Branson branches out into the world of car sales
Discussion
Virgin unveils 'car department store'
Richard Branson has unveiled his latest venture as he opened his first car showroom.
Calling itself the world's first vehicle department store, the Virgin Cars showroom put various brands of cars, motorbikes and vans alongside each other on the forecourt.
It means that car buyers, rather than having to trek from one registered dealer to another, will be able to compare similar vehicles on one site in Salford.
In keeping with the Virgin brand, Sir Richard said he hoped consumers would find the showroom of high quality, value for money, innovative and fun.
"For so long car retailing was tightly controlled by the manufacturers and we lobbied hard for change at Brussels," he said.
"Here you see the blueprint for the future of vehicle buying, and Virgin Cars is at the forefront of it."
General manager Paul Piert added: "The traditional car supermarket offers choice and competitive prices but at the cost of service, and the single brand dealership offers dedicated expertise but at the cost of choice.
"This gap in the market is now being filled by us."
Richard Branson has unveiled his latest venture as he opened his first car showroom.
Calling itself the world's first vehicle department store, the Virgin Cars showroom put various brands of cars, motorbikes and vans alongside each other on the forecourt.
It means that car buyers, rather than having to trek from one registered dealer to another, will be able to compare similar vehicles on one site in Salford.
In keeping with the Virgin brand, Sir Richard said he hoped consumers would find the showroom of high quality, value for money, innovative and fun.
"For so long car retailing was tightly controlled by the manufacturers and we lobbied hard for change at Brussels," he said.
"Here you see the blueprint for the future of vehicle buying, and Virgin Cars is at the forefront of it."
General manager Paul Piert added: "The traditional car supermarket offers choice and competitive prices but at the cost of service, and the single brand dealership offers dedicated expertise but at the cost of choice.
"This gap in the market is now being filled by us."
For sales, sounds like a good idea, but I'd be worried about the servicing side of things...if they sell only half a dozen brands of cars, are they really going to be able to service them as well as a single brand dealer? Also, I can't see the manufacturers being helpful; they will probably supply them if they have to by law, but will still be as obstructive as legally possible to protect the profit margins they get through their dealers.
This is the way of dealers of the future. Since the end of 2002 anyone can approach any car factory to buy cars direct, this was some european directive I think because BMW only selling to the import agency BMW UK was seen as a restrictive practice.
Give it 10 years and you wont go to say Alan Day Mercedes you will go to Alan Day Luxury Cars and a Merc S Class will be sold alongside an A8 and a 7 Series.
Its a damned good move for the consumer...
Give it 10 years and you wont go to say Alan Day Mercedes you will go to Alan Day Luxury Cars and a Merc S Class will be sold alongside an A8 and a 7 Series.
Its a damned good move for the consumer...
That's not what's happening though plotloss. For the most part vehicles will be grey, sourced through the same route as the other car supermarkets. It also runs the risk of pushing more manufacturers into running their own dealerships (see Mercedes) or small dealership groups selling out (see Sytner) to American corporations.
Seems odd they have gone down the grey route when they can get import agent discounts (22%) off list going direct to the factory.
I suppose though that whilst they are supposed to comply they wont play ball for some time yet...
It has been the case for some time though that dealers will homologate. The introduction of tuning machines for even the most entry level of cars has all but put the independant mechanic out of business and now they are going after the dealers...
I suppose though that whilst they are supposed to comply they wont play ball for some time yet...
It has been the case for some time though that dealers will homologate. The introduction of tuning machines for even the most entry level of cars has all but put the independant mechanic out of business and now they are going after the dealers...
plotloss said: Seems odd they have gone down the grey route when they can get import agent discounts (22%) off list going direct to the factory.
I suppose though that whilst they are supposed to comply they wont play ball for some time yet...
I gather most of the manufacturers told them to kcuf off and there wasn't much that could be legally done to enforce the EU ruling
We've got AutoLogic plug in diagnosis and tuning for Land Rover group cars, AFAIK it's fully plug and play compatible with the Land Rover ECUs, presumably you can get similar systems for other marques, rather bypassing the dependency on dealer servicing
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