Point of sale finance for new and used cars has slumped in the last decade, according to a report by Blackhorse Finance.

The study, undertaken by Professor Peter Cooke from the University of Buckingham, revealed dealers’ PoS finance suffered from a weak image and was considered uncompetitive.

From 1997 to 2006 it said franchised dealers’ new private car finance penetration fell from 52 per cent to 41 per cent, while used car finance penetration dropped from 53 per cent to 30 per cent.

Independent dealers’ used car finance penetration halved to 20 per cent in the period.

The used car market in the UK was about three times the size of the new car market in the 10 years surveyed with private buyers accounting for about half of total new car sales and virtually all used car sales.

New car finance ran between £5.7 and £7.1bn per annum, while used car finance fluctuated between £4.3 and £6.3bn.

The report said manufacturers’ finance houses and high street bank finance had won business from dealers by aggressively promoting their products.

“Franchised and non-franchised dealers may run the risk of losing car sales, particularly in a period of tight credit, if they do not promote PoS finance to private car buyers,” said Cooke, who added dealers should pursue finance sales even if the buyer had arranged funding before entering the showroom.

“Dealers have lost a degree of independence,” he said. “There is a risk finance may increasingly come under the direct control of manufacturers’ finance houses with their objective of selling their own cars, and banks and building societies where the agenda is lending finance rather than tailoring a loan to satisfy a would-be car buyer’s exact requirements.”

However, the onset of the credit crunch has hit high street credit availability which some analysts have suggested could boost PoS funding.

The Finance and Leasing Association claimed in June that PoS private new car finance had grown from 47 per cent to 49 per cent year-on-year.

“It has grown in popularity as consumers are finding it more difficult to get credit elsewhere,” said Paul Harrison, FLA head of motor finance.

The Mazda RX2, Mazda RX3, Mazda RX4, Mazda RX7 and now Mazda RX8 are all examples of successful rotary engine sports cars. The New Mazda 16x Rotary Engine should further popularize this offbeat combustion engine which features (as rotaries always have) a compact design with an exceptional power-to-weight ratio all in just 1.6 Liters.

Mazda is calling this new rotary engine the “long-stroke rotary engine.” As you may already know, the 13B rotary engine has a displacement of just 1300cc, which is 1.3 Liters. While the Mazda 16x has an engine displacement of 1600cc (800cc x 2), which is 1.6 Liters; and though they’ve made the 16x significantly larger than the 13B - it weighs less than a 13B. This is due to aluminum side housings, which Mazda says shouldn’t scare us.

Mazda’s aim here is “greater thermal efficiency” - which basically means, any car powered by the Mazda 16x is going to move like stink. Mazda says this [thermal efficiency] will increase torque at all engine speeds. (Rotary engines are notorious for having low torque, especially on the low-end.)

They’ve also added Direct Fuel Injection so you can expect the 16x to be considerably more economical compared to rotaries of the past. Harmful emissions will be greatly reduced as well and power should be slightly increased compared to common multi-point fuel injected rotaries such as the 13B. This should lean the fuel-air mixture out as well and may improve the rotaries nasty habit of flooding every time you move her down the street a block.

Mazda has done incredible things with their light and sporty 1.3 Liter 13B - just imagine what they can do with this new Mazda 16x! Better yet, just imagine what you could do with this new Mazda 16x rotary engine! Unfortunately, however, Mazda has yet to announce a production vehicle to carry the 16x. The closest we’ve gotten is the Mazda Taiki, a far-out prototype developed by Mazda under the “Nagare”(which is, Japanese for “flow”) concept of design.

So when will we see this new rotary engine in action?

Many expected this new rotary engine to appear in the 2009 Mazda RX8, but when the cover was pulled off at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, we saw nothing but the Mazda 13B MSP Renesis engine beneath it’s glimmering hood.

Ford chief executive officer Alan Mulally’s crisis is Mazda CEO Hisakazu Imaki’s opportunity.

The two men are partners in moving the second-largest US automaker away from the trucks and large sport-utility vehicles consumers are shunning in the face of $US4-a-gallon gasoline. Ford, which saved Mazda from near-bankruptcy 12 years ago, owns a third of the Hiroshima-based company, Japan’s fifth-largest automaker.

Ford’s Fusion and Mercury Milan midsize sedans, based on the Mazda6 and rated at up to 29 highway miles per gallon, were the Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s only models to gain US sales last month. Half of the automaker’s cars will be based on the designs of its Japanese affiliate by 2010, up from 43% this year, according to CSM Worldwide, a Northville, Michigan-based automotive-consulting firm.

“Mazda is attractive now,” said Masayuki Kubota, a fund manager at Daiwa SB Investments in Tokyo, who oversees the equivalent of $US1.7 billion, including the automaker’s shares.

“There’s a flood of demand for small cars in the US right now and Mazda gains from Ford’s need for its development expertise.”

The Japanese company is saving about 12 billion yen ($US111.4 million) a year through joint development with Ford, according to Credit Suisse Group senior analyst Koji Endo.

That amount will rise as cooperation increases, he said. Mazda plans to spend 115 billion yen on research and development in the year ending next March.

The shares may rise to 700 yen within 12 months, according to Endo, approaching their 16-month high of 718 yen in June 2007. Ten analysts in a Bloomberg survey recommend buying, seven say to hold, and two advise selling.

Mazda climbed 1.6% to 620 yen in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading yesterday, making Ford’s stake worth $US2.73 billion. The 11% gain this year makes it the best-performing Japanese automaker. A rise to Endo’s target price would add about $US355 million to the value of Ford’s investment.

Mazda plans to increase its models’ fuel economy by an average of 30% in the next seven years by making vehicles lighter and developing thriftier engines. The quest for efficiency is spurring cooperation between Mulally and Imaki.

Ford will make a small Fiesta model based on a Mazda design in India as early as 2009, according to CSM, and the two companies will build autos at a jointly owned Thai plant next year.

The Japanese carmaker will also supply Ford with redesigns for the Fusion sedan and Edge crossover wagon to be built in the US

The Fiat Nuova 500 has endeared itself to people the world over, and the sales of the Nuovo Cinquecento attest to that fact. Now you can walk in to your nearest Fiat dealer and get yourself one of these as well!

It isn’t cheap, at Rs 14.85 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi. It is about the size of the Swift, so to cost three times as much is something of overkill, but it is being imported as a CBU, which is what drives the price up so much. What doesn’t change is the millions of paint shades and interior colors that one can pick - us Indians, for once, get choice equal to any country in the world, except for engines. The 500 will have the 1.3-litre, 75bhp multijet diesel that features in the Palio and Suzuki Swift.

Fiat India is not aiming to make money off this car - it is a brand-building exercise to revive the Fiat brand in India. The annual sales target for this car is a mere 100 units. If you’re building a brand, play on the Ferrari connection, we say. Bring us the Abarths as well!

Audi, with its five models in India is all geared up to launch more luxury car models. The car manufacturer is also planning to have twelve dealers in place of seven by the end of the year as a part of its policy to increase sales..

AUDI HAD started its business in India in 2007. During its journey in the Indian car market, it currently has five models - Audi A8, Audi Q7, Audi A6, Audi A4 and Audi TT. Now Audi is geared up to launch more luxury car models in India.

According to Audi India’s managing director, Benoit Tiers, told reporters after launching the new Audi A4 sedan “We already have five models in India. We plan to launch more luxury car models in the Indian market, including the small car A3 at an appropriate time.

He also said that we are looking forward to sell 1,000 of our cars in the Indian market in 2008, compared to 350 cars last year on the back of growing demand for luxury cars in the market. The new Audi A4 will be a crucial product to help us achieve this goal.

The car manufacturer is presently having seven dealers in India. However, it is also planning to have twelve dealers in place of seven by the end of the year as a part of its policy to increase sales. Presently, it has showrooms in Delhi, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh. Audi is opening five additional elite showrooms by the end of the current year in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata and Ludhiana. The company also plans to boost its dealer-network to 18 by 2009.

The skyrocketing cost of gas is forcing more people to consider buying used cars, even if they recently bought a new car.

Many drivers are keeping their SUV in the driveway and buying fuel efficient used cars from the 80s and 90s.

Rolling off the lot used to mean you were losing money, but drivers now-a-days are intentionally buying used.  They’re looking for a depreciated, older model to pay less upfront and get more miles per gallon.

“I live north of the river in Missouri and I work down in Lenexa,” Matthew Bitner said.  “So that 30 miles a day is now a gallon, which used to be four gallons of gas.”

Bitner traded his Kia minivan in for a Honda CRV, saving him a lot of money.

“Its a 50 percent savings, my car insurance went down because it’s not a minivan, my fuel went down, everything went down.”

At O’Neill Nissan, salesmen said used Hondas won’t stay on the lot long.  In some parts of town, there’s an eight week wait for a used Civic.  It’s up to eight months for a new one.

“Hondas, Toyotas, Civics and Accords are prime,” Country Hill Motors salesman Bob Worley said.

Worley said he is seeing a change in what his customers want.  Instead of good financing on the latest 2009s, drivers are looking to pay cash and leave with a car that is more than five years old.

“Cars that used to be bought for students are being bought for people to commute back and forth to work,” Worley said.

Worley said many drivers are buying used cars without trading in since they know their SUVs have lost value.  Drivers said it’s all about making their money work for them right now.

“I know everybody is looking for a deal and more importantly the gas mileage,” Bitner said.

Many buyers said they are going used instead of buying a $20,000 hybrid since they’ll get the same miles per gallon.

The Ferrari F430 Spider is the only mid-rear engined convertible to feature a fully automatic electric top while still leaving the engine exposed through a pane of glass.

I read this while leafing through Ferrari press kit notes, and wondered how many prospective buyers of the exotic super car would base their decision on this fact. “But honey, you can put the top up by pressing this button, and look, you can still see the engine.” My guess is none.

Instead, what appeals to the well-heeled who plop down hundreds of thousands of dollars for something that ultimately achieves the same as a $14,000 sub-compact - that old A to B thing - is that a Ferrari is so much more than two dozen Toyota Echos could ever hope to be. Even if you disassembled all 24 of them and remade them into some outrageous 96-cylinder rice rocket.

It’s a little like asking, why pay a hundred bucks for a Baccarat water glass when you can score a free one with a bucket from the Colonel. A combination of “because I can” and “because I like the best” is part of the typical response.

After driving in and drooling on a Giallo Modena (that’d be ‘yellow’) 430 Spider one recent sunny West Coast day, if I won the lotto and bought one of these sublime sports cars, I’d add this bit of newly acquired millionaire advice to the debate: “Get in. Cancel all your appointments for the day. We’re going for a drive.”

As you’d expect of a super model, the Ferrari F430 made its world debut in Paris. The highly anticipated replacement to the 360, called ‘Evo’ within the inner sanctum of Ferrari, the F430 was the belle of the 2004 Paris Auto Show, and by the summer of the next year, Ferrari dealers throughout Canada and the United States were selling the select few they could get their hands on. No wonder.

With subtle yet so strong styling by Pininfarina, a 483 horsepower 4.3-litre 90-degree V8, big carbon ceramic brakes by Brembo and a chassis that is, for all intents and purposes, built for the race track, the F430 Spider is the strongest contender for super car of the century, young as it is.

Before braying from Bugatti Veyron backers begins, and poisoned penned pleas from Porsche Carrera GT fans flood my in-box, I would ask all those in disagreement with this claim to go down to their local Ferrari dealer, press their nose up against the showroom glass and take a long and lingering look at the F430’s lines.

Plunging used car sales dragged retail spending for May down 1.2 per cent and more recent used car sales data suggests the pressure on total retail sales will continue.

Registrations of used imports fell 25 per cent in May compared with May 2007. Figures for June, when fuel prices increased further, show a 30 per cent fall on June 2007.

New car registrations for May were down 11 per cent on a year earlier, but rose 6 per cent in June, bringing total registrations for the first six months of 2008 to 3 per cent up on the previous period.

The 1.2 per cent, or $69 million, drop in total retail spending compared with April was the biggest fall since February 2004.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley was surprised at the depth of decline in May’s vehicle sales and expected the market to remain soft for some months.

Market expectations had been for a 0.2 per cent rise in overall used car sales.

“Since the start of June, we’ve seen petrol prices rise another 18 cents so a lot of that budgetary pressure has cranked up another notch,” Mr Tuffley said.

Statistics New Zealand said core retail sales, excluding the motor vehicle sector, had risen 0.7 per cent on April on the back of a 3 per cent rise in supermarket sales and a 3.2 per cent rise in fuel sales.

Retail in Wellington was down 0.9 per cent on April, in Canterbury down 3.5 per cent, in Waikato 2.8 per cent and in Auckland 1.4 per cent.

After motor vehicles, furniture and floor covering stores had the largest fall, down 15.6 per cent.

Appliance retailing rose 1.5 per cent on April. Noel Leeming’s chief executive, Andrew Dutkiewicz, said the downturn was being felt across every category in his stores.

“We still have a lot of people in our stores.

“The issue is a lot are coming in and kicking the tyres and probably just delaying purchases.”

Staff in departments where auto sales were down were not being replaced and the company was starting to cut back on advertising spending.

In recent weeks, Hallenstein Glassons, The Warehouse and Briscoe Group have all cut their earnings forecasts for the year.

Most economists said yesterday’s grim retail sales figures alone were not enough to prompt the Reserve Bank to cut the official cash rate during its review this month.

When Ford Motor Co. came out with its new Edge crossover in 2006, the company hoped the truck-like vehicle built on a car frame would attract longtime Ford buyers trading in their inefficient sport utility vehicles.

For a while, it worked well. But last month, sales of the Edge and nearly all crossover vehicles dropped dramatically, causing another worry for automakers struggling with the dramatic shift by U.S. auto buyers from trucks to cars.

Automakers and some industry analysts say it’s a temporary lull due to a combination of economic worries, sliding SUV values that prevent people from trading them in, and the lingering shock of gas prices in the United States.

But if the trend continues, it’s another blow to the profits at Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, all of which have developed crossovers to capture their traditional SUV and truck buyers.

“The tough part is that’s where the U.S. domestics are used to making their money, on people-haulers,” said Mark Warnsman, an analyst with Calyon Securities.

The crossover market as a whole peaked this year in March, with all automakers selling 222,055, according to Autodata Corp. Sales dropped in April, rebounded in May and then slid in June to 184,871, down nearly 17 per cent from March.

Even the Honda CR-V, a perennial top seller, saw a 21 per cent decline in sales from May to June.

George Davis, general manager of Howard Cooper Honda in Ann Arbor, Mich., blamed the decline in part on tumbling SUV values and a knee-jerk reaction to high gasoline prices.

“Like everything else, we do overreact,” he said. “It’s basically sell the SUV, don’t even consider another SUV, make sure you get a high gas mileage sedan.”

Davis said buyers now are looking for cars that get as close to 40 miles per gallon as possible, shunning even the CR-V, a small crossover that gets up to 20 mpg in the city and 27 on the highway.

Many SUV owners have been stunned when told they would get only $20,000 in trade for a vehicle they paid $35,000 or more for just a short time ago, Davis said.

“They’re in a trance. They’re paralyzed,” he said. “People have never experienced this kind of depreciation because there’s just no market for their vehicle.”

Midsize SUVs, on average, lost 28.7 per cent of their value, from $15,577 in March 2005 to $11,096 at the end of June, according to wholesale auction data from the National Automobile Dealers Association. The figures are adjusted for variations in vehicle mileage.

Many SUV owners who typically would trade for crossovers owe more on their vehicles than they can sell them for, said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with the consulting company Global Insight. As a result, they have to keep them and continue buying more gasoline, he said.

“They’re typically trading down from larger vehicles, and right now, the resale values of those vehicles are in the toilet,” Bragman said.

Generally, truck-based SUVs get in the low teens in city gas mileage and in the upper teens on the highway.

Paul Taylor, the NADA’s chief economist, said crossovers, which vary in size but generally get in the high teens in the city and mid-20s in highway gas mileage, are boxier than cars and right now are being shunned to a degree by buyers. Analysts also say buyers associate crossovers with six-cylinder engines when people now are looking for four cylinders.

“They’re not even consulting the EPA rating or any other indicator of gas mileage,” Taylor said. “They see the big box and see that’s not enough mileage to suit me.”

Taylor says a glut of used SUVs is fuelling a trend toward people parking the big vehicles in the garage and buying small cars for their daily errands. The SUVs come out only when they’re needed for hauling or towing, he said.

But Bragman said many buyers, who also have seen their house values decline, are too tapped out to buy anything else.

At the Honda dealership, Davis says his staff advises people in that situation to go for a used small car and keep their SUVs.

“The hit’s too big, and they don’t want to invest $20,000 or $25,000 in a new car as an additional car,” he said.

Many industry analysts expect the crossover slump to continue but end when people eventually trade in the SUVs that are on the road now.

But in the interim, lower-profit small cars are taking up more and more of the market, and that means automakers are making far less profit per vehicle than they make on SUVs or crossovers.

Automakers don’t release how much they make per vehicle, but an automaker used to be able to make a profit of $10,000 or more on a high-end SUV, said Jesse Toprak, chief industry analyst for auto information site Edmunds.com.

Auto companies make less on crossovers, although it’s not clear how much because they vary so much in size and equipment, he said. And that gap is closing as SUV values continue to plummet, Toprak said.

Many industry analysts worry that the longer the crossover slump lasts, the more cash the troubled Detroit Three will burn as they try to survive the economic downturn. All have lost billions in the past few years as the market has shifted away from trucks to cars.

But George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst, doesn’t see the crossover slump as long-term.

“It’s a concern in the sense that it limits the sales potential right here and now,” he said. “There are still millions, literally, of Explorers on the road, multimillions of SUVs on the road. Eventually these will get traded.”

IT IS without question the fastest production car ever produced by Audi.

Indeed even having the audacity to call it a car is probably risking a sharp rap around the knuckles from the Trades Description people.

Sure the Audi RS6 Avant is a five-seater family estate, but that’s where it swiftly ends.

Okay, it may look rather conservative in its load-lugging dress code, apart from the massive alloy wheels at each corner of the vehicle.

But the element of surprise and definite under-statement simply makes this super-estate all the more pleasurable.

In fact, this awesome piece of metal has the ability to quickly corrupt the most strong-willed drivers.

The pace and performance on tap would even put a smile of the face of British Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton.

For some time now the German premium manufacturer has been engaged in a civil war with its fellow countrymen from Mercedes to see who can squeeze the most power out of their engines.

And Audi currently heads the field thanks to the phenomenal 572bhp produced from the twin turbocharged V10 which lurks menacingly under the latest RS6’s bonnet.

The previous generation RS6 was far from disappointing when it came to punching above its weight.

However the newcomer now has an additional 100bhp to play with at any given time.

It has to be said from the outset that this much power in the wrong hands could be a deadly combination.

The performance delivered by the 5.2-litre petrol unit is nothing short of spectacular.

The split-second explosion of power is virtually instant as the Avant rockets from a standing start to 62mph in a fraction over four and a half seconds.

Push it to the absolute limit and Audi engineers will privately admit that it could probably comfortably achieve a top speed approaching 190mph.

Thankfully the Audi hierarchy has had the good sense to electronically limit the maximum to 155mph.

To really get a proper feel and to fully understand the true capability of this monster beast, it is best to get a man in the know.

And when it comes to a top-class chauffeur they don’t come any better than two-times Le Mans 24-hour winner Allan McNish.

The Scottish racing star is no stranger to putting the metal to the floor – and keeping it there longer than most.

However even the flying Scot was mesmerised by the quality and excitement guaranteed by the RS6 Avant.

As we tackled a series of hairpin bends near his home in Monte Carlo Allan said: “This is a truly amazing machine and I am not just talking about the power available.

“Sure that is important but the balance and poise of the car is something rather special.

“There is always a danger of this type of car falling into the wrong hands. You really need to take time out and learn a lot about them before trying to push them hard.”

With the delightful growling sound from the V10 working its way through the exhaust system. Allan admitted that he could be seriously tempted to change his present Audi for the new RS6.

He said: “I currently have an S5 which is probably just about the right size for the roads where I live with my family. But you know, I could really go for one of these without a doubt.”

Being the range topper in the A6 line-up, the RS6 comes with a decent standard spec list. However with prices starting at nearly £77,800 you would naturally expect a few toys and creature comforts to be lurking inside the cavernous cabin.

Without doubt the RS6 Avant is an incredible piece of engineering.

I would seriously question whether you could drive it every day in life as it throws up more challenges than any other road-going vehicle I know.

Not least is its fantastic turn of speed that will leave you totally exhausted from fighting to keep it within the speed limits.