NEWS

CAR dealers are meeting with Lord Mandelson TODAY – with a scrappage extension high on their demands. The crunch summit with the SMMT will see car dealers plea for an addition to the cash-neutral scheme. Scrappage funds are expected to run out by the end of the year. Many car dealers would like to see [...]

CAR makers need to know NOW if there is to be a VAT increase in January – or face problems later this year. A BMW Group spokesman said the brand was pushing hard for an answer on whether the January VAT rise is actually due to go ahead. Because, if it does, a huge spike [...]

NISSAN UK managing director Paul Wilcox has added his name to the list calling for a scrap extension. Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer Magazine, the MD hit out at the Government for the lack of information on the end of the scheme. He says Nissan estimates the scheme will end by mid to late November [...]

SCRAPPAGE extensions have reportedly now been rejected by Lord Mandelson, reports the NFDA. This has ‘bitterly disappointed’ RMI NFDA chairman Paul Williams. Particularly as it came ‘without even the courtesy of a meeting with the industry to discuss the issue.’ Car dealers have been calling for a meeting with Government for some time now, to [...]

CREATIVE thinking by one Hyundai car dealer is to see a scrappage-traded, condemned car saved! Gatwick Hyundai is inviting proposals for the car – and the best will get it for free. What’s it all about? Well, the car dealer took in the 1958 Morris Minor, under scrappage, against a new Hyundai Coupe. The owner [...]

CAR dealers should appeal to their local MPs in order to win an extension to the scrappage scheme. The RMI NFDA is advising all car dealers get in touch with their MPs, as part of a concerted campaign. Just the job to really get Government thinking, reckons NFDA chairman Paul Williams. ‘With encouragement from dealers [...]

SIX in 10 car buyers are lost at the ‘meet and greet’ stage – reducing this could make up for the end of scrappage. That’s the claim of training firm Autavis, which has just launched a new initiative. Car dealers, it says, often express an interest in training, but find the out-of-dealer time costs too [...]

HYUNDAI has appointed no less than 10 new car dealer franchises, taking its UK-wide coverage to 141. The Korean brand is on a roll at the moment, following its smash-hit scrappage success… so the double-figure roll-call of appointments is much needed! Hyundai is now represented by: •    Whitehouse Maidstone Hyundai •    Chorley Hyundai in Blackpool [...]

WHICH car maker is leading the scrappage sales league so far? The third best-selling maker in the UK, that’s who. Hyundai has sold 12.747 scrappage cars, reveal figures from Government body the BIS – more even than Ford, which has sold 12,228. It’s a result that shows the scale of how Hyundai has embraced scrappage. [...]

FIAT Group is celebrating, after sales in August turned the clock back to 2001 for the three-brand maker. Sales rose by more than 85 percent year-on-year, to give the firm its biggest market share since May 2001. Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Abarth snared 5.14 percent of total UK sales – and even the 4.5 percent [...]

CAR dealers have once again called upon the Government to extend the smash-hit scrappage scheme August new car sales figures, says RMIF chief Sue Robinson, prove how vital it is. ‘With car sales continuing to grow as a result of the vehicle scrappage scheme, Government must consider an extension to enable consumers and business to [...]

FORD sales outperformed the market three times over, says the blue oval – with market share increasing. The brand now commands 16.9 percent of the total new car market. That compares with 16.1 percent a year ago. What’s more, the new car market may well be up 6 percent – but Ford’s sales have rocketed [...]

NEW car sales in August were forecast to decline 6 percent… instead, they have RISEN 6 percent! The turnaround, says the SMMT, is entirely down to the new car scrappage scheme. Most significant was an increase in retail sales of over HALF – which, again, is thanks to the Government’s new car scrap scheme. It’s [...]

NEW car sales continued to rise in August, with official figures revealing a 6% increase, according to the SMMT. The big winner was Hyundai, whose baby i10 has leapt to THIRD PLACE OVERALL in the sales charts – overtaking the Vauxhall Corsa. Even more significantly, the brand is TOP for overall retail sales – beating [...]

SCRAPPAGE cash is running out, motors.co.uk warns car buyers – which is urging they buy sooner rather than later. 155,000 people have already taken advantage of the discounts, says the car buying website. However, with the rush for 59-reg September plates, that cash could run out by NEXT MONTH! Marketing manager Katie Armitage said ‘the [...]

ENGLAND former goalkeeper Phil Parkes is the latest high-profile name to join in the rush for scrappage. The former goalie, who also played for QPR and West Ham, took up the offer at Inchcape Ford Wokingham. He traded in his 11 year old Transit, for a brand-new 350 LWB model. Making him one of 800 [...]

VAUXHALL is upping scrappage deals on some of its models, as the September 59-reg gets underway at dealers. Buyers of the 1.4 Astra Life can get a staggering £6410 off the normal list price. This takes the brand-new cost down to just £8995 – in a move intended to clear stocks before the new Astra [...]

FORD has said the link made by Which?, between recent price rises and the scrappage scheme, is wrong. ‘The two are unrelated,’ said the firm, ‘with one pre-dating the other. ‘The weakness of Sterling is critical for manufacturers with vehicle costs paid in Euros. ‘Sterling’s deterioration, which began in mid-2008, cost Ford many times its [...]

70 car dealer jobs have been lost as Crown Motors Dagenham Vauxhall dealer group falls into administration. Receivers have been called in to the firm’s two Vauxhall dealers, which have collapsed despite the stimulus of the scrappage scheme. The firm had already sold a Vauxhall and Chevrolet dealer in Ilford earlier in the month, in [...]

SCRAPPAGE is being blamed for the biggest decline in used car sales since the start of the decade. Sales fell by 6.6 percent in Q2 – an unprecedented fall, says Experian, even after further declines in Q1. Between January and March, sales fell by 1.1 percent. Which really does make the further declines between April [...]