F&I Management & Training

Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury brand, has opened its third UK showroom in Birmingham.

The site, located at Bordesley Circus, is the first to be run by Mana Premiere Automobiles (MPA) has opened its first UK Infiniti showroom in Birmingham.

Infiniti Centre Birmingham features a six-car showroom and five-bay workshop. The management team is drawn from new recruits who have worked for prestige brands and dealer groups including Pendragon, Sytner and Rybrook.

Infiniti came to the UK last year and already has dealerships in Reading and central London operated by Rymco UK.

MPA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saleh Alhamad Al Mana Co in Qatar, is scheduled to open a centre in Glasgow in the coming weeks and is constructing sites in Stockport and Leeds which will both open in 2011.

The group is looking at adding further centres in South and East London, Cambridge, Bristol, Newcastle and Nottingham.

Infiniti plans to open a total of 14 dealerships in the UK.

DATED: 03.11.10

FEED: MT

The RMI has issued guidance to dealers on the higher rate of VAT that comes into force on 4 January 2011

There had been fears that the hike would pull forward sales and boost business in November and December.

The advice covers the possible options open to dealers in the lead up to the introduction of the higher rate tax. The full advice is available here

• Vehicles invoiced in prior to 4 January 2011 and part paid and then delivered in January or beyond
• Vehicles invoiced and fully paid before 4 January 2011 but delivered after 4 January 2011
• Vehicles invoiced on finance prior to 4 January 2011, the deposit paid but finance payment not received until after 4 January 2011 because delivery is after 4 January
• Vehicle invoiced in prior to 4 January 2011 and part paid and then delivered in January or beyond
• Vehicles invoiced and fully paid before 4 January 2011 but delivered after 4 January 2011
• Vehicles invoiced on finance prior to 4 January 2011, the deposit paid but finance payment not received until after 4 January 2011 because delivery is after 4 January

Pontiac - one of the US car industry's most iconic brands - has finally gone out of business.

It happened a year after its parent company General Motors announced its shutdown in a major restructuring.

Set-up in 1926, Pontiac came to embody the image of the American muscle-car, with hugely popular models like the Bonneville, GTO and Firebird TransAm.

The cars featured in Hollywood movies in the 1960s-70s. But sales had been in decline since the 1980s.

Finally, GM's catastrophic financial problems spelt the brand's demise.

Terminal decline

From its roots in the Michigan city of Pontiac in the 1920s, the brand was aimed at the working class.

It almost died three decades later but was revived by GM when the company linked the car to drag racing and it acquired the muscle image, the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles reports.

The ready to race GTO, with a powerful V8 engine under the bonnet, helped the brand thrive in the 1960s, our correspondent says.

In 1968, Pontiac's sales hit nearly one million - a feat never to be repeated again.

Its profile went global in the 1970s when Burt Reynolds drove a black and gold Firebird in the hit film Smokey and the Bandit.

But in the late 1990s General Motors began to cut back on its performance image and mechanical problems with some of the later models damaged the company's reputation with people who bought sports cars.

And in recent years - with GM's troubles - Pontiac had been in terminal decline.

In the end, it was a changing market, declining sales and a brutal restructuring at GM that brought the curtain down on Pontiac.

GM had to rescue itself from bankruptcy and Pontiac was one of the victims.

Milton Keynes based Wayside Group has bought Keith Garages in Aylesbury and its Volkswagen, Audi and Hyundai dealerships.

It is the group’s first venture into Aylesbury and brings Hyundai to the group for the first time.

Wayside group managing director John Caney said: “We are delighted to be adding the Aylesbury dealerships to our group portfolio and look forward to building on the success already achieved by the Keith Garages team.”

The Wayside Group has grown over the last few years both organically and through acquisitions.

The last 18 months has seen the group take on one Skoda and two Toyota dealerships, joining the group’s established Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and MINI businesses.

Employing over 800 people, the Wayside Group now has five Audi Centres and six Volkswagen Centres in addition to BMW, MINI, Skoda and two Toyota centres.

DATED: 03.11.10

FEED: MT

Mazda is rolling out its Business Development Programme launched earlier this year to 20 more franchise dealers.

The scheme, initially involving 19 dealers, has generated 200 company car orders from sub-50 fleets since launch.

Mazda is forecasting that in the year to April 2011 the scheme will generate orders for 820 company cars from small businesses.

The new scheme sees franchise dealers working with an outsourced specialist sales team Magma Services.

While Mazda’s own corporate sales team focuses on fleets running 100 plus vehicles, Magma Services is driving fleet sales to smaller companies.

Phase one of the scheme focused on the big dealer groups and phase two is looking at smaller groups with multiple outlets and individual franchise dealers located in major towns or cities.

The four Magma-recruited business development managers spend half their time working with dealers, prospecting, marketing and making joint visits.

They spend the remainder of their time on direct sales.

DATED: 03.11.10

FEED: MT

Slowing sales have forced car dealer Inchcape will sell 10 dealerships in a cost-cutting move that will reduce its staff by 500.

Inchcape has decided to sell dealerships in the UK, Singapore, Greece and Belgium - four markets it operates in that are not expected to grow next year. It employs 14,141 people worldwide but it was unclear today which dealerships would be affected.

"As expected, we saw a slowdown in new car registrations in the UK following expiration of the scrappage incentive and demand for new cars fell in Greece," said Andre Lacroix, the chief executive.

"The group has performed better than expected in the third quarter and Inchcape will deliver a robust earnings recovery in 2010, slightly ahead of expectations," said Lacroix.

The owner of the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone car dealerships has said it expects the new car sales market to be subdued and it will focus on used cars to drive its business.

Nottingham-based Pendragon posted a like-for-like increase in used car sales of 7% in the three months to September 30, compared to a 23.4% decline in new car sales in the quarter.

While new car sales were up when stripping out the impact of last year's scrappage scheme, the company said it expected used car volumes to continue to improve and new car sales to remain subdued.

Pendragon, the UK's largest independent operator of franchised car dealerships, operating more than 300 franchises, said it was "cautiously optimistic" that it will hit full-year profit expectations.

The company added: "While the wider macro-economic environment remains uncertain, we continue to concentrate on the areas of the business where we have the greatest opportunity to improve profitability and reduce debt."

Excluding scrappage figures, new car sales would have risen 27.6%, and total retail sales would have increased 30.1%.

The company's volume car retailer, Evans Halshaw - which sells brands such as Citroen, Vauxhall and Ford from 127 dealerships - saw retail sales excluding scrappage increase 43%.

Its Stratstone dealership - which focuses on luxury brands such as Ferrari, BMW and Aston Martin - saw an increase in retail sales excluding scrappage of 1.4%.

Land Rover has appointed Colin Green to the role of managing director of Land Rover UK and he will start in the role on December 1.

He will replace John Edwards who has recently been appointed global brand director for Land Rover.

Green, currently Land Rover global marketing director, has worked for Land Rover since 1979. He has overseen all global marketing activity for the last six years and prior to that was UK marketing director.

As managing director, Land Rover UK, Green will report directly to Phil Popham, who assumes his new role as director, global sales and service operations, Jaguar Land Rover on December 1.

DATED: 03.11.2010

FEED: AM