New car registrations fell by 15.7% in June to 176,264 units, but it was the smallest fall in 12 months.
New registrations fell by 25.9% year-to-date.
Paul Everitt, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders chief executive, said: “We are now beginning to see the positive impact of the scrappage scheme translate into new vehicle registrations.
“SMMT expects the pace of improvement to increase in the coming months, but we can already see the industry making steady progress on the long road to recovery.”
Sue Robinson, director of the RMI national franchised dealers association (NFDA), said: "The true impact of the vehicle scrappage scheme will be felt over the next few months, as the volume of orders made via the scheme are processed and consumers receive their cars.
"It can take up to two months for a new car purchase to go from the initial order to the delivery to the customer, so most of the purchases made under the scrappage scheme have yet to translate into sales. We expect the full impact of the scheme to make itself felt from next month onwards."
Pace of decline slows slightly as first few weeks of scrappage takes effect
- The new car market posted its smallest decline since July 2008, at -15.7%, in June. The scrappage scheme will have a positive impact on volumes, although the impact is likely to be lagged. SMMT had expected the market to decline to 153,000 units (as forecast in April), with the actual being 15% higher at 176,264 units.
- Registrations to private buyers rose for the first time since November 2007 in June, up 3.9%.
- Demand for small cars also picked up, with the mini segment showing growth of 145.4% in the month, while superminis took a record 37.2% share of the market. Ford’s Fiesta was the best selling model for a fifth time this year.
- The growth in small car demand contributed to the fall in diesel penetration, with small cars tending to be petrol powered. However, diesel market share is still up over the year-to-date.
- The market remains down 25.9% or 322,524 units over the first half of the year. Volumes in quarter two were down 21.2%, marking a sixth successive quarterly decline. SMMT is due to review and revise its full year forecast later this month.
- The average new car CO2 emissions fell to 152.3g/km in the first half of 2009, this was 3.6% below the 158.0g/km recorded in full year 2008 and 19.8% below the 1997 level.
"We are now beginning to see the positive impact of the scrappage scheme translate into new vehicle registrations. SMMT expects the pace of improvement to increase in the coming months, but we can already see the industry making steady progress on the long road to recovery. " - Paul Everitt
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AM
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:54 am
Banks and other lenders have stopped selling single premium payment protection insurance alongside loans in the wake of a damning Competition Commission report.
They were originally to be outlawed from October 2010 but the Financial Services Authority called for an earlier stoppage because of “ongoing concerns”.
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AM
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:53 am
It’s a pound to a penny that the overdue changes in Europe’s Block Exemption regulations will not be announced in accordance with the timetable.
And it is a reasonably safe bet that the politicians will defer it just before the summer break, go away on a long holiday and fail to get anything through before the end of the year.
For all UK car dealers, the measures the European Commission finally comes up with will determine how the sector makes money in the next decade. More important still for the owner drivers, the changes could have a bearing on how valuable their business is, and how easy it is to sell.
Consultation period
But as usual, delivery of that information is infernally slow.
Last May, an EC publication assessed how the regulations had been working up to that point. It was largely self-congratulatory; the view was that there was not that much need for change.
A consultation period was due to run to the end of the autumn but that never happened.
Instead, DG-Competition of the European Commission published the submissions on the internet, click here to view the document.
ICDP, the Solihull-based car distribution consultancy, was quick to publish the response that there was little support for the self-satisfaction of the regulators, or for the regulations that seemed likely to arise in the next phase.
ICDP director Andrew Tongue said: “With the exception of carmakers and importer associations and some of the member state governments, there is very little support from the rest of the industry, from national level regulators or from legal opinion for the conclusions drawn in the May 2008 evaluation report.”
Sceptics’ forecast
Then came the announcement that the new regulations would get an airing in March; then it was May. According to the latest gossip, it will be mid-to-late July. Hence the informed forecast from the professional sceptics, that our elected representatives will shuffle the job under the pending tray and make a grab for the beach towel.
The period of time set aside for drafting the framework for the new regulations then gets shot to pieces, and the existing Block Exemption expires in just under a year’s time on May 31, 2010.
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AM
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:50 am
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the demise of Birmingham-based carmaker MG Rover in 2005.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said in a statement that the SFO must see if there are "grounds for prosecution".
It follows a four-year inquiry into the collapse, which led to 6,000 job cuts.
The four executives in control of MG Rover at the time said there was "no suggestion of improper conduct", calling an investigation "ridiculous".
Lord Mandelson said: "There has been a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the events which led to the company failing, workers losing their jobs and creditors not getting paid. The SFO must now see if there are grounds for prosecution."
On Sunday, a spokesman for the MG Rover directors had said: "The directors have at all times willingly accounted for their actions, which kept MG Rover alive for five years."
When the MG plant at Longbridge, Birmingham, closed the government announced a £150m support package for those losing their jobs and for the estimated 12,500 people affected in subsidiary firms.
Report delayed
The new investigation comes after the completion of a four-year inquiry under section 432 of the Companies Act by inspectors appointed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Part of that investigation was supposed to find out what had happened to the more than £400m left to Phoenix Ventures when it took over MG Rover from BMW in 2000.
The publication of the report by the business department's inspectors will now be delayed pending a decision on whether there will be criminal prosecutions.
But Professor David Bailey, director of Coventry University Business School, said he did not want to see the report stalled any further.
"I'd like to see that [report] in the public domain because workers, suppliers and communities affected by this do deserve some answers."
He added that while it was right that the SFO was brought in if there was "inappropriate behaviour or the suspicion of it", he was surprised that it had taken four years.
Phoenix Four
MG Rover went into administration under insolvency procedures in April 2005, with debts of more than £1bn. Its assets were sold in 2006 to China's Nanjing Automobile, which revived the MG sports car brand.
A quartet of executives known as the Phoenix Four had taken control of the company in May 2000 after originally buying MG Rover for a nominal £10.
The business came with an interest-free loan of £427m from BMW, the previous owner.
"John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards are estimated to have taken out more than £40m in pay and pensions in the years before the business went down," said BBC business editor Robert Peston.
The Commons public accounts committee criticised the government in 2006 for being too distant from Phoenix Ventures and not sufficiently prepared for its demise.
Professor Bailey said that the inspectors' inquiry that has yet to come out should be critical of the government and its industrial policy as well as the company.
'Heart of the matter'
A spokesman for the directors said that "time and again they asked for government help and didn't get it".
"Four years and £16m of taxpayers' money has been swallowed up on this [Department for Business] inquiry and the directors' major concern that it will fail to get to the heart of the matter, which is why the government withdrew its offer of a loan to the company at the eleventh hour, allowing 6,000 workers to lose their jobs," they said.
Their statement added: "Four years on, any suggestion of another further investigation is frankly ridiculous and smacks of kicking this issue into the long grass."
They also said the government had refused more than 30 requests under the Freedom of Information Act which would have revealed correspondence and documents.
They said these would have "shed some light on the government's role in the affair".
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AW
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:49 am
'The true impact of the vehicle scrappage scheme will be felt over the next few months, as the volume of orders made via the scheme are processed and consumers receive their cars,' says Sue Robinson, Director of the RMI National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), representing the UK's car dealers.
New car sales for June 2009, announced today (Monday 6 July 2009) show that 176,264 new cars were sold in June, 15.7% per cent down on June 2008.* One positive sign is the return of the private buyer to the new car market, particularly encouraged by the scrappage scheme.
According to Robinson, 'It can take up to two months for a new car purchase to go from the initial order to the delivery to the customer, so most of the purchases made under the scrappage scheme have yet to translate into sales. We expect the full impact of the scheme to make itself felt from next month onwards.'
*Sales figures courtesy of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AW
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:48 am
The UK's car scrappage scheme has started to have a "positive impact" on the industry as new car sales fell at their slowest rate for almost a year.
New car registrations fell by 15.7% in June compared with the same month last year, smaller than May's 25% drop.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said 176,264 units were sold during the month.
The scrappage scheme, which offers a £2,000 incentive to scrap old cars, accounted for about 10% of sales.
The scheme came into effect on 18 May.
Car buyers are given a £2,000 discount on a new car if they scrap one that is at least 10 years old. Half of the money will be paid by the government and half by the car industry.
The SMMT said 29,796 vehicles had been sold under the scrappage scheme since its start, while government figures show that, up to 21 June, some 87,000 orders had been placed.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says that at this rate, the scheme would be exhausted by the end of October. It had first forecast that it would last until March.
Professor David Bailey, director of Coventry University Business School, said the pressure would be on the government to extend the scheme into the new year.
But the business department is "adamant" that there are no plans to extend it.
'Steady progress'
"We are beginning to see the positive impact of the scrappage scheme translate into new vehicle registrations," said Paul Everitt, chief executive of the SMMT.
"SMMT expects the pace of improvement to increase in the coming months, but we can already see the industry making steady progress on the long road to recovery."
Although June was the 14th month in a row to see sales of new cars fall, it was the smallest monthly decline since July 2008.
The number of new cars sold in the UK in June was about 15% more than the 153,000 figure predicted by the SMMT in April.
Private buyer registrations were up 3.9% year-on-year, the first rise in this sector since November 2007.
And demand for small cars picked up - with the "mini" segment showing 145.4% growth over the year and "superminis" taking a record 37.2% share of the market.
However, the total number of cars sold in the first six months of the year is still 25.9% down on the first half of 2008.
'Stabilisation'
According to Ian Robertson, BMW's group marketing director, the crisis that has hit the motor industry appears to be over.
"From the first quarter of the year to the second quarter of the year, there was a stabilisation of a negative trend," he said.
BMW has introduced cheaper entry models for both its BMW and Mini brands in order to benefit from the government's scrappage scheme.
"We've seen an improvement in sales," he said, adding that the 1.5 millionth Mini has just rolled off the production line at its factory in Cowley, near Oxford.
However, Mr Robertson said the government had missed an opportunity by its failure to link the scheme to car emissions.
"They could have added a CO2 target, which would have prevented some of the cheap and cheerful cars, which aren't necessarily that environmentally friendly, from qualifying," he said.
'Less snobbery'
Hyundai also reported that UK sales had almost doubled in June from the same month a year ago - which it said was largely due to the scrappage scheme.
UK managing director Tony Whitehorn said that "scrappage customers" were generally buying small cars, that were often their first new vehicle.
"They're looking for a good return on their money, and things like a five-year warranty are important to them as well as having modern vehicles," he said.
"The scrappage customer doesn't tend to have as much brand loyalty or any snobbery. They're coming to it fresh and are doing plenty of research before they decide what to buy."
However, Professor David Bailey, director of Coventry University Business School, said that while the car industry may have bottomed out, it wouldn't properly start to recover until wider confidence and the housing market picks up.
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: AW
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:47 am
If Magna International wins control of Opel, Herbert Demel, the supplier's chief operating officer, can perhaps be forgiven for enjoying a feeling of revenge over Sergio Marchionne, who fired him as Fiat Auto CEO.
Vienna-born Demel was the first non-Italian to head Fiat's car business but was ousted by Marchionne in 2005 when the two men clashed over a restructuring strategy for the crisis-hit Italian automaker.
Despite withdrawing Fiat's bid for Opel at the last minute on May 29, Marchionne would still like to add the German carmaker to his Fiat-Chrysler empire.
Demel is playing a key role in stopping him. On June 25, he was in Detroit with Magna co-CEO Siegfried Wolf ironing out sticking points over Magna's Opel offer with General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson and GM's lead negotiator Jim Smith.
Magna remains the front-runner for Opel even if GM is talking with other bidders.
Insiders say Demel will lead the new Opel with the current management team of GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster and Opel Managing Director Hans Demant.
Magna has attracted criticism from some quarters because it does not have any experience running a volume carmaker. Building niche cars at its Magna Steyr unit in Austria is not enough, critics say.
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: ANE
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:45 am
A U.S. judge on Sunday approved General Motors' bankruptcy sale, in a move that will allow the company's most profitable assets to exit bankruptcy protection under government ownership. ...
DATED: 07.07.09
FEED: ANE
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 4:44 am
Fast-expanding Marshall Motor Group is to represent Hyundai in Cambridge.The company has been on the acquisition trail since the beginning of the year.
Last month Marshall took on the Kia franchise in Ipswich and bought Ipswich Jaguar from Lookers. The company already represented Jaguar in Cambridge and Peterborough and the addition of Ipswich gave the group the largest contiguous territory for Jaguar in the UK.
De Vries purchase
In February Marshall bought three DeVries Honda dealerships.
Commenting on the Hyundai move, chief executive, Daksh Gupta said:
"As part of our stated plan to grow our business nationally, we are keen to expand our portfolio of franchises.
Great service
"We continue to evaluate many interesting and scalable opportunities where our values and approach to the business will deliver great service to our customers and reward our shareholders and brand partners in the process."
Tony Whitehorn, managing director of Hyundai in the UK, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Marshalls in Cambridge whose number one focus is the same as ours - customer satisfaction. The people of Cambridge are 'in for a real treat' with the Marshalls and Hyundai partnership."
DATED: 03.07.09
FEED: MT
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 8:59 pm
Glass's Information Services has appointed Andy Carroll as managing director.Carroll joins the company on 1 August having worked in the automotive sector for 20 years.
Senior roles
He held senior sales and marketing positions at GM Europe, including sales director for commercial vehicles and chief operating officer of internet car retailer OneSwoop.
He was managing director of GM Daewoo UK and subsequently managing director of Chevrolet UK. More recently Carroll was head of international sales & marketing at GAZ Group.
Carroll joins Glass's from a large dealer group, where he has been working as a board adviser. He has a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and an MBA.
"Glass's is a tremendous brand that is rightly proud of over 75 years of innovation and insight," said Carroll.
Tumultuous times
EurotaxGlass's International group chief executive officer Alastair MacLeod said: "The past 12 months have been tumultuous ones for all of Glass's customers.
"The business landscape has changed forever, and I am looking forward to engaging with those customers and to further develop Glass's relevance, excellence and value."
DATED: 03.07.09
FEED: MT
# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 8:58 pm
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Marshall Motor Group has acquired Ipswich Jaguar from Lookers. Marshall already represents Jaguar in Cambridge and Peterborough and the addition of Ipswich gives the group the largest contiguous territory for Jaguar in the UK. The Ipswich Jaguar business will continue to operate from its existing site in the town centre and all of the former Lookers staff have transferred to Marshall. National ambtions
"This is the fifth new business that we have added this year and is in line with our stated intention to expand our group nationally, deliberately moving beyond our historical boundaries with scalable businesses which offer us further opportunity for growth," said chief executive, Daksh Gupta. "We have represented Jaguar for over 35 years and have an excellent relationship with them. We are very grateful to Jaguar for their support in this acquisition. With Ipswich, we now cover the whole of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire with the nearest non-Marshall Jaguar dealerships over 40 miles away," he said. Jaguar partnership
Geoff Cousins, managing director of Jaguar UK said: "The Jaguar brand is increasingly being recognised for its obsessive attention to delivering the highest quality product and exceptional customer service. This extends to our dealer partners and I am delighted that Marshalls have increased its partnership with Jaguar." Marshall is already established in Ipswich having added the Kia franchise to its Vauxhall and Chevrolet businesses at Ransome Europark earlier this month. DATED: 03.07.09
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# posted by Profit Training Ltd : 8:55 pm
