All articles by MF Editorial

Stellantis and the CEA collaborate on battery modelling

Electronic contracting: Why wait?

Oliver Sainter asks: When does risk outweigh benefit in retail technology?

The Journey to the FCA: The Collections Perspective

Adam Wonnacott sees a potential positive in the move to the FCA.

Alternatively-fuelled Fleet Friday

A round up of the week’s fleet news stories from across Europe, including methane, diesel and electrically-fuelled fleets in Italy, the UK and Germany.

Hill stirs the APR pot

Graham Hill is well-known for making provocative statements which divide opinion. Here’s what he had to say recently on the worth of APR when it comes to acquiring a car, which Motor Finance put to the manufacturer-owned side of the industry, represented by Doug Gillies of Toyota Financial Services and Steve Gowler of RCI Financial Services.

Decoding the small print

Ricky Cannon, senior solicitor at Brodies LLP, explains why you may need to get a Scottish repossession order at any time, given that Scotland has its own legal system and that Scots law has its own peculiarities.

Japanese car production hit well into Q2

Toyota is to operate its Japanese plants at half-normal volumes for a month from early May, following parts shortages in the aftermath of last months earthquake and tsunami. The firms major overseas factories have also been affected by the disruption, with production being suspended at five European plants from late April to early May. The company had a non-production day on 21 April at its vehicle factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire, and engine plant in Deeside, north Wales, affecting 3,000 workers.

More vehicles recovered, but value falls

HPI CrushWatch, the online service helping dealers and motor finance companies to identify vehicles that are illegal or have finance payments in arrears, was used 5,324 times in March, with police recovering 523 vehicles valued at £2,628,202. The figures show a 2.6% month-on-month increase in the number of enquiries made to CrushWatch, with a 9.4% increase in the number of vehicles recovered as a result of those enquiries. However, the total value of vehicles recovered in March was only 1.5% higher than February because the average value of the vehicles recovered was lower.

Porous ports present ‘massive threat’

The export of stolen vehicles from British docks represents a “massive threat” to the finance and leasing industry, law enforcement specialists have warned. Vince Wise, ports officer for Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), said he has seen more and more vehicles subject to finance and leasing agreements being moved illegally through the nations ports in recent months.

Round table: taking on technology

This month, Motor Finance, in collaboration with Frontline Solutions, invited a collection of point of sale experts to attend the second of 12 round table discussions on the future of the dealer finance market. The following pages highlight the debate and discussion, in which brokers, lenders and independent consultants made clear their feelings and opinion on the important issue of integrating the technology and systems essential to optimising motor finance business today and in the future.