Motor dealers have seen a fall in their pay over the past year as commissions and incentives were cut. This is not surprising given the pressure on the new car market. Even the used car market has felt the pain in recent months with a fall in values hitting the bottom line.
The pay pain was felt at the top. This month in Motor Trader we check out the BDO Motor Retail Salary Survey 2019, which reveals that the average salary for a managing director fell -14.6% to £211,000 while that of dealer principal declined -12.6% to £97,000. These are significant drops, reflecting the downturn in business.
In the November issue we feature the first of a series of Market Surveys into key issues impacting dealers. Motor Finance comes under scrutiny. We ask 200 dealers what they are doing in motor finance to become more compliant with the new FCA rules. What is clear is that dealers plan to boost their penetration of used car motor finance to increase profitability and also compensate any shortfall in new car finance over the next few years.
It’s all change for Honda outlets in Newbury and Reading as they became part of Marshall Group. In Dealer Insight we ask what it is like to come to terms with a new company culture and different ways of doing things.
Our Network Focus this month is on Citroen, a brand whose dealers sell 87,000 cars and vans a year but often gets a bruising in the NFDA dealer attitude survey. Citroen MD Karl Howkins gives his take on where brand is going.
This month we provide coverage of the inaugural Motor Trader Independent Dealer Awards 2019 where we look at the most successful used car dealers in the business. Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended.
We also take our annual look at the financials of the Top 50 Independent Dealers and supermarkets which are working hard to drive revenues with margins under pressure. The combined turnover of the MT Top 50 has now reached £5.6bn – up 11% on last year’s report – selling an estimated 422,000 used cars, some 5.3% of the 7.95 million unit market in 2018.
But, average pre-tax profits as a percentage of sales across the MT Top 50 were down nearly a percentage point, compared to last year’s report, at 2.3%. The previously rising entry level turnover to achieve MT Top 50 status is down by £1.2m, having risen steeply in the preceding years. This reflects, perhaps, the softening market and a polarisation within the MT Top 50 as the big have got bigger.
Click here to check out the November issue of Motor Trader