All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
SMEs urged to go back to company cars
Turning away from company cars could be seriously bad for SMEs’ financial health.
Funding options for litigation
Conditional fee agreements (CFAs), often combined with insurance policies, have been used in the personal injury market for a number of years to enable parties to bring claims in circumstances where they might otherwise be unable to afford to do so.
Market conditions make fuel management a must
As countries across Europe move further into recession it goes without saying that businesses are managing their costs more tightly. The impact on the fleet is a focus on controlling and reducing the total cost of vehicle ownership.
Betting on boost from brokers
LeasePlan UK has completely restructured its broker divisions, with the new changes becoming effective on January 1 2009. The UK branch of the netherlands-headquartered lessor has brought together its two broker arms into one business unit under the Network brand, obtaining for all the brokers an “en masse” membership within the BVRLA, Antonio Fabrizio talks to Jo Elms of Network about raising standards among brokers and the challenges of intergration.
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Pay freeze for F&I dealership staff
Motor retail sector staff are feeling the squeeze on car sales right where it hurts most – in their pay packets. And staff responsible for sales of finance and insurance (F&I), who have traditionally enjoyed a pay premium over basic sales executives, have not been excluded from the freeze. According to a salary survey conducted by Trend Tracker, the basic pay of sales executives – including F&I staff – fell by 0.8 per cent between 2007 and 2008, compared with a weighted motor retail sector increase of 1.4 per cent, and an all-industries increase of 3.3 per cent. Total pay, meanwhile, grew by just 0.8 per cent for sales executives.
Editor’s Letter
The end of an era Around this time of year, I receive a lot of emails forwarded by friends and colleagues, containing vouchers and codes to help ease the burden of Christmas spending. Looking through one such list this year, I was surprised to see a voucher from Arnold Clark, offering £300 off the price of a new car. It was more than a little incongruous among the pizza restaurant deals and online shopping offers, and all the more remarkable as a result. Is it canny marketing – or a sign of how bad things have got in motor retail? Our cover story takes a good look at the current state of affairs for motor finance – and finds reasons to hope amid the gloom. The long-awaited Detroit bailout bill is finally here, after a highly troubled gestation (see p6). It will at least stop GM and Chrysler from running out of cash before the end of March; what will happen after that is anyones guess. France, too, has taken the decision to aid its manufacturers – and, more pertinently, their captive finance arms. Meanwhile there is more worrying news from the non-prime and sub-prime market: as Blue closes its doors to new business and BCT drastically cuts its motor finance volume, F&I has never been higher up the news agenda.
Vehicle finance brokers holding up
Adam Tyler finds that despite market unease, vehicle finance brokers are still writing business – although some funders are starting to change the rules of the game. Earlier this year, the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) held a Networking Day for its members and patrons (lenders, lessors, and factors) to get together and talk business.
Brokers come in from the cold
A largely unrecognised but essential part of the vehicle leasing industry, brokers have been working hard to raise their profile – and their standards, says Graham Prince. Ship brokers, stockbrokers, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers: all of these professions play a vital and respected role in their particular industry sectors. But if you mention leasing brokers to the average motor manufacturer or vehicle finance company you are likely to be met with a wide range of responses, veering from respect and appreciation to contempt or just complete indifference.The fact is that leasing brokers are playing an increasingly important role in the motor finance sales channel.
Top 10 UK models January to June 2007-08 comparison
Top 10 UK models January to June 20078 comparisonThe Ford Focus has remained the most popular model in the UK for the past 12 months. In 2008, the Vauxhall Corsa recorded the highest level of growth (9.6 per cent) of all models in the Top 10 (see table 1).The Clio and Mondeo have slipped from the top 10, while the MINI and Zafira are new entrants in the top 10.The sub-1.0 litre car market has fallen whilst cars between 1.0 and 1.3 litres have seen market share rise, as has the share taken by cars of 1.8-2.4 litres (see table 2).Cars of 2.5 litres or above have lost market share, as have 1.4-1.7 litre car.