8:05 am, August 13, 2026
Used cars remain ‘the key to everything’ for dealers, who can still make money despite the challenges currently facing the market.
That is the verdict of Swansway director Peter Smyth who says retailers need to be ‘nimble’ if they are to make good profits from used vehicles.
The 61-year-old says that low-mileage cars remain a good source of money, as long as they are turned around and sold quickly.
He added that it is up to dealers to create their own market health by working hard and ‘looking for opportunities’.
‘The general health of the retail market is as good or as bad as you want it to be, as long as you’re prepared to work hard, he said.
‘There is still a margin to be made. The secret to the success for a main larger dealer group is being very nimble with used cars, turning them quickly and not letting them age.
‘It’s the same old basic stuff — looking for the opportunities that are out there.
‘There’s a lot of self-registration gone on by various OEMs, and there are batches of cars that you can buy that are very late, very low-mileage cars that you’re able to sell and make money out of.’
Swansway expects to sell around 20,000 used cars this year, meaning an average of more than 1,600 cars a month across the group.
Smyth added that used cars will always be ‘key to everything’ for successful dealerships.
‘Complaints have mushroomed because of AI’
While used cars have always been the motor trade’s bread and butter, the rise of AI is changing the way that dealers operate.
Contributors to Car Dealer’s recent AI week say that this is making life easier for retailers, but Smyth has opted for a more cautious approach.
He says that AI tools such as ChatGPT and Grok have changed the way customers make complaints.
He says that emails have ‘mushroomed’ as a result of the tech but pledged to keep responding with human interaction, despite the additional workload.
‘What’s also happening with these used car customers is that they’re using things like ChatGPT and Grok to write emails, and they’re very time-consuming,’ he said. ‘Because of AI, complaints have mushroomed.’
‘From a customer complaints perspective, we’re not replying back with AI. We’re dealing with them because, at the end of the day, we’re a responsible retailer.
He added that it was often obvious when a customer had used AI to draft their complaint.
‘It is quite obvious that they haven’t written the email because some of these people can’t string a verb together,’ he joked. ‘It just takes up an awful lot of time and unnecessary time.’