Peter Simpson provides us with an insight into the automotive sales trading world – and beyond.
The demise of the main dealer?
Please be in no doubt about it; the retail motor industry is changing more now than at any time in the 40+ years that I’ve been involved with it. Can you imagine the reaction of the average late-1990s/early noughties car dealer, complete with his leatherbound printed copy of Glasses Guide or CAP, or the average car buyer in the early noughties if they were told that, by 2022, around half the retail car sales in the UK would be ‘unseen’, British Car Auctions would have switched to online-only buying with no opportunity for pre-sale viewing and that even where live viewing is available, many cars are bought by the trade purely on the auctioneer’s description.
That, though, is the world in which we are living, and with the switch from face-to-face to online/distance selling, so the role of the main dealer is diminishing still further.
Once upon a time, they were in every respect a manufacturer’s local representative – they were in effect solely responsible for new-car sales within their area, generally kept a good stock of late used cars (mostly ones which they’d supplied new), had a well-stocked spares department and a service/repair operation which could basically tackle anything.
These days though, separate parts departments rarely exist, pretty-much anything you need has to be ordered (if a dealer keeps stock of something it’s usually a pretty good indicator that the item in question is a common weakness!) and with increased service intervals there’s less work for the service department. That leaves only retailing cars, and with new cars there’s less and less need to actually see a car before buying it; you can find pretty-much all you need to know online!
Therefore, the recent announcement by Stellantis of a massive cut in dealer numbers wasn’t actually a massive surprise to me. It’s a big cut though – by May 2023 138 dealerships across the Stellantis brands (that’s Vauxhall, Peugeot/Citroën/DS, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Chrysler/Jeep in the UK) will have lost their franchised dealer status, leaving just 176 across the UK. Stellantis have also hinted pretty strongly that this won’t be the end of it, either.
It’s been suggested that the bulk of the losses will be among the solus GM/ Vauxhall franchises. Stellantis are keen to stress that the dealer network remains important, but it seems likely that the way forward is to be larger franchises offering the full range of Stellantis products from one site. A further nail in the coffin of the few remaining familyrun independents then, though
