Motor Trade News Monthly Round Up August 2016 News

All the motor trade news from the month of August.

Things You Should Know

Research from What Car? has revealed that car buyers are starting to opt for petrol cars over diesel. The What Car? Intelligence survery results indicate that seven out of 10 buyers would be likely or very likely to get a petrol car, compared to 4 in 10 preferring diesel. What Car? Editor, Steve Huntingford said: “There appears to have been a dramatic shift in the petrol and diesel sales seesaw. In the 2000s, legislation changes resulted in a diesel boom but after last year’s revelations and the emergence of extremely efficient downsized petrol engines, the tide has now turned.”

The most profitable car of the month was the 2014 Toyota AYGO according to Auto Trader, but the fastest selling car was the Citroen C4 Picasso, followed by the Seat Altea XL and the Nissan Qashqai+2, indicating family cars are very much sought after at the moment.

According to iVendi, car buyers researching car purchases are increasingly using their mobile devices, with 64% of vistits to iVendi’s Platform consumer areas accessed via a smartphone or a tablet, in July. CEO, James Tew, said: “The move towards mobile has been rapid and dramatic. Our figures show that mobile access first exceeded PCs for visits to dealer web sites in January of 2015. Since then, the trend has shown no sign of abating. It underlines something that we have been saying for some time, that dealers and used car portals need to consider mobile first when designing their web sites. Something that doesn’t work well on a phone won’t be as productive. This could be as simple as not using gimmicky functionality within the web site, the type of thing which may be highly effective on a laptop of desktop PC but next to impossible to use on a smartphone.”

Crime

The former owners of a used Land Rover dealership have been handed jail sentences after illegally claiming an £86,000 VAT repayment. Charles Mogford and Julia Smith were Company Directors of Auto Exporters UK (Berkshire Land Rovers) until July 2014, and a fraudulent invoice date 22 January 2010 was used to make a false VAT repayment claim. On 30th June 2016, Mogford pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of VAT, and Smith was found guilty by a jury for the same offence. Mogford received a two year jail sentence and Smith was handed an 18 month sentence suspended for two years. The Assistant Director for the HMRC’s Fraud Investigation service, Anthony Swarbrick, said: “Mogford and Smith had traded legitimately, but greed led them to commit VAT fraud. Our message is clear. It is simply not acceptable to steal from the tax system and, ultimately, honest UK taxpayers.”

The RAC has said it will take legal action against unauthorised garages using its branding, to protect its approved network. RAC Approved Garages spokesman, Gary Wrightson-Heyworth: “Garages spuriously using the RAC brand will be sought out and appropriate legal action will be taken where necessary to stop any unauthorised and misleading use. This is something that we are very much determined to stop.”

Interesting News

Thames Jeep in Slough was opened last month by non-other than Gonzalo Higuain and Andrea Barzagli of Juventus Football Club, who are sponsored by Jeep. Thames Jeep Managing Director, Sanjay Sobte, said “We have been looking forward to the opening of the Jeep franchise in Slough, and what better way to do that than with two of the best footballers in the world? It was an honour to welcome players from such a famous club as Juventus to our site, and I know our customers appreciated it too.”