Subscription Feeds
Keep up to date with the latest articles from Trend Tracker by importing one of the following feeds into your favourite RSS-compatible feed reader:
- Blog Entries
- Reports
- White Papers
- Best Practice Guides
- Newsletters
- Press Releases
Entries by Date
Entries by Keyword
- aftermarket
- aftermarket report
- aftersales
- alfa romeo
- audi
- auto market research
- automotive industry reports
- automotive jobs
- automotive market research
- automotive oems
- automotive research
- batteries
- blog
- bmw
- bodyshop market
- bodyshop market research
- bodyshop repair
- bodyshops
- brand perceptions
- brands
- car body repairs
- car brands
- car brands report
- car buyer
- car buyers
- car buying
- car finance
- car parts
- car parts market
- car repair
- car service
- car servicing
- chris oakham
- dealer networks
- electric car
- electric car research
- electric cars
- electric vehicle report
- electric vehicle research
- electric vehicles
- electric vehicles research
- evs
- franchise networks
- jaguar
- market research
- mercedes-benz
- mfbi
- mg rover
- mot test
- mot testing
- new and used car sales trends
- new car sales
- news release
- number of new car dealerships
- number of uk used car dealers
- remanufactured car parts
- scrappage
- servicing
- toby procter
- uk dealer networks
- uk franchised dealers
- uk used car market
- used car market
- used car sales
- used cars
Blog Entries about "automotive industry reports"
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Franchised workshop retention - going the wrong way
With Trend Tracker’s consumer data about car servicing now available up to the end of September 2011, the full impact of the ageing car parc on franchised workshop retention on servicing, maintenance and repair (SMR) is emerging.
-
Hot, Thirsty and Crowded: Are the New Vehicle Technologies the Answer?
Dr. John Wormald, noted consultant, co-founder of the advisory firm Autopolis, author of some of the most authoritatively critical books on the car industry and an inspiration to the directors of Trend Tracker since our foundation, examines this critical question in a new free-to-download report, available here:
-
The cautious used car buyer
Our new report on the used car market will be published later this year. We have started the research which includes a consumer survey of 10,000 motorists - a brand new addition to the used car report we have completed biennially since 1994.
-
Been here before? Precedents for EVs and energy upheaval
A new WWF report, ‘Electric avenues: driving home the case for electric vehicles’, calculates that ending the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels means at least 1.7 million electric vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020, and around 6.4 million by 2030.
Obtaining the effect on climate change urged by the WWF also entails decarbonising the power supply these EVs would be using, a task made no easier by the effect of the Japanese nuclear disaster on planning for the replacement of coal fired power stations. -
Grossing up gross margins
At this time of year, dealer group PLC’s publish their half-year results – informative barometers of the past six months. Also at this time of year private limited companies with financial years ending last December must post their accounts to Companies House.
-
Small percentages add up to bigger percentages
We make no apologies for returning to the subject of parts wholesaling again because it appears, judging by our workload, that this sector is seeing a real renaissance in the franchised sector. However our work with several vehicle manufacturers, looking at network performance on their behalf, has highlighted one interesting problem – staff lacking basic knowledge.
-
Automotive Mark-ups & Margins
If you buy something for £100, what do you have to sell it for to make a gross profit margin of 33%? The answer is, of course, £150. Certainly every reader of Auto Retail Network’s Bulletin where this article was first published, would have got this simple example of ‘mark-ups and margins’ correct. However, our experience running training courses for sales executives and aftersales personnel is that the mathematical skills of dealer staff are often sadly lacking, and many would come up with £133 as the answer – how would yours fare? Furthermore, our research on gross margins strongly suggests that this lack of knowledge has an impact on profits.
-
Testing times
The coalition government is, we hear, to review Britain's MOT test regime, the previous government having decided only two years ago to reject a government commission's proposal to save motorists money by complying only with the EU minimum requirement for a first test after four years, and biennial tests thereafter. It took two years for the no-change decision to be made after a delayed consultation.
-
Range Rover Evoque
From time to time, former Trend Tracker analyst and now business academic Dr. Michael Wynn-Williams delivers us his personal view of events and issues in the automotive sector. Happily this week sees Michael letting us air his view of the Evoque, the latest extension to the Land Rover brand portfolio. Whatever road-bound 4x4s in general evoke to you, I hope you’ll enjoy his robust critique of a company that has “thrown off its old mud-plugging ways,” but has nevertheless “slowly become bogged down in its models and brands.”