Saturday Morning Show
Mar 4, 2017
On this Saturday’s episode of Motor Trade Radio, Philip Nothard and Derek Blair discuss the latest headlines from Motor Trader. This week, a big story for the industry broke, when individuals responsible for car clocking offences amounting to more than seven million miles have been successfully prosecuted.
In dealer news, Inchcape turned in a strong performance in the UK and Europe in 2016 with trading profit up 9.2% to £97.1m on turnover up 14.9% to £4.06bn. And Derbyshire-based Pentagon Group turned in flat pre-tax profits of £4m (£4.2m in 2015) in 2016 on turnover of £472m (£484m).
And Vertu has issued a robust full year trading update driven by strong performances in used cars and aftersales. Whilst Ford of Britain chairman and managing director Andy Barratt is forecasting a ‘bumper’ new car sales performance for the plate-change in March.
In other news, Land Rover dealers will be selling an all-new SUV later this year when the Velar model arrives in showrooms.
Finally, Derek and Philip discuss research from cap hpi, as dealer margins came under pressure in February while finance sales boomed.