Without doubt we have seen a period of unprecedented activity in the wholesale and retail used car arena, fuelled by a shortage of vehicles of the right age and mileage added to a retail customer desire to keep the cost of changing their cars to a minimum.
This in turn has lead to many vehicles in the wholesale markets; auctions etc to realise highly inflated values.
Many dealers have reported to me during the year that they could sell almost whatever they could source. All in all a used car industry feel good factor that could be measured at least as an 8 or 9 out of 10.
And then suddenly in late October 09 its all hit a brick wall and it feels like late 2008 all over again!
Enquiries have all but disappeared which prompted one dealer to say it was "more like car snails than car sales" as business is so slow!
Those dealers who have been carried away by demand and have ignored and forgotten that great used car processes will always protect and reward them through good times and bad are suddenly going to get the biggest wake up call of all time as the industry is about to enter a period of used car value re adjustment lead by the fragility of customer confidence and seasonal sentiment.
I would recommend that used car dealers quickly take a long hard look at their retail stock and make plans now to dispose of ageing units and any other stock that is outside of their known best selling stock profile. Not to do so will swallow up plenty of the profits that have been made during the year so far.
This in turn has lead to many vehicles in the wholesale markets; auctions etc to realise highly inflated values.
Many dealers have reported to me during the year that they could sell almost whatever they could source. All in all a used car industry feel good factor that could be measured at least as an 8 or 9 out of 10.
And then suddenly in late October 09 its all hit a brick wall and it feels like late 2008 all over again!
Enquiries have all but disappeared which prompted one dealer to say it was "more like car snails than car sales" as business is so slow!
Those dealers who have been carried away by demand and have ignored and forgotten that great used car processes will always protect and reward them through good times and bad are suddenly going to get the biggest wake up call of all time as the industry is about to enter a period of used car value re adjustment lead by the fragility of customer confidence and seasonal sentiment.
I would recommend that used car dealers quickly take a long hard look at their retail stock and make plans now to dispose of ageing units and any other stock that is outside of their known best selling stock profile. Not to do so will swallow up plenty of the profits that have been made during the year so far.
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