Blogs

I recorded a podcast last week, when one of the discussion topics was the recently announced cuts to the Renault UK dealer network of around 20% from 144 franchise points to 115, a move that has attracted descriptions like “radical” and “slashing”. Based on some work that ICDP did with Urban Science last year, the reality is that with 115 ...

As we count down the final days to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty 31 July implementation deadline, which requires firms to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, the incoming regulations make it even more important for dealers to review the products and customer service processes they currently have in place. More than a quarter (28%) of ...

A leading debt advisor is reporting a ‘marked rise’ in the number of people seeking advice on motor finance debt. The StepChange Debt Charity, which has been in existence for 30 years, said that between January 2020 and March 2023, the proportion of clients accessing debt advice who have a car finance debt has risen by 14.8%. In the same ...

Ever since the dawn of the internet, dealers have been gradually adapting to a digital consumer retail landscape, but now more than ever, change is afoot. Spurred on by the pandemic, and heightened for some with the shift to the agency sales model, more people than ever are now researching, speccing and buying their new cars online. Despite this, most ...

BEV charging seems to be in the news at the moment.  The British comedy actor Rowan Atkinson attracted attention with a column in the Guardian newspaper suggesting that he had been duped into buying a BEV by incomplete environmental analyses, but also commented on unsatisfactory charging experiences. Bigger news came out of the US recently however when GM announced that ...

This month in Dealer Insight we feature LSH Auto UK, which opened a new BYD showroom in Stockport. Chinese electric vehicles are in the news and attracting a lot of interest from dealers. LSH belongs to a select club, being one of a handful of dealers to partner with the Chinese EV brand. Vaughan Blackman, former LSH Australia general manager, ...

I’m on holiday in the Algarve at the moment, so wasn’t really planning on a blog this week, but one thing struck me on the way from the airport, and subsequently driving round in my rental car.  (Opel Corsa, very nice drive, well equipped by the way). There are many unfamiliar sights when you travel around, even within Europe which ...

Data protection is a huge issue for all dealers and rising fast up the agenda for management. This month we report on a well-chronicled case, that of Arnold Clark. It’s not  alone. Other dealer groups, including Pendragon, have been targeted. This will be a key area of debate at the Motor Retailing EXPO taking place at Silverstone later this year. ...

Over the last three years, since both manufacturers and dealers discovered that they can make more money by selling fewer cars, we have been assured that lessons had been learned and that we would not return to the bad old days of oversupply. Pushing product drives discounts and campaign spending that amounts to billions of euros annually for a major ...

With the recent news that BT will become a ‘leaner business’ and push into artificial intelligence (AI), there’s amped up anxiety that this rapidly growing technology could take work away from humans. But where AI might replace jobs at some point, we believe this technology will not only lead to more creativity but also create more new jobs and opportunities ...