In May, consultancy Arthur D Little said new car sales won’t return to pre-crisis levels in the near future, and that Europe’s automotive retailers’ fundamental profitability issues remain...

No market study is complete without an evaluation of the active players. So the number of workshop providers is essential input to our annual report on the retail car servicing and mechanical repair...

Back in January 2013, we updated our new car sales forecast, which we then feed into the various models we utilise for car servicing and repairs, used cars, body repairs, car parc, scrappage… and so...

Our careers often take unexpected turns and I’m no exception. When I started out, I had a very clear path in mind – an engineering degree and then a career designing buses. After my degree I did...

Whenever we create a market forecast the first thing we do is list the market drivers – the internal and external influences on the market. One market driver, legislation, is invariably present....

Trend Tracker’s latest servicing retention results – up to the end of September 2013 – report a small reversal for independent garages and the first signs of a turnaround for franchised dealers....

I was reminded last week about how Pat Ryan and Associates – a US company – introduced finance and insurance (F&I) or business managers to UK dealerships in the 1980s. At the time I worked for a...

In September I attended Auto Retail Network’s aftersales seminar at the Mallory Court Hotel – ‘Future proofing your aftersales business’. It was an excellent day with a range of interesting topics...

Seeking information for a new project, we consulted Auto Retail Network’s Who’s Where and Franchisingreports. In doing so, we were struck by how well dealers had weathered the tough retail...

We’re often struck by how motoring is affected by changes beyond the control of those in the industry. We call it ‘big stuff’ – things like changes in legislation, tax, the...

Trend Tracker’s longest-running question in its monthly survey of 1,000 motorists is: “Where did you last get your car serviced?” The four main responses to this question: Franchised...

We hear a lot about ‘interconnectivity’ these days. What happens in one part of the world can have a knock-on effect in a completely different part of the world whether it’s a war, financial...

Later this month we publish our biennial report on the UK car body repair market. Published since 1994, this report has seldom made happy reading for those in the industry and this year’s is no...

Two consumer surveys in August apparently highlighted the increasing cost of motoring. The first by CarLoans4U found 40% of motorists cutting back on car usage and the second, by Green Flag, reported...

While the chart below might suggest we are, once again, delving into the vagaries of the new and used car markets – we are not. No, the subject this month is bodyshops. Having just started work...

A year ago we published a weighty tome about electric vehicles (EVs) which we assumed at the time would go out of date fairly quickly because of fast-moving technological developments. Since then, far...