Topic: Sales per dealer in Canada

[Honda Owner]

Dealerships love trade ins.

It depends on your market. Here it is not worth stocking old stuff, especially if it is American. It just comes back too much and has problems with Aircare. Admittedly I worked in service, no sales but the dealers I worked for did not stock anything more than three or maybe four years old. Older stuff went to what we called "beater lots." Finally, there is not a lot of trade in business here. Most people here sell privately. Finally, it is very hard to sell a used car more than $15,000 in my market because people will go out and buy something new before they finance that much used. Different places, different markets.

As for auction stuff, much of it here is ex rental so yes, it is a year old but at least an equal amount is off lease, meaning three or four years

[dorin]

So back to my initial question, does anyone know/have the numbers to figure out sales and sales per dealer?

[articsteve]

The OADA, Ontario Automobile Dealers Association, has them for Ontario.  Members only though. 

Toyota is number 1
BMW is 2

Ford is last (In fairness they have had dealers in place prior to WW2 and still have many tiny dealers spread around the country side).   Pen Ford in Owen Sound owns two other Ford stores within 25 minutes.  They suffle vehicles back and forth.  35 minutes southeast is Boyd Bros Ford.  Two service bays and usually 5 vehicles in stock.  35 minutes south Hanover Ford just went bankrupt.  Been there for 50 years.  Ford is operating in the pre bankruptcy GM and Chrysler model.

[johngenx]

Dealers love trades?  Good one!  Yes, if it's nearly new, has almost no kilometers on it, and you're willing to let it go for $3-5K less than retail.  Otherwise, they prefer to buy all their used cars wholesale at auctions.

My Dad has a Subaru wagon with 320K on it.  I wonder what dealer would like THAT trade?   

[Cord]

Dealers love trades?  Good one!  Yes, if it's nearly new, has almost no kilometers on it, and you're willing to let it go for $3-5K less than retail.  Otherwise, they prefer to buy all their used cars wholesale at auctions.

1. Nearly new cars are almost unknown as trades because the owners are often too far upside down to make the deal. The last thing a salesman wants to hear is, "I want to trade my 2008 XYZ, I just bought it 6 months ago."

2. $3-5K less than retail? Well duh. It would be a pretty silly business that bought products at a price they can't profit from. Here's a tip: dealers pay less than retail at the auction too. And more than likely they can get one from the auction just like your like-new trade for thousands less than you think it's worth.

3. Prefer to buy at auctions? Auctions are super easy to buy from especially now that they are online. Click, click, click and before you know it you've spent $500,000. However, as I wrote earlier, there is basically nothing earlier than 2007s going through dealer auctions now. Used car lots with nothing but 2007 and newer vehicles generally can't do much volume, or make much profit. How can a dealer expect to make much profit from a one year old ex-rental when virtually the exact same car is for sale at every other dealer? The auctions that sell cars older than 2007s are avoided by franchised dealers (except to sell at) for the same reason that people have been warned off them here - because they are full of junk.

[johngenx]

I wasn't slamming dealers for paying below retail.  That's their business.  If they're not buying at auctions or taking many trades, where are all those 05-07 used cars coming from?

[Cord]

Who said they're not taking many trades again? 

Or is the confusion over what is considered a like-new trade? I wouldn't describe anything older than 07 as like new and even that is stretching it in many cases. An '07 is three years old now. Ford didn't do a lot of four year leases so even most lease returns are going to be '07s and a few '06s. For older than that we rely on trades.