2:00 pm, January 31, 2023
As January draws to a close it feels like only yesterday that we were all singing Auld Lang Syne and celebrating the dawn of another year.
The last month has flown by for all of us here at Car Dealer, with plenty of juicy stories for us to sink our teeth into.
As a result, we are already closing in on one million visits to our website since the start of the year. But which stories have been the most popular?
To find out, we have been taking a look back at the last 31 days to find out what you have all been reading.
This is what we found…
10. Car dealers have nothing to fear over used car court case loss after finance firm forced to pay out
Page views: 22,999
Back on January 12, we brought you the story of Kenneth Herron, who bought a 63-reg Citroen DS 5 from Edinburgh-based Cars4You.
When the alternator belt snapped just 2,600 miles later, and attempts to get it repaired failed, Herron tried to exercise his right to reject the car.
He sought a refund of the £2,448.64 deposit and £910.49 in monthly payments that he’d already shelled but provider MotoNovo Finance refused to pay up.
The case ended up at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, where Herron won what was described as a ‘landmark’ case.
However, that characterisation was rejected by automotive legal consultancy Lawgistics, which described the case as a ‘storm in a teacup’, adding that car dealers had nothing to fear.
The story – and its possible ramifications for dealers – proved to be an interesting read and was viewed around 23,000 times in January.
9. Used car prices fell by 1.5 per cent in December – and EVs continued to free-fall in value
Page views: 27,425
As we returned to daily news on January 3, we brought you a round up of what had happened to used car prices in the final month of 2022.
Cap HPI data shown to Car Dealer revealed that December was the third biggest drop in prices in 2022 after March and April, which both dropped by 2.1 per cent.
It meant the average three-year old used car with 60,000 miles on the clock dropped in value by around £300 at the end of last year.
Despite the drop, the valuations experts said the movement from December into January was in ‘in line’ with the five-year average, showing ‘the overall strength of the market despite the economic turmoil the country has faced this year’.
Used car prices have been in the headlines a lot over recent years and this story was read more than 27,000 times.
8. Exclusive: Leaked all-hands Cazoo staff call reveals 15 used car sites could close as cuts laid bare
Page views: 27,749
One of the biggest stories throughout the month has been the ongoing financial crisis at Cazoo.
The outfit features heavily on this list, with the first entry this story, in which staff were told of the full scale of the firm’s problems.
In an all-hands call to employees, which was leaked to Car Dealer, chief customer officer Darren Bentley warned staff of mass closures and redundancies.
He announced that as many as15 of Cazoo’s customer hand over centres could close and the number of preparation centres could also be reduced to just three.
It was a damning assessment of where the troubled retailer currently finds itself and was our eight most-read story of the month.
7. NYSE suspends trading in Cazoo warrants and starts delisting proceedings
Page views: 29,432
Although last year ended badly for Cazoo, it was once we got into the new year that the full scale of its problems began to emerge.
The first sign of those difficulties came when the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in Cazoo warrants and started delisting proceedings.
Trading in the online used car dealer’s warrants – ticker symbol CZOO WS – were ‘suspended immediately’, the NYSE announced at the close of business on January 4.
NYSE said in a statement on Business Wire that the warrants were ‘no longer suitable for listing based on abnormally low price levels’.
The news was a significant blow for Alex Chesterman and co, with our story read almost 30,000 times.
6. Tesla slashes price of Model 3 and Y in move that will damage used prices further
Page views: 35,694
Aside from the ongoing disaster at Cazoo, the other major saga of January has been the collapse in the value of both new and used Teslas.
On January 13, Tesla announced it had dropped the price of the Model 3 from a starting price of £51,090 to £42,990 – a near 16 per cent drop.
The Model Y Performance variant – the most expensive in the range –was also slashed from a starting price of £67,990 to £57,990 – a near 15 per cent price cut.
Customers who ordered the car at the old price will be forced to stick with that pricing if they have confirmed an order and there were also protests in China, after buyers missed out on similar price cuts there.
All-in-all, it’s just been another normal month in the crazy world of Elon Musk and this story is the first on our list to top 35,000 clicks.
5. All Cazoo staff will get redundancy payouts if they lose their jobs, confirms online used car dealer
Page views: 37,642
Moving into our top five now and it’s back to Cazoo. Following on from its warnings to staff over job losses, reports emerged that employees who had spent two years or less with the firm would receive no redundancy cash.
Last Monday bosses moved to deny that was the case and insisted that all staff facing losing their job – regardless of how long they have worked for the company – will get redundancy payouts.
A spokesman said ‘all employees will be entitled to redundancy pay, with a minimum of four weeks basic salary’.
4. A history of Cazoo: A look at used car dealer’s rapid rise and dramatic fall
Page views: 43,615
Given everything that has been going on with Cazoo so far this year, we decided to give dealers an in depth look at the retailer’s history.
We trawled back through our archives and found every story we have ever written about the controversial company.
The most significant of them were then compiled together to create an exhaustive timeline dating back to before the firm launched.
As this list shows, there is a huge interest in anything to do with Cazoo and more than 42,500 of you took the time to read this one.
3. Hackers demand millions in ransom from Arnold Clark or else face massive upload of customer information to dark web
Page views: 46,104
Last week, we reported that Hackers who targeted Arnold Clark were demanding that the dealer group pay a multi-million-pound ransom or else face a massive upload of leaked customer data.
The cyber attackers had already released 15 gigabytes in one go and were threatening to post another 467 gigabytes of sensitive customer information.
Cyber criminal gang Play had already put customer information such as National Insurance numbers, passports and addresses on the dark web.
The attack on the Glasgow-headquartered number 1 Car Dealer Top 100 firm was carried out just before Christmas – it was originally believed to have taken place on Christmas Eve.
Responding to the development, an Arnold Clark spokeswoman told Car Dealer: ‘We take the security and safety of our customer data very seriously and accurate identification of any potential compromise of that data remains our primary focus.’
The possible consequences of the breach remain unclear and over 46,000 of you came to Car Dealer to find out what was going on.
2. Tesla prices are in free fall as latest used car data shows huge drops in value
Page views: 63,654
On January 9, we brought you the news that used Tesla values were in freefall, with one of its models losing a fifth of its value in just 12 months.
Values of the popular electric cars were left in a tailspin as experts blamed rising electric prices and swathes of new models arriving seriously damaging prices.
The Model 3 was named the worst-performing electric car, according to industry used car pricing experts Cap HPI, losing some 23 per cent or £9,900 in the last year alone.
In a table of the worst-depreciating electric cars, Teslas take up three of the top five spots.
Tesla responded with price cuts on new Model 3 and Y cars, sending used prices down even further. Our original story was read 63,654 times.
1. Exclusive: BMW halts sale of all police cars to forces in UK with immediate effect
Page views: 83,782
Our most-read story of January was one that impacted on one of the most common sites on British roads – BMW police cars.
The German outfit halted all car sales to police forces in the UK and shut down its sales centre in London.
A team of around 20 people arrived for work at International & Specialist Sales Division, based at its Park Lane, Mayfair, only to be told the department was shutting down.
A spokesman for the company told Car Dealer that it would be ‘prioritising sales to retail and corporate customers’ and moving away from sales to the police and other authorities.
The news shocked police officers and civilians alike and was viewed 83,782 times.
*All information correct as of 11:45am on January 31, 2023
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