Looking out of the office as this issue of Motor Finance goes to press, the drizzle has come back. No more of that freakishly hot and sunny weather we had in March. Put away the parasol and put on the Mackintosh.

There have, however, been plenty of reasons to be happy under these April showers. As it turns out, the rush for the 12-registration plate, March’s sales and those for the first quarter of the year have all beaten their forecasts.

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Not only were more new cars sold but the FLA confirmed at the start of the month that two-thirds of them were being sold on finance. Lease, HP and PCP all saw growth, as did the total amount advanced. When we consider that £345m of business was done in February, the quietest of months in the trade, and on new cars alone, it does seem that bit easier to ignore those grey skies overhead, even more after seeing the dark clouds blowing over Europe’s car markets.

Whether good or ill, such a large volume of cars and money will always generate a lot of news, particularly new ideas. In this issue we have Financeacar’s ambitious group-purchase scheme, Alphabet’s car rental initiative, Moneyway’s shortfall loan pilot and, online at www.motorfinanceonline.com, the launch of a consumer assessment tool by Creditplus and a new leasing division for MG.

Quite apt, then, for Professor Colin Tourick to return in this issue with his take on the acquisition of contract hire propositions, and Ian Dewsnap to give his cool review of all those innovations long-ago vaunted as ‘new’ or ‘game-changing’.

MG themselves have been busy, as have GMAC and Santander, exchanging contracts, making hay while the sun shone and filling up our news pages, as have HML (who we profiled as intending to enter the market in November’s Motor Finance) and MotoNovo following its rebrand from Carlyle (see last month’s issue).

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Pouring through the news section this month, unless you were part of Tesco’s abandoned entry to the market or misled another party over car finance, the chances are you may have had a sunny and clement time of it all.

Beside the headlines of fraud and misleading loan books, car finance crime features prominently this month. On our website there was the news that the FLA Vehicle Recovery Scheme recovered vehicles with outstanding finance to the value of nearly £3m in March, it’s fifth-highest monthly total ever, to an average value of £6,227 per vehicle, the third-highest monthly figure.

In this issue, with the FLA’s Car Crime Awareness Week at the end of March, Richard Brown spoke to DCI Mark Hooper about the history of Avcis (the Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service) and just what good work the service provides, thanks to the contributions of FLA members.

Rich also caught up with Paul Williams, CEO of SsangYong the ‘small’ manufacturer from South Korea making a lot of noise this year and one of the latest additions to the GMAC portfolio.

He and I also made time to meet with Alistair Scullion, MD at Experian Automotive, six months into his new role and a well-placed man to read the barometer of UK dealers and chart the temperature of captive and independent finance providers alike.

It was with serious envy and trepidation that I allowed Rich to actually stop writing and leave the country for more tropical heat this month on honeymoon but I suppose he has earned it. After filing his Dear Diary piece, of course.

With DWF director Daksha Mistry’s update (from her article in January’s issue) on implications for the motor finance industry from Alternative Dispute Resolution and Online Dispute Resolution guidelines and the latest from Greg Standing’s Casebook, we hope April’s Motor Finance gives you good reason to turn your smile in to your umbrella.

 

Fred Crawley

fred.crawley@vrlfinancialnews.com