike Brewer Motors, with the best Twitter follower ratio

Lee Manning from Perrys, the most influential dealer

CarDealer twitter: THE awardS Batchelor, on the left of each shot, handing out the gongs. The whole Twitter session was a great success, with Lauren Stewart, a colleague of speaker Guy Howland at GForces, saying: ‘It was great. Social media is not as recognised as it should be.’

Jason Moorhouse from Dews Motor Group, the highest climber in our second list

Caroline Shield of Simon Shield Cars, the highest-placed independent

CONFERENCE 2014 say in our Online Marketing feature later in the magazine, but he said: ‘From a brand point of view, the environment in which people make decisions about products has grown out of all reason.

‘Social media is obviously very much where your brand is talked about, so you must make efforts to track and see what’s being said about you. It’s where reputations about brands can shift day in day out.’

Murray-Jones drew attention to websites from other sectors of the economy, where users were given a ‘filter’ structure to guide them through the range of options available. It was important to reassure customers in an environment where some people felt uncertain and provide a presence across all platforms, he added.

Performance Communications was up next.

Director Andy Francis focused on the need for car dealerships to have a crisis public relations plan in place. With car dealers accounting for 75 per cent of the complaints received by Citizens Advice every year, it would seem to be a good idea! Intelligent people in universities define a crisis in PR terms as the following, he said: ‘An unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organisation’s performance and generate negative outcomes.’

Francis delivered a hugely entertaining speech that highlighted a few PR disasters of the past, and highlighted how his own firm had provided effective support and assistance in such an event.

‘A PR crisis can be the perfect platform to show off your best side,’ he said, offering a bit

of reassurance of his own. ‘Deal with it the right way and you can rise from a crisis with dignity and grace. And if there is a crisis, use common sense. Far too many times over the years, people have panicked and said the wrong thing. They have taken the wrong actions without taking a step back. And if you’re still in trouble, call in an expert. Remember, when a company is distrusted, 57 per cent of people will believe negative information about that company.’

Last to speak – but by no means least – was Scott Sinclair from Google. Sinclair said: ‘The world is changing, technology is changing and people are changing.’

Breaking a delegate’s pen in half, he said: ‘That’s how technology will be treated in future.

Pens are consumable today; the technology of tomorrow is also consumable.

‘Back in 2010, 10 per cent of Google searches were done on a mobile phone. Fast-forward three years, 30 per cent. It’s being predicted it could be up to 50 per cent by the time we get to Christmas this year.

‘Consumers now have so much more choice as well. Back in 2010, there were six million YouTube videos watched on a monthly basis. Now that figure has doubled to 12 million YouTube videos watched in a month.’

The level of trust in transacting online had increased dramatically, he said. ‘The companies that succeed will innovate and grow, make better decisions and win the moments that matter.’

Fascinating stuff to reflect on during an insightful and informative day – now to start planning for 2015’s event which will be bigger and better still !

HOT SLOT HOT SHOTs

Trophy no.

2 for Harwoods – the ‘tweeters’ tweeter’ accolade

THERE were brief yet informative ‘hot slot’ presentations from CitNOW, Trafficmaster and Glenside Finance in our special ‘hot slot’ sessions at the conference. Alistair Jeff of CitNOW made the interesting point that people have gone off the idea of being ‘sold to’ as was the case in the past. ‘Why? Because they’re listening to their peers, they have researched things socially using Facebook and Twitter and picked things up there, and they want to use purchase as a form of entertainment.’

With fewer and fewer customers visiting showrooms, Jeff explained how dealers could use video to interact with their customers and point out the benefits of a particular car. ‘Video is a great way of being able to engage with consumers. And it’s a great way to align online and offline services.’

Steve Hargreaves of Hampshire-based Glenside Finance also had a few minutes of time to have his say at the conference and stated: ‘We’re a sub-prime lender. We pride ourselves on our sound policies, good practices and financial strength. These attributes have enabled us to weather the storms over the past 23 years and move forward to a position of greater strength.’

Andy Morrison, from Trafficmaster, said that modern-day car thieves had worked out a way to get round the latest hi-tech security devices – making the services supplied by his company hugely valuable to the owners of high-end cars.

‘People are more open to having stolen vehicle tracking on their vehicles than ever before – we’re seeing more and more demand for our products,’ he told his audience. [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 55

We’re in touch with your market...

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0843 178 6160 www.sunmotors.co.uk

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* NRS Figure s 7.3m

The S un, 2.8 m Sun day Tim es

*National Readership Survey Figures CarDealerMag.co.uk | 57

FEATURE.

TRADING UP

Italian job goes awry An old war wound scuppers my Fiat coupe master plan but I still manage to make a quick profit, says Andy Entwistle

B

aggott is sitting smugly in his office at the moment – it’s not that he doesn’t want us to raise as much money as we can for Great Ormond Street Hospital, but right now my plan to make a small fortune on the Jag has gone a little bit south!

I’m acquiring cars far quicker than I’m selling them, which isn’t the name of the game. The Jag has been advertised for two weeks but with very little interest, apart from a couple of jokers offering me next to nothing.

The MX-5 is suffering a similar fate, which, given the weather we’re having, is a surprise. I’ve bought and sold more Mk1 MX-5s than I care to remember but the market seems to have softened in the past two months, with very good examples struggling to find £2k. Given I took a risk on ours as it is pauper spec (no power steering), it’s looking like a challenge to take much profit.

However, being resourceful and having dealing in the blood, I had a plan. I recently picked up a 1997 Fiat coupe from John at Hughes Selection in Aylesbury for a very reasonable £300. This was

STORY SO FAR...

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

Suzuki Vitara Paid: £1,500 Spent: £300 Sold: £1,950 bought with the intent to use it for this year’s Bangers4BEN run to Italy in October. John did raise an eyebrow when he knew why we wanted it but, as described, it was a solid car with a ton of service history and a sweet engine.

However, the drive from Aylesbury back to Car Dealer Towers in Gosport highlighted an issue – the good old Italian long-arm, short-leg driving position. An old war wound (broken knee) started playing up and by the time I got back to the office I could hardly walk – this was 140 miles, never mind 1,400!

As there was little chance of me getting this to Turin and back I needed to turn round something sharpish. A quick wash, Hoover and MoT later and the car was on a wellknown auction site. A threeday auction starting at 99p and with no

reserve has turned our £300 Coupe into £546.

Okay, so this wouldn’t put much food on the table but, after the MoT fee, it’s still a quick £200 profit, which has turned this from a flat month into one that at least is moving us in the right direction.

As for the Jag, I had an email from James McCarthy of McCarthy Cars in south London.

He was sitting on a beach catching up with last month’s mag when he saw the problems with the Jag’s upholstery. Not only has he offered to sort this for us, he’s also apparently got a nice little Alfa coming in which should fill the hole that the MX-5 is hopefully about to leave. (I’ve had a best offer on the car as I type.)

So, with James’s help we’ll have another nice little convertible to make the most of the sun and the Jag will have the seat sorted to make it even more desirable. If there are any Jag specialists out there who want to make us a bid on the old girl, drop me a line. She set us back £2,200, has had a serious amount of work done

by Harwoods, is MoT’d and drives well. Hopefully, the interior will be looking top-drawer by the time you read this. All serious bids considered.

In the meantime, I think I’ll steer clear of old British classics moving forward. andy@blackballmedia. co.uk

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enquiries@gemini-systems.co.uk

www.gemini-systems.co.uk

focus on.

Gemini Systems

Going beyond the DMS GEMINI SYSTEMS

W: gemini-systems.co.uk T: 01522 698911

G

emini Systems is a rapidly-growing DMS company in the UK automotive systems arena and is attracting an increasing level of interest from dealers and multifranchised groups, with good reason!

The phrase the company uses – Beyond the DMS – explains what it stands for and is the focus of each individual’s targeted actions within the organisation.

And its mission statement could not be clearer: ‘Delivering the best-value dealer management systems to the automotive industry, and harnessing the latest digital technologies to provide dealers with greater profit opportunities.’

The company was formed in 1990 by Simon Harrod (managing director) and Gareth Williams (finance director) who recognised that many dealers needed affordable and functional DMS solutions.

Having passed the 1,000-customer milestone several years ago with franchised, independent and

car supermarket clients, and with a record-breaking financial performance behind it, the company is looking forward to celebrating 25 years with further growth of the organisation and its customer base.

Harrod explains: ‘Our traditional focus has been to offer competitive DMS solutions to small/medium-sized businesses where cost and functionality have been key factors. As our own business has grown and technology is now almost without limitation, we have found that we can offer scalable, affordable solutions to any dealer or multi-franchised group. Historically, it was difficult to break through to AM100 companies, and to have discussions about their requirements, but this is all changing. The need for their businesses to focus on affordable cost, a flexible partner relationship and the availability of key manufacturer interfaces is putting us very much in the frame for serious consideration with mainstream dealers and groups.’

Clearly, over the past two years, the increased level of investment in staff and particularly manufacturer interfaces has been a significant factor in the accelerated growth of Gemini Systems. As the UK economy recovers and dealer confidence to invest in new technology and solutions is on the rise,

Gemini Systems is well positioned to offer existing and new customers the value, technology and profit opportunities that its Evolution DMS can provide.

Says Harrod: ‘We focus on what we can do to improve our products and services and take a lot of good-quality feedback from our existing customer base. We don’t dream up new ideas about what we think is best for them – why would we? – we ask them instead! We have a user group forum that is invaluable in helping us to focus our investment into the right product developments, so that the end product is what the customers need, rather than what we think should be developed.’

So what does the future hold for Gemini Systems and its customers?

The team has a clear focus – to create industryleading DMS solutions at affordable prices, to protect dealer investment through continual software enhancements and deliver DMS/ manufacturer interfaces that enhance the value of the franchise for the customer.

We asked Harrod if he could explain what this means in practice for existing customers and the dealers and groups that are increasingly being attracted to Gemini Systems’ products and services.

He said: ‘Our current Evolution DMS portfolio offers a high level of functionality, as you would expect from any credible DMS, but on the latest industry-standard open technology. We have seamless integration with Automated Marketing, Showroom/Diary and most recently a new tabletbased integrated vehicle healthcheck solution that has attained compliance with many manufacturers.

‘We are also deploying a new online dealer portal solution to allow our customers direct access to view support status and raise enhancement requests.

‘We also work with other leading third-party companies who supply class-leading products.

‘We believe that a lot of our recent success comes from being nimble enough to react and listen to what our customers are saying.

‘We recently asked a number of customers in a focus group what they wanted from us.

‘The answer was simple: Demonstrate to us that we can sell more cars, parts and service using your products.

‘We took away the challenge to develop what will be the most advanced integrated campaign management system in the UK DMS industry, also linking with social media and dealer websites.

‘It is slated for delivery later this year and represents an all-encompassing campaign management solution, feeding off core dealership customer/vehicle data to target increased spend and loyalty from existing customers, but also helping to define compelling purchase actions from dealership prospects’.

As Harrod says, ‘It’s the perfect example of our passion to deliver value, the latest digital technology and offer greater profit opportunities to our customers – Beyond the DMS!’ Gemini Systems is indeed well positioned as a credible alternative to the ‘usual suspect’ DSPs and on an upward curve! [CD]

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 61

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focus on.

Spectrum Financial Advice

We’ll help you protect your business SPECTRUM

W: spectrumfa.co.uk T: 01279 315013

S

pectrum Financial Advice can help protect your business and profits if the worst should happen. We spoke to company financial adviser Lewis Cable about the risks and how best to protect your future.

How important is it that dealers obtain business protection insurance? It is vital that all dealers obtain business protection insurance. It’s all about maintaining ownership of the business and making sure future profits are protected if something were to happen to one of the owners or a key employee.

What could happen if a dealer doesn’t obtain business protection insurance? If it’s a single owner, the question is, ‘who will manage the business if that person was diagnosed with a critical illness and put out of work for, say, two years?’

The next of kin may have to take on the role,

even if they have no experience, and if they decided to sell they may not get the best price.

If there is more than one business owner and one was unable to work, it’s worth thinking about what would happen to the individual shares of that business. Would the next of kin want to be compensated for the value of their partner’s shares and does the remaining owner have sufficient cash reserves in place to buy the shares from their business partner’s next of kin?

We will arrange life insurance policies for the business owners, held in the relevant trusts, to ensure the next of kin are fully compensated for their value of the business and leaving the surviving business owner(s) to fully own the business.

What if someone else vital to the business was unable to work? Most businesses will have a few key people who are crucial to the business.

If one of these key individuals was unable to work, could the business survive? This could lead to a loss of income for the business because of a fall in sales. Alternatively, important contracts could be lost because of a key person being unavailable.

What would Spectrum Financial Advice do in that situation? Key person insurance or profit protection insurance is a contingency plan that a business can put in place to protect itself against the loss that it may suffer in the result of a death, terminal illness or critical illness of a key individual.

What makes you stand out from other providers? Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We’re small enough to suit your needs yet with a network of products from all the big-name providers.

For your free no-obligation review speak to Lewis now.

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We know how important it is to protect your business profits now and for the future. With a few simple and easy steps you can arrange a contingency plan to be sure that if the worst should happen to you, one of your co-owners or one of your key employees, your business will maintain its profitability.

We specialise in tailoring the right business protection insurance package to suit your specific needs. We will help you find an affordable contingency plan, and offer a FREE, no-obligation consultation.

Call Lewis on 01279 315 013 or 07916 288598 or email info@spectrumfa.co.uk to book your FREE, no-obligation appointment. www.spectrumfa.co.uk Spectrum Financial Advice, 18 New Horizon Business Centre, Barrows Road, Harlow, Essex CM19 5FN CarDealerMag.co.uk | 63

driving

innovation

Fuelling success through our passion for innovation Manheim’s entire business is driven by innovation and when you work closely with us, so is yours.

Teams of industry-leading experts constantly develop new products and services, all designed to give dealers the tools and the confidence to succeed in the digital world.

• Desktop, tablet & mobile online buying channels • Intelligent stock management systems

Find out what Manheim can do for you 0844 856 4540 www.manheim.co.uk ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

LH2284_801 010714

• Cutting-edge bespoke dealer websites • Social media and live chat

focus on.

Online advertising

Welcome I

t sometimes feels as though we’ve been through something akin to an industrial revolution when it comes to the way we communicate with each other.

Remember the days when we were limited to landlines and maybe the odd fax? They seem like a distant memory.

Of course, the business world has changed beyond all recognition since the start of the new millennium... and so has the world of our consumers.

They have many more ways to interact with us. For a potential car buyer, it used to be a question of checking out the ad in the local motoring section on a Friday and popping into the dealership on a Saturday.

Could things be any more different now?

If anything, our customers could be suffering from information overload when it comes to buying a new car.

There’s no doubt, however, that many of them have got to grips with technology and are doing a lot of their research online before they ever venture into a showroom.

The question is, how can we thrive and prosper in this new environment and use all this tech to help ourselves and our customers?

You’ll find plenty of answers over the next 10 pages, with advice and guidance from some of the biggest names in the business.

What’s inside?

Motors.co.uk

P66

Where dealer stock is displayed perfectly – regardless of which device is being used

Manheim

P68

Making the online journey seamless, simple and successful for both the dealer and the consumer

Gumtree

P70

A site with very high levels of traffic – and where people are browsing with intent, definitely looking to buy a car

AA Cars

P72

Customers put their faith in a highlyrespected and trusted brand, while dealer feedback is very positive

Sun Motors

P74

Free is free! That’s the difference with Sun Motors – and brands don’t come much bigger than this

James Batchelor Editor CarDealerMag.co.uk | 65

focus on.

Online advertising

Buying and selling without the MOTORS.co.uk

I

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

n the past 12 months, Motors.co.uk has car buyers that are unsure about which car to buy to nearly tripled visits to its site, added filter by lifestyle options, such as insurance group, in excess of 120,000 additional vehicle number of seats, speed of the vehicle and in-car listings and substantially increased extras. This means that they are exposed to a wider the number of new dealers advertising across its range of vehicles which are suitable for their needs network. Moreover, with its revolutionary Smart but may not have made the original shopping list.’

Search, the ‘hero’ of its ‘Carfuffle’ advertising In addition to Smart Search, Motors.co.uk has campaign, it has redefined the used car search also unveiled a raft of new features over the past 12 experience for consumers. months, including Night Owl, which allows busy A multi-million-pound TV advertising campaign, car shoppers to reserve cars or arrange test drives out which has included high-profile World Cup spots, of traditional dealership hours through a simple-toalong with a significant investment in ongoing use contact form. product development has seen the Motors.co.uk ‘What’s Mine Worth?’ provides consumers with network secure its place in the decision-making an accessible car valuation tool that generates local process of the majority of in-market car buyers. trade-in leads for dealers, while ‘What’s Hot?’ gives Car Dealer caught up with the managing director consumers an indication of the most popular cars. of Motors.co.uk, Andy Coulthurst, to discuss what The new ‘Reduced Cars’ feature allows instant comes next for the ambitious navigation to vehicles that have brand. ‘At the core of what we do is recently shifted down in price. our commitment to dealers to help Coulthurst said: ‘Thousands of them sell more cars quickly and dealers partner with Motors.co.uk profitably to their local customers,’ because we generate for them a said Coulthurst. significant number of leads which, ‘Whether through investing in due to our logic of returning cars by first-to-market features, delivering distance and not price, are local to refreshed TV creative or adding the dealership. greater reach to our network, we ‘As such, we are giving our are committed to being a credible dealers the opportunity to win a alternative upon which dealers customer for life.’

Managing director can advertise their cars and be Alongside the significant uplift Andy Coulthurst certain of a great return on their in sales generated by the Motors. investment,’ he said. co.uk ‘Carfuffle’ TV campaign, dealers also enjoy the The Motors.co.uk network has been designed to benefit of their stock being listed on more than 300 attract and aid in-market car buyers in the process of sites across the Motors.co.uk network. finding their ideal car with ease, usually from a local This includes Parkers, Honest John, Desperate dealer, all ‘without the Carfuffle’.

Seller and the newly-added Carsite network, A fully responsive website, Motors.co.uk displays featuring AutoVillage.co.uk dealer stock perfectly, regardless of which device is ‘Each month, we welcome even more new being used. This is hugely important in the context dealers to the Motors.co.uk network,’ comments of 55% of visits to the site coming from tablets and Coulthurst. ‘Every dealership is appointed an mobiles in May 2014. During the high-profile World account manager who will not only set their Cup TV spots, that percentage topped 70% thanks to stock live across our whole network but then also ‘turfing’ – surfing the net while watching TV. work with them on an ongoing basis to review The customer journey is then supported by performance and assist in maximising leads.’ a number of ‘Smart’ product features, with the All customers of Motors.co.uk are given access to flagship, first-to-market, innovative lifestyle ‘Smart a free response tracking tool called ‘The Eye’, which Search’ proving so powerful that it is now being allows dealers to review the quality and quantity replicated by other players in the classified sector. of their leads in real time and adjust the campaign Coulthurst comments: ‘Our Smart Search allows accordingly. Data is very important to Motors.co.uk ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

and more than 700 dealers now supply the team with their sales figures each month. This allows Motors.co.uk to perform a detailed comparison with postcode searches and match the sales where the buyer has visited the Motors.co.uk platform before purchasing the vehicle.

‘We now generate approximately one in five sales for our dealers,’ says Coulthurst. ‘However, these figures just show where a customer has purchased a car following viewing the car details page on Motors.co.uk In addition, we are seeing some of our dealers report that more than 50% of their used car buyers have visited the Motors.co.uk network through their search journey.’

One such customer is Cambria Automobiles, whose marketing and CRM director, Ian Godbold, comments: ‘Lead generation and ROI are essential KPIs for our business, which is why we undertake detailed attribution analysis of all of our marketing channels.’ He continues: ‘Over many years, this analysis has shown that the Motors.co.uk classified channels have been a key influencer on our sales performance. This performance has been enhanced with Motors.co.uk’s recent marketing push, with 53% of our guests now visiting them ahead of making a purchase.’

As part of the Cox Automotive Group, which in the UK includes Manheim and in the US includes Autotrader.com, Motors.co.uk is part of the world’s leading provider of vehicle remarketing services.

Coupled with Coulthurst’s experience on the other side of the fence – with almost 30 years working in car supermarkets and, latterly, JCT600 – the team at Motors.co.uk are confident they can deliver the products and insight which dealers want to help them sell more cars.

Coulthurst explains: ‘We are able to make use of substantial experience throughout the UK and global vehicle retail and remarketing arenas in order to inform our product development and deliver the solutions which dealers are asking for.

‘In addition, our subscriptionbased pricing model, which allows dealers to advertise 100% of their stock for one fixed fee, is highly attractive in terms of both return on investment

‘Carfuffle’ – reaching a network of more than 300 sites – and also beneficial for cash flow modelling.

‘This knowledge of marketing spend and the ultimate return on investment is just as important for our large dealer groups and car supermarkets as it is for the significant number of independent dealers who benefit from the Motors.co.uk network.’

Motors.co.uk counts many of the UK’s larger dealer groups as its customers and is now targeting future growth in the independent sector.

It’s exciting times for the Motors. co.uk team, which looks forward to unveiling further product innovations and advertising creative throughout 2014.

‘‘

At the core of what we do is our commitment to dealers to help them sell more cars quickly and profitably to their local customers

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 67

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Understanding the journey MANHEIM

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W: manheim.co.uk T: 0844 856 4540

he online journey. It’s a phrase with which many of us will be familiar these days and one which is crucial to the success of our businesses when we’re trying to attract customers and sell cars.

But how can we make sure that the journey goes smoothly for people who might want to buy a car from us? How can we put them on a virtual road that leads straight to a showroom and a handshake with a member of our sales team?

Simple. Talk to Manheim.

There can be few companies operating in the digital world these days who display as much excitement, have as much experience and demonstrate as much passion for what they do to help dealers do well online.

And not only do they have a fantastic suite of services, they also have plenty of useful advice and guidance for ALL dealers who are giving their web presence some thought.

Car Dealer recently caught up with Le Etta Pearce, sales and operations director at Manheim Retail Services, who had some very useful tips for dealerships. And she’s in no doubt what the central issue is when it comes to car dealerships and the internet.

‘The key is to encourage dealers to make time, not take time, to truly understand the customer journey. It all comes down to the ability for a dealership online to increase the customer’s propensity to buy,’ she explained.

So where do we start?

‘The first thing we need to address is web strategy optimisation. Dealers need to understand whether or not their website is fully optimised. Having that strong online presence is absolutely vital for generating leads and managing inquiries.

‘A website needs to incorporate plenty of rich functionality such as multi-media channels, frequently-asked questions and reviews. It has to be adaptive to all devices, fundamental in enhancing the user experience, promote further interaction on the site and ultimately encourage dwell time.

‘If the user experience is good on multiple devices, they may have the propensity then to be able to spend more time browsing and more time absorbing information that will help them make their purchasing decision. Live chat, social media and social media plug-ins all have a part to play ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

VIRTUAL STOCK AN important point that the team at Manheim acknowledge is that dealers don’t necessarily have to own the stock they provide to their customers.

Pearce told us: ‘We have a number of solutions that look at how we offer our remarketing stock online – making it easy for dealerships to source stock and see what stock is available.

‘Clearly, the customer is made aware that the dealership doesn’t have a particular vehicle on their site but they can now offer to sell a car to a customer and then purchase it directly from the manufacturer.

‘That virtual environment gives dealerships more sourcing options. It gives them the opportunity to buy more quickly and with more urgency to fulfil customer demand.

‘We’re constantly looking at those online packages in terms of what we do to complement the physical auction programme.

Manheim Online hosts its new direct trade sales channel. The upgraded offering now includes a ‘Bid & Buy Now’ facility, featuring both 24/7 listings and specific timed events.

It also provides direct trade sales via a dedicated Manheim team, as well as online auctions.

‘There’s definitely been a significant shift in the way vehicles are sourced and the way in which motor retailers want to do business online. We’re helping to facilitate their ability to make the most effective use of their time when sourcing and buying vehicles. The “Bid & Buy Now” functionality enables dealers to purchase stock 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the Manheim Remarketing website.

‘All of our online enhancements have to be designed to support that approach.’ to ensure that we’re opening up the multitude of channels for communication with consumers.

‘All this is absolutely critical – after all, Google predicts that mobile activity will soon out-perform desktop.’

As we all know, timing is everything, and Pearce

Operations director Le Etta Pearce

has some great advice here. She told us: ‘One thing that I think dealerships are starting to recognise is – are they actually available to their customers when their customers need them to be? We know that peak periods of traffic on all of our websites are between 7pm and 10pm. Customers are looking for support outside of conventional opening hours.

‘Something else to think about from a dealership perspective is how we transition online into physical. Now we know that a customer’s journey starts online, we’re creating an experience for them from that point. If we don’t translate that experience into the physical showroom environment, we’re going to lose the customer along the way.

‘If you’re quick and responsive online, make sure you’re quick and responsive in the showroom.’

There’s certainly a lot to think about but there’s no need to feel daunted. Help is at hand from the

‘‘

The key is to encourage dealers to make time, not take time, to truly understand the customer journey experts at Manheim! ‘We have the ability to help dealers source stock, dispose of stock and manage stock,’ said Pearce.

‘What we have managed to do over the past few years is really start to understand the customer journey. I’m not just referring to the online experience but an understanding of what the customer ultimately needs at the end.

‘We’ve amalgamated a number of industryleading specialist propositions. In each field, Manheim has either developed or acquired an industry-leading specialist business that’s focused on providing dealers with that cradle-to-grave experience -- be it online, through our online buying channels, in terms of sourcing stock or disposing of stock. This goes right the way through to providing websites, classified portals, intelligent stock-management systems – a whole plethora of

marketing solutions that help dealers position their stock professionally.

‘And ultimately with in-dealership applications the aim is to help convert leads and help retain customers through the aftersales experience.’

Perhaps it’s the level of confidence that dealerships have in Manheim that sets it apart from other companies operating in this field. Pearce emphasised: ‘We truly understand what it means to operate in sales, aftersales, online, disposal and remarketing, and we’ve taken the specialist knowledge in each of the areas and brought them together to understand that complete journey. I think that’s what sets Manheim apart and explains why dealers should have confidence in us. We’ve taken expertise and knowledge from many different sources and pulled everything together.

‘The passion in the people that we have is

really important too. We’re always trying to think about the end consumer. I’m not saying a dealer doesn’t do that – of course they do! – but I think if we restricted ourselves to only thinking about what dealers need, and not understanding what consumers need, we wouldn’t be able to provide the right products and services for our customers.

‘We’re a really easy company to do business with.

We have got trained specialists in all areas. We have teams of account managers, key account directors and we have a fully supportive helpdesk team available to our customers.

‘We adapt our processes to match the way our customers need to work in the ever-changing environment. We make the online journey seamless, simple and successful for both the dealer and the consumer.’

by Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 69

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Staying one step ahead GUMTREE

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W: gumtreeforbusiness.co.uk/motors T: 0208 334 7952

t’s been described as one of the best-kept secrets in the UK car industry – but now the team at Gumtree Motors want to raise their profile and really shout about what they can offer to dealers across the UK. And with good reason! Every day, Gumtree, the UK’s number-one classifieds website, is visited by tens of thousands of people who are looking to buy a new or used car. And this high level of top-quality web traffic is delivering incredibly positive results for the 1,000-plus dealers who have decided to work with Gumtree Motors since the service was launched in October 2013.

Car Dealer Magazine caught up with Andrew Hooks, director of motors at Gumtree, which is part of the global internet phenomenon eBay. He was keen to tell us about the service and highlight the positive feedback the site has been receiving.

Hooks told us: ‘As the UK’s number-one classified website, we actually have the second-largest volume of cars in the market. We’re probably the bestkept secret in the industry. Because we have huge leadership in the private market, we experience very high levels of traffic – and these are people who are definitely looking to buy a car.’

He went on: ‘Over the past nine months, we’ve put together a proposition explicitly for car dealers so that they’re able to plug into that audience. We’ve had great success so far and we’re some way north of 1,000 subscribers already.

‘That’s great to see because it’s clear that the proposition is resonating with customers and working for car dealers.

‘Put simply, the feedback we’re getting is that they are receiving a great response. We’re serious about this market and we’re probably a lot bigger than most people give us credit for.

‘People on Gumtree are on Gumtree with intent.

They are clear about their needs and as a result they’re very good-quality prospects.

‘We have a large group of people who are genuinely looking to buy a car.

‘On top of that, our dealer-facing proposition is unique. We’re able to receive feeds from the majority of third parties that operate in the market, including eBay Motors Pro. ‘And as well as offering a great audience for a dealer’s inventory, we’re able to integrate with the systems and back-end management tools that ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

REVERSE SHOWROOMING IF there’s one organisation that is completely up to date with consumer behaviour online it’s eBay, the parent company of Gumtree.

And having worked for Gumtree’s bigger partner for several years, Andrew Hooks has all the facts and figures at his fingertips.

‘Consumers in the UK are now hugely empowered in all of their decision-making,’ he explained. ‘And one of the ways in which that is manifesting itself in today’s digital economy is with the concept of reverse showrooming. People are spending more and more time online researching a purchase.

‘Nowhere is that more true than in the car retail space. People are spending more and more time checking out reviews, watching videos on YouTube, spending time on forums and social media, getting the experience of other people who own a particular car.

‘They’re doing all of that in an entirely virtual space. That’s even more the case now that smartphones are in everybody’s pockets. The dealer’s showroom is being pushed further and further down the customer’s purchase journey. Customers are visiting the showroom later and later in the path to purchase.

‘Well over 80 per cent of all car purchase journeys start online today and in the used market that is even higher.

The days of somebody waking up on a Sunday morning and driving down the road to see what’s on offer at their local dealership are long gone.’

dealers use in order to manage their listings.

All this helps to make everything as easy as possible for them.’

We asked Hooks if there was any such thing as a ‘typical’ dealer represented on Gumtree. He told us: ‘We have businesses of all shapes and sizes on the site at the moment – from some of the largest groups right down to small operations with just a handful of cars.

‘We’re looking to appeal to everybody. We definitely have strong success in the independents market. That’s a conscious decision that we’ve taken and we will continue to expand in that area.’

Dealers can expect a fantastic level of support and guidance moving forward in their relationship with Gumtree. Hooks told us: ‘We have a team of representatives based in the UK whose role is not only to help clients come on board with us but also to manage those relationships on an ongoing basis.

‘We look after our dealer partners very well.

There’s little point in bringing people on board if they don’t enjoy working with us.’

So how do things work for customers who decide to get involved?

Hooks explained: ‘We have a proposition that’s actually a very similar pricing and subscription model to the one on eBay. We have a series of tiers for 10 cars, 20 cars, 40 cars and so on.

‘A dealer has a total number of slots on the site rather than a specific number of uploads that he or she can make in a given period. So a dealer might be able to have 20 cars displayed at any given time.

You can chop and change within that as much as you like. In theory, if you had a fast turnover of stock, you could continue swapping in and swapping out and sell 60 or 80 cars in a month under a 20-car package.

‘Our pricing is very close to our parent company, eBay. You can sign up for a contract of three, six or 12 months with discounts for longer contracts as you’d expect.

‘You receive leads through whatever medium you choose. You don’t have to accept email leads. You don’t have to have phone leads, although of course most dealers do want them. If a customer is looking at the site on a desktop computer, a dealer’s telephone

‘‘

number will appear so the customer can get in touch.

‘If a potential car buyer is viewing on a device that is telephone-ready, however, the person will just be presented with a “call the dealer” button to make it as easy as possible to reach out with an inquiry and consequently provide a lead for a dealer.

‘It’s quite neat functionality. It’s what customers expect and it’s one of a whole host of innovations that we’ve got coming down the pipe. We’re in the final stages of testing a completely new look and

feel for the website, which will be reflected not only on mobiles but on tablets and desktop computers as well.

‘We’ve launched new tablet apps for Android tablets and they will be coming to other platforms later this year.

‘We’re working hard to not only keep pace with customer expectations but to stay ahead.

‘The new look and feel of our site will be quite a big event for us. The new site has a clean and fresh look and we’re sure it will go down well with our

We’re serious about this market and we’re a lot bigger than most people give us credit for. dealer partners and those who are in the market for a new car.’

Exciting times indeed – so if you haven’t thought about branching out to join Gumtree yet, it’s probably time to do so.

by Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 71

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It’s a question of trust aa cars

W: theAAcars.com T: 01920 252 474

A

quick glance at a dictionary will tell you the assurance that the AA brings to online search. that a partnership is an arrangement Consumers really narrow down their selection where two individuals or organisations online before contacting their dealer. The dealers join forces to advance their mutual are really seeing the benefit, with record levels of interests. It’s a fairly straightforward idea, and one inquiries from customers who are confident about that increasing numbers of car dealers are adopting their online selection and arrive ready to buy.’ in their search for new business. Of course, if you’re AA Dealer Solutions encompasses the AA Cars looking for an associate to work with, it’s essential site, which provides free history checks on every to choose wisely. And that’s where the AA comes in. car and gives dealers free breakdown cover to all of There isn’t a single brand in Britain that is more their customers too. It now offers dealers the chance trusted than the AA*, which has spread its wings to sell their stock as AA ‘mechanically inspected’ considerably from its early days as being largely a through a new vehicle inspections product for the provider of roadside breakdown assistance. trade, and a warranty package is also now part of Of course, that element of its portfolio is still the the integrated set of solutions. cornerstone of its existence, but now the AA AA Dealer Solutions – giving dealers of all provides an incredibly wide range of services shapes and sizes the chance to get involved to millions of people across the UK – and in the service – went live at the start of car sales is one of them.

July and looks set to be a big success.

From a consumer’s point of view, Bruce explained: ‘For dealers that the sight of the AA logo provides an have adopted the services, it really instant sense of reassurance – and the differentiates their stock in the process organisation is now ready to work with car of used car buying online. Dealers who dealers of all shapes and sizes as well as take the package will not only benefit members of the public. from a set of exclusive services, This new arm of the AA’s however, they will benefit from AA operation – called AA branding too.

Dealer Solutions – ‘We’re looking to give dealers is the brainchild who take the whole package AA of David Bruce, branding. That will include flags commercial director and banners if they take the of AA Ventures. He’s warranty product as well. delighted with the ‘We’ve never had a service way things are going before for dealers so that so far – and told Car dealers can actually Dealer about the advertise their cars as thinking behind being “inspected by the the service.

AA”. This should help ‘Given the trust them realise better CAP that’s associated with values and should help the AA’s name, we had velocity in terms of to do something for stock turn. consumers to de-risk ‘What we’re saying car buying. Our AA Cars to dealers is that there product allows consumers is a suite of tools here to select cars with for you to use. We’re not David Bruce, confidence, having done all pushing anything down commercial their research online. The dealers’ throats. It’s a case director of AA transaction will still happen of saying, “Look – we think Ventures in the showroom but with we have some tools and assets that ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

our brand brings that may be of use to you.”

‘You may not want them all but some of them you may need, so it’s giving a flexible set of tools to dealers to help them align themselves with our trusted brand.’

AA Cars is celebrating its first anniversary this summer and Bruce told us: ‘We’ve been really pleased with how it’s gone. We started at 107,000 cars on the site and we’re now at 147,000. Our inquiry levels have gone up very, very significantly.

Customers see our brand and they see it as a trusted proposition. We’ve had a very strong response from dealers so far too, so we’re delighted.’

Of course, being the AA, the level of support on offer for dealers who get involved in AA Dealer Solutions is second to none.

Bruce told us: ‘We have more than 26 field staff who are available to talk to dealers about the

‘‘

In a nutshell, our service is about the quality of the traffic that we get and that drives good inquiries to dealers. proposition. If we can engage with dealers and form a relationship with them in terms of how they can use our tools to improve their business performance, I see it as much as a consultancy model rather than a field sales model.’

The online functionality for consumers was something Bruce was keen to stress during his chat with us. AA Cars is designed to be a bit like Google – the search engine with which we’re all familiar.

‘Some offerings have loads of filters which people can use to narrow down their search,’ he said.

‘We’ve gone the other way. If a consumer goes on to the site and just types in ‘‘Ford Fiesta, blue, threedoor’’ for example, it will return those cars for you.

‘You haven’t got to tick lots of boxes, it’s really just type and go. Consumers are very used to Google as a search method so we’ve replicated that and it’s had a really fantastic response in terms of car page

views and inquiries to dealers. That’s a genuine bit of innovation that we’ve got on the AA Cars site.’

A couple of other points are good news for dealers too. ‘In terms of the vehicle-checking product, the cost is from just £45 for dealers,’ said Bruce. ‘And we’re quick too. From the point of booking, we will be at the dealer’s site within 48 hours and will have completed the inspection.

‘In a nutshell, our service is about the quality of the traffic that we get and that drives good inquiries to dealers. The AA brand is a significant pullthrough for dealers.’

So who are the AA looking to attract with AA Dealer Solutions? Bruce told us: ‘We’re interested in talking to dealerships of all shapes and sizes. The level of transparency with our proposition means that well-run businesses will be attracted to our site to advertise their cars.

‘But we’re not looking to target particular elements of the market, because an AA customer might be interested in a £1,000 car or a £100,000 car.

We don’t see it as our role to dictate which sections of the market can participate. What we can do is derisk the car-buying process in whatever element of the market a consumer might be buying in.

‘Therefore we are open to dealers that run their businesses well from all sectors – franchised dealers, high-end outlets, all the way through to an independent dealership that might have 20 cars on their site. The features we offer are for all of them.’ *The AA was identified as Britain’s ‘most trusted brand’ in an independent survey of more than 3,000 people in the UK aged 18-74 between 4 January and 7 February 2014 by Rainey Kelley Campbell Roalfe / Y&R’s Brand Asset Valuator (BAV).

by Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 73

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We are moving the game on SUN MOTORS

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W: sunmotors.co.uk T: 0843 178 6151

here’s an old saying that there’s no such thing as a free lunch – and when it comes to the motor trade and advertising cars online, that saying couldn’t be more true.

Dealers have been familiar with listing their stock on the internet for years via a handful of famous websites – but just because that’s the comfortable way of doing things, doesn’t mean it’s the best way for dealers and their businesses.

Step forward Sun Motors and their pledge to help dealers sell cars more easily – and, more importantly, cheaper and more profitably.

‘Our main differentiator has to be our offer,’ explains Jim Murray-Jones, general manager, News UK Automotive. ‘For the likes of our chief competitors, dealers pay to list each and every car on their website. This has two problems: It pigeonholes dealers to advertise their best stock and if a car supermarket, for instance, has 10 BMW 3 Series in silver, they will only advertise one of those instead of all 10 – consequently reducing the reach and interest of those cars.

‘We work differently. With our model, dealers don’t pay anything to list cars on Sun Motors.

It’s totally free and they only pay when that car generates a lead in the form of a 30second-or-more phone call, an email enquiry or live chat.’

The model is all part of a strategy to help reduce dealers’ costs when they’re holding and moving on stock, explains Murray-Jones. ‘With other sites, dealers still work it out by cost-per-lead. The typical cost-per-lead on a competitor’s site is about £65 but ours is £15 (£5 for live chat). So when a dealer generates a lead, they are not being forced to pay a huge amount for it.

‘We have been spending a lot of time with dealers and have listened to their concerns,’ says Murray-Jones.

‘And one of the biggest problems is how much profit dealers make on a car. For instance, when they take a car in for part exchange or buy a car from auction, even though the valuation may say it will make £1,800-1,900 gross profit, after ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

transportation, repairs, marketing, staff costs and overheads, the dealer is probably looking at less than half that number. Us extending these costs when they come to advertise it online just seems wrong. We wouldn’t want to do that – even for the simple fact that dealers’ stock on our website makes our consumers’ experiences better.’

The news that Sun Motors was going into the online classified arena broke last January. Up until June, there were no costs associated with the website for dealers, however June was the first month where if dealers’ adverts generated a lead, they paid for it.

‘Before June we had 143,000 cars on each site,’ explains Murray-Jones. ‘But when we started billing, we expected to have a drop off of about 33 per cent – not because dealers didn’t want to pay for it, but because dealers didn’t grasp the concept.’

In actual fact, the number of cars advertised on the site jumped to more than 150,000 in June.

‘But we still don’t think all dealers completely understand the offer,’ adds Murray-Jones. ‘Dealers are used to a certain method of working with online classified websites. The fact that we have dealers’ business and profits at our heart, is proving to be just a bit different for some dealers to grasp.’

So far, Sun Motors has a large portfolio of dealers right across the UK who are using the site to sell their cars.

‘We have a good mix of dealers – franchised, groups and specialists and car supermarkets, and this is due to our model of not treating dealers differently if they have 15 cars or 15,000 cars to list on our site,’ adds Murray-Jones. ‘When the dealer contacts us to advertise their stock, they can list part or their entire inventory – we make no requirements on the limit.

‘What we do, however, is with whatever number of cars they list with us, we create a cap for their invoice. For instance, if a dealer has 100 cars and they list 100 cars with us, their monthly invoice will be capped at £200 (£2 a car) – that’s not a charge but a cap. We are limiting the risk for them.’

Murray-Jones, who spent seven years at Auto Trader and then specialised in other industry sectors, is well aware of how complex the buying process is for customers – and that by making it easier, it will help dealers in the long run.

‘There has been an explosion in model derivatives and bodystyles in the last 10 years, when there was just hatchback, estate, coupe – if you were feeling particularly risqué – and did the car have leather seats?’ he explains. ‘Now, we’re not only dealing with that explosion in model types, but we are dealing with the explosion of different options. And from a brand point of view, the decisions faced by the customer have also changed and the environments have changed as well – you only have to look at the rise of social media and how people can talk about your company to see that.

‘And, despite all of this, the majority of automotive sites still have a vehicle search that may be a bit last generation where they are make and model driven or by price drop downs. In my views, this is not guiding people down the complexity of that buying decision.’

‘‘

Automotive classified sites are beginning to catch up with e-commerce websites

Murray-Jones points out that the automotive sector is finally adopting practices used by other sectors on the web – and it’s all the better for it.

‘Automotive classified sites are beginning to catch up with

e-commerce websites,’ he explains. ‘We are trying to move the game on and use a similar approach as used by the likes of Zoopla and many others – a filter-based application that is able to slice and dice the demands of the customer.

‘The Times and The Sun both took the bold step of

subscription as the interfaces of their websites.

While our classified sites are free to access, what it means is that we now have two options: We can track people by their subscriber data and also track them into our classifieds – and as a result deliver back much more relevant advertising based on the information we have about them.

‘We have a very rich picture of those customers and what cars they may buy.’

by James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor) [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 75

DATA FILE.

Thestatistics n

SMMT Sales Data

n

Taking Stock

Double-digit rise in number of new cars registered Recovering economy credited with giving the market a significant boost

N

ew car registrations were up 6.2 per cent in June to 228,291 units.

More than 1,287,265 new cars were registered in the first six months of the year – a 10.6 per cent rise and the best half-year total since 2005.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘Improving economic conditions have helped propel the UK new car market to a strong first half-year performance, with registrations up 10.6 per cent on the same period in 2013.

‘Key to attracting consumers is the ever-improving efficiency of new cars, an important factor that is highlighted by the 51.3 per cent increase in alternatively-fuelled vehicle registrations so far this year.’

He added: ‘The overall market has

risen faster than we were expecting but, after a bumper March, growth is showing signs of stabilising around our forecast level.’

Richard Lowe, head of retail & wholesale at Barclays, said: ‘The market has been firing on all cylinders for over two years, although the rate of growth has recently slowed and anecdotal evidence suggests that this will continue in the months ahead.

This may be necessary to help stabilise the market, although manufacturers will no doubt continue to offer alluring finance deals to try to tempt consumers and maintain the UK market at near- record levels.’

With more than 11,200 units registered, the Ford Fiesta leads the sales charts in June followed by the Vauxhall Corsa with 7,961 and the Ford

Focus with 7,399. Volkswagen’s Golf was placed in fourth with 6,546, the Vauxhall Astra was fifth with 6,249 and the Nissan Qashqai was sixth thanks to 5,356 registrations.

The Vauxhall Insignia was ranked as seventh in the best-sellers chart with 4,660 units, the Fiat 500 finished in eighth with 4,177 while the BMW 3 Series had 3,961 units to its name.

Audi’s A3 sneaked into the top 10 thanks to 3,893 car registrations in the month.

The Blue Oval’s supermini also continues to lead the year-to-date figures with 70,153 units – more than 25,000 above the second-placed car, the Ford Focus. The Corsa sits in third with 42,285 and the Golf in fourth with 38,142. The top five is rounded off with the Astra with 32,311.

Didn’t they do well! Manufacturers relish their success JUNE was a record-breaking month for a whole host of manufacturers – but in particular Fiat UK, Kia and Renault Group.

The Italian firm had a successful June, with the month representing the 24th consecutive month of year-onyear sales growth and a 17 per cent increase in passenger car sales, giving the company a market share of 3.4 per cent overall. Quarter two sales this year were the best for the company since 2001.

Meanwhile, Kia Motors UK delivered ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

7,260 vehicles to UK customers during June, setting both a new record for the month and also exceeding 40,000 sales in the first six months of the

year for the first time. It was also the first time a Kia subsidiary anywhere in western Europe passed the 40,000 sales mark and confirms the UK as the brand’s biggest market in Europe.

June was the 14th consecutive month of market share growth shown

by Renault Group compared with the same month in the previous year.

Renault car sales increased by 60 per cent and Dacia by 85.6 per cent compared with last year, outpacing the car market growth rate of 10.6 per cent.

SMMT sales data June/year to date

5

Top

Most-improved manufacturers in June MG

+791%

Maserati

+283%

Infiniti

+275%

Mitsubishi +204% S’Yong

+178%

5

Bottom

Worst-performing manufacturers in June Chevrolet

-98%

Perodua

-80%

Honda

-12%

Mini

-8%

Chrysler

-8%

MASERATI +282.86%

HONDA -12.47% 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

June 2014

2014

138 570 94 13,503 127 15,052 23 212 7,274 1,931 6,463 29,376 4,802 7,198 45 1,792 352 7,260 4,027 1,076 22 134 2,700 11,200 196 0 5,465 1,266 13,524 3 9,684 766 0 6,277 0 5,075 6,477 467 100 239 3,318 8,850 28,304 18,654 3,915 67 273 228,291

% market share 0.06 0.25 0.04 5.91 0.06 6.59 0.01 0.09 3.19 0.85 2.83 12.87 2.10 3.15 0.02 0.78 0.15 3.18 1.76 0.47 0.01 0.06 1.18 4.91 0.09 0.00 2.39 0.55 5.92 0.00 4.24 0.34 0.00 2.75 0.00 2.22 2.84 0.20 0.04 0.10 1.45 3.88 12.40 8.17 1.71 0.03 0.12

June 2013

2013

123 445 97 12,417 116 14,290 1,299 231 6,886 1,829 5,710 31,197 5,461 7,147 12 1,341 203 6,742 4,046 738 17 35 2,478 9,613 22 0 5,956 416 10,602 15 9,887 669 0 4,161 0 4,428 6,361 502 36 175 3,039 8,472 24,870 19,591 3,127 57 98 214,957

% market share 0.06 0.21 0.05 5.78 0.05 6.65 0.60 0.11 3.20 0.85 2.66 14.51 2.54 3.32 0.01 0.62 0.09 3.14 1.88 0.34 0.01 0.02 1.15 4.47 0.01 0.00 2.77 0.19 4.93 0.01 4.60 0.31 0.00 1.94 0.00 2.06 2.96 0.23 0.02 0.08 1.41 3.94 11.57 9.11 1.45 0.03 0.05

% change 12.20 28.09 -3.09 8.75 9.48 5.33 -98.23 -8.23 5.63 5.58 13.19 -5.84 -12.07 0.71 275.00 33.63 73.40 7.68 -0.47 45.80 29.41 282.86 8.96 16.51 790.91 0.00 -8.24 204.33 27.56 -80.00 -2.05 14.50 0.00 50.85 0.00 14.61 1.82 -6.97 177.78 36.57 9.18 4.46 13.81 -4.78 25.20 345.61 -12.24 6.20

2014 789 2,957 482 83,761 810 75,122 2,759 1,084 44,090 12,976 34,870 173,554 29,919 42,732 226 9,826 1,628 40,849 30,019 5,631 95 564 19,887 63,866 1,204 5 21,408 6,000 70,929 22 57,428 4,640 1 32,064 1 27,342 39,176 2,527 738 1,309 19,726 51,064 141,609 110,666 19,850 432 628 1,287,265

Year to date (YTD) % market share 0.06 0.23 0.04 6.51 0.06 5.84 0.21 0.08 3.43 1.01 2.71 13.48 2.32 3.32 0.02 0.76 0.13 3.17 2.33 0.44 0.01 0.04 1.54 4.96 0.09 0.00 1.66 0.47 5.51 0.00 4.46 0.36 0.00 2.49 0.00 2.12 3.04 0.20 0.06 0.10 1.53 3.97 11.00 8.60 1.54 0.03 0.05

2013

711 2,787 530 73,767 596 65,214 6,764 1,379 42,784 6,994 29,423 163,396 30,226 39,135 238 8,658 958 37,178 30,120 4,114 97 174 15,642 54,637 129 0 25,320 5,034 61,661 152 56,253 3,901 15 20,035 3 22,752 32,384 2,921 291 1,100 17,120 47,358 132,640 101,317 16,780 422 513 1,163,623

% market share 0.06 0.24 0.05 6.34 0.05 5.60 0.58 0.12 3.68 0.60 2.53 14.04 2.60 3.36 0.02 0.74 0.08 3.20 2.59 0.35 0.01 0.01 1.34 4.70 0.01 0.00 2.18 0.43 5.30 0.01 4.83 0.34 0.00 1.72 0.00 1.96 2.78 0.25 0.03 0.09 1.47 4.07 11.40 8.71 1.44 0.04 0.04

% change 10.97 6.10 -9.06 13.55 35.91 15.19 -59.21 -21.39 3.05 85.53 18.51 6.22 -1.02 9.19 -5.04 13.49 69.94 9.87 -0.34 36.87 -2.06 224.14 27.14 16.89 833.33 0.00 -15.45 19.19 15.03 -85.53 2.09 18.94 -93.33 60.04 -66.67 20.17 20.97 -13.49 153.61 19.00 15.22 7.83 6.76 9.23 18.30 47.87 -15.01 10.63

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 77

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 . . .

Don’t overlook those dinged motors – repair them and get them on to your forecourt says Simon Henstock, BCA’s UK network operations director

I

t’s more good news in the used car market – our latest Pulse report shows that the headline average value of a used car continued to increase in May, rising by £44 to a new record monthly average of £7,597.

Meanwhile, average performance against CAP Clean recovered by nearly a point to 96.45 per cent, having fallen quite sharply in April.

Year-on-year, May 2014 was ahead by £552 or 7.8 per cent, with average age and mileage broadly static over the 12-month period. CAP Clean performance was up by more than a point, year-on-year.

Demand recovered well in May with average values continuing to rise and conversion rates improving, despite volumes remaining high. As has become the norm over many months, the market remains short of good retail-quality stock and it is noticeable how the best-presented, nicest-

May yearon-year ahead

£552

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘It is worth investing in pre-sale SMART repairs for vehicles that have sustained minor cosmetic damage.’ specification cars in attractive colours often outperform the rest of the market by some margin.

However, there is an oversupply of vehicles in poor condition and higher-than-average mileage and sellers should look closely at appraisal reports and condition ratings when setting reserve prices.

Less-attractive or poorly-presented vehicles must be valued competitively and in line with condition in order to attract buyers and sell first time.

It is worth investing in pre-sale SMART repairs for vehicles that have sustained minor cosmetic damage, particularly for otherwise highdemand, well-specified examples that have picked up the odd car park dent or bumper scuff during their working life.

For the third month running, dealer partexchange values reached record levels, and while fleet & lease values declined marginally compared with April, the monthly average of £9,537 was the third highest on record. Nearly-new values improved again to their highest point this year.

Headline average value up

£7,597

Average against CAP Clean

96.45

Buyers’ guide

Honda S2000

’99-09

We help you choose the best stock for your forecourt. This month, the Honda S2000 is the model in the spotlight What is it?

Built as a 50th birthday present to itself, Honda created the S2000 in 1999 – a two-seater, rearwheel-drive roadster that not only marked the Japanese company’s return to the sports car market, but also added some much-needed excitement to Honda’s then model line-up.

Pitched against cars such as the BMW Z3 and Porsche Boxster, the S2000 quickly built up a reputation for being a true driver’s car, thanks to its perfect weight distribution, characterful 2.0-litre, four-cylinder VTEC engine and doublewishbone suspension.

A facelift took place in 2002 with a few small changes such as the shoddy plastic rear window being replaced with full glass, but the car’s major overhaul came two years later.

Second-generation cars featured upgraded springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, and an interchangeable hardtop became available too.

One upgrade which was hugely noticeable though was the difference in steering response. One major criticism of the original car (designated AP1) was that over-responsive steering was a little too responsive. AP2 cars had their steering ratios

tweaked slightly, slowing it down and creating a more refined drive.

What CAN GO WRONG? The S2000 is regarded by petrolheads as a great car, but does it have any hidden issues that you should look out for when you’re buying for your forecourt? While the VTEC engine is extremely reliable and fares well even with high mileage, it does burn a lot of oil – often a litre between 800 and 1,000 miles. Listen out for knocks caused by broken bearing shells as a consequence of the engine running low on oil.

Look out for suspension problems. Front lower arms are prone to replacement so listen for any knocking sounds up front (this can be checked while driving or stationary putting the car on full lock both ways). Also be sure to check the undersides for any rust – Honda went sparingly on the underseal to keep weight down, so have a good look over for any rust.

Also, S2000s don’t have the highest quality of

THE PERFECT S2000

Make sure you buy the later secondgeneration AP2 car for your stock.

They are generally more desirable interiors so be aware of any aftermarket radios – the ‘slot’ they fit into will probably be damaged and broken. Lastly, check for damp carpets, as this is a sure sign the roof is leaking around the screen pillars.

What’s the perfect S2000?

A good buy for your forecourt would be the post2004 AP2 S2000. The upgrades make for a more refined drive and therefore widening its appeal to customers.

S2000 came in a limited colour palette, so the choice is really bright or dark – there isn’t much difference in terms of resale value.

By Danielle Bagnall (@DanniBagnall) [CD]

UNDER THE BONNET

One very strong engine in the form of a 2.0litre, four-cylinder. It’s a good engine – but only if it has been properly looked after

PROBLEMS

They are generally reliable cars that benefit from a strong engine. But check the car for rust, leaks and faulty suspension

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 79

auctions.

Alan Day staff and customers show how happy they are bit.ly/ADhappy

1980 MG Midget sold for ‘an exceptional price’

Henstock

Vehicle was to have been given to one of its ex-owner’s children

Winning back DIYers

W

A

nglia Car Auctions has sold a 1980 MG Midget for more than £11,000.

Including the buyer’s premium, the final hammer price for the dinky British sports car was £11,025.

The Vermillion Red car was previously expected to make between £7,000 and £9,000. It was un-registered and had 162 miles on the clock when it went through the company’s auction room in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

According to Lynn News, Midget had been bought by the original owner and seller after hearing about the imminent demise of MG under British Leyland. The owner apparently never registered the vehicle, as he intended to give the car to one of his young children on passing their driving test.

The car was sold with the original bill of sale, owner’s manual and service book and was bought by a buyer from Northampton.

‘It was a very good sale – an exceptional

price,’ said Simon Whitmore, of Anglia Car Auctions (ACA).

Other top-performing Brits in the auction were a 1967 Mini Moke that saw the hammer down at £16,750 plus premium, a rare 1937 SS Jaguar, thought to be one of just 15 remaining in the world, finding a new owner at £30,450, and a 1964 Austin Mini Cooper S Mark I sold at £25,725 plus premium.

Initial results show 136 lots, which is around 76 per cent of the 180 lots available, sold for a total of more than £865,000, with some cars still under provisional offers.

David Beckham’s 2001 Mercedes S500L, however, found itself left on the bench.

Despite its previous celebrity owner, the high-spec marque failed to score its reserve.

Shoreham makes life easier for used car dealers SHOREHAM Vehicle Auctions (SVA) is the first independent auction company to sign up to the new NextGear Capital vehicle stocking plan.

The company says the agreement will make it easier for used vehicle dealers to buy and manage their stock.

SVA’s stocking plan follows similar agreements by BCA and Manheim.

Alex Wright, SVA’s managing Car dealer cowboy ads 28/8/13 director, said: ‘We have already

auction stations

launched the scheme to buyers and the reaction has been very positive. The scheme’s ability to free up their working capital to buy, stock and sell more used vehicles is their main reason for becoming a NextGear Capital customer.

A number of buyers have already signed up.’ As an official partner, SVA’s auction system will automatically add vehicles to the dealer’s stocking plan when they 15:49 Page 1 NextGear Capital. elect to pay using

No cowboys.

Just Just trade trade professionals. professionals.

ith the improving economy and positive messages coming from both the new and used car sectors, it is easy to forget that not everybody is basking in the feel-good factor.

Many households remain on tight budgets.

Earlier this year, BCA published research amongst motorists that revealed that more than 70 per cent of motorists worry most about the cost of motoring and,in particular, the price of fuel. Now new research published

by BCA has revealed that motorists have been rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty with basic car maintenance jobs, rather than spending stretched household funds on seeking the assistance of a garage or mechanic.

While earlier generations of motorists would have had no qualms about getting their head under the bonnet and dealing with car maintenance themselves, this has been a diminishing trend in recent years. However, BCA’s new research suggests that for some tasks, drivers have reverted back to a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude.

Ninety-six per cent of drivers surveyed by BCA said that they would top up their oil themselves, with 93 per cent saying they would change their windscreen wiper blades or top up their anti-freeze. Eighty-three per cent wouldn’t be deterred from dealing with a flat battery.

It is good to see that car owners are keeping on top of basic maintenance, as neglecting these important tasks can have all sorts of ramifications.

However, does it suggest there is a need for dealers to promote a ‘cheap and cheerful’ servicing package to entice the DIYers back to the fold? With an ageing vehicle parc, there could be an increasing demand from motorists for dealer servicing… if the price is right.

‘It is good to see that car owners are keeping on top of basic maintenance.’

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

TRADER TALK.

Only two OEM sites visited in car search

..in association with AutoTrader

Window of influence for new car buyers closes early as automotive sites come before manufacturers’

M

uch has been made of the new online consumer journey when buying a used car. We know that the average buyer is better informed than at any time in the past.

We also know that the majority of research takes place online, increasingly on mobile and tablet devices, in the evening. And we know that the number of visits to retailers has fallen in recent years to an average of just over one.

So much for used car sales. But what do we know about the journey for new car buyers? How do they decide from which car maker to buy and what influences their purchasing decision?

These questions were addressed in research concluded recently by Kantar Media for Auto Trader, based on online PC activity over a three-month period involving around 300,000 car buyers.

Interestingly, it revealed that the opportunity to influence new car buying decisions closes well before most visit a manufacturer’s website.

More than half do not go to a car maker in the first 30 days of online searching, choosing instead to focus on content-led sites where options, prices and the best possible deal can be weighed up on one aggregated platform.

Of those who didn’t visit an OEM in the first

30 days, 63 per cent visited automotive sites, with Auto Trader heading the go-to list.

Buyers are brand-promiscuous at the outset but quickly narrow down options, with 60 per cent considering more than three brands when beginning their research. Yet they visit an average of just two manufacturer sites later in their journey.

And from the start of their journey the majority of buyers fast-track the path to purchase in just six weeks.

What should we take from this? Well, firstly it seems clear that automotive sites play a leading role in shaping decisions for new car buyers.

Secondly, it’s all about the car. Consumers are no longer loyal to either manufacturer or dealer and engage in what could be described as sales negotiation with themselves at the outset.

Finally, the window of influence appears to be closing quickly and early in the new car buying journey – certainly before most consumers click through to a manufacturer’s website.

But these weren’t the only interesting facts highlighted by the research.

Kantar also discovered that people do not necessarily follow their purchase intention when considering options to buy a new, nearlynew or used model.

‘When they arrive on the forecourt they are in a position to buy.’

For example, of those who originally planned to buy a brand-new car, 12 per cent ended up buying used.

Conversely, of those who planned to buy a nearly-new car, 18 per cent bought brand-new.

One constant thread runs through the journey for both new and used car transactions, with 62 per cent of new car buyers not contacting a dealer before arriving on site.

So like used car buyers, when they arrive on a forecourt they are armed with all the information they need and they are in a position to buy.

For the best new car franchises – just as for leading retailers of used vehicles – this presents a real opportunity to influence the deal.

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

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 81

MARKET INSIGHT.

..in association with ASE-global.com

Growth at Caffyns follows strong preliminary results for one of top performers of year Nice bump in share price accompanied by 50 per cent increase in recommended dividend

F

or the majority of the listed motor retailers there was little movement in their share price over the past month.

The exception to this was Caffyns, which saw a significant increase as a result of its strong set of preliminary results. This, alongside a 50 per cent increase in the recommended dividend, produced a nice bump to the share price, which now sees Caffyns amongst the best performers during 2014.

Share price performance There was little movement amongst the remaining listed stocks, with the drop in Vertu’s share price being the most noticeable. There has been little news from Vertu over the past month, with an apparent continued slight sell-off by shareholders who expected a share price increase following the financial results released during May. Inchcape continued the share buy-back programme started in the second half of 2013 during the month, with practically all of the £100m allocated now having been spent. There was also a significant volume of Inchcape director share purchases, sending a clear signal to the market.

Share price movement from January 1 to May 9 2014

Share price movement from January 1 to June 6 2014

Pendragon

93.4%

89.1%

Vertu

101.3%

96.2%

Lookers

114.9%

114.1%

Inchcape

103.2%

103.2%

Cambria

107.0%

106.0%

Caffyns

100.9%

111.7%

Financial performance Caffyns released a very strong set of preliminary results for its year ended March 31, with underlying profit before tax up 78 per cent and profit before tax up 40 per cent. This produced an immediate lift in the share price for this thinly-traded stock. Inchcape’s interim results statement was also positive, with ‘a robust trading performance in the first four months of the year’.

Lookers released the results of its annual

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

meeting, where there was a small revolt against the directors’ remuneration policy. While the majority of the resolutions were passed with virtually unanimous support, 36 per cent of shareholders voted against the remuneration policy. This was not enough to defeat the motion, however it is a clear sign that shareholders are paying close scrutiny to this area. Pendragon will be no doubt planning to ensure that its policy does not get rejected again this year.

Transactional activity It seems as if with every earnings announcement the company states that it is ready to embark on a series of acquisitions and Caffyns was no different. There were no transactions announced during the month. However, we are expecting the deals to start dropping in, with the half-year being a natural date for movement.

Broker forecasts There were no changes to broker forecasts during the month, with the majority of the stocks still rated as a buy. While the brokers see significant upside potential and a strong market, this is not yet being reflected in the share prices.

New Motor dealership development site at Triangle Park, Gloucester Triangle Park is one of Gloucester’s most successful urban regeneration schemes of recent years and has been transformed by developers LxB over the past year into the preferred location for motor dealerships, supermarkets and out of town retail operators.

Triangle Park is located just off Eastern Avenue, part of Gloucester’s ring road, and has superb road links to Gloucester and Cheltenham as well as the M5 motorway. The site also is within a mile of the City Centre and within 200 metres of the Railway station.

IRU D KLJK SURÀOH VLWH ZKLFK LV SRVLWLRQHG GLUHFWO\ opposite the main access road roundabout and adjacent to the Morrisons supermarket. The site will enjoy high visibility from Metz Way, one of the principal arterial routes into the city.

The plot totals 1.88 acres has outline planning permission and can accommodate a dealership of up to 32,000 sq ft. The site is available either for bespoke development or consideration will be given to a sale on a long leasehold basis.

At its heart is a 71,000 sq ft Morrisons supermarket DQG SHWURO ÀOOLQJ VWDWLRQ ZKLFK LV QRZ WUDGLQJ ,W ZLOO soon be joined by Rygor Mercedes Benz which has acquired a three acre site for the development of a new 25,000 sq ft commercial vehicle showroom and maintenance facility. Construction will get underway in late summer 2014. Costa Coffee has also committed to the Park’s restaurant zone and a new Drive-Thru restaurant will be constructed for them with work commencing later this year Triangle Park is now seeking a motor showroom operator

METZ WAY GLOUCESTER GL1 1AH Located adjacent to the newly opened Morrisons supermarket and petrol station Adjoining site sold to Rygor Mercedes Benz for a new commercial dealership

Showroom Site Available

Metz Way

Total site area 1.88 acres available as a whole or subdivided CarDealerMag.co.uk | 83

data file.

James Litton Trader tales

Improving retention is not an easy task

R

etention has been a buzz word for the motor trade for the past couple of years, with manufacturers, finance houses and retailers all investing in people and process to try to plug the chronic customer leakage that has been affecting our industry.

Mercedes has a target retention rate which is roughly twice what the actual figure is, and it is certainly not alone.

But what is driving customers to look elsewhere at the end of their ownership period?

In this digital age, where attention spans have dropped given the choice available to customers, people get bored more quickly and desire change more frequently.

Cars are becoming more homogenous. You could line up 10 C-segment models from 10 different manufacturers and would the average car buyer really be able to tell the difference?

In terms of cost, the online channels have promoted tactical offers on target models.

If you need a car and are working to a budget, you no longer need to visit a franchised retailer, such is the professionalism and efficiency of the broker network.

What are retailers and manufacturers doing to enhance the shopping experience? BMW is dipping its toe in the water with Product Genius and retail managers but, as a shopper, can you honestly tell me that the showroom looks different and the experience is mind-blowing?

Finally, in the world of the premium brands certainly, you cannot ever overcome the perennial problem of residual value performance.

Regardless of how the customer paid for the vehicle, I seldom have a conversation which results in a positive comment on how level the curve of depreciation has been.

This is exacerbated at the end of a PCP, where the psychological damage of losing high deposits reflects poorly on the manufacturer involved.

The only true way to perfect retention is to build innovative cars, sold at competitive prices with amazing residuals, and if you could perfect that formula you will never need work again.

What are retailers doing to enhance the shopping experience?

What do you think? Share your views on our brand-new forum – it’s easy to sign up.

Type cardealermagazine.co.uk/forum into a web browser to get commenting.

Who is James Litton?

James is sales manager at Mercedes-Benz of Taunton. He always has something to say about the industry he loves. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

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Auctions

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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!

This offer is only available to new subscribers, so if you haven’t renewed your subscription then you need to do so to gain access to this very special

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Type CarDealerClub.com into a web browser to find out more information and pay online.

Alternatively, you can send us a cheque for .com £39.99, payable to Blackball Media Ltd, to Car Dealer Club, Blackball Media, Haslar Marine Technology Park, Haslar Road, Gosport, PO12 2AG and we’ll do the rest.

To have your details included here call (023) 9252 2434 and ask for Suppliers’ Guide listings

guide

Confessions

your real stories

the details of selected companies here Insurance

PR

Vehicle checking

Unicom

DP Publicity

HPI Check

W: unicominsurance.com T: 0844 620 1000 E: sales@unicomins.co.uk Info: Specialising in insurance since 1992, Unicom are trading partners with Tradewise – the largest motortrade road-risks insurer in the UK.

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W: hpi.co.uk T: 0845 301 1812 E: thehpiteam@hpi.co.uk Info: We are the UK’s leading provenance check provider, with 75 years’ experience. Get peace of mind with HPI Check.

Key tracking

Printed keyrings

Video

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Swift Publicity

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W: swiftpublicity.co.uk T: 020 8880 2359 E: sales@swiftpublicity.co.uk Info: Ideal both as advertising plus QR coded/bar-coded and numbering & self-coding options for key cabinet security.

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Online marketing

Recruitment

Warranties

iVendi

W: ivendi.com T: 0845 226 0503 E: info@ivendi.com Info: Award-winning motor finance calculators and highly-qualified lead generation. See why over 600 dealers now work with us.

Drive Development Solutions LTD W: drivedevelopment.co.uk T: 0800 133 7070 E: info@drivedevelopment.co.uk Info: Helping the motor industry find, keep and develop talented people by offering training solutions that are innovative, practical and relevant.

Car Care Plan

W: carcareplan.co.uk T: 0844 573 7591 E: salesinfo@carcareplan.co.uk Info: Choose the market-leading supplier of vehicle warranty and GAP insurance – 1m customers every year can’t be wrong!

Online trading

Recruitment

Warranties

W: Autotrade-mail.com T: 01243 523000 E: sales@autotrade-mail.com Info: UK’s leading online realtime used-car trading network.

The original and the best. Call for your free two-week trial.

Motor Industry Recruitment W: mirec.co.uk T: 0845 257 9224 E: info@mirec.co.uk Info: An award-winning, specialist motor recruitment consultancy who will not headhunt from you or resolicit candidates they place with you.

Paint protection

Remarketing

Web design

Supagard

GlobalOASys

W: globaloasys.com T: 020 3322 2090 E: sales@globaloasys.com Info: The best and most automated stock-sourcing solution that dealers can get – with hundreds of vehicles available right now.

GForces

W: gforces.co.uk T: 0845 658 9290 E: info@gforces.co.uk Info: Multi-award-winning car dealer website design and digital marketing. Find out why we keep winning awards.

Paint protection

Valeting services

Wholesales

GEN-3 Glasscoat

National Car Cleaning Company

Carfleet Wholesale Ltd

Autotrade-mail.com

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: www.g-3glasscoat.com T: 01753 215 311 E: enquiries@g-3glasscoat.com Info: Existing paint-protection products cannot compete with GEN-3 Glasscoat. It gives your car a ceramic-hardened glass finish.

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.

AutoProtect (MBI) Limited

W: autoprotect.net T: 0871 384 1167 E: sales@autoprotect.net Info: Providers of warranty, GAP and other sources of additional dealer income. Backed by dedicated support teams and IT systems.

W: carfleetwholesale.co.uk T: 0151 356 1200 E: sales@carfleetwholesale.co.uk Info: We are the number one supplier to the trade, providing the cheapest nearly-new vehicles in the country.

Helping my boss to see problem clearly

A

year or so ago, my boss thought it was time to get a new computer – one that actually worked properly and ran without chucking coal or lumps of wood in it. He took the plunge and forked out a few quid for a pretty standard Dell.

He was pleased as punch with his new ‘office TV’ as he liked to call it. He set the thing up (or at least plugged it in) then came and got me.

Now, I’m no computer genius, but being the youngest (by quite some margin) I was declared the new dealership techie. In comparison to the rest of them I was practically Mark Zuckerberg (the guy that started Facebook for you older readers)!

‘Sort that out, I’m off to lunch’ he said. I soon found out that his ‘new’ computer was in fact a hand-me-down from one of his mate’s kids.

Every time I got somewhere with it, it would crash. I was getting more and more annoyed with this terrible excuse for a computer and was losing deals out on the forecourt.

After about an hour I completely lost it and literally jumped up and down on my boss’s desk.

‘Work! Just work you piece of…’

Ah, my boss had left his glasses on the desk. Now they were flat.

Yeah, they were ruined.

I looked out to the showroom to see if anyone had seen me. They were all busy moving cars around.

‘Hang on,’ I thought. I grabbed the squashed specs and went out to ‘help’ my colleagues.

I took my position behind a Volvo and proceeded to guide them back.

Once it was in place, I quickly put the glasses just in front of the rear wheel and went back to helping move the other cars.

My boss arrived back a while later. ‘Sorted?’ he asked.

‘No boss, you need to get a new one, it’s not got a mail circuit (made that up) so you can’t email on it.’ ‘Stone me!

It’s an expensive ol’ game, eh?

‘And I’ve just forked out for new specs so I can see the damn thing! That reminds me, where are they….?’ He walked off, searching his pockets.

What can I say? Sorry boss.

‘My boss had left his glasses on the desk.

Now they were flat.

Ruined.’

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 | 85

workshops.

Want to be included in this section? Call (023) 9252 2434

Motorists being put at risk by delays to car maintenance Evans Halshaw survey reveals startling reasons why drivers are putting off getting their cars serviced

M

ore than half of Brits are putting a trustworthy mechanic and the worry themselves at risk of road accidents by about not having a car while it is in the garage were regularly putting off car maintenance, a also common problems (32 per cent and 24 per cent survey has revealed. respectively). The hassle of finding time to book Commissioned by Evans Halshaw, the survey their car into a garage is a bigger issue for people found that 52 per cent of people typically put off aged 18-24 than it is for any other age demographic. car maintenance, despite two-thirds (65 per cent) Three-quarters (75 per cent) of those aged 65 and believing that delaying vehicle upkeep leaves them over said that while cost was a barrier to carrying at a higher risk of having an accident. out car maintenance, it didn’t necessarily put them The cost of getting work done was the most off. The oldest demographic also seems to have commonly cited reason for putting off maintenance the biggest concern about finding a trustworthy (62 per cent). The hassle of having to fit getting to mechanic, with 40 per cent of this age group citing a garage in around other commitments was an this as a reason for putting off car maintenance. issue for 47 per cent of respondents, and finding Despite these concerns of cost and trust, drivers 

Only

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aged 65 and over are the least likely to put off car maintenance. Only 21 per cent of respondents in the age bracket said they typically put it off. In contrast, young drivers are the most likely to put it off, with 68 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds and 69 per cent of 25-to-34-year-olds saying so.

Emma Pochin, aftersales marketing leader at Evans Halshaw, said: ‘For lots of people their car is such an important part of daily routine, so it’s sometimes easy to take it for granted, but regular maintenance is important for safety and to prevent breakdowns.’

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.

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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.

Get it right and you’ll feel good every time you make a journey. Get it wrong, however, and you’ll never feel satisfied. Choosing an employer is similar but, considering how much time we spend at work, it is far more important to get that choice right. After all, this is a decision that will literally change the course of your life. You need to know, however, that we are equally choosey when deciding who will make this journey with us. You would expect no less.

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the fleet.

LATEST FROM THE FLEET...

Tenth report:

KiaCarens It’s time to leave the Med behind and head home to Gosport

F

or those of you who’ve been keeping track of our long-term Kia Carens reports, you’ll know it’s been the most well-travelled member of the office. For the past two months it’s sunned itself on the beach in Lisbon before sunning itself on the beach in Barcelona.

Now, though, it’s time to head back to the not-quite-so-glamorous beach in Gosport.

Fortunately for me, driving back to the UK by myself, it’s good to know there’s plenty of equipment to keep me amused on the long drive. After all, staying comfortable on a road trip makes all the difference between a good journey and one from hell.

Thankfully, there’s a USB connector, meaning I don’t have to put up with Iberian europop, and the sound system is pretty decent. So, during moments of fatigue, I can turn it into a mobile disco.

I do wish the radio had DAB, though, as sometimes even I can tire of my own euphoric dance collection.

It was especially noticeable when I got back to the UK and was trying to find out the

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 Sitting in comfort on the 400-mile drive from Barcelona to Bilbao latest on the World Cup, straining to hear the latest Luis Suarez scandal.

The seats are pretty comfortable, too, and without annoying passengers playing the heated seat game in plus-30 degree temps on the journey back, the 400-mile drive from Barcelona to Bilbao was a pleasant one.

Probably the most frustrating part of the journey, though, was trying to find my way to the ferry terminal at Bilbao. The sat-nav reminded me of ex-girlfriends insisting they knew the way, even to the point where I found myself surrounded by fish boxes and

irate Spanish trawlermen yelling at me what I can only imagine was the Spanish version of ‘get off my land’.

After a swift eight-point turn (the steering lock won’t have many cabbies rushing to buy one), I managed to find my way back to the main roads and picked up some signs to get me back on track.

I think the clearest indication of how much a driver appreciates a car can be judged by their keenness to get back into it, especially after spending such a long time behind the wheel, in this case more than two months. The Carens does have a lot going for it. It’s extremely practical and the fold-in-thefloor third row of seats makes it especially useful for growing families. The build quality is a major leap forward for Kia, speaking as someone who used to run a Sorento and Sportage, and it’s extremely comfortable, too.

Having said that, I’ll be honest – after two months of driving something that lacked quite a bit of spark behind the wheel, I was keen to get into something that was a bit more involving.

Nigel Swan (@motoringnut)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 87

the fleet.

LATEST FROM THE FLEET...

Second report:

Third report:

Fourth report:

MitsubishiL200

SeatLeon Cupra 280 Peugeot3008

Moving up to the Big Beast proves a pleasant ride

Leon’s subtle styling proves to be a lifesaver for editor

We head up to Rockingham, loaded with conference gear

AND so the imposing L200 Barbarian became mine. Was I worried? Did it hold any fears for me?

Well, I normally drive a Honda 1.4 Civic, so what do you think? Yes, some. But over the hundreds of miles, we got to know each other’s idiosyncrasies and I like to think a mutual respect developed.

Oh, all right then, yes I know, it’s a massive lump of metal . . . I had to respect the Barbarian; this wasn’t going to be a two-way thing.

But it didn’t take long to feel confident in the driving seat. Plus I can’t remember my wheels ever being called ‘cool’ before by that difficultto-impress demographic – kids. But that’s what happened when I was with friends one day and their offspring caught sight of the Barbarian.

This pick-up truck wasn’t designed with long journeys and just an overnight bag in mind, more your local hops by builders, landscape gardeners and the like, with the tools and detritus of their trade. But on those motorway hauls it handled well and was comfortable, even if the fuel consumption brought something of a tear to the eye. The infotainment system was a boon, too, especially as it proved fairly intuitive.

One major niggle: the gears. Oh boy, did we fall out! All would be fine, then every now and again I’d find myself slipping into second instead of fourth or vice versa. Not cool. That aside, this is going to be a long-distance relationship that will, unlike others, stand the test of time.

I’M aware that my colleague John Bowman’s longterm report makes a similar point to mine, but bear with me.

You see, I’m not really used to getting thumbs up for my choice of wheels from youths. My normal set of wheels, a Mini Cooper S – or, if I’m feeling particularly dicy, my Triumph TR6 – doesn’t elicit a reaction from people under the age of 83. But one evening last month as I queued to pick up ’er indoors in the waiting area of Portsmouth’s finest outlet centre, a group of lads obviously in the mood to have a night on the tiles gave me just that. Well, one did. As he walked among a group of other lads that all looked identical in their style of dress, he turned to the waiting Cupra, stuck up his thumb and mouthed ‘Nice motor, mate’.

Fearing for my life, I politely waved back. His mates clearly didn’t hold the Cupra in quite the same high regard. And that’s the point about this car. The Cupra has such subtle styling you really have to be a petrolhead to know it’s the hot one and not a tepid 1.2-litre rental car. The massive wheels, the even more massive brake discs, the twin pipes and five slits in the bumper all point to this having rather good poke.

Seat tells me we could have had our Leon Cupra wrapped in matt yellow or even tangerine orange. I’m not letting them – I really will fear for my life then. Can you imagine the reaction?

IN the few weeks that I’ve been lucky enough to be behind the wheel of our long-term 3008, I’ve worked out that (a) it’s pretty nippy round town; (b) it’s a capable and economical motorway milemuncher; and (c) it elicits praise from everyone I’ve had as a passenger in the car.

This month I discovered something new. It’s an effective load-lugger. Now, if you’ve managed to get to this part of the magazine without having encountered any coverage of the recent Car Dealer Conference, I’d be very surprised. Naturally, we’ve published plenty of stories and pictures from one of our main events of the year.

But what hasn’t been mentioned in any of the articles earlier in the mag is the vital role that the 3008 played in the success of the occasion.

In a nutshell, it was relied upon to take a LOT of conference-based paraphernalia from the sunny south coast to Northamptonshire. And it performed magnificently, with its spacious interior swallowing plenty of flags, folders, boxes and badges. Nice and easy with the super split tailgate!

In other news, I’ve been piloting it up the A3 for my regular spot of moonlighting in London lately. The journey gets ever more difficult. As well as the apparent rebuilding of the Hammersmith flyover, they’re about to close Putney Bridge for three months. I wonder if the 3008 has any amphibious qualities? Might head for Richmond and try to float down the Thames from there...

John Bowman john@blackballmedia.co.uk

James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor)

Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave)

the knowledge Model: Mitsubishi L200 Barbarian Double Cab Price: £28,798 (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 Not causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to other cars while manoeuvring ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

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: 2,148 This month’s highlight Not being stabbed by a group of more-thanslightly drunk lads

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: 651 This month’s highlight Making the most of its generous load capacity for the Car Dealer Conference

longtermers

Seventh report:

Eighth report:

Ninth report:

VolvoXC70

RenaultZoe

NissanQashqai

Big Volvo takes on new persona: Middle England van

Getting to grips with a longer journey

This car will never slip on dog poo or rip its trousers

MUCH has been written in these pages about our Volvo’s comfortable interior, high-quality stereo and all-round easy-going demeanour. This month, I’ve been using it as its maker intended by folding down the seats and filling the back with as much stuff as I can find.

The Swedish brand may be making waves with its brand-new interiors and ever-expanding range of lifestyle vehicles, but let’s not forget that it made its name in providing unrivalled practicality, acting as a surrogate Transit van for middle England. And it is in this capacity that I’ve been making use of the XC70, by moving house, to the rather-less-than-middle England seaside town of Gosport.

Loading up the rear quarters with numerous holdalls and carrier bags (I don’t really do packing), it was nice to find that Volvo hasn’t forgotten its roots: the rear seats fold flat with a simple pull of a switch, my back remained painfree thanks to the lack of loading lip, and the electrically-operated tailgate meant I could appear almost unbelievably lazy to the onlookers who were eyeing up their new neighbour. Overall, the XC70 excelled, though you may be thinking that it’s nothing a big Audi or BMW couldn’t do.

That may be true, but the Volvo’s trump card is its sheer stealthiness. Seriously, no one pays it any attention, which proved handy as I passed a gaggle of unnoticed police cars at ahem mph on the way home...

Daljinder Nagra

As our time with Zoe draws short, she has been on her longest adventure with me yet and it went far smoother than expected. We needed to get the damage to the rear bumper sorted from late last year, so I approached a branch of a nationwide chain of bodyshops. Their view was that a replacement rear bumper would be the best bet because of the damage being around the fog light.

Given it was a small crack, this was ridiculous.

So, I called John Miles of RA Vehicle Body Repair in Sandhurst, Berkshire. He’s been repairing bodywork for longer than I’ve been alive (I think) and I can testify to the quality of his work. The only challenge was not getting to John’s – it’s a 70-mile trip, which would be fine – but how to get back. John did a cracking job on the car (no need to replace the bumper) and it looks like new. So I set off home, with 20 miles of charge.

I made it to Fleet services, where I had my first experience of a rapid charger. Arriving at 5pm, I didn’t expect to make it home for the 8pm kick off (Spain v Netherlands). So imagine my surprise when, after plugging the car in, I was told it would be fully charged in 45 minutes.

One large cup of coffee later, I was recharged, as was the car. Now that I know there’s a lifeline every 30 miles or so on the motorways I’m thinking of being braver. It’s a shame the Zoe is due back soon, now that I’ve finally worked out how to make the most of it.

As I grow older and ever more cynical, I find myself wishing for the sickeningly successful people I see on TV to be beset by some small misfortune. Sometimes it would be lovely (in my twisted mind, anyway) to see David Beckham slip in dog poo as he walks down the red carpet, or George Clooney rip his trousers as he collects an Oscar.

And that’s the bizarre situation I find myself in with Car Dealer’s oh-so-dependable Nissan Qashqai 360 long-termer.

I’m actually hoping for something to go wrong.

If I owned it, I’d be delighted that it copes with everything the team throw at it. But I have to write a monthly report about it – and the fact it never lets me down is making my life a nightmare. I’m longing for the day I turn the key and nothing happens. Or the time black smoke starts billowing from the exhaust as I tank down the motorway. But nothing. Nada.

We’ve wellied it halfway up a mountain, halfsunk it in mud and nearly lost her on a stormy photoshoot near the sea. But the Qashqai never complains, never struggles and never lets you down. That’s great news for owners. If you’re looking for a stunning car with a Beckham-esque ability to shine in any situation, the Qashqai’s probably the car for you. If you’re looking to start a career writing a monthly analysis of the niggles motorists are likely to experience, avoid it. [CD]

Andy Entwistle (@CarDealerAndy)

Mal Hay (@MalcolmHay)

(@DJonmotors)

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: 2,176 This month’s highlight A boot big enough to literally sling things in. No scratches to interior panels here

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: 74 This month’s highlight My first experience of a rapid charger at a motorway service station

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 Annoyingly, it is its fantastic reliability – it has never let me down CarDealerMag.co.uk | 89

data fiLe.

Play it again! But we need to listen where the FCA is concerned

W

e all know what it’s like to hear a favourite song once too often. You might be driving along listening to the radio when the intro begins . . . then the rest of the tune kicks in and before you know it you’re singing along with the best of them, although maybe not quite as tunefully as the original artist.

And of course, when it comes to music it’s far easier than ever to get hold of the songs we like.

The never-ending march of technology means we can hear the stuff we’re fond of with no trouble at all and whenever we want.

Of course, the risk here is that familiarity sometimes breeds contempt. You might find yourself becoming bored with songs you used to love and, instead of enjoying listening to them, you’d rather hear something fresher.

Perhaps some of the people reading this feel the same way when it comes to the FCA. I’m sure you have been hearing the same things for a number of months now, and that a variety of outlets have been feeding you information: the FCA itself, finance houses, independent consultants and different trade associations to name but a few.

Some of you will be motivated and enthusiastic about our new regulator. You’ll be happy to listen to the record continually playing so that you get the support and guidance required to be ready from a structural perspective, while also having an eye on your individual application window for full authorisation and what exactly this entails. Others may be tired of the subject matter and believe those who are constantly playing the same record

Jonathan

Such TIME IS MONEY

are the bearers of bad news. Perhaps people thinking along those lines would prefer to be left to get on with what they regard as ‘the day job’, concentrating on profit margins and unit sales; ultimately doing what they are good at.

With that in mind, and for those who fall into the latter category, what I am about to say might come across as more bad news. I am sure you already appreciate that applying for Interim Permissions wasn’t the end of life under our new regulator but merely the beginning.

Everybody should now have received notification of their application period (three-month window) to apply for full authorisation. It should be noted that if you miss

‘It is your responsibility to change anything which needs changing’ this window and do nothing, then your ability to perform the activities currently listed on your Interim Permissions will be invalid – you will be committing an offence if you continue to do so!

Taking action now is vital on your part, as it is your responsibility to change anything which needs changing in your business to fall into line with the new rules and guidelines. And needless to say, completion of the application form for full authorisation must be done when the time arrives. If you want to talk about how any of these changes impact on you then please give us a call – just so long as you don’t mind the continual lyrics we give you to the effect that it is you who has to take the action, not us!

Who is Jonathan Such?

Such is head of sales for First Response Finance. You can contact him on 07917 781608 or email jons@frfl.co.uk

Coming next month

If there’s something you think we should be covering get in touch. Our details are on page three

FULL REPORT

Car Dealer Power 2014

Find out the winners of this year’s gongs

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There's a buyer for your car and we'll help you connect the two.

Working harder for you. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk *Comscore March 2014