Top 100 most profitable dealers revealed, Gerry McGovern mysteriously departs JLR, and Zipcar pulls out of UK – with John Veichmanis, episode 234
Car Dealer Podcast
Top 100 most profitable dealers revealed, Gerry McGovern mysteriously departs JLR, and Zipcar pulls out of UK – with John Veichmanis, episode 234
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Car
Volkswagen Polo GTI
The Volkswagen Polo GTI is a sportier version of the regular Polo car. It has a more powerful engine and is designed to be more fun to drive.
Car
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta Active is a small car that looks a bit tougher than regular cars, making it good for different types of roads. It's a great choice for people who want a fun and stylish ride that can handle a bit more than just city streets.
Term
dealer margins
Dealer margins are how much money car dealers make when they sell a car. It's the difference between what they pay for the car and what they sell it for.
Concept
hot hatches
Hot hatches are sporty versions of small cars that have a hatchback design. They are fun to drive and often have more powerful engines than regular hatchbacks, making them exciting for car lovers.
Car
Honda Civic Type R
The Honda Civic Type R is a special version of the Honda Civic that is designed for performance. It has a powerful engine and features that make it fun to drive, especially on tracks or winding roads.
Car
Kia Picantos
The Kia Picanto is a tiny car that's perfect for driving around the city because it's easy to park and uses less gas. It's a good option for people who want a budget-friendly and reliable vehicle.
Term
used car values
Used car values are how much people are willing to pay for cars that have been owned before. If these prices go down a lot, it can hurt car dealers and manufacturers financially.
Term
manufacturer bonuses
Manufacturer bonuses are extra money that car makers give to car dealers for selling a certain number of cars. If these bonuses go down, it can make it harder for dealers to make money.
Term
agency sales
Agency sales are when car dealers sell cars for the car makers instead of owning the cars themselves. This can change how money is made in car sales.
Car
Land Rover Range Rover
The Range Rover is a fancy SUV that can drive on tough terrains like mountains and mud, but it also has a lot of comfortable features inside. People talk about it because it's a status symbol and great for both adventure and city driving.
Car
Range Rover Defender
The Range Rover Defender is a tough SUV made for off-road driving. It's known for its unique look and has been around for a long time, getting updates to stay modern.
Car
Range Rover
The Range Rover is a high-end SUV made by Land Rover. The 2022 version has a lot of luxury features and is good for driving off-road as well as on regular roads.
Car
Range Rover Sport
The Range Rover Sport is a sportier version of the Range Rover, also made by Land Rover. The 2022 model has more performance features and a sleek design.
Brand
Jaguar
Jaguar is a brand that makes luxury cars, known for being stylish and fast. They've had some problems recently, which is why they haven't released many new models.
Company
JLR
JLR is the company that makes both Jaguar and Land Rover cars. They've been changing a lot lately, especially with new leadership.
Brand
BYD
BYD is a car company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They are becoming popular for their new technology.
Car
Land Rover Freelander
The Freelander is a small SUV made by Land Rover, first sold in 1998. It's known for being a good off-road vehicle while still being comfortable for everyday use.
Car
Mini
The Mini is a small, stylish car that's fun to drive. It's known for its unique look and has been around for a long time, becoming a favorite for many drivers.
Car
Renault 5
The Renault 5 is a small car that was popular in the past and has been brought back with new features. It's great for city driving because it's easy to park and use.
Company
Zipcar
Zipcar is a service that lets you borrow cars for a short time, like an hour or a day. It's useful for people who need a car occasionally but don't want to own one. You can find these cars parked around cities and unlock them with an app.
Company
Avis
Avis is a company where you can rent cars. They have many locations and offer different types of vehicles for people who need to drive for a short time.
Car
Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a small SUV that is good for families and city driving. It has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo, which makes it a popular choice for many people.
LIVE
Welcome back to the Cardiola podcast where we pick our favorite stories of the week and
ask an industry guest to choose which were the best.
I'm John Ray and joining me once again this week hit James Bagger in a, well it seems
to be the boiler cupboard you're sat in at the minute.
I just keep getting downgraded in my own house.
I'm now in a new room which is a little bit echoey, sorry about that.
We need to fix that John for this podcast probably.
But yes a new room, been ousted from one upstairs which is now my daughter's bedroom and then
the dining room clearly didn't work for the family of me sat in there so I've been ousted
from there and put in as you rightly described the boiler cupboard because that is the boiler
just there.
So yeah it's always fun, Joyce anyway this is less interesting.
I might be in a boiler room but where are you John?
Well as you can see I'm also in a boiler room because it's not enormous this.
I'm in Japan James.
Of course you are.
We've got to invite you which is a bit awkward.
It is a bit awkward because we should be holidaying together but you haven't taken me have you?
No I haven't.
I was on something called an economy flight and you haven't been on one of those since
1996 so what can you do?
So true.
Nice to see you John though thank you for joining us on your holiday from Japan.
I have dedicated you what can I say?
And I see there was room in the luggage for the hat that's also good news excellent.
That's right yeah I mean I would take it off I've been walking around all day it's now
6pm here and if I take it off I'm going to have terrible hat hair so it's staying on.
The weird thing is John you might be in Japan this week but I have basically been spending
my entire week buying Japanese imports so it's a little bit of a slight sliding doors
moment there.
I bought another 13 this week.
Did you mention this on the podcast last week?
No you haven't but you've been offered some storage space haven't you?
Yes after the meeting we had well after the podcast I had a meeting with a local company
that's got they basically do aerospace stuff and they've got loads and loads and loads
of parking.
I just happened to be sat next to someone oh sorry that'll be him now.
That was your PR man John so I think you can jastise him after this we're interrupting
our podcast.
No the what I sat next to this chap at the Gospel Business Awards John so there was
a reason for going I know you took the mick out of me last week but he's got some space
he's given us parking for 16 cars which is very handy because as you know we will be
you've immediately filled it that's not how it works James you're supposed to go and
have extra capacity and then go all right fill all that now.
I got really excited with the fact we have more space so went on to the Japanese auction
website bid on some more cars and won a lovely Polo GTI so why are you out there could you
pick it out for me please?
I'll go and have a look at it for you.
But yes an interesting week it's been all fun and games but we should probably move
on to our guests because it'd be far more interesting.
I think so so our guest this week is CEO of Carwell John Vick Manis.
John lovely to see you.
Hey guys lovely to see you both again.
John nice to see you thank you for joining us so early on a Friday morning very nice to see you.
How are things in Carwell land then you've had a busy few months haven't you?
Yeah definitely it's been a super busy time actually as we come to the end of 2025 so
we're seeing continued to see really really strong engagement on the new car side obviously
stock sourcing continues to do really well and you know we've had a lot a lot more dealer
interest in our use car proposition as well so it's been really busy.
Yeah tell me a little bit then about that because there's been a lot of change over the last
few weeks in the in the use car space you probably heard on the podcast a couple of weeks
back we had Nathan Coe from WaterTrader on the podcast there's been a bit of discontent
that seems to still be rumbling on with the dealers that that I am talking to about the
changes that WaterTrader have made there's some news this week that they've launched some advisory
panels and they're listening to what their customers are saying but you're on the other
side of the fence aren't you you're probably chatting to these customers who possibly coming
across to you I mean is that happening? Yeah no I think there's a lot a lot of interest in
I suppose diversifying where dealers spend the marketing money to generate leads I think there's
unquestionably just a lot more interest in trying to distribute that money across
more partners I think the challenge is
I desperately desperately want to get to a place now where we can
provide a sufficient huge increase in in actual volume in terms of eyeballs and inquiries on
the use side which is I suppose in many many ways we are in a position where we have a generation
one sort of used car products and we are busily trying to make that generation two and then
generation three given there is just so much demand I suppose for dealers we have a lot of
traffic we'll need to make the product much better and that's what we've been focusing on that's why
I've got huge bags under my eyes not just getting up so early to join your podcast. We know the
feeling don't we we know the feeling I mean that number at number two space John he's crowded I mean
there's a lot of people fighting jostling for position WaterTrader have got a dominant position
in the in the motor trade you've got you've got motors you've got car gurus you've got
yourselves you've got Google vehicle ads what what should what why should people choose you?
Yeah that's a good question I suppose from my perspective that the one thing that we are perhaps
I should be careful how I phrase this actually you know the undisputed number two
is on traffic aren't on eyeballs that that is where we have you know there is a significant
delta between us and everybody else and my my pitch to dealers if you like is we have a lot
of eyeballs and they're very very relevant eyeballs these are people that are looking to
either buy a car or sell their old car and you know large proportion of those people that are
selling the old one obviously want to buy buy a new one and that in many cases is used it's new
to them rather than a brand new car so my job at the moment I I suppose if you look at many
marketplaces often they go out and and raise money from venture capitalists
and and that is often to to fuel customer acquisition it's to acquire more more people
to use the platform so in in the case of an auto marketplace that can generate more eyeballs for
dealers and therefore more inquiries we actually have the opposite problem we've lots of eyeballs
and you know lots lots of traffic on the platform but we have a relatively early product on the
use side and so that's the thing that we're desperately trying to fix and and that is somewhat
different to the other players in the market that perhaps have a more mature product so yeah
hopefully over the course of of of 26 you will see our products on the use side evolving at a
really rapid pace I know when we last spoke James you had some good feedback for me in terms of
making the calls more the the the call to action on calling more visible adding videos you'll find
before before Father Christmas comes those changes will be made so so we are making some rapid
progress actually making the product better yeah so it's a big change isn't it for you guys I mean
we've advertised on the car world platform pretty much since you since you launched it and we have
sold cars off it and I've you know I've told you this personally we have sold cars off it
but there are some tweaks that need to be made to that platform it must be a big challenge
refining that product to to do all of the things I think a lot of dealers out there think well it
must be really simple just use our pictures use our words put our phone number on there and and
send the leads our way but it's I suspect it's a little bit more complicated than that I keep
telling my engineers the same thing James I'm like how difficult can this be um so uh yeah no
we're making good pro we've we've we've made some good progress we actually
sort of move quite a few of the the engineering teams uh around to make a bit more progress
because yeah there was just a lot of a lot of demand in the market and obviously we you know we
want to help partners I think you know we ultimately believe competition is good uh and and and if we
can if we can provide alternatives you know also traders a great product it's a phenomenal business
I'm not going to start knocking the auto trader but I do think um I do think in this cut you know
particularly the UK it's very different to any other classified market in in in auto if you go to
Europe you've got if you're into Germany you've got Mabili you've got auto scouts which is smaller
than Mabili but is is a really really strong number two competitor uh you go to the US you've
got car guries you've got cars dot com you don't see that in the UK and and that I think is
ultimately I think what dealers want to see they just want choice and and I I I desperately desperately
want to try and sort of help to help them achieve that goal so I think that's good for them you're
an ambitious man as we as we well know I can can car well be the new auto trader
I think what we're trying I I suppose our business model is slightly different in that we
we are helping dealers with stock sourcing and helping them on the marketing side both
for new cars now increasingly used so it is a different model the one thing about car that I
love is that we that the investments that we've made in content over the course of the last decade
so the youtube channel know the world's most popular car review channel we are an auto express
we own either we've made massive massive investments in content and that has allowed us to that that
is that generates a lot of high quality traffic on our platform and dealers want exposure to that
and so the one thing in terms of competing with auto trader I think it gives us a unique ability
because we don't have to pay for all the traffic and and that is the difficulty in competing with
auto trader in that it is a 40 year old brand it's very very well known and if you if you want to
try and compete by buying the traffic you're probably going to fail I think the one the one
advantage we have is is that 70% of our traffic is generated either people just come into car
while or via the content we produce and and that's hard to replicate what can dealers expect if they
think I think the most important thing is is high quality eyeballs and high quality enquiries
I think ultimately the thing that we're working on on the product side is to make sure that the
the experience of working with us the biggest challenge for me at the moment actually is signing
I actually have a waiting list because we really need to invest in the back office technology so
that it's easy to operate on our platform so that's that's the big focus at the moment
when you when you talk about what to expect that the thing that we really pride ourselves on is
having a level of you know connection with our dealer partners I think if you talk to a lot of
people on the sell my car platform a lot of dealers they actually appreciate the time that we put in
to help helping them make the most of the platform I want to do the same thing on used that's going
to take some time in terms of investing into the product and building up the team around it so
they have a good experience so you can expect good quality enquiries I want by certainly
you know Q1 Q2 next year that also that you're a dealer's interaction with us is good so if the
product's not working or calls up and we're going to do everything we can to make it work
and and that I think is you know we've worked really hard over the last two or three years to
you know a lot of the people that work in our account management team and our support team
or ex dealers they really understand the sort of pain points of being an operator you know we're a
technology company I've never been a car dealer you know I love what you've done because you know
you're you know writing from a dealer's perspective because you all want and that that's the most
important thing we want to make sure that we we have a level of empathy and understanding and
and that's what I'm I'm busily working on in the bank right and what when it comes to these
these big decisions that you've made over the years I mean you you've obviously had to make
lots of them to to launch this platform or also traders had to make some big changes
to their system recently you know with deal deal builder that would have been a big decision
what's your take on the way that was introduced and the and the feedback that cut the customers
have had off the as a result yeah it's a good question I mean
I mean I suppose the obvious answer is I suppose listening I I think the biggest
change in car over the past three or four years is we we have actively repositioned so that we
over index on dealer needs because I think actually when we started out in this space if you
talked to new car dealers 10 years ago they probably weren't particularly fond of carwire because
they they saw it as you know empowering consumers to basically you know bash the dealer network
around a little bit and and that as a marketplace that doesn't make sense ultimately I want to
provide consumers with choice and in order to do that I need to make sure that I'm providing a good
platform for dealers and therefore we spend a lot of time listening so you know one example on our
use car sites actually is that we yesterday we removed the price markers and parkers dealers are
saying well they don't really make sense yes of course consumers want to understand if something
is priced well but most of those price markers don't really reflect that you know the prep that's
gone into a car or you know the service history so we've removed them we're trying to figure out a
better way of doing that actually I've been talking to the IMDA this morning about well you know is
there a way of actually as if um if a customer came into a showroom and said well why is your
your Ford Fiesta 500 pounds more than the one down the road well well this is why
because I've prepped here look there's not a mark on it so how do we start to sort of move into that
space and and to be honest that's not because we're you know some kind of geniuses it's because
we're listening to dealers and we're trying to build a product that resonates with them and I think
is you know fair for both dealers and consumers I mean I get the price flag thing I mean we you
know we use it very we pay very close attention to it with the clever car collection but I can see
where there is anger when it comes to comes to these price flags because every year dealer margins are
being squeezed prices are going up but people are telling us how much we can sell our cars for
so you know the only way really that's fair is if you can set your own price for that car
because then you can decide the margins you want to make whether the customer buys or not slightly
different let let me ask this the deal being deal build a question slightly slightly differently
there like do you think customers want to transact online and reserve a car before visiting the dealer
I mean you you know online journey is better than anyone I mean do you think customers want that
I mean certainly we've seen very little evidence of that I think to your point that you know the
one thing that we do see is and you and I have talked about this James that there is in a large
proportion of cases there is a desire for to purchase locally so that you can actually go and see the
car and I think that is still so so important to a large proportion of customers and therefore
the concepts of reserving online before you've seen it before you've driven the car certainly
for a large segment of our of our consumers isn't really a relevant feature and I personally I struggle
with it as if I was a dealer I would struggle with it ultimately because you know inventory is
expensive to your point car retailing is is is really challenging on margin and you know all
the dealers I talked to are trying to optimize the margin in the speed to sell and the reserve piece
does not aid that goal and so I'm not convinced I mean I think it is ultimately a route towards
trying to sell cars online you know I still fundamentally believe this is an omnichannel
category and and and that I think is the place to deploy technology people want to want to research
online they want to sort of build a short list they potentially want to find their perfect next car
but you want to go talk to an expert you know that that is the point it's not just sitting
in you want to talk to somebody that's you can tell you about and make sure you're making a good
decision these it's not like buying a pair of trainers when I worked at Farfetch I could put
you know a pair of you know Gucci sneakers on Instagram even though those were very expensive
and people would buy them people don't buy cars like that and I fundamentally don't believe that
is a good way of buying a car for most consumers you want to keep building this this platform
you need a war chest to do that I mean we reported on your accounts in September I don't think we've
spoken personally off the back of that but your losses grew in 2024 didn't they to 20 million
pounds revenue up drastically 55% but those losses increasing 21% I mean what would you
say to people that looking at those accounts on face value I was thinking have you got the funds
to do it yeah no good question I think it's important to recognize that we obviously in the
same year raised 52 million 52 million dollars from Bessemer venture partners who are a venture
capital business or venture growth business and and ultimately they want growth so if they if
they give us the money they don't want us to keep it in the bank they want us to invest it for growth
and to your point we grew 55% we did exactly what they wanted us to do they want this business
to thrive they see an opportunity to build a phenomenal sourcing business for dealers
we're also really excited about the opportunity to create a good competitor in the used car space
now that does that does mean we have to make significant investments to do that it's really
really hard but it's something we have a high level of conviction in and that's why we made
a loss because ultimately we we've employed a lot of engineering talent a lot of technology talent
and I think as we've talked about before it's you know my job to provide distribution so we
all of the the money all of our optics basically goes into content creation and marketing
now the question that the reason business you know anybody would invest in in car wear those if
you look at the unit economics at a customer level they are they are they are really positive
but we're investing for future growth and so you know there are no questions around the
sustainability of our business you know we could be profitable tomorrow but grow at a slower rate
and and we've made a conscious choice that we want it to grow faster now if we were making
losses and not growing I think you know well I probably wouldn't be on the podcast I'd be
uh we'd still have you on it's interesting those it's that it's that dynamic between
you know the way dealers do business and and a tech business I mean they're very very different
things and you can't you can't really compare them I said I wouldn't auto trade a batch but my only
one slight slight jibe would be you know the only um perhaps the only business in this category
that's making you know margins north of 60 percent is is auto trade I mean it I think that's why
competition is good that that you've got a large proportion of dealers that are making single
digit EBITDA margins and we make no margin that's the the charitable cause we are um and um joking
uh so that you know that suggests that there is an opportunity to create a good you know an
additional level of competition and that's uh that's the thing that I'm really keen on doing
I mean short of hiring Matt Watson when it comes to good decisions that car wow have made I mean
I'm I must say and I assume it's probably the same in house the use car platform purchase
was was one of the best decisions that you guys ever made I mean I use the platform daily I'm a
big fan of it I love the way it works it's it generates us some really good stock and it's
grown massively isn't it I mean you've now sold 75,000 cars in 2024 generated 1.1 billion of gross
revenue according to your last accounts how big is that platform going to get I think yeah I mean
it continues it's had another phenomenal year in 25 actually it's uh it's no significantly larger than
the new car business that we've been operating for the last decade or so so um yeah I know we
we love it because we think it's a great product it's you know that you know dealers really really
enjoy using it I think a lot of the new features that we put in place around wallet around transport
we're going to launch stock funding in Q1 as well so um yeah the the products moved on at a really
really fast pace and consumers love it I think I mentioned we had five million valuation we've
had five million valuations on the platform this year there's about nine million people change car
now obviously not all of those five million are going to change this year but a large proportion
of them are so it's um you know it's interesting it it works really well with uh going back to
math it works really well with the YouTube channel the one thing about for car wow we
we have built a brand through content so lots of people we have really really high brand recall
but the thing that I love is that people trust us you know if you watch the channels Matt has you
know he's no holes barred he's you know genuinely genuinely honest and and so consumers trust us
to go actually this is a brand that can trust to help me you know sell my old car get the best
possible price so I can get a brilliant new car as well and um and that's working phenomenally well
and then you bought the publications didn't you auto express evo and some some other great great
brands uh that that must have been 2024 when that happened I mean how how's that fitting into the
business now yeah it's great it's um auto express continues to go from strength to strength we
continue to invest in the team uh you know we believe in high quality uh journalism within
this space you know you can obviously you know sell your car on auto express when we think about
our ambitions in use actually in terms of use classifieds auto express again is really really
important you know we we're doing a lot of work to connect the reviews we've got a massive back
catalogue of reviews for cars that aren't aren't built anymore so do we build that into the the
DNA of the experience it gives us a lot of additional traffic again it's highly highly
relevant so uh auto express doing continues to do well really strong on uh visits uh we're doing
really well um most dealers probably don't know whether we also have a uh a growing media business
that historically has been um targeted at OEMs at the car manufacturers um we've built a lot of that
technology into auto express we've just launched sponsored listings actually so for those that are
using our used car products you can obviously boost particular cars or inventory and uh so yes
going really well actually my first uh my first ever jolly actually a car you know I have no time
for jollies but uh Stu Gallagher invited me and a couple of our board members to the uh Evo uh we
went to the um car of the year yeah we uh well we didn't get to go to car of the year I would love to
go to that looks amazing uh no we went and tested some hot hatches but it was fun though they wouldn't
let you loose on the Ferrari then so no no no I was in I was in a civic type R but it was amazing
yeah I bet it was really good what what's it like having a tech business that publishes
publications on the newsstand I mean does it does it feel a little bit counterintuitive at times
I don't think so I think um you know we've been I think the culture of carware is that we've always
had this focus on tech and content and the teams you know the I think the teams just you know really
enjoy you know it's quite a different environment I suppose you've got very different uh personalities
and different perspectives but I think generally the people we employ love that that's why they
join in part so you know we we I think the thing we're most excited about is how do you start to
combine the content and the commerce piece together um and so again when we come back to
price markers that's why we're actually on there we you know our journey if you talk to Matt ultimately
the way he creates videos is he he thinks about everybody has a mate that they were going to talk
to when they think about buying a car you know they make they go chat to in the pub
and and so for starters you know Matt's so excited about his adding us because you know anybody
recommending a car is not just going to say oh you should only buy a new one that that's not
good advice uh you know good for some people not for for everyone and the other point is
you know you would go back to that person say well I found this car what you know what do you think
um and a price marker is just a quantitative measure but it but it's not a qualitative measure
um and a used car you know there is a huge gradient of quality depending on you know the
previous owners the prep that's been done on it and and and so that's when I think I'll sort of
focus on content because ultimately you know that we've got 70 journalists that love cars you know
and they they would happily pay more for a car that's that's been well well maintained and they
understand that so if you put those people with a bunch of engineers then I think you can create
something that's that's really interesting and that's when the culture to me is is is is really
cool you you must have so many opportunities in this business especially now you've collaborated
those those great brands and you've mentioned there is putting some commercial aspects into them is
is a big challenge what what do you spend most of your time on you know as as CEO of the business
what are you focused on raising more capital to do used well um is number one priority so
we're we are we are determined to uh to put more investments so you're going to keep writing these
terrible headlines about my profit for for a few more years to come maybe wow more growth though more
growth um so yeah I spent a lot a lot of my time working on the on the on the strategy for the business
there's still a lot lot of growth to go and get actually I love the product side of the business
so I spent a lot of time with our products and engineers our business in Germany and Spain
businesses in Germany and Spain continue to grow so Germany's been quite a big focus for me recently
we launched my car there back in February growing really really nicely so yeah we spent quite a
bit of time I spent a lot of time on the international dimension plus product technology
and and time with uh with shareholders and you know talking to talking to shareholders
and one day they're going to want their money back aren't they I mean how how's the grand plan
coming along for for a listing is that the out at the end of the day oh James who knows who knows
I think we're just focused on at the moment you know we're focused on building a brilliant
business and it's good to you know it's an honor actually to be able to raise money from from growth
investors I I generally think you know there's a lot of doom and gloom in in the world at the moment
and you know particularly in Europe and the UK but you know there are some amazing technology
businesses in this in this country and I you know I the benefit of private ownership is that you've
got the ability to sort of go quickly make decisions you've got a level of autonomy
and you know I want to build a brilliant UK technology business and I'm living doing that so
you know we're not in any rush to IPO the business is more capitalized
but you know that one day I you know I think that would be a great aspiration for us but
it's not enough on the time and the rights and just yeah when it comes to pitching to these
to these big venture capitalist companies I mean what does it what do they think of the most
trade because I mean I just you know I rewind the clock back till you know when I was launching my
very small business talking to banks that you know they did not want to know you know it took me I
had to talk to 13 different banks to get just an account for a for a motor trade business
is it completely different when you when you're talking to these these vcs about a tech business
are they excited about the motor trade oh god yeah no no I think so it's um
I mean we talk about this this omnichannel model in terms of people moving from online into an
offline space and that that you know this is probably the last large consumer goods category
and it's not yeah it is a car consumer good it's difficult to say I mean it's such an investment
for anybody but it is the last category I suppose where the the bulk of the eyeballs if you like
or use as starting to think about changing cars have moved online now that no the bulk of them have
but the the opportunity to invest into technology to help them do that you know make better decisions
help them sort of figure out which car to buy that if you think about our sunlight car business
you know before car were a motorway merged on the scene a lot of the technology to do that didn't
exist and you know the the ability to build new products in this space
I wouldn't say describe it as it being immature but there's still there's still
gaps in the market for once of a better phrase to create new products for dealers and for consumers
and and that's what vcs are interested in and they didn't have their fingers burnt with kazoo
um I I think kazoo is a sort of special case to some degree I mean it's so different to
yes it's in the auto industry um but it was it's not a technology model in in many regards
and the thing I always struggled with with kazoo to some degree is you know all of the retailers
in this in this category are good retailers they've been retailing online for years it's not a new
concept my point is I think that there is there are technologies to create that help dealers do that
more efficiently and effectively not by copying what they do you know I'm not a retailer I'd be
terrible at it um but you know I can help them source cars because you know I've got I've got
millions of people that that trust our perspective that are using our our platform to help them figure
out what what to buy and therefore we can help them sell that car at the same time but um yeah
I think most vcs are tainted by kazoo actually I think it was a one-off one-off yeah one-off
we'll put it at that John thank you very much for taking our tough questions I appreciate you coming
on the the podcast I mean plug opportunity time for those people listening who are interested in
hearing more where can they go yeah so um if you um if you if you're particularly if you're
interested in the in the use car piece we actually have a waiting list at the moment for people to
join so um if you go to uh kawao the kawao dealer portal which is kawao.co.uk slash dealers
you can um you can find out more there or you can email me jv at kawao.co.uk I was on a
dealer way podcast the other day and lots of dealers email me so feel free to just email me directly
and um if you're interested in the use car site we've got some some quite good um
offers there to try and add more dealers onto the platform well I wish you the best of luck with it
thank you very much for joining us today but John it's probably time for some stories
this is a paid partnership in association with dealer way John guess what oh god you've
bought more ducks haven't you no ducks John wrong there I've actually got a new habit I've signed
up for dealer way alongside more than two and a half thousand other rated and vetted car dealers to
sell my trade part exchanges the site is designed for dealers to sell their part exchanges for more
money quickly and easily there's no sellers fees and buying a car costs just £99 one of the cheapest
around and when I haven't got the time to list the car myself I can even watch out them the
details and they do it all for me that sounds awfully familiar so are you selling all your stock
there now not exactly John but if I do have a sudden influx of Kia Picantos I know where to
send them dealers can find out more at dealerway.co.uk now back to the podcast
yes probably is so James and I are going to run through our favorite stories of the week
and at the end John gets to decide which one of us chose the best ones and who is the winner
James won last week so he gets to start while I go and adjust my air conditioning it's very cold in
here suddenly those Japanese and their efficiency John thank you for that yes I'm going to go first
which is a rarity for me and I'm going to pick a story which has taken up a lot of my time
and that is about the car dealer top 100 which came out this week compiled by the experts at
Cooper Parry sponsored by Carwell no less they were JV I'm glad you're here to to talk about it
very interesting year for the for the motor trade so this this looks at 2024 accounts
the policy at the end of 2025 because most of those accounts come out at the end of September
so it gives the experts a bit of time to analyze them the headlines are a big drop in profit profit
is was down to two billion in total for the top 100 that's a 600 million pound drop overall for
those top 100 dealers revenue down as well 16 billion it was down in 2024 from 88 to 72
there are thereabouts so some big changes in fortune for the motor trade now we've been talking
all year about the the accounts of these big card in the groups we've been analyzing them
as we go but I just thought the opportunity arose from this this card in the top 100 to
do a little bit more analysis so I enlisted the help of AI John as his as his tradition for me
and asked chat GPT to look at all of the stories that we'd written this year about the car dealer
accounts just to find out what those directors had said what was the overall themes as to the reason
that 2024 numbers were down and it actually came up with a top 10 for me which was very good I've
written about it in my sub stack this week which will be going out after this podcast
but number one was rising operational costs so things like energy wages interest rates they were
all up considerably in 2024 that was the most cited reason for a for a drop in performance in 2024
then you had in number two those falling used car values and stock write downs you remember at the
end of 23 there was a big market correction in terms of used car pricing it happened just before
Christmas but obviously a lot of those dealers would have been carrying that stock into 24
and that stock was written down as a result number three reason was weak new car demand
during the year number four the reduction in manufacturer bonuses and number five the impact
of agency sales and franchise changes so they're the headlines really as the as to the impact of
those reasons which I thought was was very interesting I mean it was just it was nice to get AI to
crunch some big data really and just look at all of those different reasons because when we talked
about it on the video that you can find on this channel actually on youtube but if you're listening
to this find out on our car dealer magazine to youtube channel we chatted about the reasons
and that was the number one from from Ian McMahon he said it was the cost creep he called it
during 2024 that was the big the big driver of that that reduced performance in terms of the
other headlines John there were some fantastic performances from dealers you know it's not
all negative news Arnold Clark at the top of the list number one 380 million pounds of EBITDA
profit up from 366 million pounds the year before very very impressive performance a fantastic
business that that once again was was was in number one position the top 10 alone accounted for
more than half of the profits earned by the entire top 100 they generated 1.15 billion the top 10
dealers generated 1.15 billion of the profit for the top 100 I mean that's an incredible figure
also in terms of incredible figures you've got the best independent dealer Tom Hartley Jr our
outstanding achievement winner at the used car awards he was up 40 places in this list to 16th
that's ahead of Lister's John Clark, Hendy and HRO in generating 31.2 million pounds of profit
from the sale of 100 cars in terms of superstars I mean he really he really is up there but I love
this list I think it's absolutely fascinating to look at it the most important thing is we focus on
the profit not revenue nobody cares about revenue it's how much money these businesses make that's
why all these guys are here in the first place and that's why we focus this list on the profitable
numbers so if you want to go and look into it in detail you can have a look on our website
cardielamagazine.co.uk find the full details but yeah I've been pouring over this this week
and yeah I found it absolutely fascinating what did you think John I think this probably came out
after you'd left for Japan it did which is why currently all over the time this podcast is live
the link at the top of the page will go to it but it currently does for top 100 so I need to fix
that because I'm the only person that can thank you this is true I didn't want to mention it because
we're on holiday but I'll deal with it yeah lots of interesting stuff in here I mean you've covered
it very well there but one thing one thing that stood out was Tom Hartley of course which we knew
sort of was coming I mean I was half listening there James to be honest because I'm slightly jet
lagged but did you all the businesses that Tom Hartley Jr has overtaken overtaken Listers,
John Clark, Motorpoint, Stephen Eagle, Car Giant you know bigger EBITDA than all of those
which is just incredible and from a team of as he said at the awards about 15 staff members
which is as possibly bonkers the other thing is looking at the top 10, Arnold Clark of course
stuck at number one, Sittner's number two but the gulf between Sittner and Arnold Clark just to
show the sheer size and power of Arnold Clark the top two and three combined is still smaller than
Arnold Clark so Sittner and Lookers combined would still not hit the EBITDA of Arnold Clark
which is mad yeah I mean Sittner did drop dramatically this year 205 million pounds EBITDA
compared to 246 the year before but yeah I mean you're right when you're looking at that way
the top two and three nowhere near as big as number one it just shows you how good that business is
doesn't it it does and then of course on the biggest fall as I won't go through all of them but
BAP child motoring world which of course is big motoring world ominously at the top of the fall
as list at minus 50 so they've dropped 50 places down to 86th in the list which is a bit painful
I mean we talked about the results before but yeah painful to see a hill like that yeah I mean a
fascinating list this year and John was we obviously spoke about it on that video but I mean what we
now you've had probably a bit of time to digest it and read all the stories I mean what was your
takeaways yeah similar I think there's been some quite significant changes and as far as we do see
some movement as different different businesses make different investment choices see many were
investing in in new sites obviously in in broader expansion and that does cause some movement between
years I say Tom Hartley Jr amazing amazing performance just such a good business which I
could afford to buy a car from there but and again Arnold Clark an absolute powerhouse in this
category phenomenal phenomenal retail yeah it's nice to celebrate some success I mean it obviously
has been a slightly tougher year but there are some businesses and they're doing some amazing
things so congratulations to all of them but John that's my first one over to you okay so I'm
going to talk about Professor Gerard McGovern OBE yeah so quite a big story this week for
certainly anyone interested in JLR which is Jerry McGovern who was their chief
chief creative officer I think was his title very bizarre story come out via auto car and
a report that he's been effectively marched out of the building allegedly allegedly
are marched out of the building and asked not to return so well number one that's the slight
strangest of that this extremely senior person in JLR this sort of figurehead of their new
direction and indeed their direction for the last at least decade really he's been there for 20 years
but he's been leading it for a very long time being well parting ways with that company is big news
and also the nature of how it's how it's happened very little information to go on on this the
so Auto Car India report to this Auto Car UK picked it up JLR themselves have been absolutely silent
on it they've kept stem they've just said no comment on this at the moment so we can only draw
our own conclusions from what on earth is going on there but talk about incredibly poor timing to
have your most senior design person somebody who was very as I understand it very in control
over everything that was going on you know normally you you see stories about car designers
come and go don't they from car manufacturers that you know someone will come in for maybe five
six years uh leave leave their mark on the design of that particular brand and then they'll move on
to a sister brand or they'll move on to a different one somewhere else whatever you know Jerry McAvon's
been there for a very long time as I say I mean Range Rover Defender uh current evoke the discovery
obviously this new Jaguar all penned by him um I mean we don't have a lot of information about
what goes on at JLR but I will quote a bit of what Steve Cropley in Auto Car has said about this
and sort of opinion piece which is that he effectively had control over a lot of things
beyond what a normal designer would have so you know control over obviously the design control
over marketing what the brand actually means over the timeline for when products are going to come
out enormous um enormous amount of responsibility he had whether it was necessarily a good thing or
not is up for debate I think um so quite how this is going to play out we don't know because this
type zero zero is that it will come out very shortly they've been parading it round it's been
seen in spy shots as an actual car and he's really the the one pushing it and he's gone
very strange times and of course the other the other thing I mean there was a story
funny enough an opinion piece in Auto Car giving Auto Car a lot of a plug here but a few days before
this all came out saying where are JLR's new products because the last new JLR product that
was launched as in an actual car in showrooms was the well the current Range Rover and Range Rover
Sport which was 2022 so that's now three years old three years is quite a long time to not launch
anything or any form of facelift it's been this bit of an empty gap particularly as Jaguar has
disappeared completely so yeah I don't know there's a new person at the helm of JLR of course
who's come over from Tata so one wonders if something has happened there in this particular
person has decided to sweep through with a clean brush well it's a very witty text messages John
from from car dealers this week I mean one wag said perhaps Jerry McGovern was the one who clicked
on the fishing email from the Russians and they I mean yeah allegedly etc etc I did what I did find
interesting with this one is I mean apparently according to those reports is he did leave the
building on Monday he was marched out by security apparently I mean there were eyewitnesses reported
in a number of these other publications we did obviously didn't see it ourselves and
JLR are saying no comments so we haven't got any any clear detail as to what's happened but
that often happens when someone goes somewhere else you know I mean if he's been offered a job
by you know one of these Chinese brands I saw some comment pieces in other publications like
you know he would be a catch for someone like BYD who could spend a huge amount of money and
being in a position that he's got that he's had he would know absolutely everything about the
product plans so if you if you are going to arrive all you need to be taken out of the
building as quickly as possible you know that needs to be stopped isn't it I mean that is
that is one thing I mean it could just it could just be the fact he might just have a new job
elsewhere it is a bit weird that he hasn't said anything a bit weird that has been no because
you know some of these stories I looked at were you know there was there was some a lot of people
saying he's been fired like and I mean that's a very strong word to use you know if he hasn't
been fired that's a very very strong word to be used and without going him going to him for
right reply you have to be very careful using that word because it has very negative connotations so
I think you know we would rather hear from the man himself as to what's happened I mean the
closest we could get to that was asking JLR and they've said no comment when you read into a no
comment if this was untrue they would have categorically said that this story is untrue you
know no comment basically means you know in in our world yes it's true but we're not going to say
anything so I think this is I don't know I mean it's it's an interesting story but I was shocked
when he left because he's had such a big impact I was at that Jaguar re-launch and he was the man
hosting it it was all him it was his idea it was his plan in he's the one who's come up with this
whole new concept for Jaguar and now he's gone and the CEO's gone so a lot of the other dealers I've
got text messages from were saying what do you think is this going to mean that Jaguar's coming
back it coming back in its old shape are they going to stop this new relaunch I said you know
personally I think it's probably a little bit too late they're going to be very hard to row back on
that but they're strange strange as things have happened John yeah I can't I can't see that happen
personally I don't think he's going somewhere else do not if if I'm honest I think he's in
his in his well I don't know I don't want to say he's in his later years but he's 69 approaching 70
he um he's elevated himself to a very high position in JLR he is you know he's the man
that designed the first Freelander you know what was that 1998 he lives and breathes a rover group
as it was then you know I don't think I don't can't see him being tempted by BYD and I also can't see
BYD going yes we're going to give this Englishman a lot of oversight over whatever he wants within our
frankly enormous company I think he was a big fish in a relatively small pond and I can't see
anyone else giving him that kind of opportunity somewhere else interesting John what do you reckon
yeah what do you think John yeah I was equally surprised actually um I'm actually quite excited
about the the time 00 I think it looks really cool um of our team saw it sort of mock at
probably the same prototype you saw James and uh we're we're really excited I do think you know
I think it's a I think I think whenever you talk to to anybody outside of the UK about Jaguar
Land Rover they have those two brands are just you know phenomenal phenomenally sort of well
respected brands and do you think the time 00 is it's it's very different and innovative I think
and yes it's probably got a smaller market but I do think it's um it operates in a completely
different space I think why it potentially could be really successful so let's see yeah it'd be
interesting to see what happens shall I move us on John go on then okay I will um my next story
is news uh from autotrader this week um some positive news actually on this front it's some
analysis that they've done of the market that they think it's going to return to pre-pandemic
levels next year but they say major challenges remain so they are predicting that the UK
car market is going to grow they're forecasting 10.2 million new and used car transactions will
take place in 2026 levels which were last seen back in 2019 so those numbers have been significantly
significantly down since the the outbreak of Covid says this story dealers and manufacturers
have been forced to battle those years of unprecedented volatility according to autotrader
but they think things have been slowing slowly improving since 2022 uh it's now confident that
there's going to be a full retail recovery by the end of next year which is very positive news
it's nice to have some some good news especially off the back of the budget which went down pretty
badly with with most of business um so it look reading reading between the lines here it potentially
we could be back to some good times in 2026 yes i can see john celebrated um it's what we need i mean
it's been it's been a difficult few years um off the back of Covid ups and downs very very strange
strange times to be operating but some normality um is predicted for next year so i just wanted to
put that one in there john because it's a bit of positivity did you see the story um i didn't
actually james because i don't know if you're aware but i'm on holiday can i mention how are you
it's really pointless to be being here um but i'm going to hand it over to john who will have
hopefully more interesting to say about it i'm beautifully swerved beautifully that's what
yeah that was a beautiful swerved um well you know we we have the same name john so you could
have been directing the question of me anyway um yeah i i read this um i i think we're definitely
seeing a similar trend actually um i think the one the one difference um i i think all two trade
of forecast three percent growth unused one percent are new i think we're a little bit more bullish on
new based on the volume of enquiries coming through on the new car side particularly on a lot of the
new entrant brands we're seeing a lot of growth there actually um and you can see that reflected
in smmt data as well so we're actually more bullish on the new side um and um but i think it
tends to the general trend yeah we we're seeing exactly the same thing in terms of i i think we
will get back to sort of 2019 levels of growth next year what's your take on these chinese
challenges then i mean it's uh it's a very interesting point isn't it these these new
brands are coming rapidly we've seen them arrive thick and fast this year next year they're really
going to be bedding in aren't they and changing changing the market i mean consumers happy happy
to to accept them oh god yeah i think we've seen uh it's interesting actually that that we saw um
we that the great thing about our new car business is we can see the levels of interest
based on what people are actually configuring on the platform and it's interesting we saw
early last year actually the jq7 had huge volumes of configurations obviously this year reached more
than three percent share really from just one car so uh i i think consumers i think they're really
well positioned in terms of price point for for for the quality and um you know capabilities of
those cars and then consumers again we go back to the point you know consumers ultimately will
research online and then go into a dealership and and look at a car and i think if you if you're
going to sit in one of those new brands and drive it you know it's amazing quality uh the cherry uh tgo
eight one car wow uh car of the year this year yes that's all i remember matt text this car is amazing
for the money it is and and i think consumers realize that as soon as this sits inside it you
know that's good so i i i i think we're seeing across the piece it's really interesting space
at the moment that you know a lot of the european brands are uh are the this sense of you know is
the european car industry and i think you know there's some amazing brands and i think they're
doing you know adapting quickly actually i think in the in the in the smaller segment as well
particularly the v-segment the launch of the rano five i think the new mini um i i think consumers
have just got a lot more choice uh it's perhaps a little bit more uh more time consuming to figure
out what you want to buy but there's there's the the market is really active at the moment i think
we see a little bit of interest rate movement as well that's definitely going to help um hopefully
that's on the cars despite the uh the budget and um yeah we should be even for a good year i think in
terms of total volumes well we like that a bit of positivity for december yeah we should be james
yeah good news we like that john follow that one up uh i've got some bad news
um but i'm gonna play to our uh london-based guest here and talk about zip car oh i'm sorry
sorry about zip car you see i knew this would work i knew this would work um so zip car for people
who don't live in the capital or go into the capital was a car sharing company um owned by
enormous car hire company avis and the idea was you they're all parked around london you can walk
up to one with your avis app or your card or whatever unlock it some of them you can drive to
around the bits of london and park them and leave them there some of them you have to return to the
same spot but it was a great way of getting in a car uh when you needed to well for lots of people
escape the capital as well you see them quite often you know bimbley around the m25 or the m40 or
whatever off to have a nice weekend somewhere um but they've decided to pull the plug so they'd
already pulled the plug on a couple of other uk locations i can't remember where they were oxford
camies and bristol it says here last year they got rid of those in order to focus on london
um and very sadly by the end of the year they'll be going here as well and i just thought this was
such a surprise because i've always thought it was quite obviously never having looked at the
financials of it i always thought it was quite a successful business because you do see them
everywhere you know i know people who rely on them to well not rely on them but have used them
quite a lot to get around um particularly helpful when there's things like a tube strike going on
of course but there are no more and i it's it's just another one of those things where i think
we've been told for years that car ownership will change and people are owning less cars now and
the other the other and this is maybe one of the solutions that will come about but they just don't
seem to have stuck um i know in france there was a similar thing with tiny electric cars admittedly
that disappeared and folded after a couple of years as well um and i think there's probably been
some other players that i've forgotten about who've come and gone in between so yeah i was surprised
by this i mean james were you surprised before i asked john yeah i was a little i was a little bit
surprised i think you hit the nail on the head there you know everybody's saying this is the
future of the industry future of the industry and car ownership is going to be a car sharing and these
sorts of schemes and then on the other next breath they they disappear so yeah very disappointing
really what's your take john do you have you used them yeah well i use zip van uh normally to take
junk to the tip etc and sort of move stuff around but it was amazing for yeah you just
want to sort of go rent a van for a couple of hours there's one around the corner so definitely
quite sad uh it's my only sort of uh trucker experience um yeah you know it's in i i think the
interesting point is yeah we we're obviously surrounded by predictions of the future and
obviously we are times are always changing and um you know often there's this this focus on you
know the death of the car people won't drive cars don't want cars you know it's a sort of asset that's
depreciating on the driveway i've never really bought into that at all i think um you know there's a
large population of people that just really like driving actually like they enjoy the freedom that a
car gives and uh and there's another large segment this it's a practical part of the family and
actually just being outside the house every you know permanently is is really important and um i
don't think we should ever lose sight of that so however many predictions we get um that suggest
otherwise uh and it's a shame i think the problem with that model is ultimately i think the uh the
utilization of those vehicles plus the amount of damage that they uh they absorb makes makes our
model really economically challenging yeah because having used a few before from different companies
there's always an element of like right well you need to walk around and check for damage do all
that stuff because it's parked outside on the street in london so it will inevitably like of
their hundred cars or whatever there's going to be damage every night isn't there from something
that was the only problem with my iphone you never quite knew what you were going to get
when you got in it and it definitely had some compromises but you know the flexibility to just
use a car or a van in my case whenever you need it it's really quite cool so yeah sad to see see
that move on right i'm going to wait one last one in john i know we're running out of time but
i just want to talk about uh the other big thing that's taken up a lot of my time this week and
that is the launch of car dealer life uh our conference for the motor trade which takes place
on march the 19th at the british motor museum in gayden warwickshire tickets went on sale this week
they're on early bird discount for both dealers and suppliers 10 of that price is going to
ben we're very proud to have supported that charity over the last few years we did it use car awards
to this year so helps raise lots of money for them we've got some amazing headline speakers
we've got sohyb from infinity motors he's built a business within three years from a five car
dealership to 200 cars in swindon he's going to be telling his story about how he's done that
we've got nicola dobson another one of our headline speaker she's the managing director of
perjio in the uk she's held a number of positions at stillantis i'm very excited to be hearing from
her about that brand and what they're going to be doing we'll have a franchise dealer panel
lots of names to add to these panels in the in the coming weeks but so far we've got richard
ennis the ceo of heading and sam luskin who was on the podcast last week the md of luskin motors
our independent dealer panel's got umesh samani the chairman of the imda and steven douglas he's
the founder of really easy car credit a business up in newcastle and also co-founder of dealerway
and then we've got a really exciting panel of challenger brands so we've got a number of these
ones that we've been talking about adam harkin he's from geely steve betty from byd victor zang
from a motor in jacu and farrell farrell sue i'm going to absolutely murdered his surname there
was that right john it was right yeah oh god i've done well there uh he's the uk country
manager for cherry so we've got some really interesting brands there that are going to be
coming along um some partners including autotrader or headline sponsors motorway we'll be doing a
fireside chat with tom leith he's the co-founder of c and ceo of motorway coxsort motive key loop
and impel the ai business and much more including google who are going to be giving a an insight into
how consumers are using ai to search for their next use car so a packed agenda a very busy day
we're adding lots of stuff over the next few weeks um to that but if people want to put their tickets
cardy live dot co dot uk but i'm incredibly excited about that i really enjoy that event every year
and we will be focusing on it between now and march won't we john yes we will yes and also
did you mention hotel rooms though you can book a hotel room the night before and be
entertained in inverted commas by us in the bar will you wear will you wear one of your hats
i'm signing up now i'm convinced i'm signing up
john will do a little bit karaoke on more sale lovely
but yes i just wanted to wait for one in a little bit of a plug but a story that we
we published this week tickets now on sale absolutely uh and early bird pricing ends at
the end of the year so in january it's going up to full price i'm afraid so actually now
to avoid disappointment um so that's all the stories john before i ask your verdict are there
any you think we've missed this week no i don't think so no it's uh i think that's a good list
it's obviously been a busy week of uh of news um yeah i think there's a good mix of upbeat
uh and to and to your point john maybe slightly downbeat topics uh but never the yin and the yang
we try uh so i'm gonna have to ask you who chose the best stories who is your winner or what was
your favorite story john uh given you you've uh given up your holiday to do this podcast i'm
gonna go with one of your stories i'm gonna go with the zip car story uh i think quite sad that
to see see the the end of zip car but i think also to your point often there are many predictions
of the future uh that we may worry about um and uh i think we should also always stay so fast in
the belief that people are always going to want to drive cars that's my prediction um and um and
we should we should continue to uh to focus on uh on the industry that we really love and
continue to do a phenomenal job in helping people find great cars that they enjoy using
well well done john i mean i don't feel too sorry for you because you did uh send me a picture of
the world's largest katsu curry that you were having for dinner last night and i'm very jealous
about all the food you were going to be enjoying in in japan so have a lovely holiday um you're
away for a couple of weeks though aren't you uh i'm away next week as well does that mean you're
the james wow sign this off uh who signs this off at uh a car dealer hq i'll be telling me about
the time in lou so don't worry yeah commitment this hour and then the next hour next week
well we very much appreciate you being here john thank you thank you thank you it's just
straight away you go that's lovely well all that's left for me to say is thank you to john
for coming on today it's been lovely to have you on and thanks for getting up so early to meet with
us after your other meetings today um and thank you as well to james uh for uh where we're in a
we're in a nice jumper in the boiler room in the boiler room no no i can't seem right no still
nothing thank you james and thank you for listening we'll be back next week with another episode so
make sure you're subscribed so you can be notified when that goes live if you want to check out the
store as you've mentioned today take a look in the show notes below or head to cardi the magazine
dot code uk and don't forget to head to cardi the live dot code uk to book your ticket while
early bird pricing is on thanks for listening and goodbye
About this episode
A lively discussion covers the latest automotive industry news, including the revelation of the top 100 most profitable dealers, the unexpected departure of Gerry McGovern from JLR, and the withdrawal of Zipcar from the UK market. Guests include John Veichmanis, CEO of Carwow, who shares insights on the used car market and the challenges faced by dealers. The episode also highlights the impact of rising operational costs on dealer profits and the evolving landscape of car ownership, emphasizing the importance of adapting to consumer preferences.
Original notes
Which car dealers make the most profit? The Car Dealer Top 100 2025 details revealed
Reports suggest JLR design boss Gerry McGovern has been ‘removed with immediate effect’
UK car market set to return to pre-pandemic levels next year but major challenges remain
Zipcar to pull out of UK after car-sharing model fails to catch on among British drivers
Car Dealer Live 26 line-up announced with early bird tickets now on sale
Car Dealer Podcast
Car Dealer
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