9:20 am, December 30, 2023
Here at Car Dealer, we’ve really worked hard on increasing our output this year. Whether it’s being the very first to cover the news stories that matter the most to you or laying on industry-leading events, we’ve had a busy 2023.
One area we’ve really moved up a gear is with our YouTube content. From in-depth films revealing the life of supercar dealers, revealing the best and worst manufacturer to represent, to interviewing the big bosses in the dealer world, our YouTube channel has really grown in views and subscribers this year.
Here are some of the best performing and our favourite videos of 2023.
The AI Dealership Project
What started out as a joke on a company-wide morning zoom call turned into reality in late 2023, as Car Dealer founder and editor-in-chief, James Baggott, embarked on a project to start up his own car dealership. It’s been a thing he’s been longing to do for years, but, with AI (artificial intelligence) taking on a whole new level of importance in 2023, he decided to enlist the help of the technology to build his new car dealership business.
From choosing his company name, to finding the right bank to fund him and choosing which stock to buy, Baggott is using AI as much as he possibly can. It’s a series of videos – the first is listed here.
Selling Supercars – Amari
In our long running series ‘Selling Supercars’, our attention turned to Amari in August 2023. In this video bosses Sheikh Amari and Saba Syed opened up about the secrets to their success in selling multi-million pound cars.
The pair showed us around their luxury dealership in Preston and told us what makes them unique in the motor trade. Look out for Amari’s watch in the video…
I’ve had death threats – Mike Brewer on online bullies & 20 years of Wheeler Dealers
Long-time Car Dealer supporter Mike Brewer sat down with James Baggott in October, and spoke about his life and reaching the anniversary of 20 years of making the worldwide hit TV show Wheeler Dealers.
During the interview, Brewer opens up about the pain he’s had to deal with with online bullies. He talks about how he has received death threats on social media while others have threatened to harm his wife and daughter. He also talks about his favourite cars, which mechanic he liked working with the most (spoiler: them all) and why he thinks the show has been so successful.
Used car prices drop in November
Every month in 2023 we brought you an update on used car prices and the general health of the used car market. The videos we produce in which we chat to experts from Cap HPI and Auto Trader always get people talking, but none more so than this video from November.
Cap HPI’s Mark Bulmer shared crucial insights into November’s 4.2% drop in used car prices. He explained the factors driving this second consecutive monthly fall, totalling an 8.4% decrease over two months, and shed light on the current state of the used car market.
Tesla Model Y loses £14k in four months
Here’s another example of how important our used car content is on YouTube. This video became instantly popular, as Cap HPI’s Derren Martin revealed electric car prices tanked by 6.6% in January 2023, partly off the back of brutal new car price cuts by Tesla. He also explained how the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y were particularly badly hit with the Model 3 losing £13,275 and the Model Y losing £14,000 in just four months.
The falling values of used electric cars became a theme of 2023 with many experts saying EV prices were being corrected after years of high used car prices across the board.
Inspiring Leaders – Daksh Gupta
Another new series we launched in 2023 was ‘Inspiring Leaders’. Available as a podcast and as a video, the series speaks to inspirational bosses in the automotive industry.
You could say you couldn’t find a more inspiring leader than Daksh Gupta. In this chat, the former chief of Marshall Motor Group revealed his life after the listed company was snapped up by Cinch-owner Constellation Automotive Group. He spoke about why he feels inspiring the next generation of car dealer leaders is so important, and about leaving Marshall post-acquisition.
Canadian firm Alpha Auto Group makes £465m bid for Lookers
The topic of listed dealer groups being swooped on by private firms and individuals became a theme of 2023. Early in the year we learnt about Alpha Auto Group as it made moves to buy Lookers.
The original bid was £465m and as soon as the news broke Car Dealer hopped on a zoom call with David Kendrick from UHY Hacker Young to discuss it. The video gave some colour to a very surprising move to snap up the listed dealer group – and you can watch it below.
Eventually, Alpha Auto Group purchased Lookers later in the year. The deal was worth £504.2m and was funded by three Canadian banks.
Car Dealer Power 2023 – the results
Car Dealer Power has been one of our headline events since Car Dealer was launched. It seeks to name the best car manufacturers (and shame the worst) and celebrate the best companies dealers do business with. Every year it has gone from strength to strength, and personally speaking, it’s one of my favourite things to film every year.
As always, the awards were voted for by our Car Dealer readers and they also chose their favourite cars to sell in our Car of the Year categories. In total, we named 21 winners in this video.
Car Dealer Live: Peter Waddell
We’ve interviewed a wide range of industry bosses and car dealers this year, but one of the most enjoyable was our chat with Peter Waddell. Big Motoring World founder Waddell snapped up two of rival Available Car’s used car supermarkets in October, as it targets a £1bn turnover in 2024.
Waddell sat down exclusively with Car Dealer and said he’d ‘been quiet for a while’ as he inked the deal with Available Car and launched a handful of new ventures.
Car Dealer Top 100
Our Top 100 chart returned in 2023 and revealed the best performing car dealers in the UK. In this video we discussed the Car Dealer Top 100 list – sponsored by Heycar – with this year’s compiler, UHY Hacker Young.
The firm’s partner Ian McMahon chatted to James Baggott about which car dealers generated the most profits in the 2022 financial year, the biggest risers and the biggest fallers.
