Codeweavers

Car Dealer Magazine has reported Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) statistics showing a drop in the level of Dealer finance penetration.

Apparently consumers bought 21 per cent fewer new and used cars using dealer finance in February 2009.  The FLA maintain that this shows the impact the recession is having on motor finance providers.
However Martin Hill, Sales & Marketing Director for Codeweavers, has evidence that this is not necessarily the full story....

'The drop in finance penetration will obviously be influenced by the current market - for instance, there will be some people that will withdraw savings to purchase a vehicle - largely due to the level of interest on their savings being reduced substantially in recent months. Also there are still one or two issues with availability of credit in general - although this can't really be used to explain falling Dealer finance penetration, as these customers are obviously finding credit lines somewhere.

All of the independent research shows that customers are using the web to research not just their vehicle purchase, but also the best way of funding that purchase. This means that there is a significant and growing population of customers that are contacting Dealers with their funding already in place. If this happens, then the Dealer invariably will try to convert the customer to Dealer finance but will be on the back foot from the start. Usually these sort of conversions result in negligible finance profit, as the main reason for using Dealer finance - Convenience - no longer applies as the customer already has their facility in place.'

Hill then goes on to explain:
'To attempt to capture more customers at the reserach stage, Codeweavers offer a facility called 'YourCarLoan', integrated within a Dealers website. It allows for REAL finance calculations from real Lenders to be presented to customers at this important research stage. Integrated with the vehicle stock pages, YourCarLoan allows the Dealer to control the sell out price of the finance and in that way make their stock more affordable using various funding options.
These funding options include HP, Lease Purchase and PCP - the residual value options are obviously making cars more affordable and are appealing to customers, as the FLA statistics show a 3% increase in penetration of the PCP product.'

There are many existing Codeweavers' Clients that have felt the tangible benefits of this exciting interactive content.

'There are success stories ranging from increases in finance penetration, more cars being sold at or near the screen price, and also major increases in the average time a customer will spend on a Dealer's website.' explains Martin Hill.

To find out more about how Codeweavers can make yvehicle stock more affordable, contact Martin Hill on 07872 033572 or e-mail martin.hill@codeweavers.net

Sunwin Group, the Bradford based multi-franchised Dealer Group, has unveiled it's new website.

Designed and built in conjunction with their media Partner, Chapter Eight, the new site features the award winning Codeweavers interactive financial services tools 'YourCarLoan' and 'YourCarMotorInsurance'.

Key to Sunwin's drive to increase the interactive content of their site was the ability to bring together more of the total costs of ownership of that vehicle - in this case not just the affordability of the monthly payments but the tailored fully comprehensive insurance quotation also.

My big bugbear is poor photographs. Driving past a dealer in the spring sunshine, I will see a perfectly placed line-up of spotlessly clean cars, all catching the eye, screaming ‘Come and look’.

Yet I go on the same dealer’s website, and I find a grotty single picture of each car for sale, sometimes so over-exposed you can’t even see what the car is. I’ve seen pictures of dirty cars, cars plastered with for sale plates, even cars with people sitting in them. They all shout we can’t be bothered and they certainly don’t say ‘buy me’.

Yet producing top quality pictures for your site is not at all difficult. Today’s digital technology in even the most basic point and shoot cameras produces excellent results, so all you need is a little common sense behind the camera.

You spend lots of cash ensuring your valeters do the best job on your cars, so why not train someone up to be an ‘e-valeter’, responsible for the look of your website pictures? One of your staff might already enjoy photography as a hobby, but if not, send them on a basic course. You’ll spend a few hundred pounds at most, and only once, and you will get the money back in your first couple of sales.

Do the basics – for example make sure that every picture is from the same angle, just as the cars are on your forecourt. But do more too. Use extra pictures and consider adding video – it’s not as hard to do as you might think, and it’s the next big thing on the net (two years ago had you heard of YouTube?).

A pristine line-up on the forecourt might bring 10 people a day into your showroom. A pristine line-up on your website could bring in hundreds – even thousands…

Regards
James Tew
Managing Director

(This copy is taken from James Tew's monthly column 'Net Gains' in the publication 'Car Dealer Magazine'. More information is available at www.cardealermagazine.co.uk )

Motor Range, one of the pioneers of the Car Supermarket model on Merseyside in the late 1990's, has successfully added the Codeweavers services into their new website: www.motorrange.co.uk .

With a huge range of vehicles in stock, it is crucial that the affordability of the vehicles on display is brought to the attention of the web customer in a consistent and uniform way. The 'YourCarLoan' and 'YourCarMotorInsurance' web services are now facilitating this very effectively. Motor Range have also decided to brand their financial services pages with a consistent corporate identitiy to ensure a smooth and logical user experience for their customers.

The integration was handled by Motor Range's digital partner G-Forces, who are one of the Codeweavers Partners that can bring these interactive solutions to their Dealer Clients.

NOW Vauxhall, a five site Vauxhall, Saab and Chevrolet Group in the South East of England, have successfully added the Codeweavers 'YourCarLoan' finance calculator and the 'YourCarMotorInsurance' aggregator to their Group website: www.nowvauxhall.co.uk .

NOW Vauxhall are keen to focus on the interactive nature of the web user experience. By utilising the Codeweavers' services they can now offer the ability for more customers to spend more time on their website without having to leave to check on monthly payment affordability or motor insurance quotations - two of the main reasons why a web customer will click away from a Dealer's website once they find a vehicle(s) they are interested in.

NOW Vauxhall's integration was facilitated successfully by Bluesky Interactive, one of the digital partners that assist Codeweavers in bringing a new level of F&I interactivity to their Dealer and Manufacturer Clients.

Codeweavers are pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Blue Sky Interactive, a leading provider of digital and web marketing solutions to the UK Automotive Industry. Based in Warwick, Blue Sky Interactive’s Client base includes many of the UK’s franchised Dealer Groups.

The partnership has been formed as a result of Blue Sky Interactive having successfully integrated the Codeweavers products and services into their own Client platform. This integration now means that all existing Clients can now explore the opportunities available from making their vehicles more affordable and providing a truly interactive web experience.

Martin Hill, Sales & Marketing Director of Codeweavers, said: “We are very excited about the partnership with Blue Sky Interactive. We believe that it will allow them to add more value to their overall Client proposition, while also assisting Codeweavers with their mission to web enable the entire portfolio of automotive financial services.”

Existing or prospective Clients can find out more by contacting Daren Wilson, Sales Manager at Blue Sky Interactive on 07852 767699 or daren.wilson@blueskyinteractive.co.uk .

Codeweavers have received several plaudits following their address to the audience at the recent Glass's Event, held on November 14th at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. Delivered by Martin Hill, Codeweavers' Sales & Marketing Director, the speech focused on encouraging Dealers to make their websites extensions of their Showrooms. This would include making their vehicle stock as affordable as possible to any potential buyers

The press coverage has included Car Dealer magazine and Dealer Update magazine, as well as many Glass's Event attendees approaching the Codeweavers exhibition stand on the day to find out how customers can be engaged earlier in the car buying process.

The Codeweavers' message at the Glass's Event was also echoed by presentations by  both Google and motors.co.uk, who reinforced the fact that the Dealer or Manufacturer website is now the main point of contact for initial reserach into the car purchase. It not only makes sense to engage buyers at this point, but also to provide them with the ability to construct their own personalised finance and motor insurance package online - before even coming into the Showroom.

For more information, contact Codeweavers on webenquiries@codeweavers.net .

Codeweavers are extremely pleased to announce a strategic partnership with G Forces, a leading automotive, e-commerce and web marketing business based in the South East.

G Forces have successfully integrated the Codeweavers finance and insurance webservices with their own platform, and are now in a position to offer the webservices as an enhanced value proposition to their sizeable portfolio of automotive clients.

For further information, please contact Jamie Dixon, G Forces Sales Director on 0845 055 9040.

Codeweavers have been requested to address the delegates at the upcoming Glass's Event on Thursday 13th November 2008 at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham.

The annual Event will cover the extremely relevant subject of how to make profit in an uncertain market.

The presentation will be provided by Martin Hill, Codeweavers Sales & Marketing Director, who explained how the day would benefit the Industry: "The day will cover several areas from direct marketing to how to engage customers earlier in the buying process. The acknowledgement of our efforts as an Industry benchmark for excellence for this Event has made all of the Team at Codeweavers extremely proud. We look forward to continuing to work with the motor industry, and to drive forward our mission of web enabling automotive financial services".

Arbury Motor Group, based in Leamington Spa in the Midlands, has launched its new website. It has asked Codeweavers to provide an interactive finance and insurance experience worthy of the new look site.

Codeweavers has provided both their industry leading webservices to the Arbury site. The integration of the YourCarLoan dynamic finance calculators was requested by Arbury Group to provide tailored quotations, chosen by the customer, that are designed to make used car stock more affordable. This has been achieved by use of residual value products in conjunction with the standard HP calculation - thus providing the customer with a real alternative to a basic instalment credit product.

Scott Stenning from Arbury Group was extremely pleased with the interactive experience now on offer to their customers. "The addition of the Codeweavers finance calculators has allowed us to show our customers just how affordable our vehicles can be. We want to move away from the traditional finance model and focus on what makes Dealers different. PCP quotations allow us to do just that."

John Clark Group, the Aberdeen based AM100 Motor Dealer Group,  have applied the Codeweavers webservices to their Group website.

The inclusion of both the YourCarLoan finance calculators and the YourCarMotorInsurance insurance aggregator will ensure future vistors to the site have an interactive consumer experience that is second to none. The webservices are integrated into the used car stock module for the Group, thus allowing bespoke calculations to be created to the customers own specification.

The Group hold franchises for marques such as Audi, VW, BMW, Mini and Landrover and can be found at www.john-clark.co.uk

Codeweavers were nominated as finalists in the Innovation category at this year's Motortrader awards, with the final held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Although we didn’t win, we are delighted that one of our clients, T C Harrison, won "Website of the Year".

Well done to the team at TCH! To see their award winning site, which contains YourCarLoan and our white label motor Insurance solution, follow the link. www.tch.co.uk

To enhance our existing hosting facilities, Node4 of Derby have won the tender to co-locate the Codeweavers external customer facing infrastructure.

Steve Jones, Head of Platform & Systems Administration commented “Node4 won the tender through their service lead culture and ‘can do’ attitude.  It’s imperative that our clients have a first rate hosting environment and we see the team at Node4 capable of handling all our current and future requirements.”

The new infrastructure will be implemented in August 2008 and there will be a phased migration over the following months.

The Codeweavers infrastructure will be hosted in the newly built data centre at Node4; for more information on Node4 and to experience a virtual tour of the data centre, please visit http://www.node4.co.uk/products/datacentre