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Blog Entries from 2012
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Car Servicing and Repairs Comparison Sites – the Future is Digital
We’re departing from usual Trend Tracker policy to welcome a guest blogger with some statistical insights into consumers’ habits. Ian Griffiths of Who Can Fix My Car has pioneered online sourcing and supplier comparison in the SMR sector, and urges suppliers to climb on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, he is uncovering patterns of consumer behaviour which complement Trend Tracker’s large-scale Lake Motorists Survey data.
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Independents still going strong
Trend Tracker’s longest-running question in its monthly survey of 1,000 motorists is: “Where did you last get your car serviced?” The latest results available are for January to August and these have been plotted together with the long-term trends in the graph below.
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Knock-on effects
We hear a lot about ‘interconnectivity’ these days. What happens in one part of the world can have a knock-on effect in a completely different part of the world whether it’s a war, financial disaster, famine …. or demand for goods and services.
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The UK car body repair market
Later this month, or in early November, we publish our biennial report on the UK car body repair market. Published since 1994, this report has seldom made happy reading for those in the industry and this year’s is no exception. The car body repair market always seems in a constant state of flux with supply and demand precariously in balance, and a very small cohort of ‘professional’ insurance company customers accounting for the majority of work. Gross margins are consequently low.
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The cost of motoring
Two consumer surveys in August apparently highlighted the increasing cost of motoring. The first by CarLoans4U found 40% of motorists cutting back on car usage and the second, by Green Flag, reported a similar percentage (41%) saying they will reduce the number of journeys they make.
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Independents winning in SMR battle
With the kind permission of Auto Retail Network, we are pleased to reproduce here an article written by Trend Tracker director Chris Oakham about our report - The Castrol Car Servicing & Repair Trend Tracker 2012 Update.
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Used car dealerships fall by a quarter in ten years
With the kind permission of Autotrader.co.uk's Dealer Update magazine, we are pleased to reproduce here an article written by Tony Lewis about our report - The Future of the Used Car Market in Great Britain, 2012 - 2017.
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Motorists keeping their cars longer
The recession that started in 2008 seems never ending. After flat-lining since late 2009, the UK economy slipped back into recession at the end of 2011. With countries around the world in a similar state, it looks like it’s going to be a long haul. Indeed if the eurozone crisis gets worse, the UK will suffer further pain.
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Car buyers aren’t always logical
We’ve always wondered about the logic employed by car buyers. How do they decide to buy one particular new or used car over another?
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Sad passing of Ron Sewell
We were sad to hear of the death of Ron Sewell on 28 May. The current directors of Trend Tracker first met Ron when working for Sewells International in the mid-1980s, and later, both rejoined for a while his publishing business after he had split this from his training company and disposed of the latter.
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Recession hits bodyshops too
While the chart below might suggest we are, once again, delving into the vagaries of the new and used car markets – we are not. No, the subject this month is bodyshops.
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Used car retailer numbers: 25% down and falling
The latest report from Trend Tracker - The Future of the Used Car Market in Great Britain, 2012 to 2017 - confirms that demand for used cars has been depressed since the beginning of the recession in 2008. No more used cars were sold in 2011 – 6.8 million units – than 10 years earlier in 2001. That has not unexpectedly impacted on the number of businesses offering used cars for sale.
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The franchise network outlook
The perilous state of our high street shops is hardly out of the headlines these days with 15% of premises now empty. Even before the recent recession they were under attack from internet sales, supermarket diversification and ‘sheds’ on retail parks.
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Car prices outlook
Because the purchase of new and used cars is consumer spending, it is unsurprising that the Government’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps a close eye on prices as part of its monthly survey of inflation for the Consumer Prices Index.
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Ball Park Figures
A few weeks ago the phone rang and one of our clients asked: “How much was the parts market worth in 2011?” It’s a seemingly simple question and we do keep track of the sales of replacement parts sold to end purchasers in the markets for servicing and mechanical repairs and car body repairs. But for 2011? And then there is the added problem of defining and measuring parts wholesaling.
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Our crystal ball
An important feature of our reports – we are launching three new reports this year - is the forecast section where we look into our crystal ball and project future market trends. In the past, this has proved relatively easy and it was just a matter of plugging key data into a computer model. But the current situation has us scratching our heads.