As the UK recorded a rise in business failures during January, February and March 2008 - up 8.5 per cent - the automotive industry appears to have bucked the trend, according to Experian.

The latest insolvency report from Experian shows that the number of automotive companies that went out of business during quarter one this year fell by 6.1 per cent, compared to the same period in 2007.
Kirk Fletcher, Managing Director of Experian’s Automotive division, said: “With the current climate of cautious spending and aggressive competition, the general feeling has been that that the insolvency figures for the automotive industry were not going to look good.  However, this is the second year the number of business failures recorded for the automotive industry fell during quarter one, suggesting a positive start to the year.
“The feedback from our dealer clients, however, has been that the last few months have been particularly tough and they have had to work harder to pull in the customers who are spending cautiously.  Smaller dealers are feeling the trading conditions the hardest, while the bigger groups are keeping their heads above water and avoiding big buyouts, focusing instead on smaller, single site buyouts, which could account in part for the fall in dealers failing.