F&I Management & Training

BrandIndex, YouGov’s daily brand perception tracker, has shown that Toyota’s recall has triggered a fall in how the brand is perceived by consumers.

Going back to January 2008, the Toyota brand has consistently ranked among the top automotive brands tracked in BrandIndex and the top 10% of all brands tracked over the last two years.

Since late January 2010, when the car manufacturer announced a recall of several million vehicles across the world, its brand perception scores have dropped dramatically in the UK, Germany, but by far the worst affected is the US market.

Ted Marzilli, global BrandIndex managing director, said: “While the dramatic decrease in brand perception may not be surprising, the more important question for Toyota and its competitors is the likely duration of the dent in consumer perception.

“Following safety violations at Southwest Airlines in March 2008 resulting in nearly a thousand cancelled flights and a $10.2 million fine from the FAA, it took them over six months to recover.

“The Toyota crisis is similar in magnitude and we wait to see whether there will be a similar recovery period, providing no additional issues or missteps occur over the next several weeks and months.”

Graph: Toyota Index scores last three months (one week rolling average)
Index: average of quality, value, satisfaction, recommend, impression and reputation scores

DATED: 10.02.10

FEED: AM

Nissan has made a return to profit of £320 million for the last three months of 2009.

The profit compares to a loss of 83 billion yen in 2008 and Nissan had expected to make a full year loss, but now expects to make a full-year profit of 35 billion yen.

The Japanese manufacturer put the turnaround down to scrappage schemes in its major markets and strong growth in China.

DATED: 10.02.10

FEED: AM

"Scrappage continues to provide an important stimulus to the new car market, although the decreasing reliance on the scheme to deliver market growth is encouraging news for post-scrappage stability" - Paul Everitt

Scrappage registrations now total 316,210, according to released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Car registrations total 311,159 and LCVs 5,051.

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: “Scrappage accounted for 17.8% of January new car registrations, the lowest percentage since the first full month of the scheme.

"With funding for over 60,000 vehicles still available, we welcome last week’s announcement by government to delay the scrappage close date into March.

"Scrappage continues to provide an important stimulus to the new car market, although the decreasing reliance on the scheme to deliver market growth is encouraging news for post-scrappage stability.”

The Government announced the extension of the scrappage scheme last week from the end of February to March 31. It has said there will be no additional funding to the £400 million already committed.

DATED: 10.02.10

FEED: AM

Spyker has entered into a £16 million two year convertible loan agreement with an investment company owned by Heerema Holding Company to help finance its takeover of Saab.

The investment will allow the takeover to progress, but Spyker will still need to find a further £15.5 million to pay General Motors a second installment by July 15.

Spyker said it was confident it would find the funding for the second instalment.

The Swedish government’s guarantee of a €400 million European Investment Bank loan to Saab Automobile has also won European Commission approval, clearing another regulatory hurdle for Spyker's Saab purchase.

Toyota has officially announced a global recall on its third-generation Prius models built before January 27, 2010 and involves 8,500 cars in the UK.

The recall is being taken in response to reports of inconsistent brake feel during slow and steady braking on bumpy or slick road surfaces when the anti-lock braking system (ABS) is actuated.

Customers of the affected models are being contacted by Toyota and the software upgrade in the anti-lock braking system will take 40 minutes to complete and will be done for free.

In a statement the company said: "Toyota GB would like to apologise to its customers for any concern this issue has caused.

"In keeping with VOSA’s code of practice, Toyota will write individually to every owner or keeper in the next few days having obtained their contact details from the DVLA. In the meantime, the cars are safe to drive. At no time are drivers without brakes."

DATED: 10.02.10

FEED: AM

Industry experts predict that the new Jaguar XJ will have class-leading residual values; better than Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz over the next three years.

EurotaxGlass's publish the car industry's residual value bible â€" the Glass's Guide â€" that the trade use to value cars of all ages. Their independent experts predict that a new Jaguar XJ, which will be launched in March 2010, will be worth more than the equivalent Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz after both 12 months and three years of ownership.

Jason King, Head of Market Intelligence for EurotaxGlass's, said: "The exterior design of the new XJ is certainly stunning, bringing a bold, fresh approach to the luxury car segment. This bold design is sure to appeal to a wider and much younger audience, building on the fine work of the XF in helping the Jaguar brand redefine itself and appeal to a younger buyer.

"We're not surprised to see the Jaguar going head-to-head with the Mercedes S-class, traditionally the industry-leader for these retained values. The XJ offers interiors, levels of equipment and overall quality more familiar to buyers of models offered by the other great British luxury car brands, like Bentley and Aston Martin, so we are expecting that the appeal of the new XJ will be very strong. This will translate into strong demand from the used car buyer of the future, and our analysis suggests that this strong residual value position will remain for some time."

For the customer, a strong residual value not only protects your investment, but it also means that car finance packages are more affordable at the time of purchase. The Jaguar is already competitively priced (starting from £53,775), against the best in the segment and having such a strong residual value position means that the XJ will offer an even more attractive cost of ownership.

The research carried out by EurotaxGlass's suggests that the new 3.0-litre diesel XJ will retain more than the equivalent Mercedes-Benz S-class after 12 months or 20,000 miles and an astonishing 40 per cent of its value after three years and 60,000 miles of motoring, which is better than the Mercedes-Benz by two percentage points.

Geoff Cousins, Managing Director, Jaguar UK said: “The Jaguar XJ is a perfect car of choice for every chairman and chief executive in British boardrooms. It is the ultimate package for a sporting luxury saloon. When you add class-leading residual values to the list of the XJ’s attributes I believe that it is the car for Britain’s business leaders.”

Richard Crosthwaite, Prestige Car Editor at EurotaxGlass's added: "It's not just the new XJ that has impressed us. The XF has been an amazing success for Jaguar and has been rewarded with cast iron residuals, outperforming the sector. Its used car values are incredibly impressive with a one year value on a diesel XF standing at 80 per cent - the next best comparable in the sector at 72 per cent and the worst is 55 per cent. Let's hope the next decade sees more of the same for Jaguar â€" great designs, controlled volume and a truly prestigious and exclusive brand going from strength to strength."

The XJ is now being shipped to dealers worldwide. In the UK the XJ is available in dealers in March.

Just days into Spyker’s ownership of SAAB, sources in Sweden say the Dutch company is still getting to grips with its new purchase.

“For sure it has not been easy,” said Spyker spokesman, Mjetro van den Plas. “When we turned up at the SAAB factory to get it started again we were a little puzzled that we could not find the lock. It was only after a while we realised it was not in the normal place on the door but for some reason had been placed on the floor about two metres away”.

There was more confusion when Spyker’s representatives gained entry to the factory, something that immediately caused all the lights to come on, even though it was the middle of the day. “They’re still on now,” Mr van den Plas confirmed. “We thought there must be a switch somewhere but we just can’t find it. We’re starting to think maybe we need to take the factory to a dealer and get the lights re-programmed or something. We’ll have to do something for sure because it is making us look like tossers”.

However, strangely placed locks and annoying lights aren’t the only problems to face the Spyker team now settling in Sweden. “Why is everything in the canteen an airline meal?” asked one member of the Dutch contingent. “And why do I have to ‘check-in’ every morning, then spend two hours loafing around the factory branch of WH Smiths before I can go up to my office? This company has nothing to do with aeroplanes so why do they keep pretending it does?”

Nonetheless, Swedish insiders say the Spyker team are slowly getting used to SAAB’s quirks and that many of them are now happily adopting the company uniform a nice black roll neck, some fashionable black framed spectacles and a pleasant, reasonable personality. Furthermore, sources claim Spyker is delighted to note that the SAAB factory seems to be extremely comfortable and quite well rust proofed. It is also said to feel very well thought out. Unlike their idea that SAAB can keep competing with BMW and Audi.

DATED: 09.02.10

FEED: SP

There was bad news for God this week as the well-known deity was forced to recall thousands of examples of His popular Human Being after reports that the model could be prone to unexpected attacks of unbelievable stupidity.

Initial reports of blithering idiocy emerged from the United States last year but these were thought to be isolated incidents caused by people who are so thick that if a floormat was touching their accelerator pedal would prefer to scream ‘Aaaaaaargh’ until they drove into a river rather than simply moving the mat backwards with their foot. However, it now seems the monumental stupidity is more widespread and may cause some Human Beings to decide that the best course of action in the event of being in a car with a throttle that won’t release is to telephone someone rather than to, for example, put the fucking car into neutral and bring it to a halt using the brakes as normal.

Jesus Christ, a member of the original God family who now runs his Father’s business, is expected to make a full statement shortly. In the meantime, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a senior manager at God’s UK operation, has told reporters that there are almost certainly Human Beings here in Britain that will need to be examined for signs of being so sodding thick that they probably shouldn’t have a driving licence in the first place. “It’s too early to say how this might affect people in the UK,” Mr Canterbury is quoted as saying. “But we have every reason to believe that there are some Human Beings that may being so brain fartingly stupid that if the throttle in their car became stuck, they would never think simply to depress the clutch and coast to a halt”.

However, it is understood that God’s representatives in the UK are keen to manage any recall as quickly and efficiently as possible, thereby minimising the number of mithering suburban twats who ring in to the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 and witter on about how they’re too scared to drive their Yaris to such a blindingly crass degree that listeners eventually start to get a sense of what it would be like if the editor of the Daily Mail did a stool into a syringe and then used it to inject vile reactionary shit into their ears.

As God seeks to clarify the extent of the stupidity problem and establish how many Human Beings will need to be recalled, theologians have been assessing just what has caused the problem of quite extraordinarily thick behaviour in the first place. “I suspect the problem lies in the rather clever engineering God has given the Human Being,” noted Dr Peter Peter Cockandballs of St Gobain College, Oxford. “The modern Human Being is actually remarkably durable and reliable, capable of lasting well over 80 years, but among its clever systems is something called Cognitive Reasoning. Normally this works very well, but over time Human Beings get used to being spoon fed blindingly obvious information such as those signs on motorways that say ‘fog’, and eventually they can just give up trying to have any discernment or ability to think rationally. Basically, the Human Being becomes a stupid moron. Hence the popularly of ITV’s Loose Women”.

DATED: 09.02.10

FEED: SP