find out on page 20 volkswagen backs dealers amid scandal
TRANSCRIPT
VOLUME 6 ISSUE 9 OCTOBER 2015
INSIDEAHG continues expansion 3Aussie write-offs discussed 4Colonial adds French flair 7We focus on finance 29 3 7
GLOBAL VEHICLE LOGISTICS
NZ · JAPAN · AUSTRALIA · UK · EUROPE
“MOTIVATING WITH MONEY”FIND OUT ON PAGE 20
Volkswagen New Zealand says it is supporting and working with its dealer network as the inter-
national emissions cheating scandal rolls on.
General manager Tom Ruddenklau told AutoTalk yesterday that 4639 New Zealand-sold vehicles carry the software allowing the car to cheat American-mandated nitrous oxide emission tests.
Around 1600 Audi vehicles, including A3, A4 and Q5 models are impacted, while affected Skoda vehicles include 535 Superbs, 497 Octavias, 267 Yetis
and 29 Rapids.This doesn’t necessarily mean that
the vehicles fail the European emissions standards that they would have entered the New Zealand market under – this is currently unknown.
How VW New Zealand will fix these vehicles is also unknown - it is still waiting for word from Ger-many. There have been sugges-tions this could just be a software patch, but it may also include
items like fuel system components. The worst-impacted vehicles are
2009-2015 2.0-litre diesel Tiguan models, at 1411 units, followed by
Volkswagen backs dealers amid scandal
The finalists of the New Zealand Car of the Year have been announced.
The NZ CotY is a joint-venture between the Automobile Associa-tion and New Zealand Motoring Writers Guild, with both organisa-tions working together to pick a shortlist of ten vehicles launched in the last year, before motoring jour-nalists vote to choose a winner.
Read about the finalists on page 28.
NZ Car of the Year finalists announced
Continued on page 43
Tom Ruddenklau
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Continued on page 47
The well known Winger group of dealer-ships has spilt in two – in what is said to be an amicable and well-received
move.Grant Vincent, who has been with the
group for 30-years, 20-years of which was as a shareholder in partnership with Wayne Leach, is exiting his stake in the group overall, and taking ownership of three of the com-panies Greenlane-based franchises – Kia, Hyundai and Isuzu.
The deal also includes the nearby vehicle preparation centre and Henderson service centre.
They will run under the Auckland Vehi-cles banner, as Auckland Hyundai, Auckland Isuzu, and at the request of Kia New Zea-land, Auckland City Kia.
Vincent says the move is very amicable.“Well and truly,” Vincent says. “it was actu-
ally touted by Wayne in he first place.”“As the group has grown bigger and big-
ger, we needed the ability to focus more and
more on the brands we deal with on a day to day basis,” he says, noting the brands he has taken on are the ones he was already managing.
“The split was very simple, the things I had been controlling I purchased, and the things that he is controlling, he retained.”
“It was an opportunity for me to do it completely on its own.”
He says he has received strong support from the distributors.
“I was very very humbled by the response from all three brands,” he notes. “They were responsive and willing to back me all the way to the bank.”
Vincent is taking 78 staff with him as part of the deal, and other than working out some currently shared administration, there will be little change.
Originally based in Hamilton, Winger went from one brand to representing more than 10 brands across 12 sites throughout the country.
WINGER SPLIT A POSITIVE MOVE
AHG continues growthT
he New Zealand branch of Australasia’s largest dealer group, Automotive Hold-ings Group, has shown its continuing
intent to grow, making another Auckland acquisition.
The company has acquired West Auckland Nissan from Sime Darby to add to its grow-ing list of dealerships, which include the John Andrew and North Harbour Ford and Mazda operations, and Davie Motors Holden and Manukau Nissan in South Auckland.
The new dealership was a branch of City Nissan, but AHG NZ chief financial of-ficer Paul Bruce says the dealership will be
treated as a full dealership, independent of the Manukau Nissan operation.
The existing staff are being retained, with branch manager Jonathan Martin moving to
4 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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Publicity around Austra-lian-sourced write offs being sold into New
Zealand have sparked alarm throughout mainstream me-dia - but “it isn’t a big deal,” says IMVIA chief exec David Vinsen.
The drama was sparked by a Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal complaint, which saw a customer of Ozcars Ltd unhappy after discover-ing a Holden Crew Cab he’d bought was deemed a statu-tory write-off in Australia.
The Australian Financial Security Authority has a reg-
ister of cars that have been written-off by insurance companies, and Christopher Dear’s Holden was on the list. It was flagged as dam-aged when it came into New Zealand.
Ozcars claimed it had told Dear of cosmetic dam-age that the car had sus-tained and told him about the process that could get the car certified.
“We accept the car was a statutory write-off in Aus-tralia, as are most car being imported from there. Most of our vehicles carry a ‘dam-age’ flag for various reasons
and we have no problem with this or have any rea-son not to disclose this as it is clearly displayed on our CINs and this is our busi-ness model,” Ozcars told the Tribunal.
It found that damaged flag had been removed by NZTA because it wasn’t structurally compromised, but said the customer should have been
fully informed of the vehi-cle’s history.
It also noted that the damage was more than cosmetic and the buyer had been misled, but ruled the car was of acceptable qual-ity, and had “no choice” but do dismiss Dear’s compensa-tion application.
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MATT GREENOP
Continued on page 47
Aussie imports put buyers write off
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New Zealand’s only listed dealer group, Colonial Motor
Group, is continuing to grow its network, despite noting a softening in the overall market.
The company last month announced that for the year to the end of June, revenue was up 12.9% to $789 million, while net profit after tax was up 7.4% to $18.705 million.
In its 97th annual report, released in anticipation of its annual general meeting on October 17, chief execu-tive Graeme Gibbons noted the economic factors that have boosted the company
in recent years have softened - slightly.
“Following four years of ris-ing profitability this year has seen a small reduction on last year’s re-cord result,” Gib-bons says. “The external factors that contributed in 2014 – a grow-ing vehicle market, good exchange rates for imported products and desirable new vehicles - have softened in 2015.”
In his outlook, he notes
sales this year have continued to be strong - although primarily driven by rental sales.
“Overhang-ing the industry is the eventual flow-through into vehicle prices of the materi-ally reduced NZ exchange rate
and the constrained primary sector incomes in some, but not all, export products,” he explains.
“As a business and dealer-ship group we, our Dealer
Principals and their staff remain focused on making the most of every opportu-nity and earning our custom-ers’ loyalty with exceptional service levels,” Gibbons says.
Gibbons says fortunes have been mixed for the brands it represents.
“We have experienced mixed fortunes in our car dealerships,” he says in the report. “In an increasing industry, the sheer numbers of vehicles sold have not reflected through the busi-ness because volumes were achieved for less reward.”
“The Ford brand is reliant
Colonial continues growth as market softens
Continued on page 6
6 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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on a single product, the Ford Ranger, which became the number one selling commercial vehicle in 2014 and continues as the most popular new vehicle in 2015 to date,” he notes. “How-ever, the overall Ford market share has declined.
“Mazda’s improving market share is based on a strong and universally ac-knowledged passenger and SUV range – notably Maz-da2, Mazda3, the ‘like never before’ new Mazda CX3 and CX5.”
The BMW and MINI Jeff
Gray operations in Christch-urch, Wellington, Manawatu and Hawkes Bay have now been with the group across a full financial year - and made a positive contribution to the group.
Gibbons notes there will need to be investment in facilities.
“We have significant facil-ity planning ahead as the premises in all four locations are leased and over time changes will be needed for business delivery and re-quirements of the franchise.”
Gibbons says they have a good truck offering.
Colonial continues growth as market softensContinued from page 7
Aitken departs as director
Long-time Colonial Motor Company director Peter Aitken is retiring by rotation from the
companies board at the annual gen-eral meeting. Aitken, former manag-ing director of Mazda New Zealand, has been a director since 2007.
He is likely to be replaced by Ash-ley Waugh, who has held positions with a number of significant New Zealand and Australian companies, including Fonterra. Early in his career is was marketing manager of Ford New Zealand and Ford Lio Ho in Taiwan.
Peter Aitken
“Southpac Trucks have ex-cellent products in Kenworth and DAF that are eminently suited to NZ’s high utilisation heavy truck market. South-pac Trucks’ continued suc-cess comes with a dedication to supporting the product with unsurpassed service to
customers.”In Southland and Otago
he notes Colonial’s trac-tor business is battling the dramatic reversal in fortunes of the dairy industry and the understandable reluctance of farmers to spend in the short term.
Colonial has been making significant investments in its facilities with more to come:• At Southpac Trucks they are in the final steps of a
complete makeover of the facility at Wiri Station Road, Manukau City.
• At South Auckland Motors in Manukau City they have rebuilt the Mazda showroom, then refurbished and reconfigured the Ford and Mazda service op-erations with a new vehicle washbay.
• Next door, they refitted and opened the new Southern Autos yard - see pages 7-8.
• Opened a new service operation near Auckland Airport, with planning under way for another in the Takanini area.
• In New Plymouth, a refurbishment is underway for the Energy City Ford showroom.
Dealership developments:
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Colonial Motor Company has officially opened its newest dealership, Southern Autos.
The new facility, on Great South Road in Manukau, adds Peugeot, Citro-en, DS, and Isuzu Ute to the long-run-ning Ford and Mazda operation it owns on the neighbouring site.
Colonial acquired the former Honda Cars site in the 1990s, ac-cording to chairman Jim Gibbons. It was leased for many years to a number of tenants, before the dealership group acquired the European and Japanese franchises more than 12 months ago.
The new build and the business expansion have been in planning for four to five years, and represent
a $6.5 million investment.Gibbons told guests at the of-
ficial opening ceremony, that the investment in the Southern Autos site was a major step forward for the company, which has been operating as a dealership group for more than 107 years.
“We’ve got to widen the selec-tion of brands that we represent,” says Gibbons. “We are looking to expand the business for our shareholders, but to expand with incremental business and not cani-balise the business that we already have.”
The Wellington-based Colonial
Motor Company acquired the Jeff Gray BMW and MINI businesses in Palm-erston North, Wellington, and Christch-urch more than 18 months ago, and as well as owning many Ford and Mazda dealerships nationally. It also operates
franchises for Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki and Kawasaki motorcycles, Canam ATV, Kymco ATV, New Holland and Case IH tractors, as well as Kenworth and DAF heavy trucks.
Colonial adds French flavour
Continued on page 8
Southern Autos CEO Matthew Newman, Colonial Motor Group chairman Jim Gibbons, and brand ambassador Judith Collins MP
8 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEWSTALK
Southern Autos dealer principal Andrew Craw says despite the team operating a dealership in a construction site from portable buildings, the company has retailed 112 Isuzu Utes, 49 Peugeot passenger cars and 17 Citroens in its 12 months and 25 days of operation.
He thanked his team for all their efforts and commented to the guests that: “we treat our staff like family.”
Southern Autos chief executive Matthew Newman also acknowledged the team members and thanked the builders, architect, and suppliers who had gathered at the opening for their support.
Newman made a point of personally thanking the repre-sentatives from finance suppliers, UDC and Marac, for their ongoing support of the business.
Isuzu New Zealand general Murray Greenhalgh congratulat-ed the Southern Autos team and said he had noted the positive culture, and commented that the dealership was already well respected for “going the extra mile.”
The new showroom is also the first in New Zealand to offer a DS Salon, which Sime Darby Automobiles divisional manager Simon Rose says emulates the new brand message that he would like to see in other metropolitan dealerships.
“We’re very proud to see the brand expansion into the South Auckland market,” says Rose. “We hope to see the DS Salon concept appear in other metropolitan dealerships, too.”
Continued from page 7
Colonial adds French flavour
Sime Darby Automobiles are the official factory representatives for Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands in New Zealand and are responsible for the importation, distribution and development of these brands in New Zealand.
Due to significant growth in the New Zealand market place, we are looking to expand our operations to Northland and the Waikato regions which have been identified as potential growth regions.
It is envisaged the new dealership will provide new vehicle retail sales operations to showcase the Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands, and will support the brands with appropriate parts and service facilities.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the ongoing development of these brands, and work with the Sime Darby Automobiles Group.
Expressions of interest should be forwarded to: Dave Briscoe Dealer Development Manager M 021 905 784 | DDI (09) 571 4595 | E-mail [email protected]
Expressions of Interest
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If this role sounds like you and you are up for the challenge, apply in confidence via email to Carolina Zalazar; [email protected]
The Company: Volkswagen is the leading European Brand in New Zealand and is part of one of the world’s most ambitious automotive Group. Volkswagen New Zealand is a privately owned distributor with a consistent record of successive growth and development
The Role: The commercial vehicle sector in New Zealand is experiencing unprecedented growth. Volkswagen Commercial vehicles is a separate operating division of Volkswagen New Zealand and needs a dedicated leader to continue the drive and growth of sales. Volkswagen has one of the most complex and flexible range of commercial vehicles in the country, including the Amarok Ute, Caddy, Transporter and Crafter Van range. Success requires a true solution orientated thinker to unleash the full potential of the commercial vehicle offering
The role will encompass:• Full ownership and P&L responsibility for the Commercial vehicle performance• Deep liaison with Volkswagen Commercial vehicles in Hannover Germany on all aspects
of performance and associated support for the New Zealand Market• Active and proficient management of strategic key Corporate accounts• As a key member of the Leadership team, strategic input into the overall growth plans for
Volkswagen in New Zealand • Establishing best practice processes, that are geared for future volume aspirations
The Successful Applicant:You will need the following:• Significant commercial acumen, with a solid understanding of the Automotive industry• A problem solving, can do attitude• Ability to inspire, lead and motivate a nationwide Volkswagen dealer network• A high degree of financial literacy • Significant technical and mechanical competency with the ability to build bespoke vehicle
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The New Zealand industry was well-represented at the annual Austra-lian Automotive Dealer Association
Conference in Melbourne last month.
AutoTalk was there, amongst the thousand-plus car dealers, and found the panel discussions were not only the most interesting sessions, but extreme-
ly relevant to the New Zealand market. Some of the biggest names in the
American and Australian dealer markets gave their take on topics that affect the
industry both locally and globally. The expert panel was made up
of Robert H. Kurnick Jr., president and chief executive of international dealer-group Penske, which has trucking industry investments in New Zealand; Martin Ward, chief executive of AP Eagers; Bronte Howson, chief executive of Au-tomotive Holdings Group (which controls a number of large Auck-land dealerships); Richard Emery, chief executive of Nissan Australia, and has oversight of Nissan here; and Peter Welch, president of the US’ National Automotive Dealers Association.
For the first part of our coverage of the AADA conference panel dis-cussion, see the September issue of AutoTalk magazine.
Fixed price servicing has been introduced to improve cus-tomer relationship management, genuine vs non genuine parts, and competition against the inde-pendents. Is fixed price servicing the answer?
Bronte Howson: I am a big fan of fixed pricing. It is a great way for retention, as we have seen through our growth with manufacturers, and with successful programs from Toyota and many other manufacturers. It does give you the ability to fight back against the non-genuine providers. We are in an industry that has given away a big part of the industry to outside third-party people and I think this is a good way for OEM’s and deal-ers to fight back.
For example, in New Zealand we have two Mazda dealerships in Auckland, and they have free ser-vicing for the first three years. They have just introduced this year 3-5
Australian dealer conference discussion – part 2
Continued on page 11
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 11
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Positions sought include:• Sales Consultants• Sales Managers• Business Managers• Service Advisors• Workshop Controllers• Technicians• Apprentice Technicians• Warranty Clerks• Parts Advisors• Reception / Admin• Call Centre Staff
The environment breeds and rewards high achievers as the group is known for establishing benchmark performance in process and customer experience.
These are very exciting times for Armstrong Motor Group as it sees further expansion into the Auckland market. CEO and owner Rick Armstrong has just confirmed a third branch of the successful Auckland City Toyota dealership will be joining his stable and that the group will be taking over retail operations for the Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands in Auckland’s premier automotive retail strip, Greenlane.
The group is amidst an unprecedented growth phase and a substantial recruitment drive is now underway. We are extremely interested in speaking with skilled workshop staff but over 50 new roles will be created within one of the most highly-regarded Automotive retail networks in New Zealand, with candidates for everything from junior positions to senior, business critical roles being sought across Toyota, Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands.
All employment enquiries are welcomed and resumes outlining your skill set can be sent directly to the General Manager: [email protected]
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year service for $199 and that is directly competing against Ultratune and other third party providers
We are all experts in upselling, that is the name of the game. We do a $99 servicing at AHG in Western Australia to get back delinquent accounts (cus-tomers who have not come back for a scheduled service), and we are con-verting about 17 delinquent accounts per day, and that’s just the beginning of getting the customer back into the dealership and making them feel com-fortable.
Richard Emery: There are a number of franchises in New Zealand that offer the free servicing package as a tool. But I think we need to be careful about the term ‘fixed price servicing’. Consumer reaction is key, especially when they drop off their car in the morning thinking they will spend $185, and then come back in the afternoon and find the bill is $350.
For me it’s about making sure we have the ability to deliver an expectation of value, whatever the price may be. The term ‘fixed’ has been a little overused, it’s
about us making sure the customer has no surprises and knows what they are in for and that they can perceive that value.
How important is it for OEM’s that the customer does return for servicing?
Richard Emery: It is critical in order to maintain relationships with those customers throughout the ownership experience. It is somewhat ‘you’re 80% of the way; for their next purchasing decision, and indeed convincing their friends and relatives that your dealership is one that they can build a relationship with, not just in purchasing a vehicle, but also in the maintenance of that vehicle.
In Australia, roughly 1.1 million new
cars are sold every year, spread across 66 brands, across 2300 dealerships. So are there too many dealers in the Australian market or are there too many brands?
Bronte Howson: At the moment we probably do have too many dealers when you look at certain franchises, I can only speak on AHG’s experience in the Perth metro area and I think we have 9 or 10 Holden dealerships to which you can get to in 60 minutes, so there is a lot of expense.
When you look at $17 billion worth of facilities around Australia to sell 1.1 million new cars, and somewhere in the vicinity of 600,000 to 700,000 used cars, you have to say that we are certainly over dealer-ised.
Ford has declared they are reducing the number of dealerships, Mitsubishi is considering doing the same, where does Nissan stand?
Richard Emery: There is an argument that we are over-capitalised in Australia, in terms of the retail network, but hav-ing said that, we have expensive assets, built on prime real estate. There are 168
Continued from page 10
Continued on page 12
12 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEWSTALK
hours in a week, and we probably only use that asset for 60-70 hours, so there is no doubt we aren’t using the capital we have in place to its best extent.
What is a concern is the duplication in capital across those 190 dealerships, in our case. There is no doubt that in the next 10-15 years we are going to have to come to terms with the business being over capitalised, or using the existing capital that we have, the bricks and mortar, for more hours per week.
Peter Welch: I’m not an expert on Australia, but the ratio of car dealers in Australia is much higher than in the US. In the US the rates we use are 31,000 franchises and 17,000 dealerships for all those franchises.
But the number I really look at is the number of dealer principals. At last count the number of DP’s was 1816, we grew by 420 or so dealerships last year but we lost an additional 200 DP’s so that ratio is much lower than it is here with fewer brands, but a population of 320 million Americans and selling roughly over 17 million new cars this year, and 15 to 16 million used.
Robert Kurnick Jr: Some of the most successful brands in the US are brands that have fewer dealers today than what they had in 2001, like BMW and Porsche. I remember when this was a big debate in 2008-09 in the US, one politician said to me: “The more rooftops you have the more cars you sell.” Well that doesn’t make sense to me - the average Chevrolet store in the US sells 600-650 cars per year and the average Toyota store will sell north of 1200 and they have much fewer stores.
How do you manage the expectation of who does what between OEM and dealer franchise in investments?
Martin Ward: At the end of the day we will make all the appropriate investments in any brand, if we can see a com-mercial return in the future based on the business model that’s presented to us. The one thing I feel that is changing, is I do believe that dealers now are not irrationally spending money on a franchise if they can’t see the return.
How do you strike the balance between profitability and investment?
Martin Ward: There are no profitability guarantees in this business, so it comes down to the right partnership and trust. I would also argue that we need to put a greater investment into training people, and our investment in where the customer is finding themselves, as opposed to putting up more bricks and mortar.
Whether you are an independent, private, public or big or small dealer franchise, if manufacturers don’t think they can make a return on investment from your business then they won’t invest.
If at the end of the day the OEMs can afford to have only 70% of its network at the level of investment that it would like, then that’s what is going to happen over the next decade, be-cause something has to give in those OEM brands and dealer models, where they are not making an economic return.
Continued from page 11
Australian dealer conference discussion – part 2
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September 1AA releases safety ratingsThe Automobile Association has released its 2015 Used Car Safety Ratings guide, which includes 220 models, and is based on real-world crash data from here and across the Tasman.
This year the guide shows that 44% of used vehicles as-sessed received an excellent or good rating for occupant protection in a crash.
September 2AIMVIA to meet with Japanese exportersThe Australian cousin of the Imported Motor Vehicle Indus-try Association is to meet with the Japanese industry next month.
In its latest update, the Australian Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association says it has scheduled to meet with the Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association in October.
It has extended an invitation for members to also attend.
September 4New Vitara guns for CX3 audienceSuzuki New Zealand has the Mazda CX3 firmly in its gun-
sights as the main competitor for the new Vitara, in a market that is moving to small SUV in droves.
The company says it ex-pects the Vitara will become its second biggest selling vehicle behind the Swift in the next twelve months.
It is targeting sales in excess of 1500 units and says it has no issue with supply from the Hungarian factory where the Vitara is produced.
High altitude promo for AudiAudi New Zealand capped off its involvement with the Audi Quattro Winter Games in Queenstown, by creating a mountaintop restaurant – with food delivered by their cars.
The ‘Quattro Bistro’ was held at the top of the Pisa Ranga in the Southern Alps.
Open for one day only during winter games, and set on an ice track, 20 lucky New Zealanders won a seat at the bistro through an Audi test drive competition, hosted by celebrity chef, Simon Gault and experiencing his specially designed menu for the event.
September 7Kia calls foul on ACC levyKia Motors New Zealand today has become the first dis-tributor to publicly criticise the troubled Accident Compensa-tion Commission levy system – and is to provide rebates to
affected owners.Kia will be offering a rebate
to Kia 2010 and 2011 Sportage owners for the difference in ACC levy costs between Band 1 (lowest risk rating) and Band 4 (highest risk rating). This equates to $90.00 (GST inclu-sive) for each customer.
Fuel quality under reviewA review has been launched into what is in the fuel power-ing New Zealand’s vehicles – with the aim of improving emissions.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise re-leased a discussion document proposing a range of changes to the Engine Fuels Specifica-tions Regulations 2011.
September 9New adjudicator for disputes tribunalA new adjudicator was ap-pointed to the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal
Justice minister Amy Adams and minister of com-merce and consumer affairs Paul Goldsmith announced Wellington barrister Jason McHerron to the role for a five-year term.
“Mr McHerron is a highly respected barrister who brings a wealth of experience to this role,” said Adams. “His skills and knowledge will see him make a good contribution to the Tribunal.”
September 10Five-stars flow for ANCAPTwo of Mazda’s new small models came out of their Australasian New Car Assess-ment Programme testing with top marks.
Both the Mazda 2 and CX-3 received five-stars in the lat-est round of testing.
Also landing five-stars were Nissan’s Navara dual cab, king cab and single cab utes, Holden Astra GTC, CTC Sport and VXR and also Jeep’s Grand Cherokee.
Toyota recalls importsToyota New Zealand issued a recall for 420 vehicles – only sold here as used imports.
The recall is for Voltz and Pronard models which were originally manufactured between December 2001 and May 2004.
These cars were originally the subject of a recall in 2013 for possible inadvertent de-ployment of airbags.
Third of parents influenced by children on car buying choicesIn the United Kingdom, 78% of parents claim that their children pressured them into buying a new car and that for 37%, the kids then went on to have a say in what type they ended up purchasing.
This came from a sur-vey conducted for UK Auto Trader, in August, pooling the views of 1000 parents and children aged between five and 11.
September 11ANCAP chief steps downThe Australian New Car As-sessment Program (ANCAP) chief executive officer (CEO), Nick Clarke, will step down at the end of September to pursue other interests.
Clarke has been with the organisation for 10 years, holding a number of roles, culminating in the role of CEO. In this time he built the well-known program to have a strong consumer recog-nition and support across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
Car volume up 35,000 units at Ports of AucklandPorts of Auckland said the volume of cars across the wharves increased 17.4% to 243,801 units from 207,591 in the previous financial year.
But it warned that there Continued on page 14
14 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
DIARYTALK
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will be slower growth in fu-ture car volumes.
“Multi-Cargo volumes have held up well, with car volumes increasing 17.4% to a record 243,801 units. Total break bulk tonnage (including cars) was up 4.4% on the year before,” said Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson.
September 14Peer-to-peer lending cracks 100 million markPeer-to-peer lender Harmony – which counts TradeMe and Marac-parent Heartland as key investors – announced that its lending had met the $100 mil-lion dollar mark.
Chairman Rob Campbell said the company has been set-ting no records in its first year.
September 15Hyundai gunning for private buyer with TucsonHyundai New Zealand (HNZ) reckons the re-introduction of the Tuscon nameplate to the New Zealand market will further strengthen the brand’s position as the leader in the mid-size SUV market for pri-vate buyers.
HNZ general manager Andy Sinclair says the company has achieved the same amount of sales year to date, as for the same period in 2014, but with 40% fewer sales going to the daily rental fleets.
Turners seeks stake in MTFTurners, formerly finance and insurance firm Dorchester, an-nounced plans to try and take
a 20% stake in Motor Trade Finance.
The company said the offer is not a takeover – a distinction they will need to reinforce, with the MTF board strongly resisting a rumoured takeover plan by Marac-parent Heartland.
They need the approval of MTF’s board and shareholders – many of whom are dealers – to cross a current 10% limit on any one shareholder.
September 16Peugeot rationalises with new 208When the number of models you have is not far behind the number of units you are mov-ing, it may be time to rational-ise your range.
That is what Peugeot’s New Zealand distributor Sime Darby has done with the latest update of its 208, cut from nine to just two models, a simpler range made possible by the arrival of what Kiwi buyers really want in a car – a good automatic transmission.
Divisional manager Simon Rose says Sime Darby will be looking to do the same with other models in their range, and leveraging off their Aus-tralian distributorship to allow indent on less-popular models.
BMW continues racing dealBMW New Zealand has reaf-firmed its support of horse racing at the Auckland Racing Club.
The new deal will see BMW become naming rights holder for the Group 1 New Zealand Derby – to now be known as the Group 1 BMW New Zea-land Derby.
September 17Air NZ to shift to electric fleetAir New Zealand launched a new Sustainability Framework, including plans for – where possible – an electric road fleet.
Chief executive officer Christopher Luxon unveiled the framework along with sev-eral sustainability initiatives at an event for business leaders in Auckland.
Tesla co-founder heads to TEDx ChristchurchTesla Motors co-founder Ian Wright will come to Christch-urch specifically to deliver an address at TEDx Christchurch 2015: Think Again.
The Northland native co-founded Tesla Motors, which now has a market capitalisa-tion of more than US$30 bil-lion and is famous worldwide for its high-end electric cars.
After leaving Tesla in 2005, he started Wrightspeed, aimed at revolutionising transport by providing electric drive trains for industrial fleets.
September 18PSA brands to stay in Greenlane as Armstrong takes on franchisesThe future of Peugeot and Citroen in central Auckland has been assured, with Armstrong Motor Group announcing they will keep the current Green-lane location open.
The brands were expected to go, following Armstrong securing the land under the currently Continental Car Services run dealerships on Great South Road for a new Auckland City Toyota branch.
Armstrong chief executive, Rick Armstrong confirmed he will take over the brands, and they will share the site with Toyota.
Dealer offered middle east rally opportunityDunedin rally driver – and Suzuki dealer – Emma Gilmour has been offered a place at a desert racing training camp in Qatar.
In November, she will be exchanging New Zealand’s gravel roads for Qatar’s sandy dunes after being chosen out of 85 applicants from 39 countries, to participate in the joint FIA Women in Motorsport and Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation (QMMF) cross country rally project.
Turners to look for further acquisitionsTurners Limited is going to con-tinue to seek acquisitions, and may seek more capital do so.
The company held its annual general meeting in Auckland and reported strong results.
At the AGM, chairman Grant Baker said the company is in a good position for future growth.
September 21VW admits clean diesel cheatVW customers around the world reacted swiftly to the German giant’s admission of cheating on US air pollution tests.
TradeMe creator and Volk-swagen driver Sam Morgan took to Twitter to voice his distaste for the emissions cheat.
“My last two cars have been Volkswagen. And now I don’t trust them. Brand destruction,” Morgan tweeted this morning.
Court told of Fiat Chrysler ‘kickbacks.’Former Fiat Chrysler Australia boss Clyde Campbell’s wife Simone allegedly received se-cret “kickbacks” from company deals.
The alleged payments – totalling over AU$620,000 – stem from contracts and deals
Continued from page 13
Continued on page 15
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 15
DIARYTALK
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signed by Clyde Campbell and Veronica Johns, his successor as managing director at Fiat Chrysler Australia.
A Federal Court hearing heard that Simone Campbell had been paid the money as kickbacks from contracts with suppliers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
September 22BMW digs deep into WaikatoHamilton’s Coombes Johnston BMW is making big moves in the Waikato European market.
The dealership is moving a few hundred metres down Te Rapa Road – not the biggest distance, but a huge change for the company after 25 years in the current location.
As construction kicked off, dealer principal Richard Johnston said the move to a brand-spanking, purpose-built premises will lift the compa-ny’s performance to “exciting new levels.”
Transport boss wins ITS awardThe chief executive of the Ministry of Transport, Martin Matthews, won an recognition for his championing of intel-ligent transport.
Matthews was recognised with the World Congress on ITS Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award for his leadership in the transport technology sector.
September 24VW boss steps down over emissions cheatThe chief executive officer of Volkswagen stepped down
over the emission scandal that rocked the automotive giant.
In a statement, Martin Win-terkorn said, “I am clearing the way for a fresh start with my resignation.”
VW’s board is set to name a successor, with Porsche chief executive Matthias Mueller held out as the most likely by German media.
Jim Bolger says government should be driving electricFormer prime minister Jim Bolger said the government should be leading the way on electric vehicles, and have them on its fleets.
Bolger, who lead the national party through the 1990s, told Radio New Zea-land the government needs to be doing more.
“We have very clean elec-tricity, we import a few billion dollars worth of oil which is not clean,” Bolger said. “I think the government could give a lead in this space.”
Motor industry slammed in Commerce Commission reportThe car industry did not fare well in a report released by the Commerce Commission.
The Consumer Issues 2015 report featured motor vehicle credit, sales and the vehicles themselves featuring heavily in areas that generated large numbers of complaints and investigations.
The motor vehicle retail industry was the third-biggest generator of Fair Trading Act complaints last year.
September 2540,000+ emissions-dodging VWs in Australia: reportVolkswagen and Audi vehicles caught up in the global emis-sions evasion scandal could number more than 40,000 in Australia.
Fairfax Media is reported that it obtained confidential industry figures that show 42,918 Aus-tralian vehicles have the 2-litre turbo diesel engine that’s at the centre of the scandal.
Fairfax said the number in-cludes 21,208 VW Golfs, 13,910 Passats, 4712 Jettas, 1934 Pas-sat CCs and 1250 Audi A3s.
Government would ‘mitigate impact’ on vehicle owners – NZTAThe New Zealand Trans-port Agency says it is closely monitoring the VW emis-sions scandal situation – and says the government could assist affected buyers in New Zealand.
Leigh Mitchell, acting group manager, access and use, said that until it is clear if the issue involves any New Zealand supplied vehicles, it is a case of monitoring the situation.
MIA may back testing to reassure consumersAll new vehicle arrivals could be subject to an emissions test – as a way of returning confi-dence to buyers in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal.
The Motor Industry Asso-ciation – traditionally against in-service emissions testing – told AutoTalk it is now willing to discuss the possibility.
ANCAP appoints chief execANCAP named James Good-win as its new chief executive officer.
The appointment of the former Australian Automo-bile Association government relations and communications director was made by the ANCAP board.
Goodwin also worked for the Federal Chamber of Au-tomotive Industries (FCAI) fol-lowing a career in journalism.
September 28First plug-in hybrid EV for all of government catalogueMitsubishi says its Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid is the first and only one of its type listed in the Government’s catalogue of vehicles approved for its agencies’ consideration.
The five-year ‘All-of-Gov-ernment’ vehicle purchasing contract was designed to assist more than 250 govern-ment agencies make effective purchases.
September 29Increased motor vehicle cargo boosts port profitLyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) says volumes of general cargo such as motor vehicles and dry bulk freight exceeded expectations and helped its $20.5 million profit for the financial year to June 31, 2015.
The previous year’s profit was $343 million, but this fig-ure included a large insurance payout relating to the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earth-quakes.
Continued from page 14
16 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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INDUSTRYTALK
EmissionsWe all know the story by
now, but do we really? We know one manufacturer decided to use cheat soft-ware to alter emissions under testing but after that there is a scarcity of detailed facts. In the absence of facts the media has run a riot in its coverage of the story.
The plot line is a gift from heaven for media – big bad corporates behaving badly and they are having a field day posing a lot of questions, mostly implying the answers they want as opposed to us-ing investigative journalism techniques to appropriately critique the issues. These issues need to be properly investigated and reported on. Made up stories are a waste of everyone’s time.
Let’s be clear though, not one single distributor in New Zealand would ever condone such a course of action and we are all surprised and dis-appointed beyond measure with the actions of the manu-facturer. That is particularly the case for its New Zealand distributor.
However, calls for in-service emissions testing by some as a way to catch cheats and bring some integ-rity to regulatory processes is, I believe, premature. I note that in-service emis-sions testing did not expose the cheat software. The Type Approval Process used
to homologate vehicles for compliance to required standards might benefit from a review to see how we can bring some more rigour to validation of test versus real life performance.
My view is in-service emissions testing will not improve the validation process, is expensive and is problematic for most of the current old and ever ageing New Zealand fleet.
Problematic in that you can only test a vehicle to a standard that the vehicle is built to, so if you have a lot of vehicles built to Euro 1, 2 and 3 in your fleet, and we do, then all you are doing is charging someone for the pleasure of testing their vehi-cle to tell them it is a polluter. And no, you cannot retrofit a vehicle to perform to a higher emission performance stand-ard no matter how much purveyors of aftermarket products erroneously claim you can!
The Motor Industry As-sociation remains opposed to the introduction of in-service emissions testing at this point in time. Does that mean we would not discuss the matter if approached by officials to do so – no it doesn’t. The MIA is always open to discus-sion.
Fuel ConsumptionErroneously confused with
the VW emissions saga, which
relates to emissions of harm-ful substances, are emissions of CO2 or fuel consumption. The two are not related and should not be discussed in the same sentence.
The MIA, along with the MTA and the IMVIA, has pre-viously noted there are some issues with fuel consumption figures. Distributors of new and used imports are re-quired to use fuel consump-tion figures derived from an internationally agreed testing protocol which is enshrined in NZ law via the Fuel Con-sumption Information 2008 Rule.
The issue is that the test-ing protocols were devel-oped many years ago and have not been updated to match current engine tech-nologies.
It’s always been the case that fuel consumption figures derived from the protocol test may or may not reflect real world driving. However, there is some evidence to suggest there is a growing gap between test figures and real world driving with some analysis suggesting on aver-age this has grown to about 38%.
The MIA’s position is clear. government’s internationally need to revise the current testing protocols sooner rather than later and then our Government needs to give effect to it under the Fuel Consumption Information
Rule. Until they do, industry is potentially faced with a double jeopardy situation. We are damned if we put the figures on the fuel consump-tion label and then consum-ers complain, and we’re damned if we don’t.
Driving on New Zealand Roads
Now for something much lighter. Along with my wife, we recently enjoyed four weeks travelling in Europe, visiting four countries. One of those countries was Turkey and we loved the culture, the people and the scenery. While there I hired a car for several days and immediately upon doing so was forced to reappraise my view of New Zealand’s driving habits.
Put simply driving in Turkey in not for the faint hearted. Lane markings appeared to be mere vestiges of advisory suggestions and it was dif-ficult to tell what the actual speed limits were if going on the speed of other drivers, speed signs were sparsely sprinkled along the network. I’m not bagging their driving, far from it. It was an experi-ence I enjoyed, learning to do as ‘Romans do when in Rome’.
However, I’m now mindful to criticise less the driving habits of New Zealanders. As I found out, it’s actually not that bad when viewed in a global context.
Testing call ‘premature’
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 17
INDUSTRYTALK
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In 1975, John Clarke wrote the satirical song “We don’t know how lucky
we are,” and performed it as his character Fred Dagg. The song even featured on the hit parade of the day. As Clarke later described it, he was poking the piss at the “blokishness” of Kiwis at the time, who did not appreci-ate the benefits of living in New Zealand. And this was 10 years before the structural economic reforms imple-mented by the fourth Labour government of David Lange and Roger Douglas.
Fred Dagg’s song could equally apply now. When-ever I travel, I always have a heightened sense of ap-preciation of New Zealand on my return home…in fact, that feeling starts as soon as I board an Air NZ flight for the homeward journey. In this case, though, my comments about not knowing how lucky we are come after a recent visit to Sydney, where I was a panellist at a two-day forum on Australia’s com-petition policy. I had been invited so that I could give a New Zealand perspective, particularly with regard to the motor industry.
The people attending the forum were a mix of legisla-tors, academics, and lawyers.
The presentations were mainly academic discussions of previous reports on Aus-
tralia’s economy and com-petition law…in other words, yet more talk about neces-sary reforms that had been identified over the years, but no government had had the nerve to implement. These rather dry presentations were interspersed with examples from business, but mainly at a corporate level. I resolved to try to give a dose of reality by using specific case studies of real world issues.
In my first session, my fellow panellists were rep-resenting the new vehicle industry, and we heard the same tired old arguments that we heard in New Zea-land almost 30 years ago: “The public doesn’t want or need more choice, the im-ports are inferior, we won’t be able to service them or supply parts for them,” etc. In other words, we don’t want competition. It was like déjà vu, all over again.
The audience seemed to appreciate the irony of their position, and my comments about competition were well received. I was pretty blunt, and talked about their import restrictions and manufactur-ing subsidies being “structur-al corruption at the highest level…political”.
I genuinely believe that it is tantamount to straight-out bribery when governments subsidise or protect inef-ficient and uncompetitive
businesses. The argument goes like this: the govern-ment uses taxpayer’s money to provide incentives to selected businesses, who will then employ people, with the expectation that workers are voters…and the politi-cal party in power that has provided the protection or subsidies wants the votes. By any definition, bribery and corruption.
My comments were delib-erately strong and provoca-tive, but well-received, and I was particularly encouraged when the chairman of the Australian Productivity Com-mission, who had spoken before me, endorsed my comments, and later asked for contact details.
There is a definite sense of frustration among politi-cal observers and analysts about the obvious need for structural economic reform, and the lack of political will to implement it. Successive Australian governments of all political stripes have to take the blame. Maybe, they now have to take action. In my opinion, they don’t have much choice.
The massive revenues from the long-running boom in hard commodities (iron ore and coal, in particular) have given the Aussies a false sense of security, much as the boom in the “white gold” of dairy exports has done for
New Zealand.Australia is often called
‘The Lucky Country’, but the full description from the 1964 Donald Horne book was originally meant to be negative: “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck.”
But unlike New Zea-land, where we’ve already gone through the pain of fundamental restructur-ing to ensure a competitive economy, the Aussies have relied on the commodities boom to mask the fact that they have a grossly inefficient and uncompetitive econo-my; their state and federal governments are running deficits, and their businesses cannot compete in the new global markets. Warren Buf-fet observed that “when the tide goes out, everyone can see who’s swimming naked” - and that’s the situation with Australia: the tide has gone out, and they’ve been found to have left their bathers on the beach.
An obvious example is their import protection policies, where multinational motor companies continue to be protected against par-allel imports. These vehicle manufacturers have all an-nounced that they intend to cease their manufacturing operation in Australia, despite
We don’t know how lucky we are
Continued on page 26
18 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
MARKETINGTALK
Matt Darby works for AutoPlay which specialises in ‘lead management tools’. To find out more contact: [email protected] or call 09 361 1505.
At AutoPlay we live in the pre-sale lead man-agement space and
are continually discussing approaches and processes and the behaviours that result from them.
One thing that often gets lost in the discussion is the distinction between lead management and lead reporting.
For many who have yet to truly embrace a lead man-agement philosophy, lead reporting and management are one in the same. For these dealerships, a big part of the driver is to respond to pressure from manufacturers to do better with the leads provided to them. The same applies within a dealership, as many sales managers toler-ate lead management as it’s what the DP wants, without truly seeing the benefit.
For these dealerships and/or sales managers, the focus of lead management be-comes lead reporting. Their goal is to be able to com-municate the best lead stats possible – a great driver for the sales team to continu-ally be improving against key KPI’s.
However, what some-times gets lost is that report-ing is not the end goal. It may sound obvious, but the underlying reason for adopt-ing a lead management phi-losophy or tool, is to improve
sales – either by increasing closing rates through better communication, or freeing up time to handle more leads by becoming more efficient.
Lead reporting is tracking behaviour and activity in order to measure performance, and using that infor-mation to make better decisions. Useful, but lead management is the process of actually working leads to im-prove performance. So how does it actually work?
As with most sales activity, it starts with marketing. This could be listing cars online, signage at the dealership, or radio ads. Marketing activity results in leads, and Auto-Play’s captured data indicates approximately 40% of these leads will be converted to a test drive.
Of those that test drive, roughly 50% end up as a sale (approximately 20% conver-sion of all leads). These con-version figures are improved by better follow-up and better communication – this is lead management.
What happens next in alot of dealerships is that most
of these leads are closed as lost. This is a big issue as it represents 80% of all the leads received by the dealership. Dealerships need
to ensure that they let the process decide when leads are closed as lost – not the salesperson.
A good way to achieve this is to send a follow up eDM - at AutoPlay we send our retail-focussed ‘live leads’ email. This type of email gives dealerships a second bite of the cherry. They are able to “test the wa-ters” to see whether potential customers are still active in the market.
There are potentially three results from sending a follow up communication. Firstly, the recipient might opt-out of future communication. This group represents the true lost leads for the dealer-
ship and there is little point wasting further resources following them up.
More common is that the customer does nothing with the email – they read the preview in their inbox and then delete it. These customers have not given either a positive or negative indication of interest, so are
worth re-targeting at a fu-ture date (in moderation).
The final group of po-tential customers is those that open and view email communication. Depend-ing on your database size, this could be hundreds or just a handful. Given a lot of people may open an email
out of curiosity, it’s better to focus on the top 25% of recipients who opened and viewed. Take these 25% and divvy them out to the sales team to make a few calls or personalised emails. These prospect customers then become leads and the lead management process starts all over again – minus any additional marketing costs.
Lead management is more than just tracking and reporting on leads. In its simplest form it’s the process of following up leads until you have squeezed out every possible test drive or sale. Done right, it will help you sell more cars – with little or no additional expense.
Lead management vs lead reporting
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 19
MARKETINGTALK
Peter [email protected] or 021-940 318
No doubt many of you have watched with more than a passing interest the seeming
endless roll out of new mobile product by technology industry giants like Apple and Samsung.
As a consequence of this mobile revolution, consumers have embarked on their own digital device migration from desktops, to laptops, then to notebooks and tablets and finally to sophisticated smart digital phones.
Early smartphones were seen as supplementary devices to traditional hardware internet access. Today, they are so technologically-advanced they are capable of achieving tasks akin to any competent laptop, the key differ-ence is they are smaller, fit comfort-ably in the hand and importantly they are very mobile.
Nothing earth-shattering in the above smartphone technology advanc-es, other than to reflect on the pace of change for both the products and the exponential consumer acquisition of the devices – and their boundless application. My fifteen years spent as an observer of retail automotive digital marketing has demonstrated without doubt that the only constant within this field is continuous change.
In that time there has been a fascinating migration of consumer knowledge and application of mobile technology within the respective ranks of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennial or Gen Y and the latest group of Gen Z representing the early/mid teenage age grouping. When one looks at each of these groups and their respective adoption of advanced mobile tech-nology, a key question for any dealer becomes: ‘How can I capture their
attention (with Gen Z probably the ex-ception) in order to sell more vehicles’?
In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, I wish to revisit the July article this year, where I shared findings from a white paper enti-tled: ‘How Mobile is Changing Digital Advertising’ - from by Naked Lime. In April this year, Google significantly changed its mobile search algorithm. The potentially wide-sweeping effects of that change earned it the nickname ‘mobilegeddon’.
Now, when consumers perform a Google search on mobile devices, they see websites that meet Google’s criteria for being ‘mobile-friendly’ before they see websites that aren’t.
According to Google, the algorithm change reflects changes in how consumers use their mobile devices for online activities:• Today, 8 out of 10 adults own a
smartphone, and 3 out of 4 smart-phone owners use mobile devices to access the internet.
• Nearly 80% of smartphone owners use their devices to shop and 82% of mobile shoppers rely on search results to help determine whom they will shop from.
• By 2018, mobile shopping is es-timated is estimated to generate more than $US600 billion - rough-ly the total size of the e-commerce market in 2013.
The paper outlined how these
changes in Google’s mobile algorithm, when coupled with the changing shop-ping habits of car buyers, could lead to dealerships losing a significant piece of the e-commerce pie, if they do not make mobile-optimised marketing ef-forts a priority.
Today, a dealership cannot rely on updating its digital presence to a mo-bile-friendly website that uses respon-sive design to shrink the dealer’s main site, to work on mobile devices. Impor-tantly if the search advertising is only optimised for desktops and laptops, it is of little use on a mobile device.
Those dealerships that have taken the effort to optimise the search ca-pabilities for mobile, can then provide consumers with what they are look-ing for- namely the dealership map, clickable contact phone numbers, as well as simple inventory listings. Ad-ditionally, a dealership may decide to develop specific call to action options such as:• Call-only campaigns, to enable
consumers who see the advertise-ment to call the dealership directly from their smartphone
• Text advertisements that allow the dealership to display a phone number and other relevant dealer-ship contact information within the advertisement, to enable the consumer to tap on their touch screens.
• The dealership must, of course, ensure staff are equipped to handle those calls, and turn potential cus-tomers into service appointments and test-drives.
Change can be scary, however, it is capable of providing a scintillating journey of discovery.
Mobile driving sales revolution
20 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
F&ITALK
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Employee motivation comes in many forms, and depending on the
calibre of the staff member concerned, it all comes down to what spins their wheels.
Sometimes, it is the little recognitions that mean a lot to people. However, when it comes to key personnel such as business managers, almost without exception they are motivated by the dollar. And as business owners and dealer principals, I am staggered by
the number of you that fail to recog-nise the influence these people have on your bottom line (both positive and negative).
Over the years, our business has seen a massive amount of talent drift off into other industries. We are no longer the glamour industry we once were, and with the expectation from the public that we open all hours, try-ing to find a work/life balance in our industry is difficult.
Combine that with the fact that the average salesperson/business manager will struggle to break $100k per year, it’s no wonder we are in the talent predica-ment we are currently in.
I get the fact that margins aren’t what they used to be, and many businesses operate with huge overheads. Howev-er, when you have recognised potential and talent, or you have switched-on business managers who have the ability to consistently influence the outcome of a sale in a positive way, these people should be applauded for their value to the business, when too many seem to be stymied by ever-changing remu-neration structures.
The quickest way to de-motivate a high achiever is to constantly move the goal posts, or tinker with their commissions on a regular basis.
Here is something for you as employers to ponder: most employees in this industry work off relatively low base salaries. These salaries are predominantly designed to pay the day-to-day living expenses. The cream comes in the form of commission which is paid on the sale of products.
A good business manager will work with the client to not only supply finance from agreed sourc-es - on which the business gets a com-mission - but also add to the finance contracts those insurance products that protect the client against unforeseen occurrences, all of which have attracted an earn for the business.
How good your business manager is will influence how much commission he or she will earn for the business. Given that you are only paying once an income has been earned, why do many then want to continually move the goal posts to avoid having to sup-posedly pay them too much? Who says what is ‘too much’ when you’re paying only on results?
If we as an industry want to attract the right talent back to our industry – and we really need to be doing this – then it is clear we need to pay the money.
Many of you concentrate too much on what is being paid to these people and not on what has been generated. Take a minute to view the bigger picture here. A good business manager has just as big a view on the business as the dealer principal. They have the ability to influence vehicle sales, F&I sales, parts sales, workshop sales and ultimately - in conjunction with a good CRM system - have the ability to influence customer retention. What is this worth to your business?
Franchise July August September
Finance 42% 36% 40%
MBI 40% 34% 39%
PPI 10% 7% 10%
GAP 21% 16% 20%
MVI 13% 11% 13%
Used/ Import July August September
MBI 40% 38% 40%
PPI 48% 42% 47%
GAP 15% 15% 14%
MVI 28% 12% 27%
11% 11% 18%
Profit per unit sold
July August September
Franchise $999.00 $903.00 $991.00
Used/Import $1,016.00 $986.00 $1,021.00
By Tony NeemsNational salesmanager of Autosure
Motivating with money
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22 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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Over the last 25 years I’ve had the absolute pleasure of training and working alongside some of
the best business managers in the coun-try, together with a mix of new entrants to the industry, and others just wanting extra training and support.
It’s something I do because I love it, I have a passion for it and it gives me a sense of purpose, working in part-nership, helping dealerships build more competence and profitability in this valuable area of your business.
Since founding Provident Insurance we’ve been running our two-day F&I seminars every two months in Auckland, Christchurch and as far afield as Inver-cargill, together with various in-house workshops held in dealerships on a regular basis.
But to be the best you’ve got to do more than just attend a couple of courses because the F&I industry is changing, the way people are thinking about finance is changing, the mar-ket is becoming more regulated, your customers are better informed, and competition is more aggressive.
And it’s no wonder, automotive F&I can be a great profit centre for a dealership, so I’m a strong advocate of continually practicing the basics with training, support, and disciplined systems
to measure and monitor performance.It’s like the All Blacks, possibly the
greatest rugby team in the world, and their approach to their business. Sure there’s a lot more science in the game than there was a few years ago but the majority of their training is still spent
working on the basics of catching, passing, kicking, running with the ball and pretty much perfecting the skills they’ve been learning since their school days.
F&I is no different – it’s all about applying the basics well, and not giving up - even in the face of defeat we still try to get something out of every deal.
In this article I want to talk about just two of the basics that begin right at the start of the F&I sale:
Preparation – It’s not about being the smartest person, the best looking or most charismatic, but to be the “best prepared”. This starts with you, your of-fice, and your knowledge of the cus-tomer and the vehicle they are purchas-ing (generally from the alesperson and write-up sheet prior to turnover).
Build rapport. People buy off people they trust, so spend time learning as much as you can about them and their circumstances.
Listen attentively/show interest – Most people in the motor industry are hired because they know how to sell and have demonstrated the skills to talk to customers.
The challenge with F&I products is that you’re mostly selling intangible items (finance paper, and insurance promises on paper).
I’ve found it’s far better to build rap-port before trying to sell them anything by asking open-ended questions, finding some common ground that they will re-late to, listening attentively and showing genuine interest by following through with more comment on that subject. It shows you have listened to them and you care about them.
Once you have built a level of rap-port a great little opening question is:- “Where are you driving your new vehicle this weekend?”. This does two things:• Firstly it helps you learn something
about them. It’s important to follow this through with more questions to find out why they’re going there, who they’re going to see, the things they’re going to do there, … so you can find that common ground. (Us-ing this approach you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to build rapport with people).
• Secondly, it reinforces ownership (“where are you taking your new car”).
The basics of pre-deal preparation and listening can help “set the scene” for a great F&I sale, and potentially a long-term customer.
Stay on the path of continual im-provement – it’s a long and rewarding road ahead.
Staying on the path of continual improvement
By Steve Owens of Provident Insurance
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 23
EMPLOYMENTTALK
to secure. Opening the doors to
offshore talent right now and employing and training new and fresh talent from other sectors has never been more important. This is particu-larly true for non-franchise operators for it can be more difficult to attract skills ahead of the new vehicle operators who have enhanced access to training.
When discussing a need to reinstate technicians in
the essential skills lists, the Ministry of Business Innova-tion and Employment last month supplied figures from the Ministry of Education. The Education Counts sta-tistics show massive differ-ences between the number of graduates at level 3 and level 4. For Automotive Employment NZ this brings about the question of why so many graduates are not fulling completing their level 4 qualifications.
Anywhere. Anytime.Your most important dealership information
accessible from any desktop, tablet or mobile device. Faster. Easier. Smarter.
www.motorcentral.co.nz0800 623 687
In just three months it will be Christmas, and right now, just as it is every
year, we experience the peak period of recruitment activity.
2015 has brought about an ever increasing challenge to secure skills. In some areas of New Zealand the competition to secure these skills has moved to recruiting conditions that are perhaps more accurately described as a talent war.
It seems that just about every main centre of New Zealand has a story to tell about new or rebuilt dealer-ships opening in the light vehicle sector, particularly so in our largest city Auck-land. A new dealership for Greenlane and another two rebuilds/renovations in the same location are occurring simultaneously. Not to be left out West Auckland also has some new Dealership re-builds/expansions underway. So too has Auckland Airport with yet another Dealer-ship being constructed. The North Shore is also active with a complete new rebuild opening in the Wairau road area. Around the coun-try construction activity is occurring at a rate never witnessed by us previously.
The skills shortage for technicians is arguably at an all-time high, it has also be-come increasingly difficult to secure service advisors, and good vehicle sales staff and skilled parts personnel are few and far between.
Immigration NZ statistics show us the number of work visas approved each year for automotive technicians has remained relatively steady. Steady is probably not the word industry needs to hear. With graduate numbers in the light automotive sector
declining in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 do the com-bination of lower training numbers and steady work permits perhaps tell the story of what is to come?
Motor Mechanic (321211)INZ statistics
The numbers of people approved for a work visa under the Essential Skills Category have been -
These figures exclude duplicates where a person has obtained more than one work visa for that occupation in a given year.
Dealership expansions and new standalone sites have to be staffed and these
skills need to come from somewhere.
A specialist motor industry recruitment company like Automotive Employment NZ has to embrace varied techniques to fill these gaps and the challenges of doing so are significant. We are proud of our ongoing activity to encourage the training of fresh and new hires and we regularly get asked why we go to such lengths to attract new talent outside the exist-ing pool of talent. Many assume talent shortages are good for a company like ours. The truth is short-ages create difficulties in the recruitment process and reduce the number of place-ments, not increase them. It is exactly the talent shortag-es that we are experiencing right now that are the most concerning, particularly so when it seems the skills are set to become even harder
Talent Wars Russell Phillips is New Zealand’s most experienced automotive recruiter, and has operated a specialist recruitment company since 1991. He reports for AutoTalk on the employment market monthly.www.automotiveemployment.co.nz
Occupation Sep2010_ Aug2011
Sep2011_ Aug2012
Sep2012_ Aug2013
Sep2013_ Aug2014
Sep2014_ Aug2015
Motor Mechanic (General) (321211) 222 191 160 195 199
24 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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Having methodology, skill set and process, behind your sales team is all it
takes to boost sales according to sales coach Andrew Mearns.
Queensland-based Mearns, who has been training staff at a number of Kiwi dealers, began his career in the automotive market, and since then has accumulated 30 years of direct sales experience, including selling Ferraris, and as national training manager ( sales manager) for multinational giant Tyco.
Mearns says boosting sales often goes back to some fundamental issues: having a sales route and process, down to the basics.
An example, he says, is he is often surprised at how many dealerships don’t have a planned road test route.
“This means both the salesperson and customer can relax, and don’t have to think about where they are going,” he says. “Ideally it avoids right turns and there is a nice park where you can stop and discuss the car.”
The salesperson should always drive first, allow-ing the customer to relax. Having a planned route also allows control of how long you have with the customer.
Methodology key to success in sales
Andrew Mearns
Continued on page 27
26 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEWSTALK
the huge subsidies they receive. There is now absolutely no reason for them to continue to be protected. And as we found in New Zealand, more jobs will be created through the development of a used vehicle import industry than was ever the case with manufacturing.
Even though they haven’t done
anything about it yet, they know they need to. Australia’s latest prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said as much in his acceptance speech. He talked about the basic principles of the individual, freedom and the market, and he then spoke of the need for Australia to reform in order to be able to compete in the new global economy. So maybe
there’s hope for them yet.And what happens in Australia is
important to us, too. Apart from any feelings of trans-Tasman sympathy, Australia is still New Zealand’s most important trading partner, and if their economy continues to perform poorly, it will inevitably affect us.
Let’s hope that the people now running ‘The Lucky Country’ are not second-rate, and that they have the political will to do what’s necessary to make their country economically competitive again.
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PORT TO DOOR SERVICE INCLUDING:
Port Calls Tokyo Car V 4 Morning Midas V 6
Morning Miracle V 21 Tokyo Car V 5
Osaka 16 October 3 November 15 November 2 December
Nagoya 17 October 4 November 16 November 3 December
Yokohama 18 October 5 November 17 November 4 December
Auckland 5 November 21 November 6 December 20 December
Wellington 8 November 26 November 10 December 27 December
Lyttelton 7 November 25 November 9 December 23 December
Continued from page 17
We don’t know how lucky we are
Australian vehicle sales have continued their up-ward trend, with growth
up 6.8% compared to the same time last year.
Australians purchased 101,392 vehicles last month, with the year-to-date total at 862,832.
Sales were on the up for ACT, NSW, Queensland, Tas-mania and Victoria, while NT, SA and WA recorded drops of 13.2%, 3.9% and 8.8% respec-tively.
While NSW chalked up the best growth figure, with an 11.8% rise (3595), Queensland was up 7.9% and Victoria hot on its heels with growth of 7.8%.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber commented that the figures suggest that vehicle af-fordability is at an all-time high.
Toyota topped the market, with its Camry the outright model victor for the month. Toyota’s share of the market was 16.4%, Mazda followed at 10.7%, Hyundai and Holden next with 9.2% each and Mit-subishi with 6.8%.
Aussie vehicle affordability ‘at all-time high’
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 27
NEWSTALK
Founded in 1973 by Ken Cummings, the Southern Motor Group has grown to include 12 vehicle brands across five dealerships throughout the South Island, with sites in Invercargill, Queenstown and Dunedin. Forty years on the 120 strong team pride themselves on providing a service and purchase experience that is second to none. At the flagship Andersons Bay Rd site in Dunedin where this role is based the company represents six brands; Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, Peugeot, Nissan and Subaru. The role: The General Sales Manager has responsibility for the sales activities of six brands. Principally you will be tasked with accomplishing the following: • Achievement of Gross Profit results in line with monthly and annual
budgets • Maximise sales of new vehicle product • Ensuring Manufacturer/Distributor volume targets are achieved
Other duties include but are not limited to the following: • Active involvement in the sales process contributing to positive sales
outcomes and double closing where required• In the absence of Brand Managers actively take up vacant roles and
personally sell new vehicles as and when required• Within agreed budgets create inspiring and professional new vehicle
advertising which results in consistent incoming enquiry• Manage new vehicle stock inventory in conjunction with Dealer Princi-
pal to ensure model mix• Considerable emphasis should be given to the ongoing changes and
opportunities presented by digital marketing opportunities• Create superior relationships with National Distributor employees• Identifying the core motivators of your sales staff, implementing initia-
tives and raising sales performance.
A full job description is available upon request.
The skills and attributes sought This is a senior sales management role that will require the skills of an expe-rienced new vehicle sales manager. You will have previously worked in a new vehicle franchise sales environment and have prior evidence of successful sales leadership. Your ability to achieve high standards of employee engage-ment and your own personal professionalism should be self-apparent. Applications locally, nationally and internationally are all to of consideration.
The Challenge and RewardThe combination of superior financial reward is complimented by the benefits of joining a large multisite group and the obvious potential this presents. This is a role where success and your contribution towards it are recognised. Mandatory enquiry is recommended to those possessing the skills outlined.
Application process and closing dateIf applying online please click the apply section of this ad and submit your resume for consideration. All applications unless otherwise requested are to be forwarded to Southern Motor Group. If reading this ad in printed media please visit www.automotiveemployment.co.nz Using the quick search function type in the words General Sales Manag-er then upload your resume.Applicants are encouraged to request a detailed job description by calling Russell Phillips or Ken King Freephone landline or mobile on 0800 67 57 47. Alternatively email [email protected] or [email protected] Closing date: 26-10-2015
General Sales Manager - New VehiclesSouthern Motor Group - Dunedin
More on Mearns’ courses can be found at www.an-drewmearns.com.au.
Mearns has written more on sales obstacles, and how they can be overcome for AutoTalk readers:
Five sales obstacles that can be overcome
The motor industry is a lot more competitive with the advent of more people doing their research on-line. It’s no longer a num-bers game you need pin point precision and a high performance team to max-imise every opportunity.
Don’t practice on your customers, practice in a safe coaching environment, hone your sales people’s skills and learn how to coach, mo-
tivate and manage perfor-mance.
Every sale has five common basic obstacles, however, the fantastic news is if a sales professional has the correct process, collat-eral and necessary skill set combined with mind mas-tery knowledge these can be easily overcome.
1: No trust: Any client has to feel they can trust the sales consultant and the company. If a client is to trust you, they must first like you and this is quite easily done by building rapport. You also need to be knowl-edgeable on your products/services, do what you say you are going to do, be sincere and have the ap-pearance of a professional. If a sales person doesn’t
appear confident in the eyes of the customer trust will be eroded very quickly
2: No Need: If we ask clients the correct questions we will uncover what their real needs are, then per-sonalise our presentation to satisfy those needs.
3: No Desire: We have to get the client to desire our product/services, not just be interested in them. This will only happen when you have got to a point where they can’t see themselves living without it. You will need to build enormous value into your product, personalise it for their needs, create a sense of urgency and paint them in the picture.
4: No Hurry: We have to instill a sense of urgency in the client to act now. You
need to create a sense of urgency from the minute you first meet the client. Without urgency desire loses its value.
5: No money: Who has never gone and purchased a product or service when they know that money should have been allocated elsewhere? When a client says they have no money, what they are saying you didn’t do a good job in the above four areas. When a client can’t see themselves living without your product, they will find the money.
You aren’t competing with the dealership down the street or with their pricing, your only competing with the sales person your pros-pect will talk to at the deal-ership down the street!
Methodology key to success in salesContinued from page 25
28 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEWSTALK
This year’s New Zealand Car of the Year Award finalists has seen a mixture of vehicles in the top ten rather than the last year’s SUV domination.
The New Zealand Motoring Writers’ Guild (NZMWG) and The New Zealand Automobile Association will announce the winner of the 2015 New Zealand Car of the Year at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland on December 9.
Members of the guild and the AA who have driven the top 10 cars will independently rank each of them on ele-ments including value, design and quality.
The best will become the 2015 New Zealand Car of the Year.
For the first time, the public will have a say with the New Zealand Car of the Year Peoples’ Choice award.
Sports Utility Vehi-cles (SUV) still feature strongly among the finalists with the Volvo XC90, Audi Q7, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Hyundai Tucson and Mazda’s CX3 – reflect-ing market growth.
“The real standout with all of these vehi-cles is the quality they bring to the market, right across the range,” says AA Motoring Services general manager Stella Stocks.
“Consumers are becoming very spoiled for choice with new cars, regardless of their price point.”
One brand is a real contender for the top award with three models in the lineup with the Mazda2, Mazda CX3 and Mazda MX5 all vying for accolades against the other seven.
“That one brand is so strongly represented in the top 10 shows it is targeting a range of markets very well,” says Stocks.
The BMW i3 electric vehicle was described by the top 10 selection panel as a clean sheet design that will become a real game changer.
Stocks says people should expect to see more of this type of vehicle in future awards.
The Ford Mondeo and Subaru Legacy/Outback come from the same category, but each takes a different ap-proach in the medium/large car segment.
Last year’s New Zealand Car of the Year was Mazda3.
Mixed bag in NZ Car of the Year top ten
The top 10 finalists for the New Zealand Car of the Year are:• Audi Q7• BMW i3• Ford Mondeo• Hyundai Tucson• Land Rover
Discovery Sport• Mazda2• Mazda CX-3• Mazda MX-5• Subaru Legacy/
Outback• Volvo XC90
2015 Audi Q7 2015 BMW i3
2015 Ford Mondeo Titanium 2015 Hyundai Tucson
2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport
2015 Mazda CX3 2015 Mazda MX-5
2015 Subaru Legacy 3.6L 2015 Volvo XC90
2015-Mazda2-Limited
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 29
FEA
TU
RE
OCTOBER 2015
FOCUS ONFINANCE
To find out how you can add real value and protection to your finance book, talk to your local
Autosure representative today.“Providing confidence for the road ahead for over 25 years.”
www.autosure.co.nz l 0800 267 873
Market leading finance products deserve market leading protection
Autosure NZ has been working alongside finance companies, providing full asset protection to the motoring public✔ Market-leading insurance product suite✔ Market-leading finance and insurance sales training✔ Long standing history and financial strength
2015 will be remembered as a year of significant change in vehicle financing in New Zealand. New
legislation, new technology, and histori-cally and mortgage rates driven com-petition and shifted customer expecta-tions of car finance.
The transparency bought about by the Consumer Law reform has changed how we interact with our customers. The accountability of both dealerships and finance companies is very clearly spelt out in the legislation, and this has required a more collaborative approach in financing car buyers.
Moreover, finance rates have come under increased scrutiny, a product of expectations set by record low mort-gage rates combined with the ease to compare. Our focus has been on facilitating the changes required while still providing a seamless service to the UDC dealer network. We’ve worked collaboratively with our dealers, with a particular focus on the changes to marketing required under the new leg-islation given the expected regulatory scrutiny.
We have also seen increasing chal-lenges from outsiders targeting dealer
finance customers. Banks are directly targeting car buyers, debt-consolidation players increased market presence and peer to peer lenders launched in New Zealand. These competitors all market heavily online, taking advantage of the research customers do before they step on to a car yard.
In the face of such challenges we believe future finance growth for dealers will be underpinned by:• Playing to your strengths. Dealers
have an enormous advantage over
Finance facing changes and challenges
Continued on page 30
30 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
FOCUS ONFINANCE
BATTLE ON FOR MTF STAKE
new competitors in seeing custom-ers face to face and knowing the vehicle. This makes compliance easier, turnaround faster and gives you the best opportunity to under-stand your customers’ needs and structure a deal accordingly.
• Smart ways of marketing and trans-acting with customers. Through our use of scorecard technology and ongoing investment in our UDCLive platform we continue enhance the customer experience by focusing in transaction speed and ease. We’ve also invested significantly in remarketing and dealer POS collateral to provide a consistent, credible experience for customers. A lot of our remarket-ing is now digital, driving customers directly back to your web-site.
The purchasing habits of custom-ers continue to evolve, with decisions made about vehicle purchases (includ-ing how they will pay) often made before they even step onto a yard. We often facilitate customers at UDC prior to a purchasing decision being made – we look to direct them to our dealer network to make those purchases, and we continue to invest heavily into tech-nology that captures the customer at the earliest possible stage and facilitate a dealer introduction.
Customers still want the confidence of dealing with solid and dependable companies like UDC, but want the abil-ity to do so from the comfort of their own home at a time that suits.
Vehicle margins continue to be squeezed in an increasingly com-petitive market. Given this, the finance office of the dealership is becoming
increasingly important; not only as a standalone profit centre, but as a way to ensure overall margin is achieved in selling vehicles. It has never been more important for dealerships to take a ho-listic view of a vehicle sale and establish where money is to be made with each customer interaction.
Previously, to be engaged in the NZ vehicle finance market, finance pro-viders only had to have a decent risk appetite and a system that allowed their dealer network to transact with their customers. Today, you need to be an active partner – having market leading technology, the best people support-ing, and proactively looking for ways to drive customers to the dealership (all within the current legislative framework) are critical to that in 2016 and beyond. And that where our focus will remain in the year ahead.
Finance facing changes and challengesContinued from page 29
Turners, formerly fi-nance and insurance firm Dorchester, has
announced plans to try and take a 20% stake in Motor Trade Finance.
The move has lead to Marac-finance parent reiterating its interest in the firm - a takeover which the MTF board strongly resisted.
Turners claim their plan is not a takeover, but will need MTF’s board and shareholders – many of whom are dealers – to cross a current 10% limit on any one shareholder.
Turners is making a cash offer of $1.15 a share, higher than the 94c the share most recently traded at. The offer will be sent to all MTF shareholders this Thursday, and will remain open until October 17 – a month.
It already owns 0.95%.Turners chief executive
and director Paul Byrnes says Turners Finance cur-rently write around 10% of new loans through MTF – with the number increas-ing.
“We are making this offer to enable us to increase our shareholding to better reflect our commitment to the MTF model,” Byrnes says. “We expect our book to continue to grow.
“We would also like to think our expertise in the wider financial services and insurance industries could bring value to the business for the benefit of all share-holders,” he explains.
“We therefore feel a more meaningful share-holding up to 20% is ap-propriate and at the same time we believe our offer provides an attractive op-portunity for MTF share-holders who wish to sell their ordinary shares, given liquidity for those shares
can be limited.”Byrnes is adamant the
offer is not a takeover.“We will not, in any cir-
cumstances, hold 20% or more of the ordi-nary shares in MTF as a result of this offer,” he says. “We are quite relaxed about the final shareholding we finish up with and we are not able to withdraw, nor will we increase the price of this offer once it has been made.”
In a statement, MTF chairman Stephen Higgs suggests shareholders consider the offer and seek advice.
Higgs notes the move past 10%. Will require the approval of 75% of share-holders.
“The Board, which must act in the best interest of the company, continues to consider whether there
are any circumstances in which Turners holding more than 10% would be beneficial to the company
and its shareholders,” he explains.
“A major consider-ation in this assess-ment is that a stake of up to 20% would
materially limit the ability of any other party to make an offer for MTF.
“This may have value consequences for all MTF stakeholders.”
In a statement to the market, Heartland con-firmed that it continues to have an interest in acquir-ing MTF if the shareholders, franchisees and dealers of MTF were receptive to a proposal; and if the existing issues between MTF and the Commerce Commis-sion as to loan fees in the Sportzone case were better understood.
Paul Byrnes
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 31
FOCUS ONFINANCE
Selling finance and insurance products to support sales of motor vehicles could represent the highest profit centre in your dealership today, and … to many, it does.
F&I has often been referred to as the 5th profit centre, sit-ting in behind new and used vehicles, and parts and service in a franchise dealership, and the 2nd profit centre in a used car dealership.
There is no doubt that without the sales depart-ment the F&I department couldn’t exist. How-ever, a dealership with a strong focus on selling finance and insurance products knows the F&I dept is the most profitable profit centre within the dealership, because:-• It has very little overhead (apart from an office, com-
puter and performance-based remuneration plan for the business manager)
• There is no capital outlay or investment required in stock – you’re only selling paper so don’t have to pur-chase the products before you sell them.
• The dealership has already expended the money to get the customer to purchase the vehicle
Furthermore F&I doesn’t just produce, significant, ad-ditional profit. It also provides:-• Increased protection for the dealership, the customer
and finance company (paid for by your customer) – from the increased opportunity to sell insurance poli-cies.
• Increased customer satisfaction - from the protection provided by the increase in insurance product sales.
• Increased long term customer retention – from your ability to better retain the finance customer.
So, doesn’t it make sense you should maximise your op-portunity for profit, protection, customer satisfaction and long-term retention by selling F&I? And, it’s not just for the big boys. Every dealership, regardless of size or location, has the opportunity to earn incremental profitability through the sale of finance and insurance products. We know for a fact that 3 out of 5 people that walk into your dealership and say they are paying “cash” for a car are in fact borrowing funds from somewhere (that’s 60% of your customers).
Why do they say they are cash customers? Because:They feel they will have stronger negotiating power to
The importance of F&I – and it’s not just for the big boys
Continued on page 32
By Steve Owens of Provident Insurance
“After 30 years in the business, we’ve seen and heard it all before.
So many companies want your business and they promise the earth, but once you’ve signed up, they just don’t come through.
Add to this, I hate change. So when we made the change to Provident Insurance I expected very little. And got more than I dreamed of.
Provident Insurance really got our F&I flying. They’ve made a massive difference, through their involvement in our business, and contribution of ideas. They’ve helped our F&I department become a top performer.
Our F&I has pretty much tripled in the past 12 months, and I give Provident Insurance all the credit. They actually deliver what they promise. All sales people say they will do things. But Provident go above and beyond the call of duty.”
– BRETT KILBURN, Kilburn Cars, Manukau.
MotorCover is marketed exclusively by Provident Insurance Authorised Dealers.
“provident deliver on promises,they tripled our F&I profits.”
Introduce the Provident Profit Factor into your business, talk to Steve Owens or visit www.providentinsurance.co.nz
Steve Owens, Jacques Gray and Brett Kilburn drive profits forward.
32 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
FOCUS ONFINANCE
get a better deal on the vehicle (and this is fuelled by other finance sources telling your customers to borrow from them so they can benefit as a ‘cash customer’)
They believe dealer finance is expensive compared to other sources (a legacy of the days when hire purchase rates were expensive).
Some aren’t aware of the fact that you have a finance facility in the dealership.
Each of these common perceptions can be easily over-come and it’s important you do so because F&I starts with finance. Once you are able to convert the customer to dealer finance (and I would generally do so on the basis that it’s competitive, it’s convenient and it frees up other finance sources for future needs), you then have the best opportunity to introduce your insurance products.
Based on our average dealer results of $900 “F&I Profit Per Retail Unit Sold”, a dealership selling just 30 used vehi-cles per month is earning an additional $27,000 F&I profit per month ($324,000 pa).
The Approach to Maximising OpportunitiesI spend the majority of my time out on the road, visiting
dealerships and working at the coal-face. From time to time, I’ll see missed opportunities where salespeople or business managers have pre-judged customers or their circumstanc-es, talk more than they listen or apply pressure inappropri-ately as their main weapon to persuade customers to buy.
On the other hand, I’ve also seen some talented business
managers build rapport with their customers by utilising a customer-focused process that includes open-ended ques-tions to learn as much as they can about the customer and their circumstances. Then, like a skilled professional, they introduce their products to the customers, asking questions and matching the product features and benefits to the cus-tomers needs. The process is simple - building rapport and trust through discussion, whilst at the same time positioning themselves for the sale.
To elaborate a little further, focus on 3 main areas:-• Build trust with genuine concern: I believe this is the
one sales skill that has the most effect on produc-tion, the ability to communicate genuine care for the customer. Being creative is essential, but caring is what tells your customer that you are looking out for their best interest, not yours or the dealership’s. We all know that “persistence beats resistence” but the motivation to never give up on a customer must be driven by the fact that you care enough to keep pursuing products that you believe they genuinely need. And remember “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
• Focus on the customer: Focus on what is best for the customer. This doesn’t mean you have to “ditch the pitch” but you have to provide relevance to your cus-tomers situation to help them see how your proposition will best benefit them.
• Know your stuff: Success equals knowledge. The more you know the more success you will have. Constantly grow your knowl-edge, don’t be afraid to try a new approach and experiment (even if it doesn’t work, you’ll be no worse off than you were before you tried it – but do it with integrity). And, draw on past personal/customer experience.
The importance of providing an F&I process that communicates genuine care for your customer is focused on their needs and provides a high level of knowledge and ex-pertise cannot be underestimated. It will make the difference between a record year of F&I results as op-posed to just continuing to achieve what you’ve achieved to date.
If you want a different level of production this year, call me now and let me work with you to help make that difference to your busi-ness.
Continued from page 31
The importance of F&I – and it’s not just for the big boys
Shift your salesinto top gear.
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To find out how we can help drive more vehicle sales for your business talk to us on 0800 269 100 or visit www.udc.co.nz
USED IMPORTSBROUGHT TO
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STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 33
USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MODELS
MAKE MODELSEPT'15
MAKE MODELSEP'14
TOYOTA HIACE 250 TOYOTA HIACE 299NISSAN CARAVAN 72 NISSAN CARAVAN 73NISSAN VANETTE 28 MAZDA BONGO 40MAZDA BONGO 26 NISSAN VANETTE 38TOYOTA DYNA 24 TOYOTA REGIUS 34ISUZU ELF 23 ISUZU ELF 25NISSAN NV200 23 TOYOTA DYNA 19TOYOTA REGIUS 23 TOYOTA TOYOACE 17NISSAN ATLAS 20 NISSAN ATLAS 16TOYOTA HILUX 13 NISSAN NAVARA 13
USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
Movement% Change
Mkt Share
TOYOTA 344 392 -12.2 45.3NISSAN 171 162 5.6 22.5ISUZU 40 36 Up 1 11.1 5.3MAZDA 39 48 Down 1 -18.8 5.1FORD 26 28 -7.1 3.4CHEVROLET 22 22 Up 1 0.0 2.9MITSUBISHI 21 25 Down 1 -16.0 2.8HOLDEN 17 10 Up 2 70.0 2.2HINO 15 20 Down 1 -25.0 2.0VOLKSWAGEN 9 7 Up 1 28.6 1.2OTHER 55 42 31.0 7.2TOTAL 759 792 -4.2 100.0
The used import market was up again in Sep-tember, but signs are
beginning to show the heat is coming out of the market.
Passenger registrations were up 4.7% to 11,667 from 11,142 in September 2014.
That is well below the annual rise of 14%, with the tally for the year at 108,164.
Commercial registrations fell during September, down 4.2% to 749 units from 792 this time last year.
September wasn’t the fastest month in the deep south, says Stadium Cars Dunedin managing director Andrew Graham.
“It was a bit tough, to be honest,” he told AutoTalk, “and that was for both new and used - it was hard work.”
He said enquiry levels were down at the start of
the month - but with a bit of extra effort Stadium’s southern-most branch came right in the end,. “We always get there in the end,” he said.
Graham wasn’t sure if Ki-wis stashing their cash away for RWC ‘hospitality expens-es’ was the main cause, but said most dealers in Dunedin found September a struggle.
The top segment was the $10-15K SUVs, which is gen-erally standard for the city where “a lot of students, a lot of retirees and quite a few beneficiaries” mean anything over the $20K mark can lin-ger on the yard, he said.
Tilda topsToyota lead the
passenger market in September, up 5.4% to 2745 units, 23.5% of the market.
Used up, but slowingIn second was Nissan,
down 4.8% to 2057 for a 17.6% market share, followed in third by Mazda on 1876 vehicles,up 4.7% for a 16.1% share.
Honda was fourth on 1261, followed by Suzuki on 651 units.
Nissan’s Tiida lead the model charts, on 555 units.
In second was the Mazda Axela on 542 vehicles, fol-
lowed by the Suzuki Swift on 530.
The Toyota Corolla took fourth on 507 cars, followed by the Honda Fit on 472.
The biggest large car was the Subaru Legacy in sev-
Continued on page 34
STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES
Tel: (09) 369 5276www.autofinancedirect.co.nz
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• Nichibo and non Nichibo cars financed
• Competitive commissions – no retention and no claw back
• Low and no deposit to approved purchasers
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AROUND THE COUNTRYDISTRACT SEP'15 SEP'14 % CHANGE
WHA 256 227 12.78AUC 5792 5458 6.12HAM 753 715 5.31THA 86 77 11.69TAU 551 440 25.23ROT 116 134 -13.43GIS 24 33 -27.27NAP 220 162 35.80NEW 184 177 3.95WAN 88 95 -7.37PAL 313 259 20.85MAS 59 49 20.41WEL 858 888 -3.38NEL 186 226 -17.70BLE 48 42 14.29GRE 32 38 -15.79WES 7 6 16.67CHR 1550 1529 1.37TIM 88 111 -20.72OAM 25 32 -21.88DUN 279 318 -12.26INV 155 126 23.02TOTAL 11667 11142 4.71
USED IMPORT PASSENGER MODELSMAKE MODEL SEPT'15 MAKE MODEL SEP'14
NISSAN TIIDA 555 NISSAN TIIDA 577MAZDA AXELA 542 TOYOTA COROLLA 568SUZUKI SWIFT 530 SUZUKI SWIFT 542TOYOTA COROLLA 507 MAZDA AXELA 508HONDA FIT 472 MAZDA DEMIO 378MAZDA DEMIO 465 HONDA FIT 300SUBARU LEGACY 356 MAZDA ATENZA 289TOYOTA WISH 290 TOYOTA WISH 281VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 286 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 273MAZDA ATENZA 236 TOYOTA VITZ 263MAZDA MPV 224 SUBARU LEGACY 252MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 209 MAZDA MPV 216BMW 3 Series 207 BMW 3 Series 212TOYOTA ESTIMA 196 NISSAN NOTE 186TOYOTA VITZ 196 MAZDA PREMACY 181MAZDA PREMACY 171 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 181NISSAN NOTE 161 NISSAN DUALIS 170HONDA ODYSSEY 151 TOYOTA ESTIMA 160NISSAN DUALIS 150 HONDA ODYSSEY 159TOYOTA IST 141 NISSAN SKYLINE 148
USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
Movement % ChangeMarket Share
TOYOTA 2745 2605 5.4 23.5NISSAN 2057 2183 -5.8 17.6MAZDA 1876 1791 4.7 16.1HONDA 1261 1097 14.9 10.8SUZUKI 651 660 -1.4 5.6SUBARU 650 452 Up 1 43.8 5.6BMW 526 496 Down 1 6.0 4.5VOLKSWAGEN 445 436 2.1 3.8MITSUBISHI 388 404 -4.0 3.3AUDI 217 228 -4.8 1.9MERCEDES-BENZ 199 197 1.0 1.7FORD 116 126 -7.9 1.0VOLVO 90 83 8.4 0.8LEXUS 50 39 Up 1 28.2 0.4MINI 49 32 Up 3 53.1 0.4CHEVROLET 46 37 24.3 0.4HOLDEN 43 31 Up 2 38.7 0.4HYUNDAI 41 44 Down 4 -6.8 0.4JAGUAR 40 30 Up 1 33.3 0.3LAND ROVER 29 37 Down 3 -21.6 0.2OTHER 148 134 10.4 1.3TOTAL 11667 11142 4.7 100.0
enth on 356, the most popu-lar MPV the Toyota Wish in eighth on 290 and the most popular SUV the Mitsubishi outlander in eleventh on 209.
Toyota lead the com-mercial market on 344 units, down 12.2% for a 45.3% market share.
Nissan was second on 171
vehicles, up 5.6% for a 22.5% market stake.
Isuzu was this on 40 units, followed by Mazda on 39 and Ford on 26.
The Toyota Hiace again lead the com-mercial ranks, with 250 units registered.
Nissan’s Caravan was next on 72, fol-lowed by the Nissan
Vanette on 28, Mazda Bongo on 36 and Toyota Dyna on 24.
Used up, but slowingContinued from page 33
STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES
COMPETITIVE FINANCE. PERSONAL SERVICE. Tel: (09) 369 5276
www.autofinancedirect.co.nz
USED IMPORTSBROUGHT TO YOU BY:
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 35
USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES – THIS YEAR
AU
DI
BM
W
CH
EV
RO
LET
DA
IHA
TSU
FOR
D
HO
LDE
N
HO
ND
A
HY
UN
DA
I
MA
ZD
A
ME
RC
ED
ES
MIT
SUB
ISH
I
NIS
SAN
PE
UG
EO
T
SUB
AR
U
SUZ
UK
I
TO
YO
TA
VW
OT
HE
R
TO
TAL
15-Jan 220 472 60 20 173 32 1160 59 1992 229 511 2012 24 618 775 2648 420 366 1179114-Jan 208 328 54 25 139 23 920 16 1655 155 363 1779 6 425 549 2206 311 308 9470
% diff 6 44 11 -20 24 39 26 269 20 48 41 13 300 45 41 20 35 19 2515-Feb 190 475 81 18 169 30 1120 38 1678 200 388 1779 18 561 684 2414 403 326 1057214-Feb 189 346 54 20 98 20 1015 18 1510 142 350 1619 12 361 550 2258 298 295 9155
% diff 1 37 50 -10 72 50 10 111 11 41 11 10 50 55 24 7 35 11 1515-Mar 276 585 58 12 167 29 1240 54 1942 250 479 2076 25 655 772 2804 486 403 1231314-Mar 177 413 61 15 107 17 1124 41 1765 161 371 1842 10 433 617 2441 373 279 10247
% diff 56 42 -5 -20 56 71 10 32 10 55 29 13 150 51 25 15 30 44 2015-Apr 246 527 67 13 138 47 1179 34 1805 227 431 1753 18 605 653 2468 448 379 1103814-Apr 196 391 50 12 112 22 1057 36 1524 171 42 365 13 380 560 2217 368 1985 9501
% diff 26 35 34 8 23 114 12 -6 18 33 926 380 38 59 17 11 22 -81 1615-May 253 599 56 10 153 33 1391 36 1989 264 427 2106 15 739 736 2721 495 392 1241514-May 210 471 63 8 126 32 1226 44 1783 206 413 2120 18 421 680 2677 399 326 11223
% diff 20 27 -11 25 21 3 13 -18 12 28 3 -1 -17 76 8 2 24 20 1115-Jun 286 585 40 16 105 36 1403 28 2048 258 482 2132 14 677 711 2746 484 364 1241514-Jun 240 469 49 15 115 27 1119 38 1718 161 417 2128 10 415 661 2532 358 288 10760
% diff 19 25 -18 7 -9 33 25 -26 19 60 16 0 40 63 8 8 35 26 1515-Jul 269 629 45 23 150 40 1422 31 2219 281 519 2453 22 797 850 3152 527 462 1389114-Jul 233 483 41 18 130 22 1278 41 1881 201 440 2393 16 462 775 2871 408 359 12052% diff 15 30 10 28 15 82 11 -24 18 40 18 3 38 73 10 10 29 29 15
15-Aug 255 588 51 26 121 41 1198 30 1962 213 446 2136 14 694 746 2725 446 369 1206114-Aug 213 462 46 20 122 1182 40 1780 186 398 2208 19 488 688 2667 426 343 11288
% diff 20 27 11 30 -1 1 -25 10 15 12 -3 -26 42 8 2 5 8 715-Sep 217 526 46 11 116 43 1261 41 1876 199 388 2057 22 650 651 2745 445 373 1166714-Sep 228 496 37 11 126 31 1097 44 1791 197 404 2183 15 452 660 2605 436 360 11142
% diff -5 6 24 0 -8 39 15 -7 5 1 -4 -6 47 44 -1 5 2 4 5YTD 15 2212 4986 504 149 1292 331 11374 351 17511 2121 4071 16725 172 5996 6578 24423 4154 3434 108163YTD 14 1894 3859 455 144 1075 224 10018 318 15407 1580 3198 16637 119 3837 5740 22474 3377 4543 94838
%diff 17 29 11 3 20 48 14 10 14 34 27 1 45 56 15 9 23 -24 14
The number of new and used imported pas-senger vehicles, as well
as new and used light and heavy commercial arrivals in September all dropped from the previous highs of August.
Used car arrivals of 8683
units in September are the lowest number to land on New Zealand ports since the month of February which saw 9963 arrivals.
It is a rapid decline in numbers from the 12,133 used cars that arrived on
New Zealand soil in August.New car arrivals also
dropped in September to 8352 units from the highest numbers of monthly arrivals in August being 11,712.
New heavy commercial arrivals over 3500kg (GVM)
Used car arrivals lowest since February
The number of registered motor vehicle traders in New Zealand has fallen – albeit by only three
– in the last month.After months of increases in dealer
numbers, since the end of the global financial crisis six years ago, numbers have at last plateaued.
The number of registered dealers has fallen from 3483 at the beginning of
September to 3480 now.Industry observers put the small
decrease in the number of dealers to more difficult trading conditions in the retail auto industry.
Dealer numbers plateau at last
dropped to 244 units from 282 the previous month, and new light commercials under 3500kg dropped to 2100 units from 2978 the previous month.
Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz
Your first choice in automotive lending.
UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.
STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES
36 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEW PASSENGER MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
Movement% Change
Market Share
TOYOTA 1471 1582 -7.0 16.6HOLDEN 1068 1044 2.3 12.1MAZDA 891 671 32.8 10.1HYUNDAI 700 636 10.1 7.9FORD 618 479 Up 2 29.0 7.0MITSUBISHI 604 515 Down 1 17.3 6.8NISSAN 425 496 Down 1 -14.3 4.8HONDA 353 388 -9.0 4.0SUZUKI 314 302 Up 1 4.0 3.6VOLKSWAGEN 314 327 Down 1 -4.0 3.6KIA 265 256 3.5 3.0SUBARU 258 175 Up 3 47.4 2.9MERCEDES-BENZ 194 180 Up 1 7.8 2.2AUDI 187 184 Down 2 1.6 2.1BMW 182 181 Down 2 0.6 2.1JEEP 131 123 6.5 1.5FIAT 114 68 Up 3 67.6 1.3SSANGYONG 111 108 Down 1 2.8 1.3DODGE 102 71 43.7 1.2SKODA 81 68 Up 1 19.1 0.9OTHER 452 528 -14.4 5.1TOTAL 8835 8382 5.4 100.0
NEW COMMERCIAL MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
Movement% Change
Mkt Share
TOYOTA 847 739 14.6 23.3FORD 831 672 23.7 22.8HOLDEN 334 305 9.5 9.2ISUZU 273 242 Up 1 12.8 7.5MITSUBISHI 225 244 Down 1 -7.8 6.2NISSAN 200 144 38.9 5.5MERCEDES-BENZ 118 107 Up 2 10.3 3.2VOLKSWAGEN 113 131 Down 1 -13.7 3.1FIAT 92 48 Up 5 91.7 2.5MAZDA 90 112 Down 2 -19.6 2.5OTHER 515 714 -27.9 14.2TOTAL 3638 3458 5.2 100.0
Economic indicators be damned, the new car market is continuing to
set a cracking pace.New vehicle registrations
again put in strong gains in September, the overall mar-ket climbing 5% year on year to 12,474 vehicles.
Passenger registrations were up 5.4% to 8,835 vehicles, the strongest September since 1987, while commercial registrations were up 5.2% to 3639.
Motor Industry Associa-tion chief executive David Crawford noted the market
was doing better than other economic news would lead people to expect.
“The new vehicle market continues to flout general
New vehicles continue to beat expectations
economic indicators with sales in September up 5% on September 2014 and de-livering a steady 5% growth for the year-to-date,” he
explains.“If registrations of new
vehicles continues at the pace it has done for the first 9 months of the year, the industry will easily break the 130,000 unit barrier in 2015 for the first time ever”
Toyota remained the overall market leader for the month of September with 19% market share (2,318 vehicles) followed by Ford with 12% (1,449 vehicles) and Holden with 11% market share (1,402 vehicles). Year-to-date Toyota, Holden, Ford, Mazda and Hyundai respectively remain the top five overall market leaders.
In passenger, Toyota lead with a 17% market share (1,471 vehicles) followed by Holden with 12% (1068 ve-hicles) and Mazda with 10% market share (891 vehicles).
The Toyota Corolla was the top selling passenger model for the month of September (687 vehicles) fol-lowed by the Holden Com-modore (362 vehicles) and the Mazda3 (244 vehicles).
Toyota was the com-Continued on page 37
Fixed Rates. Fast approval.
STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 37
NEW AROUND THE COUNTRYDISTRICT SEPT'15 SEP’T14 % CHANGEWHA 169 155 9.03AUC 4198 3507 19.7HAM 502 537 -6.5THA 63 50 26TAU 346 308 12.3ROT 105 60 75GIS 44 31 41.9NAP 201 190 5.79NEW 140 123 13.8WAN 48 65 -26PAL 211 230 -8.3MAS 55 55 0WEL 555 720 -23NEL 134 117 14.5BLE 59 61 -3.3GRE 14 15 -6.7WES 4 8 -50CHR 1597 1656 -3.6TIM 54 80 -33OAM 20 24 -17DUN 221 272 -19INV 95 118 -19TOTAL 8835 8382 5.4
NEW PASSENGER MODELS
MAKE MODELSEPT'15
MAKE MODELSEPT'14
TOYOTA COROLLA 687 TOYOTA COROLLA 629HOLDEN COMMODORE 362 TOYOTA YARIS 373MAZDA MAZDA3 244 HOLDEN COMMODORE 277HOLDEN CAPTIVA 241 MAZDA MAZDA3 270MAZDA CX-5 210 HONDA JAZZ 256TOYOTA RAV4 208 TOYOTA RAV4 251TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 194 NISSAN QASHQAI 213HYUNDAI SANTA FE 191 HOLDEN CAPTIVA 202MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 183 HYUNDAI IX35 186HYUNDAI IX35 174 MAZDA CX-5 178TOYOTA YARIS 172 SUZUKI SWIFT 171MITSUBISHI ASX 167 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 155MAZDA CX-3 160 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 154NISSAN QASHQAI 151 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 153HOLDEN CRUZE 147 HOLDEN BARINA 141HONDA JAZZ 147 MITSUBISHI LANCER 130NISSAN X-TRAIL 144 HYUNDAI I30 129SUBARU OUTBACK 137 HOLDEN CRUZE 128FORD MONDEO 134 NISSAN X-TRAIL 121MAZDA MAZDA2 133 MAZDA MAZDA2 114
mercial vehicle leader for the month with 23% market share (847 vehicles), fol-lowed by Ford also with 23% (831 vehicles) and Holden with 9% market share (334 vehicles).
The Ford Ranger re-mained the monthly top
selling commercial vehicle model with 743 vehicles reg-istered, followed by the Toy-ota Hilux with 589 vehicles and Holden Colorado with 320 vehicles. Year to date the Ford Ranger remains the top selling commercial vehi-cle model with 17 percent market share (4,967 vehicles)
followed by the Hilux with 14 percent (4,158 vehicles) and the Holden Colorado with 9 percent market share (2,711 vehicles).
The sales of sports utility vehicles remains the domi-nant vehicle segment with 33% market share for the month of September and 33% year-t-date. The Pick-
up/Chassis Cab segment was the second strongest segment with 20% for the month of September and 21% market share year to date.
At a dealership level, An-drew Archibald of Archibald Motors in Kaitaia said the dealership is about to hit the slow part of the year. This won’t be helped, with a big drought predicted for the far north.
“From now on - for the next few months, anyway, it really starts to quieten down for us up here,” said dealer
Continued from page 36
Continued on page 38
STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES
Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz
Your first choice in automotive lending.
UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.
38 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES
Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz
Your first choice in automotive lending.
UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.
NEW PASSENGER MAKES
ALF
A R
OM
EO
AU
DI
BM
W
CH
ER
Y
CH
RY
SLE
R
DO
DG
E
FOR
D
GR
EA
T W
ALL
HO
LDE
N
HO
ND
A
HY
UN
DA
I
JEE
P
KIA
LAN
D R
OV
ER
LEX
US
MA
ZD
A
MER
CED
ES-B
ENZ
MIN
I
MIT
SUB
ISH
I
NIS
SAN
PE
UG
EO
T
PO
RSC
HE
SKO
DA
SSA
NG
YO
NG
SUB
AR
U
SUZ
UK
I
TO
YO
TA
VO
LKSW
AG
EN
VO
LVO
OT
HE
R
TO
TAL
15-Jan 12 148 149 14 4 31 502 2 1280 356 746 109 198 123 52 722 191 64 469 528 101 74 89 87 116 337 1941 343 36 186 9010
14-Jan 27 180 195 19 12 44 827 10 853 360 665 96 243 92 40 521 200 63 353 444 100 44 75 78 158 527 1467 414 45 141 8293
% diff -56 -18 -24 -26 -67 -30 -39 -80 50 -1 12 14 -19 34 30 39 -5 2 33 19 1 68 19 12 -27 -36 32 -17 -20 32 9
15-Feb 3 151 193 16 2 44 514 0 765 252 694 123 247 47 56 674 155 54 472 371 71 30 75 106 172 289 906 372 46 157 7057
14-Feb 19 179 174 12 4 42 523 13 782 230 616 84 258 78 50 532 109 46 404 388 87 13 54 72 144 423 762 316 34 124 6572
% diff -84 -16 11 33 -50 5 -2 -100 -2 10 13 46 -4 -40 12 27 42 17 17 -4 -18 131 39 47 19 -32 19 18 35 27 7
15-Mar 9 181 165 31 9 54 461 0 794 434 669 129 304 108 63 732 217 64 611 434 63 46 90 100 239 483 970 420 33 162 8075
14-Mar 26 205 171 23 10 54 602 11 764 367 774 100 277 78 65 621 157 46 640 408 114 17 83 83 184 505 1048 359 48 152 7992
% diff -65 -12 -4 35 -10 0 -23 -100 4 18 -14 29 10 38 -3 18 38 39 -5 6 -45 171 8 20 30 -4 -7 17 -31 7 1
15-Apr 7 155 195 36 6 34 509 0 576 261 587 86 295 49 53 597 130 37 373 357 55 36 73 114 155 373 794 288 22 120 6373
14-Apr 31 159 199 20 9 32 441 13 662 200 571 115 231 66 28 485 120 48 334 469 92 22 67 70 125 309 764 308 37 123 6150
% diff -77 -3 -2 80 -33 6 15 -100 -13 31 3 -25 28 -26 89 23 8 -23 12 -24 -40 64 9 63 24 21 4 -6 -41 -2 4
15-May 18 170 214 32 6 30 562 15 798 196 531 108 230 68 43 524 191 34 354 415 65 21 67 68 126 406 996 371 30 113 6802
14-May 2 171 160 10 10 22 614 14 692 234 685 46 259 40 40 403 159 39 232 261 95 16 53 45 138 406 1072 301 21 107 6347
% diff 800 -1 34 220 -40 36 -8 7 15 -16 -22 135 -11 70 8 30 20 -13 53 59 -32 31 26 51 -9 0 -7 23 43 6 7
15-Jun 16 163 144 17 4 86 466 0 870 285 773 146 292 70 47 697 173 58 691 281 48 30 117 145 245 404 2171 369 38 175 9021
14-Jun 12 196 174 54 3 31 714 17 960 165 940 104 299 84 47 543 183 41 617 307 103 36 90 120 153 475 1448 410 25 166 8517
% diff 33 -17 -17 -69 33 177 -35 -100 -9 73 -18 40 -2 -17 0 28 -5 41 12 -8 -53 -17 30 21 60 -15 50 -10 52 5 6
15-July 8 130 162 12 0 66 513 0 647 358 539 140 282 83 52 724 178 40 413 348 53 62 73 111 199 352 1179 312 39 197 7272
14-Jul 25 168 147 25 5 46 602 12 805 421 571 113 241 72 40 529 138 34 405 373 57 20 76 68 152 394 1030 307 46 149 7071
% diff -68 -23 10 -52 -100 43 -15 -100 -20 -15 -6 24 17 15 30 37 29 18 2 -7 -7 210 -4 63 31 -11 14 2 -15 32 3
15- Aug 10 166 128 9 1 62 413 0 721 331 664 147 306 77 45 743 153 41 407 444 62 33 93 172 210 332 1512 291 48 131 7752
14-Aug 31 161 147 34 6 61 494 7 837 372 599 134 217 83 40 487 160 47 380 340 111 27 70 84 130 345 1169 289 46 175 7083
% diff -68 3 -13 -74 -83 2 -16 -100 -14 -11 11 10 41 -7 13 53 -4 -13 7 31 -44 22 33 105 62 -4 29 1 4 -25 9
5 187 182 12 3 102 618 0 1068 353 700 131 265 71 57 891 194 63 604 425 50 31 81 111 258 314 1471 314 56 218 8835
14-Sep 12 184 181 28 6 71 479 37 1044 388 636 123 256 57 54 371 180 52 515 496 107 12 68 108 175 302 1582 327 34 497 8382
% diff -58 2 1 -57 -50 44 29 2786 -66 80 -79 115 -72 0 1550 -48 -65 1062 -17 -90 -71 575 63 139 79 387 -80 -83 -56 5
YTD 15 73 1455 1452 158 31 514 4453 1070 6784 3238 5448 1222 2216 694 1307 5778 1419 1011 4289 3141 548 437 822 1201 1824 4366 10745 2760 1491 70238
YTD 14 201 1602 1602 247 61 411 5244 135 7505 2699 5903 977 2252 678 407 4613 1438 411 4002 3640 836 212 650 751 1347 3686 10266 3101 345 1640 66862
%diff -64 -9 -9 -36 -49 -36 -15 693 -10 20 -8 25 -2 2 221 25 -1 146 7 -14 -34 106 26 60 35 18 5 -11 -100 -9 5
NEW COMMERCIAL MODELS
MAKE MODELSEPT'15
MAKE MODELSEPT'14
FORD RANGER 743 FORD RANGER 595TOYOTA HILUX 589 TOYOTA HILUX 526HOLDEN COLORADO 320 HOLDEN COLORADO 280TOYOTA HIACE 243 TOYOTA HIACE 186MITSUBISHI TRITON 225 MITSUBISHI TRITON 158NISSAN NAVARA 200 NISSAN NAVARA 144ISUZU D-MAX 145 ISUZU D-MAX 117MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER 106 MAZDA BT-50 112MAZDA BT-50 90 MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER 91FORD TRANSIT 79 VOLKSWAGEN AMAROK 88
principal Archibald, “especially with a low dairy payout.”
September wasn’t particularly good or bad, Archibald describing it as “on par” with normal trading performance.
“Utes always go good for us,” he said, noting that at the new end of the fore-court Mitsubishi Triton has been “going really, really well,” close to doubling the sales of its Isuzu D-Max yard mate.
Continued from page 37
New vehicles continue to beat expectations
STATSTALKSECONDHAND
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SECONDHAND REGISTRATIONS − SEPTEMBER 2015SALE TYPE WHA AUC HAM THA TAU ROT GIS NAP NEW WAN PAL MAS WEL NEL BLE GRE WES CHR TIM OAM DUN INV TOTAL
Cars 2015
Public to Trader 235 4815 1129 85 674 75 99 407 201 109 566 96 1121 231 113 44 1862 161 11 425 297 12756
Public to Public 1830 14432 3223 584 1964 869 358 1389 993 577 1621 390 2738 942 430 175 59 5182 498 156 1793 1001 41204
Trader to Public 558 6091 1487 235 924 299 170 557 391 180 753 178 1604 309 197 56 15 2266 232 54 629 430 17615
Cars 2014
Public to Trader 237 4405 1277 94 572 86 111 374 271 145 675 103 1151 214 147 48 1788 170 27 532 342 12769
Public to Public 1774 13558 3168 474 1937 707 334 1322 1004 435 1671 354 2725 978 428 203 76 5112 504 194 1685 935 39578
Trader to Public 568 5849 1465 222 1005 295 195 546 456 177 847 157 1453 315 200 89 24 2366 273 75 745 434 17756
Cars % Change
Public to Trader -0.8 9.3 -11.6 -9.6 17.8 -12.8 -10.8 8.8 -25.8 -24.8 -16.1 -6.8 -2.6 7.9 -23.1 -8.3 4.1 -5.3 -59.3 -20.1 -13.2 -0.1
Public to Public 3.2 6.4 1.7 23.2 1.4 22.9 7.2 5.1 -1.1 32.6 -3.0 10.2 0.5 -3.7 0.5 -13.8 -22.4 1.4 -1.2 -19.6 6.4 7.1 4.1
Trader to Public -1.8 4.1 1.5 5.9 -8.1 1.4 -12.8 2.0 -14.3 1.7 -11.1 13.4 10.4 -1.9 -1.5 -37.1 -37.5 -4.2 -15.0 -28.0 -15.6 -0.9 -0.8
Motorcycles 2015
Public to Trader 8 149 39 26 3 11 10 2 16 12 53 6 26 15 2 378
Public to Public 59 449 130 20 82 31 13 52 42 22 58 17 135 47 20 13 5 185 26 8 66 23 1503
Trader to Public 14 146 48 9 30 6 2 15 12 2 18 9 48 7 2 1 2 41 7 1 21 6 447
Motorcycles 2014
Public to Trader 2 112 33 30 7 5 5 23 6 35 4 3 29 12 3 309
Public to Public 41 390 139 24 66 28 5 46 46 13 61 14 129 54 17 13 2 242 15 12 68 34 1459
Trader to Public 9 102 32 9 36 4 2 16 18 8 24 8 39 7 4 2 49 3 2 18 3 395
Motorcycles % change
Public to Trader 300.0 33.0 18.2 -13.3 57.1 100.0 -60.0 -30.4 100.0 51.4 50.0 -10.3 25.0 -33.3 22.3
Public to Public 43.9 15.1 -6.5 -16.7 24.2 10.7 160.0 13.0 -8.7 69.2 -4.9 21.4 4.7 -13.0 17.6 0.0 150.0 -23.6 73.3 -33.3 -2.9 -32.4 3.0
Trader to Public 55.6 43.1 50.0 0.0 -16.7 50.0 0.0 -6.3 -33.3 -75.0 -25.0 12.5 23.1 0.0 -50.0 0.0 -16.3 133.3 -50.0 16.7 100.0 13.2
Trucks 2015
Public to Trader 60 679 204 22 126 20 45 75 43 19 133 25 103 54 33 20 216 36 2 92 71 2078
Public to Public 350 1880 544 103 313 135 85 360 179 78 283 84 366 165 90 54 9 789 94 32 316 210 6519
Trader to Public 121 677 245 45 150 54 54 106 70 36 135 32 147 68 40 19 7 340 39 11 121 92 2609
Trucks 2014
Public to Trader 58 473 200 23 76 26 43 80 48 22 118 21 89 46 41 4 244 49 5 69 77 1812
Public to Public 308 1646 503 93 367 124 69 217 167 75 291 71 341 186 77 45 25 797 96 37 298 181 6014
Trader to Public 108 586 234 47 130 51 53 139 89 21 123 38 116 52 42 20 6 343 58 26 111 86 2479
Trucks % change
Public to Trader 3.4 43.6 2.0 -4.3 65.8 -23.1 4.7 -6.3 -10.4 -13.6 12.7 19.0 15.7 17.4 -19.5 400.0 -11.5 -26.5 -60.0 33.3 -7.8 14.7
Public to Public 13.6 14.2 8.2 10.8 -14.7 8.9 23.2 65.9 7.2 4.0 -2.7 18.3 7.3 -11.3 16.9 20.0 -64.0 -1.0 -2.1 -13.5 6.0 16.0 8.4
Trader to Public 12.0 15.5 4.7 -4.3 15.4 5.9 1.9 -23.7 -21.3 71.4 9.8 -15.8 26.7 30.8 -4.8 -5.0 16.7 -0.9 -32.8 -57.7 9.0 7.0 5.2
Dealer transactions of used cars stalled in September – barely
changing against last year.Trader sales for the month
were down 0.8% to 17,615 units, while public-to-dealer
sales were down 0.1% to 12,756.
Public transactions were up 4.1% to 41,204 units.
In the bike market, dealer sales were up 13.2% to 447 units, while pubic-to-dealer
sales rose 22.3% to 378 bikes.Public sales rose 3% to
1503 motorcycles.Truck purchases by deal-
ers were up 14.7% to 2078, while dealer sales of used trucks were up 5.2% to 2609.
Secondhand stalling
Public transactions were up 8.4% to 6519.
STATSTALKBIKES
40 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
NEW BIKE MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
YTD'15
SEP'14
% Change
Market Share %
SUZUKI 124 1102 108 14.8 17.1HONDA 73 802 100 -27.0 10.1HARLEY DAVIDSON 70 455 53 32.1 9.6YAMAHA 69 545 57 21.1 9.5KAWASAKI 46 387 53 -13.2 6.3BMW 43 230 33 30.3 5.9FACTORY BUILT 30 206 22 36.4 4.1APRILIA 28 181 13 115.4 3.9TRIUMPH 28 339 46 -39.1 3.9DUCATI 24 152 12 100.0 3.3KTM 24 220 18 33.3 3.3INDIAN 17 92 6 183.3 2.3TNT MOTOR 16 217 22 -27.3 2.2FORZA 13 128 12 8.3 1.8VESPA 10 104 34 -70.6 1.4HUSQVARNA 9 12 1.2PIAGGIO 9 123 19 -52.6 1.2SCOMADI 9 32 1.2MOPED 8 113 18 -55.6 1.1PGO 8 84 14 -42.9 1.1OTHER 68 793 74 -8.1 9.4TOTAL 726 6317 715 1.5 100.0
NEW BIKE MODELSMAKE MODEL SEPT'15
HONDA NBC 110BN 23HARLEY DAVIDSON STREET 15 500 18SUZUKI GW250 INAZUMA LAM 18YAMAHA YZF R3AF 17SUZUKI GSX-S1000FA 14SUZUKI GSX-S1000A ABS 13YAMAHA MT-07 LAF 13SUZUKI UZ50 X 12TNT MOTOR ROMA 2T 11
USED BIKE MAKES
MAKE SEPT'15 SEPT'14% CHANGE
MARKET
HARLEY DAVIDSON 66 49 34.7 35.9HONDA 17 11 54.5 9.2DUCATI 15 15 0.0 8.2TRIUMPH 14 16 -12.5 7.6SUZUKI 13 15 -13.3 7.1BMW 11 9 22.2 6.0APRILIA 7 4 75.0 3.8KAWASAKI 7 14 -50.0 3.8YAMAHA 7 14 -50.0 3.8BSA 4 2 100.0 2.2OTHER 23 24 -4.2 12.5TOTAL 184 173 6.4 100.0
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Tis the season to go rid-ing - and the time that New Zealand’s motor-
cycle dealers start rubbing their hands together.
The cold, wet and miser-able middle months don’t do the bike industry any favours, but it looks like the first glimpses of genuine sunshine and decent weather have started to see some action in motorcycle showrooms.
Used bike sales across September were up 6.4% on the same month last year,
with 184, compared with 173 last year. Topping the table were Honda, with a 54% jump year-on-year, and Harley-Davidson with a 34% jump. Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha all saw drops - 13%, 50% and 50% respectively.
But new bikes are a different story altogether - with Suzuki dominating the market (124), followed by Honda (73) and Harley Davidson (70). Honda was going backwards compared with September 2014, how-
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ever, dropping 27%. Indian, Ducati and Aprilia all jumped by triple digits, 183.3%, 100% and 115.4% respectively.
The year’s total of 6317 sales is looking healthy, and September is up, but only slightly at 1.5% over last year.
Ray Pratt, chief executive of Auckland Harley-Davidson says used imports are still making things tough - but reckons the year could end well for the big American bikes, with October marking the brand’s new model year release.
“The market’s there,” he
says, “but it’s pretty competi-tive. We’re lucky that we can hold our prices for 2016.”
Pratt says the part of the market that his company oc-cupies is now tougher with Triumph, Indian and Victory taking a swing at the buyer’s dollar, and used machines landing here more often.
“We’ll see how summer goes,” he said, just before AutoTalk went to press and the sun was blazing in Auck-land. “Last Saturday the shop was full all day, and we had six sales - hopefully that’s the start of things to come.”
STATSTALKTRUCKS
TALK TO THE TEAM YOU CAN TRUST: 0800 GO VINZ (0800 468 469) / email: [email protected] / www.vinz.co.nz
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Vehicle Inspection NZ
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 41
TALK TO THE TEAM YOU CAN TRUST: 0800 GO VINZ (0800 468 469) / email: [email protected] / www.vinz.co.nz
Vehicle Inspection Specialists• Warrant of Fitness • Certificate of Fitness • Certification • Road User Charges
• Registration & Relicencing • Drivers Licences • Vehicle Information • Vehicle Appraisal & Change of Ownership • Exhaust Emission TestingVehicle Inspection NZ
TALK TO THE TEAM YOU CAN TRUST: 0800 GO VINZ (0800 468 469) / email: [email protected] / www.vinz.co.nz
Vehicle Inspection Specialists• Warrant of Fitness • Certificate of Fitness • Certification • Road User Charges
• Registration & Relicencing • Drivers Licences • Vehicle Information • Vehicle Appraisal & Change of Ownership • Exhaust Emission TestingVehicle Inspection NZ
NEW TRUCK MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
% Change% of Market
SEPT'15
SEPT'14
ISUZU 128 125 2.4 25.0 838 709MITSUBISHI FUSO 83 76 9.2 16.2 491 504MERCEDES-BENZ 70 67 4.5 13.6 283 297HINO 60 87 -31.0 11.7 493 565FIAT 25 28 -10.7 4.9 162 140VOLVO 23 21 9.5 4.5 205 207UD TRUCKS 22 22 0.0 4.3 194 183KENWORTH 21 20 5.0 4.1 148 120DAF 19 16 18.8 3.7 157 151SCANIA 14 26 -46.2 2.7 160 149OTHER 48 93 -48.4 9.4 595 818TOTAL 513 581 -11.7 100.0 3726 3843
USED TRUCKS MAKES
MAKESEPT'15
SEPT'14
% Change
% of Market
SEPT'15
SEPT'14
ISUZU 32 30 6.7 22.2 247 240TOYOTA 31 28 10.7 21.5 352 253MITSUBISHI 17 16 6.3 11.8 158 100NISSAN 17 17 0.0 11.8 111 113HINO 15 20 -25.0 10.4 179 115FORD 4 4 0.0 2.8 16 25MERCEDES-BENZ 3 2.1 12 13ALEXANDER DENNIS 2 1.4 2 4CHEVROLET 2 3 -33.3 1.4 6 18DAF 2 1 100.0 1.4 12 15OTHER 19 17 11.8 13.2 194 165TOTAL 144 136 5.9 100.0 1289 1061
Total new truck regis-trations year to date is 3726 as at September
30, 2015, as opposed to 3843 at September 30, 2014.
Isuzu Trucks continues to erode into the market share of its competitors, year to date it has 838 registra-tions as opposed to 709 for the previous corresponding period.
Isuzu Trucks dominated the new truck market last month; it took 128 registra-tions for September 2015, three units more than the previous corresponding period in 2014.
Isuzu Truck sales and marketing manager Micheal Doeg says the distributor is happy with the result across the three categories, heavy, medium and light.
“We are certain that our
lead in the heavy truck mar-ket that we achieved by one registration more than Volvo at the end of August will continue,” he says.
“But we are waiting for the official results to come through, so we cab be cer-tain of this,” says Doeg.
Doeg says that the pre-orders for the new VC36 series Isuzu Giga have been better than expected.
“This pre-order response coupled with the success of the sales promotion for light and medium trucks concluding in August means there will be a steady flow of new trucks through the bodybuilder pipeline” he says.
“We are very happy with our current market perfor-mance, and we are opti-mistic about the number
of registrations we will see between now and the end of the year,” says Doeg.
Mitsubishi Fuso was sec-ond in new truck sales with
83 registrations for Septem-ber 2015 as opposed to 76 in the same period last year.
In third place for truck registrations in September, Mercedes-Benz Trucks saw 70 registrations, three more
than the previous corre-sponding period.
Fourth placed Hino was down 27 units from 87 in September 2014 to 60 last month.
Used go against trend againRegistrations of used
trucks once again bucked the trend with an increase to 144 units in September 2015 as opposed to 136 in the previous corresponding period.
Year to date 1289 used imported trucks have been registered up from 1061 at the same time last year.
Isuzu was the top brand in used trucks with 32 registra-tions, up 6.7%. Toyota was second with 31 registrations up 10.7%, and Mitsubishi Fuso saw 17 registrations up 6.3%.
New truck market continues to slow down
42 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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In this case, the purchasers in early 2013 purchased a 2012 HSV ClubSport
from the trader for $83,439 - which they are now seeking to reject.
The purchasers say that in March 2015 they discovered that the vehicle was not the model they thought that the trader had sold them which they say they thought was a 2012 HSV ClubSport R8 sedan.
The purchaser told the Tribunal that in May 2013 he was looking to buy a R8, hav-ing previously owned a 2001 and a 2002 ClubSport and a 2010 Maloo.
One of the people that he was working with was a rela-tive of a salesman employed by the trader. The salesman
was told of the purchaser’s interest and made contact. The purchaser claims he told the salesperson he wanted a new 2012 ClubSport R8 with a manual transmission in Alchemy Burgundy colour. The salesperson - no longer
Mislabelled muscleCameron v Ebbett Wellington Limited t/a Johnston Ebbett
employed by the dealer - made a written statement saying the purchaser said he wanted a manual ClubSport.
The salesperson sug-gested the purchaser look at the trader’s website, as they had a ClubSport manual in the correct colour. The purchaser acknowledges this but says he could not view the website. The salesperson instead sent him images.
The salesperson says in his statement that he sent the purchasers a Sales Agreement form and a deposit slip and the Tribu-nal notes that the vehicle which the trader offered to sell was described under “Vehicle Details” in that form as “ClubSport R8 Sedan V8 manual”.
The purchasers travelled to Wellington to collect the vehicle on 13 May 2013, having arranged for it to be financed by UDC Finance. The salesperson showed the purchasers the vehicle, which was ready for deliv-ery, and they were happy to proceed with the purchase. The Vehicle Offer and Sale Agreement signed by the parties refers to the vehicle as “HSV ClubSport R8 Sedan V8 Man.”
The purchaser claims that when he went to collect the vehicle he noticed that it did not have an R8 badge on it. He says “I was told that this particular model did not come with an R8 badge”. The salesperson’s statement says: “At no time during the sales procedure did (the purchaser) mention any-thing about an R8 and if the badge was missing off the boot”.
The Tribunal notes that there are four features which are present in the R8 but not in the ClubSport model, namely: leather upholstery, a bimodal exhaust, an EDI unit and about 8kw of additional engine power. The R8 also has a badge on its boot.
The purchaser, in re-ply to questions from the adjudicator that he did not know that the R8 vehicle had leather upholstery, that he did not notice it did not have a bimodal exhaust, and that there was an Enhanced Driver Interface (EDI) unit in the vehicle but it was not available and he thought nothing of it “I put this down to being an Aussie op-tion only and not in the user manual.”
The purchaser says that he believed the vehicle he was purchasing was an R8, he did not think anything of the value, and that he would not have purchased the ve-hicle if he had known it was not an R8. He says he only found out in March 2015 that the vehicle was not an R8, and he had approached the trader for compensation.
The trader had offered to trade the vehicle in and give him the value of an R8 for the vehicle, but the pur-
Continued on page 43
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 43
NEWSTALK
chaser was not prepared to accept the trader’s offer and sought a full refund of his purchase price.
In reply to a question from the adjudicator, the purchaser agreed that he had suffered no economic loss as a result of receiving the vehicle instead of the R8 model.
The trader noted that the purchaser was a previous HSV owner who had to know the features of an R8 compared to a ClubSport, particularly as he claims he intended to buy an R8. His claims that he did not re-alise he had not been sup-plied with an R8 for almost two years “lack credibility.”
The trader provided a copy of the “write up” sheet prepared by the salesper-son, and a copy of the in-ternet advertisement listing on carupdater.com for the vehicle, which shows it was advertised as “New MY12.5 HSV E3 ClubSport sedan six-speed manual”. The trader says that the price list he produced shows the list price for the ClubSport was $86,990, whilst the list price of the R8 manual was $92,990 - so that the pur-chaser was not overcharged for the vehicle he bought.
The trader says the error in the vehicle offer agree-ment and VOSA occurred because a stock number was incorrectly coded as an
R8, whereas it should have been coded as a ClubSport. He admits the error but says it was limited to the content of the offer agreement and VOSA. The trader pro-vided a copy of the vehicle information report for the vehicle, which shows it is correctly registered as a “2013 Holden HSV Club-Sport Sed Man”.
The trader says that ac-cording to an email from UDC, its paper work noted the vehicle as a ClubSport not an R8. It also felt it was unlikely they would not have noticed the car was not an R8 when relicens-ing it.
There is a further reason why the Tribunal, even had
it been satisfied that the purchasers were misled by the trader, would have been unable to give the purchas-ers a remedy.
In order for the Tribu-nal to consider making an order under the Fair Trading Act, the purchaser must have suffered or be likely to suffer loss or damage as a result of the misleading conduct - which the pur-chaser admits he hasn’t.
The Tribunal also con-siders that the purchas-ers have lost their right to reject the vehicle by not exercising it within a reasonable time of the time of supply.
The purchasers’ applica-tion was dismissed.
Continued from page 42
2009-2015 Passat models, excluding the most recently launched model, with 1357 vehicles.
There are 874 Amarok utes, 680 Golfs, and 312 Caddy vans – as well as a handful of other vehicles in the mix. See the table below for a full listing.
Ruddenklau says few of the vehicles have likely come into the market through used channels, with only 200-300 diesel Volkswagens ever sold in Japan, and most United Kingdom imports being of unaffected, Touareg models.
Ruddenklau says the company is notifying cus-tomers now, and they will be contacted again when it is clear what will happen
to rectify the vehicles. The vehicles are technically safe to drive but notes additional emissions are not a good thing.
“While Volkswagen New Zealand did not know about the software discrepancy, we would like to apologise for what has happened,” he told customers in a statement.
“We value the trust our customers place in us, and we will be in contact with them as soon as a solution is identified.”
Volkswagen New Zealand has also been in touch with the Commerce Commission and will keep it informed as the situation progresses.
“We have proactively been in touch with them, and they have been very helpful.”
(light subhead) Sales yet to take hit
While there has been sig-nificant bad press attached to the brand in recent weeks, sales are yet to take a signifi-cant hit.
Passenger registrations in September were barely down on the same month last year, from 317 to 314, while sales were up on August.
Ruddenklau says sales have been holding up, although some deals have been put on hold by buyers. He is expecting sales, how-ever, to eventually take a hit.
“We are not naïve enough to expect this is not going have an impact.”
Significant effort is go-ing into backing the dealer network, he says, who are having to face customers.
Ruddenklau says man-agement has been meeting
every morning to establish what new information is available in order to pass it on to the network as quickly as possible. He has also spo-ken to specific customers in conjunction with dealers.
When asked if dealers were being taken care of in regards to targets and bo-nuses - which could poten-tially be hit - without elabo-rating, Ruddenklau said: “We are looking after them.”
How long the local brand rebuild will take is depend-ent on it being straight up with its customers he says.
“It will be directly related to how we deal with the situation, And I think New Zealanders respect the ope-ness and honesty with which we are approaching this.”
“But we are aware that is going to take some time.”
Continued from page 1
Volkswagen backs dealers amid scandal
44 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
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Refined PX Ranger hits the road
Ford New Zealand reck-ons its newly refined PX series Ranger ute
will maintain the vehicle’s more than 600 unit lead over the ageing Toyota Hilux.
The ‘blue oval’ brand saw more than 738 Rangers sold locally in August, a new re-cord for the company, and it knows that an all-new four-cylinder turbodiesel 2.8-litre Toyota Hilux will launch at the end of November.
If the Ford NZ brass is worried by the incoming Toyota model, they didn’t
show it at the recent media drive day held at the new Boomrock Kauri Bay off-road driving facility near Clevedon, in Auckland.
Ford staff say they are confident that buyers will prefer the 3.2-litre five-cylinder diesel grunt of the Ranger. They reckon the buyer will ultimately decide which is the better vehicle, and dealers report that the increased retail price has not been a barrier.
Prices start at $38,040 for the 3.2-litre XL 4x2 single cab well side manual model
to $69,640 for the 3.2-litre Wildtrak double cab 4x4 automatic.
The many engineering refinements to the steering, transmission, and engine - as well as cosmetic, infotain-ment, and safety enhance-ments - will also be attrac-tive to buyers. says Ford New Zealand managing director Corey Holter.
“The electric power steer-ing is amazing,” says Holter. “You want for nothing in this truck.
“The customer will decide which ute will remain at number one on the sales charts, but we are confident in our vehicle,” he says.
The top-of-the-line Ranger Wildtrak mirrors the Ford Mondeo Titanium by offering features such as heated leather-clad seats, Sync2 vehicle connectiv-ity, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping alert, and land keeping aid
Key cosmetic changes to the Ranger are the new front grille, with a trapezoidal design, reminiscent of the US built Ford F-150 truck, which is wholly intentional says Ford New Zealand.
In addition, the Ranger sports new headlamps, new recessed driving lamps, new wheel designs and a cargo light on pick up models.
Driving impressionsLower rolling resis-
tance tyres, coupled with redesigned engine and transmission mounts, and a completely redesigned cable-gearshift mechanism,
all make a huge difference to the on-road feel of the PX Ranger.
It’s far quieter on a road than the outgoing model, particularly the Wildtrak, and it is by far a more refined proposition all around.
All 4x2 models receive an electrically locking diff to assist with traction in off-road conditions. A battery management system is fitted so that portable electric devices plugged into the USB or 240V power socket, won’t drain the battery entirely, and will leave enough charge to crank the engine over.
Thanks to the new electri-cally assisted power steer-ing, not only are greater efficiencies created by losing the hydraulic pump, but the system can also damp out vibration through the steer-ing wheel from corrugated roads.
A complete remap of the Puma five-cylinder diesel unit’s engine control soft-ware, improved efficiency and performance.
Sadly, the five-pot engine is no longer as raucous as it used to be, but the perfor-mance is still there.
The old Ranger was a car-like drive, and the new Wildtrak auto continues to be the same, with a car-like interior to match.
We particularly liked the new touch-screen that offers greater functionality as well as ease of use. The new Hi-lux is going to have a battle on its hands to tempt people away from this much-im-proved Ford.
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 45
AUSSIETALK
Australian dealer news at www.autotalk.com.auFO
LLOW
Max
Pic
ho
n
AutoTalk’s senior
Aussie journalist
Max Pichon looks
back at the major
stories in the past
month on our
Austrailian
AutoTalk website
– autotalk.com.au
AUSSIE TALK
DIARY
September 7Greater Western Sydney home to latest Lexus dealershipWork has started on the latest Lexus dealer network – Lexus of Macarthur – in the greater western Sydney region.
Lexus of Macarthur will be located on an 8000m2 site in Gregory Hills, in the Camden local government area, and commence business in early 2016.
September 9Brisbane dealerships partner up to form Warwick AutomotiveA new motoring partnership is set to drive two Brisbane-based Ford and Nissan dealer-ships to new heights.
It is a newly formed part-nership between local dealer principal Chris Murphy and Brisbane-based automotive group Motorline.
The Warwick Daily News reports that the new venture comes just months after the Warwick site’s separation from Southern Cross Automotive Group, which was placed into receivership.
September 11Sole Ferrari dealer opens in QLDFerrari Brisbane has opened its doors to customers as the sole official Ferrari representative in Queensland, becoming the fifth dealer of the Maranello
brand in Australia.Chief executive officer of
Ferrari Australasia, Herbert Ap-pleroth, said the new Brisbane showroom was opening at the ideal time, with the GT and sports car segment up 23% in Queensland year on year.
ACCC forces Fiat Chrysler to revamp customer serviceFollowing an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investiga-tion into consumer guarantee complaints concerning vehicle faults and how car manufac-turers handle those com-plaints, Fiat Chrysler Australia (Chrysler) now has to revamp its aftersales customer care program.
September 18ACCC clears Esanda purchaseThe Australian Competition and Consumer Commis-sion will not block Macquarie Group’s acquisition of dealer finance company Esanda.
In a statements the ACCC said it would not oppose the proposed purchase of Esanda from the ANZ bank.
Despite Esanda and Mac-quarie Group both financ-ing motor vehicle dealers, the competition watchdog concluded that the purchase wasn’t likely to “substantially lessen competition” in the bailment and point-of-sale finance market.
September 21Court told of Fiat
Chrysler ‘kickbacks.’Former Fiat Chrysler Australia boss Clyde Campbell’s wife Simone allegedly received se-cret “kickbacks” from company deals.
The alleged payments – totalling over $620,000 – stem from contracts and deals signed by Clyde Campbell and Veronica Johns, his successor as managing director at Fiat Chrysler Australia.
September 22CR-V diesel off while dollar’s dyingHonda Australia will re-intro-duce its diesel CR-V – if the exchange rate comes right.
Spokesperson Melissa Cross confirmed to AutoTalk that the diesel variant of the SUV had been put out to pasture.
She said this was partly due to “significant exchange rate pressures” weakening the Aus-sie dollar.
Car loan broker cops 10yr banThe Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has cancelled Fernando Morais’ credit licence and blocked him from engaging in credit activities, reports Smart Company.
An ASIC investigation found that Morais breached credit legislation by providing false documents in five consumer credit applications to BMW Finance, trading as Alphera Financial Services.
September 24‘Lemon’ warning over suspended dealershipA NSW dealership was sus-pended from trading and a public warning issued over its alleged sales of defective cars.
Familyautogroup Pty Ltd had been the subject of 64 complaints and 44 enquiries to the office of NSW fair trading
commissioner Rod Stowe in just two years.
The Office of Fair Trad-ing started legal proceedings against the dealership and Stowe advised those who had a vehicle being sold on behalf by the dealership pick it up.
September 2540,000+ emissions-dodging VWs in Australia: reportVolkswagen and Audi vehicles caught up in the global emis-sions evasion scandal could number more than 40,000 in Australia.
Fairfax Media reported that it obtained confidential industry figures that show 42,918 Australian vehicles have the 2-litre turbo diesel engine that’s at the centre of the scandal.
ANCAP appoints chief execANCAP named James Good-win as its new chief executive officer.
The appointment of the former Australian Automo-bile Association government relations and communications director was made by the ANCAP board.
Goodwin also worked for the Federal Chamber of Au-tomotive Industries (FCAI) fol-lowing a career in journalism.
September 29Smith steps down from AHG board7-Eleven deputy chairman Mi-chael Smith is stepping down from the Automotive Holdings Group board.
A spokesman for the group said his decision came before the widely-publicised scan-dal over underpaid workers at possibly two-thirds of the franchised convenience stores.
The case sparked an inquiry by former ACCC boss Alan Fels.
46 | AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz
DIESELTALK
DIESELtalk editor
Robert Barry
looks at the month
gone by on
dieseltalk.co.nz
-daily news for the
heavy transport and
equipment sectors.
Ro
ber
t B
arry
DIARY
September 2Liquidation application for Naked BusAn application to liquidate prominent inter-city bus op-erator Naked Bus was made by another bus company.
Stuff.co.nz reported the application was made by Ngai Tahu-owned Go Bus, which charters to operators such as Naked Bus, alongside its school and commuter bus operations.
A notice of liquidation was placed in the NZ Herald.
September 4Call for greater focus on coastal shippingThe government needs to revisit the integration road, rail, and coastal shipping, accord-ing to the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Fed-eration (CBAFF).
CBAFF president Glenn Coldham says that calls by the New Zealand Shipping Fed-eration for the government to stop ignoring shipping infrastructure and recognise it as a strategic national asset highlights a significant issue.
“Coastal shipping should not be ignored, given the high number of international ports we currently have in New Zea-land,” says Coldham.
September 7Government considers raising biodiesel blend limit
The government is considering whether it will raise the limit of biodiesel blend from 5% to 7% for diesel available at the pump.
It is part of a government goal to promote biofuels where technically and com-mercially viable, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
September 14Joining forces to reward safer drivingNZI says its new heavy motor vehicle insurance programme is rewarding commercial car-riers that demonstrate safer driving behaviour.
The NZI and Lumley safe driving rewards programme offers an excess waiver for commercial vehicle operators that meet certain driver safety benchmarks.
The programme is a col-laboration between the in-surer and transport technology company EROAD.
September 16Northland Truck operators asked to cough up Whangarei District Council (WDC) is asking Northland truck operators to cough up $132,000 to cover a shortfall for sealing dusty roads.
The district council al-located $400,000 to seal ten 100m strips along Wright, McCardle, and Pipiwai Roads, west of Whangarei, where truck-generated dust has an-noyed residents for more than a decade.
NZTA declined a $4.5 mil-
lion funding request earlier this year for a full 9km reseal of Wrights Rd and McCardle Rd, according to the New Zealand Herald.
September 21Biosecurity risk impact surprises freight industryMembers of the Bay of Con-nections Freight Logistics Action Group (FLAG) were surprised by some briefings on the impact of biosecurity risks to the sector.
The group included road and rail freight owners and operators, planners and representatives of service and support industries.
Ministry of Primary Indus-tries (MPI), Kiwifruit Vine Health and biosecurity operations staff briefed FLAG members on the biosecurity risks that could potentially hit day-to-day business operations if ignored.
New $64 million contracts awarded to SouthRoadsThe NZ Transport Agency is negotiating a new type of maintenance contract for the Southland state highway net-work with a partnership led by SouthRoads Ltd.
SouthRoads is the pre-ferred supplier for the new $64 million ‘network out-comes contract.’
It will run over seven years, and is designed to deliver greater efficiencies in terms of operation and costs, said the Transport Agency’s acting southern business manager Ian Duncan.
September 22National footprint for HWR GroupHW Richardson Group (HWR) acquired the former transport division of Eastern Equities Group, which now gives the
company a nationwide rural transport footprint.
The trading brands ac-quired in the joint-venture deal include Farmers Trans-port, Bushetts Transport, CL Drager and Sons, and Opotiki Transport.
According to Hawkes Bay Today, the purchase is a joint venture with former Bushetts manager Wayne Robinson, who is now the acquisition operations manager.
September 24Attack on grader disappointsAn act of vandalism on a Downer-owned grader has left Tairawhiti Roads journey manager Helen Harris gob-smacked.
Harris says the attack on the grader, lent to contrac-tor Fulton Hogan to assist in cleaning up the State High-way north of Ormond after serious flooding, was ex-tremely disappointing.
“The grader was broken into at the Ormond Weigh Bridge,” says Harris. “It had been parked there since Friday ready to respond to any event issues.”
September 29Increased vehicle cargo boosts port profitLyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) says volumes of general cargo such as motor vehicles and dry bulk freight exceeded expectations and helped its $20.5 million profit for the financial year to June 31, 2015.
The previous year’s profit was $343 million, but this figure included a large insur-ance payout relating to the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.
The port company reported lower revenue of $109.1 million - a drop from $115.8 million in the previous corre-sponding financial period.
AUTOTALK OCTOBER 2015 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 47
NEWSTALK
isolated case - there are claims that up to 60% of Australian used imports, amounting to 240 vehicles a week, are write-offs.
Vinsen disputes this figure, saying it’s “impossi-ble” to know for sure, but is adamant that the process of importation, inspection and certification are “very robust.”
Part of this process al-lows for a vehicle flagged as damaged to be fixed and resubmitted for inspection, he says. Failing for a second time means the vehicle is flagged for life.
“These vehicles are written off in Australia,” explains Vin-sen, “and for the most part, they are written off for com-mercial reasons, and in many cases, it’s quite cosmetic. For example hail damage to roof, bonnet and boot - the insur-ance company decides it’s too expensive to fix, writes it off, pays it out and sends the car to auction.”
“There are two issues here,” he says. “One of them is about safety - of which there is absolutely no con-cern. The other is disclosure - what the public needs to know so they can make an informed decision when they’re buying a vehicle, and that’s harder.
“Every vehicle is inspected - a border inspection consist of three components, one is biosecurity, one is physical, and the other is structural.
“Before the inspection by an accredited agent, that vehicle’s identity in New Zealand starts to be created, the agent then enters the ve-
hicle’s details into the NZTA’s working database - make, model, chassis number, col-our, odometer reading.”
The documentation, including photographs, that comes with this process is key.
“The border inspector is as critical as you like - and there is a bit of dynamic tension here - but he can flag it if he thinks it warrants any further inspection down the track. I’m not saying he does it un-necessarily, but he puts the flag on it if there’s any doubt.
“If the compliance office thinks that it’s minor enough damage to have the flag removed, they’ll get a second opinion and then put an ap-plication through to NZTA to have it taken off. NZTA will look at all of the documenta-tion, and the photographs and decide yes or no.
“If the flag is not taken off, it can go back through the system and eventually get registered and sold. But when it is sold, it will have the box ticked next to “Was this vehicle imported as damaged?
“That means everything’s there - it’s on the window card.
“The grey area is where things have been imported and haven’t been marked as damaged. It’s like if you’ve crashed your car, taken it to the panelbeater and had it repaired and nothing is ever recorded. There’s no record, there’s no scrutiny - it’s just a vehicle that’s been dam-aged during the course of its normal life.
“It comes back to how
Aussie imports put buyers write offContinued from page 2
AHG continues growthContinued from page 1
much we should know about a vehicle’s pedigree and how much should the customer be told? Where do we draw the line? If you know that a car was written off in Austral-ia, you’re duty-bound to tell them - but if you’re selling it for the second time here, and aren’t aware of what’s its history is, there’s no obliga-tion to go digging back to find out.
“If a car was written off in Australia and comes here but whistles through without being flagged, I’m not sure what the obligation really is, or what the public should be told - if you did lie about it or stayed silent about it, I’d think that the Motor Disputes Tribunal could at some stage,
overturn the sale.”By not declaring previ-
ous damage to a customer, even not knowing about it, a dealer who didn’t know a vehicle had been written off in Australia could be in the same boat, albeit innocent-ly, but this is yet to be tested in the tribunal, says Vinsen.
He says the recent issues around written off Austral-ian imports underlines the need for buyers to know what they’re buying, ask the right questions and do their home-work before signing a deal.
What do you think of the Aussie write off situation? Find this article on autotalk.co.nz, scroll down to the comments section and let us know…
a general managers role.Bruce indicated to Auto-
Talk that AHG sees strong potential in the west Auck-land market, but would not be drawn on if this meant additional brands for the group in the area.
“We see this as part of a wider expansion in the west.”
In the past, the John Andrew brand in particular has had an expansion in the western side of the city.
Bruce says the company has strong growth intentions for the New Zealand market overall.
“We want to grow, the market is strong, the economy is strong.”
DUNEDIN4 sailings/month
AUcklAND7 sailings/month
NElsoN2 sailings/month
TAUrANgA4 sailings/month
chrIsTchUrch7 sailings/month
NApIEr4 sailings/month
WEllINgToN7 sailings/month
SERIOUS ABOUT SERVICE
Jim ShiNorth Island Business Development Manager027 876 5435
Nigel McAuleySouth Island / Wellington Business Development Manager027 8765434
www.autohub.co +64 9 411 7425 [email protected]
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