2:30 pm, February 6, 2023
Tough competition from the likes of Cinch and Cazoo was a key motivator in Auto Sportiva’s decision to go after the luxury market, the firm’s boss has told Car Dealer.
Will Lee-Kemp set up the successful dealership in Tunbridge Wells in 2007, selling mainly cars priced between £15,000 and £20,000.
However, recent years have seen a drastic change of approach from the business, which now caters exclusively to the premium market.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by CarGurus PistonHeads, Lee-Kemp said the decision was driven by the rise of online retailers.
He said that the market became too competitive, making it difficult to get the best stock compared to Cinch, Cazoo and the now-defunct Carzam.
‘I looked at various parts of the market and I kind of thought that I didn’t want to play in a certain area with Cazoo and Cinch and Carzam, at the time,’ he said.
‘I thought I’ve got to go well above this, this level of buyer which is why we then made the decision to go an average price of £50,000 and upwards just to move well away from that kind of customer.
‘At the minute we’ve got quite a few bits because obviously the summer is kind of on its way and so we’ve got a McLaren, we’ve got a Maserati, we’ve got a Bentley GT all the way down to loads and loads of Range Rovers.
‘We do vert very well Range Rovers so we’ve probably got 25 Range Rover Sports and 15 Velars. We’ve also probably got five or six Volvo XC90s and I tend to buy a lot of the same cars.
‘When I find a thing that does quite well . I’m quite impulsive and will then go and buy five or them in one go.
‘I feel like the Range Rover market we’ve kind of got to a point where we kind of know what people want. We know colour combinations, we know specs.
‘We know now everyone wants the P400 Hybrids – we have kind of worked it all out as we’ve gone.’
You can listen to the full podcast here or by hitting play on the pop-up below.
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