- Constellation closes The Car Buying Group
- Kia 2026 growth powered by vans
- Robert Forrester slams proposed parking space ban
- Is business retreating from net zero?
- WEEK AHEAD: UK GDP
- The £5 flat white nears
- Contactless spending limit to be scrapped
- Stellantis chief slams revised EU auto policy
- Scout Motors gets dealer licence for direct sales
- OPINION: Happy Christmas and here’s to 2026
Constellation closes The Car Buying Group
Constellation has closed The Car Buying Group, which the BCA-owner acquired when it took over Aston Barclay.
Auto Sunday understands the majority of employees associated with The Car Buying Group (TCBG) have been made redundant. A customer notice on the firm’s website reads: “The Car Buying Group has now ceased trading and is not accepting new enquiries or vehicle purchases.”
Constellation also owns We Buy Any Car, a direct rival to TCBG.
TCBG was bought in 2018 by Aston Barclay to feed vehicles into its auctions. Auto Sunday understands it handled around 10,000 vehicles a year.
Constellation’s purchase of Aston Barclay is currently under investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Constellation declined to comment.
Kia 2026 growth powered by vans
Kia is targeting modest overall growth in 2026 after what is expected to be a record 2025. CEO Paul Philpott said UK sales are likely to end this year at “around 113,500”, up 1%, with a target of “around 118,000” next year, driven largely by passenger and commercial EVs.
Kia’s UK dealer network is delivering a 1.2% return on sales year to date, with profits “marginally up on last year” despite rising costs.
Kia UK has also won EV grant approval for two of its vehicles after securing Science Based Targets accreditation, a move Philpott said will help accelerate EV demand.
* Read the full interview in the January 2026 issue of Auto Market Insight
Robert Forrester slams proposed parking space ban
Vertu chief Robert Forrester has slammed a fresh crackdown on motorists with the government set to limit parking bays on housing developments.
“More joined up thinking!,” said Vertu chief Robert Forrester on social media. “The Government just do not like private motorists and want everyone on the bus.
“How you charge your car up with no drive is a mystery! This needs to be fought against.”
Under plans published by the government, reports The Telegraph, councils will be required to impose sweeping parking restrictions limiting the number of spaces on new housing developments – without any justification.
The move aims to discourage car use in favour of greener alternatives such as public transport, walking or cycling. However, critics warn the policy will squeeze drivers and lead to “parking misery”.
The measures are included in the government’s proposal overhaul of England’s national planning policy framework (NPPF), which The Telegraph hails as the “biggest rewrite of the planning rulebook in a decade”.
Is business retreating from net zero?
A backlash against net zero “appears to be gathering momentum,” reports The Guardian, with more companies retreating from or watering down their pledges to cut carbon emissions in 2025.
This week’s dilution of Europe’s EV targets, with 10% of sales potentially being petrol or diesel after 2035, is cited as the latest example. It follows a weakening of the ZEV Mandate by the UK government in April, while the US has also torn up EV subsidies.
There have also been net zero roll-backs in energy, banks and financial services, retail and even local authorities.
WEEK AHEAD
Monday, UK GDP
Thursday, Christmas Day
* Have an event or announcement coming up? Let us know and we will include it for FREE
DATA INSIGHT
The £5 flat white nears
£10bn: Size of the UK café market, with sales growing 4.1% last year. Costa is biggest, followed by Greggs and Starbucks. However, property and people costs mean the £5 flat white is near, warn experts.
Contactless spending limit to be scrapped
£100: The current contactless spending limit that will be scrapped in March. Banks and cardholders will be able to set their own cap instead. Nearly 4 in 10 of all payments were made using contactless cards last year.
GLOBAL AUTO
Stellantis chief slams revised EU auto policy
Brussels has failed to deliver a clear roadmap for growth in its revised climate policy, the FT reports Stellantis chief Antonio Filosa as saying. “This package does not do the job. There are none of the urgent measures needed to return the European automotive sector to growth.”
Filosa criticised the lack of immediate relief measures, while the various caveats on the flexibilities around the 2035 petrol ban also mean a lack of clarity on their feasibility.
Scout Motors gets dealer licence for direct sales
Scout Motors has been granted a dealer licence in Colorado, reports Automotive News. It is a “notable victory for the Volkswagen Group-backed brand as it pursues direct-to-consumer sales in the US, despite intense pushback by dealers worldwide”.
The Colorado Motor Vehicle Dealer Board voted 6-2 in favour of approval.
OPINION
Happy Christmas and here’s to 2026
As 2025 winds to a close and this will be the last Auto Sunday opinion column of the year, it feels right to pause, reflect – and say thank you.
Thank you for reading, challenging, sharing and supporting Auto Sunday through what has been one of the most demanding years UK auto retail has faced in a long time. I also want to wish you and your teams a very happy Christmas, and good fortune for 2026.
This year has rarely been short of big topics. The ZEV Mandate started to bite, forcing retailers and OEMs alike to confront uncomfortable questions about demand, margin and pace. Electrification continued to dominate boardroom agendas, even as the consumer story remained stubbornly uneven.
We saw some manufacturers quietly but decisively ease back on direct sales ambitions, rediscovering the value of strong retail partners just as execution became harder, not easier. The Chancellor’s Budget added another layer of complexity, while debate around pay-per-mile taxation for EVs highlighted how unthinking the government was on EVs and the long-term funding model for motoring.
All of this played out against a stagnant economy that tested resilience across the sector. Cost pressures, cautious consumers and volatile confidence made growth feel elusive, even for the best-run businesses.
And yet, if there’s one thing 2025 has reinforced, it’s that UK auto retail remains remarkably adaptable. This industry has spent the past year recalibrating – not retreating. Processes have tightened, data has become sharper, and conversations with customers more honest. Many of the loudest certainties of previous years have softened into something more pragmatic, and that’s no bad thing.
Looking ahead to 2026, the challenges won’t disappear overnight. But there is an opportunity for greater clarity, better alignment between policy and reality, and a more sustainable pace of change. Retailers who have weathered 2025 will enter the new year leaner, wiser and better prepared.
Thank you again for your support this year. Enjoy a well-earned break, and here’s to a calmer, more constructive year ahead.
P.S. We will publish Auto Sunday next weekend, but it’ll be a ‘lite’ version as the news cycle (hopefully) clams down for a week.
Best wishes all,
Tristan Young, Editorial Director
&
Richard Aucock, Editor
Get in touch: tristan@autosunday.co.uk
ISSN 2977-6597