It was at the beginning of the year when Lord
Mandelson, responsible for virtually every government department
and slotted in just behind Charles in succession for the throne,
promised to solve the problems of the motor industry.

His promises and his efforts have resulted in –
well – nothing! Unless you believe the scrappage scheme has
actually benefitted anyone other than the rare few that were
driving around in 10-year old cars they had been desperate to chop
in against a new car, resulting in sales of new cars over and above
the cars that would have been sold anyway.

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While economists spout on about the overproduction
of the car manufacturers and Mandelson replaces the sensible move
of releasing money into the car finance industry with the bonkers
scrappage scheme, which still relies upon finance being available,
lenders, brokers and dealers sit around scratching their collective
heads trying to work out if there is any way they can turn the
enquiries for new cars into sales.

Pie in the sky

I believe the problem lies in the fact the
government is relying upon information based on guesswork by
academics and statistics that we all know tell lies.

Let me give you an example. I spoke to a main
dealer last week whose sales of new cars were down by about 80
percent last month, but his used car sales were up by around 300
percent. Conclusion – buyers are no longer looking for new cars;
they are looking to save money by moving into used cars.

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But scratch below the surface of the statistics and
you will find the dealer had virtually no stock of new cars
available, blowing the overproduction theory out of the window.
Most vehicles were on 12-week delivery, so the salesmen managed to
turn the customers into nearly new cars available in stock and
bingo! Instant profit and statistics that lie.

With no money in the motor industry, manufacturers
can no longer afford to carry large stocks of cars, again blowing
apart the theory that it would be wrong for Mandelson to invest in
carmaking because the money would be used to simply stockpile
cars.

If there had been new cars available from stock and
my acceptance levels were at the same as they were last year, I
would have already hit my target for the year and be sipping Piña
Coladas on a Caribbean island, such has been the increase in
enquiries.

Instead I’m getting as frustrated as my clients at
the lack of ability to get them into new cars. My Citroën dealer is
quoting September delivery for most cars. An Audi A3 will take
around 14 weeks, a Honda Civic is five months, and a customer who
wanted four of the new Nissan Pixos city cars has been quoted
January 2010 for delivery.

Mandelson needs to pull his finger out and take
action to save this industry by listening to those that know: the
scrappage scheme is not enough!