What terrifies a car dealership?
What really terrifies your average, conscientious retailer of cars?
The taking in of a car that has been either previously stolen, had the mileage clocked or written off without the car dealer knowing would and should also rank pretty highly on the list. A cold shiver descending slowly down the spine is assured if a buyer uncovers for certain that they have been sold a nail or think they've been right royally ripped off. This apprehension is compounded when and if the same customer has found out who the managing director is.
Another apprehension is erratic used car prices and losing a substantial amount of money on a car by getting all of it spectacularly wrong ( and not listening to your car buying guide ). I remember a couple of years ago a new sales executive priced a Mitsubishi Shogun short wheel base diesel. Nothing so much bad with that I hear you say but what if it was the long wheel base version instead? Otherwise known in trade parlance as the “kiss of death: and If my memory serves me correctly we lost £5k on that actual deal (also known as “blowing your brains out”).
Higher up the food chain in car dealerships lurks the contemptible terror of having the funding stopped or, only a little less horrifying, become more expensive and for a successful dealership, having their best salesman poached would and should strike fear into the heart of the sales chief.
It's was recounted quite latterly that the car business in the United Kingdom is in the best shape it's ever been, ironically it is almost fully foreign owned but has taken great strides to improve both product and service and the funding solutions supplied by makers and other asset backed lenders ism arket leading.
There are many things to be admired about a business that can sustain itself when turning over millions of pounds only tomake relatively little profits compared to the outlay, so naturally with completion ferocious and margins cut to the bone it is only to be expected that bad publicitycan easily terrify a car dealer. You just need to have a look at Saab to understand how dicey this business is, if an organization like GM has such trouble selling a long established brand or making it work advantageously.
Just think ofthe affect on people who own late Saab examples and how they'll be feeling at the moment, together with the poor folks who may have worked passionately with the product for a number of years and who are now faced with getting made redundant.
It is a credit to the numerous hard working obsessed people from all facets of the tradethat we can stillhave a prospering business which is prepared to lay out £15,000 and watch it sit on a forecourt for 2 months before it perhaps makes a £1,000 profit.
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