This year was something of a rollercoaster. We saw record registrations coupled with some difficult times on the retail front, particularly during the summer months.
Independent motor factors will save money on parts costs after one of the UK's biggest parts suppliers announced it is cutting prices.
Sheila McKechnie, the director of the Consumers' Association has died of cancer aged 55.
December's registrations of 26,010 vehicles represented an all time record for the month, and registrations climbed for 11 of the last 12 months to a 2003 total of 363,687, just below the all time registration record of 371,104 set in 1989.
Nigel Sandy joins the board of Universal Salvage plc as an executive director, with effect from today, 12 January. At the end of March 2004, Mr Sandy will take over the role of chief executive from Martin Hynes, who will remain on the board as an executive director in order to complete a smooth handover. Martin Hynes intends to retire from the board completely on 30 June.
After Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's suggested last week that the decision on whether the Almera's successor would be built at Sunderland could depend on Britain's accession to the euro zone, a DTI official was reported by The Observer of 11 January to underline the importance of attracting the company's fresh investment to the North East.
Alchemy Performance Development Ltd (APD), a specialist automotive market research and consulting firm founded in 2003 by former Mitac executive Paul Turner, has developed Internet-based market research capabilities for vehicle suppliers.
Rover knew it was on to a winner when they designed the MGF. It revived that famous octagonal badge, was fun to drive, and it cashed in on a demand for affordable soft-top motoring that had been re-kindled by the Mazda MX-5.
High profile repairer Dave Shepherd has alerted the crash repair sector via the Autobody Projects online forum to the dangers faced by reduced parts margins from Ford.
Thatcham is to represent the British insurance sector within Euro NCAP now that representatives from Thatcham have become members of Euro NCAP's Board of Directors. The union will enable an exchange of data on vehicle safety development.
ADP Claims Services Group, a division of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ABZ Group B.V., a private company in the Netherlands, which has been one of ADP subsidiary Audatex's licensees since 1981.
PSA Peugeot Citroen's 2003 UK sales declined 9.1% and market share came to 11.9%, and the group admits its revenues were affected by the euro's appreciation against the pound.
Registrations to private buyers of 1.254 million units weren't the only headline news in the 2003 new car market.
Experian has increased the range of its indemnity cover to a maximum of £50,000 and 36 months per vehicle.
Average retail prices for new cars in the UK rose by 4.7% over last year, according to eurocarprice.com/PwC.
Ford's Premier Automotive Group – comprising Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Volvo – is reported to have returned a profit for the first time since it was formed in the late 1990s.
Preliminary figures from JD Power-LMC indicate that the West European car market dropped 1.7% in 2003, with a much better total than many had feared at the start of the year, of 14.3 million units.
After December sales up 7% year on year a total of 2,579,050 new cars were sold in the UK last year.
MG Rover has followed its recent sale of 18 acres of Longbridge land to Advantage West Midlands with the sale of 228 acres, including 4.24m sq ft of buildings, to St. Modwen Properties. The sale netted £42.5 million.
Following its December statement concerning the future of the MOT test fee, MVRA has expanded on the reasons why it's against the other aftermarket trade associations' campaign to make the maximum test fee mandatory.
According to the CAP NVD database the number of new car model ranges on sale in the UK now stands at 760 – with a total of 5,776 derivatives.
Forecast advances in consumer expenditure bode well for sales of new and used cars this year, says Glass's; consumer demand is only likely to falter badly once interest rates start to approach 5 per cent.
Economists from the major US vehicle manufacturers and financial institutions at the Society of Automotive Analysts' Detroit auto show round table yesterday suggested that US vehicle sales this year may grow to record levels, though there are doubts that rising sales will make the manufacturers significantly more profitable.
Renault has begun recruiting garage owners to open outlets for its Motrio all-makes service franchise, whose first outlet was opened at Nantes in France in December.
GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler saw sales decline in 2003 while several import and 'transplant' brands, including Toyota, Honda and BMW, posted record full-year sales.
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. has announced a standard 10-year, 100-thousand mile limited powertrain warranty for all Mitsubishi Motors products sold in the US, beginning with 2004 Model Year vehicles.
According to Saab CEO Peter Augustsson, speaking to a news agency at Detroit this week, Saab's full-year 2003 losses will be considerably lower than in 2002, which were nearly €500 million. The US dollar's depreciation alone cost Saab €166m, according to Augustsson, who did not provide full figures.
The combined global sales of Hyundai Motor, Kia, GM Daewoo, Ssangyong and Renault Samsung were 9.6% up on their 2002 volumes at a total of around 3.8 m units last year.
JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, announced today, 5 January that they have signed a definitive agreement under which JPMP will acquire IMO Car Wash Group Ltd from a group of financial investors led by Bridgepoint, including Phoenix Equity Partners.
Lex Vehicle Leasing has won a pioneering new outsourcing contract with Ford Business Partner, the contract hire arm of Ford Credit.
