Just how does Arnold Clark make so much cash? Plus V12 quits and claims firm gets dressing down in court case

Here are the biggest Car Dealer headlines all rounded up for you in one place

Happy Friday and welcome to another weekly round-up of the motor trade headlines you really can’t miss – and there’s been a fair few to report on.

The first of the big hitters’ numbers are in with Arnold Clark reporting on a profitable 2024. In a year that some found rather tough, the Scottish business has once again pulled in the numbers, clocking up £121m in pre-tax profit. In this week’s Substack I look at how they do it.

Elsewhere, funder V12 has quit the motor trade market taking its finance deals and stock funding products with it, a claims management firm has had its knuckles rapped for submitting 30,000 claims to one finance company who got so fed up they took them to court, and advertising marketplace Heycar has had a reprieve.

Also featured this week are:

• Hyundai’s public spat

• Hartley Jnr’s McLaren sale

• Ex-Lookers man snaps up agency

• New Ferrari revealed

• Ford CEO’s China worries

• Renault Retail Group splashes out

• TV star visits car dealer

• Lotus ‘no plans’ to quit UK

Ok, let’s get into the headlines and my take on the week’s news.

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What’s happening?

This week we got a look at the school prefect’s homework as Companies House finished processing the 102-page document that is Arnold Clark’s 2024 accounts.

As usual the numbers were staggering and, after we posted the news in our WhatsApp groups, the usual flurry of texts from car dealer bosses gushing with praise for the Scotland-based business pinged on my phone.

This was now-retired boss Eddie Hawthorne’s last year in charge at the top and, as if we’d expect anything less, he went out on a high. But just how does he do it?