The entire CD Bramall management board, including chief executive Peter Jones and chairman Tony Bramall, will step down once the group's acquisition by Pendragon is complete.
Jaguar and Land Rover are set to join fellow Premier Automotive Group brand Aston Martin in harnessing online, approved used car locator networks operated by Global Beach Automotive.
Daewoo Cars, the former sales and distribution operation for Daewoo vehicles in the UK, has finally gone into liquidation. Accountancy firm Baker Tilly, which is handling the move, says there are approximately 600 trade and business creditors – including parts and components suppliers – owed about £125m. It has also notified about 38,000 former Daewoo Cars customers
Derek Cook, the former chairman of the failed DC Cook motor group, is set to take over the loss-making Virgin Cars operation for an undisclosed sum. Cook, who is running Virgin-rivalling Motor Solutions, is expected to take a 25% stake in the business, which will still trade under the Virgin brand.
Fiat Auto is launching a major overhaul of its 175-strong dealer network, AM can exclusively reveal. And as our pictures of the Alfa Romeo side of the business show, the revamp will provide UK dealers with dramatic new looks aimed at boosting the image of the franchise.
LDV, the light commercial vehicle manufacturer, has secured £45 million from an equity syndicate in a bid to drive forward expansion. The syndicate, which is being led by 3i, is made up of European Acquisition Capital and Baring English Growth Fund and takes the figure for total funding raised to £90m.
TRW Automotive is closing the doors to its steering and suspension plant at Luton in a bid to cut costs and boost efficiency.
Reg Vardy has become Renault's biggest independent retail partner in the UK with the opening of two dealerships in the east of Scotland.
Click on the links below to view pages from the January 2004 issue of Autortrade.
A new online car wholesaling facility launched by UK Supplied (UKS) is offering independent and franchised motor retailers the chance to directly source delivery mileage cars at fleet discounts.
Volvo dealers can expect a flurry of new car launches over the next five years as Ford positions the marque as its volume brand within the Premier Automotive Group.
Extending GM's competitive offerings and creating a new model for driver insurance, GMAC Insurance will use OnStar's vehicle use reporting capabilities to offer its US subscribers unique insurance products and premium discounts.
Renault is adding comprehensive car insurance to its range of services to customers in its home market, in partnership with Altima. It will be available from the Renault dealer network throughout France (where the latest statistics show insurance rates falling).
Instead of investing their £1.2m budget for promoting the Prius hybrid car in a standard press campaign across all national titles, Toyota GB and its media agency ZenithOptimedia have decided to concentrate all communication into the Daily & Sunday Telegraph and Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
The Department for Transport has today published national statistics on the use of privately owned vans. The survey was carried out over a 12-month period from October 2002 to September 2003, when around 2,500 van owners provided details of trips they made.
With 1,104,916 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motorcars sold, the BMW Group achieved a new sales volume record last year and surpassed the previous year's (2002) record of 1,057,344 units by 4.5%.
The European Commission has delayed indefinitely the threat of legal action in its attempt to get the German government to rescind the 1960 legislation which protects Volkswagen from hostile takeovers.
Alfa Romeo is offering five years' warranty to any retail customer who first registers a new Alfa 147 or 156 between 1 January and the end of March.
MG Rover Group has become the first major car manufacturer to adopt a new Internet-based customer support and management reporting service from Experian.
Unions representing workers at Land Rover announced yesterday that the next 24 hour stoppage will begin at 6 am on Monday 9th February.
CAP Black Book research has revealed an ongoing change in trade buying patterns, which indicates that the so-called 'concertina effect' of reduced value gaps between mileages is growing.
German BMW dealers' legal action over the company's decision to reduce their gross margins on sales of the new BMW 7 Series received a setback in the verdict of a Munich district court
An agreement between motor insurers and replacement vehicle providers is beneficial to consumers and satisfies the conditions for exemption under competition law provided that certain conditions are met, believes the Offfice of Fair Trading.
Toyota has overtaken Ford by achieving the world's second biggest vehicle sales volume – 6.78 million units, 10% up on 2002 – against Ford's 6.72m units last year. Toyota also displaced Chrysler in 2003 as the third largest supplier of vehicles to the US market.
The Consumer Federation of America has claimed retail finance rates negotiated by dealers cost consumers $1 billion a year, and that blacks and Hispanic car buyers are particularly disadvantaged.
Virgin has not yet commented in detail on a Sunday Times story of 25 January that Motor Solutions' Derek Cook is to take over the loss-making Virgin Cars operation. But the report confirms rumours circulating earlier in the month.
Amicus, TGWU and GMB members at Land Rover started their planned 24-hour strike action from 6 am today, Monday 26th January in rejection of the company's pay offer.
Owners of most Vauxhall vehicles up to eight years old and with less than 80,000 miles on the clock can now insure against repair and replacement of parts likely to cause MOT test failure with a £35 annual policy that can be transferred to a new owner.
Scion, Toyota's new youth-orientated car brand launched in California, has deployed an online chat room feature called LivePerson Service Edition, on www.scion.com.
German BMW dealers who had taken legal action over the company's decision to reduce their gross margins on sales of the new BMW 7 Series have received a setback in the verdict of a Munich district court, which last week confirmed on appeal a lower court's ruling of May 2003 that BMW had the right to amend its contract terms.
