Milton Keynes based dealer group Steven Eagell has bought Toyota dealership Hills of Letchworth for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition increases the company’s portfolio to eight Toyota dealerships, with representation also in Milton Keynes, Northampton, Luton, Aylesbury, Bedford, St. Albans and Watford. Managing director Steven Eagell said: “I am delighted with the acquisition of Hills of Letchworth as it fits very well with the group’s contiguous market area. “I regard the Letchworth and Stevenage areas as good markets with lots of potential and am looking forward to working with the team there. “We have an excellent formula with Toyota, through a very strong organically grown management team, good internal processes and a great manufacturer relationship. “I have no doubt we will be able to seamlessly integrate the new business into our group and it will perform at the same high level as the rest…

Marshall Motors achieved records performances across its expanding operation in 2013 as the group completed its first five year plan which has transformed it from a small regional business to a national group with 66 sites. Sales and profits were buoyed by a series of acquisitions, strong organic growth and an improving confidence in the car retail sector. Records were achieved in terms of revenue, up 18.8% to £940m, and operating profit which increased by 75% to £11.8m. The return on capital employed increased to 18.3%, which Marshall claims is now the highest of any top 10 dealer group, while return on sales were 1.25%. New car retail sales for the period grew 23.7%  to 30,000 and used sales rose 23.9% to 26,000 units. CEO Daksh Gupta (pictured) said the 12 month trading period was the most important in the group’s history as it…

Here’s the new BMW X6. No honestly, it’s the new X6. Yes, we thought they’d sent us pictures of the X4 by accident, but a close look showed the X6 badge. See for yourself. Among the X6s in the shots here, there’s a cherry-red car  – and that one is an X4. We might have wasted few opportunities to say that the last X6 was a vulgar machine with a fat backside and a stuff-you outlook. But hey, that didn’t stop a showroom stampede. Around the world, BMW sold an astounding quarter of a million of the things in its lifetime. And they’ll sell some more yet, because it’s still on offer. This new one doesn’t actually go on sale until the end of this year. The new X6 is, as you’d expect given BMW’s inexorable across-the-range technical evolution, better in pretty well every…

At A1 we offer a 3 Month Back to Base warranty on all vehicles sold with the option to extend for up to 36 Months.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Sales of extended warranties are continuing to perform strongly despite rising levels of consumer confidence, says The Warranty Group. The company says that rises in consumer confidence traditionally prompt falls in warranty sales as used car customers take on the risk of unexpected motoring costs. However, Ian Simpson, sales and marketing director, said there was no evidence of this is happening in the market. “While confidence about personal finances is increasing, it remains a long way below the level where used car buyers are willing to be cavalier about the possibility of unplanned car repair costs,” he said “There is also a general concern among used car customers about the level of complexity inherent in all modern cars and most feel more…

Half of all car buyers do not contact a dealership before visiting their forecourt, according to new research from Auto Trader. The research, of customers who ended up buying a car, shows 36% phoned a dealership in advance of visiting it, while 10% used email and just 4% live chat. Other buying trends showed that most consumers now research car purchases out of dealership opening hours, with the optimum time being between 6.00-9.00pm. Less than 10% of consumers know the brand of the car they want to buy when they start researching, while 60% of consumers say they are open to at least three car brands at the beginning of their research. The vast majority of buyers (85%) take less than six weeks to do their research. The findings have prompted Auto Trader’s CEO, Trevor Mather, to urge dealers to show greater levels of…

Ferraris and Lamborghinis out-performed every other vehicle on Britain’s roads when it came to used values over the past 12 months. That’s the view of Cap Automotive, which found that values in the supercar sector were near static in 2013 while those in other sectors fell by as much as 10%. Cap said demand had “soared” for used examples of the Ferrari F430 Scuderia and the Lamborghini Aventador. Cap said overall market used car values fell by 9.2% over the past 12 months while the Supercar sector fell by just 2.2%. In contrast, average small family car values in the so-called ‘Lower Medium’ sector have fallen by 9.1%.  Typical small ‘runabouts’ from the ‘Supermini’ and ‘City Car’ sectors are also down by 8.7% and 9.2% respectively. CAP specialist editor Clive Wilson said:  “What we are seeing is just an extension of the economic trend…

Suppliers of cars up to five years old are set to return to pre recession levels over the next two year. That’s the view of automotive academic Professor Peter Cooke in BCA’s newly published report The Closer View: A National and Regional Market Review. Cooke said a welcome trend for dealers will be the influx of used stock as PCP contracts come to an end and owners take out new ones. “With PCPs fuelling higher private new car registrations over the past two years, around 350,000 additional first-time used cars will eventually enter the used car market, with further volume coming from trade-ins and private-to-private used car transactions typically necessary to part fund the new vehicle,” said automotive Cooke. “Supplies of 0-5 year old used cars will start to return to pre-recession levels over the next two years, addressing the shortfall of some 1.3…

Nissan is aiming to drum up workshop business for its dealer network with the launch of a fixed price servicing scheme. It has launched Nissan Service Care, a package offering customers fixed price servicing and parts and additional benefits. For minor services customers pay a flat fee of £149 for petrol cars and £159 for diesel. Major services cost £219 for petrol and £249 for diesel. Some models are excluded from the deal. The package also provides eVision, a vehicle assessment video which is emailed to the customers so they can see what work has been done on the vehicle. As part of the package customers get free European roadside assistance. Chris Marsh, Nissan aftersales director said: “We have spent a great deal of time developing Nissan Service Care, studying the market place and consulting with our customers and dealers as we wanted to…