F&I Management & Training

GMAC is now allowing General Motors to offer finance from third parties, as part of its deal to secure last week's $4bn loan from the US Treasury.
The finance house, partly owned by GM, said GM can now offer financing incentives, including leasing and 0% loans, through other lenders in certain circumstances until 2013.
The agreement is hoped to make GM less dependant on GMAC and enable its customers to get finance more easily for their car purchase.
Since 2006, GMAC has had an exclusive deal with GM, which requires GM to offer any market-beating finance promotions through GMAC only until 2016.

DATED: 06.01.09

FEED: AM

"Training does not have to be cost prohibitive – certainly not with our help."

Training can help you succeed in a hard market In an environment where trading is tough, credit crunch and recession are the words on everyone’s lips, deals are much harder and are taking longer to close, the flow of customer traffic has all but halved. This together with increasing costs result in profit margins being significantly reduced, or we end up simply buying the business. We all find ourselves asking the same questions:
Where can we cut our costs?
What is it that we can do to help improve our profitability?
Training is probably one of the first luxuries to be axed in this sort of environment. It’s not a necessity, it’s not going to keep the wolves from the doors, and how can you justify making investments in training your staff when your priorities should be elsewhere?
Quite often, it’s a very high financial commitment, one that is not deemed indispensable.

So why is it important to keep that focus on training and developing your staff in an unpredictable economy?
Selling in a recession is harder.
The pressure to ‘just sell something’ is intense.
It’s a different experience to selling in a booming market.
Sales skills need to be sharpened.
Strict sales processes must be followed.
Every opportunity to make a profit should be maximised.
Concentrating on up-selling wherever possible in order to boost profits.
Of course, training doesn’t just help to improve the profit margins, although one could argue that’s the most important aspect. Think about all the other benefits:
How much more successful is your sales team going to be?
How much more motivated are they going to feel?
Motivated staff want to sell more.
How will that impact their conversion rates and your ever
precious CSI?
They will be more productive and more profitable.
Staff retention will improve, which can be a bit of an issue in our industry.
Training is one of the key factors in helping your sales people to achieve all of this, and it doesn’t have to be cost prohibitive, certainly not with our help.

DATED: 06.01.09

FEED: AM

A new corporate identity is being rolled out for Audi dealers, as the brand seeks a stronger presence in cities and major towns.The prestige brand is moving away from its hangar dealerships to a new design concept, known as terminal. A perforated aluminium façade is broken up by large expanses of angular windows, which reveal the new cars and an interior of curved walls that Audi says will reflect dynamism as a core brand value. Similar windows will also put the workshop on view.Standard is a single storey outlet with an integral gallery, and interior display space for up to 20 cars. For major urban centres, Audi prefers multi-storey dealerships displaying more than 20 cars, with the floors linked by escalators.Audi UK director Jeremy Hicks told AM that there was not a requirement for all dealers to adopt the new CI immediately, but it will be incorporated at all refurbishments and new-builds.


The roll-out started with Lomond Motors’ Edinburgh Audi, a new-build which is due to begin trading in February. Lomond Motors also operates the flagship Glasgow Audi.The changes are due to expanded product ranges, increased functional demands and Audi’s desire for better brand visibility.



DATED: 06.01.09



FEED: AM

Germany's Porsche Automobil Holding has raised its stake in Volkswagen to more than 50 percent, triggering a mandatory takeover offer for Sweden's Scania as a result.Porsche's purchase of further ordinary shares in Volkswagen means it now holds a 50.76 percent stake, Porsche said on Monday. It held 42.6 percent previously.The additional stake of 8.16 percent was worth about 6.1 billion euros ($8.49 billion) on the stock market on Monday, according to Reuters calculations, considering that Volkswagen shares closed at 254.74 euros, down 1.7 percent.Porsche had initially planned to raise its stake above 50 percent by the end of last year, but a massive short squeeze in late October briefly made VW the world's most valuable company, when its share price exceeded 1,000 euro.

DATED: 06.01.09

FEED: ANE

Rybrook Jaguar at Llandudno Junction in Wales has closed.
The dealership ceased trading just before Christmas.
Around ten jobs were understood to have been lost from the outlet and nearby Conwy Land Rover, also part of Rybrook Holdings, ranked 37 in the AM100.
Also before Christmas, in Bournemouth, Horizon Honda ceased trading.

DATED: 02.01.09

FEED: AM

Inchcape is closing its James Edwards Land Rover dealership in St Helens.
The dealer group says its nearby Land Rover outlet in Chester will remain open.
Inchcape has been restructuring its business across Europe in order to reduce costs.

DATED: 02.01.09

FEED: AM

The US government has paid a $4bn loan to General Motors as the first part of its emergency loan to support Detroit's carmakers.
The funds were transfered on New Year's Eve. GM had warned that by the New Year its cash would have fallen below the $11bn it needs to continue operating.
The US's loan of $4bn to Chrysler is expected to be finalised soon. Chrysler had asked for $7bn.
GM has been promised another $9.4bn in government loans. Ford has not sought loans, but has requested a $9bn credit line to tap into in case business conditions worsen.

DATED: 02.01.09

FEED: AM

The economic downturn has pushed credit hire and claims management group Accident Exchange into the red.In six months’ trading to November 1, the company swung to an £15.4m pre-tax loss, against £6.5m profit in the same period in 2007. Turnover grew 11% to £86m.Cash collections have improved and cost-saving measures are being implemented to re-balance the business to its forecast lower market activity levels.The group has been hit by the triple blow of a slowdown in referrals, often generated by franchised dealers as customers suffer a crash, shorter credit hire rental periods due to available capacity in bodyshops, and the severe drop in residual values of the prestige vehicles.

DATED: 02.01.09

FEED: AM