- BMW DELAYS AGENCY MOVE, BUT MINI STILL ON FOR MARCH
- FCA AT RISK OF ‘DESTROYING EVIDENCE’ WITH EMAIL PURGE
- NFDA ASKS GOVERNMENT FOR ‘URGENT’ EV INCENTIVES
- RACHEL REEVES TO BREAK ANOTHER TAX PLEDGE?
- WEEK AHEAD: Retail sales, UK unemployment
- TAX ADMINISTRATION COSTS SPIRAL
- STEVEN EAGELL GUARANTEES £30K STARTING SALARY
- TRUMP TARGETS 2 APRIL FOR NEW AUTO TARIFFS
- TEKION ACCUSES CDK OF ‘BULLYING’
- OPINION: Why Lookers’ switch to Pinewood from Keyloop matters
BMW delays agency move, but Mini still on for March
BMW is delaying its move to the agency model for retail new car sales while it “optimises processes” from Mini’s agency move in other European markets.
When quizzed about a delay to agency, a BMW spokesman said the manufacturer was “refining the rollout plan” and that there would be “slight adjustments to the timeline”.
While BMW in the UK has never publicly stated when it would switch to ‘new retail’ (its term for agency), the brand also had never denied what sources told Auto Sunday would be a March 2026 switchover, a year after Mini.
The “slight adjustment to the timeline” is understood to be a Europe-wide move.
A spokesperson for the German manufacturer said: “The new retail launch [for Mini] is set for 1 March in the UK. With three weeks to go, final preparations are well underway and the transition is on track.
“We began the agency model with Mini in 10 European markets from January 2024 with a phased approach, taking into account structural and market-specific conditions. Italy, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria are live right now. The next wave, including the UK (Mini’s largest market), Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Ireland, will go live in March 2025.
“We are currently refining the rollout plan for BMW with slight adjustments to the timeline. The focus remains on ensuring operational excellence and integrating key learnings from the Mini transition to optimise processes across all sales channels.
“The agency model is the future-fit sales model for the BMW Group in Europe.”
FCA at risk of ‘destroying evidence’ with email purge
By deciding to delete some emails to and from officials after just one year, the FCA could be in danger of “destroying evidence” and behaving with double standards. Regulatory lawyers have expressed astonishment at the new policy, which FCA staff were told “reduces the legal and reputational risk we face”.
It is in contrast to FCA instructions to the firms it authorises to preserve emails for many years, and sometimes indefinitely.
“This appears to be one rule for the regulator and another for the regulated,” said Harvey Knight, a partner at Withers LLP.
The FCA told staff last week that emails would be automatically deleted from inboxes after a year, unless deemed important enough to be saved in a central depository.
An FCA spokeswoman said: “We are improving our records management approach through better use of technology. Anything that should currently be retained will continue to be kept but saved centrally so it can be found quicker and more easily.”
NFDA asks government for ‘urgent’ EV incentives
The NFDA has submitted its response to the government’s ZEV Mandate consultation, ahead of the deadline on Tuesday (18 February), Auto Sunday can exclusively reveal.
The submission highlights today’s inadequate measures to support demand for ZEVs and calls for improvements including direct fiscal incentives, better infrastructure and grid connections, and a public awareness campaign.
The response came after the NFDA gathered members’ feedback and insights, including through the 2025 Outlook Survey.
“A key focus of NFDA’s response is the urgent need for incentives,” said chief executive Sue Robinson.
The NFDA pointed out that, with 1.953 million registrations in 2024 with an average price of £35k per unit, new car sales accounted for more than £68bn. “These figures demonstrate that automotive retail remains a cornerstone of the UK economy.”
Rachel Reeves to break another tax pledge?
Poor economic data including flatlining growth have threatened to wipe out the chancellor’s £9.9bn margin of error from the October Budget – and Rachel Reeves has now “left the door open to raising taxes next month” to plug this fiscal hole, despite previously promising not to come back with more tax increases. “Nothing is off the table,” said an aide, with Reeves set to give a statement on March 26th.
Options being discussed include a continuation on the freeze on income tax thresholds and allowances beyond 2028, which could bring in £3.5bn–£4bn a year.
WEEK AHEAD
Tuesday, UK unemployment
Wednesday ZEV Mandate consultation deadline
Wednesday, CPI and RPI
Friday, retail sales
Friday, GFK consumer confidence
DATA INSIGHT
Tax administration costs spiral
£4.3bn: HMRC administration costs in 2023-24, up 15% (£563m) since 2019-20. Fiscal drag means 4.5 million more people (a total of 36.2m) are liable to pay tax in this period. The National Audit Office has criticised HMRC’s “poor levels of service” with taxpayers “losing trust in HMRC”.
Steven Eagell guarantees £30k starting salary
£30,000: Steven Eagell’s guaranteed starting salary for the first 12 months for all sales and aftersales roles. It is part of the retailer’s enhanced Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay have also been enhanced, and its annual leave allowance increased.
GLOBAL AUTO
Trump targets 2 April for new auto tariffs
President Trump says he will unveil new tariffs on automobiles “on around April 2nd”. He did not provide details on the scope or rate of potential tariffs. Imports accounted for around half the US car market in 2024; Volkswagen is the top importer, with 80% of its sales, while Hyundai-Kia is on 65% and 63% of Mercedes-Benz US sales are imported. In contrast, Ford’s imports comprise only 21%.
Last week, the EU indicated it is willing to lower tariffs on US cars, from today’s 10% closer to the 2.5% charged by the US.
Tekion accuses CDK of ‘bullying’
US DMS provider Tekion has described a lawsuit filed by rival CDK Global accusing it of illegally accessing retailer data to steal customers as “bullying”. The issue surrounds data scraping. CDK says Tekion and business partner InDesign Data are improperly accessing data on CDK DMS platforms, including “proprietary formulas, calculations and other intellectual property”.
Retailers “have a right to access their own data,” said Tekion, which will “deal with this baseless claim in court”.
OPINION
Why Lookers’ switch to Pinewood from Keyloop matters
A retailer’s DMS is more than a dealer management system in today’s market. Alongside the historic actions such as vehicle ordering, stock management, database, financials and aftersales functions, everything the retailer does has to plug in to the customer database in order to maximise efficiencies and profitability.
With staff costs rising, technology – if deployed correctly – is providing some of the answers to efficiency gains as everyone looks to find an edge in an ultra-competitive market.
However, changing DMS can be one of the most disruptive actions in an auto retail business, because not only is training required for almost every single member of staff, but because of the number of other systems that connect with the core.
It’s therefore significant that Lookers, and all other parts of its parent Global Auto Holdings, has announced it will change over to Pinewood in 2026. Auto Sunday understands Global Auto was, for the majority of sites, using Keyloop systems.
The move is significant for several reasons. Firstly, because it means Global Auto must think there’s an advantage to moving either from a cost or a functionality position – possibly both. And that the gain is worth the pain of the switchover.
It’s also important because this is the first of the largest retailer groups that doesn’t have a direct or historic link to the software business to move to Pinewood. Historically, while Pinewood was part of Pendragon, other retail groups were reluctant to spend money with a rival group; something Pinewood boss Bill Berman pointed out in his capital markets presentation at the end of last year.
Another interesting aspect to the Global Auto signing is the way the deal has been structured.
As well as the undisclosed sum the retailer will be paying to use the software, it has also been smart enough to realise that its move could also improve Pinewood’s overall prospects, together with its share price.
This is illustrated by Pinewood issuing “warrants to an affiliate of Global Auto”. These warrants give Global Auto the option to buy up to 7% of Global Auto at 330p a share. These warrants are offered in stages as the Pinewood system is installed at Lookers and the group’s other retailers. In effect, this is a long-term incentive for Global Auto and makes the deal a true partnership because it says Global Auto has faith in Pinewood.
The only downsides are that it’s not actually Global Auto that has the warrants and that if the share price does increase, and the Global Auto affiliate wants to realise that gain, it will have sell the shares. This would have the opposite effect to the original show of faith. But that’s a problem for the future and one that could be solved with good communications.
Tristan Young
Editorial Director
Get in touch: tristan@autosunday.co.uk
ISSN 2977-6597