Company car drives ‘fritter away’ millions

Car manufacturers are wasting millions of pounds promoting company car sales, according to a new survey of fleet managers.

The news will come as an-other blow to the motor industry, which suffered a further 7.7 per cent fall in retail sales in May.

The company car sector has kept the UK car market afloat over the past two years as retail sales have tumbled. Consequently, manufacturers have spent heavily in this area.

But more than two-thirds of fleet managers surveyed in the Lex Survey – What Drives the Company Motorist? – complained that short-term marketing schemes caused “unnec- essary hassle”. Ninety per cent said that incentives had no effect on long-term buying policy.

“I can believe that,” says John Abbott, marketing director at Volkswagen, which has a two per cent share of the sector. “It’s a perennial problem of knowing that a chunk of ad spend is wasted.”

Lex interviewed 459 people responsible for fleet management.