Car Dealer Magazine: Issue 67

BMW 4 SERIES

New coupe put to the test P36

Business Publication of the Year

From Russia with love

BENTLEY FLYING SPUR

New luxury limo reviewed P42

Issue 67 | October 2013 | CarDealerMag.co.uk | £3.50

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IGNITION.

EDITORIAL EDITOR James Batchelor

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STAFF WRITER Jon Reay

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STAFF WRITER Sophie Williamson-Stothert

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head of design Graeme Windell

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ADVERTISING ADVERTISING Manager Duncan Chappell

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Advertising EXECUTIVE Amy Hobbs

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CREDIT CONTROL & ADMINISTRATOR Pippa Marsden

pippa@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerPip

SUITS MANAGING DIRECTOR James Baggott

james@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerEd

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Andy Entwistle

andy@blackballmedia.co.uk Twitter: @CarDealerAndy

Contributors James Litton, Tim Naylor, Tim Heavisides, Jonathan Such, Dave Brown, Mal Hay, Leon Poultney, Daljinder Nagra, Diana Hargreaves, Alex Robbins and John Bowman

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James came back Welcome. WHEN from driving Mazda’s new 3 hatchback across deepest, darkest Siberia, his story raised quite a few eyebrows in the Car Dealer office.

We weren’t remotely concerned about his trials and tribulations with prison-like food, sub-standard hotel rooms or lavatories coated in excrement. Oh no – what really surprised us was Mazda’s attitude to the event.

To tell the world of its brand new product, Mazda got together a fleet of 3s – the first eight off the production line no less – and drove them from the car’s factory in Hiroshima, Japan, to the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.

But instead of just getting a load of journalists along, the manufacturer asked bloggers, dealers and even Mazda UK managing director Jeremy Thomson to take part.

It’s Thomson who really deserves the pat on the back here. Unlike most MDs who are flown in to an event in business class and then helicoptered out again, Thomson endured the same journey that Baggott suffered. He had to put up with rooms with no windows and levels of squalor to rival Victorian London.

Not only that but two UK dealers were present as well – Lansdown Mazda boss Danny Sacco and RRG Group operations chief Neil Perrin. Bearing in mind the Mazda UK dealer network has had a hard time of it in the last five years, the trip turned into a four-day counselling session.

Thomson could quite easily have thrown in the towel, phoned his PR director (in the UK) and ordered a Lear Jet to pick him up. But no – he stuck it out and won considerable respect for his attitude.

Just days later Baggott was joining me and Jonny Reay in Ireland for a special car-versus-boat race.

The plan was very simple: Travel to Ireland where we

would be introduced to a nice man called Tom whose RIB was going to transport Baggott around the most southerly coast of Ireland. Meanwhile, I would be at the wheel of a Mazda CX-5 trying to beat them to the finish line. It was a typical car-versus-boat challenge and we had big plans for a cracking feature.

But a number of things conspired against us to turn the feature into a bit of a nightmare – although an enjoyable nightmare if you know what I mean. Turn to p60 to find out what I am talking about.

THE DEALERSHIP I’m sure many of you watched the latest reality TV series on Channel 4 and were surprised to find it didn’t involve Geordies or past-it celebrities, but the good old motor trade.

But in contrast to the usually unfavourable portrayals of our industry on the gogglebox, The Dealership on Channel 4 was a positive and enjoyable slice of television – even if a number of dealers took umbrage at the way in which the Essex Car Company goes about its business.

There are rumours of a second series – but we’ll have to wait and see whether Channel 4 takes the plunge again.

Sophie and I spent the day there to find out what the dealership really is like – and I become their latest recruit for the day. Flick to p66 to find out how I got on.

Enjoy the issue.

James Batchelor, editor

Winner: Best Business ‘This magazine brings its readers an insightful, engaging overview of their industry which Publication of the Year entertains as well as informs’ - award judges CarDealerMag.co.uk | 03

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INSIDE. ISSUE 67 I October 2013

Dashboard

Letters

Car Dealer Ewards

46

Car Dealer Used Car Awards Bangers4BEN 2013

Russian Doll-drums

Big Mike Baggott

We pilot one of Mazda’s new 3 hatchbacks across Russia in an epic road trip. And make a mess of a special Mazda CX-5 feature in Ireland

38 Forecourt Real Deals

BMW 4 Series

Nissan Autonomous Drive MG3

42

Bentley Flying Spur

Tested: MG’s crucial new car

‘‘

40

36

It’s more natural as a 4 Series rather than a 3 Series. It creates greater distinction

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96 Taking Stock & Buyers’ Guide 98 Commercials 100 Auctions 103 Trader Talk 104 On Track 105 Motor Mouth 106 Crystal Clear 107 Suppliers Guide & Trader Directory 108 Workshop 110 Long termers 112 CarDealer USED AWARDS USED CAR Time is Money AWARDS 114 POWER CAR r.

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Focus on: Frontline

Marketing Masters

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Car Dealer’s editor becomes The Dealership’s new boy

The Dealership

Focus on: TRACKER

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66

Features

Mazda special

Back to the future: Nissan’s self-driving car

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Driven: Bentley’s posh new four-door

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63-reg ticks on by...

IT GOES without saying the annual plate change is always an important event on September 1.

I’ve been working as a saleswoman at a franchise dealer for five years now and it’s always a stressful time – great for business, I’m pleased to say, but it does nothing for my ticker!

The number of orders we took in preparation for the arrival of the 63-reg was vast, and orders continue to flood in.

Another great thing about the plate-change is the way in which we can get to know our customers, because they’re always keen to share their news with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Karen Palmer via email

Ewards? Hurrah!

I hear Ewards is back? A few years ago my dealership was nominated for one of the awards.

Although we didn’t win, it was good to know we were doing something right! These days I run my own independent used car dealership and I’m learning that online advertising and involvement is the way forward.

I really enjoying speaking with my customers on social media and it’s a great way to generate leads.

It’s great to see Car Dealer is rewarding dealers for their online presence. I can’t wait to start voting!

Dave Allen via email

twitter comments

Wanted: Dog for feature WE ARE on the hunt for a dog. Most of you will know we have our very own mongrel – @CarDealerDog – but we’re after one and its dealer owner for a forthcoming feature. When we asked for help on Twitter, these were some of the funniest replies. If you have a dog and want to be in our special feature, tweet us @CarDealerMag

@CarDealerEd @CarDealerMag Speak to John at @SpecialistCars Eric is often waiting to kill the postman.

Stuart Gallagher @stuartg917 @CarDealerEd @CarDealerMag Derek @DVACltd is the man to talk to. A family business, he has taken his dogs to work for years. The customers love it.

Wirral Small Cars @wirralsmallcars

Farewell

I’m sad to hear that Jon Williams is leaving his post as president of Toyota GB. I have worked with Jon before and thought he was very driven and was just the right character to steer Toyota through some tricky times lately – especially with the recent recalls.

Alan Pope

via email

A dog @specialistcars1 @CarDealerEd @CarDealerMag @jimreidvehicle @Fern_Reid will it be called one dealer and his dog? ;)

Adam Hicks @MotorMonstercom @CarDealerEd @CarDealerMag I’ve certainly taken in some dogs in my time!

Shaun @shaunjcox

Posh Ford?

Does anyone else think Ford’s Vignale is far from being good news? I’m old enough to remember Ford of America doing the same thing with Edsel in the 1950s. While that was a separate brand altogether, you would have thought Ford would have learnt that people don’t want a posh Ford!

Arthur Matthews via email

a month in pictureS...

You may be able to see how the weather turned on us for our Mazda feature in Ireland this month in these pictures. The weather was so bad we had to abandon the feature altogether. But it didn’t stop us from having a laugh. Look closely and you’ll see James Baggott in a kayak in one picture. And then, in the other, he’s disappeared. He’d capsized. We laughed. A lot. Read the feature on p60.

Team-building weekend saw me end up in a fountain I HAVE been working at an independent dealership for about a year now. I get on really well with the guys and like the job, so you can understand why I kept quiet about my actions at a teambuilding weekend recently.

The boss had generously booked and paid for a very nice hotel for all of us and our partners, plus a day of activities. Very kind! After the team-friendly day, we all had a lovely dinner and lots of wine. Too much for some. Amy, wife of one of the salesmen, got a little tipsy, spilt a drink and was very loud. After that, we were all told that ‘perhaps it is time you all vacated

the bar’ by the management. So they did, apart from me and a mechanic, called Dan. We decided to take our last drink outside where there was a large fountain. We thought it would be a great idea to jump into the decorative water feature as a mark of defiance to the hotel management. After a loud and drunken argument with security, we got out and went back in to the hotel leaving a trail of mucky water behind. After some more shouting at

My

CONFESSION

the hotel staff, we retired gracefully to our rooms.

In the morning, we all met for breakfast. My colleague and Amy sat looking very embarrassed.

Apparently, a note had been passed under my boss’s door explaining how ‘some of his party were acting inappropriately’ and they had to ‘clean the carpet due to the staining’.

They were charging for the cleaning and asked us never to stay at the hotel again. I kept very quiet, knowing it was actually me and Dan that were to blame. Amy has since written a letter to the boss apologising for her behaviour.

MH, Maple Cross CarDealerMag.co.uk | 07

08 | CarDealerMag.co.uk

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Scottish Motor Trade says DVLA is ‘a shambles’ bit.ly/DVLAshambles

Heavisides

warranty wonders

Let’s all make the most of this new upturn

A

Exclusive: Kahn to open showrooms Bespoke car creator travels south to its customers

V

ehicle design house A Kahn Design is to open four new showrooms.

Bosses at the company, which creates bespoke vehicles, want the new showrooms, in London and Leeds, to ‘showcase what they do’ rather than to sell cars.

Speaking to Car Dealer, the firm’s head of operations, Ally Kahani, said that while its new dealerships will be able to sell its bespoke cars, the main purpose will be to showcase the firm’s talents and the services that are available.

‘We want to display our products and exactly what we do to more people,’ Kahani told us. ‘We usually attend the major motor shows such as Frankfurt and Geneva, but then there’s London — where better to have our displays than where people go to play?

‘We design and build vehicles unique to a customer’s individuality. People have a love affair with their cars and it’s no longer a case of buying a car that just gets them from A to B — that’s what we stand for.

‘We haven’t just invested in these new dealerships to sell more cars, we have done this to open up our product range to more and more people.’

The group’s new ‘boutique’, in Kings Road, Chelsea, London, will become a central component of the company’s

global marketing operation, with a £25m investment in two new London sites in Chelsea Harbour and another dealership in Leeds. The new outlets are set to open within the next 18 months, taking the staff headcount in the capital to more than 150.

The company’s turnover will increase from approximately £30m to £90m.

Group CEO Afzal Kahn said the new dealerships would help their large customer base in London to view A Kahn Design products without having to drive north to the firm’s headquarters in Bradford.

Kahn said: ‘We already have a vast customer base in London, so it’s a project with outstanding potential. I am excited for our customers because they will be able to see on their doorstep, and at close quarters, our complete range of products without making the journey north.’

The firm exported a substantial 70 per cent of all its vehicles last year, and customers from more than 40 countries purchased bespoke products from A Kahn Design.

Kahani added: ‘Our business is responsible for approximately 400 people in the industry, and in the middle of the biggest recession since the 1930s, we are expanding and creating more jobs.

‘The opening of these new dealerships will create the minimum of 200 new jobs.’

t the risk of encouraging an outbreak of optimism, September seems to be showing all the signs of being another fantastic month for new car registrations.

Plate-change time has always held a strong allure for buyers and dealers seem to have been making the most of the upturn in consumer confidence with strong retail offers, backed by manufacturer incentives and great new cars.

The SMMT confidently expects September’s 63plate sales to pass 400,000 units as the market heads towards 2.2m new car registrations for 2013.

It’s all very encouraging and very welcome after what feels like an age in the doldrums.

Of course, the benefits of a strong new car market are felt in the used car sector too, and the AA suggests that over 1.2m pre-owned cars will be retailed in the next three months as part-exchange vehicles are turned around for sale and new streams of customers are encouraged into dealerships.

That’s a colossal opportunity for dealers to capitalise on, so let’s make the most of it.

If market conditions taught us anything through the credit crunch, it was to make the most of whatever footfall comes through the door.

We haven’t seen the demise of dealers on the scale originally forecast in 2008 because dealers adapted their business processes to the conditions; now that volumes are picking up again, we need to make sure we continue to focus on selling more than just the car. When customers come into showrooms, they see that the car market has moved with the times and that dealers offer a complete motoring proposition, rather than just metalwork.

Dealers can turn buyers into customers by bringing them back for servicing, parts, warranty, tyres, cosmetic repairs and their next new or used car.

Retailers have a complete arsenal of products at their disposal to meet every need — as sale volumes pick up, let’s not forget what a great benefit they are to everyone.

Especially the customer.

‘Retailers have an arsenal of products at their disposal’

Who is Tim Heavisides?

Heavisides is CEO of Car Care Plan, the UK’s leading provider of motor warranty and GAP products.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 09

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Rylatt & Sons seals deal with Citroen bit.ly/RylattCitroen

Ford’s new premium sub-brand aims to deliver total ownership experience Comfort of special lounge helps Vignale customers to select higher specifications

F

ord has unveiled an all-new premium sub-brand. Called Vignale, the subbrand is aimed at discerning customers.

The first car to wear the badge will be based on the forthcoming new Ford Mondeo.

With Vignale, Ford plans to deliver to its customers ‘an ownership experience, rather than just a product’. The Blue Oval says the brand will have an up-market appearance both in the car and in dealerships.

Vignale customers will receive personal and quality service from individual sales advisers and a suite of exclusive services.

‘Vignale will allow customers to engage with the manufacturer and enable the brand to stage experiences for each and every one of its customers,’ said vice president for marketing and sales, Ford of Europe, Roelant de Waard.

‘Vignale is aimed at the 10 to 15 per cent of customers who want a higher specification and will be more willing to pay for the product after they have experienced it. Our customer demand will be met by the launch of Vignale.’

He added: ‘Ford is offering customers a premium experience but not at a premium price.

‘There will be a website dedicated to Vignale and customers will benefit from a personal consultant or adviser throughout the course of

their buying experience. Vignale dealerships will be able to provide customers with a Vignale lounge where they can view and touch materials and they will receive a lifetime car wash and

vacuum service.’ Ford says the launch of Vignale responds to its customers’ need for timesaving services and reflects demand for Ford’s high-end products.

Mazda brings in new visual identity to freshen up dealerships MAZDA dealers in the UK will be the first in Europe to showcase the Japanese firm’s new visual identity for its dealerships.

The refresh includes newlydesigned layouts, lighting and fixtures and has been tested at Donalds Motor Group in Bury St Edmunds.

Three new Mazda dealers, recently open for business or due to open in the next few weeks, will be among the first to sport the new brand identity. The new outlets are in Croydon, Derby and Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Many of the ideas put forward for the redesign came from members of the dealer forum in Britain and several non-car retail outlets including Apple stores.

Mazda UK managing director

Jeremy Thomson said: ‘There is more interest in the brand today than we have open points and the biggest problem is a lack of suitable properties, not a lack of companies wanting to take on Mazda. The focus has been on dealers being entrepreneurial about how to dress their showrooms, not us dictating.

‘The new look, which will be rolled out across the network later this year, has been designed to be cost-effective and flexible for dealers providing maximum impact without being too expensive.’

He added: ‘Dealers can choose different seating, desks and lighting. The flooring and desks remain the same if they want but all signage must conform to our new visual identity.’

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 11

EWARDS.

5-4-3-2-1: Ewards are

‘‘

As a judge you’ll receive benefits including a place on the panel and lots of marketing opportunities in Car Dealer. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Nominate yourself or someone else for an eward bit.ly/EwardsNom13

out of this world!

For 2013, Car Dealer heads to Leicester for a vibrant celebration of the internet’s best

I

t’s one small step for man but one giant leap for the automotive industry! Last month we told you how Ewards 2013 is taking shape and now we can reveal that the location of the event is out of this world.

That’s right – our celebration of the very best automotive websites that the internet has to offer will be held at none other than the National Space Centre near Leicester on October 22.

This stunning location is one of a handful of venues in the UK devoted to space exploration and endeavour.

The centre’s main feature is its 42-metre high ‘Rocket Tower’ – and this is the place where the Ewards will blast off.

The evening will begin with welcome drinks and canapés, served in the imposing tower.

Following this – and after the ceremonial firing-up of one of the largest rockets – guests will adjourn to the planetarium, a state-of-theart domed theatre where the Space Centre will put on an exclusive show just for us.

There will be speeches from the headline sponsor – to be revealed very soon – and other leaders in the digital world.

This will be followed by an awards dinner and ceremony during which each of the night’s winners will be revealed and presented with an award.

CarDealer

EWARDS 2013

Categories 1. Multi-Franchised Dealer Website of The Year Last year’s winner: Days Motor Group

What are the Ewards?

A reasonable question. Ewards are our chance to recognise the best websites, web designers and web specialists in the automotive sector.

Using a panel of expert judges in the run-up to the event, the best of the best will be picked out and celebrated on the night.

But for 2013, we will also be adding another category. Social Media User of the Year joins the ranks and aims to find the dealer, supplier or motor trade individual that is a first-class act when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, live chat, video streaming, YouTube and much more.

We’ve added the new category after dealers told us last year they wanted to be able to nominate themselves and their peers in this crucially important area of the market.

your customer should be winning? It couldn’t be easier. Simply go to bit.ly/EwardsNom13 where you will find all the details and you can nominate either yourself or someone that you believe should be winning one of our prestigious awards. You only have until the end of September, so don’t delay, get nominating now!

How do I enter?

Seen a category that you think you or one of

How do I become a judge?

We’re on the hunt for a full panel of judges.

2. Single Franchised Dealer Website of The Year Last year’s winner: Alan Day Volkswagen 3. Independent Dealer Website of The Year Last year’s winner: Beck Evans

4. Car Supermarket of The Year Last year’s winner: Car Shop 5. Car Manufacturer of The Year Last year’s winner: Aston Martin 6. Web Innovation of The Year Last year’s winner: iVendi (payment search on Hutchings.co.uk) 7. Social Media User of the Year – NEW

Being a judge at the Ewards is always a great way to be associated with one of the most talked-about areas of the motor trade. Having the chance to judge and commend dealers on their digital efforts in such detail is rare.

As a judge you’ll receive a number of benefits including a place on the judging panel and lots of marketing opportunities in Car Dealer.

Contact us now – you’ll find the details you need on page three. [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 13

dashboard.

Morgan franchise is added to Bell and Colvill as new chairman joins More than 200 people attend official opening

D

ealer Bell and Colvill’s new chairman has pledged to take the business on to the next step with the addition of the Morgan franchise. Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer Magazine, new chairman Andrew Elliman said he had ‘lusted after the business since he was 17 years old’ and was pleased to be leading the company forward.

Elliman told Car Dealer: ‘It’s the first time I’ve been in the automotive industry but I’ve always been in business. I had the opportunity to invest in Bell and Colvill 18 months ago while running my own business, Railsite Holdings.

‘The company has historically been associated with West Horsley, Surrey, and as a local lad, since I was a young teenage boy of 17 driving past the dealership, I’ve always aspired to buy cars from Bell and Colvill and I’ve been lusting after it all this time. I’m now really proud to now be a part

of the business and the Morgan brand will be a brilliant addition to the franchise.’

Elliman’s appointment coincided with the addition of the Morgan brand to the dealer franchise. The official opening of the Morgan range took place recently with more than 200 people in attendance.

Among the attendees was MD of Morgan Steve Morris, along with members of his sales team, who fully support the company.

Elliman added: ‘Original founders Bobby Bell and Martin Colvill still have shares in the business as non-executive directors, so the historic DNA is

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still running through the business. Bobby comes into the showroom on a daily basis and Martin does occasionally. It’s brilliant to work alongside them and myself and my team are learning a lot from them as they carry many years of experience between them.’

Originally founded by Bobby Bell and Martin Colvill in 1970, the Surrey-based business has represented its existing three brands – Lotus, Saab and Subaru – since 1970, 1981 and 1995.

Elliman said he was confident that his new career path into the dealer business would be successful. As a new entrant to the trade, he is excited to be a part of it. ‘From a business point of view, it was a great financial investment because Bell and Colvill is recognised as a prestigious brand in the motor retailing sector.

‘This is an exciting, interesting and very different business for me. I’m extremely lucky that it’s based around a very exciting product.’

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Time for something Premium car buyers are looking for an alternative to Audi and BMW, according to bosses at Infiniti.

James Baggott reports

I

nfiniti’s new VW Golf rivalling C Segment car needs to offer premium buyers a completely different alternative to the status quo and thrill them into a purchase.

That’s the opinion of the brand’s creative design manager Hirohisa Ono who chatted to us exclusively about his hopes for the British-built front-wheel-drive car.

Set to become the brand’s biggest volume model, Ono San believes many premium car buyers are fed up with the current offerings from the likes of BMW and Audi and that the time is right for a premium challenger in this segment.

‘It is all about design and the way these cars

look and make people feel,’ he told us. ‘I think buyers are getting tired of the current cars.

‘Young buyers want premium models but they want them to stand out and look different.’

Ono San chatted us through the 2011 concept for the C Segment car at a special event in California – and said the latest incarnation, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show recently, was even better.

‘The next concept will show even further how we plan to attract these premium customers,’ he said. ‘I’ve taken inspiration from all walks of life for this car. I took a road trip out here in California and visited the vineyards and restaurants, just as I suspect buyers of this car

would, and I spent time thinking about how their lives were and how I could make this car fit into them. Design is important and so too is the technology. These cars have to be connected to their world and offer something different.’

The new C-Segment car will be built at Nissan’s Sunderland plant and will feature a hybrid power train. It is due to arrive in showrooms in 2015.

Ono San said customers would be creative types working in industries that have design values, and he was sure the car Infiniti produces – a model that will rapidly become its best seller – will be exciting enough for them to break away from the German norm in this sector.

NISSAN GB managing director Jim Wright believes the next six months could be the most important for the brand in years.

With the launch of the new Micra, Note (right) and Qashqai all coming in quick succession, Wright believes dealers need to be on top of their game to ensure they make the best of some brilliant new products.

‘This is the most important time in my memory for Nissan,’ he told Car Dealer. ‘We have some fantastic new cars coming, but we need to do it properly. I’m extremely optimistic about the opportunity we have before us – we’ve been spending a lot to promote these new cars – and we have to make the most of them.’

Wright said the coming weeks were going to be key if Nissan were to achieve its market share ambitions and build on a very steady year for the brand in the UK. ‘Dealers are going to have a lot of balls to juggle and it’s vital they’re on form. It’s about mining

databases and ensuring they have the right launch activities in place to support the new cars,’ he added.

Wright revealed that it’s likely new Note deliveries will start arriving in the third week

JIM WRIGHT A CRUCIAL SIX MONTHS LIE AHEAD FOR NISSAN

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Darlington Nissan wins national award bit.ly/Nissanaward

different

DATSUN ON ITS WAY TO THE UK? NEVER SAY NEVER . . .

‘‘

Infiniti’s Q30 Concept could rival Volkswagen’s Golf

of September – and that will come as welcome news for targets for the month. Note has already banked 1,400 orders – in line with plan – while Micra has 3,500 orders for September, two-thirds of the target.

‘Good launch events are vital,’ he said.

‘I attended one at Chorley Group when we toured the Micra and Note and I was extremely impressed with the quality of the attendees. It was clear they had been qualified properly.

‘I heard they sold 19 cars off the back of that event and that’s because they qualified the customers, got them there and followed the

It’s all about design and the way these cars look and make people feel leads up. More dealers need to be doing this.’

Wright said NMGB had some important things it needed to get right in this crucial period too – and promised dealers he’d be ensuring his team would be supporting them as they geared up for a busy few months.

‘We’re aiming for six per cent market share in 2015 and that’s achievable,’ he said.

‘Look at the success we’ve had and that’s been without the new products we have now.

‘We all just need to keep our foot to the floor.’

Turn to page 38 for the Nissan Leaf Autonomous Drive

DATSUN may not be arriving in the UK any time soon, but Nissan’s UK chief hasn’t ruled it out completely.

Nissan Motor Company announced that Datsun would be making a return earlier this year, but initially it will be focused on emerging markets.

India, Indonesia and South America are key target markets for the brand where the middle classes are expanding and wanting to get mobile.

But that doesn’t mean it will never arrive in the UK. ‘We think 80 per cent of Datsun customers will be first-time car buyers,’ explained Vincent Cobee, head of the brand. ‘They won’t be loyal to any car brand and we will have a chance to help them avoid their fears and realise their dreams with Datsun.’

Although Nissan plans for Datsun to become a global brand – with two new model launches specific to Russia, India and Indonesia in 2014 alone – the chance of seeing one on UK roads any time soon is still small.

‘This is a brand for emerging markets and investment is being focused there,’ explained Jim Wright, Nissan GB managing director.

‘I can’t see Datsun launching here in the foreseeable future. There’s little appetite for it with dealers and it would need to be set up as a separate sales channel completely, like Infiniti.

‘These cars are cheap and to have them homologated for the UK in terms of emissions and crash testing would push the price up and away from the target market.’

The Datsun Go is expected to cost between £3,000-4,000 when it goes on sale, but preparing it for UK roads would make it much more expensive.

‘Dacia is where the focus is in this market currently,’ added Wright. That brand falls under the Renault Nissan Alliance and is doing well in the UK. Launching Datsun would mean direct competition, perhaps another reason for the delay.

‘It will be interesting to see what happens with Dacia – the cars are being bought by people who want to keep them for a long time. Will there be longevity there? I’m not sure. For many reasons I can’t see Datsun in the UK for some time yet.’

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 17

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USED CARAWARDS

AWARDS.

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Car Dealer Used Car Awards nominations forms bit.ly/UsedNoms13

Sign up for a cracker!

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

WHEELER DEALERS

USED CARAWARDS IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Start nominating yourself and others in the only awards that celebrate the used car industry

WHEELER DEALERS

CarDealer

H

aven’t voted yet in the only awards for the used car industry? Well, you’d better get cracking because hundreds of dealers right across the UK are getting involved – and you shouldn’t miss out.

It’s easy to see why. For 2013, the Car Dealer Used Car Awards features a brace of new categories, meaning there’s something for every dealer in the UK. The awards are once again ably supported by Mr Wheeler Dealer himself, Mike Brewer, and for this year sponsored by finance specialist Black Horse.

On December 2 we will be handing out awards in 21 different categories. You’ll notice the categories are varied and open to any dealership, no matter how large or small, and we are accepting entries now.

If you’re wondering how you can go about nominating yourself and – hopefully – a few other dealers who you think deserve a mention, well, we’ve made it easier than ever this year – simply type bit.ly/UsedNoms13 into your favourite web browser or scan the QR code below to bring up our nominations form. Just fill in the categories you want to – and we’ll do the rest. It couldn’t be any easier.

If you’re struggling to think of nominations for a specific category, don’t worry – you can leave them blank.

Do get your thinking caps on before you fill it out though – we’re counting on YOU to nominate the dealers that really deserve recognition.

Shortlists for each category will be drawn up by our panel of judges – which will be chaired

by Brewer – and the winner and two highly

SPONSORED BY

See the video of the inaugural Car Dealer Used Car Awards at bit.ly/ wheelerdealerawards ...or scan the QR Code

commended winners will be invited to our gala awards night.

If last year is anything to go by, winners and highly commended winners will be going home with a special award indeed.

The celebrations will be held at a swanky venue – namely The Brewery in London.

Attendees will enjoy all-you-can-drink beers and wine, a delicious three-course meal, live entertainment and a disco.

So how did 2012’s event go? Over to Brewer himself: ‘Last year’s event was absolutely cracking!

It was the first time we had put the event on and

it couldn’t have gone any better.

‘It was brilliant to celebrate the true heroes of the used car business, because all too often this area of the industry is wrongly overlooked.

‘This industry is one where a lot of backslapping goes on – and it was great, thanks to our awards last year, to finally see the used car industry and the people who work in it get the credit they deserve.’

So if you want to be in with your chance of winning a prestigious gong, check out the categories and send in your entries.

Good luck!

Categories 1. Used Car Dealership of the Year - Under 50 cars

8. Best Performing Used Car of the Year

2. Used Car Dealership of the Year 51-100 cars

9. Best New Used Car Dealer of the Year – NEW

3. Used Car Dealership of the Year – Over 100 cars

10. Used Car Finance Product of the Year - NEW

4. Used Car Dealership Group of the Year

11. Dealer’s Dealer of the Year Award – NEW

5. Manufacturer Used Car Scheme of the Year 6. Manufacturer Used Car Marketing Scheme of the Year – NEW 7. Used Car of the Year

15. Upsales & F&I Performance of the Year 16. Best Used Car Customer Care

Nominate by going to bit.ly/ UsedNoms13 or scan this:

17. Used Car Website of the Year 18. Best Dealer Used Car Marketing Scheme of the Year

12. Used Car Sales Team of the Year

19. Used Car Product of the Year – NEW

13. Used Car Sales Manager of the Year

20. Outstanding Achievement of the Year

14. Used Car Dealer Principal of the Year – NEW

21. Lifetime Achievement Award

Used Car Awards in association with...

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 19

DASHBOARD.

UK could be affected

by JLR China recall

Potential fuel leaks are identified in UK-built diesel-engined Jaguars, Freelanders and Evoques

J

aguar Land Rover is set to recall nearly 12,000 vehicles in China over potential engine and fuel leakage problems — but the firm has told Car Dealer cars in the UK could be affected, too.

Reports from China referencing a potential fuel leak relate to the 2.2-litre diesel engine, which is available in the Jaguar XF, Land Rover Freelander 2 and the Range Rover Evoque.

The manufacturer will recall 3,196 Jaguar XF models made between July 2012 and May 2013, as well as XJs produced between March 2012 and May 2013.

Meanwhile, roughly 8,656 Land Rover Freelander

SMMT: 13-reg outsells past nine registrations THE SMMT has revealed that the 13-reg has outsold the past nine registration plates.

According to research, the 13-plate has overtaken all previous plates dating back to September 2008, having been registered to 1,115,459 vehicles since it came into use in March.

SMMT interim chief executive, Mike Baunton, said: ‘We have seen a strong performance from the new car market throughout 2013, with the number of cars registered increasing in July for the 17th successive month.

‘Now we have evidence of consistent growth, we have raised our forecast for 2013 new car registrations to 2.216 million units, an increase of over eight per cent on last year.

‘In line with this positive trend, we expect the new 63-plate to be very successful and for September registrations to provide a similar peak to that seen in March.’

SMMT August figures, p96 ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

2s and Range Rover Evoques made between January 2012 and June 2013 will also be recalled because of a possible oil leakage problem.

But as these engines are also available in certain JLR models in the UK, Jaguar Land Rover has exclusively revealed to Car Dealer that customers here could be affected.

In a statement, JLR told Car Dealer: ‘Potentially affected customers will be notified by letter over the coming weeks and as you would expect modifications made to affected vehicles will be made free of charge and every effort will be made to minimise inconvenience to the customer during the short time required for the work to be carried out.’

APPOINTMENT

Audi UK appoints new brand director AUDI UK has appointed Andre Konsbruck as its new brand director.

Labelled as one of the German brand’s most experienced experts in overseas markets, Konsbruck will leave his current position in executive directorship, in which he was responsible for sales performance in more than 40 countries.

On taking up his new position, Konsbruck will replace Martin Sander on October 1, 2013. Sander will take on the role of senior director of sales America based at Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany.

Konsbruck, 45, began his Audi career in 1992 and since 2005 has held the role of executive director for the overseas region, also based in Ingolstadt, where he reported to the board member for sales and marketing.

Konsbruck said: ‘The UK already ranks as the fourth-largest market worldwide for Audi, and its sales are still rising.

‘As our range expands, and our brand image continues to strengthen, I really look forward to continuing the excellent work undertaken by Martin in collaboration with our Audi partners to realise our ambition of premium sector leadership in the UK.’

Vertu sees continuing year-on-year growth in profits thanks to strong sales VERTU MOTORS PLC has announced continued year-on-year profit growth from new and used vehicles.

The automotive retailer with a network of 97 sales and aftersales outlets across the UK announced the update ahead of its half-year results for the six-month period ended August 31, 2013.

The group has seen profit growth in new and used vehicle sales as well as from vehicle servicing since its trading update after its annual meeting in July.

The board was confident that further progress would be made during the remainder of the financial year.

Chief executive Robert Forrester (pictured) said: ‘Market conditions in the automotive retail sector remain favourable with growth in new car sales and stability in used vehicle pricing, and the robust and growing platform we have built is ensuring that these trends are converted into improved profits.

‘Service operations in the group continue to exhibit growth as a consequence of higher levels of customer retention.’

He added: ‘We are pleased with the pace of integration and the performance at the newlyacquired Farnell Land Rover business.

‘This business will make a significant contribution to the group this year.’

Harrison steps up as Toyota GB president

MOVING ON

Tavares takes leave of Renault as speculation over USA role hots up

It’s the top job now for ex-commercial director

RENAULT’s chief executive officer, Carlos Tavares, has left the company with immediate effect.

The French firm said that Tavares, 55, mutually agreed with Renault to cease being chief operating officer in order to ‘pursue other personal projects’.

Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, will temporarily carry out the role. The news increases speculation that Tavares will move to the USA to take up a top role with an American car maker.

In an earlier interview with American business news service Bloomberg, he ruled himself out from taking over from Ghosn and talked of his wish to move Stateside.

‘We have a big leader and he is here to stay,’ Tavares said. ‘Anyone who is passionate about the auto industry comes to a conclusion that there is a point where you have the energy and appetite for a No. 1 position. My experience would be good for any car company. Why not GM? I would be honoured to lead a company like GM.’

T

oyota has appointed Matt Harrison as president and managing director of Toyota GB PLC. Having been the company’s commercial director since the start of 2011, Harrison joined Toyota GB as general manager of vehicle marketing in 2000.

He progressed to marketing director in 2003 and two years later moved to Toyota Motor Europe, where he worked as general manager for corporate planning.

In 2006, Harrison also became general manager of the sales planning department and in 2008 he was appointed director of Lexus Europe, before returning to Toyota GB in 2011 as its commercial director. Before joining Toyota, Harrison spent 10 years with Ford Motor Company, working in various sales and marketing roles in its UK, European and global operations.

Harrison has replaced Jon Williams, who is to

take up a new role with a private Toyota distributor outside Europe after three years leading the business in the UK. Harrison (above) said: ‘I am delighted to be taking on this role at such an exciting time for both the Toyota and Lexus brands.

‘We have a strategy to continue to grow both brands in the UK and I look forward to leading the team in the implementation of those plans.’

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DASHBOARD.

Book your Bangers4BEN 2013 tickets bit.ly/B4B2013

Bangers4BEN almost full THE PLAN Day one, October 12

The teams will meet at Porsche GB’s HQ in Reading before heading to Dover to catch the Eurotunnel. We’ll then be heading to Belgium for the first of our overnight stops.

Day two, October 13

We’ll make the schlep to Stuttgart where in the afternoon we’ll have a tour of the Porsche Museum. The city will also be our home for that night.

Day three, October 14

Just a handful of spaces on this year’s trip to the Nurburgring are left – read on to find out more

J

ust nine spaces are remaining on this year’s Bangers4BEN – and they’re going fast! That’s right, 31 places have already been filled and the entry list is looking a treat with dozens of teams anxious to get involved with the annual charity event.

And like other years, Bangers4BEN 2013 is set to be a great event, raising money for the automotive charity.

This year sees the 50th anniversary of the legendary Porsche 911. Always one to stick its hands into its pockets for charity, Porsche has got on board with us this year to help out.

Bangers4BEN 2013 is a four-day event starting at Porsche’s headquarters in Reading on Saturday, October 12, with our final destination being the Porsche museum in Stuttgart in Germany, before heading home on Tuesday, October 15.

Along the way we’ll be finding time to drop in on the fearsome Nurburgring Nordschleife for a look around — but more of that later.

Once the rally has ended, the car you made the trip in will be sold at a special auction at Aston Barclay with all the proceeds handed over to BEN. There’s a £500 budget to spend on your car, but as BEN makes its money from the sale of these cars, spending a trifle more than £500 doesn’t really break the rules — it all goes towards helping BEN raise more money!

As in previous years, the entry fee is £500 for a team of two — a small price to pay for such a large amount of fun. The £500 covers hotel rooms, evening meals, breakfasts and your crossings — you’ll have to pay for fuel, tolls and the overpriced

food you find in continental service stations.

Once again the AA is kindly providing two patrol vans just in case anyone breaks down.

And to push home the message, as we go to press, there are nine places remaining out of a total of 40. In previous years, places have sold out in a matter of weeks, so get booking to avoid disappointment.

As in previous years, Kelly Neal from BEN is dealing with the bookings.

Type bit.ly/B4B2013 into a web browser to book your tickets, and BEN will confirm your place and give you the details closer to the time.

We hope to see you on October 12.

The next day sees us head north to the fearsome Nurburgring 200 miles away.

We expect to be at the ring around 2pm where you’ll have the chance to have an official passenger ride of the ’Ring if you wish. However, you will not be able to take your banger for a quick lap of the 14-mile track as the insurance will NOT cover you — and neither will the AA recover your car! We’ll spend the night in Nuremburg with the traditional awards ceremony.

Day four, October 15 We head home to Blighty.

BANGERS BANGERS FOR BEN FOR BEN

2013

2013

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 23

dashboard.

Cambria eyes results ahead of upgraded market expectations New vehicle sales outperform market

D

ealer group Cambria Automobiles has announced a stronger trading performance for the financial year to August 31, 2013 than in the previous 12 months.

Its preliminary results – which will be announced on November 25 – reflect the healthy state of the domestic new car market – and Cambria’s own performance.

In the 11 months from September 2012 to July 2013, the UK new car market was up 9.73 per cent on the corresponding period 12 months earlier.

And Cambria did even better, recording a 16.3 per cent increase during the same spell.

The board reports: ‘Our new vehicle sales have outperformed the market across our balanced portfolio of premium and volume brands.

‘In addition, the second half has seen our after sales business deliver strong growth in profitability

and there has been an improvement in the performance of our used car business.’

The group continues to pursue its buy-and-build strategy, having successfully completed the acquisition of County Motor Works Vauxhall, Alfa

Around the world Dealer news from somewhere other than here

CHINA

The China Automobile Dealers’ Association has been collecting data on the prices of all foreign cars sold in the country. The research has been carried out in order to investigate whether carmakers have been setting a minimum retail price for dealers in China, which, according to lawyers, could contravene the country’s 2008 anti-monopoly law.

SINGAPORE

The Singapore Vehicle Traders’ Association, which represents more than 400 used car dealers, is renewing its call for a review on car loan curbs to 60 per cent of purchase price since February.

According to its data, dealers have seen sales drop between 30 and 80 per cent since June.

USA

Car sales in the US continue to grow with the top four sellers in the country posting doubledigit year-on-year gains.

In July, the largest US carmaker, General Motors, posted a 16 per cent increase while Ford Motor and Chrysler Group both reported 11 per cent sale gains in the month.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Romeo and Chrysler Jeep on January 31, 2013.

Following this performance, directors expected that the preliminary results would be ahead of the upgraded market expectations which were set in June.

SOUTH AFRICA

More than 2,000 workers at BMW’s factory in South Africa have gone on strike over pay issues.

This has resulted in slow output figures and the strike is likely to lead to a loss of production of nearly 1,700 3 Series cars.

INDIA

Car sales in India fell for a record ninth month in a row, posting a 7.4 per cent decline. In July, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, domestic passenger car sales declined to 131,163 units in July, down from 141,646 units in 2012.

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 25

FINANCE. DEALS

Citroen tempts with 63-reg finance offers across range WITH the new ‘63-plate’ registration now available, Citroen has confirmed its latest finance offers for the coming months.

According to the firm its latest arrival – the new C4 Picasso – is already attracting orders at twice the expected rate and can be ordered from just £17,500 or from £249 per month with Elect 4 Personal Lease finance.

Citroen has also confirmed a competitive package of retail offers across the entire range.

These include Citroen C1 VTR models from as little as £99 per month on Elect 4 Personal Lease with one year’s free insurance.

Citroen’s C3 Picasso VTR+ model is also available with two years’ zero per cent APR Elect 3 finance with a minimum 10 per cent deposit.

Citroen’s DS range hasn’t been forgotten either. The DS4 is also available from £199 per month on Elect 4 Personal Lease with up to £4,500 deposit contribution on selected models.

Zero per cent APR representative finance is offered for three years with a zero per cent minimum deposit and the deal comes with a free three-year/35,000-mile servicing package.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

UK customers are flocking to showrooms for the best finance deals on used cars Report findings – business to increase by 10 per cent for FLA members

N

ew figures released by the Finance and Leasing Association show an 18 per cent increase in the number of consumer used cars bought on finance in July, in comparison to same month in 2012.

Meanwhile, figures also revealed that the formerly consistent growth rate in the number of new cars bought on finance slowed slightly compared to recent months. However, this number was still up 21 per cent in July compared to the same month last year.

Thanks to a number of attractive finance deals currently on the market, FLA says customers are now more confident than before about making finance purchases.

Results show that FLA members’ penetration of consumer new car registrations in the 12 months to July 2013 increased to 74.1 per cent from 73.6 per cent in June.

Head of motor finance at the FLA, Paul Harrison, said: ‘Customers are

more confident now about making major purchases and there are some very competitive deals out there which support confidence.

‘The continued growth in the used car market has been helped by the wider range of finance incentives that are offered and the improved availability of stock filtering down from a buoyant new car market.’

Meanwhile, looking at the wider business market, the FLA’s latest Asset Finance Confidence Survey also

highlights that business sentiment remains strong, as 81 per cent of FLA respondents expect an improvement in economic prospects in the short term.

Over the next 12 months, 95 per cent of FLA members lending said they expected to see an increase in business.

The Confidence Survey from the FLA revealed that members now expect new business to increase by up to 10 per cent over the next year.

FLA’s new jargon-busting website ready for September rush FLA has relaunched its online guide for customers seeking to buy a car on finance, in order to combat complexities and simplify jargon.

The new website – www.FinancingYourCar.org.uk – explains to customers the different finance options available to them in the showrooms, allowing them to find the finance option most suited

to their needs. The new site features a number of key services, including ‘Ask an Expert’ – where users can submit a question about how different products work – a finance calculator and a ‘jargon buster’ that will explain the often confusing terminology used in finance products.

Head of motor finance at the FLA, Paul Harrison, said: ‘September always

sees a surge in car sales because of the new registration. This new website will be a timely resource for those planning a purchase.’

Harrison added: ‘The range of motor finance products can be daunting but the FLA’s Financing Your Car website is designed to help car buyers be more informed when visiting a showroom.’.

..in association with

DEALFINDER.

Latest finance deals on HATCHBACKS

Meldrum

MAZDA 3

Prepare for FCA move

THIS month sees Mazda’s 1.6-litre five-door Venture available with zero deposit and zero per cent APR representative.

For 41 monthly payments of £273.54, Mazda is offering a deposit contribution of £1,000 allowing customers to drive away in a brand new hatchback and enjoy up to 9,000 miles of driving per year.

The Venture obviously isn’t going to be the fastest hatch on the market, but it certainly has attractive economy figures, with a combined fuel consumption of 65.7mpg.

It’s one of this month’s more stylish

contenders too, featuring 17-inch alloy wheels and a sports styling pack. It also comes equipped with rear parking sensors, a 5.8-inch TomTom satellite navigation and heated front sport seats.

FORD FOCUS FORD’S durable Focus is now available for just £199 per month over a 35-month payment period, packed with a number of affordable finance features.

The Zetec 1.0-litre EcoBoost is available with a competitive 4.9 per cent APR representative when financed on two-year Ford Options, including a £2,000 deposit allowance when financed with Ford credit.

On all Zetec models, Ford is also offering a Free Appearance Pack. This deal is based on a mileage plan of 9,000 per year, making it perfect for drivers not looking to make too many long-distance commutes.

As standard, the Focus Zetec comes with a Ford Sync DAB audio system, Bluetooth connection and a USB port.

SEAT LEON SEAT’S third-generation Leon is on offer with a 4.9 per cent APR representative and a £1,000 deposit contribution deal. It also includes free technology.

With a three-year payment period, the finance package is available on both SE and FR models. The five-door Leon is packed with a variety of new technology, including a 5.8-inch colour display, touch-technology infotainment screen with speech recognition software. The Leon also has a digital radio, all of which adds up to a substantial £1,915.

The Leon is one of the better looking C-segment cars, with a prominent grill, bold styling and striking LED headlights.

time is money

A

re you ready for the big change? Over the past 12 months our compliance team have been updating us on the impending transfer of consumer credit regulation from the OFT (Office for Fair Trading) to the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Until recently, the government has been slow to announce what the transfer entails, so it is taking us some time to understand the implications for our business and dealer support network.

The new regime takes over on April 1, 2014. The longterm effects are far from clear but what we do know is: n CCL (consumer credit licence) holders need to apply to the FCA for ‘interim permissions’ before the changeover date — if they don’t do this they will not be able to carry out credit activities after next April; n The cost for this is £150 for sole traders and £350 for others; n The OFT will continue to supervise firms until March 31 and it is sending out strong signals that it expects car dealers to have categories D and E on their licence.

We’ve also heard that the FCA decision to give interim permissions to businesses will include a review of their CCL so our advice is to make sure that your registered and principal offices, director names and trading names are all up to date.

Many changes can be done free via the OFT’s website but any variation involving a change of category or trading name will cost £80 each.

Finally, we would recommend that you do not underestimate the extent of this change because the FCA will have far more resources and power than the OFT — so the obtaining of interim permissions may only be the first of the requirements it places on all of us.

For further help or information contact your main finance provider or visit www.fca.org.uk.

‘Don’t under estimate extent of this change’

Who is Jim Meldrum?

Jim is regional sales manager for First Response Finance. Call him on 07917 460 111 or email Jimm@frfl.co.uk

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 27

We can make your cars go faster According to a recent survey, 2% of AA Members said they would change their car within the next month*. We have more than 15 million AA Members, and even taking off those wanting new cars, we are talking about upwards of over 200,000 used cars sales.

The AA has teamed up with VCARS to launch a site called AA Cars. So right

now we’re looking to recruit dealers who can help us meet the demand that we are expecting for good-quality used cars.

To take advantage of this great opportunity to see your cars start moving faster, simply call now on 01920 252474 or email cd@theAAcars.com

* based on 22,297 responses to the AA Populus panel car buying index survey 22-29 November 2012 (22% said they would be buying new)

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big mike.

All Big Mike’s columns are on our website. Enjoy here bit.ly/bigmike

Gordon was wrong about bust and he’ll be wrong about boom

I

f the pundits are to be believed the recession is over, Britain is booming, and soon we’ll be remortgaging our houses again to fund overseas holidays, home renovations and new SUVs. Bye, bye credit crunch, hello boom before bust…

Yes, I am cynical but I’ve been alive for a good four or five economic cycles and I know Gordon Brown was well and truly wrong when he said there’d be no more boom and bust. He was wrong about the bust and, mark my words, he’ll be wrong about the boom as well.

But in the used car trade these things rarely matter. In the good times, people come through your doors happy as you like because they went into their bank to use the cash machine and came out with a 10 grand loan. In the bad times, they come to you because they can’t get a loan, and they have to buy a used car instead of a new one.

Different types of buyer, of course, but my own little business has kept its head above water over the past five or six years of economic doom, keeping the much-beloved in haircuts and me in Banks’s Bitter with a little bit left over for the odd week in Benidorm or Tenerife. What more could a chap want out of life, apart from maybe a pint of Banks’s Best served in Tenerife, but you can’t have everything, eh?

That said, the finance houses still aren’t exactly tripping over each other to dole out the cash and the days of any old ‘Erbert walking in off the street and finding himself with stackloads of ready credit are gone. They at least want to check that any potential customer is telling the truth when they say they have a job, a house and a reasonable amount of stability. Unless, of course, you use Knuckleduster Finance Ltd, suppliers to many of the less scrupulous traders around these parts, even with an APR equivalent to the average third world debt. For those customers that don’t hit the high street loan jackpot — and there are more of these folk than there used to be — I use a reasonably reputable company that extends the tentacles of credit to those with a less-than-perfect past.

Here’s an amusing tale which I ask you not to laugh at too hard, for the poor gentleman concerned was a lovely bloke. Thick as the proverbial porcine excrement, but a nice guy. Having failed after three children to understand the biological implications of human copulation, said gentleman, late 20s and looking a decade older through sleep deprivation, chugged on to my lot in a Peugeot 406 estate that had served him well since he bought it on sub-prime

Big Mike Our man on the inside spills the beans on the car business...

credit from me five years earlier. The object of his desires (or practical needs at least) was a 2006 Zafira, a gloomy grey Motability-spec model with the big plastic hubcaps.

Nevertheless, at a shade over £4k it was prime stock for me and the sale was easy. The guy had no interest in cars and was happy to agree the purchase as painlessly as possible.

Determined to help him out, rather than go back to the old finance house, which was perfectly credible but did like to overcharge on the interest, I managed to get him approved with a more conventional lender on the basis that he’d paid his last car loan dutifully and contemporaneously.

Agreed in principle, I asked him to come back in with two references and we’d do a deal that would involve the somewhat distressed 406 in part exchange — I wouldn’t normally be interested but it’s always useful to have something to haul Fluffy the Rottweiler around in without

‘The battered 406 pulled on to my lot containing a motley crew of three’ worrying that he’ll rip the interior to shreds in a fit of pique.

After six days, I gave him a call. Somewhat flustered, he said he was trying to get hold of the references but was having trouble pulling everything together. Would it be okay if he brought them in on Sunday? Never ones to miss a sale, both I and the finance house agreed to be there at 2.30pm to sort it out.

The following weekend the battered 406 pulled on to my lot containing a motley crew of three — the rather scruffy customer dressed in a sparkly polyester suit of the kind normally worn by someone referred to as ‘the defendant’, a more dapper man in a tailored offering and an older lady who looked frustrated to have been dragged away from preparing her roast potatoes.

‘I got them,’ said the customer, somewhat excitedly.

‘My letting agent, who can be the financial reference, and my mother-in-law, who’ll give you as good a character reference as you’ll ever get…’

Not the most conventional approach, I guess, but nevertheless once I explained that I only needed written references, and gave each of his passengers a pad and a pen, we got the loan agreed and he left a happy, if still a somewhat-baffled-by-life individual…

Who is Big Mike?

Well, that would be telling. What we do know is he’s had many years in the car trade and picked up some seriously funny tales along the way.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 29

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Buying two cars brings two unfortunate dealer experiences

I

’ve been car shopping this month. Not for myself. If I bought any more petrolpowered machinery chances are I’d now be sleeping in it. No, this month I’ve been helping family members purchase cars. When you’re a motoring journalist and, at present, I’d loosely describe myself as one of those, unless you’re an American customs official and then I am in no way connected with the media and you can put away your rubber gloves. But that’s another story… Anyway, I digress. As I was saying, when you’re a motoring journalist everybody, and I mean everybody, asks you for your opinion on what car to buy.

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve got into a taxi and mistakenly told the driver what I do for a living.

I’m then subjected to a 15-minute monologue on the perils of owning a high-mileage Peugeot/joys of variable servicing on a Skoda/the ‘fun’ you can have with a Fiat Doblo by sticking on a James Bond ‘7’ on the back (delete where appropriate or, if I’m REALLY unlucky, don’t and sit back and enjoy tales of all three).

It’s not just bored cabbies, though. Friends, friends of friends, friends of people I really don’t like, people I don’t like, family members and distant relatives all ask for carbuying advice. And it doesn’t matter what I say — how perfectly rational and sensible it is, or how long it’s taken me to research the options for said inquisitor… because they only go and ignore it.

There was the time I told my older brother he shouldn’t buy a TVR because it would break. It did. Then there was the time I told a friend not to buy an Alfa because it would be worth as much as a pebble after three years. It was. You get the point.

In fact it’s got so bad that I’ve started to recommend completely ridiculous and in no way suitable alternatives to anyone who asks. I need a car to take my two kids to school and have fun at the weekends, one friend of an auntie’s cousin asked me third-hand. Obviously, I suggested a MK3 Toyota MR2. Kids could sit on each other’s laps and put the shopping between their legs, I told my auntie to relay to her acquaintance. I do hope she bought it.

So when my mum and brother both asked me to help them buy new cars recently — both in the same weekend — I started to get a little nervous. The last thing I wanted was to suggest my mum bought a Skoda Citigo and she’d then decide what she really wanted was a Vauxhall VX220.

Thankfully, both mother and brother were up for the

James Baggott *EDITOR’S NOTE: WE ALL KNOW HE’S A MAN NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH*

help — and mum didn’t want a plastic Vauxhall. Little bro was buying a used BMW M3 from an independent dealer in Bournemouth while the old dear was shopping for a Citigo (she actually liked my suggestion). Unfortunately both experiences weren’t as great as they could have been.

Both dealers tried it on. The independent tried to give us a Beemer with eight months’ MOT despite advertising it with 12. When my brother took it to be tested, £1,000-worth of faults were found — including serious MOT failures.

The attitude when he reported this back to the dealer was shocking. It doesn’t take much to put your hand up and say sorry — and fix the issue — but sadly this dealer didn’t see it that way until we played hard ball. Why did we have to do that?

My mother was ready to do a deal on the Skoda, until the salesman offered her £800 under the CAP Clean price for her part-exchange — a mint condition, 8k-miler Ford Ka. I knew what it was worth because the editor of said

‘Sadly, the dealer didn’t see it our way until we played hard ball. Why did we have to do that?’ guide had emailed me the price I should be expecting a few minutes before we sat down.

The salesman immediately got his back up when we pushed for more — so much so that we nearly walked away — until we reached a happy medium on the price of the new car. Mum did the deal there and then but wasn’t impressed with the attitude of the sales team.

These days consumers are doing more research than ever before about potential car purchases. When they enter your showroom they’re more often than not looking to do a deal — and it’s how you treat them that’s the important bit. Screwing up when the customer is sitting in front of you isn’t about losing a potential sale any more, it’s more than likely about losing an ACTUAL sale.

Okay, so they might not have a motoring journalist sitting with them, but they’re bound to know a lot more than they used to. Maybe it’s time dealers started to realise this and give informed punters the respect they deserve.

What do you think? Tweet me to let me know @CarDealerEd.

Who is James Baggott?

He’s the founder of Car Dealer Magazine and managing director of parent company @BlackballMedia, an automotive services provider. He now spends most of his time on Twitter @CarDealerEd and annoying the rest of us.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 31

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Elton John’s Porsche is top of the pops Star’s 911 was found in a barn and is a real survivor, says Sophie Williamson-Stothert

A

s most dealers will know all too well, there are a number of automotive wonders tucked away in heated garages just waiting to be discovered. And nearly every single one has a story to tell. This was certainly the case for O Davis Cars, which quite literally, stumbled across a beauty.

Based just outside Horsham in West Sussex, the family-run specialist dealership recently listed a rather unique barn find. It was a classic 1976 RHD Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0-litre Coupe with just four previous owners and 93,000 miles on the clock.

The fact that the dealership’s designated car buyer accidentally happened to take a wrong turn on his way to the airport one afternoon, leading him directly to the car, means this find was nothing short of a wonderful coincidence.

Not only is it a stunning car, this particular find once belonged to pop legend Sir Elton John. The music icon purchased the C3 911 from Charles Follet in St. John’s Wood in 1976, and according to managing director of O Davis Cars Oliver Davis, its service history suggests it was used as his everyday transport up until 1981 when he sold the car with 57,180 miles on the clock.

Davis says: ‘Six weeks ago, my father Scott was driving to the airport and managed to take a wrong turn. He decided to turn around along a small road,

which happened to be close to someone’s driveway.

It was there a gleaming Ferrari caught his attention and, as a car dealer, he had to go and investigate.

‘Having spoken with the owner, he then told my father he had a rare Porsche 911 C3 parked in his garage and that’s when my father made an offer. It’s a very rare right-hand-drive model with the 200bhp C3 engine.’

He added: ‘When we first got the Porsche, we had no idea of its history or its previous owners. It was only when we took a look at the service book that we then realised it was registered to a company named W.A.BONG Ltd and belonged to Sir Elton John.’

In 1985, the car was purchased by its fourth and final owner and remained in that particular family’s possession over the next 28 years. He had used the 911 C3 on a regular basis, covering roughly 20,000 miles before he passed away leaving it in the hands of his son.

Since then, for 25 years the family have kept their classic Porsche perfectly preserved and stored in a heated barn ever since.

‘The previous owner purchased the Porsche back in 1985, covering around 20,000 miles behind the wheel,’ Davis confirms. ‘It’s a very touching story because when the owner passed away, his son kept hold of the 911 C3 and stored it in the very same

garage we found it in. And that’s where it’s been ever since.’

Unlike many barn finds, which have usually lost a lot of their paperwork through the years, the 911 C3 has full Porsche service history accompanied with its original green service book, which is stamped with nine Porsche dealer service stamps, along with the original handbook.

Its metallic silver paintwork is still in prime condition and it also features a number of additional extras including an alarm system, an electric sunroof and electric windows, central locking and power steering. The only element that isn’t original is its interior, which could have been changed by Sir Elton.

Although the car does start and drives well, the 911 C3 needs recommissioning for road use, but as a whole, many classic dealers would probably say this 911 is a perfect package.

‘We don’t often stumble across these rare finds,’ Davis adds. ‘But it’s always brilliant when we do.

We’ve only had it listed for a few days so far, but it’s bound to attract some attention. It’s a fantastic car in excellent condition.’

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‘‘

The buyer accidentally took a wrong turn on his way to the airport, leading him directly to the car. It was nothing short of a wonderful coincidence.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 33

helpdesk.

Join Car Dealer Club by visiting CarDealerClub.com Members get free legal advice worth £199 for a £39.99 annual subscription

Ask Lawgistics

Q& A

Car Dealer Club lawyers Lawgistics answer dealers’ legal questions. Join for £39.99 a year to get advice like this when you need it

Q

We sell cars and have a website. We do not do distance selling. However, a farmer has been in touch wanting to buy a Land Rover that he has seen on our website.

He lives a long way from where we are based and says that due to him being so busy at harvest time, could we deliver the car to him? If we do, will he have the right to cancel the contract a week later just because he has changed his mind? In other words, would the Distance Selling Regulations apply?

RT, Ipswich The first thing to establish is whether this vehicle is being purchased for personal use or mainly for business use.

Intended method of payment could well be the key in answering that question.

For if it is being paid for from the business

A

Let Lawgistics help you...

account in the name of the farm then Distance Selling Regulations could not apply because they only do so if the buyer is a private individual.

If it is a private purchase then we suggest contacting the intended purchaser and making it clear that the dealership does not supply vehicles under an organised distance sales scheme.

And that the agreement to deliver it to his home is an isolated agreement.

Specifically, you should state that it is not intended to be a contract to which the Distance Selling Regulations apply and that he will have no right to be able to cancel the contract simply because of a change of mind. Mention too that the buyers’ statutory rights would otherwise not be affected.

State that delivery to the home will only take place on the understanding that the buyer

Marvellous mail the firm’s innovative toolbar – and dealers can make an offer there and then.

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Previously we told you about the addition of Warrantywise and App Creatives to the suite of special offers exclusively available to Car Dealer Club members, and now Autotrade-mail has joined the party.

The service, which sends highly-qualified, legitimate leads to car dealers, is well-loved in the industry – not only for its ease of use but because of its friendly team of operatives.

Users set up alerts for the vehicles they’re interested in buying – specifiying makes, models, engine sizes and much more – for their stock. From there, the website sends out alerts to subscribing dealers of any matching vehicles the very instant that they’re advertised on the site – either by email or by

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To read more about the exclusive offers in the newly refreshed Car Dealer Club, check a forthcoming issue of Car Dealer.

Or, in the meantime, check CarDealerClub.com to see what you’re missing.

ADVICE

Q

Should employees receive only their basic wage when taking annual leave, or should they also be paid performance-related bonuses/additional supplements that they would be paid but for their annual leave?

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In the recent case of British Airways plc V Williams and Others (No 2) it was held that payments are an intrinsic part of the employee’s contract of employment and they should be paid to employees during annual leave. Therefore any bonuses or additional payments that are in the employee’s contract, remain payable during annual leave. The case also went further to state that ‘normal remuneration’ will also include payments that are intrinsically linked to the employee performing their contractual duties. has understood and agreed (in writing) to the implications of the terms of the deal and that if the buyer does want to have the opportunity to cancel then either the deal has to fail or the car will need to be collected from the seller and paid for at that point.

Lawgistics is extremely experienced when it comes to helping car dealers with legal matters. The firm has a reputation for assisting the motor trade with customer complaints, health and safety issues, trade-to-trade problems and much more. To get advice like this (worth £199) join Car Dealer Club for just £39.99 per year. Sign up at CarDealerClub.com

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forecourt.

BMW 4 Series David Cantle – general manager, product and market planning – chats to Car Dealer about the new BMW Why turn the 3 Series Coupe into its own separate model line with the 4 Series?

If you look at the substance behind the product, we’ve always done this. If you look at the 5 Series saloon, its coupe derivative is the 6 Series. If you look at the increased differentiation you now see between the outgoing generation of 3 Series and the coupe/convertible, and now the new product.

It’s significantly more athletic, more dynamic, it’s a much larger car, but also the increase in standard specification and design. It very much sits naturally for us as a 4 Series rather than a 3 Series. It’s to create greater distinction between the two.

Why is the 4 Series so important for dealers?

4 Series is a sporty coupe – it’s very much a car that people want to drive, it’s a car that people find themselves very much drawn towards, it has very strong styling and is very desirable. So for the dealer network point of view it is a car that we expect to generate large amounts of footfall – people wanting to come in and test drive. It’s a very good pull model for the brand and we expect to see high levels of network traffic, high levels of inquiry for what is a very strong product.

How many do you expect to sell in the first full year?

We look to sell around 9,000 in our first full year (next year). 420d will be our highest selling model, which including X-drive variants will account for 36 per cent of sales. 420i including X-drive will make up around 24-25 per cent and then 428i around 12 per cent, 430d about six per cent. In terms of petrol/diesel split, we’re forecasting around 60 per cent of models sold to

be diesels, 40 per cent petrol.

The 435i itself is very much a car for enthusiasts who like the levels of performance on offer. It’s never going to be a large volume car, but it’s a very aspirational model for anyone who owns one. It’ll be a car that will make you smile. And we were quite keen to ensure you can get a sporty car such as this with a manual gearbox. It keeps its position as a strong driver’s car.

Is your target demographic different from that of the 3 Series?

The target demographic is potentially slightly older than that for the 3 Series saloon. The average age we’re looking at is people in their mid forties, around 44-49.

What are BMW’s big plans for the rest of the year?

There will be an announcement on a number of different new products, particularly in September but also leading up to the end of the year, on a variety of disparate products. I can’t say anything more than that I’m afraid.

on test

Daljinder Nagra tries BMW’s new 4 for size What is it?

Not – as BMW is keen to point out – simply a twodoor version of the 3 Series. The 4 Coupe not only sits 10mm lower than its saloon sibling, but also has a much wider track front and rear, a longer wheelbase, unique suspension settings and the lowest centre of gravity of any current BMW.

What’s under the bonnet?

4 Series will be offered with four-cylinder petrol and diesel units in the form of the 428i and 420d respectively, as well as the six-cylinder petrol 435i. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

These will be joined further down the line by units already offered in the 3 Series, including the 2.0-litre 420i and six-cylinder diesel units in the 430d and 435d. Selected models will be available with BMW’s ‘X-Drive’ four-wheel-drive system.

What’s the spec like?

The 4 Series is offered with a greater standard specification than the 3 saloon, with Bluetooth and USB connectivity, keyless go, rain sensing headlights and wipers, heated leather seats and a 6.5-inch widescreen display fitted to all models.

Entry spec ‘SE’ costs from £28,280, ‘Modern’ and ‘Sport’ add £1,500 to the list price and add sports seats and 18-inch alloy wheels. ‘Luxury’ and ‘M Sport’ trims add £2,500 and £3,000 to the base price respectively, but both come with BMW’s Business Media Package. Each model also comes with its own unique exterior design detailing.

What’s it like to drive?

Much like the 3 Series. But given that that car is the handling benchmark in its class, it’s by no means a bad thing. It’s stable and composed at

in association with

CABIN

The interior is near-verbatim 3 Series, though features more gloss black surface trim and a greater choice of interior colour options

the knowledge Model: BMW 435i M Sport Price: £41,435 Engine: 3.0-litre, six-cylinder,

turbocharged, petrol Power: 306bhp, 400Nm Max speed: 155mph (limited) 0-60mph: 5.2s MPG (comb’d): 35.8 Emissions: 185g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

STYLING

Compared to the 3 Series saloon, the 4 Series has a much wider look thanks to the exaggerated rear wheel arches

HANDLING

Again it’s pure 3 Series.

Comfortable, quiet and refined, the 4 Series turns into a real sports car through the twisty stuff

target buyers:

Old 3 Series buyers and new customers after a ‘model within in its own right’ status

the rivals: Audi A5, Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe

Key Selling Points: speed, but lithe and balanced in corners.. It’s a car which has had its handling characteristics polished to such an extent it’s hard to fault, though keener drivers may bemoan its sheer surefootedness and predictability. And, when you just want to get from A to B, the BMW plays a comfortable cruiser.

What do the press think of it?

What Car? said: ‘For all the talk of making the 4 Series feel different to the 3 Series saloon, it’s actually very similar. But if you’re after a classy, four-seat coupe, the 4 Series is definitely worth considering.’

What do WE think of it?

Whether or not you agree with BMW that its best-selling two-door coupe deserves its own model line, there is little doubt that the 4 Series is a highly capable and desirable car. So much so that it is our recommendation for anyone looking for a fast, discreetly handsome premium coupe. Audi and Mercedes, the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown down.

1. Selected models available with X-drive four-wheel-drive 2. Real visual appeal compared to 3 Series saloon 3. Improved standard spec over 3 Series saloon

Deal Clincher: More power and better CO2 compared to nearest rivals Searches supplied by Monthly AutoTrader.co.uk searches: N/A. (new model) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 37

forecourt.

Nissan Autonomous Drive

FEED ME

The throttle, braking and steering are all controlled by a computer that uses feeds from cameras and radar sensors dotted around the car

on test

James Baggott tries the future – a self-driving car that will be here in seven years IT SOUNDS like something from a science-fiction movie: You pull up outside the front door of a supermarket, unbuckle the little ones and slam the doors shut. As you walk away to find a trolley you blip the key fob... and your car drives off and parks itself. However strange the scenario might sound, the technology that can make it a reality is already here – and self-parking is just one of the tricks up its sleeve. Car Dealer was lucky enough to have a taste of the future with a drive around the sprawling El Toro airbase, in California, in one of the very first autonomous cars.

What is it?

An autonomous Nissan Leaf that can drive itself. The throttle, braking and steering are all ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

controlled by a computer that uses feeds from cameras and radar sensors above the rearview mirror, on the side and at the rear of the car to judge distances and hazards. Using sat nav, detailed maps and the live feeds, the car computes information at 100 times the speed of a human brain, spotting hazards before a human eye would even recognise them.

HOW DOES IT WORK? You punch in a destination and using GPS navigation and maps the car drives you to wherever it is you want to go. The autonomous functions can be overridden at any time, but on our test course there was no need. The car negotiated American-style ‘Stop’ sign junctions, where the car that arrives first at the crossroads

has right of way – the car simply waited its turn before driving off. It negotiated bends with ease, keeping between the white lines, and accelerated up to the legal limit quickly, cruising along and adjusting the steering as it went.

what else can it do?

A lot. On our test we negotiated a parked car in the street even with oncoming traffic thrown into the mix. The car slowed as we approached, and when the traffic on the other side of the road had cleared, it indicated and pulled past.

We were shown how it can emergency-steer around a line of parked cars to avoid an accident, how it merges with motorway traffic, and watched as it drove off to park itself in a bay.

It was incredible.

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BRAIN FREEZE

coming soon

The car computes information at 100 times the speed of a human brain, spotting hazards before a human eye would even recognise them

wHEN WILL IT ARRIVE? Nissan has vowed to put autonomous cars into production by 2020. We met Maarten Sierhuis, director of Nissan’s research centre in Silicon Valley, who has just joined the company from NASA, where he was in charge of human-robot interfaces and automatic flight control. He told us this project attracted him because ‘we’re not going to Mars any time soon and these cars can make a real difference to the world’.

This is the future – whether you like it or not. Global giants like Google are investing a lot of time and money making these types of cars actually happen

legislative battle car manufacturers face getting the vehicles homologated for the world’s roads. And secondly it’s going to take a bit of convincing to get consumers to trust these self-driving cars. ‘This technology will come when consumers want it,’ explained Sierhuis.

What about the joy of driving – will this kill it?

We’ve all been stuck in a traffic jam and wished we were doing something else. And we’ve all tackled the same commute to work thinking the time What’s holding this In 2011, would be better spent answering emails or surfing technology back?

More than 5,800 Yetisthe web. This Skoda sold will make that a reality technology Clearly it’s not the research and development, found homes in the UK 70,000 Yetis – it will mean some cars in certain situations although Sierhuis admitted there was still a in 2011 worldwide will become like trains or taxi cabs, taking you to lot to do. What’s really in this tech’s way is the

your destination safely while you focus on doing something else. Autonomous driving isn’t about killing the joy of driving, after all, you can still drive these cars if you wish. What it’s more about is making them more convenient when drivers want them to be.

Is this the next big thing?

Yes. Make no mistake, this is the future. Google has been investing heavily in autonomous driving cars for years and that global giant doesn’t shell out on technology unless it can see a real consumer demand at some stage in the future. Car manufacturers are a long way down the line with 33% of all Yetis sold in the this technology and it’s mature already.

UKvery year-to-date are 4x4In fact, it’ll be here before you know it.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 39

forecourt.

Guy Jones

MG Motor UK’s sales and marketing director tells Car Dealer about his hopes for the new supermini and why the car will reinvigorate the brand With such a low price, would you say the MG3 is a closer rival to the Mitsubishi Mirage than the Fiesta?

I think it’s got enough appeal to cover both. I think it’ll be Fabia and Mirage in terms of the cheaper priced cars in the market, but at the price point with the styling of the car, the graphics pack and personalisation, it’s aggressive enough to go higher. A lot of people are saying it’s not a direct competitor for the Fiesta, and no it isn’t – the Fiesta is a more sophisticated product, but it’s more expensive. But it does all the things that you need in terms of technology, package space and functionality, so I think if we can get the message out there, then it will hit some of the more mainstream cars as well. It’s something different, it’s something fun, and we’re talking thousands of pounds less in price.

Behind Vauxhall and Citroen, you’re one of the first brands to really go for customisation of models – what’s the thinking?

It’s something synonymous with the brand, really.

People have always tinkered with MGs, they’ve always stuck bits on them and accessorised them – that is the history of the brand. If you look in recent years, even the production cars were really heavily accessorised, and MG originally started off tuning Morris cars – so it was really something of a tuning house when it started.

And the current trend in the market place is this personalisation, so it really is what customers want too.

Will dealers be able to apply the graphics packs themselves?

Dealers will. When someone orders a particular range of customisations on a new car they’ll be applied at the factory, but we’re also supplying the same parts as dealer-fit accessories.

So a couple of years down the line, someone might buy a car that’s been specced with pink mirrors and so on, but if they want to change them back to white or body coloured it’s as simple as ordering the accessory parts and having them fitted at the ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘‘

dealer – so that mechanism is set up from launch.

And that of course improves the resale value of the cars, too.

A number of dealers had a strong interest in the brand, but with just the MG6 petrol on sale initially it was hard to get people to commit to the costs of the franchise.

Is there scope for a hotter version?

Yes. The chassis is more than capable of handling more power, and the engine has potential too. Trouble is that it’s relatively expensive to create those niche models without reaching the core volume first.

So we’ve got to build the base a little bit before we start thinking about any high performance versions – but the 3’s chassis is certainly suitable.

Has production started in the UK? Production is now happening in Longbridge, yes, so final assembly is happening there.

Dealers will have their cars arriving any day now too, and they’ll be able to hand over customer cars from the first of October.

Do you think the 3 is going to have a big effect on expanding the network?

It’s going to have a huge effect. We’ve been talking to a number of dealer groups over the last two years who have a strong interest in the brand, but with just the MG6 petrol on sale initially it was hard to get people to commit to the costs of the franchise, then advertising, human resources and so on – it wasn’t really enough.

We’ve always known that B-segment is the largest in the market, so competing in that with such a well-priced and customisable model should mean that it’s a very easy car for dealers to advertise and sell.

Are there any particular holes, or is it a case of general expansion?

Well, at the minute the worst place to stand in terms of chimney pot concentration is actually Sheffield. If you look at Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham, we have no coverage at the minute.

But the great news is that Sheffield will actually be the first city to have two dealers (one north and one south) and they should be able to cover that whole area.

We’re also looking to open additional service points across the country – that’s really to help bridge the gap for customers. We’ll hopefully be announcing that around the end of the year.

in association with INSIDE

ENGINE

There are some thoughtful touches like an iPod dock and the dashboard is attractively, if simply designed

There’s only one – a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol. It’s British-designed and is robust rather than technological

ON THE ROAD

The MG3 handles tidily, with well-weighted steering. It’s not a Fiesta but it isn’t really trying to be one

the knowledge

MG3

MG is wading into the B-segment with its very own Fiesta rival.

Is it the car that the brand has always needed? Jon Reay reports What is it?

After a few years of getting by with just one car to sell, MG has finally introduced another model – sitting in the UK car industry’s fiercest segment, no less. Called the MG3, the AngloChinese firm is hoping that it’s got what it takes to give Fiesta and Corsa buyers something to think about.

What’s under the bonnet?

There’s just the one engine choice: a 1.5-litre, 104bhp petrol. It’s brand new – no Rover leftovers here – and was designed by MG’s UK development centre. This is no Ford EcoBoost engine though, and MG knows it: Admitting that it’s designed more to be a durable, easy to maintain unit rather than a technological, fuel-sipping marvel. It pulls the 3 along relatively well, but a lack of low-down torque means that it needs really thrashing before you can make progress.

What’s the spec like?

Considering the price, excellent.

The entry-level 3Time at £8,399 gets electric windows all round, LED daytime running lights, stability control and hill hold assist, while all bar the base spec get electronic air conditioning, an iPod-compatible stereo with DAB and Bluetooth and remote locking. Alloys appear on 3Form Sport upwards, while the top-of-the-range 3Style at £9,999 gets big-boy toys like cruise control and automatic lights and wipers.

higher speeds. Similarly, the gearbox is light and easy to use, though can feel a little on the loose side.

What do the press think of it?

Auto Express said: ‘With the MG3, the brand is starting to get back on its feet. It offers charm, a low price and a level of customisation that you don’t get with many of its rivals.’

What do we think of it?

The 3 is a car MG has long needed: An eye-catching, up-to-the-minute supermini to cash in on the most What’s it like to potentially lucrative segment in the drive? market. It’s more desirable and better In many ways, it feels quite like a to drive than a Dacia Sandero, and smaller version of the 6. It’s by no means a bad car to drive, and certainly while it’s not up to the build quality, refinement or efficiency of rivals like handles more tidily than some of its the Ford Fiesta, it undercuts them on rivals. The steering is keen and well price so heartily that the 3 is a hard weighted most of the time, but has a habit of getting disconcertingly light at proposition to ignore.

Model: MG3 1.5 3Style Price: £9,999 (as tested) Engine: 1.5-litre, four-cylinder

petrol Power: 104bhp, 137Nm Max speed: 108mph 0-60mph: 10.4s MPG (comb’d): 48.7 Emissions: 136g/km Residual values (three years): 42 per cent

target buyers:

Younger buyers seduced by graphics and option packs; buyers looking for a second car.

the rivals: Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Adam, Dacia Sandero

Key Selling Points: 1. Customisability to rival Vauxhall’s Adam, and can be applied by dealer 2. Plenty of kit inside 3. Even top spec model is £10k

Deal Clincher: More desirable and kit-laden than any other sub-£10,000 supermini on the market Searches supplied by Monthly AutoTrader.co.uk searches: N/A (new model) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 41

forecourt.

Derek Bennett

Leon Poultney asks the general manager of dealer Jack Barclay, Berkeley Square, London, about the updated luxurious Flying Spur Tell us a few facts about Jack Barclay It’s the oldest and most successful Bentley dealership in the UK. The Bentley Boys frequently used the premises to party after racing their machines.

What do you think about the change of direction with this car?

I think customers are going to like this car as feedback has told us that they were looking for a vehicle that featured the ride quality of an Arnage but with the luxurious qualities of a Mulsanne.

This car has covered all of those customer requirements: A softer ride in the back, a quieter ride in the cabin and more comfortable seats in the rear without compromising on luxury or performance.

Bentley is marketing this as a 200mph saloon, why is that?

Because it is! You can hit the buttons, play with the settings and you have a very fast car.

Customers need to know a Bentley can do this; it’s part of the brand philosophy, to be the fastest and the best.

Some critics will say it has deliberately been made more comfortable in the rear for the Chinese market, how will UK customers react to this?

Firstly, anything Bentley can do to add more luxury anywhere on a car is a good thing and, secondly, I don’t think the changes are obvious. It is still a very fast and very capable car that is just as enjoyable to drive as it is to be driven in.

Have you had a lot of interest so far?

We’ve had a lot of interest in this car already and although I couldn’t possibly reveal how many we plan to sell this year, I can say we’ve already got quite a few months pre-sold now. I don’t think this car will have any problem selling — it sells itself.

What has the general buzz been like with staff here at Jack Barclay?

Everyone has reacted very, very positively towards the product. All staff here have had the chance to drive the car, ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

‘‘

we make sure that everyone across the dealership gets the chance to experience any new product we receive and that includes the parts and servicing department. This is an important car for us; a big four-door saloon is typically suited to London-based customers so we need everyone here to be reading from the same hymn sheet.

On average customers spend at least £8,000 on personal touches. Those who opt for a factory tour always end up spending more on their vehicles, too.

Are there any particular sales methods you will adopt for this sort of car?

There is no particular sales method but the most important thing is to have the customer drive the car on the roads they are likely to encounter on a daily basis so they feel familiar and at home in it.

If the customer hasn’t closed on the first test drive, we may allow for a longer drive or even a weekend loan so they can really get to grips with the product.

I think a lot of customers want to feel the ride quality in the back so we have three chauffeurs on the premises that are always ready to take a customer out.

Personalisation has become a very important factor when it comes to buying a car – have you found this with your customers?

Definitely, we’ve found that especially true on the early adopters, they like to add their own personalisation touches.

In fact, all of the cars we have coming through are bespoke and made to order. On average, customers will spend at least £8,000 to £9,000 on personal touches to the car.

Customers who opt for a factory tour always end up spending more on their vehicles, too.

They will see something at the factory and just have to have it; it’s like being in a sweet shop for them.

What do you think the split is between customers who buy the car to driven in and customers who buy the car to drive?

I have been told that 90 per cent of Bentley owners still drive and around 10 per cent prefer to ride in their car.

But there has been an increase in ‘chauffeur-ondemand’ services where customers will drive the car at a weekend but they opt to be driven during the week.

We’ve found that a lot more Bentley owners will drive their cars than, say, Rolls-Royce owners, for example, who usually purchase a vehicle to be driven around in.

in association with CABIN

STYLING

It’s as luxurious as you would expect it to be, with great swathes of hand-stiched leather and acres of timber

It’s unmistakably a Bentley but the new Flying Spur adds a touch of individuality compared to the outgoing model

Bentley Flying Spur

Bentley has created a brand new version of its luxury limo, the Flying Spur. Leon Poultney Esq. was lucky enough to try it out What is it?

An updated version of the luxurious Flying Spur that was first unveiled to the world in 2005. Many hours have been spent working on a new identity for the model that doesn’t shy too far from the iconic yet-understated lines of a Bentley but adds a modern edge to keep it abreast of rivals from the UK and Germany.

What’s under the bonnet?

The same almighty 6.0-litre twinturbocharged W12 unit that can be found in the outgoing model but with a few technological tweaks that reduce fuel consumption by 13.5 per cent and boost performance figures.

Top speed is now 200mph, with Bentley marketing the car as ‘the world’s fastest saloon’. That becomes apparent when the right pedal is pinned to the carpet as, despite weighing nearly three tonnes, it can get to 60mph in just 4.3 seconds.

What’s the spec like?

A basic Flying Spur will set your

customers back £140,900, so naturally specification is going to be on the generous side but, if one goes wild with the options list, prices can easily tickle £170,000. Basic W12 models come with swathes of hand-stitched leather and wood veneers. The W12 Mulliner version adds bespoke interior hide colours, diamond quilting and embroidered Bentley logos on the seats.

What’s it like to drive?

Effortless power is the name of the game here, the big Bentley whisking its occupants to high speeds without those inside the leathery cocoon knowing any different. But the real surprise comes when you actually slide behind the wheel and take control of the Spur. It’s in no way a Lamborghini but the three-tonne cruiser handles with little body roll and has blistering pace.

What do the press think of it?

The Telegraph questioned its ‘World’s fastest saloon’ status, saying: ‘It’s

highly impressive and wonderfully opulent but I’ve a feeling that if the Flying Spur hadn’t been engineered for 200mph, it might have been a much different and altogether better car.’

What do we think?

It is very difficult to find fault with such an expensive vehicle that is lavished with Bentley levels of attention to detail and there is no denying this is one very beautiful, very accomplished machine.

Slight niggles would surround the additional tech elements with many of the menu screens proving fiddly and unintuitive. The Bluetooth phone connection requires too many stages to operate fully and we struggled with the on-board Wi-Fi. Eagle-eyed customers may also notice that a large amount of technology is carried over from other models in the Volkswagen group and those parting with £160,000 probably don’t want the sat nav from a lesser car. Tech aside, it is classic Bentley, boasting understated yet elegant looks and impressive power.

HANDLING

It’s no Lambourghini but for a car that weighs nearly three tonnes, the Flying Spur handles well – it’s a real surprise

the knowledge Model: Bentley Flying Spur W12 Price: £140,900 Engine: 6-litre, twinturbocharged W12 Power: 616bhp, 800Nm Max speed: 200mph 0-60mph: 4.3 seconds MPG (comb’d): 19.2mpg Emissions: 343g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers: Successful businessmen, super rich oil sheikhs and Chinese gentlemen looking for a typically British chauffeur machine.

the rivals:

Aston Martin Rapide, RollsRoyce Ghost, BMW 7-Series, Range Rover

Key Selling Points: 1. Touch screens in the back will impress gadget-savvy buyers 2. Power is up while CO2 levels and down 3. Large range of options

Deal Clincher: A truly British luxury saloon that is quieter and more comfortable than ever before Searches supplied by Monthly AutoTrader.co.uk searches: 31,941 CarDealerMag.co.uk | 43

forecourt.

CABIN

UNDER THE BONNET

Inside there are no differences, really.

That’s no bad thing as the Swift was always well put together, if a little bland

There’s just a 1.2-litre petrol engine under here. It does a decent job of hauling the little car along – but you have to work it hard

LOOKS

Roughtie-toughtie additions work well.

Only SX4 models get the extra body addenda and it wears them well

Suzuki Swift 4x4

After a wait of a couple of years, Suzuki is finally selling its Swift 4x4 in the UK. Daljinder Nagra gets behind the wheel What is it?

What’s the spec like?

Outwardly it looks like any other Swift model. Look closer, though, and you’ll see the little details that differentiate the 4x4 version: The raised body and colour-contrasting underside protection plates front and rear. It uses a full-time four-wheeldrive system which automatically sends power to the rear wheels when the fronts struggle for grip. So it’s not a case of all show and no go.

You can’t get the 4x4 in entry-level SZ2 spec, with the range starting at £13,819 for the well-equipped SZ3. It comes with all the creature comforts you could reasonably ask for, including air-conditioning, Bluetooth and MP3 connectivity. Our test car came in range-topping SZ4 trim, which not only adds the silver bash plates for a more rough-and-tumble look, but also comes with keyless entry and ignition, as well as cruisecontrol, rear tinted glass and LED daytime running lights, making it excellent value at £15,739.

What’s under the bonnet?

The Swift 4x4 is available solely with a 1.2-litre four-cylinder motor, which develops 93bhp. While that sounds quite miserly given the demands of the additional driven wheels, the engine revs freely and rarely feels underpowered around town. It’s no fireball, however, as its 0-60mph ‘sprint’ time of 13.4 seconds proves.

The flip side is impressive combined fuel economy of 56.5mpg. Power is dispatched to the road via a sweetshifting five-speed manual gearbox. ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

What do the press think of it?

Auto Express said: ‘If you need the reassurance of a car that will keep going when the weather closes in, the Swift 4x4 is a great choice. The economy penalty is worth paying, while the lack of impact to the excellent driving dynamics is a real bonus.’

What DO WE THINK OF IT?

If you’ve been mulling over the idea of buying a 4x4 for improved traction and stability in slippery conditions, but don’t want the city What’s it like impracticality or increased running to drive? costs of a big off-roader, the Swift Light and effortless, much like the is an ideal alternative. No, it won’t regular Swift, until you get to a perform particularly well in the rough corner. With power being transferred stuff, but we did subject it to a little to the rear wheels, the 4x4 Swift light green laning, which it managed stays resolutely on line. Despite the with aplomb. Instead, think of it as additional 65kg of weight the foura good-value, comfortable and wellwheel-drive system adds, the Swift built supermini that won’t leave you 4x4 doesn’t feel any less sprightly stranded when the snow than its front-wheel-drive counterpart. comes down.

the knowledge Model: Suzuki Swift

4x4 SZ4 Price: £15,739 (as tested) Engine: 1.2-litre,

four-cylinder, petrol Power: 93bhp, 118Nm Max speed: 103mph 0-60mph: 13.2s MPG (comb’d): 56.5mpg Emissions: 126g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers: Urban types who want the offroader image, country folk who want a 4x4 supermini

the rivals:

Fiat Panda 4x4, Dacia Duster 4x4

Key Selling Points: 1. Extra grip thanks to 4x4 system is welcome on the road 2. No big impact on the way the car drives or performs 3. Roughtie-toughtie bodywork additions work well

Deal Clincher:

Just as capable off-road as it is on the road Searches supplied by Monthly AutoTrader.co.uk searches: 338,041

in association with ENGINE

INSIDE

Before Aston Martin gets into bed with Mercedes AMG, the Rapide S uses Aston’s fabled 6.0-litre V12

It’s as sumptuous as you’d expect with fine leathers and beautiful design details. The dashboard isn’t simple to use, though

Aston Martin Rapide S

STYLING

Chief among the updates is the nose. It’s a much wider, larger and more imposing look compared to the old Rapide

the knowledge

The British sports car firm has given its four-door supercar a powerful makeover. But has it worked? James Baggott reports What is it?

What’s the spec like?

Meet Aston Martin’s slightly awkward-looking four-door saloon, but now with added adrenaline.

As part of a mid-life refresh the S gets more power and even more refinement. The Rapide is the choice for the family gent, as it’s the only model in the maker’s range that comes with two rear seats.

In a word: Glorious. The leather is soft, the carpets thick and the wood burnished. Several cows were sacrificed to coat most surfaces inside and the instruments are as beautiful as one of the finest Swiss watches.

Standard kit includes Bluetooth, sat nav, front and rear parking sensors, a tracking device and a stunning 1000W Bang & Olufsen stereo. Those rear seats have the option of TV screens (£2,495) and you can go pretty mad on the other options, too. Even the paint of our test car was an additional £3,495 – but it’s worth it for the name alone: Skyfall Silver. Cool.

What’s under the bonnet?

An almighty lump, that’s what. The ageing 6.0-litre V12 is still in situ – a last hurrah before AMG work their black magic under the hoods of Britain’s finest – but for now it gets even more grunt. Power is up 80bhp to 550bhp and this helps the 60mph dash time tumble under that all-important five-second barrier, but only by a tenth of a second. Top speed is a heady 190mph and with those sorts of figures fuel economy and emissions suffer. The former is a rather woeful 19.9mpg and CO2 is puffed out at a rate of 332g/km.

What’s it like to drive?

you put your foot down. As the revs rise, the butterflies in the exhaust containing the cacophony of noise open, releasing a guttural V12 groan.

The rear seats are comfy too, even for adults, but that said, headroom can be a little cramped.

What do the press think of it?

Car Magazine said: ‘If you want a practical Aston Martin sports car, then the Rapide fits the bill. The new Rapide S only improves the Rapide experience.’

What DO WE THINK OF IT?

The Rapide S is a stunning way to travel. It’s luxurious, looks sharp and is caked in cool. The Rapide S is a big Well, it’s not the most dynamic of car – and it feels it on the road – and Aston Martin’s range, that’s for sure, but then did you really expect it to be? that engine really is starting to feel dated in terms of economy, but the No, this is a GT car to transport you power is impressive and if customers and the family to the polo/Henley/ Alps with ease. It’s relaxed and sedate need those extra rear seats it’s worth considering... that is, of course, if when you want it to be, but can still they’ve got the cash in the first place! pick up its skirt and get going when

Model: Aston Martin Rapide S Price: £165,580 (as tested) Engine: 6.0-litre, V12, petrol Power: 550bhp, 620Nm Max speed: 190mph 0-60mph: 4.9s MPG (comb’d): 19.9mpg Emissions: 332g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers: The super-rich, supercar owners who need extra space for the kids and luggage

the rivals: Porsche Panamera, MercedesBenz S-Class, Audi A8

Key Selling Points: 1. Styling has been improved thanks to more aggressive front nose 2. Although not limo-levels of space, there’s room in the back 3. Extra power makes this more of a supercar

Deal Clincher:

Fixes many of the flaws of the old car – it’s very good Searches supplied by Monthly AutoTrader.co.uk searches: 19,686 CarDealerMag.co.uk | 45

FEATURE.

To launch the new Mazda 3, the car firm embarked on an incredible adventure.

James Baggott reports on the epic trip

A

s car launches go it was as crazy as it was confident. To mark the new Mazda 3’s arrival, the Japanese firm decided against pitching up at the Frankfurt Motor Show with a few on the back of a trailer.

Oh no, that was far too easy.

Instead, they decided to drive them there – all the way from Japan. If your geography is any good you’ll know that means one helluva road trip through deepest darkest Russia – where driving takes on a new meaning.

Starting at the beginning of August, waves of journalists from across the world were given the chance to drive a leg of the incredible journey across some of the most challenging roads in the world.

Car Dealer was invited to join the convoy for a week and knowing Mazda’s MD Jeremy Thomson and two dealers would be making the trip too we couldn’t resist the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Here are a collection of blogs, written during the trip, that neatly string our experiences together. See if you can guess, by the underlying tone, how I was feeling as I wrote them... ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Day One: Crazy drivers If you’ve visited YouTube and searched for carrelated content recently chances are you’d have stumbled upon a Russian driver doing something seriously stupid.

Well, today I’ve been experiencing the country’s crazy roads for myself – and can report everything you’ve seen on the internet is entirely and absolutely accurate.

I’m currently somewhere on the road in deepest darkest Siberia, not far from the Chinese border, driving nearly 1,400 miles in Mazda’s new 3 hatchback.

This morning we left Blagoveshensk, a small town where only a tiny river separates Russia from mainland China, and have travelled around

400 miles to our first stopover in what appears to be a third world town going by the name of Skovorodino.

So far today we’ve encountered suicidal lorry drivers, wild dogs with death wishes (I can understand why) and potholes that would swallow a VW Up. If this trip has taught me anything so far it’s that when we think we’ve got a problem with potholes in the UK we’re wrong. Ours are like pin pricks in sand compared to the concrete chasms the Russians have to deal with.

So far I’ve seen eight cars and trucks changing wheels at the side of the road – and that doesn’t include one of our Mazdas, taken out by a nasty cave in the tarmac. Some of the holes are so

MAZDA SPECIAL Russia Clockwise from top right – How now brown cow: Moving roadblocks of the bovine variety were just one of the obstacles we had to contend with in Russia; and with ‘food’ like this (centre), we were tempted to run them down and bite their udders off; Strange tree covered in toilet paper was actually a Buddhist temple; And you thought the road surfaces in the UK were bad? Try driving on sand...

mazda 3 route

Finish Ulan Ude

Start Blagoveshensk

erase from mind: loos RUSSIA. Two words: Armitage Shanks. Never, ever Germany have I seen latrines quite so medieval as I had the

Frankfurt misfortune to endure in Russia. I’llIreland never complain

Frankfurt

Hiroshima big you’d lose small children down them, and damage can get so severe there are even ramps at the side of the road for motorists to drive up and check their cars for damage.

You may have noticed most mad motoring viral videos doing the rounds on the web usually star a crazy driver nearly killing himself/others/cows and almost always it’s been filmed in Russia.

When you spend even a few hours on the roads out here you can see why. Red lights are mere suggestions to slow down, while the bigger your car the more clout you have in the bullying stakes.

The locals have some strange habits when it comes to car decoration too – I’ve seen one covered in masking tape (possibly holding it together), one with curtains in every window

about the state of a service station lav in the UK now I’ve seen holes in the floor that could swallow a child Dingle and would scare a drunk festival-goer.

including the driver’s (dogging aid?), and one with fluorescent flowers taped across its bonnet.

We’ve driven hundreds of miles so far through some of the most barren landscape I’ve ever encountered. It seems to be punctuated with Russians selling different wares at the side of the road including fruit, weird leaves and bottles of yellow liquid. I have a feeling it’s not the same liquid as that in the bottles you’d find at the side of the M6…

As well as the strange experiences, this adventure has gifted me with a lot of time in Mazda’s latest creation. The 3 is a vital car for the manufacturer and it says a lot about its confidence that it’s letting a host of car hacks drive the very first models off the production line

on such a punishing journey.

First impressions of the car are very good. It debuts a unique look for this sector with a long nose and sharp lines, reminiscent of a BMW 1 Series, while the interior is very impressive too.

The multimedia system is good, albeit a little buggy, the gearbox excellent and the steering sharp, but the ride has been hard – but then so too would a bus’s on these ‘roads’.

Day two: Longest leg Today we are tackling the longest single leg of the entire trip – some 570 miles in total. We’re currently in Siberia, the far eastern side of Russia, navigating around the Chinese border, as we head north and then eventually CarDealerMag.co.uk | 47

FEATURE. MAZDA SPECIAL Russia

Huge pole. Big sign. No idea what either mean

west towards Europe. Our tour guide explained our route runs along parts of the Trans Siberian Highway, bisecting some of the most densely wooded and unpopulated areas of Russia.

Fuel stops are hundreds of miles apart and signs of life few and far between. We’ve ventured so deep into what’s dubbed ‘Christmas Tree Country’ that should any of us have an unfortunate encounter with a bear, or stub our toe, an ambulance would be more than two hours away. Better not bend anything then…

The roads are long, narrow and although less potholed than before, they’re rippled like waves lapping a shore. This has been testing the new Mazda 3’s suspension – and my typing in the passenger seat – to the limits, as it kangaroos the car into the air.

The route also seems to have been devoid of wildlife. We’ve been travelling through vast swathes of forest, but the fauna is noticeable by its absence. Even the birds seem to have deserted this part of the world, which wouldn’t look out of place in a Hobbit sequel.

We’ve also learnt Russians have a healthy disregard for health and safety. Never-ending miles of cones or concrete barriers separating road workers from passing traffic are nowhere to be seen, in fact you’re lucky if you see a sign anywhere near construction workers before you come face-to-face with a JCB. It makes you wonder whether the British government has shares in a cone manufacturer.

We’ve managed to master the art of overtaking too. The main arterial roads are mostly single file, but the locals are used to cars nipping by – there are no angry flashes of headlights as you might ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

md’s blog

Exhausted.

But it was worth it The roads were the biggest shock. At irregular intervals the whole road subsided and left a substantial dip that made our car bounce about alarmingly.

As we hit a series of dips, there was a comical line of Mazda 3s ducking and diving like a roller-coaster at full pelt. A lesser car would have made this very dangerous.

My worst night by far was in Skovorodino.

I had a room with no windows and given the humid weather it was unbearably hot.

I turned the fridge freezer in my room on and opened the doors to create some rudimentary air con, but at 4am woke in a claustrophobic sweat as the room reached 90 degrees. The fridge motor had acted more like a heater than a cooler. Oh well.

After tackling the flights back home I felt exhausted, but exhilarated and full of admiration for our new car and the incredible durability it displayed on some of the most challenging roads in the world.

Jeremy Thomson Mazda UK MD

experience from self-righteous Polo Bluemotion drivers in the UK – in fact some drivers even pull onto the grass verge to let you pass.

The Russians have also perfected the art of phone signals. Even in the most desolate areas we’ve managed to get a signal – despite the fact the nearest settlement could be 50 miles away. It makes you wonder why Wales is still a dead spot…

Fuel fill-ups have been tricky, though. We had to double back 25 miles at one stage to find petrol for fear of running dry (with 200 miles of range left on the dash) and when we found it there wasn’t a Ginsters or lukewarm Costa Express coffee in sight – it was simply two pumps (one serving up 80 RON) out of the back of a shipping container.

The Mazda 3 is still impressing. It’s soaking up the punishing roads extremely well, coping with terrain far out of its comfort zone. The 2.0-litre petrol engine needs working hard to get the most out of it, especially on hills which require a lot of six-speed box stirring, but altogether it’s an impressive companion.

Our stop last night was in Skovorodino, a collection of ramshackle huts centered around a bog-cum-marsh that appeared to be the breeding ground for the world’s population of mosquitoes.

You’ll be pleased to hear we’ve murdered at least a quarter of a million of them on the Mazda’s nose, but unfortunately our ethnic cleansing hasn’t made a dent in their population and the winged vampires continue to eat us alive.

Last night’s hotel, and I use that term in the loosest possible sense, made a Blackpool stag and hen do £25-a-night job look palatial. I shared my

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1. As toilets go this made a festival latrine look posh 2. We waited for this train to pass for 40 minutes 3. The new VW Touareg caught testing on Russian roads 4. Pancakes with onion in them – what was classified as lunch on day two 5. Hitch-hiker had been there AGES 6. Baggott does some work... for once 7. Lunch stop where we fed our food to wild dogs – even they turned their noses up at it Main image: More cows that we were tempted to attack with Mazda 3s and BBQ with petrol

erase from mind: food

5

They use the term ‘food’ very loosely in the Federation.

Stodge, gruel, unidentifiable ‘meat’, bog water soup, lard and potatoes constitute a fantastic appetising meal.

I’ve got a strong stomach but even I couldn’t palate much of the cuisine served up to us as body fuel during our trip.

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CarDealerMag.co.uk | 49

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FEATURE. extremely perturbed I’d moved in. By the end of the night I think they’d just about accepted my residence.

I’ve learnt Russians seem to have a very interesting take on what passes for food too. Last night’s dinner could only be described as baby sick-covered chicken spat on a plate of mouldy rice. Appetising, it was not. In fact I’m pretty sure prisons serve better.

Tonight we’re staying in Chit which looks a little more civilised and I’m hoping the distance we’ve travelled will have improved our dinner and sleeping arrangements. However, it says a lot for the Mazda 3’s comfort that the only thing I’m worried about is my stomach…

The Russian equivalent of the M25. In a completely finished state

MAZDA SPECIAL Russia

Day three: Roads and fools Russia only has two problems, explained our native tour guide as we set off today: Roads and fools. As much as I like our Russian interpreter, I beg to differ. Our Mazda 3 adventure across Siberia may have taught us a lot about the new hatchback, but it’s also taught me a whole host of reasons why I should never, ever, ever return.

These include – and in no particular order – stray dogs, angry waitresses, boiled potatoes (for breakfast), dirty bed sheets (before you’ve got in them), the national dish (don’t ask), the weather, kamikaze cows, the hole-in-the-ground toilets (note to Russia: It’s 2013), fake Coke and all other road-users. In fact, I think roads and fools are the last of the country’s problems.

That said, the roads are pretty high up on the list of Things The Russians Don’t Do Well. Today our poor Mazda 3 test cars have been hammered, battered and abused by the patchwork quilt of surfaces that appear to have been repaired by Coco the Clown.

One minute we’ll be driving on a bumpy tarmac-like surface, the next tackling a gravel stage that even Sebastien Loeb would describe as ‘tricky’. I’ve already mentioned the Cheddar Gorge-sized (no exaggeration) potholes, but today they’ve been even deeper.

So much so that the MD of Mazda UK and two of his dealers crashed into a tyre-bashing hole – the impact was so hard it bent two wheels (more on that later).

The way the new Mazda 3 has coped with the conditions has been nothing short of remarkable.

In fact I’m surprised we haven’t lost any more wheels – or whole cars – to the punishing roads.

Our travels today – not far from the Mongolian border – have brought with them a whole new range of sights and scenery. The landscape has been a mix of African Serengeti and Austrian Alps. Some of the lowlands have been so lush and, when dipped in morning mist, you half expect to see a herd of bison wandering across the plains.

We’ve passed ‘Buddhist Trees’ on the side of the roads too – traveller shrines where you’re expected to spend a penny (cash) as an offering for luck. The trees are covered in rags and paper, hung there as an offering to aid safe travels.

Our convoy of Mazdas has been getting very strange looks from the locals (human and cattle).

Our Mazda 3s have been abused by the patchwork quilt of surfaces that appear to have been repaired by Coco the Clown. erase from mind: hotel They weren’t all bad, but one really would make a derelict caravan look enticing. The matress was soiled, the sheets stained and the pillow soaked in the previous fat man’s sweat. The room was full of flies and the water stank of pond.

There was only one thing for it: Drink myself into a coma.

Not only do the 3s look like cars from the future compared to the locals’ transportation from Lada and Gaz, but with 16 cars in total it’s quite a sight. I can’t help thinking that most of them are thinking to themselves how stupid we are for trying to tackle the journey in hatchbacks.

During our 400-mile leg today we’ve had to make way for cows randomly crossing the road and even more construction sites where all the workers seem to be doing is smoke. No wonder the roads are so poor…

Because of the mileage, Mazda has been plying us with super-strength Russian energy drinks too. With names like ‘Burn’ and

‘Adrenaline Rush’, these foul liquids make Red Bull look about as potent as breast milk and are unsurprisingly addictive. That could be down to their hallucinogenic powers... at least that’s what I think they offer. Either that or I really did see a tree with ripped shirts hanging from the branches masquerading as a Buddhist temple…

This is our last day on the road out here in Russia. We finish tonight in Ulan Ude, some 1,400 miles from Blagoveshensk where we set off from on Wednesday.

It’s been an eye-opening trip and I’ve learnt a huge amount about the new 3. As hatchbacks go this is one tough cookie – and a car I’ve really rather fallen in love with, even if it does look a bit like a BMW 1 Series.

It points the way towards a very different future for Mazda – a brand that has, even by the MD’s admission, had it pretty tough over the past few years.

A stunt like this one was a very brave move indeed and could so easily have backfired. The fact that it hasn’t – and the hatchbacks have taken everything Russia has thrown at them in their stride – is very impressive indeed. I just wish more manufacturers had the balls to do something similar…

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 51

FEATURE.

It wasn’t just journalists who were driving across Russia in the new Mazda 3 – the firm’s UK managing director and two dealers went along for the ride too

M

azda’s crazy Russian tour wasn’t just for a few lucky journalists – the car firm’s MD Jeremy Thomson also decided to take two dealer forum members along for the (very long) ride too.

Lansdown Mazda boss Danny Sacco and RRG Group operations chief Neil Perrin were picked to join the MD for the 2,400km drive. Their trip was an eventful one too – the trio came very close to tumbling down a steep verge after ‘Pothole’ Perrin inadvertently piloted the team’s Mazda 3 into a huge hole, bending both front and rear wheels.

See the panel for more on that ‘near-death’ (Sacco’s words) experience.

At the end of the trip, we caught up with them to find out their thoughts on the adventure and the new hatchback.

Just how important is the Mazda 3?

Jeremy: Very. Of our next generation cars, the CX-5 started the new product launch phase, and that pushed us into a new sector. Mazda 6 was key for fleet but was launched into a declining sector. Now we’ve got a car in a key segment that is tremendously strong. The purpose of this trip was to show our confidence in the durability of this car, build advocacy within our own business and of course to give the press a chance to experience it in very different circumstances. We also went one step further and invited the dealers along, because I think building the advocacy among our dealers is very important too.

superbly – I really couldn’t get my head around it, it’s been unreal.

Did you expect it to be as good as this?

Danny: No. I think the CX-5 and Mazda 6 have taken things to another league, they’ve jumped us up two rungs of the ladder, but this car has taken us higher. The interior of this car, and I hate to use the term, is Germanic. And in a good way.

Neil: What it’s done is join a prestige look with quality. Our database of current Mazda 3 drivers are going to love it. It’s really going to go down well with them. It will sell to existing customers and because it looks great will attract new customers to the brand too. I think Golf drivers will come across to this.

Danny: You’re right there, because over the last two or three model changes, our customers have said to me ‘I really like coming here and I love the car, but I feel like I’m buying the same one every time’. This time they’ll get into the new one and think ‘wow’. They’ll certainly know they’ve changed their car this time. I think you should be 10 per cent better at a lot of things rather than 100 per cent better at one thing, and this car is better in loads of areas. The room in the back is impressive – these two have forced me, and I want that noted – to sit in the back and there is a lot of room. I was amazed at the space.

‘The purpose of this trip was to show our confidence in the durability of this car’

So has the car lived up to your expectations, chaps?

Danny: I don’t think it has, I think it has surpassed it. I’ve been fortunate to have seen this evolve. The 3 has always been a good car for us and a strong seller, but this one has excelled itself. The gearbox is superb and it’s great fun to drive. The suspension was unbelievable, given what we’ve gone through on these punishing roads, and it has handled those conditions ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

So do you think it’ll sell better than previous generations?

Neil: Definitely. I think this will be more of a volume car as long as we get the right prices. I think, with the front look it has, it will bring a lot of customers in and they may well buy a CX-5 or 6 instead. It will drag customers in who we can then up-sell to.

What sort of numbers do you think this car will notch up?

Jeremy: We will be aiming for a modest yearon-year increase to around 10,000 units and will be targeting a 2.5 per cent segment share

Jeremy Thomson Mazda UK MD

– and I think that is conservative now I’ve had the chance to experience the car’s capabilities first-hand. This will allow us to move into the commercial fleet sector too. The last 3 was really retail only, so I think this has the right credentials. It has an outstanding interior and great connectivity – I think it will become a fleet favourite.

Who’ll be the average buyer?

Jeremy: Our assumed retail mix is 75 per cent of total sales but I think natural demand from userchooser fleet has more potential than we initially predicted, but then these two are probably the best placed to predict who’ll be the average buyer.

Danny: I don’t think we have average buyers any more. The last thing I’d want my salespeople to do is prejudge what someone has come in to buy.

Our job is to marry them with the right product to suit their lifestyle.

Neil Perrin RRG Group

MAZDA SPECIAL Russia Danny Sacco Lansdown Mazda

This trip was a very brave thing for the manufacturer to do, don’t you think?

Danny: The word that comes to mind for me with this car, and this trip, is confidence. It looks confident and feels confident. When I first got in I thought it was big, but when you look at the stats it’s just 40mm wider and 15mm lower.

It’s like a Tardis inside – thanks probably to the longer wheelbase.

Jeremy: That confidence is an interesting word, because part of the reason for doing this trip was to defy convention, one of our brand promises, and putting this together has been very much an example of being willing to take risks. To take the first eight cars off the production line, put them on a boat and give them just two days to get through Russian customs is brave. People were in the air to come and drive them before they’d even got over the border. The trip is being put together as we go and the car, well, we’ve done

three days with it, more than 2,000km and it’s left me thinking I want to do this with every future product – it lets you really get under the skin of it and gives you a holistic understanding of the car.

It really has been an amazing trip and shown us some incredible sights – what has been the highlight for you?

Jeremy: Well, there have been plenty of lowlights, that’s for sure! And because they were so low they were almost the highlights. The sense of humour of everyone here and the willingness to commit to it as we all have done has been brilliant. You can’t step off anywhere along the way – you have to do it – and the car has been the star, of course, but the company has been brilliant too.

I am genuinely pleased I was able to bring some dealers along for the first time in my memory. It has given me an opportunity to hear first-hand, in depth, about a lot of things we’re doing wrong

Wheel wreckers

Trip won’t be forgotten in a hurry On road trips like these you often find the worst experiences are the most memorable – and the Perrin, Sacco, Thomson trio had more than their fair share of those.

While Perrin struggled with the food and Sacco suffered an unhealthy dose of Soviet stomach, it was Thomson who had to endure one of the worst rooms in the filthiest hotels on the trip.

‘It was so hot, I tried to cool it down by opening the fridge door,’ said Thomson.

‘This only served to make it work harder, heating the room up even more. I didn’t sleep a wink.’

However, it was a moment on the road that will live longest in their memories.

On day three, Neil ‘Pothole’ Perrin (as he’ll henceforth be known) clattered into a chasm, bending two alloy wheels.

‘It was a huge, sharp jolt and a bang,’ explained Perrin. ‘We came around a corner at around 100kph and both wheels clattered into a huge pothole. Obviously my reactions saved their lives – they should be very thankful I was driving,’ he said with a wry smile.

Thomson joked: ‘You see what I have to put up with, travelling with our network – I’ve put my life in their hands!’

The trio travelled together for the duration of the journey and clearly had a lot of fun. All three of them were always laughing and joking, even after surviving three days on what can best be described as gruel. As road trips go, this certainly won’t be one forgotten by the three in a hurry.

and get a very genuine sense of what we’re doing right. The next five years with the product change we’re going through is going to be genuinely transformational.

It’s been a tough few years, though, has it not?

Jeremy: I’ve known this was coming, but it’s been hard trying to keep the faith and keeping staff and the network together at CarDealerMag.co.uk | 53

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FEATURE. On the Russian Pothole Size Scale this is classed as small...

MAZDA SPECIAL Russia

Just in case anyone didn’t spot they’d busted a wheel it was handily pointed out

‘I’ve seen the good times – I’ve had some fantastic times – and this sounds corny, but if I was in it for the money, I wouldn’t be in it.’ a time when really since 2006 all our investment has gone into this new technology. These new cars are 100 per cent Mazda, there are no legacy components and I think we have started charting a new course for the business and if we do it right there is tremendous potential. Who knows where it could go now?

Has it been tough for you guys too?

Danny: It has. I’ve been with the brand nearly 25 years and I think we’ve been on a journey now for a while. I’ve seen the good times – I’ve had some fantastic times – and this sounds corny, but if I was in it for the money, I wouldn’t be in it.

To earn a good living out of this industry is not as easy as it used to be. I do it because Mazda is not a brand, it’s a way of life. The way it touches you gives you a soft spot for it. How many MDs of a car company would go through what you’ve been through in the last few days? I certainly can’t name one. I can go back now and when someone asks me what I feel about the Mazda 3, they won’t be able to shut me up. For me, this car is what I wanted it to be 10 years ago.

So how did these two draw the short straw to come along?

Jeremy: For me it was important to have an owner-driver who has been through it all with us over the years, thick and thin, and Neil who represents a different part of our network to come along.

Neil: RRG Group bought the Stockport Mazda site around nine years ago. We have a site in Manchester that’s in its fifth year and Rochdale in its third year. We’ve expanded with Mazda

and that’s a lot to do with the fact we could see what was coming. Like all brands they have two or three good years, then they dip, but what we are very excited about now is that although it’s been very tough, we have good product arriving.

We see the tables are turning and our staff and customers are looking at the Mazda portfolio as proper competition cars. We are expecting a good 2013 and 2014, especially with Mazda 2 coming in the not-too-distant future.

So what’s been your highlight?

Neil: What, apart from saving these two guys’ lives thanks to my Formula One driving experience? No, in all seriousness, I’ve never done anything like this at all. I had my children quite young and we went away on package holidays to Europe, so when I got asked to do this, the first thing I thought was that it wasn’t for me. But the key thing that made me do it was the fact I’m a retailer and would get the opportunity to spend the week with the managing director of a brand for 12-14 hours a day and could peck his head about everything. That was great. I represent other manufacturers within RRG Group and can say that our working relationship with Mazda is very good. And now I’ve got Jeremy’s number I’ll be ringing him on Christmas Day! It has been an eventful trip, that’s for sure. What about you, Danny, any highlights?

Danny: For sure, there have been many – but the best was beating the Germans into the car park.

That felt pretty good. There is a real mix of people here and I don’t normally get to meet people like this, but everyone has got into the spirit of what

we’ve been doing and it’s been quite humbling.

The event could have gone horribly wrong, though. What if the cars had broken down or worse?

Jeremy: Part of what has driven this is we want to be, and act, like a challenger brand. You can’t just be a small mainstream brand, you have to be a bit different and have your own space to operate in. And if you want to be that, what better way to demonstrate that than to take risks like this?

They are calculated risks, but the outcome of eight cars driven over 15,000km and then arriving in Frankfurt is incredible. We will get two of these cars back in the UK and we’ll look to do a regional tour to really use this. In my opinion this has worked very well and I want it to be a catalyst for launching this car in a different way – showing people that are used to hearing from Mazda in a certain way that we have gone through a transformation. It’s partly new product, but it runs deeper than that.

Danny: I’ve gone through five or six years when it was always ‘there’ll be jam on the bread tomorrow’ and, although that sounds harsh, that jam is now here. Driving this car and experiencing what I have first-hand has given me the confidence to know that this car is going to sell.

That’s a fact. I think it’ll become our best seller.

Jeremy: We know this is a competitive sector and I’m not expecting an easy ride, but I think with this particular car launch we are delivering a wake-up call to the competition. The Mazda 6 delivered that in the C/D segment and this car will very quickly become a favourite in our portfolio.

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 55

FEATURE

Mazda 3

Finish Ulan Ude

Start Blagoveshensk

Frankfurt

Germany Frankfurt

Ireland

Mazda’s UK sales director, Peter Allibon, chats to Car Dealer about the importance of its new hatchback Hiroshima Why is the Mazda 3 so important for dealers?

It’s a big volume car for us – we are planning to sell 75 per cent retail with the new 3. It’s also a C-segment vehicle – and that is important to any dealer network. I think it now gives us a true retail product that’s got the sixth-generation mark to it – in both styling and in technology.

It’s a very competitive sector and I think the credentials of the new car should have it well positioned against the competition. It should give our dealers a good opportunity to build on volume and the margins that our sixthgeneration cars are starting to deliver.

Is the 3 Saloon going to be launched at the same time as the hatchback? What is the sales split going to be?

Yes. The initial plan is a 15-20 per cent split of Saloon. We want to give it a launch equal to the Hatch. The saloon will be called the Fastback and we want dealers to be able to unveil both models simultaneously. Although the Hatchback arrives sooner than the Fastback, we’re holding off until we can do a proper job with both cars.

There is a massive opportunity with the Fastback in the fleet sector, as the dimensions of it put it very close to a BMW 3 Series.

When are dealers going to get their first cars?

They will have cars in December. Whether we

Dingle

launch officially, i.e. for customers, in December or January is in discussion. All of these plans are in the early stages and we are trying to get dealer feedback as to what the consensus would be as to the timings.

Are you targeting a particular demographic?

There will be a target demographic: Professionals aged over 30. But I think the car is going to have such an appeal it will attract a wide range of people, both existing and new customers.

What are Mazda’s big plans for the rest of the year and into next year?

First of all we will be running out the current generation Mazda 3, which is going well. We should have fewer than 200 vehicles by the end of October, giving us a good clear spell to then launch and communicate the new car without one eye on the job of the run-out vehicle. That is a good opportunity for dealers to make money out of that run-out phase. We will continue with our Special Vehicle Program strategy, MX-5 sees a new SVP coming for the summer, Mazda 2 gets a new SVP as we move through the year, and there will be potential for upgrades to some of our sixth-generation cars. The launch of the Mazda 3 is going to be the big focus, and once we’ve got it, hopefully we can concentrate on improving dealer profitability.

CABIN

Forget boring Mazda interiors of old, new Mazda 3 has a very design-led cabin. Build quality is good too

on test

Days before our Russian trip, Daljinder Nagra drove a Mazda 3 on normal roads What is it?

What’s under the bonnet?

What’s the spec like?

A pleasingly non-European hatchback. Where even the Korean marques such as Kia have somewhat conformed to the styling conventions of the dominant German manufacturers, the Mazda 3 is different. Penned using Mazda’s ‘Kodo’ design language, it features the same stretched bonnet and face as the larger Mazda 6.

Unlike rivals, Mazda is offering larger naturally aspirated engines which are competitive in the fuel economy and emissions stakes, thanks to the company’s Skyactiv techology.

These naturally-aspirated engines are a 98bhp 1.5-litre and a 2.0-litre available in 118bhp and 163bhp guises. A 2.2-litre turbodiesel is also offered and is the surprise of the range.

Developing usefully more torque, and with a petrol-like ability to rev, it makes for a more effortless driving experience. It’s astonishingly refined too, with nary a hint of vibration or clatter finding its way into the cabin. On top of that, it will return 72mpg and emit just 104g/km of CO2 – mightily impressive for a 2.2-litre diesel.

Price and full specification details have yet to be confirmed, though the 3 is likely to be offered in SE, SE-L and Sport trim levels. Sport models will get a jazzy set of instruments, while a heads-up display is also available. Among the technological highlights is smartphone-driven Internet connectivity, displayed on a seven-inch high-definition display driven by a dashboard-decluttering rotary wheel situated in front of the driver’s armrest. More conventional options will include a full leather interior and a Bose stereo.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

MAZDA SPECIAL ROAD TEST

under the bonnet

A number of petrols are on offer, but just one 2.2 diesel. It’s the derv unit which is the most impressive with good CO2 emissions for its age

looks

Mazda 3 carries on the look showcased by the Mazda 6 and uses key elements of the firm’s new ‘Kodo’ design language

the knowledge Model: Mazda 3 2.0 Price: tbc Engine: 2.0-litre, four-cylinder,

petrol Power: 120bhp, 210Nm Max speed: 123mph 0-60mph: 8.6s MPG (comb’d): 55.4 Emissions: 119g/km Residual values (three years): tbc

target buyers:

Traditional C-segment buyers – so that’s family, mature and middle-management types

the rivals: Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Seat Leon, Volkswagen Golf

Key Selling Points: What’s it like to drive?

What do the press think of it?

Mazda has purposefully honed the new 3 to be as predictable and linear as possible. It feels light and effortless, with all of the controls well-matched in weight and feel. Up the pace a bit, however, and you may wish for a bit more directness from the steering. in faster corners. The engines display a willing verve, though none are firecrackers, with the most powerful 2.0-litre model taking eight seconds to get from 0-60mph. More impressive is the capacious, cosseting cabin, which makes the Mazda 3 a relaxing place to cover the miles.

Auto Express was very impressed, saying: ‘This has the potential to be a five-star car in its finished form.’

1. Low-emission, naturallyaspirated engines 2. Exceptionally smooth and refined diesel option 3. Bold design

What do WE think of it?

Deal Clincher:

Mazda has gone its own way with the new 3. Even in our not-quite-finished test model, material and construction quality was high and the diesel engine is among the best we’ve driven in this type of car. We can’t say for sure whether it’s a good buy until Mazda reveals the price, but from this first impression we wouldn’t discount it for a second.

First Mazda ever to feature smartphone-based internet connectivity

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 57

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FEATURE. Finish Ulan Ude

Start Blagoveshensk

Luck of the

Irish Germany

Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Ireland Dingle

Hiroshima

Batch, Jon Reay and Baggott headed to Ireland with an audacious plan to race a Mazda CX-5 against a 70mph powerboat but, as Baggott explains, things didn’t quite go to plan…

A

s disasters go, the past three days rate reasonably highly up my scale of Things That Haven’t Gone Well. It’s 2.30am, I’m stood outside Heathrow’s Terminal One and a biblical rainstorm is soaking through my suede shoes and turning my toes the same colour as a 60-a-day roll-up fag smoker’s forefingers.

The sense of humour I’ve been trying so hard to keep for the past 72 hours is ebbing away nearly as quickly as the precipitation’s falling from the sky. We’ve already been delayed hours and when I find out we’ve missed the last Purple Parking bus by just five minutes to an airport car park that’s so far away from Heathrow it might as well serve Luton too, my smile cracks and I finally lose it, entering a sulk so deep only the time Felicity in Year Five held Joe Jacob’s hand not mine for the Maypole dance would rival it.

Unfortunately for Jonny Reay, editor Batch cracks at precisely the same moment and the former is left awkwardly sipping his hazelnut latte (small) in silence as we both try to beat each other in the pouting out our bottom lips stakes. Needless to say it’s a long and awkward drive back to Gosport when we finally do manage to extract our car from the bowels of a seedy London suburb car park.

It all started so well just a few days ago. High on the joys of celebrating my 33rd milestone with more hair on my head than Batch has at 24 (albeit greyer), we set off for southern Ireland with the intention of pitching a power boat against a Mazda in a sea-versus-terra-firma duel. The plan was to learn a little about the Irish car sales business, drop in on a few dealers along the way and generally get to know the firm’s CX-5 SUV. Little did we know a series of unfortunate events would conspire to ruin our plans in monumental fashion.

Mazda set up our race to celebrate its sponsorship of a high-powered Rigid Inflatable Boat, or RIB, in a unique contest. Fashioned from carbon fibre, it features a 150bhp engine capable of propelling it at seagull-decapitating speeds of up to 70mph and has seats with suspension dampers taken off an American NASCAR racer.

The captain was to be Tom Montgomery-Swan who was piloting the craft around Ireland in a special race. The plan was for me to join TMS for a leg of the race off the Dingle peninsula and at the same time race Batch in the CX-5 over 65 miles. J-Reay was here to capture my discomfort and Batch’s probable map-reading failures for a video. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

‘The only discomfort we’re subjected to on-board is a weird stench of Vicks vapour rub’

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Potatoes

Our flight out of Heathrow is on time, comfortable and punctual. The only discomfort we’re subjected to is a weird stench of Vicks vapour rub as Batch liberally applies it to his upper lip to ‘cure his sinus problems’. Strange boy. We get our revenge by reminding him that he really does look like Will from The Inbetweeners. I watch three episodes of the first series just to double-check and laugh annoyingly in his general direction while pausing Will at his most Batchlike moments.

It must be said Batch isn’t as strange or as confusing as Ireland, though. We’re met at Cork Airport by a driver from Mazda’s local O’Brien’s Garage, who has kindly lent us a Mazda CX-5 and 6 Tourer support car for the race. While I grab a coffee, Batch and JR head off to collect the cars, but fail to return. It transpires that the choice of two roads – one in and one out – has confused our esteemed editor and he’s lapping the airport like a befuddled hire car driver.

I like the CX-5. It’s a good-looking car and although not my stand-out choice in this sector,

RIB

Mazda CX-5 meets specially-built RIB

THE Mazda CX-5’s competitor was a brand new Ribeye A Series RIB, piloted by Tom Montgomery-Swan, 24, from Exeter, Devon. The six-metre vessel featured race specification materials, advanced electronics packages, fuel-efficient engine technology, and custom suspension – a shock-mitigating console and seat designed by a NASCAR firm in Canada. The RIB also had fuel tanks from a Chinook helicopter.

That said, thanks to the treacherous weather, it wasn’t much good in our race.

MAZDA SPECIAL ireland

Just minutes later Baggott nearly drowned... and Batch found a comb to fix his quiff it’s a worthy contender. That’s my Twitter-style 140-character review anyway. Unfortunately, our Mazda is in a strange spec – it’s got the navigation button, but one that doesn’t actually connect to any nav. Handy. We resort to Siri and our iPhones to find our way across the south-west of Ireland to our hotel where I celebrate the remnants of my birthday with a dinosaur steak and three different kinds of potato. A potato, potato, potato gag is lost on a confused and increasingly angry-looking waitress. I give up and go to bed.

Tornados After quite possibly the worst hotel night’s sleep ever, we head to Fenit for our rendezvous with TMS early doors, now with The World’s Best Photographer in tow too. After a short drive across stunning countryside, gazing at hills topped with furious storm clouds, we arrive at the port, plopped on an outstretched concrete arm in the middle of the bay.

Our Mazda chaperone is trying desperately to raise TMS on her bat phone. Water and mobiles don’t mix very well and TMS is about as reliable at picking up his as a Ryanair complaints

department. After an hour’s wait, her Sony Ericsson (yes, they still exist) bursts into life with news – TMS has hit a snag. Note: This will become an all-too-familiar theme.

TMS explains he’s in Limerick – some 200 miles away – and going nowhere fast. The coastguard has advised the race participants against leaving the port. Huge 40-foot waves are rushing in from the Atlantic and there have been tornado warnings too. Not good when you’re in an eight-foot power boat... TMS is not going anywhere near the drink, but says he’ll pull his boat out and drive it around to us instead.

We take the opportunity to bag a few snaps with The Universe’s Best Camera Operator 2012 of the CX-5 on what can only be described as a swimming pool of a road in the lashing rain (something else that will become a familiar theme to our Irish mis-adventure). With some of the ‘best pictures ever taken’ in the bag we decamp to the world’s weirdest pub for lunch.

You know when you walk into a place, look around, realise you’re the only people there for a reason, but then it’s too awkward to leave again?

Well, that. Three of us order plaice and chips

while Batch goes for a breast in a bun (first time for everything).

It’s clear when the deep-fried hockey pucks arrive that the chef only had enough fish for one, but hadn’t let that stop him frying the living Omega 3 out of it and serving it up to all of us.

When the waitress plonks a jug of water that’s clearly come out of the fish tank on the table I decide to avoid a bout of dysentery to go with the impending heart disease and listen to our photographer’s ‘fascinating stories’ of completing two degrees (possibly a modesty PhD) and how he’s just installed the world’s most advanced hot tub in his back garden.

TMS calling back brings with it a welcome break to an awkward silence that’s followed the hot tub tale. ‘Oh’, says our Mazda fixer. This is in no way a good ‘oh’. It transpires he hasn’t managed to get his boat out of the water just yet.

Despite the fact three hours have passed since his last communiqué. Apparently ‘the wrong sort of water’ was to blame, or something along those lines.

Whatever the excuses, it’s blatantly obvious that the boat race we’ve come CarDealerMag.co.uk | 61

FEATURE. here to film isn’t happening today. We need a plan B and for some stupid reason – possibly induced by ingesting too much chip fat moments before – I suggest we pitch me in a sea kayak against Batch in the Mazda in a race across and around the bay. I have no idea where this idea came from and instantly regretted it.

Meanwhile, our Mazda mastermind tries to change our return flights to a later slot so we can try to race the RIB in the morning. Batch, JR and I head back to Fenit harbour where we spotted a sailing club to find a kayak to use for plan B. We’ve already realised a combination of tumultuous weather and TMS could mean that, despite the promises and another day for our race, it is still highly unlikely to take place.

Drowning ‘Tell me you’re from Top Gear,’ says a rather excitable kayak controller when we explain what we want to do. The look of disappointment rivalled my two-year-old daughter’s You’re Not Allowed Chocolate Before Breakfast face when he realised it wasn’t James May waiting outside, but a similar strange floral pattern shirtwearing man with an almighty quiff instead.

Despite our weird request he was surprisingly receptive to the plan and soon had me cocooned in a revealingly tight wet suit and enough flotation devices to keep even James Corden’s head above water. ‘You’ve used a kayak before haven’t you?’ he asks with a worried look on his face when he spots the tell-tale sign of professional kayak knowledge inadequacy that is a wrong-way-round wet suit. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d only bought a kayak seven days before and had been out once on what can best be described as a large duck pond.

He took my nods as a sign of confidence and lowered me into a lengthy £1,000 sea kayak that resembled a long and unstable McDonald’s drinking straw with pedals for operating the rudder.

Little did I know that my kayak back home had been designed to stay upright. This one was a little bit more advanced and had a tendency to

dump inexperienced paddlers into the drink.

The first time I was rescued by two 10-yearolds in a dinghy was embarrassing. The third time I considered drowning instead of facing the humiliation of two pre-pubescent lifeguards pulling my rubber-covered body out of the salty Atlantic yet again.

Back on shore, Batch has quite clearly had tears of laughter running down his face and J-Reay has enough blooper roll footage to keep You’ve Been Framed in business for the next three years. Our kayak expert suggests I try another version that I can only assume is intended for use by small children.

Half the size of the javelin I’d been falling out of before, this Fruit Salad-coloured wave penetration device was small; like squeezing size 12 feet in a pair of eights small – and worse still it needed a spray deck attaching to it so it didn’t fill with water. That required me to wear what can only be described as a drowny skirt. Slipped over my head I looked like a rubberised Scotsman in a faded kilt and was given instructions on how to pull the ‘Jesus cord’ to release the deck when (not if) I capsized.

I tried to hide the burning fear that I could taste in the back of my mouth (or was that the cremated fish returning?), and wriggled the kayak into the sea and into position for some pictures with The Man Who Taught David Bailey Everything. Then promptly fell out.

This time there were no schoolchildren to rescue me in a boat, so I was forced to straddle the nowsinking kayak and surf it the 100 metres to the shore, like a giant six-foot frog. You ever get the feeling there are killer dolphins out to get you when you’re in the sea? No? Just me then. Let’s just say this irrational fear didn’t help progress.

‘J-Reay has enough blooper roll to keep You’ve Been Framed in business for three years.’

Denied Despite an afternoon shooting pictures and video for a completely different feature than we came over to Ireland for, things are looking rosier.

There’s some sun poking through the angry clouds, I’ve just about mastered the second sea kayak and I’m beginning to get used to the sting of salt water rubbing in between my contact lenses and corneas.

MARKET

Irish car market is very volatile in 2013 UNLIKE the UK market which is on the rise every month, it’s a completely different situation in Ireland. The global recession is hitting the motor trade hard, with new car car sales suffering. While the UK registered 65,937 units and was up 10.9 per cent in August 2013, Ireland managed 68,544 – but that’s 7.66 per cent down compared to last year.

Mazda, however, is bucking the trend with dealers reporting sales are up. The firm has sold 1,285 cars so far this year in Ireland – that’s up 0.62 per cent on last year. It means the Japanese brand is ranked 15th in the sales charts and holds a 1.89 per cent of the total Irish market.

But then we’re hit with another hammer blow.

Mr Kayak Owner isn’t happy with the weather.

Despite the bay looking calm, in half an hour the winds are due to pick up and my 45-minute crossing could turn into a Coastguard rescue and/ or being swept so far upstream that I’ll bump my head on a mountain. And with that it’s called off.

The dunkings, the embarrassment of squeezing into an ill-fitting wet suit, not to mention the photography and video shoots have all been in vain. And with The Man Who Taught All Photographers The Art Of Pressing Buttons now on his way back home (he left early), we’re more

How NOT to pilot a kayak. By James Baggott

Note to self Remember to put wetsuit on the right way round! ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Looking good Boss man shows off his skills in the kayak...

...or maybe not, as it starts to tip. Will he be able to keep it upright?...

MAZDA SPECIAL ireland

... Er, no. Boss man tries in vain to keep his silvery locks from getting wet...

...Another note to self. Exit kayak like you’re a professional...

... Or maybe not. Boss man gets a mouthful of something salty CarDealerMag.co.uk | 63

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FEATURE. MAZDA SPECIAL ireland

than literally up a creek without a paddle. Or with a paddle, but… oh, you get the point.

While we’re sat in the boot of the CX-5 wondering just what on earth we need to do to get this feature to work, the Mazda PR’s phone rings. It’s TMS! He’s on his way from Limerick by water… against the harbour master and coastguard’s advice.

The race is back on for the morning and we decide, if that doesn’t happen (probable), we’ll give the kayak race another go.

We give up on the day. I’m shattered from trying not to drown, Batch is knackered from constantly having to comb his quiff back into place thanks to the wind, and J Reay isn’t talking to us as we didn’t like his idea for a video introduction. All in all, things are going swimmingly. We drive back in silence (another theme of the three days).

Back at the hotel our surreal day is topped off by a planned dip in the pool that’s scuppered by a lack of swimming caps (what is this, 1974?) and a man in his fifties dry humping the hand dryer in the changing rooms sporting his very own towel rail, if what Batch clocked is to be believed. Freaky.

Race day We hear from TMS as we’re eating breakfast. He made it to Fenit, albeit with a bit of help. When I say a bit I really mean he made it to Fenit with an escort from the Coastguard helicopter and the RNLI. Apparently sea twisters were rising out of the water just 700 feet from his boat as he battled 4,000ft waves (probably). We like TMS, but his stories are starting to get a little unbelievable.

When we meet up with him in Fenit harbour, hopeful of giving the race one final crack, he drops the bomb it just isn’t going to happen. The weather is worsening yet again and venturing out in the boat would be, in his words, ‘suicide’. Now I’m all for a good feature, but I didn’t really want it to be my last.

As he pulls the RIB out of the water on the very same slipway I’d been drowning by the day before, he talks us through the boat’s many features. Apparently it can tweet for him, like a robot, and he shows us the fuel tanks cut out of a Chinook helicopter that ‘burst like balloons’ the day before. It also appears that most of the Mazda branding has been stolen by seals or possibly killer dophins – from both the car and boat. He explains they were ‘ripped off by the weather’ to our Mazda host and promises to replace them.

With our boat race clearly not destined to happen it’s obvious the kayak race plan B won’t be allowed to go ahead either. We check with Irish Bear Grylls and he confirms that is indeed the case. He also uses the word suicide. My manly bravado has evaporated by this point and we realise we’re doomed.

Plan C is rolled out in an attempt to salvage at least something from the three days out of the office and the thousands of pounds Mazda has spent to bring this whole feature together.

We decide a video road test and a drive story

‘I’m in the foetal position before Batch even realises that death is knocking on the driver’s side window.’

DEALER VIEW

CX-5 has been ‘a huge success for us’ THE Mazda CX-5 has been a huge success for us in 2013. The Mazda CX-5 represents 20 per cent of our Mazda sales volume in 2013 and most importantly 38 per cent of these sales are conquest customers who are experiencing the Mazda brand for the first time. And what a good time to get into Mazda! The build quality of the Mazda CX-5, its class-leading economy, low emissions, performance and numerous industry accolades have created an increased brand awareness for Mazda, thus ensuring further success for CX-5 and Mazda’s other sixthgeneration products – the award winning Mazda 6 and soon-to-be-launched all-new Mazda 3 in 2014.

George Corbett, owner of George Corbett Motors will have to make do and set about filming it on the way back to the airport. With Batch dosed up on half a can of Red Bull and a Crunchie ice cream, the sugar and caffeine rush evokes some random, uncontrollable maniacal laughing.

When we finally sedate him we set off and take the scenic route back to the airport. Ireland is crushingly beautiful, a cross between the Highlands of Scotland and the Welsh Valleys, the roads are superb and relatively car-free. If it were

easier to get here we’d be back for road tests every month.

With the cameras rolling and Batch and I just about done summing up our thoughts on the CX-5, we encounter one of the scariest – and subsequently funniest – driving moments of my life. On a blind, single-file country lane, a BMW with a driver clearly high on glue tries to ram us off the road.

I’m in the foetal position before Batch even realises that death is knocking on the driver’s side window. We swerve up the bank and into the bushes and back on to the road, narrowly missing the Berk in a Beemer, a few choice fourletter words the poorer. Fortunately, the whole event was captured on video and if you want to see what genuine fear REALLY looks like visit our YouTube channel. I guarantee you’ll laugh. A lot.

We hand back the Mazda to O’Brien’s Garage with slightly more foliage than it came to us with, but it’s relatively unscathed. Our nerves, somewhat less so.

Stood in the check-in queue for our return flight, Batch makes the mistake of opening his mouth: ‘You know what will happen now don’t you?’ Don’t Batch! Too late… ‘Our flight will be delayed.’

Less than 30 seconds later a jovial red-headed Aer Lingus man fulfils Batch’s prophecy. Still, at least it meant we weren’t going to miss the flight. We decamp to the bar and enjoy the last of Ireland’s Guinness, plus more artery-clogging fast food and reflect on what has been quite possibly the most disastrous, but altogether entertaining non-feature we’ve ever tried to put together for Car Dealer. We thank you Mazda. [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 65

FEATURE.

The Dealership Television and car dealers don’t normally mix. But thanks to it appearing on a Channel 4 reality TV series, the Essex Car Company has come out shining. James Batchelor and Sophie WilliamsonStothert spent the day with the team

‘‘

The ones that made us laugh the most were from the car dealers who were obviously jealous of the way we do business

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

T

ake one used car dealer, place a few television cameras around the premises, attach some microphones to the salespeople’s lapels and what do you have?

A must-see piece of reality TV, that’s what.

For the past couple of months, Channel 4’s schedule has been boosted by a new television series. Always one to depict real lives, Channel 4 added a documentary-cum-reality-TV-series to its line-up, and the Essex Car Company was the dealership selected to be the star.

‘The producers had a couple of sites in mind, but in the end they chose us,’ Essex Car Company director Steve MacLaughlin tells us. ‘Am I pleased they did? Yes... I think we’ve done well out of it.’

And that’s an understatement. Since its three hours of fame, the Essex Car Company has seen a double-digit rise in the number of cars it sells, and

its website has experienced unprecedented traffic, thanks to 1.3 million people tuning in every week.

‘When the show was live on air, we took a look at the figures and we discovered we were getting 351 hits a second on our website. That’s quite incredible,’ says Steve, seated in one of the dealerships’s little sales offices. When we tell him we tried to log onto the company’s website when the show was airing live and discovered the site had crashed, he chuckles.

But despite the programme depicting a car dealership whose staff seemed impossibly fun and driven, was the addition of cameras positioned around a hard-working business a bit of a drag?

‘It’s amazing how quickly we got used to it,’ says Steve, pushing back into his chair and relaxing.

‘The team were very good at blending into the

PICTURES: MAL HAY

background, and they eventually learnt not to get too involved when deals were being done.’

Although the Essex Car Company appeared in a prime-time Channel 4 slot for an hour a week for three weeks, the filming team were present for much longer.

‘You wouldn’t it believe would you – they were here for seven months,’ says Steve, sipping some tea salesman James has brought in for him. ‘They filmed hours of footage but only the juiciest bits were used, naturally. The production team even brought along a specialist to make our site look bigger. When you watched the programmes (he says, as he jabs a finger in our direction), you

James Gammon Salesman

probably thought we had a large site. It’s far more modest, isn’t it? The cameramen used wide-angle lenses and such like to give the appearance we’re much bigger,’ he smiles.

But what does Steve think about the negative comments aimed at him and his team on Twitter?

‘My son was on Twitter whenever the show was on and we could see all of the tweets directed towards us,’ explains Steve.

‘The ones that made us laugh the most were from the car dealers who were obviously jealous of the way we do business. We’re really friendly with our customers, and as you’ll find out none of the

Steve MacLaughlin Director

team acted especially for the cameras.

‘We’ve even had a few dealers who “have been in the trade for 40 years” telling us we carry out customer test drives unprofessionally – things like that. At the end of the day, that’s the way we do business – and it seems to work. We’re a profitable company that has happy staff and even happier customers. You can’t argue with that.’

Will there be a second series? ‘I couldn’t possibly comment on that,’ smiles Steve.

Read on to find out how Car Dealer got on while spending the day with the Essex Car Company...

Dan Sellen Salesman

Greg Avery Sales manager CarDealerMag.co.uk | 67

FEATURE.

Day in the life of The We had a great day with the team at the Essex Car Company. From car sales and coffee to banter about Batch’s braces, there was never a dull moment.

Sophie Williamson-Stothert gives an hour-by-hour account of our visit 9:00: Batch and I arrive at the gates of the Essex Car Company and it’s not too long before we are spotted by The Dealership’s super salesman, James. ‘Hello babes, nice to meet ya!’ It was a greeting we’d heard many times on the TV show, and with a firm but friendly handshake James introduces himself to Batch and me. He insists on making us a very welcome cup of coffee.

9:11: We’ve been on the premises for just over 10 minutes and the first customer arrives. Eagle-eyed James is quickly on the case with his constant flow of comedy comments and a winning smile.

Meanwhile, the rest of the sales team begin their working days moving the cars around the site and drinking coffee.

9.40: Batch, who has arrived in Essex looking more like a trainee stockbroker than a car salesman, is told in no uncertain terms by James to loosen his tie. He’s also given some basic tuition in the fine art of making a roll-up cigarette. Meanwhile, Batch’s sartorial secret is out when James spots his braces under his jacket.

9:46: James decides it would be a good idea to try on said polka-dot braces, but complains they are pulling his trousers up too far. Nevertheless, he takes great delight in striding around the site singing Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me.’ 9.55: Batch shadows James as he tours the forecourt watching potential punters ‘like a hawk’.

In between times, James also gives me a rundown on the office personalities, telling me about each member of staff’s characteristics.

11.01: It’s time for Batch to hone his selling skills. James insists he speaks to a potential

customer who’s interested in buying an M3 on the forecourt. Can Batch possibly influence the punter’s decision? He neatens his tie, lowers his sunglasses and purposefully strides over to seal his first deal. Ever seen a stealthy leopard creeping up on an unwitting gazelle? It was nothing like that.

11:16: After Batch has given his customer some breathing space (after spending a whole five minutes in Batch’s company the poor guy clearly needs it), it’s time for James to clinch the deal.

He plans his actions carefully, and as soon as the time is right, he approaches the customer Batch has been talking to.

11:28: As we observe from a few yards away, Batch is looking forward to finding out if his rookie sales patter has worked. He doesn’t have to wait too long before a familiar voice shouts: ‘You would be a brilliant salesman bruv!’

11:59: James is now keen to see Batch’s meet-andgreet skills for himself. He insists Batch practises his customer greeting skills on me, though quite what I’ve done to deserve this I have no idea!

Batch puts on his acting charm and approaches me with a cheesy smile, his quiff all aflutter and his arm stretched out: ‘Alright darlin’? How can I help?’ Surprisingly, James approves.

12:17: Customers are still flooding in. This time a young married couple with a baby, looking to downsize to a more efficient car than the one they own, are interested in a Fiesta. The father says he will wait outside and have a cigarette first.

James suggests they have a cup of tea together to think things over.

12:32: Ever-watchful James spots another sales opportunity – two young ladies looking for a new car. He’s already proved he has the ultimate skill in juggling several customers at the same time and soon manages to persuade them to come into the office for a chat.

2:16: James spends some more time trying to teach Batch to be the perfect salesman and introduces us to some of his regular customers.

Batch’s silky sales patter seems to have deserted him briefly, and James calls him ‘soppy bollocks’.

Batch doesn’t seem too impressed.

3:29: Still in the office, sales manager Greg takes a look at Issue 66 of Car Dealer Magazine and is interested in the tweets we found relating to ‘The Dealership’ show. He’s also interested to find out exactly what we do and is quite fond of the topend cars featured in the magazine. Meanwhile, salesman Dan spots the word ‘anal’ in some graffiti on the front cover.

4:00: Batch is looking at the finance side of dayto-day life at The Dealership and appears to be struggling with a calculator. Meanwhile, various members of the ECC team are working hard to meet the requirements of their late-afternoon customers. They’re also very keen to find out a little more about Batch, and would like to witness his famous Quentin Willson impersonation.

5:24: Batch is finally ‘forced’ into doing his Quentin Willson (by which I mean he happily volunteers to perform), and he’s got the group’s full attention. I think they were impressed, or at least in a state of shock, that he actually did it.

5.30: It’s all over. What a day at The Dealership!

‘Most of the people who work for Director Steve spills the beans on his team of super sales people Are you and the team into cars?

I’m really into cars, and I’m about the only member of staff that is. I have bought a Savage Cortina and I also had a Ford Capri before and a Porsche.

James really isn’t into cars at all, although the new lad Bradley is. None of the others has an interest in cars whatsoever – I’m the petrol head and the one who knows all the specs.

What’s your background? Have you ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

always been a salesman?

No, I was never a salesman. I was originally a branch trainee, and then I was a business manager, then a sales manager and then a general manager.

I had two years off being a credit broker and I was the top business manager in the Lookers group. The group business manager from Lookers left and set up a brokerage back in the days when credit was easy to get and my son was born and I decided that I didn’t want to work seven days a week flat out and take the grief that I used to take. I wanted to work nine to five, five days a week.

We used to do credit broking and as a relief business manager I’d go into a site and tell them where they were going wrong and put them straight.

One of the sites I went to wanted a business manager and I acted as their relief business manager while running a branch office from there. And then when I was doing that I also met a guy who had problems with his site. We went and gave our advice and Dave, my business partner, said the best thing to do was put cars on there. He liked what I did, so he said if you ever want to do anything on your own, let me know.

Dealership...

You’ve either got it or you ain’t: A chat with salesman James

It’s fun and frolics at ECC, but at the heart of it, it’s a successful business

How many years have you been in the business?

I’ve been here at the Essex Car Company for eight years.

What is your background?

I was selling phones before I worked here and I’ve been in sales now for 15 years.

How did you get into the business?

I started doing three days a week as a salesman and I realised that I was good at it, so I went on to become a full-time car salesman.

What does it take to be a good salesman?

In sales, you’ve either got it, or you haven’t. It’s something that comes naturally to you.

Do you have an interest in cars?

No, I don’t have a passion or interest in cars.

Do you enjoy your job?

Yes, I enjoy what I do and I enjoy meeting and working with people. I enjoy having a laugh with my customers and having a good chat.

What makes a good salesman?

Anyone can sell, but it’s about doing it consistently. Month in month out, year in year out, that’s what you need to be able to do. A good salesman needs to be consistent, not just have a few good months here and there. You need to be good at balancing customers, that’s how you get the good numbers. As a target, I set myself 31 cars per month and I usually always achieve that figure. I’ve been selling cars for years now and it’s a part of me, it’s what I do.

us have never sold cars before’ Dave and I soon got together and I came here to try and sort things out and ended up running this business for him. So he basically puts the money in and I run the dealership for him.

What’s different about the Essex Car Company?

Most of the people that work for us have never sold cars before. When you take on salesmen from other dealerships they come with preconceived ideas. We sell cars in a different way, so when someone comes in for a car and we haven’t got it, we don’t just take their phone number and say we’ll ring them back, we’ll actually try to sell them a car. Whereas, the main dealers these days are slightly lazy – they’ll take someone’s phone

number but they’ll never ring them back. So what we do is try and sell people a car because at the end of the day, we are salesmen.

My partner Dave puts the money up and I run the business for him. He buys all the stock, he has the final say in everything we do. He’s usually here seven days a week, he’s very involved in the business but he takes a step back and lets us get on with it. He likes to be in the background, but we wouldn’t do anything without him.

How many cars do you sell a month?

We have to sell roughly 70 cars a month just to break even. We always try to have 200 cars here a month and we do shift them pretty quickly.

Obviously our stock figures will drop occasionally,

especially if we’ve had a good weekend of sales.

How do you buy cars?

We buy a lot of cars at auction, we have partexchanges and then we have a ‘cars wanted’ sign just outside. People come in with cars off the street, a ‘we-buy-any-car’ type of thing, and we’ll offer them money for it. We buy a few cars here and there and obviously from a few people we know. We get good part-exchanges, which really builds up the business.

What’s the most popular stock?

We sell a lot of BMW, Audi and Land Rover models, they’re very popular in this part of the world. If you drive a Range Rover, you come from Essex don’t you? Or that’s usually the case!

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 69

FEATURE.

the dealership’s new recruit new boy’s first day

get that jacket off you numpty.

I can’t wait to sell a car. it’s going to be sooo easy.

He meets greg the sales manager who puts him in his place batch arrives brimming with confidence... that soon disappears is his hair really like that?

Seriously, bruv!

ok, ok... i’ll make the tea. just don’t touch my hair.

Greg shows batch the number of cars james sold last week. gulp! all this bending over is hurting my back.

super salesman james shows the new boy he won’t ever beat him and then...

keeping a low profile, batch takes pictures of a bmw that’s come in ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

an ice cream van arrives. work stops as team buy their ices

we got a new boy today. show him the ropes.

i think this is what these chaps do.

this new geezer better not step on my toes. greg tells super salesman james about the new boy batch

batch loses the jacket and grabs a pen to put behind his ear

if only i had got a ‘b’ in GCSE maths.

the paperwork is some of the best you’ll find.

first job of the day is taking a call on a silver ford fiesta...

WHY DOESN’T HE BUY HIS OWN BLOODY ICE CREAM?

...and then working out the cost to change. he fails miserably I COULD GET USED TO THIS...

BATCH ROPES IN DAN TO BUY HIM A 99 with strawberry sauce

The dealership’s new boy takes five mins out... undeserved CarDealerMag.co.uk | 71

FEATURE.

the dealership’s new recruit later that day fiesta customer appears at the front gates...

what sort of t**T wears bondage gear like this?

quiet time is filled with fun and games... like braces swapping nice little runner this one. would do you fine.

batch tries not to be himself and chat about classical music

new recruit rests on his laurels and catches 40 winks

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HI BABES. WHAT DO WE OWE THE PLEASURE TO?

silver’s a rare colour for these darlin’.

looks bang tidy, if you ask me.

james jumps in and explains this fiesta’s ‘unique’ features customer’s other ‘arf noses under the bonnet of the ford ...and then

you just bought yourself a ford fiesta!

do you like it enough to buy it today?

Slips into a bit of mike brewer and shakes the customer’s hand and so... batch gets in on the deal to close iT... with lots of hand gestures he’s only sold one car??!!

you haven’t got the right character for this job. greg tallies up the day’s numbers and gets a shock

greg politely tells batch he isn’t cut out for car selling CarDealerMag.co.uk | 73

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FEATURE.

Greg Avery says everyone gets on as a team at the Essex Car Company

‘We took a leap of faith’ Sophie had a chat to Greg Avery, sales manager at the Essex Car Company

What does your job entail?

Anything sales-orientated, anything to do with the sales department. Anything to do with the site is my responsibility. I’m in charge of the sales people, I’m in charge of the pricing and I’m in charge of the cars. I take care of the day-to-day running of anything sales-related.

When did you come into the business?

I was working for the site that was here previously as a salesman, then I worked for the Essex Car Company as a salesman. I worked my way up to sales controller and then the position became available for the sales manager’s role and I went into that position. Overall, I’d say I’ve been in the business for 10 years.

Did you always want to be a salesman?

I enjoy cars and I am sort of interested in cars, but that comes second to making those all-important sales because I enjoy talking to people and getting to know them.

Do you think the show has helped you?

We’ve definitely sold cars off the back of it and it’s definitely had a big effect on our business.

People have seen the show and they trust us as a business. It’s also a really good talking point.

Has this been your big chance to portray the used car industry?

Definitely. I always wanted to break a few moulds and let people see the other side of the business, which hopefully the show did. Hopefully we broke a few stereotypes too.

How do you find working at ECC? It’s not an easy place to fit in, because everyone is so bubbly and everyone is always winding each other up and laughing and joking, so you have to be a certain kind of individual.

Would you say you’re the ringleader?

Well, the sales department is ultimately my responsibility – the sales department is like the hub of the place really, because without selling cars, the rest of it is irrelevant. So yes, I’m at the centre of most things.

Have other dealers contacted you about the show?

Yes, we’ve had loads of positive comments and obviously we’ve had a few negative ones but you’re always going to get those. Luckily enough, opinion isn’t based on fact, so they’re irrelevant.

What are your thoughts on the show?

We did take a leap of faith letting them film.

Even if I wasn’t in the show, I would still love to watch it and I think the show has great potential.

The sky is the limit. Everyone is buzzing at the moment and lots of people are saying they’ve seen us on telly, but we’re all grounded, normal people and we just do what we do.

Do you think there will be a second series?

Yes, I would imagine so. And it’s not just good for the business, I think it’s great for the motor

industry. It’s good for consumers to look at places like us and think ‘they’re a nice bunch of lads’.

We are human beings, we’re not just selling machines here to sell, sell, sell; we want people to come in and approach us because we’re here to help. People buy from people, and we follow that saying.

What advice would you give to a salesman?

Be yourself, show your personality and just be a little bit more outgoing. Selling shouldn’t be scripted and it should come naturally to you. If it doesn’t come naturally, then you’re probably not meant to be a sales person. Sales is either something you’ve got in you or you haven’t.

I don’t think you can teach sales, you just know when someone is picking it up or when someone’s not. There’s a saying and it’s true: Happy people sell.

What drives you to be a good salesman?

I love my job and I get up every day looking forward to what I do. I enjoy meeting new people and working with my team. But in any targetdriven role, in any sales job that’s commissionbased, you’ve got to be driven by money. If you’re not, you’re in the wrong game.

What’s the best thing about working at ECC? The fact that we’re all allowed to be individuals and we can all have our own individual personalities. It’s quite a relaxed atmosphere.

Everyone gets on as a team and we are unique in the way we do things. That works in our favour and that’s one of the keys to our success. [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 75

focus on.

Frontline Solutions

Break down barriers, achieve success W: frontline-solutions.co.uk T: 01924 648800

FRONTLINE SOLUTIONS

W

hether you’re an independent or franchised dealer, maximising return on every customer opportunity is crucial. However, things can get in the way of this – such as compliance responsibilities or ensuring that sales and F&I processes are both effective and consistent. Barriers to success can also include the perennial problem of how to integrate the multitude of dealer F&I systems into a single coherent approach.

Under the leadership of managing director Andy Shuter, Frontline Solutions, the F&I solutions gurus based in Wakefield, has spent the last 10 years developing and fine-tuning software and systems that not only address these common issues, but consistently demonstrate that it is possible to achieve substantial and sustainable increases in process efficiencies and overall profitability.

This month sees Frontline Solutions move things to the next level, with a new website, brand refresh and a powerful

message to take to the industry. With investment in new key staff and systems, Frontline is perfectly positioned to assist car dealers with the F&I/sales challenges they currently face.

‘Until now, Frontline Solutions has been mostly recognised for providing the award-winning DealTrak123 system,’ Martin Hill, national sales manager at Frontline, explains. ‘However, the company offers so much more than just this one solution.

‘We also provide business critical systems to more than 80 per cent of the motor finance brokers in the UK, as well as being the first company in the UK to provide innovations such as credit screening for both web and showroom customers.’

Hill continues: ‘The future will continue to bring challenges for the industry with regard to maximising every sales opportunity. Frontline is helping hundreds of dealers across the UK improve their efficiencies with

‘‘

Creating a seamless lead generation process between the dealer’s website and the showroom is crucial

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

their lender and broker partners.

‘Our technologies and systems act as a central ‘‘hub and spoke’’ model, allowing a dealer to have one central system that seamlessly connects to their chosen F&I providers.

‘This feature alone has saved our clients countless hours of wasted time re-keying customer/vehicle data into a multitude of different systems.

‘One client was using 24 different systems throughout their sales process, each system with its own log-in details and passwords!

‘We have helped them reduce this burden by more than 50 per cent. The added advantage is that in many instances we are also capable of integrating manufacturer finance schemes into our systems, resulting in an even more rounded solution.’

Hill outlines one recent development that illustrates how keen Frontline is to lessen the dealer burden of multiple systems.

‘We recently integrated the Aviva Driveaway Insurance solution into our DealTrak123 system.

This allows a dealer to register and apply for the Driveaway policy without having to re-key customer or vehicle information.

‘Again, it’s one less system for the dealer to have to enter data into.’

The client list is impressive – from top 100

groups such as Bristol Street, Stoneacre and Perrys to used car supermarkets such as Car Shop, The Car People and Trade Centre Wales.

However, Hill is keen to stress that the benefits of working with Frontline are available to all sizes of car dealer. ‘The benefits scale up or down very well,’ he explains.

‘We have clients that sell thousands of vehicles a month, and clients that sell just a few.

‘The important point is that the issues faced by all car dealers, regardless of size, are consistent.’

Many dealers use a Dealer Management System or CRM system.

The providers of these systems can now take advantage of Frontline’s ‘Rosetta’ service, which allows all of the features and benefits offered by Frontline to be seamlessly integrated into the DMS/CRM system. The effects are transformational.

‘Dealers that use these DMS/CRM systems will experience incredible functionality within an interface that they are already familiar with.

‘This means that there is less resistance to change, and the system is more easily incorporated into the dealer’s business processes,’ Hill explains.

‘It is now no longer the case that a dealer has no option when it comes to choosing the look and feel of the DealTrak123 system.

‘If they wish, they can totally customise the

look and feel of things using the Rosetta service.’

With dealers looking to maximise lead generation (especially finance-related leads), Frontline is keen to share its successes in their area.

‘Creating a seamless lead generation process between the dealer’s website and the showroom is an area of crucial importance,’ Hill maintains.

‘We can assist dealers with ways of generating genuine leads from their website where the customer can be credit screened without leaving a footprint on their credit file.

‘This functionality, in conjunction with automatic filtering rules that are built into our solution engine, allows a customer to be forwarded to the lender more likely to accept the finance proposal.

‘This means that Frontline will also be assisting clients with their obligations under the Consumer Credit Directive, as they will be able to demonstrate that they have systems and controls in place to ensure customers are treated fairly.’

The benefits of credit screening are also available within the showroom, via either the DealTrak123 system or the Rosetta service.

The screening service is easily incorporated into any sales process, and is backed up with

in-depth management information to monitor effectiveness.

The future looks bright for Frontline Solutions, with growth into new verticals such as the leisure industry also in progress. The emphasis on holistic solutions, backed up with a deep understanding of the issues faced by dealers today, will continue to set Frontline apart from other businesses.

‘We are not just a software house providing offthe shelf systems,’ says Hill.

‘Frontline will utilise their 10 years of experience to provide clients with F&I solutions that are not only tailored to the way they sell cars, but also draw on our expertise in areas such as compliance, process improvement and sales.’

As with any initiative, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So do the solutions provided by Frontline really add a genuine return on investment?

The answer, explains Hill, is a resounding yes. ‘Many of our clients are willing to act as testimonials for the positive impact we have on their businesses.

‘We have case studies and metrics that demonstrate substantial bottom-line gains, all backed up with real-time management information.’ [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 77

focus on.

Aston Barclay

Lights, camera, auction...

ASTON BARCLAY

A

W: astonbarclay.net T: 01245 450700

lways one to listen to its buyers’ needs, one of the UK’s leading auction companies, Aston Barclay, has introduced a brand new product to ensure its customers can buy stock more easily and efficiently.

Buy Plus is a new product that Aston Barclay plans to launch later this year, providing buyers with a tool to automatically upload a newly-purchased vehicle direct to their dealer website within a matter of minutes.

‘We have been trialling a new service called Buy Plus, which works as a ready-to-retail service for our customers,’ explains operations director, Barry Watts. ‘We take what we call “beauty shots” of a vehicle and as soon as it’s sold at auction, we will send those images along with the relevant information over to the buyer so that they can then post that very vehicle for sale on their website.

‘This saves our customers time and money – the buyer hasn’t paid for or taken the car back to their showroom yet, but it is already advertised for sale on the dealer’s website. So we’re allowing customers to do what usually takes a minimum of 24 hours within less than an hour.

‘There are currently half a dozen customers trialling the new Buy Plus product and so far Aston Barclay has received nothing but positive feedback.

‘We have received good comments from all of our customers who are trialling Buy Plus and it is always under constant review,’ says Watts. ‘We hope to officially launch this product at the end of the year.’

This isn’t the only example where Aston Barclay has developed a new service tool for its customers. The company recognises the importance of vehicle advertising and that without good-quality stock and the ability to list vehicles online as soon as possible, advertising is not going to be successful for any business.

Although it relies heavily on vendors to supply it with vehicles, Aston Barclay works closely with its

buyers to ensure the right customer gets the right vehicle. Aston Barclay will make sure staff are always on hand to assist buyers, whether it be online, in the auction centre or on the telephone.

‘We pride ourselves on our customer service and we’re always walking the auction floors and mingling with our customers,’ says Watts.

‘One of our customers actually said that they appreciate how accessible we are and although we are a large company, we are still accessible to all of our customers whether they are franchise and independent dealers, leasing and finance companies, or car supermarkets.’

Watts continues: ‘We have very good communication with our buyer base. Our vehicles are sold as seen with no warranty but if there is a problem or an issue occurs with a vehicle that has been sold, then someone will take the call and deal with it immediately.

‘Sometimes we can’t always give them the answer that they are looking for, but we will always go back to our vendors and then get back to our customers with the verdict either way. And our customers value that and trust us for that very reason.’

Aston Barclay has four well-regarded sites across the UK and it hosts auctions, both online and in the auction centres. It also supplies vehicles to a variety of customer bases including independent dealers, franchises and motor retail supermarkets.

‘Different dealers sell different stock, some sell prestige cars and some sell lower-end cars, so we’re looking at prices from £8,000-plus or £3,000-plus,’ Watts explains.

‘We work closely with household names in the lease, fleet and dealer networks to make sure we find and sell the right stock they require, and the fact that we have a lot of regular customers means we are aware of what stock they are looking for so we can spot patterns in their purchases.’

With the growth of online auctions continuing to prompt more and more dealers to purchase

‘‘

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Although we are a large company, we are still accessible to all of our customers big or small

their stock online, it’s becoming extremely important for auction sites to completely eliminate mistakes when choosing and advertising their vehicles.

‘Online auctions have taken off phenomenally over the past six years. We always aim to be the eyes of the buyer on the web and they have confidence in us to deliver them the car they are looking for,’ says Watts.

‘We invest heavily in making sure customers are satisfied with the vehicles they are buying and post four images minimum of each car listed, making sure to highlight if and where the car suffers any issues or problems. We inspect almost to zero tolerance.’

He continues: ‘We appreciate that a buyer is a customer and that, without buyers, we wouldn’t

have vendors. Customers are equally as important as the vendors.’

Online auctions play a very crucial role in the motor retail industry due to the easy, time-saving service they can offer. However, physical auctions are still very important and Aston Barclay is keen to do as much as possible for its customer base in order to make the buying process as easy, accessible and as helpful as possible.

Aston Barclay isn’t the largest auction house, but it’s certainly one of the most helpful and efficient in the retail market, providing its customers with confidence and the necessary tools to help them advertise their vehicles proudly. [CD] Sophie Williamson-Stothert (@1Sophie_W) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 79

focus on.

TRACKER

Track those new profits TRACKER

I

W: tracker.co.uk T: 0845 604 6028

n an uncertain market, when it comes to increasing revenue, car dealers are being forced to look beyond traditional income streams to boost profit margins.

With pressure to turn around a quick and sizeable profit, those keen to stay one step ahead of the competition are offering more products and add-ons. Whether at the time of purchase or during the ownership cycle, add-ons can be useful profit generators.

But it’s not just the likes of paint protection and extended warranties that offer extra sales potential to dealers. Stolen vehicle recovery (SVR) expert TRACKER is urging car retailers to look at alternative revenue streams to help boost profit margins, putting the spotlight on tracking devices as the next big sales opportunity. Increasing consumer demand for vehicle tracking systems offers dealers an opportunity to tap into this market and offer award-winning SVR technology from TRACKER to reassure their customers about the security of their purchase.

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Owners of vehicles installed with TRACKER SVR technology have peace of mind that should their vehicle be stolen, the likelihood of recovery within 24 hours is high. As the market-leading provider of SVR systems for 20 years, TRACKER has sold more than one million tracking units in the UK alone and counts every police force across the country as a partner. Ninety-five per cent of vehicles fitted with a TRACKER are returned to the rightful owner and 86 per cent of these are returned within 24 hours.

The latest figures from TRACKER reveal that more than £12.5 million worth of vehicles were recovered in 2012 by the police as a result of TRACKER technology. This clearly demonstrates the added-value that offering tracking devices can bring to customers.

David Wilson, TRACKER’s sales and service director, said: ‘Where other avenues of optimising profit may have been exhausted, stolen vehicle tracking systems represent a rich vein of opportunity that has been untapped – until

now. We are leading the charge in encouraging car dealers to realise the potential in offering SVR units to customers.

‘We have made it easier for dealers to sell TRACKER units, and we want to send out one key message for them – there is money to be made.

We are keen to talk to dealers across the board that aren’t aware of this profit opportunity, as we can offer something that is unique – not only the traditional margin, but also a percentage of the subscription that dealers collect for us. It is now just as profitable for a dealer to sell a TRACKER as it is for them to sell paint protection or GAP products.’

Pete Walker, group after sales manager at The Westover Group, which sells TRACKER units, says: ‘As one of the largest privately-owned

motoring groups in the south of England, we feel a successful dealership is one who caters for all the customers’ needs. By offering all the necessary add-ons like tracking units, we are able to ensure the customer stays with us through the selling process, allowing us to provide a thorough yet convenient service. Our sales executives deal directly with the customer and ensure that the units are fitted to the highest dealer standards.

‘The profit generated by the sale of TRACKER

units has been a welcome addition to our standard revenue stream. The relationship between the two businesses goes back a number of years now and with a dedicated account manager, everything is very easy to facilitate which is always beneficial to customers. The brand name speaks for itself and the majority of customers think of TRACKER as the name for SVR. In fact, in April this year we fitted our 250th unit.

For us selling TRACKER units is a no-brainer and an

excellent way to sustain growth particularly in such an uncertain retail market.’

Wilson continues: ‘It’s not just the profit potential that makes TRACKER attractive, car owners truly want this product. Car thieves have never been so prolific or sophisticated, using various methods to counteract even the most resilient security systems. If a dealer can offer a way to protect their assets, it will only strengthen the relationship and keep customers coming back.’ [CD] CarDealerMag.co.uk | 81

Total Digital Marketing

Total Digital Marketing (TDM) is the next evolutionary step of online marketing.

TDM acknowledges the fact that all forms of internet marketing have an impact on each other.

The genesis of search, changing consumer behaviour and all forms of digital marketing need to work symbiotically as if part of the same highly complex organism rather than a bunch of separate cells with competing agendas.

The vision of the worldwide web has become a reality as content is shared, fused, distributed and consumed via a massively complex network that’s interconnections are beyond comprehension.

0845 658 9290 info@gforces.co.uk | www.gforces.co.uk ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

focus on.

Marketing Masters

Welcome I

t’s all very well making sure all elements of your business are up to speed, but if you fail to get your marketing right you could be closing your site’s gates sooner than you think.

In these days of ultra-discerning customers, getting your marketing presence right has never been so important. The window to capture your customer is ever-tightening and you nearest rival is on one click away on the buyer’s mouse.

It couldn’t be simpler – marketing is crucial to your business.

But who do you turn to? Well, we’ve put together the following guide on the best companies you should be doing business with. We’ve chatted to them and found out the benefits you can get by working with these companies.

And we’ve thought of everything. From website design and SEO to online advertising portals, the key to a successful marketing strategy is here.

Our feature on the following pages is certainly worth a read. Hopefully it can save hours of your time and effort – and give you the chance to reap the rewards of more business.

Here’s what they had to say...

What’s inside?

GForces

P84

Meet the firm that can offer the complete marketing experience

Auto Trader

P87 The name that trips off the tongue has just the marketing package for you

Bluesky Interactive

P89

Make your website stand out with the latest tools and gizmos

Manheim

P91 Learn how to speak to your potential customers 24 hours a day

Mediahawk

P93

Spidersnet

P95

Why telephone marketing is important to your business

Find out why this firm can give your website some visual bang

James Batchelor Editor

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 83

focus on.

Marketing Masters

The power of the force GFORCES

I

W: gforces.co.uk T: 0844 247 4523

t’s easy to think of the world of online marketing as a series of hurdles; a number of distinct areas, all of which one has to understand in order to carve out an integrated marketing strategy that’ll draw customers to your dealership.

But while many digital marketing specialists will work around this concept, GForces considers its approach to be a little different. Rather than offering a series of piecemeal marketing solutions, GForces instead offers to develop and refine a complete and interdependent strategy that balances its client’s budget and allocates it to the areas which return the optimum results.

‘The reality is, where I think the best digital marketing companies operate, is not just generating more visitors to websites,’ says Tim Smith, the company’s commercial director. ‘A lot of what we do is to balance out an entire digital marketing budget, not only with attracting a volume of visitors to a website, but also qualifying those visitors, and therefore improving the chances of converting them into a sales opportunity.’

It’s in this holistic, all-encompassing way that GForces works for its clients. ‘We call our package “Total Digital Marketing”,’ Smith explains. ‘The first thing we do is to isolate the dealer’s goals – “I want to drive new car sales by X”; “I want to increase my used car penetration by Y”; “I want to have Z service bookings a month”. We take those priorities, look at the budget, and work out how we can split that budget – and use our techniques and technology – to achieve those individual goals.

‘In very broad brush strokes, the idea is that we balance all of these elements out dependent upon the requisite business goals. It’s far more advanced than just trying to drive visitors to the website – which is an approach that’s still, unfortunately, quite prevalent in the industry.’

The process, Smith says, often starts with social media – potentially even before a customer

is seriously thinking about buying a new car. ‘Social media opens up businesses to more of a free flow of information than ever before. It operates at a different level in the sales process; in an awareness phase – while people have the sentiment to buy a car. The decision-making process is not fully formed; at that stage, they’re just gathering preresearch information. But social media also has an impact on search results. Search still dominates the landscape in terms of driving value-for-money in marketing, and social media is now being included in the algorithms that Google uses.’

Indeed, getting the approach to search right – perhaps through pay-per-click advertising, or more commonly, through good SEO – is still one of the most important parts of an online marketing strategy.

‘When the consumer goes into the research phase, they typically hit all the standard tools – so they’ll go on to search engines, they’ll look for consumer reviews, they’ll browse classifieds, and they’ll review the market,’ says Smith. ‘The bulk of a dealer’s sales opportunities will be generated through natural search – and in the UK, that’s predominantly through Google. The other thing you can look at is how you run your paid search – so you may use specific landing pages, or you might drive the traffic back to the website.

‘But with our clients who are on a mature digital marketing strategy, generally 55-65 per cent of their leads are generated through natural search, which is where SEO comes in. And obviously a huge amount of that is then filtered through the website – so we have to make much more of what customers do once they’re there.

‘They need to be engaged, they need to get the information they want, and they need to be prompted to make a call to action – send an email, get involved in a live chat, or make a phone call. A dealer’s website still counts for, by far and away, the largest number of leads that they generate for their business.’

‘‘

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The bulk of a dealer’s sales opportunities will be generated through natural search

As important as those other factors are, then, Smith says it’s the website that’s the cornerstone of a digital marketing strategy.

‘For GForces, there are three components,’ he explains. ‘We call them Platform, Management and Marketing. Your platform is the website – your web assets, your digital tool set. And until you get a solid platform, you’re just throwing good money after bad. You can go out and do your marketing, and get your visitors onto the website, but if the platform’s not stable, robust, and well-designed, you’re burning those visitors because it isn’t fit for purpose, and your conversion rate will be low.

‘Once you’ve done that, the next phase – which is so often neglected it’s untrue – is management.

That means having the right people and support structure around that digital strategy. Working out who’s going to answer live chat, for example; where your emails are being distributed; how quickly you’re responding to the leads that are generated by this online beast; how much your guys know about marketing – and why all these things are relevant.

Education within the dealership, in other words – because that information, that teaching, that learning, gives the customer the currency to develop with a digital agency.

‘You can then look at marketing. Because you

can go out to market and spend lots of money, safe in the knowledge that these opportunities you’re creating will return sales – that they’ll be converted through the business. So you get those three components, and again it comes down to this balance.’

That word – balance – seems to be woven through this company’s business. GForces considers the rocketing proliferation of different technologies involved in digital marketing, and ties them together in a coherent, organised strategy with the aim of meeting a dealer’s prime targets.

‘Total Digital Marketing is the next evolutionary step of online marketing,’ says Smith, in summary.

‘It acknowledges the fact that all forms of internet marketing have an impact on each other. The genesis of search, changing consumer behaviour, and all forms of digital marketing need to work symbiotically as if part of the same highly complex organism – rather than a bunch of separate cells with competing agendas.’

Alex Robbins (@Scrof) CarDealerMag.co.uk | 85

We think our Local Dealer Seminars give you an extra edge with handy local market info.

But we’ll save the high fives until our tips start boosting your ROI.

JOIN THE NEXT DEALER SEMINAR IN YOUR LOCAL AREA BY CALLING 08433 089 072 ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

focus on.

Marketing Masters

There’s more to Auto Trader than meets the eye AuTO TRADER

W

W: autotrader.co.uk T: 0845 071 2655

hether you’re a one-man band or part of a massive franchise, it’s almost certain that Auto Trader will be a big part of your life. But as it turns out, there’s an awful lot more to the UK’s best-known automotive classifieds site than meets the eye.

These days, Auto Trader provides not only

advertising space for dealerships to sell their wares, but also a range of tools and services that help them to analyse and understand how their adverts are working for them.

‘It’s a “look at me” sort of thing,’ says commercial director Marc Thornborough. ‘Dealers are looking to stand out, and to do that they’ve got to shout really loud. And then from there it’s about getting people to spend as long as possible looking at their websites, and then clicking on an email link or phoning a phone number to ask for more information.’

To make sure that happens, Thornborough and his colleagues spend hours sifting through reams of data to work out what buyers are doing when they look at dealers’ adverts, and why they’re doing it.

‘We try and follow the paths buyers are taking to work out what’s best practice.

We can also work out from keywords what people are interested in. Obviously, then, you’ve got pictures, and of course pricing too – the basics, in other words. And part of what we do is to talk to our dealers as often as we can, to remind them about those basics.’

To that end, one of Auto Trader’s newest initiatives is a series of master classes; free sessions for dealers in which Auto Trader staff

share with dealers the insights they’ve gained from their research, in order to help them maximise the effect of their adverts.

‘We’ve sometimes struggled to get dealers engaged because many are owner-operators, and they can’t afford to spend time away from their core business,’ says Thornborough. ‘Customers tell us that they can’t come down to us because there’s an auction on – but we’re trying something a little different this year: Holding seminars at auctions.

We’re saying “It’s OK, we’ll come to you!” If that works well, we’re going to continue that throughout next year.’

The group also offers its own tools to help dealers make the most of their online presence.

‘Razsor – our in-house digital marketing service – is a big one. Mobile as well. Half of smartphone users have searched when they’re already on a dealer’s forecourt – a lot of salespeople don’t realise that!

‘We’ve also got the Dealer Community, a tool and a forum that dealers can and should use to share stories, straight from the horse’s mouth. They can also tell us what they think about Auto Trader and what they want us to develop for them. Many of our upcoming products have come from dealers’ suggestions.’

So just what is in the pipeline? ‘Well, we’re redesigning the full page ad, and that’s currently in test. That’s coming out shortly, and it’ll be clearer and easier for the consumer to navigate around it.

We’re also testing 20-image ads; we’ve found that people will spend longer in front of a car if there’s more to look at.’

Auto Trader’s still looking after its core business, then – but the company’s well aware of its prime position in the market, and continues to develop not only a remarkably useful suite of tools for dealers to use in conjunction with their adverts, but also a series of services that look to advise and guide dealers into making the best possible choices for their classified advertising.

By Alex Robbins (@Scrof)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 87

Responsive website design One website, hundreds of devices

Does your website offer a seamless user experience?

Your website needs to work on hundreds of different devices - mobile, tablets and more. You could have a dedicated site for each - but Google best practice is to have a responsive website that adapts to fit every screen size. You can’t afford to delay - by next year, mobile and tablet traffic may be 50% of overall traffic.

This is only the beginning – a responsive Bluesky website will grow with you and your business to maximise your sales.

Give us a call now on 0845 415 4853 to future proof your website.

Results • Relationships • Technology Speak to Alan Crane about how responsive website design can work for you: ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Email: ac@blueskyinteractive.co.uk or call 0845 415 4853 www.blueskyinteractive.co.uk

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Marketing Masters

A top website and getting traffic to it are key to sales bluesky interacTIVE

A

dvertising. It’s a necessary part of selling cars and to make a success of it you need a great marketing partner. But let’s go back to step one.

Before you have great stock and a winning advert, first you need a brilliant website, and there are few others as professional in this field as Bluesky Interactive. ‘In order to be successful at online advertising, dealers need a good-looking and integrated website,’ says Bluesky Interactive’s marketing manager Lauren Cooke.

‘Dealers need to have a website that essentially is designed to achieve their business objectives — and the same goes for marketing as well.

‘It is necessary to have an integrated space for dealers’ customers, their brand and their customers’ needs that works hand-in-hand with their marketing — otherwise there is not much point.’

Bluesky Interactive is a specialist creator of stunning websites for car dealers, and is one of the UK’s leading full-service digital marketing agencies.

Whether it’s designing a website or running a PPC campaign, Bluesky has it covered.

‘We started off as a website company always focusing on the needs of car dealers,’ explains Cooke. ‘But over time we have expanded to be both a specialist in web design and marketing.

‘We focus on all aspects of digital marketing — SEO, email marketing, SMS, pay-perclick, social media and much, much more.’

Bluesky’s business is founded on the internet — but why should the online medium play an important role in a dealer’s life?

‘Dealers should be paying close attention to the internet because of how much it has grown and how much it is going to grow,’

W: blueskyinteractive.co.uk T: 08451 255 855 says Cooke. ‘Recent research shows that nearly onethird of under-35-year-olds in the UK would buy a new car directly via the internet.

‘The importance of the internet is undeniable now — whether it is at the research stage or the buying stage people are using the internet in every phase of the car-buying process.

‘Quite often the only time a customer will come into the showroom is when they are ready to buy, after they have done all their homework. If a dealer is not in the arena early, they essentially will not get a look-in.’

But how can dealers get a great-looking website?

What are the key ingredients? ‘While the website’s design, the use of high-quality pictures and video are all very important,’ says Cooke, ‘I would actually say the most important element of a website is user experience. A dealer’s website needs to be geared up to make the customer experience as easy as possible — whether inquiring about a car or even buying one.

It needs to be focused on the customer journey.’

And an easy way to make sure you’re giving your customers the right experience is to have a fullyresponsive website — or, in other words, a website that can be experienced on a mobile, a tablet or a desktop computer. Down the line, it will even

need to work on interactive TVs and any other new media that emerge.

‘We still often create mobile websites for dealers,’ says Cooke, ‘but the real key to customer satisfaction is a fully-responsive website. Your customer will have the same experience on any device they intend to look at your website with, and one that is fully-tailored to their device. It’s integral to make the customer experience as seamless as possible.’

Bluesky Interactive is not only an expert in making websites look great, but it is pretty skilled at making them actually work. ‘Our websites generate and convert leads, and help car dealers sell cars,’ says Cooke.

‘Each of our clients is assigned an account manager and an account executive to make the process of creating the best website as straightforward as possible — it’s a real one-on-one experience and something traditionally reserved for the wealthiest of franchised dealer groups.’

Another area Bluesky Interactive is very active in is going beyond the realms of only website building — by actually connecting customers to dealers. Along with building websites that generate traffic, Bluesky can introduce a dealer to Google+ Places and 360-degree interior showroom and car tours, aiming to impress potential customers before they reach your dealership, or even your website.

‘Getting the basics right can ensure more cars will be sold — and a dealer’s website is an excellent place to start,’ concludes Cooke.

‘A great website and getting traffic to it is the key to selling a greater number of cars.’

By James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 89

providing

tools to maximise online presence the

your

Manheim combines over 18 years of automotive marketing expertise with creative thinking, cutting edge design and technological know-how.

In a 24/7 world your web presence is now more important than ever. That’s why Manheim provides the tools that will maximise the performance of your website day and night. From capturing customer leads, increasing your websites visibility in search engines to allowing potential customers to engage with your business at their convenience.

Talk to Manheim today to find out how the use of our online chat, SEO and social media strategies and enhanced professional photography will not only drive your website to the top of search rankings but will give your customers a better user experience that will quite simply help you sell more vehicles.

To maximise your online presence, contact our digital specialists:

0844 818 0817 www.manheimretailservices.co.uk sales@manheim.co.uk

Market Your Stock

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

SP124_206 07/08/13

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Marketing Masters

Speak to those potential customers 24 hours a day MANHEIM

I

W: manheimretailservices.co.uk T: 0844 668 4221

t’s becoming more and more common for customers to search for their stock after hours, but how can dealers cater for their 24hr buyers and prevent themselves from missing out on potential sales?

In order to ensure customers still receive high levels of customer service when showrooms are shut, dealers need the correct website infrastructure and necessary online facilities to manage their customer interactions, believes Manheim.

The company can provide dealers with its online ‘Live Advisor’ service – a remotely controlled online chat facility, which allows them to speak with their customers, even when the dealership is closed.

‘We’re finding more and more dealers using Manheim’s online Live Advisor, which is essentially an online chat function. It means dealers can increase their customer interaction throughout a 24-hour period,’ head of marketing at Manheim, Andy Cullwick, explains.

‘Research shows there are more people searching out of standardised dealership hours, and if you haven’t got your web presence up to scratch they’re going to bypass you and go somewhere else, resulting in you losing a customer,’ explains Cullwick. ‘At Manheim, we’re making sure our dealers benefit from maximised online presence.’

By improving a dealership’s website and making sure it’s equipped with the Live Advisor tool, customers can now ask questions about any particular vehicle listed on the site and arrange an appointment for a later date at the dealership.

‘Dealers can actually manage these chats remotely, so even if the dealership is closed, they can use our Live Advisor app and continue their customer conversations,’ explains Cullwick. ‘The dealer could be sat at home using their iPad to capture conversations with potential customers and then record that back into their own customer management systems.

‘The service is potentially putting the dealer in a 24/7 proposition, which wasn’t a

reality this time two years ago. This service will also help dealers to manage their experience and how they present the quality of stock that they have.’

According to Manheim, research shows that the more images a dealer posts of a listed vehicle, the more likely a customer will be to click on the advert.

Manheim provides a number of photography solutions and professional imagery services that allow dealers to maximise their online image quality.

‘One problem a lot of dealers struggle with is getting a good quality photo of a car when it’s on their forecourt. To overcome this, we offer a Dropped-In Background service, allowing dealers to upload photographs to our system and we will insert a dealer-branded or standardised background to remove objects that may have distracted the customer,’ explains Cullwick. ‘This will further help customers to make a decision about whether or not they want to go in for a test drive, linking back to the Live Advisor service.’

Since Google introduced its new Panda and Penguin updates, dealers are struggling to manage and retain a strong web presence. In order to ensure dealer websites remain at the top of the search rankings, Manheim works with dealers to develop website structure and brand key words.

‘Google has made a number of changes to the way in which websites get ranked and searched for,’ explains Cullwick. ‘Now it’s introduced new Panda and Penguin updates, dealers aren’t being seen as much.

‘We’ve seen some dealers lose anything from up to 60 to 70 per cent of their traffic simply because of the changes Google has made, which has caused them to fall in search rankings.’

According to Manheim, this fall will result in dealers losing out on more than £3m in sales per year. ‘It’s a fine art to make sure you’re developing your website correctly while meeting Google’s strict requirements,’ says Cullwick.

‘At Manheim, we make sure all dealer websites are structured correctly to ensure the brand’s key words are receiving the highest possible visibility, to maximise their chances of being found in the search rankings.’

It’s clear that today’s modern customer is more likely to review and decide upon a sale during a time that suits them more conveniently. A dealer’s first challenge is to attract the buyer to their website and once they’re there, Live Advisor will ensure they stay there, providing them with those all-important sales leads.

By Sophie Williamson-Stothert (@1Sophie_W)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 91

Supercharge Your Automotive Marketing Using Call Tracking www.mediahawk.co.uk

Mediahawk is an all-in-one call analytics and telecoms package that has tracked over 22 million calls and helped hundreds of businesses to improve their marketing. See how our Classic and Vision technologies can help you to:

Use Visitor Call Tracking to discover which keywords are leading visitors to a phone call.

Measure the effectiveness of your traditional adverts.

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“We have been using the sales tracking system to help us understand the ROI we get from our advertising spend.

It has provided us with some extremely valuable insights and is helping us to make some very important decisions on current and future marketing investments.”

Increase the effectiveness of your sales force and customer service staff using Call Recording.

Get complete visibility of your marketing and book a complimentary demo of Mediahawk with one of our call tracking consultants today.

Facebook integration

Follow visitor paths through your website, showing which pages they saw before they made a call.

All provided with the best customer service in the industry.

We’ll show you what our technology can do for you and show you some effective ways you can improve your marketing.

Call 0800 915 6010 Dino Dichello,

Regional Marketing Manager, Inchcape Retail Group Ltd ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

or visit www.mediahawk.co.uk/cardealer to book your complimentary demo today.

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Marketing Masters

If you can’t measure it, how can you manage it?

MEDIAHAWK

W

W: mediahawk.co.uk T: 0800 915 6010

ith more and more vehicle sales being made over the telephone, it’s important for all dealers to track and monitor their online and telephone data in order to generate more leads.

‘If they’re not measuring it, how can dealers manage what they’re aiming to achieve?’ Key account director of Mediahawk Harry Bott explains.

That’s all very well – but how can dealers learn how to measure this type of data? Mediahawk may just have the answer.

First introduced in 2010, Mediahawk’s Vision product is a website call tracking system. It provides effective ways of generating sales through marketing activity, and can monitor dealers’ online customer activity. New sales manager James Villette is currently presenting this to the automotive industry.

‘Mediahawk Vision is a market-leading allin-one call tracking solution and roughly 1,300 independent and franchised dealers use our system,’ explains Bott. ‘Our product allows them to see which SEO keywords, PPC campaigns, referring websites and other digital marketing efforts lead a visitor to a phone call.

‘Vision also shows dealers their visitors’ path through their website, determining exactly which pages they visited before, during and after a call.

Our product allows them to manage their business effectively, while always leading back to sales.’

But Mediahawk’s Vision product is just one of a variety of services that it supplies to dealers, all of which are dedicated to improving marketing efficiency and the everyday operations of a dealership. The firm works with Aston Martin, Kia and Vauxhall and monitors the advertising effectiveness of these manufacturers’ marketing campaigns. In effect, Mediahawk allows these companies to generate those all-important sales leads.

The company will be launching a new-lookand-feel website called Mediahawk 3.0 later in September, which follows a number of upgrades and changes within the company as it focuses on future expansion.

‘We are a growing company and as we continue to expand, we are recruiting new staff. We have recently taken on new marketing and sales managers. We have recently moved offices to Milton

Keynes and are all about the future.’

With online activity continuing to play an important role in the trade business, and as the modern buyer continues to evolve, dealers need essential tools to track website visitors and monitor how many keywords it has taken for a potential customer to pick up the phone.

‘More than 95 per cent of sales originate from the telephone, while salesmen have a 30 to 50 per cent chance of changing a customer’s mind during a call.

If a salesman is better on the phone, they’ll be better at generating leads.’

He adds: ‘Awareness means exposing new people to your brand. If dealers can’t measure something, then they can’t manage it. However, content tactics can successfully manoeuvre customers by building awareness, supporting attention and generating leads and sales through conversion.’

Before, dealers were not investing in the right tools and telephone tracking, believes Bott. Dealers now have access to information that they didn’t know they had. By investing in Mediahawk Vision, dealer principals can use these tools to monitor calls and manage how their staff are handling their customers.

‘This system shows dealers which of their

‘‘

Awareness means exposing new people to your brand. digital marketing efforts are generating phone leads in order to achieve more sales,’ Bott explains.

‘By monitoring phone call behaviour using Mediahawk’s call recording technology, dealers can drive down marketing costs and improve overall customer satisfaction.

‘Our customers didn’t invest in the right areas before but dealer principals are noticing that behaviours are instantly changing because staff know they are being monitored and customer service is being improved as a result. This is the modern world we live in.’

By Sophie Williamson-Stothert (@1Sophie_W)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 93

spidersnet / / noun. providing dealers with innovative, award-winning web solutions since 1997.

01273 767651

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

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Marketing Masters

Don’t get caught in the net.

Embrace the world wide web SPIDERSNET

T

W: spidersnet.co.uk T: 01273 767651

ackling the challenges of digital marketing in today’s retail environment can be a daunting task. With marketing jargon flying at you increasingly rapidly, it can often be hard to judge how best to approach the digital world and come to terms with the fact that, today, a website is just one of a plethora of marketing approaches open to the modern dealer.

One of the aims of Spidersnet, a digital marketing agency that specialises in the automotive retail industry, is to help dealers navigate a path through the jargon to a rounded, well-balanced online presence that suits them. And the two things it finds dealers tend to need the most help with are social media and SEO. The latter is an area in which Spidersnet is very proud of its track record.

‘Lots of companies like ourselves do similar things, but SEO’s one of those areas we have a really good, strong background in,’ says Laura Coleby, Spidersnet’s business manager. ‘Before we even send someone out to see a customer, we perform an audit on their website, and find areas which we believe we can improve on and what the dealer needs to do at their end to improve.

‘We give that information in a consultative way to start with – we’re not tying them into coming with us to get that information, just offering a nice little snippet of what we think we can do. If the dealer

then takes us on, we use that as our brief moving forward, so we work with the dealer and make sure that’s performed and actioned thoughout the time they’re with us. We like to show what we can do, rather than just talk about it.’

Coleby tells us the other main area that dealerships seek Spidersnet’s help with is social media – and it’s an area in which some retailers are lagging behind.

‘Social media’s a massive part of day-to-day life now, but I don’t think people are buying into it quickly enough, and they’re going to get left behind,’ she says. ‘You tend to find that at the bigger groups there’s usually a marketing person who can assign time to it, which is great – but it’s the smaller independents and the single franchises that don’t have that who get left alone.

‘Fortunately, we’ve got a solution now that helps any size dealer – we can fully content-manage their social media platform for them, make regular posts, add testimonials, that sort of thing.’

For Spidersnet, though, offering that solution is only a part of the service. With it must come education in the principles of online marketing, to give a context in which those tools can be used. With that in mind, the company offers its customers free seminars to help them get to grips with the principles of the areas in which they’re working.

‘‘

We like to show what we can do, rather than just talk about it.

‘We hold monthly seminars at our head office in Sussex,’ Coleby explains. ‘All the seminars are on different subjects, including SEO, Google Analytics, social media and PPC. They normally take half a day, and up to nine dealers can attend. Usually we’ll have two people in there from our expert team, to give those dealers a rundown on how to set up campaigns, how to monitor them, how to track them, and good practice.’

Since they started, the seminars have been full, and around 119 dealers to date have had the benefit of the experience.

This approach proves that providing internet services to dealerships doesn’t just have to mean website design, and Spidersnet’s up-front and honest way of dealing with its clients ensures that even dealers who aren’t au fait with the latest digital marketing trends won’t get left behind. [CD]

By Alex Robbins (@Scrof)

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 95

DATA FILE.

Thestatistics n

SMMT Sales Data

n

Taking Stock

UK continues to push ahead of European market Traditionally slow August proves seasonal trend wrong as sales rise NEW car registrations in August grew 10.9 per cent with 65,937 units sold.

August recorded the fifth consecutive month of double-digit growth, pushing the year-to-date market up 10.9 per cent to 1,391,788 units.

According to the SMMT, three per cent of annual registrations occur in August ahead of September’s plate change, which accounts for around 17 per cent of full-year registrations.

Car registrations of all fuel types continued to grow last month.

Meanwhile, alternatively-fuelled vehicles were up 41.4 per cent.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: ‘UK new car registrations have now risen consecutively for a year and a half. Private and fleet buyers are clearly capitalising on attractive deals and new technologies against

a backdrop of increasing economic confidence.’

He added: ‘Ahead of the September plate-change, August always has far fewer registrations, but the 10.9 per cent rise this month bodes well for the new 63-plate.’

Commenting on these figures, head of retail and wholesale at Barclays, Richard Low said: ‘This is great news for an industry that has been carefully balancing supply with demand, and with the new plate change, growing consumer confidence and attractive packages, I think we’ll be in for a good autumn.’

Looking ahead to the end of 2013, UK head of automotive retail at KPMG Derek McAllan says the UK’s main worry is if manufacturers pump additional units into the country, following the slump in European

sales: ‘Significantly outperforming the rest of the UK retail sector and other European car markets, the motor retail market looks set to remain strong for the remainder of the year and into 2014. The main worry for the UK is if the continued slump in Europe will tempt manufacturers to pump additional units into the UK.’ Meanwhile, director of National Franchised Dealers Association Sue Robinson said: ‘It is encouraging that the new car market continued to thrive during August in what is traditionally a low-volume month for car sales.

‘August is traditionally a small market as buyers wait for the plate change. Therefore, after such a positive increase in sales during August, we anticipate that sales of the new 63plate to do very well.’

New 63-reg should be good for new and used cars THE 63-plate changeover is expected to see used car sales rocket in the second half of the year, due to an increase in new car demand.

Director of AA Cars David Bruce says that for every new car sold, at least three used cars change hands over subsequent weeks.

According to figures from SMMT, new car sales are expected to pass 2.2m by the end of 2013, showing an 8.4 per cent rise on 2012.

Meanwhile, during September, ��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

sales of the new 63-plate vehicles are expected to reach 424,000.

He said: ‘Between September and November we’re expecting dealers

to be busier than they have been for some years.

‘As September approached, dealer stocks have been run down in anticipation of the September car sales bonanza.

‘There will be a large influx of used cars being taken in part-exchange and, over the next three months, the used car market could see more than 1.25m cars changing hands.

‘Dealers are more optimistic than I’ve seen for a long time.’

SMMT sales data Aug/year to date

5

Top

Most improved manufacturers in August

Bentley +139.29% Lotus

+125.00%

MG

+116.67%

Abarth +106.67% Subaru +50.00%

5

Bottom

Worst performing manufacturers in August Proton -100.00% Chrysler -48.62% Alfa

-39.74%

Porsche

-27.32%

Jeep

-19.61%

LOTUS +125.00%

ALFA ROMEO -39.74% Figures supplied by SMMT

August 2013 August 2012 February Marque

Abarth Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi Bentley BMW Chevrolet Chrysler Citroen Dacia Fiat Ford Honda Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Jeep Kia Land Rover Lexus Lotus Maserati Mazda Mercedes-Benz MG Mini Mitsubishi Nissan Perodua Peugeot Porsche Proton Renault Saab Seat Skoda Smart SsangYong Subaru Suzuki Toyota Vauxhall Volkswagen Volvo Other British Other Imports Total

2013

31 141 31 3,904 67 4,401 434 56 2,575 575 1,887 8,940 1,454 2,599 14 260 41 2,374 806 231 9 17 1,000 3,058 13 1,415 172 3,566 15 3,231 141 0 921 0 1,289 1,890 140 22 48 1,291 1,916 8,242 6,086 539 65 30 65,937

% market share

0.05 0.21 0.05 5.92 0.10 6.67 0.66 0.08 3.91 0.87 2.86 13.56 2.21 3.94 0.02 0.39 0.06 3.60 1.22 0.35 0.01 0.03 1.52 4.64 0.02 2.15 0.26 5.41 0.02 4.90 0.21 0.00 1.40 0.00 1.95 2.87 0.21 0.03 0.07 1.96

2.91 12.50 9.23 0.82 0.10 0.05

2012

Year to date (YTD)

% market share

2013 % Change

15 234 26 4,008 28 3,449 353 109 2,873 0 1,555 8,094 1,412 2,245 13 178 51 2,220 591 197 4 13 902 2,378 6 1,189 118 2,830 11 3,421 194 11 1,086 7 1,130 1,728 139 20 32 948 1,983 6,878 6,056 612 63 23 59,433

0.03 0.39 0.04 6.74 0.05 5.80 0.59 0.18 4.83 0.00 2.62 13.62 2.38 3.78 0.02 0.30 0.09 3.74 0.99 0.33 0.01 0.02 1.52 4.00 0.01 2.00 0.20 4.76 0.02 5.76 0.33 0.02 1.83 0.01 1.90 2.91 0.23 0.03 0.05 1.60

3.34 11.57 10.19 1.03 0.11 0.04

106.67 -39.74 19.23 -2.59 139.29 27.60 22.95 -48.62 -10.37 0.00 21.35 10.45 2.97 15.77 7.69 46.07 -19.61 6.94 36.38 17.26 125.00 30.77 10.86 28.60 116.67 19.01 45.76 26.01 36.36 -5.55 -27.32 -100.00 -15.19 -100.00 14.07 9.38 0.72 10.00 50.00 36.18 -3.38 19.83 0.50 -11.93 3.17 30.43 10.94

838 3,304 606 88,432 794 78,005 7,899 1,607 51,091 8,872 35,920 197,933 35,052 46,731 280 10,073 1,132 45,579 34,385 5,037 131 211 18,838 65,368 169 29,882 5,603 74,422 180 66,859 4,773 15 23,275 3 26,970 39,196 3,403 344 1,235 20,150 55,919 159,047 121,432 19,593 568 632 1,391,788

%market share

0.06 0.24 0.04 6.35 0.06 5.60 0.57 0.12 3.67 0.64 2.58 14.22 2.52 3.36 0.02 0.72 0.08 3.27 2.47 0.36 0.01 0.02 1.35 4.70 0.01 2.15 0.40 5.35 0.01 4.80 0.34 0.00 1.67 0.00 1.94 2.82 0.24 0.02 0.09 1.45

4.02 11.43 8.72 1.41 0.04 0.05

2012

%market share % Change

691 4,888 575 79,107 809 75,265 10,010 2,137 45,547 0 30,752 176,999 32,542 42,639 342 8,177 1,359 41,291 30,102 5,526 103 199 17,761 56,783 559 28,717 3,986 65,120 283 63,045 4,835 185 23,208 207 22,704 34,042 3,154 524 1,396 15,114 53,022 140,809 115,296 19,925 662 600 1,260,997

0.05 0.39 0.05 6.27 0.06 5.97 0.79 0.17 3.61 0.00 2.44 14.04 2.58 3.38 0.03 0.65 0.11 3.27 2.39 0.44 0.01 0.02 1.41 4.50 0.04 2.28 0.32 5.16 0.02 5.00 0.38 0.01 1.84 0.02 1.80 2.70 0.25 0.04 0.11 1.20

4.20 11.17 9.14 1.58 0.05 0.05

21.27 -32.41 5.39 11.79 -1.85 3.64 -21.09 -24.80 12.17 0.00 16.81 11.83 7.71 9.60 -18.13 23.19 -16.70 10.38 14.23 -8.85 27.18 6.03 6.06 15.12 -69.77 4.06 40.57 14.28 -36.40 6.05 -1.28 -91.89 0.29 -98.55 18.79 15.14 7.89 -34.35 -11.53 33.32 5.46 12.95 5.32 -1.67 -14.20 5.33 10.37

SMMT HAS REMOVED DAIHATSU AS it registered no new vehicles in 2012. A new entry for 2013 is dacia CarDealerMag.co.uk | 97

TAKING STOCK. Once again, Motors.co.uk and BCA give their thoughts on what dealers should be paying attention to in the months ahead. Here’s what they have to say

Be savvy and maintain good stock levels comments Dermot Kelleher, Motors. co.uk’s head of business intelligence

A

fter a summer that has seen the UK high street and savvy motor retailers benefit from the 30 degree temperatures, it is now time for dealers to look to their core sellers to maintain the momentum during the rest of the year.

While the first two weeks of July saw an increase in search traffic for convertibles on the Motors. co.uk network, the UK’s bestselling models still retained a quarter of all searches on the site.

In fact, searches for the UK’s top five sellers accounted for more than 16 per cent of all searches made during July on Motors.co.uk.

The UK’s top five selling new cars have remained constant, albeit trading places.

Over the past five years the market has seen the Ford Focus and Fiesta hatchbacks dominate, closely followed by Vauxhall’s Corsa and Astra models.

The Volkswagen Golf has

also cemented its place within this leading group, remaining a favourite mid-sized commuter car with the UK consumer.

These five cars continue to lead the used marketplace, but with the likes of the BMW 3 Series and the Renault Clio close behind.

However, with the Nissan Qashqai and Fiat 500 rising in popularity in the new car market, these will also need to remain high on a dealer’s shopping list.

Ultimately, there will always be seasonal trends and dealers can expect sales of convertibles to be higher in the summer months, while 4x4s will perform better in the winter.

However, demand for the coreselling models tends to remain constant throughout the year.

With this in mind, savvy dealers must ensure they maintain good levels of the right quality stock to preserve a healthy customer base and not get distracted by seasonal variations in demand.

Average price £7,037

��| CarDealerMag.co.uk

Hold on tight: Used market looks good says Simon Henstock, BCA’s UK network operations director

U

sed car values are up – but before you pop the champagne cork they’re up by just 1.8 per cent in August to £7,037, while fleet and lease values also reached record levels.

Year-on-year values remain well ahead, up by 14.2 per cent as good quality stock remains in short supply. Demand from professional buyers remained relatively strong last month.

Across the board used cars averaged £7,037 in August, up by £162 compared to June, and significantly ahead of August 2012 by £879 (14.2 per cent). Average mileage continues to fall – down by around 3,000 miles compared to last year – and cars are one month younger – when sold in 2013.

Average performance against CAP Clean is 0.7 per cent up, year-on-year.

Fleet & lease values improved to a new record value of £8,898 and remain significantly ahead year-on-

Top 5 searches 16%

year. Dealer part-exchange values fell for the third consecutive month but also recorded a substantial yearon-year uplift. Nearly-new values rose sharply largely as a result of a change in model mix.

The short-term prospects suggest that volumes will rise from mid-September onwards and this traditionally exerts some pressure on average values and conversion rates.

While the best quality stock – the Condition 1 and 2 cars – will continue to attract a lot of buyer attention and achieve strong prices, it is the poorer presented vehicles that might begin to struggle. If the market conditions tighten then these vehicles will need to be competitively priced if they are to be sold.

Looking ahead to the final quarter of the year, we expect the used market to generate good levels of business if demand is maintained at the level we have seen throughout 2013 so far. [CD]

Average mileage 3,000

Buyers’ guide

207

..in association with

’06-’12

Warrantywise helps you choose the best stock for your forecourt.

This month the Peugeot 207 is the model in the spotlight

What is it?

Adored in France, the 207 was Peugeot’s supermini to take on the likes of the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa.

Sharing many parts with the Citroen C3, the 207 was popular in the UK, even if it did lack the style and panache of the previous 206.

What CAN GO WRONG? The most common, costly and dangerous problem, is the well-documented ‘depollution’ error message.

This is widespread across the range, but the fix is not simple. This error message has been thrown up through fuel pump failures, failed coil packs, timing belt issues or worse. Diesels suffer with regeneration issues. Many 207s are used for short trips or around town and this means the system never heats up fully, so will not burn off deposits built up in the filter.

Convertibles (207 CC) can display roof problems.

The mechanism is complex and as with all folding hard tops it’s heavy, which can cause misalignment

and failures. Due to its relatively low purchase price and running costs, the 207 is very popular with younger drivers. It is imperative to get an HPI check to make sure that the car has not been written off, as the relatively cheap value of these cars often means insurance companies decide to write off rather than repair. They then find their way back onto the road via a back street repairer. We have personal experience of horror stories with repaired cars having a misaligned chassis or suspension, resulting in a death trap.

What’s the perfect 207?

Avoid low-mileage diesels, unless fairly new, absolute poverty-spec cars and high-mileage petrol cars.

Diesel convertibles (207 CC) are rare and command a premium and automatics are also very popular, even though the gearbox is not particularly refined.

Small-engined three-door cars are easiest to shift. The ideal buy is a 1.0-litre three-door with alloys, electric windows and air con in a dark blue or black. [CD]

Warrantywise’s top 207 facts 17 per cent of all 207 warranties in the last 18 months have claims logged against them.

Pricing (subject to change depending on engine size/ age/mileage): Trade warranty price - £105 – six months – Platinum cover Top claims: n Head gasket £811.84 £751.66 n Timing chain n Turbo £695.10

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Major problems include the ‘depollution’ error message.

It’s very common and is not an easy fix. A simple OBD scan will throw up the problem

THE RIGHT BUY

Small-engined three-doors are the most popular as young buyers will always be interested. Stock 1.0-litre versions in blue or black

Cover your customers from unexpected repair bills & maximise

your profits.

0800 001 4550

www.warrantywise.co.uk CarDealerMag.co.uk | 99

data file.

AUGUSTSEARCHES

Percentage of total number of searches on TheVanWebsite.co.uk for the month Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

3.98%

Month’s increase reverses falling LCV value trend BCA report advises sellers to adjust valuations on poorer condition vans

Ford Transit

5.34% Volkswagen Crafter

2.39%

Mercedes-Benz Vito

3.66% Volkswagen Transporter

4.11%

VW Caddy

2.20% Vauxhall Vivaro

2.81%

Ford Transit Connect

2.54% Mitsubishi L200

2.88% Fiat Ducato

2.56%

T

he average values of LCVs climbed in July, but only by £6 compared to June values, according to BCA’s latest Pulse report.

LCVs saw a small rise in value, representing an average July figure of £4,772. Average age remained around 58 months while average mileage also increased for the third month running.

The increase in values was, however, enough to reverse the trend of price falls recorded over the previous two months.

Meanwhile, fleet and lease values fell by £171 in July to £5,782 recording a fall of 3.1 per cent compared to June, but year-on-year values remained ahead, up by £753. Dealer part-exchange sectors saw values recover sharply to reach the third-highest monthly value on record.

BCA says that demand from

professional buyers remains relatively strong despite the market entering one of the traditionally slower times of the year. However, it recommends vendors should be valuing stock realistically as volumes will rise in the coming weeks.

BCA’s general manager, commercial vehicles, Duncan Ward, says: ‘The summer holiday period is typically a weaker time for demand but values have been maintained at a similar level to last month largely as a result of the low levels of supply.

‘Trade buyers are continuing to focus on the very best retail vehicles which are routinely making exceptional money, while vans in poor condition may struggle. Sellers should consider adjusting valuations now on poorer condition vans with a view to remarketing them before volumes begin to rise.’

SsangYong gives ‘peace of mind’ SSANGYONG has announced a five-year free servicing offer across its light commercial vehicle range.

LCVs registered during August and September now come with five years of free servicing as well as the existing five-year limitless mileage warranty package.

CEO of SsangYong Motor UK Paul Williams says: ‘A lot of people are still having to “make do and

mend” to keep their business and vehicles going, so this is a chance for them to get into a new vehicle with five years’ free servicing included.’

The offer applies to the Korando CSX 4x4 LCV priced at £15,996, the Korando Sports 4x4 double-cab pick-up at £15,292 and the Rexton CS 4x4 which is available from £16,666.

your sales...

With the #1 website dedicated to vans ���| CarDealerMag.co.uk

..in association with

DEALFINDER.

Latest deals on COMMERCIALS

Lawton

CITROEN RELAY

Adding peace of mind

THE Citroen Relay 2.2 HDi van is perhaps one of the most versatile contenders on the market.

With a price tag of just £13,995, the Relay has a lot to offer. It’s wellequipped, featuring air conditioning, Bluetooth connectivity, CD player, rear parking sensors, Smart Nav and electric windows.

The Relay comes with two integrated

child seats along with two rear child seat anchorage points.

The 2.2-litre diesel produces 130bhp and has a combined fuel consumption of 32.5mpg.

It’s not the most economic, but it offers its drivers a vast and amount of space with a maximum loading weight of 1399kg and a side load door.

Type bit.ly/RelayOctDeal into a web browser for more details.

FORD TRANSIT CONNECT FORD’s much-loved Transit Connect is back on the agenda. It’s available for £10,845 and comes with a number of benefits.

The 90bhp workhorse also has very attractive economy figures, with a combined fuel consumption of 45.6mpg. It comes with a standard manufacturers three-year warranty with a maximum mileage of 100,000.

The Transit Connect was never designed to be a large carrier and only comes with two seats. Similarly, it doesn’t have the largest rearloading compartment, but it does have an easy-to-access side door, making it easy to load business essentials and work equipment into the boot. It has an impressive maximum loading weight of 613kg.

Type bit.ly/TranOctDeal into a web browser for more details.

VOLKSWAGEN TRANSPORTER THE Volkswagen Transporter T26 has always been a popular choice for most small business owners, featuring a large boot compartment and a number of luxuries in the cabin.

Priced at £14,295 plus VAT, the 2.0-litre Transporter has an average combined fuel consumption of 37.7mpg and produces 84bhp, placing it in the middle of this month’s top deals. The Transporter is also

available on finance for £259 per month plus deposit.

The Transporter comes with quite a few quirky extras including colour co-ordinated door mirrors, electric windows, wide angle heated mirrors and washer nozzles – making it an ideal work vehicle for the winter.

There’s also a CDR500 radio.

Type bit.ly/VWOctDeal into a web browser for more details.

COOL CONVERSIONS

T

he announcement that Volkswagen has rolled out its Das WeltAuto used vehicle scheme to include its light commercial vehicle range, means now is as good a time as ever to check how you deal with and promote your used van stock.

The Das WeltAuto programme is designed to give used van buyers added peace of mind. The German brand promises a full history check, 12-month warranty, 12 months’ roadside assistance, a 30-day/1,000-mile exchange policy, enhanced test drive options and even seven-day drive-away insurance. This has been rolled out nationally to all of the brand’s 72 used van centres and there’s scope for VW van centres to sell other brand LCVs under the scheme, should the vehicle meet the programme’s quality criteria.

So while the Volkswagen move might not be unprecedented in the marketplace — Mercedes-Benz has its Used 1 approved used van scheme — it further strengthens and improves the used van market.

By transplanting the principles of the quality ‘approved’ used car scheme to its own vans, and by giving it plenty of exposure on its corporate website, the German brand should be given considerable credit.

Vauxhall tucks its used van offering under its Network Q umbrella but it is difficult to spot on their corporate online home. While over at Ford, used vans are that well hidden I’m not sure they are actually on there.

In fact, it is a similar story on many manufacturer websites, there’s a real lack of used van love out there, or so it seems.

What steps should a used van retailer take following Volkswagen’s move? Now is a good time to reflect on how you market your used van stock and perhaps look at elements of the Das WeltAuto scheme to see if you can match or better it.

‘There’s a real lack of used van love out there, it seems’

Who is Richard Lawton?

Richard is marketing manager for Really Good Domains and on the team at TheVanWebsite. co.uk and ContractHireAndLeasing.com.

Contact: richardl@reallygooddomains.com

Call 0161 482 7650

for your 3-month trial or visit thevanwebsite.co.uk/trial CarDealerMag.co.uk | 101

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auctions.

Mazda scores top result in customer satisfaction bit.ly/TopMazda

Buyers clamour for posh new Range Rover

T

L

cent and 104.9 per cent of CAP Clean respectively. Defender 90 averaged 105.2 per cent of CAP Clean, while the one example of Defender 110 in the sale – a 61/11-registered TDCi XS in Orkney Grey – sold for £23,000, equivalent to 122.3 per cent of CAP Clean.

Land Rover’s used vehicle sales manager, Lynn Brown, said: ‘Land Rover and BCA have combined for yet another highly successful event which was enhanced with the first opportunity to buy All-New Range Rover at auction.

‘We were delighted to see so many representatives of our dealer network attending this event and bidding so strongly and confidently.

‘The All-New Range Rover made a very strong debut, underlining that this model is going to be every bit as desirable to used car buyers as it is in the new car market.’

Manheim’s Bristol site brings home record MANHEIM’S Bristol auction centre has seen a 24 per cent increase in the volume of vehicles sold in the first part of 2013. The Bristol site offers more than 75,000 vehicles each year and these record sales figures have resulted in the recruitment of 11 additional staff members to the team. manager at the Bristol site CarGeneral dealer cowboy ads 28/8/13

auction stations

Overnight convenience

All-new luxury offroader makes its first appearance at auction and Rover recorded an exceptional result in a special closed sale staged at BCA Nottingham earlier this month that saw the used car market debut of the All-New Range Rover.

Nearly 70 franchised and approved Land Rover dealers were represented at the event to bid on 105 vehicles direct from the manufacturer.

Demand was significant across the range of Land Rover product and every vehicle on offer sold on the day for a 100 per cent conversion that realised £4.2 million, equivalent to 104.2 per cent of CAP Clean.

The special entry of 11 2012-registered All-New Range Rovers stole the show, averaging 114.5 per cent of CAP Clean with a top value of £91,000 achieved for an AllNew Range Rover SD V8 Autobiography in Barolo Black– the highest price ever achieved for a single vehicle in a Land Rover Closed Sale.

Notable performances across the range were recorded by Freelander 2 and Range Rover Evoque, which averaged 107 per

Henstock

Brett Henderson said: ‘The team has done a fantastic job in the first half of this year to deliver such impressive uplift in volumes. Introducing vendors, such as Ridgeway, Silver Street, BMW and Ford Thorne has ensured a comprehensive mix of vehicles, delivering a 20 per cent increase in the number ofPage registered buyers.’

15:49 1

No cowboys.

Just Just trade trade professionals. professionals.

he used market in 2013 has been typified by intense competition for the best retail-ready used cars. The general shortage of quality stock continued this summer as demand from professional buyers remained relatively strong despite the market entering a traditionally slow time of year.

This shortage of stock is a long-term trend with its roots in the onset of the recession in 2008. Lower new car sales have resulted in a constrained supply of ‘first time’ used cars in the market and an ageing car parc nationally. Dealers have had to focus on older used cars to maintain their market penetration and profitability.

Sourcing good retail stock has been a challenge for professional buyers in recent months and dealers have told us they have struggled to maintain supply to meet the needs of their retail customers. With this in mind, BCA launched a digital sales programme last month. ‘BCA 5 to 9’ features vehicles selected daily from our 19 remarketing centres nationwide and offered exclusively in an overnight online sale via bca.co.uk/5to9. We call it our ‘overnight convenience store’ for car dealers!

Sales start at 5pm each day, when buyers can review and buy vehicles, with the sales programme closing at 9am the following day. All vehicles on BCA 5 to 9 are offered with a fixed price and a simple ‘click to buy’ process, making it a great way to access new stock every night. BCA data shows that most professional buyers research the stock they want to buy via BCA Auction View in the evening and the new 5 to 9 platform means they can buy as they browse.

The critical factor is availability and affordability. BCA has signed 25 major vendors to the 5 to 9 sales programme, with new seller customers being added daily, so there is a constant supply of fresh stock to tempt buyers.

BCA will offer several hundred vehicles in each overnight 5 to 9 sale, with a high turnover of stock and including vehicles fresh to the market.

Who is Simon Henstock?

Simon is UK network operations director for BCA. Visit british-car-auctions.co.uk or call 0845 600 6644.

Strictly Trade only (VAT No. and verified bank details reqd).

Purpose built 12 acre auction complex .

Enclosed and heated auction halls.

Fleet Car Sales every Monday & Thursday.

Excellent variety of weekly stock from premium sources.

Collection of vehicles 24 hours a day.

Fixed cost buyer’s premium.

Excellent on-site restaurant.

Call now for account applications.

Brindley Road, Stephenson Industrial Estate, Coalville, Leicestershire LE67 3HG T: 01530 833535 email: info@fleetauctiongroup.com www.fleetauctiongroup.com

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 103

TRADER TALK.

..in association with AutoTrader

Tool helps you make the most of what you’ve got Response management can be the difference between a sale and a lost lead

T

o make sure you’re ahead of the game and selling more cars, you need to advertise your stock correctly, understand response and manage leads. If you display your dealership branding within your adverts you build trust with buyers.

It is also important to make the most of what you’ve got by advertising all of your stock.

Research has shown that more stock means more responses and more sales. So update your stock regularly and check the status of your adverts every day, so you see what requires urgent attention.

Now you can benefit from Auto Trader’s Package Builder, a new flexible business approach that aims to address dealer needs for today’s market and provides adaptability for the future. It simplifies operating processes with a fairer approach to pricing and provides better responses. And understanding responses is vital to the performance of your business.

You need to know which of your vehicles is performing well and which is attracting the least interest; what effect any changes such as price or increased standout have on the interest in a particular vehicle and how all your vehicles perform in relation to each other.

Response Tracker allows you to choose

‘You can quickly tailor your report to the information you need.’ the performance and timeframe you wish to monitor, so you can quickly tailor your report to the information you need.

To help you, we match the information you give us to our search data to identify which leads from Auto Trader are converted into sales.

A positive match means a buyer viewed your advert on Auto Trader before purchasing at your dealership.

This means you can see how many vehicles you sell as a result of advertising on Auto Trader, and understand what return on investment you achieve.

Generating leads is crucial and how you manage those leads can mean the difference between a sale and a lost lead.

Response times may not seem that important but failure to respond in a timely manner is an easy way to deter any potential customer.

For example, a recent survey of dealer groups shows that while 66 per cent did respond to requests for test drives or information within four hours, a further 10 per cent took 24 hours to respond and 24 per cent didn’t respond at all.

Live Chat is a great tool to help you communicate with your customers but you need to make sure that you use it properly.

The survey also shows that while 20 per cent of dealer groups had a live chat facility, a request for a test drive and information resulted in only 10 per cent of those dealers actually responding.

Identifying and adopting best practice will improve efficiency in understanding and managing leads.

If you don’t manage leads effectively and fail to respond in a timely manner, your advertising becomes less cost-effective and you run the risk of undermining your used car operation.

Who is Nathan Coe?

Nathan is group director of Auto Trader, the UK’s number one digital marketplace for new and used cars.

Visit autotrader.co.uk

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Including Profit Indicator and Market Tracker, you can check what’s profitable before you buy and stay competitively priced before you sell. So, why not give the Ro. Bots. A. Try. To find out more about our Intelligence Packages, just call us on 08433 088 875 or visit www.dealerportal.co.uk ���| CarDealerMag.co.uk

ON TRACK.

..in association with TRACKER

Hacking into car’s system is all too easy ...and that’s why installing a tracking device in a car is such a good idea

W

e’ve all heard of hackers — shady internet characters lurking behind computers trying to get your details, topple governments or just cause some plain old anarchy.

But what about the criminals using hackers’ tricks to bypass the security systems present on most modern cars?

Some recent examples have deeply worried me; reports are coming in that thieves are able to break into a car and use specialist equipment that can be easily bought online to program a blank key fob.

This enables them to disable the car’s security and drive off in under 30 seconds.

It seems so easy that it is almost unbelievable.

Criminals will either use a GPS ‘jammer’ — a topic I’ve discussed before — or simply smash the window to gain access to a car.

Once inside they plug in a device, which should only be available to car dealers or locksmiths.

It’s about the size of a mobile phone and they plug it into the car’s diagnostic port which is present on all modern cars.

This connects to the car’s computer and provides the thieves with the access codes needed to program a blank key fob which is held close to the device.

Once this is done all the car’s security systems have been negated.

To all intents and purposes the thieves have now become the owners of that car.

‘Criminals will always find new ways to get around the security added to a car.’

Being a fan of gadgets myself, I am all for advances in technology that make life easier, and no-one can argue that in-car technology developments in the past 20 years have not completely changed the driving experience for the better.

However, these advances can mean that modern vehicles are becoming more vulnerable to tricks like this.

At TRACKER, we know all too well from experience that thieves will always keep pace with state-of-the-art technology.

This is why it is so important to take extra measures wherever possible, such as installing a tracking unit, which will significantly increase the likelihood that a stolen vehicle will be recovered.

They can lead the police to the car and hopefully an arrest can be made.

In addition, TRACKER devices come with a motion sensor that’s triggered even if the engine isn’t started, which brings added peace of mind.

We want the convenience offered by new technology but sometimes we can get a bit carried away on the benefits, which can blind us to the potential downsides.

Criminals will always find new ways to get around the security added to a car.

The message is clear to me — you should protect your vehicle with everything you can lay your hands on.

Who is David Wilson?

David is sales and service director for TRACKER. Read his column here every month.

C A L L O U R D E D I C AT E D T R A C K E R D E A L E R S U P P O RT T E A M TO DAY

0845 604 6028 J20364 Car Dealer Strip Advert.indd 1

CarDealerMag.co.uk | 105 18/3/13 12:55:27

MOTOR MOUTH.

..in association with Motors.co.uk

It’s too easy to throw your budget away Track and analyse the responses to different selling channels

T

he last few years have been a challenging period for the automotive industry. Recession and industry consolidation have seen dealers having to work their marketing budgets harder than ever before to drive footfall into their dealerships. This means allocating marketing spend has become a headache for some.

The automotive marketplace continues to evolve with dealers having many more ways to communicate with potential customers.

Keeping track of inquiries can prove difficult for some dealers.

Effective measurement of marketing activity is a must to calculate whether a return on investment has been achieved or not.

If a dealer doesn’t know what is working, then they can’t make sure they do more of it.

Identifying a cost-per-sale value is vitally important for dealers to ensure that they can accurately identify which marketing activity is working, but also to compare and analyse like-forlike promotional undertakings.

The used car sector is highly competitive with ever-increasing numbers of physical and online marketing channels bidding for a dealer’s budgets.

However, it also makes it increasingly important to be able to track and analyse responses to different sales channels — to understand where there is overlap and where different channels offer unique approaches to market. It can be all too easy to throw money

‘Effective measurement of marketing activity is a must to calculate return on investment.’ at every channel out there and then struggle to identify which actually delivered the sale.

The success of a dealership will rest on how many cars it is able to sell and what profit it can make by doing so. By getting every channel working effectively, a dealer can deliver genuine business results.

But, it is only by tracking responses that a dealer can evaluate the effectiveness of the overall sales and marketing strategy.

Motors.co.uk has a tool to allow dealers to monitor their marketing spend in real time and assess the return on their investment.

‘The Eye’, which was launched in 2012 and is available to all Motors.co.uk customers, integrates within the existing Motors.co.uk product portfolio to provide live statistics showing exactly how well any vehicle advertised within the Motors.co.uk network is performing.

The software allows a dealer to monitor web analytics, vehicle views and which models are

generating sales leads for the dealership — vital for tracking customer journeys and determining sales and marketing strategy going forward.

This is also important for matching the sales data to search traffic and identifying the significant number of people who don’t call a dealer before arriving on the doorstep.

In addition, each dealer advertising on the Motors.co.uk network is given their own dedicated phone number, providing visibility of the calls generated in return for their marketing spend.

‘The Eye’ also provides the user with the ability to listen to, download, monitor and track calls to this dedicated number, allowing for the evaluation of the performance of the sales team in converting leads.

TheisE The Eye Motors.

Motors.co.uk complete complete respo tracking tracking syste The Eye is

Motors.co.uk’s The Eye is complete response Motors.co.uk’s tracking system complete response Who is Andy Coulthurst?

The Eye is tracking system The Eye The is EyeMotors.co.uk’s is complete response Motors.co.uk’s The Eye is Motors.co.uk’s tracking system complete response Motors.co.uk’s complete response tracking system system complete response tracking tracking system It monitors vehicle views and gives you

ears too. With detailed call informatio Andy is managing director of download, monitor and trackreports’. your callA It monitors vehicle views and gives you live ‘response too. With detailed information and full call recording Motors.co.uk. Read his ears thoughts herecall Best all, you this world-class trac download, monitor and trackof your callsget instantly and accura part of your advertising package with M every month.

Best of all, you get this world-class tracking and monitoring se To find out more, email eye@motors.co part of your advertising package with Motors.co.uk

To find out more, email eye@motors.co.uk or call 0843 634 14 Your response tracking dashboard from

Your response tracking dashboard from

It monitors vehicle views and gives you live ‘response reports’. And The Eye h ears too. With detailed call information and full call recording, you can liste download, monitor and track your calls instantly and accurately.

It monitors vehicle views and gives you live ‘response reports’. And The Eye has ears too. With detailed call information and full call recording, you can listen, download, monitor and track your calls instantly and accurately.

Best of all, you get this world-class tracking and monitoring service for FREE as

of yourad.indd advertising Eye|part quater-page 1 package with Motors.co.uk ��� CarDealerMag.co.uk

To find out more, email eye@motors.co.uk or call 0843 634 1410.

Best of all, you get this world-class tracking and monitoring service for FREE part of your advertising package with Motors.co.uk To find out more, email eye@motors.co.uk or call 0843 634 1410.

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3/8/2013 10:06:00 AM

CRYSTAL CLEAR.

..in association with Glass’s

Chance to focus on improving profitability New tool means prices for all cars in stock can be monitored and set

G

lass’s is set to launch its latest tool for car retailers — GlassAnalyser — which is a means to monitor and set asking prices of all advertised stock, enabling car retailers to benchmark against their local market and adjust prices when needs be to ensure quicker sales.

Chris Martin, product manager at Glass’s, explains: ‘GlassAnalyser allows car retailers easily to monitor the pricing of their stock, sending daily alerts if asking prices are too high or too low.

‘Having a unique insight into the Glass’s Spot Price of any vehicle on any given day gives car retailers a real competitive edge.

‘It means they can respond quickly to market changes and price the cars on their forecourt in a way which will attract attention from real buyers — which will ultimately mean quicker sales.

‘Obviously, car retailers can do all this research themselves, but with GlassAnalyser it’s available at the touch of a button, updated daily and highlights current and potential problem vehicles in seconds.’

GlassAnalyser also manages and monitors stock pricing policies across multiple sites, allowing franchised dealers a transparent view of how stock is being priced across full dealer groups.

Martin adds: ‘With the launch of G2 and Radar last year, Glass’s can offer real accuracy and insight into the industry.

‘It’s our aim to continue bringing products to

‘GlassAnalyser gives dealers intelligence as to what is going on in the market so they can adapt accordingly.’ market that really help our customers’ businesses, and that’s what GlassAnalyser is all about.

‘It gives dealers intelligence as to what is going on in the market so they can adapt their businesses accordingly, make better decisions and improve their profitability.’

The many benefits that GlassAnalyser brings to dealers include: n Easy monitoring of all advertised prices daily against the Glass’s Spot Price and a dealer’s KPIs. This lets managers take immediate action to sort out any problem vehicles and drive sales forward; n Automatic alerts to allow a dealer to respond quickly when market changes affect the competitive position on any vehicle; n Automatically finding all a dealer’s advertised stock, which can be monitored via a simple interactive dashboard; n Fine-tuning pricing on any car versus local

competitors at any time by conducting a full Radar analysis of any car; n Setting up and fine-tuning a dealer’s own dynamic pricing policy across time on an inventory or per car basis to help drive sales; n Managing and varying a dealer’s policy price versus the Spot Price depending on how long a vehicle has been in stock; n Sharing and monitoring best practices within a dealer’s network using a common tool and common pricing policy, enabling each dealership to price in line with company policy; n Exporting an overview of a dealer’s stock’s current performance so that the information can be shared internally.

What is Glass’s?

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One way to get the best price.

Coming soon

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GLASS’S CarDealerMag.co.uk | 107

data file.

James Litton

TRADER TALES

Full labour rates for internal work outdated

I

am not one of those sales managers who embodies the stereotypical conflict between the sales and after sales departments. I have worked with some great service managers who have recognised the futility of pillaging stock cars and working toward short lead times to hasten stock turn.

However, my issue is the practice of charging full retail labour rate for internal work. The concept is as old as the hills — my cynical salesman’s mind assumes it was to reduce new and used car profitability and thus commissions.

Now, two factors mean it is time for a change. Firstly, the reduction in vehicle gross profit on both new and used cars.

Many commission structures work on a unitary basis, with only additional commissions available for negotiation and having no effect on profit.

Pay plans which conform to a percentage of profits are based on the effectiveness of upselling to reach OTE rates, rather than a small volume of profitable deals, or more likely large volumes of base commissions. This makes the retention of good sales people and sales managers difficult.

Secondly, and crucially, is the increased reliance of internal work to make up workshop labour and part sales. Instead of targeting retail customers with robust offers for any age of vehicle, first-time fix targets and general customer satisfaction, many after sales managers prefer the more lucrative recovery rate and increased efficiencies of routine stock vehicle jobs.

The same could be applied to the parts department.

Facilitating internal sales is not enough. More parts managers should be active in the recruitment of parts salespeople, working with bodyshops and independent repairers. There is the problem of keeping a reduced lead time for internal work but night shift working or dedicated internal technicians can solve this. The solution is not simply to reduce labour rates but to introduce targets based on volume and efficiency.

I would like to see internal budgets for labour sales for both the service and sales managers. Then stepped threshold rebates based on additional volume. This would also be the case for the parts departments.

My second fundamental change would be to set financial penalties for delayed internal preparation and cars which are returned after poor repair.

These measures are enough to reward dealerships which have good operators.

‘Retention of good sales people more difficult’

Who is James Litton?

James is sales manager at Tony Purslow Mercedes Benz, Guildford. He always has something to say about the industry he loves. ���| CarDealerMag.co.uk

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workshops.

Want to be included in this section? Call (023) 9252 2434

Mazda brings in online service booking system Focus on quicker response times brings more features to relaunched websites

M

azda is one of the first manufacturers in the UK to launch an online service booking system on dealer websites.

The new service is incorporated into the dealer websites relaunched this month. Now customers can book in cars for servicing, MOT and repair work at their leisure. A tyre-fitting service is also coming to the new sites, which Mazda says will put them high on internet tyre searches. When customers key in a registration number all available options for their car will be listed automatically.

The websites are based on a template from Mazda UK but each site is unique to a dealer. This

allows Mazda UK to upload details of national campaigns centrally ensuring they go live nationwide simultaneously. Mazda’s dealers can enter stock and local offers on to their site at any time and upload individual time-slots available in their workshop.

Mazda UK aftersales director David Wilson-Green said: ‘Research shows that more than 80 per cent of customers want to book their car into a dealer online, so that they can do it at their convenience. This will be a feature across all dealer websites. It’s all about building loyalty through customer convenience.

‘Mazda dealers can supply tyres at very competitive prices and given that tyres are often the first thing

that drivers go elsewhere to buy, it is essential we promote our offering to make customers aware.’

An optional element of the dealer website service is ‘live chat’, which is designed to speed up the response times to customer queries. Wilson-Green added: ‘The automotive industry is notoriously slow in response times on the internet. We’re focused on quicker response times and are working on how to categorise issues to make sure customers get the right response. We need to give our customers a richer multimedia environment which includes online and interactive tools, while giving them the option to use their preferred method of communication.’

Temporary Workshops Valet Buildings, & Showrooms

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Marshall Motor Group is part of a unique family owned group of companies with a turnover approaching ÂŁ1bn (35% growth), with interests also in the aerospace and ground systems sectors. We celebrated our Centenary in 2009 and we are still growing in size.

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WE’RE RECRUITING...

PETER VARDY IS NOW RECRUITING IN MANY AREAS FOR ALL OF OUR DEALERSHIPS. We’re looking for people with drive, passion and retail sales or customer experience. You don’t need a motor industry background, just the desire to succeed. We’ll give you all the world class training you need... plus a great financial package, and every Sunday off. If you want the chance to build a career with Scotland fastest growing motor retail group then apply today.

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t 4"-&4 "%7*403 t 4&37*$& "%7*403 t 5&$)/*$*"/ t 4"-&4 $0/530--&3 For more information call 0141 773 5300 or visit www.petervardy.com/recruitment CarDealerMag.co.uk | 111

the fleet.

WELCOME TO THE FLEET...

Final report:

VolvoXC60 Bye bye Volvo. It’s been nice knowing you

IT FELT as if the Volvo XC60 left Car Dealer towers as quickly as it came in and, with a heavy heart, we waved farewell to our faithful servant this month.

The excellent AJ62 YRV has been with us for just over three months but in that time it has made one hell of an impact. The big Volvo wasn’t about showy paintjobs, enormous alloys or dainty LED light arrangements, it was about cruising in comfort with enough room for five occupants and a lot of luggage.

During its time here, AJ62 YRV made several vital trips to the airport, regularly transported kayaks to the coast and played a starring role in a number of summer ‘staycations’.

No relationship is without its niggles and, even though the Volvo was generally loved by all, there were a couple of minor gripes.

Firstly, the electronic fuel gauge was a little scatter-brained. Secondly, the centre console and displays all felt a bit dated. But all Volvo models are currently undergoing a thorough refresh and we think an updated XC60 with a more efficient engine and sexier interior could easily rival the likes of BMW and Mercedes.

Volvo, if you’re reading this, we’ll happily take a new one off your hands when the time comes.

Leon Poultney (@BlokesInCars)

the knowledge

Third report:

MitsubishiASX Dave ‘Alan Partridge’ Brown’s lovely drive

WE’VE had our long-term ASX for quite a few weeks now and it has proved a trusty and comfortable companion on various long jaunts around the UK. Recently however, I discovered a new side to the ASX. Travelling down south and arriving at the spot where the A34 meets the M3, I could see cars and lorries nose-to-tail on the motorway below so decided on an alternative route home, cross-country.

Setting the sat nav for a Hampshire town that I kinda knew was half way along my intended path, I embarked upon what turned out to be a wonderful and unexpectedly enjoyable drive.

The ASX seemed to be having as much fun as me, as we nimbly negotiated our way through little villages. We nipped easily round cyclists, gave horse riders plenty of room and even encountered (and avoided) the odd stray example of Hampshire wildlife.

Suddenly the car seemed far more than just the mile-munching workhorse I had become used to driving. It was quick, responsive and agile.

The car even attracted some admiring glances; ASX, you little attention seeker. And don’t get used to it by the way, we’re back on the M3 tomorrow.

Dave Brown (@CarDealerDave)

the knowledge

Third report:

SkodaCitigo Citigo Sport lives up to its name and is sporty

AT LAST... I’ve had a proper drive of the Skoda Citigo Sport.

The car has been with us for three months now, but it has only been the past couple of weeks where I’ve had a chance to have some quiet time with the little Czech city car. And I can now understand why so many people are reluctant to hand over the keys.

You see, despite its puny little engine – 58bhp in a car that’s badged Sport, seriously? – the Skoda is a fun car to drive. Now, while I know many motoring journos say this about a wide variety of cheapo cars, the Citigo Sport actually is rather fun to get behind the wheel of.

Thanks to a taut little chassis, accurate steering and a snickerty gearchange, the Sport can be a real delight on the right roads.

Sports get stiffened suspension too, which resulted in our car being able to fly around corners at breakneck speed.

And while you’re probably thinking the ride has been ruined, it really hasn’t – even with our car’s larger 16-inch alloys. Sure, it’s not Rolls-Royce levels of comfort, but I’m in my 20s — I can put up with a bit of discomfort.

Next month I have planned a number of trips in the car — check back to find out how I get on.

James Batchelor (@JRRBatchelor)

the knowledge

Model: Volvo XC60 SE Lux Nav Price: £40,250 (as tested) Engine: 2.4-litre, five-cylinder turbo diesel Power: 214bhp, 440Nm Max speed: 127mph 0-60mph: 7.8s Emissions: 179g/km Mileage this month: 764

Model: Mitsubishi ASX 4 Price: £22,745 (as tested) Engine: 1.8-litre diesel Power: 114bhp, 300Nm Max speed: 117mph 0-60mph: 10.0s Emissions: 134g/km Mileage this month: 989

Model: Skoda Citigo Sport Price: £11,050 (as tested) Engine: 1.0-litre, three-cylinder, petrol Power: 58bhp, 95Nm Max speed: 99mph 0-60mph: 14.2s Emissions: 105g/km Mileage this month: 1,012

This month’s highlight Volvo taking back the XC60 isn’t much of a highlight if we’re honest

This month’s highlight Who’d have thought it? Mitsubishi’s crossover is at home in the country as it on the motorway

This month’s highlight It may be a motoring journo cliche, but the Citigo Sport actually is a fun car to drive. Honest

���| CarDealerMag.co.uk

longtermers

Fourth report:

Fifth report:

NissanQashqai RenaultTwizy Nissan crossover is a joy on the twisting A708

I RECENTLY had the great pleasure of driving what is, in my humble opinion, one of the UK’s great driving routes.

The A708 from Moffat to Selkirk snakes its way through some of the most dramatic scenery the Scottish Borders has to offer. Dramatic hairpin bends and blind corners unfold into magnificent straights that sweep you through a picture postcard landscape and make the sort of 35-mile route all driving enthusiasts dream about.

But my ride through this sublime meeting of tarmac and nature was not some exotic Italian two-seater but our altogether more humble Nissan Qashqai.

The punchy 128bhp powerplant, mated to a crisp six-speed transmission, makes the Qashqai surprisingly swift when exiting a bend and accelerating up through the gears. And the strong brakes enable late braking and allow you to dodge the odd suicidal sheep.

What’s more, for me, it’s here and not around town where the additional ride height offered by the Qashqai’s crossover styling comes into its own. Those extra few inches are all you need to gain greater visibility of the road ahead and, luckily for me, an even more spectacular view of your surroundings.

Mal Hay (@MalcolmHay)

the knowledge

Twizy helps us find out when a plug’s not a plug

It was only a matter of time before the health and safety-ists at Blackball Media HQ took umbrage at our car-cum-lawnmower’s recharging spot. I thought I’d found the best place to give the Twizy a bit of go-go juice — hidden behind a bush, in dangling distance of our office window.

It was okay for a few months but then a yellowjacketed busybody decided it was time to stick his hairy nostrils in. ‘You can’t plug that car in here, the, er, electrics won’t cope,’ claimed the ignorant one with the bald head and penchant for cooking fish for his tea (can you tell we don’t get on?).

He thought plugging an electric car into the office would blow a fuse or cause a fire. The fool.

Despite explaining it was no different plugging a car with a three-prong plug into the socket than a toaster (which I later suggested he poke with a knife) he wasn’t having any of it. Within minutes, angry badge-checker was joined by importantlooking landlord types who banned our Twizy from refuelling on the grassy knoll.

But it’s not all bad news — the M&S shiny suited people have found us a garage on the site that we can use to store and charge the Twizy.

Handy. I’m still trying to work out how the sockets are any different to those in our office, but so far have thought better of mentioning it…

Eighth report:

Peugeot208 Little Pug soldiers on at Car Dealer towers

IT’S coming up to a whopping nine months since the man from Peugeot dropped off Car Dealer’s long term 208, so it’s fair to say that it’s had a reasonable amount of time to settle in.

In fact, so used are we to having the diddy 208 around that it’s clocked up nearly 12,000 miles without us even noticing – not bad, considering that it arrived to us with mere delivery figures on the clock.

In reality, it’s not surprising at all. Since the day it arrived at Blackball Media towers, the Pug has been pushed far beyond usual supermini duties.

It’s pummeled the motorway networks taking us to meetings reaching from Yeovil to York, been left in draughty airport car parks while we swanned off on European car launches, and even taken a few of us on holiday.

Amazingly, it’s coped with all of the above with ease. Our car might only be the 1.2 three-cylinder petrol model, but its ability to cruise at 70 is pretty impressive. Admittedly it’s not the quietest of experiences, but the free-revving 82bhp lump pulls up to the speed limit with ease.

Just one real gripe remains: The touch screen stereo. It’s pretty enough to look at, but it’s cumbersome to use and still won’t cooperate with my iPod – it’s bleeding annoying.

Jon Reay (@JonReay)

James Baggott (@CarDealerEd)

the knowledge

the knowledge

Model: Nissan Qashqai 360 Price: £25,143 (as tested) Engine: 1.5-litre, turbocharged diesel Power: 128bhp, 320Nm Max speed: 118mph 0-60mph: 10.7s Emissions: 135g/km Mileage this month: 2,792

Model: Renault Twizy Colour Price: £7,690 (as tested) Engine: Electric motor Power: 17bhp, 57Nm Max speed: 50mph 0-60mph: n/a Emissions: 0g/km Mileage this month: 124

Model: Peugeot 208 Active Vti 1.2 Price: £14,550 (as tested) Engine: 1.2-litre, petrol Power: 82bhp, 118Nm Max speed: 109mph 0-60mph: 13.8s Emissions: 104g/km Mileage this month: 468

This month’s highlight Qashqai has strong brakes. Useful when there’s a sheep wanting to get itself run over

This month’s highlight The Twizy rises up the greasy pole and is given its own little stable to rest in

This month’s highlight The touchscreen stereo is still annoying to use an cannot cooperate with an iPod CarDealerMag.co.uk | 113

data fiLe.

Now is the time to act to comply with new finance regulations

I

don’t think Lord Nelson would have been as forthcoming about his plans for the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, as I am going to be about First Response Finance’s strategy over the past few weeks. But on this occasion, sharing good practice is the right path for the industry.

Current Consumer Credit Licence holders can now register for interim permissions with the Financial Conduct Authority, which means that when the new regulator takes over from the Office of Fair Trading on April 1, 2014, you will be able to continue the activities detailed on your licence.

This is a time for unity and cohesion, as we all commence preparations for the transfer, so there is a smooth transition. Regulatory topics can cause people to panic, show resistance or, even worse, delay the required action until sadly it is too late.

Within the sales teams at First Response Finance we have completed a process of education, whereby each person has had their competence and knowledge tested surrounding the subject. This has been followed by training workshops to improve the team’s ability to engage in guidance and support conversations with car dealers nationwide.

Following on from us gaining an understanding of our knowledge and sharpening any shortfalls we have, we began to look at our business partners’ Consumer Credit Licences to see what support and assistance is required to get them to a position where they are ready to apply for the interim permissions.

Initial conversations with car dealers have followed,

Jonathan

Such TIME IS MONEY

to discover if they were aware of what is happening, confirm they knew what they needed to do and then provide the right level of direction depending on an individual situation.

And rightly so. In some instances we have come up against objections after we have successfully made contact and broached the subject.

An example of what we were told is: ‘We are not going to do anything until we are asked. We are unsure if we are going to continue supplying point-of-sale finance, it’s all money going out of the door. We have been supplying finance for 15 years and had no problems, and my main prime lender hasn’t said anything about this to me.’

‘Action is necessary, as is the transfer of money to a governing body’ All of which are plausible things to consider, and extremely important to address as a business before committing.

Unfortunately, action is necessary on this occasion, as too is the transfer of money from your bank account to at least one governing body. No matter what your objection, if you want to continue to offer finance facilities correctly, you are going to have to comply.

The good news is First Response Finance is ready and willing to support you in these important industry changes. All you need to do is ask, which is a lot easier than preparing for battle.

Who is Jonathan Such?

Such is regional sales manager for First Response Finance. You can contact him on 07917 781608 or email jons@frfl.co.uk

Coming next month

FEATURE

Road Test of the Year 2013’s best cars celebrated

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