Four sites operated by Scuffs (Cosmetic Repairs) have been sold by the receivers Baker Tilly brought in by the firm on November 29.
Paul Dunkley never harboured ambitions to join the cut and thrust of the motor retail industry – he grew up planning to become an airline pilot and was due to attend British Airways' training college.
Zurich is to offer compensation to repairers changing their estimating system from Motex to Glassmatix, according to a bulletin report.
Franchised dealers are losing service and repair work on cars still under the manufacturer's warranty to independent rivals, according to a survey by Bethell Fleet Services.
The use of non-original equipment (non-OE) parts and panels in the accident repair industry has increased over the past 10 years, as insurers look to cut repair costs on older cars.
Mitsubishi is improving its customer offering for the third year in succession with price reductions or added specification to its range of cars and LCVs with an average value of 5.3%.
By any measure this has been a hectic year for the motor retail business – new car sales at record levels, used car values stabilising and customer confidence in the industry returning. Each week seems to bring another bullish prediction of record growth and turnover.
Direct lenders have held firm despite the latest cut in bank base rates and there are no signs of personal loans getting any cheaper, despite the reductions in mortgage rates. There is a growing feeling that rates have dropped as low as they can in the short term and some signs that rates will rise in the medium term.
Carmakers are keeping their powder dry during December and there has been little change in the retail finance promotions available. Indeed, some schemes have been cut back while others due to end in November are rolled over.
Dixon Motors is due to ask its shareholders tomorrow for permission to sell 17 of its best retail sites for £34m. The deal is necessary because in the last set of accounts Dixon's debt was shown at more than 100% of assets.
Reg Vardy has become embroiled in a legal dispute with a disgruntled customer who acquired the reg-vardy.com domain name in order to air his grievances.
One-third of Mazda's 115 UK dealers are under threat in a "root and branch" review of the brand's franchise strategy.
The next issue of Automotive Management, cover dated January 18, will include the updated AM100, the latest turnover figures for the UK's biggest motor retail groups.
Toyota GB has revealed an ambition to double its annual sales volume to more than 200,000 a year in the UK by 2010. The total includes Lexus and Toyota light commercials.
Record sales in November have confirmed 2001 as the best-ever year for registrations, passing the 1989 figure with one month to go. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders now believes the year's total could exceed 2.4m.
Very up and down week so far with some sales being quite tough and others simply 'flying'. There appears to have been no real pattern to the week with some of our vendors enjoying excellent results whilst others have been frustrated," says Andrew Shepherd, senior group auctioneer, Manheim
Record car sales this year of more than 2.4m vehicles have sparked fears that chronic oversupply in the market will force down residual values.
Results from the latest auctions by BCA, Manheim and Motorauctions Leeds.
The national expansion of the sales network for Smart continues with the appointment of five new sales centres.
Bentley has confirmed it will be competing in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 2002.
Inchcape Motors Retail is set to expand its fleet business with the appointment of Alan Waldie as corporate sales director.
Welcome to a new feature of AM-online, the Grant Thornton Motor Retail's motor share watch. Each month Grant Thornton Motor Retail will plot the movement in share price of the 15 quoted motor retail distributors.
VW Group has confirmed plans to restructure its seven car brands into two divisions centred on the Volkswagen and Audi marques.
Two years ago, Mini was Automotive Management's car of the century - now BMW's charismatic reborn model is the editorial team's car of the year.
Daewoo Motor has been forced to shut down all three of its South Korean plants due to a lack of parts as 200 suppliers refuse to make deliveries until debts totalling $1.17 billion (£816m)are paid.
Land Rover is to invest £2.5 billion in the next five years in developing and building new vehicles and has announced it will build its next model, a new Land Rover Discovery due in 2005, at Solihull.
Fiat has announced a major restructuring plan involving 6,000 job losses, production cutbacks at 18 plants and the departure of Roberto Testore, Fiat Auto chief executive since 1996.
MG Rover is recalling 7,010 MGFs, produced between September 2000 and September 2001, because of a possible fault with the seatbelt pre-tensioners.
Automotive services group Inchcape plc has announced two new deals, one the acquisition from the management of the remaining 51% stake in Eurofleet Limited and the second an agreement to handle remarketing and fleet management activities for Fiat Auto UK's fleet of used vehicles for the next three years.
The European Commission has published the final report on the economic impact of a series of possible scenarios resulting from changes to Block Exemption, which expires in its current form in September 2002.
