4:56 pm, May 5, 2020
TV presenter and car dealership owner Mike Brewer joined Car Dealer Live today (May 6) to share how his business has been coping since the lockdown.
Brewer, who hosts the Car Dealer Magazine Used Car Awards annually, runs Mike Brewer Motors alongside presenting Wheeler Dealers on Discovery Channel. He would normally be in the US filming but because of the pandemic he’s in the UK and was able to speak with the James Baggott.
He shared how he ‘fell in love’ with his first car, a Mini, which became his first deal when he bought it for £300 and sold it for £800. From there he went into the trade before being head hunted by Channel 4 for Deals on Wheels.
He told his story of how he went from helping out on the show to presenting the most watched car show in the world.
It wasn’t all positivity from Brewer, though, who is concerned how changes in the week to come may affect his business, and his ability to keep the doors open and staff employed.
Already he’s put more than 100 employees on furlough, which he explained was both difficult as a business and ‘heartbreaking’ for the whole team to do.
However, he does believe the industry can get through this and said: ‘When this market bounces back, and it will bounce back, there’s going to be a shortfall of sales and the supply we need will come from that rental and leasing market coming into used car stock.
‘I tend to think there’s going to be a bit of a mess for the first few months but then that will filter down and it will even out.’
He added: ‘I think we’ll get out of this if we all think about how used cars are priced correctly, how we come back into the market and we as dealers price correctly, how we can entice those people back in our dealerships, and sell to them in a way that adheres to social distancing, I think we can get out of this rather well.’
To watch the Car Dealer Live interview in full, click play on the video at the top of this page, or head over to our YouTube channel.
You can watch all of our Car Dealer Live interviews by clicking here.
