Vauxhall chairman Duncan Aldred has said the brand will not target fleet sales to gain market share on Ford and will focus instead on retail.

Speaking to Car Dealer magazine, Aldred said the marque this year was "moving away at grabbing market share at all costs and focussing on retail sales.

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"We won’t target fleet sales at all costs just to grow registrations… We need to focus on more profitable retail sales," he said.

However, some in the industry have alluded to the inaccuracy of registration measurements from the forecourt. While dealer group Vertu Motors has warned of problems between fleet and private classfications, data provider CAP has called for dealers to show greater transparency over the pre-registration of vehicles to earn volume bonuses.

The market

Aldred’s statement comes while GM, the umbrella group for Vauxhall in the UK and Opel in Europe, has announced plans to attack continent-wide retail with 23 new models and 13 new engines to recover sales figures in the next few years.

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Meanwhile, Finaccord has recently published research demonstrating the significant revenues to be generated through retail car sales in the UK through additional financial services sold by dealers, such as extended warranties, motor and GAP insurance, prepaid service contracts and road assistance. The research showied the average value of these products amounted to 3.6% of the price of the cars themselves in the UK, compared to an average 1.4% across 38 countries.

And Vauxhall has shown it is willing to maximise the added value of retail by tendering its 0%, five-year Flexible Finance package to both GMAC and Santander.

Further analysis of the retail performance of Ford and Vauxhall will be published in the December issue of Motor Finance magazine.

richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com