The motor finance commission case goes to the Supreme Court in April and dealers will be watching it closely.
In the MILS Legal Surgery column this month Professor Henry Blair argues that if a redress scheme goes ahead, it could impact dealers.
He points out that while motor finance providers will likely shoulder most of the load under a redress scheme, dealerships are not immune. And as MILS points out it’s possible a redress scheme will not be created. We’ll soon know.
This brings us on to networks. Much has been made – and rightly so – of the Chinese making inroads in the UK but retailing new brands presents big challenges. There is little awareness of the incoming brands.
Sales are starting from scratch. There is no aftersales. Carmakers must establish a network, decide on sales volumes, and get the balance right. Xpeng is looking for 20 dealers and approximately 2,000 sales in year one.
It wants to avoid low profit fleet business and target retail sales. A tough prospect given the current EV retail market.
Suzuki has a different network story. It is long established in the UK. In this issue we interview the new Director Automobile at Suzuki David Kateley. Suzuki has traditionally had a good relationship with its dealers, but the size of the network and the sales volumes were not making sense.
Hence the terminations which we have seen in so many dealer networks.
Finally, in this issue we look at digital on two fronts. The Digital Marketing Survey to see what people are doing with their digital marketing budgets and where they are spending the money.
Thanks to those who took part, and a £100 Amazon voucher will be winging its way to the draw winner.
Also, on the digital front, Steve Young looks at the wider picture and lances some of the cliches surrounding AI.
He argues that some dealers are not fully using the basic potential of AI in their business and suggests that the best early adopters will open up the gap on their slower moving counterparts.