A motor group sell a range of Japanese cars - Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Mazda,,,,,+ some Korean.
Headline in local Daily paper, The Herald, ran along the lines that the strong YEN caused the loss.
I think that might be A reason but there are others.
12 months ago went into one of their outlets...............sat for nearly an hour. The sales person was with AN Other customer.....however, the Sales Mgr was pouring over paperwork, the Asst/Finance Mgr was busying himself..............I could see them and they could see me.
Sales Person appears takes details, then the TI value...Sales Mgr looks at car and says it's worth £XXXX and I'll knock £400 off for 2 new tyres on the front.....there was 4mm on them although one had a smoother edge... but still legal, Tyres cost £138 each inc VAT so he is only lying out about £230 RETAIL do he had doubled a dubious deduction.
If you take this car...did not like the colour it will cost you £19.7+Trade-in car..... I paid £13.5K + trade-in in the colour I liked.
So maybe some customer care, getting off his backside and trying to win business would have earned a sale. It's not all down to the YEN value IMHO.
|
Bobby
A medium sized chain, based west of Glasgow on the former site of a car assembly plant. It rose from the ashes from 1 x site to multi-site and now even the dizzy heights of Edinburgh.
|
Ha ha well described!
IIRC it is owned by one individual and agree with you, prices always so much higher than everyone else!
|
Maybe they work on the theory it's better to sell 10 cars at £1000 profit each, than 100 cars at £100 profit each?
That's how it seems to work in Sweden.
|
>> Maybe they work on the theory it's better to sell 10 cars at £1000 profit
>> each, than 100 cars at £100 profit each?
>>
>> That's how it seems to work in Sweden.
The Citroen dealer in Northampton seemed to use that MO too. List price less Citroen £1k offer and a couple of hundred more off for goodluck. His oppo in MK was more than £2k cheaper.
I'd have paid a hundred or two for goodwill and local service but £2k??????
|
Phoenix gave me a (relatively) good p/x price for my 18 month old Shogun against a new Swift Sport.
Most places were offering £22-24k with list for the Swift, Phoenix offered £25k then phoned 30mins later to 'stretch' to £26k with a very modest discount on the Suzuki (brand new model with rave reviews at the time so wasn't expecting a lot of wiggle room anyway).
I had paid £29k for the Shogun brand new/first owner from new-car-discount.com and felt that was a fair price.
The Shogun went to the neighbouring Mitsu dealer and stickered at £29k, which seemed fair enough mark-up to me.
|
>>The Citroen dealer in Northampton seemed to use that MO too. List price less Citroen £1k offer and a couple of hundred more off for goodluck.
Bought a C2 VTS (petrol) in 2006 for the missus - list was £13k or so, phoned around all the central Scotland dealers - one asian sounding sales chap in Edinburgh didn't bother to call me back, Arnold's chaps suggested free mats was all they had..... eventually spoke to the dealer principal at Stirling's dealership and he offered me the unregistered silver one in their showroom for £7700.
Traded it in 10 months later for £7300 for a CRV (+acceptable discount from the CRV pricetag) after baby no.1 was on way... "That's the best price we can do, sir, Citroen tend to be heavy discounters so they depreciate fast" - I was happy enough with the offer!
|
|
The Hyundai dealer in MK has been doing the 'pile em high, sell em cheap' thing for the 8 years that my family have dealt with them and they seem to have remained busy by doing it, even on weekdays it has plenty of customers around and 4 salesmen knocking about. When I went to look at the Elantra the boss' wife kept me chatting until a salesman was available, their sales targets for new cars were very high but then the volume bonuses are high too. Very good range of stock too from stuff 8-9 years up up to nearly new, virtually all models they had done in that period.
|
>>How is the Elantra, FoR?<<
Generally good, electric window slipped out the runners today though and was a hell of a pain to get back in, no access without alot of work but the doorcard all comes apart easily enough. Something is still broken though as it is threatening to slip out again so Im not using it, not sure it is worth fixing with functioning air con.
Other than that it is doing great, I have put 4k on it since August and apart from the window it is all going great. The MPG function on the trip computer is useless though, it is about 10mpg worse than reality, sometimes more, it seems to say 36-37.5 mpg no matter how I drive when infact I have never got less than 45 and hit 55 a few weeks ago driving like a vicar for the week. Comfortable on a long run but after I had the clutch done the lad that delivered it back changed my seating position and it took me a week to get it right again!
I am hankering after a diesel Sonata now, seeing them at the dealer when I bought the Elantra reminded me how much I like the bland old saloons, dead cheap too.
|
|
Yeah. If only there had been a Sonata estate. Something we agree on there.
|
>>Yeah. If only there had been a Sonata estate. Something we agree on there.<<
Indeed but for my needs the big saloon boot would do the job, seats fold on them for long loads too. Also worth looking at the Kia Magentis/Optima, same car and more of them about.
Those i40 estates are rather lovely up close, not sure they will be the used car bargin that Hyundais used to be though, too accomplished to be ignored and darned complex.
I quite like the Suzuki SX4 saloon, huge boot, but they only did it in petrol sadly.
I am keeping a close eye on Dacia used values, that Logan estate looks like a bargin if they prove reliable.
|
|
Agreed, haven't seen one yet though. Saw a fair few Dacia Lodgys in France this summer, you couldn't pay me to drive one of them. But I'd have the Logan estate. Nowt as queer as folk.........
|
|
Logan does look good, I even like the Duster quite alot and if they got cheap I could be tempted into a diesel perhaps.
|
|
It's just about the only faux x 4 I'd be seen in.
|
The diesel 2wd would be my choice in top spec, can keep 4wd.
The misses has set her heart on a Ssangyong Korando EX auto, nice car but not sure if they will be selling them in UK by the time she can afford one, not that I told her that :-)
|
>> Saw a fair few Dacia Lodgys in France this
>> summer, you couldn't pay me to drive one of them. But I'd have the Logan
>> estate. Nowt as queer as folk.........
>>
Nothing queer about preferring the Logan to the Lodgy. Those Lodgys look really ugly, but I suppose they are so roomy they could be added to the Logis de France hotel chain as bargain basement accommodation? :-)
|
Dealer I had the Volvo serviced at (Chippenham) have just written to me to tell me that they will no longer be selling new Volvos from Jan but they will remain as an authorised service agent.
They are quite a small outfit, but the service side was good. The letter states that Volvo wish to focus their sales efforts in Swindon and Bristol and no longer need a dealership between these points.
|
|
MRG are always spoken highly of as a servicing dealer who knows their stuff in the VOC.
|
>> (Chippenham)
Wilts/Soms... got roots down that way me, or what pass for roots for a rootless cosmopolitan* of my sort... brings tears to my eyes that do... lost youth... snivel... still got a friend or two down there... things fall apart...
*I am aware that the Nazis used the term 'rootless cosmopolitan' in a half-baked, stupid attempt to badmouth Jews. Most of the Jews robbed and murdered by the Nazis were far less rootless and far less cosmopolitan than I am. Indeed they were nearly all settled sub-communities many generations old, thought of as members of their nations.
|
Not many 'authorised service agents' that are not also dealers left
Parkside Skoda, who were just that but were never going to be able to get their corrugated shed down a cobbled street in Bolton up to the glass walls and palm tree standards required for a dealership these days, gave up the ghost and retired in September
They used to have an ex John Haugland (sp ?) car in the showroom,and you knew their experience went back that far. A place where you could actually walk into the garage and talk to the man working on your car, where when my last car was off the road after three weeks of communication with Skoda Tech back in Mlada Boleslav, they pointed out where Skoda's documentation was wrong, which comes as no surprise to anybody who has read a skoda manual, but isnt what you expect of technical documentation
|
>> Not many 'authorised service agents' that are not also dealers left
I know a few. Maidenhed Honda is an authorised service agent for Mazda, but not a dealer. Wokingham Motors, authorised service agent for Renault, as is a Hyundai dealer at Pewsham (near Chippenham oddly enough), neither deal in Renault. Wonder if they're kicking themselves for giving that up now that Renault dealers act as dealers for Dacia? The showroom at Renault Slough is now about 50/50 Renault and Dacia. If Dacia ever do autos, at some point in the future there might be a Sandero and a Logan MCV on our drive.
|
|
there are several Seat authorised service agents who don't sell cars round here. There is even one multi franchised service agent part owned by Ford and Vauxhall (indirectly)
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 8 Nov 13 at 17:01
|
|
Two posts yesterday in the whole of Motoring. Perhaps I should write something about my new tyres.
|
Indeed WDB ! ( Mine is going for two new Contis on the back on Monday and for a tracking check if that helps? ) Two 265/35/18Y Sport Contacts comes to £398 and the tracking is £25. Fronts are wearing ever so slightly unevenly so I suspect an adjustment is needed.
I may well pass a cyclist, lit or otherwise, a dog, an unattended minor, a socialist or an immigrant or even two on the way but I can't say I'm overly anxious about that possibility.
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 9 Nov 13 at 09:44
|
|
I have to motivate myself to wash a very dirty car, then switch the wheels over to the winter set and get a slow puncture fixed on one of those I have taken off.
|
|
Indeed, Melders. Medium speed not a problem in 40-everywhere Berkshire. Dry roads this morning? Hmmm.
|
>>
>> I think that might be A reason but there are others.
>>
>> 12 months ago went into one of their outlets...............sat for nearly an hour. The sales
>> person was with AN Other customer.....however, the Sales Mgr was pouring over paperwork, the Asst/Finance
>> Mgr was busying himself.
But surely if they are making a loss on sales of already overpriced cars, then their behaviour is entirely understandable. It's not like they are going to be clamouring to lose money.
|
Making a loss doesn't necessarily mean selling cars for less than they paid for them. More likely it means that high sticker prices - partly due to adverse exchange rates - are deterring customers to the point where not enough are buying for sales revenue to cover the fixed costs of premises, staff, utilities.
In that situation - which I've been in, in a different industry, I'd expect my sales manager to be kicking me to do everything possible to turn prospects into sales. I might not be able to discount much but I'd be throwing in service packages, accessories, insurance freebies, anything that might sweeten a deal while preserving most of my margin; certainly not ignoring a customer.
|
Yen has fallen 10% approx in last 12 months.
But see Subaru sales in UK - a disaster.. Worldwide a great success..
If you don't sell many cars in the UK, put prices up and milk it - may be their strategy.
Note Subaru sell indirectly in UK via a distributor.. says it all
Last edited by: madf on Sun 10 Nov 13 at 20:00
|
>>where not enough are buying for sales revenue to cover the fixed costs of premises, staff, utilities.
10 yrs ago the local branch to me sold a good number of new & used - mainly Hondas - small premises, 4 or 5 x sales, busy workshops............
Now a Glass palace, reduced staffing, very quiet..........Honda range has shrunk - no sports car, no MPV, no Luxo barge.... Jazz, Civic, CRV..................many traditional Honda buyers drive Hyundais - well built i30s for example. Their Honda bikes side of business looks busy.
|
Group selli Japanese cars - loss due to strong YEN - BobbyG
