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Matthew Freeman

Position: CAP Consulting Specialist

Number: 0113 222 2042

matthew.freeman@cap.co.uk +44 (0) 113 222 2042 AREA OF EXPERTISE Providing market intelligence and insight through the creation of stock and bespoke business reporting on current automotive market trends and economic factors affecting the new, used and future car markets.

24/04/2015

Futuristic film cars: how technology is catching up with fiction

Few things capture our imagination like the cars of tomorrow, and over the past few decades films and TV shows have capitalised on our ongoing love affair with the automobile

30/01/2015

The Pace of Change

The latest automotive technologies are on the horizon. What effect will they have? We’ve had two major automotive events this month, the Detroit Motor Show and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Detroit concentrates on the now, whilst CES pushes the boundaries of what manufacturers think we’ll be driving ‘the day after tomorrow’. When can the driver look forward to all of this and how...

19/12/2014

When your car becomes my car

We have a saying here at CAP: a new car is new only for a moment, but it’s a used car for a very long time. That’s something we try to impress on manufacturers. There’s a tendency to be focused on the ‘new’ part of a car’s lifecycle, partly I suspect because it’s the exciting part of the process, and partly because new car sales and market share are such important measures of success in the...

07/11/2014

Is vehicle security still important for drivers and fleet managers?

Vehicle crime has been in decline since the 1990s. So is vehicle security still an important consideration for drivers and fleet managers, or is this something we now take for granted? The company car is an asset, albeit a depreciating one, and it makes sense to ensure your assets are secure. As with property thefts, it helps to make a criminal’s ‘job’ as difficult as possible – these are usually...

27/10/2014

How do seasonal, political and economic conditions affect demand for used cars?

Many things can influence the demand for second hand cars, with micro and macro factors seemingly outside of our control. So how can we challenge set assumptions? Being informed has never been more important... Seasonality Let’s look at seasonality first and just two examples of this. There’s an assumption that consumers buy convertibles in the spring and summer, and that in winter there’s...

29/09/2014

Autonomous cars: what happens when we take our foot off the pedal?

Do you remember the world before the internet? If you wanted to find something out, you looked in a book. But first you had to find the book, so you went to the library. But sometimes they didn’t have the book, so you had to ask for it to be transferred or go to another library which held a copy. But before all that you had to know what book to look in… The internet changed all that. Information...

23/09/2014

Do apps really improve the resale value of cars?

Should motor manufacturers be doing more to incorporate technology for the “app” generation in order to improve the resale value of their cars? Given the profitability of tech companies, it’s not surprising that car makers are in awe of their success. In August the buzz surrounding the launch of the iPhone6 drove Apple’s share price to record highs – when was the last time that happened to a car...

05/06/2014

Range anxiety: how much is enough?

A question for those of you who work for OEMs: do you have enough models in your range? One of the curious features of the modern market is the downsizing of mainstream manufacturers’ ranges. Looking back to the 1980s, Ford and BMW both had around the same number of model ranges: BMW had four or five, and Ford had four. Hyundai, new to the UK market, sold only three. Now BMW sells no less than 15...

27/03/2014

Why do consumers act so irrationally?

We are often told that today’s motorists are savvy. With household budgets constantly being squeezed, more and more car buyers are now trying to figure out exactly how much a car will cost them to run, so they can make informed decisions about what they should or shouldn’t buy. This intelligence includes uncovering tangible running costs such as fuel economy, tax, servicing and maintenance. These...

16/01/2014

Customer experience trumps product quality for premium car brand builders

Luxurious dealerships, memorable commercials and clever product placement all have their part to play, but the benefit they can deliver, at best, is only parity with existing brands. And with the premium space getting ever more crowded – thanks to the likes of Volvo, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Infiniti and others pitching for prestige status – going ‘above and beyond’ the norm is vital. New brands face...