This month’s magazine has been brought to you under a cloud, my colleague and good friend has decided to leave the company and go travelling.
As some of you may know, Grant Collinson has been with Timetric for three years and has been a guide and mentor to me, and many other people over that time. His knowledge of the leasing industry, the fleet markets and his ability to overhear enough about the Motor Finance markets while sitting opposite previous editors to pass that on to us newbies has been invaluable in making sure I am not currently writing this from within a mental hospital.
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While this is a sad thing for all of us it is worth pointing out that it is a good thing for him, he will be travelling to New Zealand, where he will be writing while also exploring that country and then the Far East. We at Motor Finance wish him all the best and hope to see him soon.
The rest of the month has brought some interesting news and views from the people we’ve met. Isabella Grotto reports on the rise in motorcycle finance, a perhaps forgotten part of our magazine’s coverage in an average month, and so it seemed a good time to look at it again.
It was interesting to read that the market for fast bikes is one of the largest segments in this diverse industry, and that even these top end bikes can be had for about £200 a month. Therefore it’s not hard to see why the developing world remains dominated by the scooter and mopeds as a mode of transport.
It set me off to wondering which of the UK and European based finance companies are making their way into the Asian markets for not just bikes but also cars. I’d be interested in hearing from you on that subject.
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By GlobalDataOther subjects discussed in this month’s edition have been the future of finance. Andy Gruber of Alphera has some interesting ideas on the use of finance in a pay-per-use world. He also highlights the electric vehicle and its affect on the finance industry, a subject close to his parent company as they launch two of the most interesting electric and hybrid vehicles in years.
This year though he sees the rise of PCP in used car sales as the next big step, and its one I have to go with him on. The used car is now more reliable and desirable than it has ever been from a consumer’s point of view. It’s not much of a danger for the industry to start seeing the used car market not as an add-on to what they do, but a big part of the industry’s future.
In this issue we have also looked at the French car finance market. Currently the market seems to have turned a corner after two years that have been very tough for the finance industry in what was once the second largest in Europe, and is now a distant third to the UK market.
There are lessons for the UK market there however, consumer confidence being the most important one. A look at the consumer confidence graphs for France and the car markets show a disconnection, with sales actually dropping when the French consumer was supposedly happiest to spend. Perhaps the reason is the French finance industry was too slow to offer what the consumer needed, and if so has that the UK finance been more of an influence on rising car sales here than the government would like to admit?
