Last year, 2016, might go down as a record-breaker for the retail car business. An all-time high 2.69 million new cars were registered. Used car sales could also be a record. And although the service...

We all regret those cars we passed over. I remember the rusty Isetta Bubble Car taken in part exchange, which I scrapped. Or the tatty 1965 Aston Martin DB5 I could have bought for £3,800 back in...

Undoubtedly cars are an essential part of our way of life. In 2014, the latest year for which complete data is available from the Department for Transport, some 83% of all travel was by car. That’s...

Last month a German consultancy asked us for a detailed breakdown of the suppliers to the UK market for servicing and repairs. They wanted to know about independent garage workshops, fast-fits, tyre...

Last month the Petrol Retailers Association warned motorists that pump prices are set to increase by at least four to five pence per litre as the cost of crude oil strengthens along with the US...

Last month’s press release from the SMMT said that a record number of used cars changed hands in the first half of 2016 – over four million, and 7.9% up on 2015. This includes private sales, but...

Over the past decade, the non-franchised workshop sector – predominantly independent garage workshops – carried out the largest volume of servicing, maintenance and repairs (SMR), including MOT...

Recently it seems that Brexit is to blame for everything, anywhere in the world. We don’t really have a view on this; we believe it’s too soon to say, especially as the process of leaving the...

The forces driving the retail market for servicing and repairs are complex, but the most recent prime mover was the 2008/2009 recession and how this impacted on new and used car sales and the car parc...

Last month I pointed out just how long it would take for electric cars to make a dent in the UK car parc. Quite simply, the size of the UK car parc, and the average length of time cars are in use...

The launch of the Tesla 3 seems to have boosted interest in electric vehicles (EVs). All the pundits have been regaling us with the benefits of EVs. Sales of EVs, we are told, are really ‘taking...

To prepare our annual Car Servicing & Repair Trend Tracker report, we collect lots of data. Our motorists’ survey provides a breakdown of the work completed, but pricing this work – to arrive at...

In last month’s Bulletin, I read Mike Jones’ (ASE plc) sound advice to refocus on used cars to avoid problems should the market soften in 2016. He also noted the strong performance of dealer service...

According to CV-Library, a UK jobs website, salaries in the UK automotive sector increased by 3.9% between 2014 and 2015, with average pay up from £29,298 to £30,376. The press release was lacking...

If you go back 20 or 30 years, we used to talk about the ‘bathtub curve’ when referring to car repairs. When brand new, it wasn’t unusual for cars to develop faults requiring repair. Once fixed,...

Winter is one of the busiest times of year for bodyshops, as poor weather and long, dark nights take their toll. Invariably the insurance claims rate is higher in the first and last quarters of the...

I’m always cautious when people ask for my advice about cars, especially when they are shopping for a used car. If something goes wrong, either with the deal or car, it’s the quickest way to lose a...

It’s about this time of year that we check the progress of our ongoing survey of motorists’ servicing and repair retail purchases. The survey, which has now run for over 20 years, entails...

For the automotive industry, everything starts with the sale of a new car. New car sales are a powerful driver of all market sectors. Thus the present run of new-car market growth is transforming the...

Forecasting is tricky. We usually start by listing the market drivers, and then we work out the relative influence of each and the interactions. For example, burgeoning new car sales increase the size...