7:20 am, November 7, 2013
BY ensuring that you know exactly what you’re buying, you can generate more leads, sell your cars faster and get new stock in quicker.
That’s the way to make money, believes HPI. ‘If you can increase your stockturn and sell more cars from the same-sized pitch, you will increase your revenue,’ explains commercial operations director Phil Peace.
As it becomes increasingly difficult to find quality used car stock at the right price, it’s crucial for dealers to make sure they’re making informed buying decisions and advertising vehicles correctly. But how can you ensure you’re buying the right car and producing the right adverts?
For more than 75 years, HPI has been best known for its comprehensive provenance check. Now, the company has introduced a whole portfolio of new products designed to help make dealers’ lives easier.
In the past few months, HPI has launched two new services, Spec Check and Market Values, which help dealers analyse a vehicle before they decide whether or not it’s the right car for them. By consolidating data from vehicle manufacturers, advertisers, auctions and other sources, HPI can provide dealers with accurate vehicle information to help them make better decisions.
‘Our primary purpose is to support the motor industry,’ says Peace. ‘Our new products, Spec Check and Market Values, are aimed predominantly at automotive dealers and auctions to help them run a more efficient business and, ultimately, help them make more money.’
While Market Values will ensure dealers are purchasing the right cars at the right time, dealers could potentially be losing money or missing out on sales altogether. That’s where Spec Check comes in. ‘If you don’t advertise your cars correctly, you’re not going to generate the leads from them. By using HPI Spec Check you can identify the optional extras that a car has and make sure that they’re mentioned correctly in the advert,’ says Peace.
As the introduction of more and more model derivatives continues, it’s very difficult to understand the specification of every vehicle that’s on sale.
‘If the book says a car is worth £30,000, how does a dealer know it’s actually worth £30,000 and that it hasn’t got £5,000-worth of extras on it?’, says Peace. ‘Dealers can easily make mistakes on a car they’re not familiar with. Is heated leather standard or optional? Does it have adaptive cruise control fifitted? Does it have factory-fifitted Bluetooth or are the buttons just dummies? A car with factory Bluetooth will sell from £100 to £200 more than one without, and that can be the difference between clearing a profit or making a loss if you get it wrong. ‘
A major issue dealers are faced with at the moment is trying to get hold of good-quality used stock. Private buyers are holding on to their cars for longer and the reduction in new sales means there are fewer cars in the market and dealers have to fight over them. ‘In many cases, this means dealers end up paying over the odds or even buying cars that they’re not quite so keen on to keep the forecourt full,’ says Peace.
‘As a result, it’s more important than ever before for dealers to know exactly what they’re buying. Margins are tighter than they have been in the past and dealers can have to pay way above book to buy the right stock in.’
Both Market Values and Spec Check are available through the HPI website, helping dealers to work out whether they want to stock a car and how much they’re prepared to pay for it. ‘The two products are also designed to work on mobile devices and dealers can use this facility at auction houses or on the move — giving them the advantage over other traders,’ explains Peace.
Whether you’re a franchised dealer or an independent one-man band, HPI’s latest tools can help you to buy the right stock and sell it faster at a better price – a win-win situation.
