£100 Billion Nest Egg on Britain’s Driveways

New government figures show that the wealth of the nation is not just in peoples’ homes, but parked outside.18 million UK households own at least one car worth a combined £100 Billion. 

The Wealth and Assets Survey published by the Office of National Statistics on 15th May estimates the wealth of the UK population in terms of the assets they own.

We have highlighted an important component of personal assets; the car. The average value of a car used by government is £5,000 but figures don't include multi-car owning households.

Bugatti Veyron - More than £1 Million

The equity UK motorists have is overlooked by most commentators, and is a major component of wealth in the UK.

UK car buyers are underserved when it comes to finding out information on the best cars to buy.

Top Gear presenters Clarkson, May and Hammond focus on looks and performance but, from a wealth point of view, motorists need to know which cars hold their value, the models that cost less to run and those with the best reliability.

There are over 32 million cars registered on UK roads. Whilst a number are owned by companies and leasing organisations, the majority belong to the public.

The demographics of car ownership have changed. Department of Transport statistics published in April 2014 show Women bought 1.6 million more cars in the last 10 years whilst men owning cars has only grown by 600,000.

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Our further analysis mined from millions of lines of data published by government reveal the biggest growth in car ownership is among women aged over 50.

Britain’s mobile wealth is not only confined to cars. Information published includes details of boats, caravans and motorbikes worth another £40 Billion.

Personalized number plate ownership has increased by 8% in the last 6 years. 1.5 million people have a number plate which means something to them, their friends and their pockets.

Whilst the government wealth survey is informative, figures issued do not necessarily reconcile with those published by other government departments such as the Department of Transport. The total value of Britain's cars is far higher as many houses have more than one car.

The disparity between people who have a car and those who don't has fallen slightly with 25% of the measured population not owning a car. A more detailed analysis reveals that city dwellers have seen car ownership drop whilst people in rural areas have been forced to buy a car because of falling public transport availability.

Our car review site holds the views and reviews of over 540,000 motorists and gives an insight into key costs of ownership – fuel economy and reliability – and is available free to motorists.

In cash strapped Britain, hardworking motorists are advised to read reviews and views of cars by the most important people: car owners who have lived and paid for a car over the long term.

Do Customers Know More About Cars than Dealer Salesmen?

Car customers spend hours online and are more likely to know more about a dealer’s cars than the salesmen who sell them 

Is Your Mind Made Up?

As Automotive Management reported on 8th April, dealers find that customers ‘already have their mind made up’ before they visit a dealership. However that article and others are missing a key point – prospective customers don't just search for a car, they research the cars they want to buy and are increasingly looking to other car owners for their opinions.

Digital Diligence  

Reviews -  Search on Specific Model

WeLoveAnyCar.com have harnessed the power of the motorist in gathering the opinions of known car owners – no one can submit a review to our site without being asked. Once a review is submitted, we ask other drivers of the same derivative of car if they agree or disagree with the review. This ‘digital diligence’ avoids spurious and fake reviews. WeLoveAnyCar.com now has the views and opinions of over 538,000 car owners on virtually every make and model of car sold in the UK today.

Used Car Buyers - Start Online Not On Foot

According to Google, keen buyers will suck in information and will know a great deal about the car they want to buy. McKinsey & Company issued a paper in February 2014 which stated that 100% of used car buyers search on line first.

Review Sites for Holidays - Why Not Cars?

Prospective customers have been trained in review sites like TripAdvisor where they can find out what travelers thought of a hotel or holiday destination. Now they expect the same information to be available for cars for sale online and they expect it to be fair, accurate and up-to-date.

Car buyers will spend hours researching what car is best for them - using car review sites to 'ask' other car owners who have lived with and paid for a car for their opinion.

Educating The Salesman

WeLoveAnyCar.com plan to give dealers and dealer salesmen information on customer reviews on every car for sale on their forecourt where they are available. By working with dealers we think we can help salesman gain more information about the cars they have for sale. Hopefully they will be able to read as much about the cars they have for sale as their prospective customers.

Review Any Car

Research your own car by visiting our review site: http://www.weloveanycar.com/car-review

Will You Be Driving a MINT Car in the Next 5 years?

Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey - the 'MINT' countries set for future growth - build and export millions of cars. WeLoveAnyCar.com predicts a time when the world's drivers will be driving a car in 'mint' condition from a MINT country.

 

Millions of cars are being built in the four 'MINT' countries singled out to watch for global growth,

Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey all have car manufacturing capacity and are set to rank globally in terms of production.

Mexico produces the most cars. American companies such as Ford and GM, seeking a nearby country with lower costs, have led the field. They have been joined by a number of Japanese car makers seeking a bridgehead into growing markets like Brazil where favourable trade agreements exist.

Toyota, Daihatsu, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Isuzu and Mitsubishi have announced plans to invest more than $2bn between them in new manufacturing capacity to meet surging domestic demand in Indonesia and for export according to the Financial Times. Another reason for this move may be the strategic distance this gives from China where relations with Japan have been strained recently.

MINT country flags

 By far the smallest MINT nation in car terms is Nigeria which has seen slow investment by foreign companies. The INNOSON Vehicle Manufacturing Company is home grown with big ambitions. In Nigeria's favour is growing affluence and a large, younger, economically active indigenous population.

 

Turkey reportedly manufactured over one million cars in 2012 with 75% being exported bringing Turkey over $20 billion in export earnings. As with Mexico, the car industry in Turkey is dominated by international car companies, some of which are jointly owned by Turkish concerns.

 

In their work for the Oxford Journal, Hallak and Schott analysed countries by production quality and found Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia ranked in the bottom 40%. Nigeria was not included. It is likely that global car companies will insist on quality production but this is not guaranteed.

 

A spokesman for WeLoveAnyCar.com, the UK's biggest car review site said, "Our survey of over 430,000 motorists lists reliability as a key concern. As new models flood in from emerging economies, including the MINT countries, it is essential that quality remains a focus of ambitious production plant managers and car manufacturers alike. Car buyers expect 'mint condition' cars whether they are from MINT countries or not."

‘Reviews 2.0’- 10 Golden Review Rules To Rebuild Trust

Reviews 2.0 - Rebuild The Trust

The BBC reported that one of the biggest review sites, US based ‘Yelp,’ had to disclose the identity of some reviewers in a case bought by a business which believed they were unfairly criticised. The Telegraph, published in the UK, highlighted a restaurant with the highest reviews on TripAdvisor that didn’t actually exist.

Digital Diligence

Review sites must be more robust in building their content. The following 10 rules should be adopted to prove that 'Digital Diligence' has taken place and users of the site can trust what they read. 

1. Identify – reviewers must be known and identifiable by the review site
2. Numbers – make sure there are enough reviews to remove bias
3. Trust – avoid commercial bias eg users won’t trust a ‘sponsored’ review
4. Experience – ensure reviewers actually owned the product or used the service
5. Recent – old reviews reduce credibility
6. Contact – record contact details to check identity later and provide an audit trail
7. Exact – the review must match the exact product or service
8. Democratic – 1 person/1 product/1 review to remove bias
9. Endorse – get your reviewers to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with other user reviews
10. Simple – make it simple to submit a review
    
    

Legal Action?

It is likely that all review sites, and the reviewers who submit an opinion, will have to take more care in compiling their reviews.  STV reported the case of a Scottish guest house business targeting TripAdvisor to find out who wrote potentially damaging reviews.

Reviews - Big Business

Review sites are big business. US based Yelp is thought to be the largest and is listed on the stock exchange. Despite quite low revenues, it carries a hefty share price valuing the company in the $hundreds of millions if not $billions. The price is driven by investors seeing the potential of the large number of reviews and high number of visitors.

TripAdvisor employs over 1900 people worldwide and carries more than 125 million travel reviews and opinions from travellers around the world. 3.1 million Businesses and properties in 134,000+ destinations are listed on the site. Whilst the top travel review site is rated highly by its users, some businesses feel unfairly treated.

The Need For Specialist Review Sites

Reviews 2.0 isn't just about trust and control. WeLoveAnyCar.com believes that general purpose review sites, whilst useful, need to be complimented by specialist review sites where the thoughts and opinions on a specific product or service can be more defined and readily searchable.

WeLoveAnyCar.com - Car Review Site

WeLoveAnyCar.com now has the largest car review site in the UK with 121,620 reviews submitted by car owners in the last 14 months. A further 541,028 drivers (of the exact same car) voted ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with these reviews giving users an enhanced view of how useful that review is.

Controversy around online review sites continues. It is up to the review industry to adopt new practices if we want to see an evolution to ‘Review 2.0’ where both consumers and businesses can trust review sites more readily. The voice of the customer is important but we've followed the 10 Golden Review Rules to ensure that consumer view is genuine, they have used that product or service and their reviews are evaluated by their peers.