All articles by Charles Wheeldon
Charles Wheeldon
CrushWatch maintains £3m momentum
June was another bumper month for the HPI CrushWatch service, with vehicles representing more than £2,990,000 of outstanding finance being recovered from potential destruction by police. For the second consecutive month, the amount recovered has fallen just a few thousand pounds short of £3m approximately 20% more than every other single month this year There were 5,209 CrushWatch enquiries in June, resulting in 518 successful identifications of vehicles that were illegal and which had outstanding unpaid finance
New funding facility ends stagnation at P&C
Independent lender Private and Commercial Finance Group (P&C) has announced the end of a two-year period of stagnation, unveiling a full-year pre-tax profit of £455,336 and announcing a new funding facility. Its been hard going, especially for independents and for our competitors who have been driven out of business, but we have moved from a period of stagnation to one of growth, said managing director Robert Murray. Although P&Cs profits are 14% down on 2010s full year result of £528,361, Murray puts this down to the companys inability, until recently, to secure new funding a situation which led to a 13% reduction in P&Cs book size.
Vipdata drops July used car values by 4%
The company reports that after a strong start to the year, the market suddenly changed in late April around the time of the extended bank holidays and the Royal wedding
Asian cars more reliable as they age says MB&G
Asian car brands generate fewer warranty claims as they age than European or American rivals, claims warranty provider MB&G. Japanese and Korean cars dominate MB&Gs top-10 list, with Honda in first place
New dealer portal for Cumbrian lender H&H
An independent lender based in Cumbria has embarked on a programme of sales expansion, after experiencing a drastic reduction in competition in its immediate surroundings. According to the company, H&H Borderway Finance (HHBF), the past decade has seen all the major national finance companies close their offices in Cumbria and South West Scotland, leaving HHBF as Cumbrias only locally based motor finance provider.
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Motability under scrutiny after Sunday Times exposé
Non-profit car leasing company Motability Operations has faced criticism following a Sunday Times investigation into alleged abuse of the Motability scheme by dealers and relatives of the severely disabled. The newspaper alleged that relatives of those entitled to use their disability benefit to lease Motability vehicles were using the cars themselves
Fun in the sun at BEN’s Lynwood Fete
The BEN Summer Fete and Paul Finn Vintage and Classic Car Rally took place in glorious sunshine last weekend at Lynwood, the residential complex in Ascot run by BEN, the automotive industry charity. Brian Blessed was a VIP guest at the event, which offered a range of entertainment, including bowling, stalls selling books and beauty products, raffles and the steel band Star Rhapsody
Underwhelming European EV sales cast future doubts
Electric vehicles have yet to make a significant impact on the European auto market, with fewer than 6 in 10,000 car sales being an EV. Data from JATO Dynamics reveals that, out of 6,629,818 European car sales in the first five months of 2011, just 3,714 were EVs (0.056%). SMMT statistics show that out of 846,513 UK car registrations in the first five months, 509 were EVs
First-party fraud gets worse in Q1
Motor finance fraud cases rose by 17% in the first three months of the year compared to first quarter of 2010, reports the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA).
The direct approach
Enter car finance into Google, and see what comes up in the list of pay-for-placement links highlighted in yellow at the top of the search results list.