Why experts believe AI will be taking car dealer jobs, plus Motorway’s mega growth

The week of motor trade news and views all rounded up for you by our editor-in-chief

Welcome back to another week of motor trade headlines all digested for you in one place – and this week there are quite a few to take in.

There are several car dealer results to look over – including listed franchised car dealer Vertu’s numbers. How did they get on?

Elsewhere, I’ve been chatting to lots of dealers at Motorway’s inaugural conference for its biggest buyers. They hosted panel sessions on the used car market and electric cars, but it was one on AI that I found particularly interesting.

I dive into what was discussed at the exclusive conference below as well as take a look at Motorway’s remarkable growth.

Also featured this week are:

• Used car dealer jailed

• Group 1 dividend

• Nissan ‘job losses’

• Trade deal fears

• New Twingo

• Vertu dealer fined

• John Grose results

• Fish Brothers’ numbers

• Big Three car makers’ fears

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

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What’s happening?

I travelled to Birmingham this week to take part in the car buying platform Motorway’s first dealer conference. The auction site had invited some of its biggest buyers (and me) to a special event in the Midlands to hear from some industry experts, as well as F1 Legend Guenther Steiner and comedian Hugh Dennis.

While Steiner and Dennis were good value, the former a little more than the latter, it was the panel sessions that really interested me.

Motorway hosted chats with car dealers about the current state of the used car market (slow), as well as a session on electric vehicles and the opportunity they present. While these were interesting, it was the session on AI and its implementation in dealerships that really pricked my ears up.

On the panel was Richard Ennis, CEO of Hedin, Kim Costello, former marketing chief at Pendragon now at Pinewood.AI, and Georgia Stevenson from Index Ventures, an investor in tech start-ups including Revolut and Motorway. The panel's comments were fascinating – especially as it was adamant AI would soon be taking people’s jobs...