DaimlerChrysler's supervisory board has announced that Mercedes Cars boss Prof. Jurgen Hubbert is to take over responsibility for the Executive Automotive Committee on August 1, 2004. Juergen Schremmp is to keep his job as chairman for another three years.
An all-out effort to attract returning military veterans and students to automotive retailing/aftersales jobs is Automotive Retailing Today, a group representing auto manufacturers and franchise dealers.
MG Rover's mystery partner is revealed - subject to the outcome of exploratory talks about collaboration between Phoenix Venture Holdings and Malaysia's Proton.
UnitedAuto Group(UAG) the owner of the Sytner group, is now nearly half-owned by Penske Corp.
If a majority of members at Ford's Aveley pilot plant vote in support of industrial action against its planned closure, Amicus says it will move to ballot members for industrial action across the whole Ford group.
Universal Vehicle Services has launched a new claims management service for insurers to speed total loss claims processing.Currently inspections alone are estimated to cost the UK insurance industry £17 million per year.
Autobytel Inc.'s service customer retention programme, Retention Performance Marketing (RPM), has been selected by Mitsubishi Motors of North America to support its new Diamond Care Service Marketing Programme, an initiative to build brand loyalty at dealerships.
Quality counts as Golf Mk4 commands highest prices
A delegation of ACEA members led by the organisation's chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder is holding talks with the European Commission today, 17 February, to lobby for relaxation of EU regulations which the ACEA says are hitting the automotive sector's ability to compete globally.
Automotive Skills, officially launched last week as the retail motor industry's Sector Skills Council, is inviting comments on training standards.
LDV has appointed its first aftermarket business director, Simon Wood, who joins the company from Menard Engineering, where he was finance director.
Neil Marcus has been promoted to become Managing Director of refinish paint supplier Standox UK and Ireland.
A poll of almost 49,000 car shoppers conducted by US used car group and franchise dealer CarMax, Inc. on the company's web site shows that 78% of car buyers wished they could return a car within the first few days of buying it. Only 22% of respondents had never experienced 'buyer's remorse'.
A report in a Japanese paper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, says Mitsubishi Motors will restructure its entire production system in a major overhaul which is expected to lead to DaimlerChrysler-nominated president Rolf Eckrodt stepping down.
Hyundai has formed a trade parts club and is to launch a new fast-fit style service package in a major push to increase its aftersales share.
These are good times for the used car market. According to the newly established CAP Used Car Performance Index, not only did dealers enjoy better results last year than in 2002, the vast majority expect even better retail sales performance this year.
If you buy something for £100, what do you have to sell it for to make a 25% profit margin? The answer is £133, and definitely not £125. What this simple problem illustrates is the difference between a mark-up and a margin (or profit margin).
Tough new regulations will force dealers to improve access to showrooms for disabled people
An analysis of manufacturers' offers in the retail sector.
At last week's National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) convention in Las Vegas there were two clear messages. First, dealers are putting too much emphasis on new cars when they should be concentrating on making more money from used. Second, the dotcom bubble has not burst; it's set to reinflate.
Unexpected swings in the share price of European Motor Holdings (EMH) have triggered rumours among analysts and speculators of another major motor dealer takeover bid in the wake of Pendragon's recent landmark purchase of CD Bramall.
Average retail prices for new cars in the UK rose by 5.2% during the 12 months to January 2004. according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers and eurocarprice.com Index of New Car Prices. It shows that average retail car prices in the UK last month were the same as the average for Western Europe, but 1% higher than the average for the euro zone.
Glass's is partnering with SEL-Imperial, the UK's largest supplier of non-OE vehicle parts to launch an automated bodyshop parts ordering system.
Car owners paid out £1.6bn last year to repair their out-of-manufacturer's-warranty cars, with the average garage bill ranging from £85 to £1,623, according to Warranty Direct. The average bill paid by the firm last year stood at £379.31.
Clocking could be cut if the prejudice against high-mileage second hand vehicles were challenged, according to the RMI, whose suggestion follows a week after CAP Black Book reported that the premiums for low mileage vehicles in the used market were falling.
Making the last owners of cars responsible for disposal and recycling costs under the EU ELV Directive could make Britain's abandoned car problem much worse, according to European Metal Recycling Ltd, which has commissioned a MORI poll on the subject.
Pendragon plc, the AM 100 leader due shortly to complete its agreed acquisition of AM 100 No 2 CD Bramall plc, has reported preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2003.
New registrations in Europe (EU-15 + EFTA) for January 2004 reported by ACEA totalled 1,173,273 units, representing a year-on-year drop of 1.6 %in the EU-15 and Western Europe as a whole.
CO2 emissions from new cars sold in the EU dropped by 10.8% between 1995 and 2002, according to the 4th Annual Report on CO2 Emissions from New Cars, adopted by the EC yesterday.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released performance ratings for tyres used on most of the USA's passenger vehicles.
