INDIAN VEHICLE MAKER HEADS FOR SA
Ashok Leyland, of India, has announced that it intends setting up a joint venture vehicle manufacturing plant in South Africa with a black economic empowerment (BEE) partner. Ashok Leyland would own 49 per cent of the company, which was considering having assembly plants in Durban and Centurion, near Pretoria.

The company, which will have a new name, aims to sell 400 vehicles worth R40 million in the first full year of operation.

Ashok Leyland said they were negotiating with five potential BEE partners. The company has been represented in SA for the past six years, but has made little headway in that time. Ashok Leyland executives said the company was looking at introducing new products that will include trucks, 4x4s and luxury buses.

MARKET SLOWDOWN CAUSES CMH TO TRIM ORDERS
Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), the listed motor group, has cut back its order book for stock by 40 per cent after a depressing sales performance in the six months to August. The company reported a 4 per cent increase in revenue to R4,6 billion although profit dropped by 22 per cent to R103,6 million according to CMH's half-yearly financial results.

BIOFUEL WON'T BURDEN FOOD PRICES - DME
Contrary to the opinions of certain lobbies inside and outside South Africa, the chief director for clean energy at the department of mineral and energy (DME), Sandile Tyatya, believes that using maize to make biofuel will not burden food prices. Even Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, has cautioned about the wisdom of using maize and sugar to make fuel in South Africa.

Economist Wessel Lemmer has pointed out that South Africa already has a shortfall in terms of the country's maize for food, with production currently at 6m tonnes and requirement at 8,6m tonnes.

Meanwhile, Sasol has completed a study on a plant to convert soya beans into motor fuel and is now waiting to see what incentives will be offered by the state. It said incentives would be necessary to make such a project viable.

TAXI SCRAPPINGS HEAD FOR 10 000 MARK
More than 9 400 old taxis had been scrapped and R400m in allowances had been paid to operators under the government's Taxi Recapitalisation Programme. Operators are paid R50 000 for each old taxi scrapped under the R7,7 billion Recap Programme.

According to NAAMSA about 2 000 new taxis are being sold each month, although it is difficult to get actual figures as some of them are imports from China and not all sales are reported to NAAMSA.

Meanwhile, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) says it has taken a number of wide-ranging decisions that will improve its image. It has decided that one of the initiatives will be to encourage its members to play a role in the fight against crime by becoming 'whistleblowers".

SUPER GROUP INCREASES REVENUE BY 15%
Growth in its retail motor business had contributed to Super Group boosting its earnings to June by 15% to R11,6bn with operating profit increasing by 42% to R941m. The company reported that its automotive division was operating beyond expectations.

The JSE-listed company has received an unsolicited expression of interest from a company that wanted to acquire the company's motor dealership division. (Prior to that there have been two lots of negotiations in eight months between Super Group and groups of investors that wanted to take over the whole company).

Super Group currently operates 19 passenger and four commercial vehicle dealerships under franchise agreements with virtually all the major players in the SA market. The company continues negotiates with the interested group, but they would only accept an offer for the dealerships if it was of benefit to all shareholders.

Meanwhile, Super Group says it will expand its presence in the local heavy commercial vehicle market with the establishment of another assembly line at its facility in Pietermaritzburg, as well as the launch of two new Chinese truck brands. The investment in the second assembly line will be R20 million. The new brands, including a long haul truck and general freight vehicle will be assembled on the new line.

MCCARTHY GROUP TO DISCONTINUE GAZELLE TAXI IMPORTS
GAZ Motor Corporation, a joint venture in which McCarthy Motor Holdings has a 58 per cent stake, has announced that it is to discontinue importing the GAZelle taxi vehicle from Russia. It was reported that this vehicle would not comply with the latest Taxi Recap regulations and it has also been plagued by complaints of unreliability and poor quality. McCarthy is already importing and selling the Chinese-built Foton that complies with the recap rules.

AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER PARK YIELDING EXCELLENT RETURNS
The multi-million rand Automotive Supplier Park at Rosslyn, near Pretoria, has yielded an "excellent return on investment" according to an economic impact study. It created 14 436 jobs between its launch in 2002 and 2006 and contributed R714,6 million to the country's gross domestic product.

It created 10 034 direct short-term jobs during construction and 4 402 direct, sustainable jobs as part of the tenants' operations. It contributed R2,46 billion to GDP during the capital expenditure and construction phase.

ATC IS NOW BEE COMPANY
A black-owned company, Isibizo Investments, has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Allied Trim Components (ATC) after three years of negotiations. ATC has been working with multinational companies such as Toyota, BMW and Nissan for 10 years and is the only local manufacturer of vehicle interior components to be recognised as a first tier supplier.

ATC has factories in Durban and Rosslyn and is due to open a third plant in Port Elizabeth in a joint venture with a multinational firm.

SABS AND ENATIS COLLIDE OVER ASIAWING TRUCKS
The SA Bureau of Standards and the national vehicle licensing authority blamed each after hundreds of Asiawing trucks, from China, ended up on South African roads without roadworthy certificates.

SABS claimed that the trucks, imported by China Motor Franchise (CMF), should not have been registered on the eNatis system if they did not have roadworthy certificates. The licensing authority disputed that claim...

The upshot was that the vehicles, including their braking systems, were checked over by the SABS again and declared compliant with compulsory standards for vehicles in their mass category (more than 3 500kg).

The Asiawing trucks will have to go for annual roadworthy tests, like any other commercial vehicle, but the SABS could not force the owners of the new vehicles to have them tested before they had been registered for a year.

Owners have reported a number of quality problems with these vehicles and they were subject to a Carte Blanche investigation on M-Net.

WESBANK'S TOP BUYERS OF NEW CARS ARE BLACK MEN
Black men overtook their white counterparts as the leading buyers of new vehicles earlier this year and are racing ahead according to Wesbank. Black men now account for more than 28 per cent of Wesbank's new vehicle business.

The total black market has increased its share of Wesbank's new business book for both new and used vehicles from 32 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 to 43 per cent at the end of August. For new vehicles this segment increased its share from 30 to 40 per cent in the same period, with the equivalent used car figures at 33,3 and 44,2 per cent respectively.

The average value of finance deals approved by the Wesbank asset finance house for the entire black market has declined slightly from R122 025 to R121 596.

SATISFACTION NEEDS TO BE EXPERIENCED
More than 80 per cent of companies believe they deliver fantastic customer service, but only 8 per cent of their customers agree!

Interesting comments about the "flavour of the decade" for customers have come from Ian McAllister, the former chairman of the Ford Motor Company. He said that in the 1980s, Quality was the differentiator, in the 1990s it was Brand and in the 2000s it is Customer Experience.

Another fact worth knowing is that 44 per cent of customers describe the majority of their customer experiences as "bland and uneventful." It is estimated that some 40 per cent of marketing investment is wasted due to demotivated staff that unwittingly undermine the advertising promise. The result is that 68 per cent of customers don't return a second time.

These days, very few companies have a true USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and even if you have one, it will probably not be long before a competitor offers something similar. The barriers of entry are falling fast and new entrants are popping up everywhere.

The only thing that is really going to cut it today is compelling, engaging and lasting customer experiences. The responsibility of delivering on a promise involves everybody in a company. The entire company needs to respond and ensure that its people, processes, leadership and overall organisational culture are geared towards delivery to customers of what a brand is promising.

HIGH RESIDUALS FOR HYUNDAI IN U.S.
Hyundai are very proud of the fact that one of their vehicles has been given a higher residual value in the United States than an equivalent model from Toyota, Automotive Lease Guide reports. The vehicles in question were the Hyundai Veracruz and Toyota Highlander, with the Korean holding a projected 2 to 6 per cent residual advantage over its competitor after three years of ownership. Two other Hyundai products, the Santa Fe and Azera, also showed sharp rises in residual values.

RED-FACED TOYOTA
Spare a thought for Toyota Motor Corporation, which endured a baptism by rain when the Japanese F1 Grand Prix was staged at the Fuji Speedway in October. The Toyota-owned track, which hosted the Japanese Grand Prix for the first time in 30 years, was afflicted by inclement weather on the critical Saturday and Sunday of the race weekend. At one stage it was feared that first qualifying on the Saturday and then the race itself, the following day, would be called off because of torrential rain and limited visibility due to fog. To add to Toyota's woes, its two cars performed abysmally in the race and then the coaches gridlocked while trying to take the spectators and the Press away from the track.

However, the problems did not end at race day. Subsequently, the race organisers have agreed to refund R21 million to spectators whose seats offered a poor view of the track. Angry spectators inundated the organisers with complaints because they had struggled to see the on-track action because of the positioning of their seats…

COMPANY CARS ARE POPULAR AGAIN
Cash-strapped employees are seeking the shelter of company cars instead of car allowances as tougher credit controls and rising interest rates begin to bite. A person on a car allowance who had bought a car for R200 000 four years ago, and had been paying R3 500 a month for it, now faces payments of R5 000 a month. Some owners are extending their vehicles' lives outside the protection of a maintenance plan, which is costly because of other demands on their finances.

This pressure on employees has made them look to a company car, but that can be problematical for many companies as they have long ago dispensed with in-house fleet management expertise.

HYUNDAI TAKE TWO "IDEAL VEHICLE" AWARDS
Hyundai vehicles came out top in four categories in the annual Auto Pacific's Ideal Vehicle Awards, wining premium mid-size car (Sonata), compact car (Elantra), compact crossover SUV (Tucson) and minivan (Entourage). The awards are made according to the way a vehicle matches its owners' expectations and criteria in a category. The vehicles that customers said they would change the least were considered the most "ideal".