Was Heycar always doomed to fail? And what’s the fascination with agency sales?

Here's a round-up of the most important Car Dealer headlines for you, all in one place

It’s no surprise that agency sales are so contentious. When car brands want to change the way entrepreneurial car dealers do things, there’s always going to be friction.

And the big problem with agency sales is that car dealers can’t moan to the manufacturers about them too loudly as they’ll simply get the boot – so they moan to us.

This week there’s been lots of agency news as VW pulls the plug (for now) and Mini’s switch causes concerns. I give you my take on it all and round up what’s happened.

Elsewhere, used car marketplace Heycar is set to close down as owner Volkswagen Financial Services finally got fed up with the loss-making advertising site. Was it always doomed to fail?

Also featured this week are:

• April used car prices

• TC Harrison site closes

• New Arnold Clark CEO

• Adams Brothers Subaru

• China

• James Taylor

• Used car dealer ‘fraud’

• Aston Martin

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

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What’s happening?

Agency sales have been top of the news agenda this week once again as car manufacturers battle with making their fanciful schemes work.

What sounded like a good idea during Covid times, when car supply was low, customers were happy to wait for their new vehicles and, as a result, profits were high, are not sounding quite so good now.

Agency sales – which see car manufacturers sell direct to the public on their website and then pay dealers to hand over the cars – were designed to offer a ‘seamless’ buying experience for customers that hate to haggle over price. They can browse the brand’s website at home, book a test drive or stack a deal all on their own, and go on to order the car.

It sounds great in theory, so why has it not worked?