The Scottish Motor Dealers Buying Group (SMDBG), set up 18 months ago to enable operators to buy services in bulk, is in talks with retailers in England as it looks to build up volume. The group, founded by Paul Barnett, managing director of Dundee-based Barnetts Motor Group, has 18 members in Scotland.
Alliance Automotive UK has bought refinish distributors ATS and ATS Roadfox for an undisclosed sum. Alliance, which already owns the Factoring Services Group (FSG), has acquired the total shareholding for both companies.
The Dick Lovett Group is to take on the Ferrari and Maserati franchises for south Wales and the west of England. Once local authorities give the green light to blueprints for developments, dealerships will be set up in Cardiff and Bristol.
Ford is planning to have 10 Direct supersites in the UK by the end of next year, which will handle the majority of its used car sales for models under two years old. Peoples has opened the first site, a £3m venture in Prescot, near Liverpool. It expects the business to turn over £15m-£17m in its first year, selling about 1550 used Fords.
In a major U-turn, the RAC is now backing government plans to introduce congestion charges on busy roads as “a key element” to avoid future gridlock. The RAC has previously campaigned vigorously against any further taxes on motorists, but its latest report - Motoring towards 2050 - concedes “some form of road charging will be required on approximately 10 per cent of the road network to stop congestion getting worse.”
LSUK, the automotive parts and service supplier which holds the lighting maintenance contract for the Queen's Golden Jubilee ceremonial coach, has been awarded the Royal Warrant. The Sheffield-based operation has long been associated with Royal supply through is parent company Lucas Automotive, which had maintained Royal carriage lighting for decades.
Honda is recalling more than 50,000 vehicles in the UK to fix an ignition switch fault - but dealers will have to wait months for the parts they need to fix the problem.
Volkswagen specialist van centres are each investing around £500 towards set-up costs for the company's recently-launched used van programme. VW says 40 centres from the 90-strong network have signed up, with 10 more expected to follow suit within the next couple of months. They were chosen on size, facilities and location.
Dealers are putting their businesses on the line by signing “crazy” buyback deals, according to one of the UK's largest dealer groups. Camden Motors is warning that automotive retailers stand to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds on the short-term arrangements because the margin for error is tiny.
The Peugeot family intends to allow its stake in the PSA Group to grow to more than 50 per cent, although this is likely to take 10 years to achieve. It currently holds 26.46 per cent of capital.
Bodyshops and garages with courtesy car fleets have been given an unexpected lift by new tax-busting measures available on small carbon dioxide efficient models. An unpublicised section of Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's Budget in April revealed that companies purchasing cars with CO2 emissions of not more than 120g/km will be able to offset the full cost of the vehicle in the first year against profits.
Zurich Insurance has dropped a mandatory requirement for its 260 approved repairers to be members of the Motor Vehicle Repairers Association after the trade body lost its association status. At roadshow meetings detailing its new work contract, the insurer told bodyshops it intends to use the MVRA to monitor standards across the approved network but they would no longer be required to pay £1500 for membership of the trade body.
The long expected slowdown in retail activity has happened - no surprise with the World Cup and Jubilee holidays in a traditionally quiet period. The response from some has been to bolt down the hatches, cut advertising budgets, refuse to purchase fresh stock and look for other ways to cut spending.
The availability of large numbers of one-to-three-year-old low-mileage cars is having a massive impact on ex-lease high milers. Those with 80,000 plus are a burden to some fleet and auction vendors. Those which had contracts extended and now exceed 100,000 miles are even more burdensome.
Citroen C5 and Renault Laguna are roomy, modern rep-mobiles. But they have yet to make an impact on private buyers, and used values are easing as a result. The jury is still out on reliability, but both are well equipped and easy to drive, with fleet-cheap service and parts costs.
The charismatic Alfa 156 is a stylish alternative to the Audi A4, BMW 3-series and Lexus IS200. A great deal less expensive, too. A 99S 1.8 TS with 42,000 miles is £8,500 privately.
The Hyundai Trajet and Kia Sedona are popular with large families and private hire drivers alike. What these big MPVs lack in character, they more than make up for in equipment and ease of ownership.
Latest figures from Alliance & Leicester show car prices in April dropped for the fifth consecutive month, falling 2.5 per cent year-on-year. In real terms, cars are now a third cheaper than in June 1998.
Motor World managing director John Mousell is believed to be considering a bid for Halfords, the retail car parts and cycle store chain.
The Vehicle Builders and Repairers Association's pre-tax profits last year slumped by 72 per cent to £15,399, compared to £54,085 in 2001. Turnover dipped 1.67 per cent to £698,244.
Renault has slashed the cost of genuine wear and tear replacement parts for its three-to-10-year-old car parc by up to 60 per cent.
Shareholders at Trinity Supply Chain, which trades as Nationwide Auto Service, were this week due to vote on placing the company into liquidation.
Fiat is moving urgently to fill open points in its British dealer network after year-to-April figures slumped 15 per cent to 30,729 units compared with 2001.
BMW is to launch a Mini diesel variant in 2003 after securing a deal with Toyota to source between 10,000 to 20,000 engines a year. Toyota will supply the 1.4-litre D-4D unit used in the Yaris to the Mini plant at Oxford, where engineers will modify it for performance and fit. Production at the plant is likely to increase by 25 per cent, from 100,000 to 125,000 vehicles a year, to handle the new variant.
Jobs go and prices cut as Fiat fights to stem losses Fiat UK's radical business revamp is revealed as Fiat Auto announces losses of 529m Euros (around £330m) for the first quarter of 2002.
Ford has reshuffled its senior management team in the US and Europe as chairman and chief executive officer Bill Ford bids to return the company to profitability.He has persuaded former vice chairman Allan Gilmour, who retired in 1995, to rejoin the company, replacing Martin Inglis as chief financial officer. Inglis is moved across to group vice-president of business strategy, though Ford claims this is not a demotion.
Last minute sales surge gives Seat an April plus With all the April new car registration figures now counted, Seat emerges as a surprisingly strong performer. With just a few days to go to the end of the month the Volkswagen-owned Spanish carmaker had looked to be struggling - with 1891 units sold it was 15.05 per cent down on the same period last year.
After months without a general manager for its UK car division, Honda has named David Strangeway as the man to drive the company forward. Previously head of human resources, he joined Honda in 1990 as franchise and dealer development manager to mastermind its dealer network boom from 130 to 150 outlets.
Former Autobytel UK chairman Kevin Turnbull completes the speaker line-up at AM's spring conference on June 7, the day after the AM100 dinner. Both events are at the Belfry Hotel, Wishaw, near Birmingham, where delegates can watch the England v Argentina World Cup match on widescreen TV during the lunch break.
The automotive retail market in Yorkshire is set to witness a major shake up after JCT600, the multi-franchise dealer group, announced plans to invest £17m in a new Mercedes-Benz retail area.
