The January 2004 edition of the Castrol Business Services Trend Tracker shows Honda and Toyota dealers achieved the best service retention performance last year. VW, Audi Mercedes and Volvo also gave good accounts of themselves.
Rover has given a strong hint towards future design direction by revealing a new look for the 75. Changes to the front and rear aim to give the car a premium look like core rivals from BMW and Audi.
Small car dealers and repair operations are set to save thousands of pounds after the Government unveiled new rules for company auditing. Ministers have raised the threshold for companies that need to be audited from £1m turnover to £6.5m a year.
The European Court of First Instance says "TDI" designates one of the characteristics of the cars and repair services and therefore cannot be registered as a Community trade mark.
“Government plans to raise the limit at which companies need to be audited will be great news for small businesses,” said the RMI chief executive Matthew Carrington, commenting on a new accounting and audit bill included in yesterday's Queen's Speech.
Damon Hill and Midlands franchise dealer Nick Whale have completed their acquisition of the Exeter Audi dealership from Inchcape.
Audi is driving forward its used car operations by opening a series of supersites to double sales and bolster residual values. The German carmaker wants to increase used vehicle sales through its franchised dealers from 32,000 this year to 65,000 by 2007.
Wider arches, fatter alloys and the lowered stance of AudiÕs RS6 saloon are discreet hints to the electrifying package that is engineered into this elegant executive car.
Gilder Group's parts business was opened on a 30,000sq ft site in Sheffield five months ago at a cost of £100,000 in premises, IT and equipment. The VW and Audi dealer's parts division is now on target to achieve annual turnover of £1.5m.
Volkswagen and Audi dealer Gilder Group has opened a new trade parts distribution operation on a site separate from its five dealerships in South Yorks and Derbyshire.
Fiat Auto has named former Audi chairman Herbert Demel as its new chief executive officer with effect from November 15. He replaces Giancarlo Boschetti, who will retire a year early.
Following their acquisition of the Warwick BMW dealership in February 2001, former F1 driver Damon Hill and Nick Whale have acquired a second dealership in partnership.
An Audi retailer in Dorset is to open a £500,000 bodyshop specialising in the repair of aluminium-based cars.
Glass's Market Intelligence Service suggests that the residual values for prestige convertibles (e.g. Mercedes CLK Cabriolet, Audi A4 Cabriolet) and larger 4x4s (e.g. Range Rover, BMW X5) aged one- to three-years-old out-perform those of the rest of the market.
The owner of London Taxis International's unaudited preliminary results for the year to 31 July 2003 show turnover from continuing operations down 1% on previous year from £86.9m to £86.0m. The core vehicles division produced £4.5m operating profit (including £1.1m of China profit) (2002: £3.7m) on sales of £86.0m.
Audi UK has appointed Adrian Short as its new Head of Corporate Sales in the UK, a move that coincides with a restructuring of the company's fleet liaison team and used car operations.
A newly formed retail group is set to join the exclusive AM100 club next year as it strives for a £100m-plus turnover. Crewe-based Swansway Garages Group has five sites representing Audi, Seat and Volkswagen with a projected turnover of £76m.
Since the Audi TT was launched in 1999, retailers have had to make do with selling the turbo-charged 1.8-litre engine as the range's flagship model.
The AM Awards has a new assessor – leading management and business consultants Carter & Carter will be carrying out independent auditing and additional data for the 2004 Awards through a combination of face-to-face interviews and mystery shopping exercises.
Seat believes its retailers can solve overcapacity problems suffered by other VW Group brands like Audi and Volkswagen by becoming multi-franchised repairers.
