Jam Jar cars, the UK’s first major online car retailer, has closed its doors to new business.
Consumers are increasingly using the internet to research and buy new cars, but are turning to aggregator sites where they can compare multiple cars of the same type rather than single sourced brokerages.
The Jam Jar brand was heavily promoted by the RBS at its launch in 2000, and became the largest online retailer of new cars in the UK. Initially, it focussed on direct to consumer car sales via a tie-in with Dixon Motor Holdings, an RBS owned car dealer group.
When RBS disposed of the loss making Dixon Motor Holdings business in 2007 by putting it into administration , the Jam Jar business changed to a finance brokerage.
Lombard Vehicle Management, the vehicle financing arm of the RBS, has taken a decision to focus on direct to end user business, and has ceased to use brokers. Jam Jar effectively operated as a brokerage and as such is not required to introduce new business any more.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns LVM as well as Lombard Business Finance, said the decision to stop using brokers could result in up to 85 job losses.
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