Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was 2012, pretty much.
We’ll be looking in more detail at the year gone by, its unexpected rise in new car registrations and its hoped-for escalation in finance
penetration in the January issue.
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Right now, however, the Motor Finance production desk is getting in a reminiscing mood early. I asked each member of the
team for their biggest story in the sector this year and their favourite memory.
Grant Collinson took off his Leasing Life hat (while he did so eying the stitching which reads ‘ING Lease leaves UK’) before deciding the reacquisition of GMAC UK – along with most international operations conducted by Ally Financial – by General Motors probably marked the biggest turnaround in both manufacturer and captive circumstances this year.
Pressed on his favourite memory, Grant mentioned something about his and Fred Crawley’s attempts to get home from a Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) drinks event but trailed off, focusing on his hat until I stopped bothering him.
In total rebuke of Collinson, Peter Johnstone – a busy man this month, interviewing both Private & Commercial Finance and Glass’s – went for the withdrawal of ING Lease and its obvious knock-on effects for brokers and those companies looking to fill the hole ING has left.
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By GlobalDataErstwhile cub reporter Hannah Meltzer voted for her time spent speaking to a plethora of excited dealers in the lead-up to plate day, as both the biggest story and her favourite memory of the year in car finance.
Fred stuck by his address to the Frontline Solutions F&I Conference in October. The biggest story of the year, he said, was the work of finance providers. According to the FLA, new car finance penetration has now risen 19 months in a row, starting the year at 63.5% and ending it around 70%. However you cut it, as near as two-thirds of those buying new cars at dealerships in 2012 did so on
finance. Not only that, but it did so despite adverse national press reports of ‘dodgy dealers’ and extortionate interest rates.
Fred’s written about this many times, and I’m adamant I’m preaching to the converted with this, but the press relies on a steady stream of company-sent releases with which the day’s agenda and the year’s argument is set. The nationals pay attention to the bigger names, to what Sainsbury’s or Marks & Spencer’s finance operations say – that is that anybody but a high street bank or supermarket lender is trying to fleece the customer.
The trade press, we hope, pays attention to what’s relevant, to what everyone from Black Horse to The Funding Corporation to Volkswagen Financial Services have to say. That is, that this heavily-regulated industry is trying its best to make money while
helping a growing block of the UK get back on a healthy credit cycle.
I helped write Fred’s speech, across several napkins on a train, and I still agree with it.
My favourite memory, however, also comes from an FLA drinks event: Grant and I were hiding in a corner, throwing back bottled beers
and finger food, most likely discussing football, when Fred approached to ask why we weren’t walking around the room, making friends. We made the point that we’d already made friends that evening and, when we tried to raise a point about the industry, we got
stonewalled by these new acquaintances who thought we were note-taking, muckspreading hacks. Which was sort of fair.
Fred was having none of it.
"Watch how a pro does it," he said. Then he turned to the room and tripped over a floor light.
I still chuckle about that.
Whatever you celebrate this month, have a good one.
richard.brown@timetric.com
