Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.

[silentbrown]

Sheepshanks said:

VAG is like that too. I asked a salesman about it and he said some people just don't weigh the two up against each other and as the salesmen are specific to used, they're not going to let on.

Also, it helps shift new cars. My current car is the first I've owned from new, and the ridiculous prices for nearly new were a big part in that decision.

[Bet2502]

If you could only work at one main dealership which brand would it be any why

[4941cc]

Mexman said:

Bet2502 said:

Never been in car sales before but been in various sales for past 15 years. Looking for a new challenge after 10 year.
Been offered a job in a JLR main dealer in car sales. 90% of people seem to say don’t bother. Silly hours. Can end up working for less than min wage. Pressure to sell everything only the car itself. Tyre kickers galore wanting the sun and moon. Spend half your day doing everything except trying to sell cars running after service garage, pdi, invoicing , moving cars etc etc
I understand every job has its pros and cons, is car sales really that bad especially at a main dealer.
What could you realistically be able to earn as an average salesman

That's about it in a nutshell

Yep, that's been my last 18 years too.

[Bet2502]

Mustn’t be that bad if your still doing it though

[strain]

Do you guys ever have competitions between yourselves to see who can overprice a car the most?

Once went to ford's to trade in the wifes focus, gave the guy our budget and apparently the only car in our budget wasn't prepared yet but he would bring it around to show us. This was 2014. He brought a 58 reg fiesta around, rust door, crap spec, 50k and £7000. He could only offer us £1000 for our 06 focus.

We didn't entertain him for too long and traded in about 6 months later for £1500, against a 62 astra for £9000.

Never been back to the garage since, although my brother bought from there just before Christmas.

[4941cc]

Bet2502 said:

Mustn’t be that bad if your still doing it though

After a while, nobody will have you for anything else, unless you're st and go into estate/lettings agency or recruitment consultancy are the usual exit strategies from the trade.

Every job has it's fair share of crap.

[Dan W.]

strain said:

Do you guys ever have competitions between yourselves to see who can overprice a car the most?

Once went to ford's to trade in the wifes focus, gave the guy our budget and apparently the only car in our budget wasn't prepared yet but he would bring it around to show us. This was 2014. He brought a 58 reg fiesta around, rust door, crap spec, 50k and £7000. He could only offer us £1000 for our 06 focus.

We didn't entertain him for too long and traded in about 6 months later for £1500, against a 62 astra for £9000.

Never been back to the garage since, although my brother bought from there just before Christmas.

Never seen places having a competition about pricing cars, a lot of garages are out of touch with what current prices are, a garage near us does the same trick with every car he gets in, whatever price he pays he just whacks 3k on top and waits for it to sell, and they usually will do at some stage

Used to wind one of the lads up there about their stock and prices, we pretty much had identical cars once and theirs was £2500 more than ours and it sold before ours did even though they had it for 1 year !!

[Eyersey1234]

When a garage orders cars for stock when do they have to be paid for?

[4941cc]

Eyersey1234 said:

When a garage orders cars for stock when do they have to be paid for?

Varies by brand, but usually 180 days after being consigned to dealer. Sometimes 365 days for lumpy stuff.

Others, if it is still unsold after 180 days, it returns to being manufacturer central stock (albeit still stored by the dealer).

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

Also at the point of registration, whether to an individual, business, as a demonstrator or pre-reg, payment is debited from the dealer stock account.

Edited by 4941cc on Thursday 1st February 10:59

[CharlesdeGaulle]

4941cc said:

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

So do these ever end up being offered as unbeatable deals?

[mabosh]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

4941cc said:

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

So do these ever end up being offered as unbeatable deals?

I was just about to ask the same thing.

Surely when they are over a year old they become ever more difficult to sell, old spec or pre-facelift, that kind of thing. Do you ever give up on these and send them to auction brand new, return them to the manufacturer or just keep discounting them until sold?

[HTP99]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

4941cc said:

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

So do these ever end up being offered as unbeatable deals?

We had 2 cars put into our stock at launch of a new model, they remained at the import centre but were ours but also available for any other dealer to take, we weren't fussed about them being there as we hadn't paid for them and wouldn't do until they arrived with us, eventually a deal was struck and we managed to get about 40% off them; when they were sold last year they had been built 18m prior.

[CS Garth]

4941cc said:

Varies by brand, but usually 180 days after being consigned to dealer. Sometimes 365 days for lumpy stuff.

Others, if it is still unsold after 180 days, it returns to being manufacturer central stock (albeit still stored by the dealer).

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

Also at the point of registration, whether to an individual, business, as a demonstrator or pre-reg, payment is debited from the dealer stock account.

Edited by 4941cc on Thursday 1st February 10:59

I'm about to head to a Mercedes dealer tomorrow and I may order a new car but he has mentioned he has a couple about to come into stock of the model I am looking at.

Is it correct to say there will be more willingness to do a deal on the new stock coming in so it doesn't hang about or will be perception be that the immediacy of the car has value? Or does it depend?

Naturally I will discuss with them but interested to know what I can expect

Thanks

[4941cc]

CS Garth said:

I'm about to head to a Mercedes dealer tomorrow and I may order a new car but he has mentioned he has a couple about to come into stock of the model I am looking at.

Is it correct to say there will be more willingness to do a deal on the new stock coming in so it doesn't hang about or will be perception be that the immediacy of the car has value? Or does it depend?

Naturally I will discuss with them but interested to know what I can expect

Thanks

Aged new car stock is more likely to attract a better deal than a car that lands today. They usually attract greater manufacturer support and the dealer will be willing to use more margin discount to clear it before they have to pay for it in full.

These are the cars that end up pre-reg'd or registered as static demos usually if they haven't retailed as new cars successfully before their time is up.

What will also help is taking a car now, rather than waiting months fo ra factory order. Especially as Feb target is hard to hit, with most people wanting to wait until March.

Currently offering customers 7.5% to take a car in Feb vs. 5% for the same car registered in March and bugger all for a factory ordered one due in May/June as examples.

[Fast Bug]

MB are pretty hot on overage new stock. It's rare that anything gets to a year old, 6 months is usually when the focus is really on it to get it gone

[thebigmacmoomin]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

4941cc said:

This leads to us having many new cars in storage, at £2-3/day each, for sometimes years. Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

So do these ever end up being offered as unbeatable deals?

My friend bought a new Renault Kadjar that has been at the dealers for a while. Brand new un-registered & was cheaper than am identical used Kadjar. Apparently it was costing the dealer £xxx a month keeping it there so they must have just cut their losses with it to get it sold.

[Sheepshanks]

4941cc said:

Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

What are they?

[4941cc]

Sheepshanks said:

4941cc said:

Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...

What are they?

Fiat/Alfa/Jeep.

[silentbrown]

[quote=4941cc]
...Still got a few 2016MY unregistered stock units about...[/quote

I remember getting a deposit back from a Peugeot main dealer when their "low mileage, 1998 registered" car turned out to have been sitting in storage for well over a year before registration, so had a totally different spec to a 'real' 1998 car....

[CS Garth]

4941cc said:

More useful stuff

.

Thanks, appreciated