9:15 am, December 29, 2022
In this somewhat uncertain world, it’s nice to know that you can always rely on one thing: Car Dealer’s columnists are never short of something to say!
During the year, we’ve brought you views and thoughts from editor-in-chief James Baggott, associate editor James Batchelor and automotive retail consultant James Litton, as well as humorous pieces from our ever-popular mystery scribe Big Mike!
And with the final magazine for 2022 now available to read and download for free (it’s a whopper, too, at 96 pages!), we’ve taken a stroll through this year’s editions to bring you a ‘Christmas selection box’ of the writers’ wise and witty offerings.
With 2022 newly under way, we were still feeling the ramifications of the pandemic, and James Litton told how Covid had shown the importance of the industry planning for future crises and reacting accordingly.
He pointed out that motor manufacturers had warnings from environmental disasters such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and 2011 Japanese earthquake, but many were caught out by a lack of supply chain resilience as a result of Covid-19.
As such, now was the time to marry the future of EVs to a more dynamic, localised supply chain that wasn’t only more resilient to future global catastrophes but had less environmental impact as well.
Meanwhile, among his many thought-provoking pieces, editor-in-chief James Baggott couldn’t help wondering why – amid revelations from the online used car disruptor world coming thick and fast – Cinch insisted on playing its cards so close to its chest.
While others were flailing and failing, it still appeared to be splashing the cash on marketing and had an impressive number of cars for consumers to choose from – but was is it actually making any money and was its sales model really working? (We’re still waiting to find out, by the way…)
Big Mike is as mysterious a personage as Santa Claus (and – as the Midlands-based car dealer himself would admit – has the girth to match) and his anonymity is probably a good thing, bearing in mind what he knows!
But as well as the girth there’s his mirth for which he’s renowned, and he’s been keeping Car Dealer’s readers’ funny bones tickled throughout the year with his forecourt tales, even when it comes to serious industry topics such as electric vehicles.
He nailed his EV antipathy firmly to the Car Dealer mast hilariously this year, using various defences such as cowardice, incompetence and built-in obsolescence (the vehicles’, that is, not his…).
Understated. Shy. Unassuming. Three words that could never be said of James Batchelor – aka Batch.
But Batch’s words in his magazine column resonated strongly as he let loose with his feelings on a range of automotive topics, such as calling out Ferrari over its stubborn denial that the Purosangue is an SUV.
The twists and turns of the car’s development had been pure Italian high opera, he commented, starting with the firm’s, er, firm refusal that it would ever make an SUV, through to then-CEO Sergio Marchionne going back on his word and saying an SUV ‘would probably happen’.
Lo and behold, the Purosangue was born!
Everyone knows it’s an SUV of course but Ferrari steadfastly refuses to utter the word in connection with it.
Other highlights this year have included Batch’s love letter to the Vauxhall Insignia, Baggott’s life-or-death poser about AI in cars, Litton’s poignant pointer for the agency sales model, and Big Mike’s texting blunder that cost him dearly!
So many topics, so many opinions, so much worth reading! So don’t miss out on what our columnists have to say in 2023 – you can be sure they’ll be well worth reading!
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