Guest Blog

The arrival of the online car retailer has certainly had an impact on the used car market over the past couple of years. Indeed, many traditional dealerships have been inspired to adopt parts of their digital first approach as they scrambled to shift more of their services online during the darkest months of lockdown. Their influence has allowed traditional automotive ...

The fourth quarter used car market looks likely to set the tone for the 2022 as the sector enters the real post-pandemic economy. The next few months would bring a number of economic headwinds – notably the end of furloughing but there would also be potential benefits, including the easing of the semiconductor shortage. For some time, we have all ...

The pre-plate change holiday month of August is typically the quietist month of the year for new car sales, so these low numbers have little significance on the broader health of the new car market. What’s far more significant is the outlook for September, and whether the uptake for the biannual number plate change will be enough to sustain the ...

Bumper has expanded its partnership with CitNOW which will see its Buy-Now-Pay-Later platform embedded in vehicle health check videos sent to aftersales customers across Europe. The service has been launched in the UK, where it is already available at over 700 sites, and will debut shortly in Germany and Spain followed by other European countries. The integration with CitNOW Workshop, ...

The pandemic created a watershed moment for the automotive industry that saw manufacturers and retailers rapidly accelerate their digital plans to offer customers buy online functionality and the enhancement of digital customer journeys. While it may be a natural reaction to pause and take a breath after a period of significant change, there is evidence to suggest the move to ...

The quote “buy land, they’re not making it anymore” is attributed to Mark Twain who died just as the motor industry was getting into its stride in 1910. However, his advice has been followed by car dealers around the world as they have bought property, and then invested in ever-larger premises, built to increasingly higher standards. Even a relatively modest ...

It’s boom time for motorists right now, with the value of their cars continuing to rise alongside the number of used car sales increasing by 6.6% on pre-pandemic levels as revealed by the SMMT. Our data shows that between the first and second quarters of 2021, the average price of used cars shot up by 3.8% and the SMMT reports ...

Recent announcements from carmakers show that the switch to an agency model is gathering pace and will become commonplace in the next to to three years. The momentum of the switch to agency contracts for car dealers seems to be gathering pace, with agreements being reached for some brands and markets, and formally proposed in others. Although there are dissenting ...

The new car sector has been dealt a perfect storm of which the full impact on retail is only now being realised. The semi-conductor shortage coupled with rising commodity prices, has dramatically hampered new car production, and with no clear end in sight, it’s likely we’ll feel the ramifications into early next year. However, it would be easy to misinterpret ...

Julia Muir, founder of the Automotive 30% Club, spells out the practical steps car dealers can take in the year ahead to improve the gender balance in their business Inclusive businesses with a better gender balance are more successful, and that goes for small family-owned companies as well as large corporations. In fact, it could be easier to tap into ...