So, what is going on at main dealers? Profit margins so low on new cars that they are hoping to rake in money from the P/X's they have taken in?
Was out looking at cars today (got an itchy wallet) and I noticed that a number of the main dealers had quite a few other makers cars on the forecourt for sale. For instance, the VW Dealer on Colchester Road, Harold Wood had Rovers, Citroens and MG Sports cars for sale. The Fiat dealer on the Romford Road was also selling other makes.
Is the buying public wising up to new car prices so much that we have made the difference?
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No It just makes sense that if you get a good desirable part ex in that you have screwed some punter down on, why throw the margins away to someone else?
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Bit puzzled by your comment about dealers selling other makes - it's certainly not uncommon in my area and, in fact, their newspaper advertising usually includes a section devoted to such cars.
Don't forget that many dealerships now handle two or more franchises these days as running a sole franchise doesn't have the same rewards as in the past.
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My Ford dealer (Polar) always has a number of Vectras, Astras and Hyundai Accents for some reason on the forecourt.
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Adam
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Re my original question/statement. I was just a bit puzzled as to why there were so many other car makes on the forecourt. It wasn't just the odd one or two or three, but a whole section devoted to them. The VW garage at Harold Wood had quite a few Rovers, MG Sports, a Lotus, Citroen etc.
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It certainly is a growing trend I think. There are always some companies that shift group stock about, like CD BRamall Ford in Milton Keynes. You can always find other makes in their Ford dealership - but now it seems pervasive with Wayside VW as well. Camden Group have a Renault and Citroen dealership in MK and they tend to share forcourt space and sell all manner of cars. A nice car is a nice car at the end of the day, but I think the real kicker will be when you cna walk into say a Ford dealership and order a brand new Renault.
I think there are moves underway (thanks to teh EU?) that mean dealers will be free to sell other makes, and not neccessarily the one and only make, as things stand currently.
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>>not neccessarily the one and only make, as things stand currently.>>
Not quite true. Main dealerships have been generally been free to operate more than one franchise for some considerable time now if they wish.
In fact one such dealership on the outskirts of where I live has (IIRC) three main franchises.
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PS
Another is a main Saab and Hyundai dealership.
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>>not neccessarily the one and only make, as things stand currently.>> Not quite true. Main dealerships have been generally been free to operate more than one franchise for some considerable time now if they wish.
Nonono...what I meant chap was that from the SAME showroom you could pick a different car. I mean you wlak into a Ford dealership, and apart from just selling Fords there, the dealer could sell you a Renault, for example. So its not a case of going to a different branch or showroom - all makes under one roof. Of course there are some franchise groups that offer different makes, like Camden who do Nissan and Renault predominantly. but you have to physically go from 'one' showroom to the 'other'.
I'm talking about buying whilst in the SAME showroom.
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>>'m talking about buying whilst in the SAME showroom.>>
I can't truly visualise any major manufacturer having anything to do with such an idea in one of its own franchised outlets.
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>>i'm talking about buying whilst in the SAME showroom.>> I can't truly visualise any major manufacturer having anything to do with such an idea in one of its own franchised outlets.
Theorectically under the relaxation of the block exemption rules it is possible for one dealer to sell several marques of cars from one dealership so you walk in and the dealer has Renault, Toyota and Honda all within the same showroom and handily you can compare the clio, yaris and jazz within marching round three different dealers.
However! most manufacturers have introduced a whole host of clauses into their franchise agreements which make it VERY VERY difficult to do such a thing. The biggest one is that any showroom must conform and be done out to the manufacturers specification.
Just think about it - you walk into a merc dealer in inverness and it looks just like the one in chelsea The BMW garage in skegness looks just like the one in burnley.
Whilst it's not impossible to do a single showroom out to 3 different makers particular requirements it is usually easier to build a supersite with 3 individual showrooms right next to each other.
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>>VERY VERY difficult to do such a thing>>
Absolutely correct - it's franchise corporate image philosophy.
Just the same with McDonalds, Little Chef, KFC, HireShop and so many other franchises. Walk into a McDonalds in Leeds or Liverpool, for instance, and it's a carbon copy of those in Moscow, Paris or anywhere else in the world.
Even the food tastes the same but at least you know exactly what you are going to get wherever you are...:-)
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CD Bramall Citroen in Northampton had a wide range of other marques this morning including Renault, Kia and Fiat. The non Cits were however over represented on the "bargain rail".
I stuck with the home team and signed up for a Berlingo!
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Perrys Ford have always seem to have a few other makes as well as Rye mill VW having there own seperate section in the local paper of older p/x's, but to me its nothing new or that unusual in my mind at all!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Don't forget the 'location clause' part of Block Exemption comes into effect on October 1st. I think this will have more of an impact than some people imagine - I reckon a lot of smaller franchised outlet will go to the wall. You'll then get the large multi-brand outlets springing up.
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yes
saab droitwich are selling seat, saab and land rover under one roof.
family business.
so does seat/vw and saab/gm go together?
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Ah! Another Worcestershire resident??
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Back to the original topic - dealer selling non-franchise P/X's:
We've got into a routine of changing my wife's car every 5 yrs and usally get something different. So she's had Polo, 106, Clio, Jazz.
Until we bought the Jazz I'd always sold her old car privately, but I wanted to p/x the Clio (needed cambelt change and major servicing). It was a 5 yr old 1.6RXE with 23,000 miles.
No dealer (of any manufacturer) was seriously interested in taking the car - they all said it's very difficult for them to sell non-franchise vehicles for 2 reasons - 1) people don't go to (for example) a Honda showroon looking for a Clio, 2) people assume there must have been something wrong with the car for its owner to swop brands. So the offers that we got reflected the fact that the car would be sold straight on to a trader.
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Yeah, but in all fairness, what dealer would want a 5 year old non-franchised trade-in sitting on their forecourt? That's getting just a little too old to be selling to anyone other than a trader.
We used to sell other makes of used car from our Ford showroom, but not many, most just went straight to trade, the ones that we did sell were normally newish and desireable for one reason or another, or quite simply we knew we could sell them at a healthy profit.
The last one that I sold was a 206 which we could afford to sell at a price that made our secondhand Fiestas look poorly equipped and overpriced, yet we still made a reasonable enough profit on it. Of course having driven the thing I would never buy one, my feet didn't fit on the pedals, but that wouldn't bother the girl who bought it!
Blue
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