8:20 am, December 6, 2020
If I thought my week had been busy, I can imagine what it’s been like for those of you in the trade welcoming customers back into the showrooms for the first time in 28 days.
The dealers I spoke to this week said they were extremely busy with some suggesting December could be their best ever.
‘Best ever’ is something I keep hearing as many dealers have managed to turn around their lockdown losses and are heading towards a record end of year. It’ll be interesting to see the results.
A couple of quick notes for you before I review the headlines that caught my eye.
Tomorrow we’ll be revealing the Nominations List for the Car Dealer Used Car Awards – these are the firms that will enter the mystery shopping phase in an attempt to make the shortlist.
And our Car Dealer Top 100 list of the most profitable dealers will finally be out on December 17. Standby for some firework numbers when that hits the website…
Click on the headlines below to be taken directly to the story.
Booming start
Car dealers told me about their booming first day back in the showrooms as I caught up with franchised dealers and independents across the country. Find out how they were performing by clicking the headline link above.
Carzam goes live
After a lockdown delay, the online used car website from Big Motoring World boss Peter Waddell and former Cox Automotive president John Bailey finally went live this week. On Monday we got an exclusive sneak peak and reviewed what we saw and then on Thursday the site went live for all to see.
Lookers fears
Lookers have fears over the group’s ability to continue as a ‘going concern’ if economic conditions worsen. The group said it had ‘modelled a number of adverse scenarios’ that could cause the company serious issues. We look at the announcement in detail.
Top Tips
As car dealers prepared for the reopening an automotive consultant told us they should not only focus on making their physical sites look great – they need to concentrate on their digital propositions too. Ali May-Khalil gave us a host of other practical tips for dealers looking to better their business too.
Top Gear Awards
I don’t know about you, but I love the new Top Gear line up. The new presenting trio are hilarious and I enjoy their banter and easy-watching style. This week they revealed their cars of the year and it’s nice to see they came to the same conclusion as Car Dealer…
November sales
We correctly predicted the drop of a third in new car registrations for November, 24 hours before they officially came out. Although down, they prove that car dealers are a resilient bunch and have made a roaring success of click and collect. That certainly bodes well for future lockdowns.
Luxury car prices
Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin prices have plummeted around 30 per cent in a year as a combination of desperate sellers and canny buyers push prices down. Supercar dealers told us they’d witnessed dramatic price drops on luxury models that previously were commanding premiums of tens of thousands of pounds.
Porsche profits
Porsche Retail Group saw its pre-tax profit soar by 27.2 per cent to £10.2m last year, its latest figures revealed. It’ll be interesting to see where that places them in our list of the most profitable dealers in the UK – the Car Dealer Top 100. As mentioned above, that will be out on December 17.
Apple car
UK-based fans of tech giant Apple can now buy a slice of its automotive history. A car supermarket is selling a selection of previously well-loved vehicles used by the tech giant to capture data for the firm’s Apple Maps. You’ll be surprised to see which models they used…
Vertu seals BMW deal
Vertu Motors has completed the acquisition of Inchcape’s BMW and Mini dealerships in Yorkshire and the North East. CEO Robert Forrester reported on Twitter that the deal, first revealed by Car Dealer back in October, had finally been done.
Ad-free website
We’ve had a fantastic take up of our Car Dealer Plus membership. For £5 a month, members get free legal advice, access to exclusive stories, an ad-free website and a host of other benefits. Car Dealer is funded purely by the support of our brilliant advertisers, but if you want to support us too, and get a premium web experience as a thank you, join the club here.
And that’s it from me.
Don’t forget if you want to stay up to date with the best news stories join one of our breaking news WhatsApp groups here.
I’ll leave you with some fun advice from Mike Brewer…
