F&I Management & Training

Warranty Direct has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for a misleading magazine promotion.
Its advert stated "Our warranty now covers much more of your car. Making it the most comprehensive warranty on the market...we are the industry's leading provider of direct car warranties. Rival Warrantywise challenged whether the claims could be substantiated.
The ASA considered the magazine's readers were likely to believe Warranty Direct offered a car warranty tha covered more aspects than any other warranty on the market. It also noted that the advert did not make it clear the claims were based on Warranty Direct's LuxuryCare Plus cover, rather than any of its other levels of cover.
The ASA ruled the advert was misleading, and told Warranty Direct to ensure the claim was clearly based on LuxuryCare Plus cover in future.

DATED: 20.03.08

FEED: AM

HR Owen has posted group profits before tax and exceptional items of £3.2 million up in 2007 up from £0.7m in 2006.
Turnover from continuing operations rose by 15% to £184 million for the year ended December 31, 2007 compared to £159.3m in 2006.
John MacArthur, HR Owen chairman, said: "I am pleased again to report the completion of a good year's trading, with profits for our continuing businesses at record levels.
"These results were helped by the strong economy in London and the management's increased focus on the luxury sector following the disposal of the group's volume-orientated franchises."

DATED: 20.03.08

FEED: AM

Jean Todt, Ferrari’s chief executive officer has resigned and will be replaced by general manager Amedeo Felisa.
Todt also headed Ferrari's Formula One team between 1999 and 2004. In 2006 Todt also became CEO of Maranello, the Italy-based luxury sportscar builder.
Todt will stay at Ferrari in a "specialised assignment" within the manufacturer’s sports division and will now "dedicate more time to myself and the things I'm interested in".
Todt will remain a board member as well as chairman of Ferrari Asia Pacific and Ferrari West Europe.

DATED: 20.03.08

FEED: AM

Bentley has surprised the automotive industry by acquiring a 27.9 per cent stake in luxury car dealer group HR Owen.
The stake is thought to be worth around £9m and was acquired from Neville Crichton, the Australian based luxury car importer who had been steadily amassing shares in the group through his Balverona holding company.

HR Owen chief executive Nick Lancaster welcomed the move and said it would remove speculation over the future ownership of the group.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: MT

Carlyle Finance has hit back at claims by Uswitch.com, the comparison website, that motorists are wasting £174m a year by not looking around for deals when choosing how to fund the purchase of their cars.
Mark Standish, Carlyle Finance CEO, said it was important to note Uswitch.com had a commercial interest in encouraging consumers to shop around.

He also said many dealers were able to compete with the Best Buy rates quoted by Uswitch.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: MT

Tata is closing in on deal with Ford to acquire its Jaguar and land Rover brands.
The Indian carmaker is believed to have secured a £3bn (£1.5bn) one-year bridge loan from US banks Citigroup and JP Morgan.

According to Reuters, a deal has been signed but the financial agreement is still at an early stage.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: MT

BMW’s chief executive expects the luxury brand to achieve record sales and higher profits this year, despite the global economic downturn.
Norbert Reithofer forecast sales of 1.5 million vehicles worldwide in 2008 and said pre-tax profits would be higher than 2007.

Each of the group’s three brands, which include Rolls-Royce and Mini, would achieve record years in 2008, he said.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: MT

Dacia, Renault’s budget car brand, will arrive in the UK early next year with sales spearheaded by its newly revealed Sandero compact hatchback.
Renault is remaining tight lipped about its UK launch plans but confirmed that it had yet to officially start recruiting British dealers and that an announcement would be made “in due course.”

The Sandero was show at this month's Geneva Motor Show and is a Clio-sized supermini.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: MT

The European car market increased by 8.4% (90,005 units) in February 2008 compared to the same month last year, to a total volume of 1,163,035 units. Year-to-date, the market increased by 3.6% (84,324 units) to a total of 2,451,321 units.
A report from JATO Dynamics shows significant growth in February's registrations in Germany, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Netherlands.
However Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy recorded declining car markets.
“Considering the stress placed upon the global economy in recent months, the car market so far this year appears to be very robust,” said Nasir Shah, global business development director at JATO Dynamics.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: AM

Kia Financial Services has reshaped its wholesale and retail provision for dealers after signing an agreement with GE Money.
The Kia franchised network was briefed on the changes at a national conference.
Yaser Shabsogh, Kia Motors UK sales director, said: “The previous arrangement was viewed by some dealers as unfair. We were not providing the same facilities across the network, but that has been changed and they welcome it.”
Kia now regards wholesale finance for dealer stocking and the supply of retail finance for point-of-sale business as totally separate. A £100-a-unit stocking penalty imposed at times when the two were linked has been scrapped.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: AM

Financial services provider GMAC has set its field-based account managers new targets which it believes will focus their minds on driving forward dealers’ F&I performance.
Those targets include assessing retailers’ perception of the 22 account managers’ performance as well as measurable objectives on volumes sold and penetration levels.
Dennis Foley, GMAC UK managing director, sales and marketing, says: “We have to try and own F&I performance in the showroom. Our account managers have to make dealers money.”
GMAC’s priority is to raise penetration and income units delivered for its Vauxhall, Saab and Chevrolet retailer customers.
“There are huge opportunities within the network, such as additional insurance products and type of finance products sold, and we want to be stronger on Saab and Chevrolet,” Foley says.

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: AM

Benfield Motor Group has invested more than £200,000 in the creation of a multi-franchise dealership, named Benfield Motor Village, at its Portland Road site in Newcastle.
The development will bring together the Kia, Nissan and Skoda dealerships at one site as well as trebling the size of the used and nearly new car sales facility.
A team of three additional used car and after sales specialists have been appointed to work across the dealership. This team will bring expert advice to customers looking to buy used and near to new cars from a wide range of marques.
Benfield Motor Village is run by general manager, Mike Clark. He said the outlet was created within the city centre to compete with the growing number of out of town motor retail parks.
Mark Squires, Benfield chief executive, added: “The motor village represents a new style of dealership for the company and showcases our ability to adapt to meet our customers’ needs, by significantly increasing the size of our used and nearly new car offering.
“The motor village marks our on going commitment to investing in our existing 25 dealerships and expanding our used car offering across the group.”

DATED: 19.03.08

FEED: AM

Stephen Odell has been appointed as Ford’s chief operating officer of Ford of Europe.
Odell will report to John Fleming, president and CEO, Ford of Europe, and assume responsibility for Ford of Europe’s product development, manufacturing, purchasing, and marketing, sales and service operations.
Fleming said: “Odell has done an excellent job of reinvigorating our marketing, sales and service functions since he returned to Ford of Europe in 2005.
“As we move into a more intensive phase of our global transformation, now is the right time to make more of Odell’s extensive operational experience around the world. Giving him operational responsibility for Ford of Europe will help us raise our game as we take a prominent role in developing new vehicles globally.”

DATED: 18.03.08

FEED: AM

Honda wants its new Accord to deliver a ‘no hassle’ experience for both customers and dealers.
Rather than bring Honda retailers in to the Honda Academy for product training, the carmaker is going out into the network ahead of Accord’s June launch.
Bernard Bradley, general manager cars, said Honda has worked closely with its dealer council to ensure the best value is gained from the product course.
“We’re going to take the training to the dealers, with several teams going around the country and providing training on-site. It minimises the time that the dealer’s staff are out of the business, and we’ve found it creates more excitement and more buy-in about new product this way,” he added.

DATED: 18.03.08

FEED: AM

Perrys has been trading since 1908 and is celebrating its one hundredth year as a business.
The dealer group opened its first Ford dealership in 1912 and has since grown to 39 outlets in the UK.
Ray Sommerville, Perrys managing director, said that trading in 2008 holds a much bigger challenge than when the business first started.
He said: “It’s a buyers market these days. The choice and variety of cars available and the number of outlets which sell them, mean that we must constantly adapt.
“Better cars which need less servicing means that we do not see the customer as much as we used to when cars were serviced every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. This has made the industry a much more competitive and challenging environment. Customers themselves are also more knowledgeable so dealerships must work hard to stay on top.”
For the future, both Ken Savage, Perrys’ chairman and Sommerville agree that the business will be nothing like Perrys today when it comes to 2108.
Sommerville said: “You just have to look at the difference 100 years has made. We may only view cars in a museum, with a completely new form of transportation on offer in 100 year’s time.”

DATED: 18.03.08

FEED: AM

Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn says that the days of building one car for the whole world are 'dead and buried'. He put his bets on special models in the United States, China and India as part of a model framework designed to help Europe's largest carmaker in its bid to overhaul Toyota in terms of sales and profitability as well as other measures such as customer satisfaction and quality. Volkswagen will introduce 20 new models in the next three years, including vans and pick-ups, as part of a plan to sell eight million cars by 2010, up from last year's 6.2m.

DATED: 17.03.08

FEED: AW

When Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King recently waved goodbye to his Maserati Quattroporte, he did so in favour of a relatively anonymous-looking limousine whose main claim to fame is fuel efficiency. A sign, perhaps, that the boyish grocer is growing up? Or a hint at how fashions are changing? In the past, Mr King, a self-confessed petrolhead, has favoured big-engined beasts. This time he spent ages comparing their environmental credentials before choosing a company car. In the end, he chose a long wheelbase Lexus LS600h L, a petrol-electric hybrid car that is essentially a much larger and considerably more luxurious version of Toyota's popular Prius, complete with a reclining leather massaging seat and bundles of electronic gadgets.

DATED: 17.03.08

FEED: AW

Honda is rolling out a new market area representation programme in the UK in a move aimed at improving efficiencies and dealer profitability while reducing the number of its retailing partners.
The brand is also introducing a new corporate identity across its UK dealer network as it pitches itself as an alternative to premium brands.

The market area programme began at the end of last year and the brand currently has so far finalised representation for 17 of the 27 planned areas for this year. The target is to have a total of 66 “large market areas” by 2011.

DATED: 17.03.08

FEED: MT

Tighter High Street lending prompted by the “credit crunch” could provide dealers with increased opportunities to sell their own in-house finance products, according to RAC Warranty.
The breakdown provider has teamed up with The Warranty Group to provide financial services, and told Motor Trader that tighter economic conditions are already prompting better penetration of warranty products and that a similar effect could be seen when it comes to used car finance.

"Dealers have had a tougher time selling their own finance products in recent years because the High Street lenders have provided extremely cheap loans to used car buyers,” said Ian Simpson, RAC Warranty sales and marketing director.

DATED: 17.03.08

FEED: MT