All articles by MF Editorial

The path to the super-fleet?

For motor lessors the most revolutionary feature of the takeover will be the shape of the UK company car sector if Lloyds TSB Autoleases (LTSBA) 129,000 vehicles and Lexs 250,000 vehicles are merged into one super fleet.

Andy Tong: At the sharp end

Second-hand profits This is the first piece I have been asked to provide for Motor Finance, and already Im off on a rant Graham Hill would be proud.

BMW Financial Services: Q3 results ‘severely affected’ by credit crunch

BMW Financial Services announced a loss before tax for Q3 2008 of 17m (£13.8m) for its worldwide operations, compared with a profit of 191m (£155m) in the same period a year ago The consumer financing and leasing arm of carmaker BMW said that falling sales, plummeting residual values and higher levels of bad debt had all taken their toll, resulting in an additional risk provision expense, totalling 477m (£387m) for the nine months to September 30 2008

On the move

LA Fitness steps up with contract purchase fleet from Lombard Vehicle Management

LA Fitness steps up with contract purchase fleet from Lombard Vehicle Management Fleet provider Lombard Vehicle Management (LVM) has created an individually tailored contract purchase package for staff at LA Fitness, a health club chain. The deal covers the 50 vehicles in the LA Fitness fleet, with contract purchase chosen over other alternatives because a finance lease cannot be provided with a maintenance contract, and contract purchase also reduces end-of-life risk, LVM said.

Chrysler Financial exits leasing in the US

Chrysler Financial exits leasing in the US Chrysler Financial, the leasing and financing arm of car manufacturing giant, said it is shutting down its auto-leasing business in the US from August 1. This comes in response to the plummeting resale values of gas-thirsty trucks and sport utility vehicles which have proved to have caused big losses for US automakers. Co-president at Chrysler, James Press, said the company will divert the money it had been spending on its leasing arm into more traditional financing offers

Black Horse report finds PoS finance under pressure

Black Horse report finds PoS finance under pressure A study of point-of-sale motor finance has found that it is at a crossroads, and the long-term future of the industry hangs in the balance. Penetration of PoS finance for new cars sold by franchised dealers has fallen from 52 per cent in 1997 to 40 per cent in 2007, while franchised dealers penetration rates for used car finance tumbled from 51 per cent to 36 per cent over the same period. Independent used car dealers have seen their finance deals go down from 38 per cent of used car sales to just 18 per cent during the same period, it found.

New senior appointment at Siemens Motor Contracts

New senior appointment at Siemens Motor Contracts Peter Austin, the manager of Siemens Financial Services (SFS) vendor finance division, has taken on the additional role of general manager at SFSs vehicle leasing division, Siemens Motor Contracts.

RBS’s insurance deal with captive extended

RBSs insurance deal with captive extended A majority – 53 per cent – of drivers polled in a survey carried out by car supermarket Motorpoint said they plan to purchase their next car using motor finance. The results support figures published by the Finance and Leasing Association, which claimed 49 per cent of all new private car sales are now funded by lending from motor dealers an increase of two percentage points on 2007

Tree-planting scheme bears fruit for Lloyds TSB Autolease

Tree-planting scheme bears fruit for Lloyds TSB Autolease Thanks to its partnership with the National Forest Company, over the past year the lessor Lloyds TSB Autolease (LTSBA) has supported the planting of nearly 58,000 trees in the National Forest as part of its carbon offset scheme.