Retail used car sales brought mixed results for dealers in February, with those in Scotland, the East Midlands, Northern Ireland and Eastern England all enjoying better performance in February than January, according to the February CAP Used Car Performance Index.
The French independent repairers' association FNA (Fédération Nationale de l'Artisanat Automobile) has reported that its complaint against certain clauses of Citroen's pre-BER authorised repairer contract has won support from the European Commission.
After months of negotiations with preferred bidder National Bluestar Group Corp. of China, Ssangyong's creditor banks expect a final bid today, report Korean media.
BMW Group group's profit from ordinary activities, at €3,205 million, was 2.8% below the record level of 2002. Net profit for 2003 was €1,947 million, 3.6% down from 2002.
Present at a meeting of the European trade federation CECRA this week, senior automotive sector official of the EC's Competition Directorate Paolo Cesarini declined to pronounce on any of the complaints so far submitted to the EC on dealer contracts.
German trade paper Autohaus reports that some manufacturers, including BMW, Audi and VW have ceased to offer manufacturer warranties following changes to German product liability law.
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A west London dealer has brought the latest generation Renault Twingo city car to the capital for the first time. Renault London West is importing left-hand drive versions of the Twingo from Germany. But Renault UK says it has no plans to officially sell the cars through its franchised network.
Land Rover has a problem. Reaction to the radical, rakish Range Stormer concept car, unveiled at the Detroit Show in January as a 'teaser' for the forthcoming Range Rover Sport, has been so strong, some Solihull insiders are worried the production version, due later this year, may not be sporty enough.
Franchised dealers are losing vital servicing work in the new car sector because of manufacturers' extended warranties, according to new research. But garages have seen service retention increase.
Twenty repairers have quit the RMI's specialist bodyshop advisory group, sparking fears of a rift between the industry body and the accident repair sector – and potentially providing rival trade associations with a major boost.
Two UK dealer master technicians have won the BMW international service technician competition. Nearly 6,300 technicians from the German carmaker's dealerships from 33 countries competed to gain a place in the finals in Munich.
Longer service intervals – two year/20,000 miles (petrol) or two year/30,000 miles (diesel) – on GM's fifth generation Astra will be determined by a warning system that takes individual styles of driving into account when indicating when maintenance is due.
Audatex UK believes AudaEnterprise, its latest insurance claims, estimating and body repair electronic link, sets a new standard in the way it enables several people within a company to view and share the data. Insurance companies and repairers will be able to cut maintenance and storage costs, because the data will be held by Audatex at twin high-security sites in Hounslow, west London, and Switzerland, and accessed via a permanent live link.
Repairers will be able to slash time and costs spent buying in replacement parts by taking advantage of a new online ordering service. Glass's Information Services and SEL-Imperial are launching an automated system aimed at streamlining the ordering process.
Twelve months ago the market was driven by dealers actively pursuing whatever retailable stock they could find. Supply was so short that even less than clean cars were snapped up and many values were on the rise.
In the closely fought compact executive market, one model stands out from the rest: the BMW 3-series.
Seat is planning to create a training programme to support its dealer network. Coupled with showroom upgrades and the introduction of new products, the Spanish carmaker hopes its learning academy will help dealers reach sales targets.
Lexus is readying its dealer network for a major new product offensive that includes the launch of diesel and hybrid powered vehicles.
