Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.
Discussion
Dan W. said:
Mexman said:
Maybe they don't need to?
Perhaps their order bank is pootling along quite nicely without the need to give desirable stock that is possibly difficult to replace away.
Not every dealer has to give cars away with little or no profit if they are successful enough anyway.
Agree with Mexman, our garage works on this model, we do often have a customer come to us to see if we can price match a Carwow order and we refuse. whats the point of losing money on a car when we have already hit our target.Perhaps their order bank is pootling along quite nicely without the need to give desirable stock that is possibly difficult to replace away.
Not every dealer has to give cars away with little or no profit if they are successful enough anyway.
The used car one is where we make our money, If we have a desirable car and we know its priced well its not getting discounted.
We actually very rarely come across internet quotes for cars anyway, I think it is to do with the our location, we are in an extremely affluent area, we have a very good reputation and our customers can appreciate good service and are happy to pay for it.
Dealers who do stupid deals are never in business for long anyway.
Dan W. said:
Torcars said:
What about handover gifts?
The bunch of flowers seems to be a staple and has been for years.
Land Rover gave us the flowers, posh keyrings dust caps with logos on them and an off road experience.
I got a few nice bottles of wine once.
A little pack of branded cleaning products was popular with Rovers and Volvos.
Does the manufacturer dictate what gifts are offered? Is it down to the dealer or salesman? Does he cost come out of the comission, a slush fund or from the manufacturer.
Comes from the dealership. The bunch of flowers seems to be a staple and has been for years.
Land Rover gave us the flowers, posh keyrings dust caps with logos on them and an off road experience.
I got a few nice bottles of wine once.
A little pack of branded cleaning products was popular with Rovers and Volvos.
Does the manufacturer dictate what gifts are offered? Is it down to the dealer or salesman? Does he cost come out of the comission, a slush fund or from the manufacturer.
We will do something if a car has been bought for a special occasion, I have a new car being collected next week for an 18th, we are getting a bottle of champagne for him.
HTP99 said:
We won't match a Carwow quote, however we will keep £150 in a deal if presented with a Carwow quote, if they want to buy from us then they buy, if not then they don't.
We actually very rarely come across internet quotes for cars anyway, I think it is to do with the our location, we are in an extremely affluent area, we have a very good reputation and our customers can appreciate good service and are happy to pay for it.
Dealers who do stupid deals are never in business for long anyway.
Sounds the same as us mate, our customers seem happy to pay our prices and value the service we give, we do often get a customer new to us who comes in and uses the carwow approach, we just said go and get a car from them sorry but we don't compete against them we don't need to. We actually very rarely come across internet quotes for cars anyway, I think it is to do with the our location, we are in an extremely affluent area, we have a very good reputation and our customers can appreciate good service and are happy to pay for it.
Dealers who do stupid deals are never in business for long anyway.
Eyersey1234 said:
I wasn't meaning cars that were already at the dealership. In 1994 my grandparents bought a new Fiesta (which subsequently became my first car) and there were no computers on the salesman's desk then. Just wondered if a customer back then rang a garage to buy a car and there wasn't one at that particular dealer how the salesman could find out if there was one in a compound somewhere
Whist we didn't have computers on our desk in 1994 there were systems available to tell the dealership where there was stock, each dealer usually had what was called a wholesale dept (admin) who would go to the sales manager to ask if the car could be released or if they'd do a colour, model swap or accept a forward order etc. For a difficult to shift car it wasn't unusual for the odd bottle to change hands out of gratitude for off loading a problem. This happened back in 1984 when I started and no doubt predated that. silentbrown said:
What about white cars? I'm unsure if they're "a thing" because they're cheaper, or because people actually like them.
There's a reason that flat white is called "3-36" or "finance white" in the trade, in the way that other colours get labels, 90 day blue, dog cock red, hearing aid beige, JRG etc.Used to be "residual silver".People are hooked by the headline rental/PCP payment and set that as a mental benchmark, even they usually lack the required deposit or PX equity to achieve it, so the payment creeps up - the last thing to get added on is additional cost colours.
Works the other way too, someone forking out for designo paint on a Mercedes or Individual colour on BMW (either from the standard palette or especially for custom orders) etc. has paid a significant premium for it, so likely won't have been a scrimper, the car comes back properly serviced and not wearing Ditchfinders etc.
KTF said:
If I was 'renting' a car then I wouldn't pay extra for a metallic either unless it made the overall cost lower over the term. Why pay more for something that isn't yours just to have something colourful on the drive that you cant really see when you are driving around in it anyway?
People have spare income and spend as they wish I guess I like white cars! My first car was a white 1972 Beetle, which was followed by a white MK2 Golf GTI and I've had a fair few white cars since. With white it tends to show the lines of a car more, whereas dark greys and blacks you lose some of the details in the design. I hate silver and try to avoid having them as it's such a bland colour. We get a poor selection of colours in the UK, look on VW's German configurator and see some of the colours they can order a Golf in!
HTP99 said:
We don't do freebies or handover flowers, we used to provide a nice bunch of flowers but stopped when things became tough in 2009/2010 and didn't re-introduce it, nobody has ever complained or said anything.
We will do something if a car has been bought for a special occasion, I have a new car being collected next week for an 18th, we are getting a bottle of champagne for him.
Handing over a car and a bottle of alcohol to an 18 year old. What could possibly go wrong? LOL. We will do something if a car has been bought for a special occasion, I have a new car being collected next week for an 18th, we are getting a bottle of champagne for him.
KTF said:
If I was 'renting' a car then I wouldn't pay extra for a metallic either unless it made the overall cost lower over the term. Why pay more for something that isn't yours just to have something colourful on the drive that you cant really see when you are driving around in it anyway?
But you would pay extra for the colour if you bought it new, and then sold it after three years, even though you can't see it while driving round - because you owned it?Jakg said:
But you would pay extra for the colour if you bought it new, and then sold it after three years, even though you can't see it while driving round - because you owned it?
If you assume that some colours have better residual values than others then the majority would say yes as an answer. However, if the metallic paint cost an extra £600 over a non-metallic colour would your car then be worth £600 more than one in a solid after 3 years. Probably not...But if you had two identical cars, one in metallic and one in solid then the metallic one would almost certainly be easier to sell.
Anyway, to answer your question, if I bought the car on a non-PCP/lease arrangement with the intention of selling it later on then I would tick the metallic box for easier resale/potentially slightly more in value.
I buy cars for myself, not the next owner who'll generally pay half as much.
So if I want it in heliotrope with a mango interior, I will - and pay whatever it costs accordingly.
If all I wanted were the most utilitarian/economical option, standard model in whatever the default/free colour/s are with no additional options.
How dull that would be.
So if I want it in heliotrope with a mango interior, I will - and pay whatever it costs accordingly.
If all I wanted were the most utilitarian/economical option, standard model in whatever the default/free colour/s are with no additional options.
How dull that would be.
papa3 said:
Eyersey1234 said:
How did a franchised dealer know what vehicles were in the system somewhere before computers?
Manufacturers used to fax huge lists of stock that was in compound, port and at dealers. You called up the sales desk, or the other dealer, and asked for the car.Before that, you had what you had in your own stock and you sold it, or simply factory ordered everything, as volumes were significantly lower than today.
Service History, is it checked before the car goes on sale or only when someone becomes interested?
I'm in the market for a van, saw one last week advertised as FSH. Test drove it, then into the office to discuss figures. I happened to look through the service book.... 1 stamp @ 53k! This is on a 15 plate currently on 69k.
Got the normal flannel about bullet proof engines and how they'll do an oil change before sale etc. Who in their right mind is going to buy a car/van that didn't have a service until 53k. They said they'd check with the old owner and the network to see if it's had more services. That was a week ago, I'm guessing it didn't.
I'm in the market for a van, saw one last week advertised as FSH. Test drove it, then into the office to discuss figures. I happened to look through the service book.... 1 stamp @ 53k! This is on a 15 plate currently on 69k.
Got the normal flannel about bullet proof engines and how they'll do an oil change before sale etc. Who in their right mind is going to buy a car/van that didn't have a service until 53k. They said they'd check with the old owner and the network to see if it's had more services. That was a week ago, I'm guessing it didn't.
4941cc said:
I buy cars for myself, not the next owner who'll generally pay half as much.
So if I want it in heliotrope with a mango interior, I will - and pay whatever it costs accordingly.
If all I wanted were the most utilitarian/economical option, standard model in whatever the default/free colour/s are with no additional options.
How dull that would be.
Its really just a way of keeping the list price down, knowing that people wont usually chose the standard car in the "free" colour.So if I want it in heliotrope with a mango interior, I will - and pay whatever it costs accordingly.
If all I wanted were the most utilitarian/economical option, standard model in whatever the default/free colour/s are with no additional options.
How dull that would be.
Weirdly, MINI have quite a nice metallic grey as their standard colour. Its quite passable.
mikey-r said:
Service History, is it checked before the car goes on sale or only when someone becomes interested?
I'm in the market for a van, saw one last week advertised as FSH. Test drove it, then into the office to discuss figures. I happened to look through the service book.... 1 stamp @ 53k! This is on a 15 plate currently on 69k.
Got the normal flannel about bullet proof engines and how they'll do an oil change before sale etc. Who in their right mind is going to buy a car/van that didn't have a service until 53k. They said they'd check with the old owner and the network to see if it's had more services. That was a week ago, I'm guessing it didn't.
Just sounds like a lazy garage not bothering to do their research. Usually we just list the services it has had and when they were done and by who.I'm in the market for a van, saw one last week advertised as FSH. Test drove it, then into the office to discuss figures. I happened to look through the service book.... 1 stamp @ 53k! This is on a 15 plate currently on 69k.
Got the normal flannel about bullet proof engines and how they'll do an oil change before sale etc. Who in their right mind is going to buy a car/van that didn't have a service until 53k. They said they'd check with the old owner and the network to see if it's had more services. That was a week ago, I'm guessing it didn't.
if they cant be arsed to advertise their cars correctly I am pretty sure they cant do the rest of the job either so best leave them alone and look elsewhere.
Red 4 said:
What is the general mark-up on parts ?
i.e. how much do you make on top of the supplier price ?
Not as much as you might think, although it does depend on the brand. Service parts usually have between 20-40% mark up. Accessories have very little in them, sometimes only 10 or 15%. Most replacement components have only 20% or so. Its unusual to get beyond 40% but I have seen it on occasions. Tyres, it depends but quite often sod all just to compete with Kwik Fit et al.i.e. how much do you make on top of the supplier price ?
My overall monthly margin on the balance sheet at my last place was around 18% margin on genuine and 25% on aftermarket.
Maybe I should start a "Ask a parts advisor anything...anything at all." thread?
PartsMonkey said:
Not as much as you might think, although it does depend on the brand. Service parts usually have between 20-40% mark up. Accessories have very little in them, sometimes only 10 or 15%. Most replacement components have only 20% or so. Its unusual to get beyond 40% but I have seen it on occasions. Tyres, it depends but quite often sod all just to compete with Kwik Fit et al.
My overall monthly margin on the balance sheet at my last place was around 18% margin on genuine and 25% on aftermarket.
Maybe I should start a "Ask a parts advisor anything...anything at all." thread?
Some manufactures seem to be going after the aftermarket world, we can buy genuine ford and vw oil filters cheaper than pattern parts.My overall monthly margin on the balance sheet at my last place was around 18% margin on genuine and 25% on aftermarket.
Maybe I should start a "Ask a parts advisor anything...anything at all." thread?
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff